October 30, 2015

Literacy

This week in literacy we've focused on the acrostic as a poem or other way of writing, where the first letter of each line spells out a word or message. We looked at a variety of words to use to create some different acrostics. Here are a few examples:

Math

We reviewed concepts of number representation, specifically how to create tally marks to represent numbers with our grade 1, and how to draw/use base 10 blocks to represent numbers in grade 2.

Science/Social Studies

In Science this week, we've been learning about primary colours, the colour wheel, creating secondary colours and creating shades of colours.

In Social Studies we've been looking at the Meteghan and Digby region of Nova Scotia, looking at the physical geography of it as well. We connected this to an artist study of Maud Lewis, a local artist from the Digby area of Nova Scotia.

We used one of her paintings as inspiration to create our own representation of what Meteghan might be like.

Through the process, we learned how to change the shade of a colour (turning light blue to dark blue), then how we change blue to green (creating secondary colours). Feel free to pop down outside our classroom to take a look at your learners work.

Roots of Empathy

We had our first visit with baby Harper this week! We had a chance to confirm some predications we made last week about what baby Harper would be like and had a great discussions about the needs of babies and how they communicate their needs.

October 23, 2015

Literacy

This week in literacy we've been looking at how to write instructions. Last week we had a fire drill at the school and we spoke about October being Fire Safety Month. We spoke in depth about the importance of preparedness for emergencies and how fire drills help us with that. We then went on to write a set of instructions on how we evacuate the school and how we would evacuate our home in the event of a fire.

We also learned about acrostic poems, creating one about a pumpkin.

Math

This week in math we've been working on representing numbers, skip counting and using base 10 blocks.

Parents should be working with their children on skip counting concepts. 
Grade 1's should be focused on skip counting by 5's to 100. 
Grade 2's should focus on skip counting backwards by 5's and 2's.

Science

This week in science we've continue to look at concepts of colours, specifically sorting different shades of colour.

Roots of Empathy

We had our first visit with Mrs. Watson from Roots of Empathy to introduce the program to us and learn more about Baby Harper.

October 16, 2015

Literacy

This week we looked at the life cycle of a pumpkin. We wrote about the life cycle of pumpkins by putting pictures in the right order into our visual journals. Grade 1's matched the sentence to the correct picture in order.

We also looked at ways we can sort books as non-fiction and fiction. We also looked at how fiction books can be group by: picture books, chapter books, graphic novels and easy reads.

We continued on with our pumpkin theme and created some artwork of pumpkins with expressive faces.

Math

We've continued practicing counting and skip counting through the whole week. We've looked at counting on a 100-square, on a number line and using base 10 blocks. 

The children have asked to include the following links on base 10 blocks with our blog this week.

https://www-k6.thinkcentral.com/content/hsp/math/hspmath/na/gr3-5/itools_intermediate_9780547274058_/basetenblocks.html

http://www.glencoe.com/sites/common_assets/mathematics/ebook_assets/vmf/VMF-Interface.html

Science

This week we explore colours by creating a booklet about a variety of different colours.

October 9, 2015

Please note: Mrs. Thompkins had to rearrange the library this week to make the space larger for our Music teacher. We had no library this week and will resume next Wednesday. In agendas tonight you'll also find a notice for fun lunch and school pictures.

Literacy:

This week in Literacy we've examined the traditional tale. We talked about what a traditional tale is, and how through its re-telling by various authors, the story can vary. We looked at 4 versions of the the tale, The Little Red Hen. Student's really enjoyed reading and watching some different versions of this tale. We then used story-sequence cards to retell the story in order, offering our own narrative to retell the story through writing and dramatic retelling of it. The children really enjoyed this.

Sequencing and Retelling

Dramatic retelling

Exploring Literacy Centres

Math:

This week we've begun our unit on number sense. We've been practicing counting and skip counting. I sent an e-mail earlier this week about things you could do to help your child at home with counting and skip counting. If you need clarification, please contact me.

Having a game of "War" with Power of 10 cards

Science

This week we've been examining the different colours in our world. Students went on a colour hunt and found samples of colours to highlight in their visual journals.

Social Studies

This week in social, we've looked at and identified where Nunavut, Nova Scotia and Saskatchewan are on the map. We've briefly talked about the history of early settlers in Nova Scotia (the Acadians) and Saskachewan (the Ukrainians). 

October 2, 2015

Note: Mrs. MacInnis was our guest teacher on Friday. If you sent a notice in the agenda, I'll see it on Monday.


Literacy:

This week in Literacy we've been writing an alphabet book inspired by our read aloud "Z is for Moose". We've also been making math connections to texts, looking at how Eric Carles' "Rooster's Off to See the World" is a story with increasing and decreasing patterns. We also looked at retelling   Eric Carles' story "The Very Lonely Firefly"

V is for Vampire Bat. Bats are nocturnal.

Math:

We've wrapped up our unit on patterns this week, where students completed performance assessments on translating increasing and repeating patterns.

Yellow-Blue-Blue-Red-Yellow-Blue-Blue-Red translate to ABBCABBC

Science

We have completed looking the Autumn part of our Seasonal Changes unit. We wrapped it up with a walk to Confederation Park where students completed observations of Autumn, walked around the park and had a chance to have a leaf flight! Students creating a collage of their autumn artifacts with Mrs. MacInnis. Our next unit will be on Creating Colours.

Observing autumn using 5 senses.

Collection of autumn artifacts.

Social Studies

We looked at the differences between a country, province and city is. We looked at where Nova Scotia, Saskatchewan and Nunavut is, as this will be our study for the next while.