Happy Mother’s Day :)

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

 

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *