It was a busy December in Grade One!

Do you want to build a snowman?

We combined our money unit and a little art to create some snowmen. First, the students went to the Snowman Store and purchased the decorating details for their snowman. They had 10 cents to spend and needed to add and subtract in order to make sure they could buy what they wanted.  Once the "buying" was complete, they recorded their thinking and built their snowman.  Fun!

In Science, we did an experiment testing out the ways we could use energy to save "Santa" - a toy frozen in ice.  Most of us thought using our own heat energy would work at school.  

We read several different versions of the "Gingerbread Man" and compared the characters, setting, problem and solution in each.  The students loved reading along and saying the "catch me if you can" phrases that changed slightly depending on the character. 

We sequenced the order of events and re-told the story to some of our kindergarten friends across the hall. 

And what is a study of Gingerbread stories without a little cookie decorating? Mrs. Fehrman joined us too!

Jacob thinks his smells yummy!!!

Mrs. Fehrman asked the girls for help putting the candy on in a pattern. 

We love visits from Mrs. Fehrman!

Can I just point out how cute we are in our pjs? 

Thanks for checking out just a little of what we did in December.  

I hope you all have a restful break.  

Merry Christmas and see you in the New Year!

Kids Teaching Kids

A and T showing the class how to trade coins for a dime AND using the document camera like pros!

A Lifetime Of Christmas Cards

Today we talked about a little 6 year old girl named Addie who is very sick. She loves cards...especially homemade.

Our class decided that they would like to join in and make cards. 

One small act...that will make a huge difference. 

Here is her story:

Addie's Story 6-year-old-girl-asks-holiday-cards


Stay tuned for pictures and updates. 

And they are off...sending our cards and our love! 

Here it is...

Our video- Grade Ones Respond To Bullying.  

http://youtu.be/lrVIaFJMGW4

Thank you to our talented student teacher, Miss Cosgrove for putting it all together.  

Hairy Money- Oh My!

In order to help students understand the value of different coins we use "Hairy Money".  We assign one strand of hair to represent a group of 5 in each coin. The more groups of 5 in a coin, the more hair.  For example, the nickel has one strand of hair (one group of 5) and the dime has 2 strands of hair (two groups of 5).  

Today we played a game that we like to call, Hairy Money Relay. Students worked in a small group and one at a time identified a coin and recorded how much hair (or the value) that coin has on the whiteboard.  The next person would get the marker and identify and record a different coin. Once everyone has had a turn, the game is over.  The team that finishes first and has all the correct amount of hair wins. 

We are a class that loves learning and playing!

Procedural Writing

We are learning all about Procedural Writing.  Procedural Writing (also called How To writing) involves writing simple and clear steps to follow in order to do something.  

Some of the topics we like to write about are:

How To Play Soccer

How To Brush Your Teeth

How To Make A Rainbow Loom Bracelet

How To Plant A Garden

Here are a couple of samples of our work:

Energy Fun!

Today in Science, Miss Cosgrove (our student teacher from Brock University) taught us about Energy.  

First, the students wrote down and drew pictures to show what they already know about Energy.  

Then, small groups completed some simple activities that use Energy.  

After, the students discussed what they learned and put that information together with what they already knew.  

Who knew learning could be so much fun!?

We are good mathematicians!

 Solving simple math problems in our head (mental math) and explaining our thinking is something we always work on in our classroom.  

This week we have been lucky to have Mrs. Gadsby come into our classroom and guide us through solving a sequence of math problems that are related - also called a "string".  The solving of these problems in a specific sequence helps students to understand how a particular strategy works. 

First, Mrs. Gadsby gives the students a quick peak at an arrangement of beads on the math rack before covering the beads up.  

Next, the students share what they saw.  In the above picture, there are 5 red beads and 2 white beads shown (we are working with what is shown on the left side.). 

Some students said they saw 7.  When probed further they said I saw 5 and 2, 5 +2 = 7.  Others saw it differently- I saw 3 and 2 more red beads which I know makes 5 plus 2 more equals 7.  

Each time a new arrangement of beads is shown the students share what they see and how they were able to see that number.  They are only given a quick peak in order to challenge them to use the most efficient counting strategies (e.g., seeing a group of 5 and counting on from there instead of counting from 1 up to the final number).  

All students answers and thinking are written down and honoured.  

After only a few mini-lessons, Mrs. Gadsby agrees...WE ARE GOOD MATHEMATICIANS!

Way to go, Grade 1 and thank you Mrs. Gadsby!

I believe...

Bullying Awareness and Prevention Week

The week of Nov. 17 - 21 marks Bullying Awareness and Prevention in Ontario.  Throughout this week (and throughout the year) we will learn what it means to be accepting and kind.  Our lessons will also highlight the harmful effects of bullying. 

Today we read...

The theme of this story is one of power and confidence.  Pinkalicious is teased about loving the colour pink when all the other girls are wearing black.  The bullying was constant and eventually made Pinkalicious doubt herself.  Pinkalicious became so unhappy that she began lashing out at others.  But in the end Pinkalicious learned it was important to stay true to her feelings and to not give the bullies any power over her.  

We decorated small pink t-shirts and wrote some of the positive words Pinkalicious used to describe her favourite colour.  

We included this on our Measurement wall.  The t-shirts represent flowers.  

A little information about Pink Shirt Day:

Our first Pink Shirt Day is Thursday, Nov. 20th.  If you have a pink shirt from last year or any other pink shirt please wear it that day and take a stand against bullying. 

Measuring Fun

Estimating...

Measuring and recording...

The "t" on the first stem stands for the tallest student in our class - Max. 

The "s" on the last stem stands for the shortest person in our class - Tessa. 

It was a lot of fun watching the students try to organize themselves in a line from shortest to tallest.  Lots of learning in that short little exercise! 

3D Shape Towers

Can you build a tower using these guidelines?

* must contain 5 different 3D shapes (including a sphere)

* must be 35-40cm tall

* must stand for at least 5 minutes

Yes, we can!

Can you also write your mathematical thinking down? 

Yes, we can!

Roots of Empathy

We are learning how to soothe a crying baby with our Roots of Empathy doll. Today we talked about all the reasons why a baby might cry and what we could do for the baby. Next week, we are going to ask Elsie's mom (our Root's baby) what she does to help Elsie when she is upset.  

Friendly Monsters

So many elements of design went into our Friendly Monsters. 

In this activity we explored:

* colour

* line

* space

* shape

Where The Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak served as our inspiration.