Hello families,

Our students have worked hard over the past few weeks to reach their next goal for a “Stuffie Party.”   It has been difficult with such nice weather and exciting activities going on in our classroom and throughout the school, that students have really had to “turn on their listening ears”!  Today, however, they have reached their goal.  Tomorrow, in addition to Smurf Day, we will be having our Stuffie Party at lunch and at the end of day where children can bring their stuffed animals.

Tomorrow is also our last day with two of our friends who are moving away with their family.  We wish them all the best in their new city, new school, and new house!  We will be sad to see them go  🙁

Have a great day and enjoy this beautiful weather,

Ms. Holmes

Happy Friday families!

We had so much on-the-go these past two weeks, it really was incredible!

In literacy we have been working on our own fictional stories.  We made outlines describing what our stories will include (characters, setting, problem, and solution) and have worked diligently to write a rough, first draft, edit them using our “Good Writer’s Checklist,” conference with me, and write up their final copies.  We will be working on other works of fiction over the last month of school!  Their creativity and imagination astounds me!  We have also “travelled” to the west coast of Canada with Ms. Perkins’ class and read “Raven: Trickster Tale from the Pacific Northwest” as well as to Russia and read, “Matreshka.”  We have really enjoyed hearing different fairytales and folktales from around the world and are really getting better at classifying each story as such.

In numeracy we are beginning to wrap up our last unit on adding and subtracting to 20.  The last few weeks of school will be a review of the units we have covered while engaging in hands-on, small group, and large group activities.  We have really become “mathematicians!”

In arts ed. we are learning more about the artist Norval Morrisseau and his “x-ray” painting technique.  The students were really interested to see many of his works and are creating their own masterpieces using his technique.  We will be painting our canvases early next week!

We have been exploring one of my favourite areas of study in social studies: geography!  We read several books, “Me On the Map” in particular, and have used maps, globes, atlases, and GoogleEarth to locate our place on the map!  We started by looking at our community surrounding Hawrylak school, then our city of Regina, province of Saskatchewan (students remarked how it is very easy to draw, but difficult to spell!) our continent of North America, and our planet Earth.  It has been really intriguing, especially using GoogleEarth to locate exotic and exciting places, such as the Great Pyramids of Giza and the Great Wall of China.

Finally….we have almost completed our class book on bats!!!! Students have working SO hard with partners to write about various sub-topics on bats and to type up their final products.  Next week we will work together as a class to decide how we want to format the book as well as create a table of contents and glossary to complete our non-fiction book.  There will be two copies made initially–one for our classroom library (where it will stay to inspire future grade ones!) and to sit in our school library to be accessed by other grades!  The students are so proud of all of their hard work, and I am too!

A few notes: Next week on Friday, June 2, it is PLAY DAY at our school.  I will inform students and their families about what colour group the children are a part of so that they can wear the appropriate colours on the day.  On Monday, June 12, we will be going on a field trip to the Science Centre!  I am in need of a few parents, and will send out an email next week with further details.  If you are interested please let me know.  Volunteers are required to have an up-to-date criminal record check prior to the outing!

Have a fantastic weekend 🙂

Ms. Holmes

Hello families and happy Mother’s Day!

I hope you are having a restful weekend and that all of the moms were spoiled today! What a gorgeous weekend.

The past few weeks have been eventful! A few of our Reader’s Theater groups presented at our kindergarten-grade 4 Learning Assembly to demonstrate what our grade one classes have been learning about!  The groups that presented did a fantastic job, despite a few microphone glitches!

In literacy we are continuing to “travel around the world” by reading stories from different countries and cultures, learning a little bit about each country (the national sport, the flag, the official languages, which continent it is located on, etc.) and identifying whether or not the story is a fairytale or a folktale!  We traveled to Germany and read “Rumpelstiltskin,” to China and read “The Empty Pot,” to Ghana and read “Anansi the Spider,” and to Brazil and read “The Wings of the Butterfly.”  The students are working on writing their own fairytales, remembering that stories have characters, a setting, a problem, and solution.  I can’t wait to see their final products!  We have also learned about compound words by engaging in hands-on activities.  One student pointed out that using the “Chunky Monkey” reading strategy can really help with reading compound words!

In numeracy we are working on our final math unit–addition and subtraction to 20.  Students are using several different strategies to add and subtract (doubles, doubles +1, tens-partners, using adding to subtract, etc.) and solve word problems.  They are even making their own word problems for friends to solve!  They have had a lot of interesting discussions about the different ways they can solve one word problem.

In arts ed. we completed our pointillism art creations and they turned out beautifully!  We will be starting our dance unit in which they will learn to dance the Red River Jig and others very soon.

In social students students learned more about the buffalo and its many uses to the First Nations peoples.  We learned that the buffalo was a very important animal to the people who lived on the plains, therefore, they were a nomadic peoples.  They followed the buffalo wherever they went, but this all changed when the European explorers arrived.  The children were fascinated (and at times grossed out!) by the uses for different parts of the buffalo–example: the bladder was often used as a container when dried!  Next, we will be learning about the importance of the circle in the First Nations cultures.

Finally, in inquiry we have begun to edit our write-ups for our bat book.  Together as a group we decided what we should include in our book and then chose the different topics.  I then broke the class up into groups of two or three and had them write about one of those topics.  When they are finished they are going to type up their documents and we will put it all together in a book!  The students worked SO hard these past two weeks and are anxious to put the final product together.

Have a great week!

Ms. Holmes

 

Hello families!!

Very exciting–the Science Center has finally posted the date for the release of their bats! During the winter, the Science Center takes in hibernating bats to provide shelter and protection.  This Tuesday, May 9th from 8:00-9:00 PM there will be a short talk by Professor Mark Brigham (The Bat Man!!) and then the bats will be released back into the environment.  If you are interested in taking your child/children, let me know and we will all meet there!  It is a late night, but it would be a great ending to our bat unit!  I will be going and will take a video to show the children who are unable to attend.  Here is a link for more information:

http://www.sasksciencecentre.com/events-calendar/2017/5/9/release-the-bats

Have a great weekend!

Ms. Holmes