We are having such a nice week enjoying the great summer weather. In Math we learned a new strategy for solving addition problems. While we will still use the change-to-more diagram, we will also use the parts-and-total diagram, pictured below. After using this diagram to find totals and solve for missing addends, we went outside to enjoy the sun, and worked on writing number models to find the totals of the two parts of dominos. During Mathematics today, we "took a trip to the fair." We talked about games we have seen at fairs, and how you play to win tickets in order to buy prizes. We also watched a YouTube video to build context. After telling and solving a lot of number stories together (we were very excited), we spit into partners, took tickets, and wrote number stories about the prizes we would want to purchase with our tickets. Students were given tickets to help them solve the problems. In Language Arts, we added a new component to our 'Daily 5' - Listen to Reading. Our little learners now have the option to take headphones and their iPads to listen and read along to the stories on Reading A-Z. We have also been learning about how the letter 'y' can take on the sounds of long e and i. Bandit Y, that robber guy, He steals the sounds of e and i. We practiced reading different words with 'y' endings and sorted them by the sound the 'y' makes. We will be further exploring this concept later this week. When you are reading at home, please identify these words with your child. We continued our pumpkin exploration yesterday by looking and sorting the life-cycle of a pumpkin. We watched some videos of pumpkins growing, and looked at pumpkin seeds. We will begin growing our own pumpkins at the end of the week. When we finished sorting the lifecycle of a pumpkin, we designed and created our own paper jack-o-lanterns for the Halloween door decorating competition. You can check out our door below. In other news, this morning we got to share our writing with the school community at the ASA Cafe. We discussed how an author's goal should be to share their stories with as many people as possible. Our little learners were so happy to see their work presented again. I am hoping that this will further motivate them for the next time we publish our writing. Today our pumpkin investigation continued with a STEM activity. STEM is the combination of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math. STEM activities help promote essential 21st-century skills, which are important in preparing our children for an unknown future. When our little learners returned from break, they saw a wide variety of materials, including a giant piece of cardboard and a pumpkin. They were posed with the problem: How can I get my pumpkin to travel the farthest distance without pushing it with my hand? After trying to blow it, and making a lever, we ended up deciding that a ramp would be the best way to do this. Each child made a plan, including any materials that they needed from the class to make a ramp, in order to move their pumpkin the furthest distance. In groups, one with Miss Soa, one with Frances, and one with myself, we tried out each child's ramp, observing whose ramp made the pumpkin go the farthest. I can't stress enough how lucky we are to have Frances in our class to help with activities like this that require small group learning. We chose the best ramp from each group and each took a turn trying them out, outside, to see which one worked the best. We learned that the ramp with the highest incline made the pumpkin go the furthest. Click on their names to see Tina's trial and David's trial. Congratulations to Kya for designing the ramp that made the pumpkin travel the furthest.
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We began our day by opening a letter addressed to the first grade class that was found in our mail box. Together we read a letter of encouragement sent to us from our fantastic principal Mr. Vis (see above). This was a great way to be welcomed back to school after our break. In Language Arts, we learned about syllables. Students learned that syllables are the sounds we hear in a word. We learned how to clap them out, and how to put our hand under our chin to feel the syllables in a word. We began by singing a song, adding in words, and counting syllables. If you can bear my 'lovely' singing voice, here are two videos; one of me singing to Noah and Elizabeth. Afterward, students each took an object, had to clap out the name of it, and decide how many syllables it had, then place it on the right card (photos above). Following this, we broke into three small groups (my favourite way to teach), and completed a number of different syllable sorting activities, clapping out different words. If you think your child needs more work with this skill, please let me know and I can send these activities home. During our UOI time, we got to take a look at how our window greenhouses grew. Our little learners were so excited to see how their plants had grown over the break. In pairs, students took their seedlings and sprouts to plant them in the garden with Miss Soa. While some students were planting, others were investigating our books about pumpkins, thinking about what they wanted to inquire about this week. I was so impressed with all of the great questions that students came up with. We will be looking at pumpkins and their life cycle this week trying to answer all of the students questions.
It was a busy, fun, and exciting first day back! Wow! It was a wild week leading up to the break! We had our rhythmic gymnastic show in PE, we had our publishing party in Language Arts, and we finished Unit 2 on addition in Mathematics. Next week, we will be beginning a unit on number stories. Click the names to hear Josephine & Van Fy, and David and Asher tell their number stories. Above are some photos of our rhythmic gymnastics show that we have been working on in PE. This unit was integrated with our last UOI on 'Getting Along.' Our little learners had to work together to put on a show involving a number of learned rhythmic gymnastic moves. Miss Guillemette video taped each show and will be editing them over the break. I will share the video here once it is finished. We worked so hard to conference, edit, and revise our writing this week. It was a very busy process, but I was so happy with the result. All of our little learners published amazing stories to present at our publishing party! Our publishing party was fantastic. I cannot describe just how proud I was of each student reading their story so loudly with amazing expression to such a large group. I bragged about them all day to anyone who would listen. It was amazing! Sadly, I must say that we had some technical difficulty with the recordings, and I am not able to share them. If you were unable to attend, I highly suggest that you schedule a time to pop in and have your little one read their story to you. Again, sorry! During our UOI time, we have been learning all about seeds! At the beginning of the week, we planted 'window green houses.' On Friday, we took them down to examine them closely. We noticed that a number of our seeds have sprouted. We hope that they have become seedlings when we return from break so that we can plant them in our garden.
I love germinating seeds at this time of the year. It is so great to let the week of the break lapse and see our little one's faces light up when they return to see their sprouts have grown over the week. I hope you all have a wonderful break! |
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March 2017
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