An Artistic Day

Today was a very artistic day. After our usual Wednesday start of guided reading and library we got together with a friend to share our paper bag books. We showed them our family page and our All About Me page and read them all our information.

After recess we worked on our Picasso-style portraits. We used small brushes and paints to add bold colours to the pencil drawings we made on Monday. Tomorrow we will finish up the last step, adding black outlines using Sharpie markers.

In the afternoon we did another art job! This time we used our new understanding of Picasso and  his cubism style to make a special piece of art for the volunteer tea. This time we had a choice for the colour. We were invited to use paint or coloured Sharpies. Most of us chose to use Sharpies. We had to be really careful to fill all the spaces with colour so that it would look really bold and professional.

After that we had gym time outside. It is very wet and mucky outside! Lots of us ended up with wet socks. For the next little while it is probably a good idea to pack an extra pair of socks in your backpack.

We are coming home with 2 notices today. One is a permission form for our next field trip and one is an invitation to the family dance. 

Please remember that tomorrow our school will be showing our support for the Humboldt Broncos by wearing jerseys or by wearing the Bronco's team colours (green and gold). If you would like to bring your hockey stick to set outside our front door you are also invited to do that. Please make sure your stick is clearly labelled with your name. 

Our helper tomorrow is: Jasper

This morning we tried to finish our All About Me writing. Before we went to work, Ms. Boyer showed us a program on the ipads called Kahoot. We used it to do a little survey about our work. We did this as a practice because Mr. O'Reilly wanted to use Kahoot with us in music.  In the Kahoot we found out that 13 kids were finished their work, and 6 still needed some time. We also found out that most people made 6 facts for their page.

After recess we took a look at our big spelling tests to see which words we still need to practice. Then we started making our own custom spelling list of the words we need to practice.  Then we worked on our Picasso portraits. Today we watched Mrs. Hamby do a great demonstration of the painting part of the project and we watched a short video about Pablo Picasso. Ask me if I remember any facts about Picasso.

This afternoon we did some animal research and some animal research sharing. We shared with our table groups and then in a sharing circle at the carpet. Then we played tag games in gym. After that we went to music. We did a test on Kahoot. Mr. O'Reilly said we did really well.

Tomorrow is our library day! On Thursday, our WE day committee has organized a spirit day in support of the Humboldt Broncos hockey team. Students are invited to wear a sports jersey to green and gold. They are also invited to bring their hockey stick to set outside our front door if they would like. 

The helper tomorrow is: Dhvani

Band Performance!

This morning the Simon Fraser band came to perform. They played 3 songs. One was Pirates of the Caribbean, A Scary Song, and Lord of the Rings. In between the songs they also showed us the different instruments and played some little tunes to show us how each instrument sounded. An exciting part was when the conductor invited Max to come up and conduct for her during the Pirates of the Caribbean song!

Then we worked on our journals.

After recess we finished our 100 word spelling test. Since the test is very long the grade 1's had the option of doing silent reading instead of doing the test today. The grade 2's didn't have a choice and had to complete all 100 words.  Then we worked on a new art project. It is called Picasso Portraits. We are going to use them as the covers for our paper bag books. We tried to make the two sides of our portrait different so that they were not symmetrical. We did the pencil part today and we will add the colour tomorrow.

This afternoon we worked on our animal research. We are planning to have the research done by the end of this week so we can start working on our dioramas next week. If you haven't brought a shoebox yet, please try to bring one soon.

After that we had gym and finish up time. Most of us were able to finish our journals this morning and earned free choice!

Our helper tomorrow is: Taylor

Citizen Science!

Today we worked with guests from CPAWS and Green Calgary to learn about our environment and about birds. We learned some new vocabulary. Ask me if I remember what these two new words mean: (1) Biodiversity (2) Dimorphism.  We learned that all parts of our environment or ecosystem are connected and that when one animal or plant becomes extinct it affects the whole system, including us. We learned about some of the ways that the Chiniki people think about nature and some lessons we can learn from their ways of knowing that can help us to do a better job of taking care of the earth.

Our activities today included an animal guessing game, a biodiversity quest, watching a birdwatching skit to learn about the citizen science project, a game called hatchling, fledgling, bird, and a sharing circle.



On May 4 our guests will be coming back to get us started on the Citizen Science birdwatching project. In the mean time they have left us with binoculars and some special activities to do so that we can get ready to become bird watchers and bird counters.

Our helper on Monday is: Shawn

This morning was our first day trying out the new centers. Lots of us were very excited to get started on our projects! When we arrive in the mornings we are responsible for letting Ms. Boyer about our plan for centers by putting our name up on the board under the center we have chosen. This way Ms. Boyer knows where to find us and knows what she can expect us to be doing.

After centers we tried to finish up our All About Me page. Most of us are finished and a few of us just have a little bit more to do.

In word work we continued with our spelling test. We have now completed the first 75 words! Once the test is finished we will look at our tests and be able to see which word we will need to keep practicing. After that it was time for math. We worked to finish our "Show what you Know" and then we had a chance to go on Mathletics.

This afternoon we worked on our animal research. We started by sharing our habitat research with a buddy and checked to see if we had included all the must-haves. Then we made a plan for the day and went to work. At the end of our working time we met with our buddy and showed them what we had accomplished and learned today.

Then it was time for gym. We played relay games again. We did a really fun one with the scooters! After that we had music.

Tomorrow is Fresh Air Friday. We have some special guests from the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society coming to work with us. They will be teaching us about bird watching and getting us involved in a citizen science research project!  Please dress appropriately for the weather. 

Our helper on Monday is: Shawn

Goodbye Ms. Douglas!

This morning we started the day with a whole team meeting to learn about our new centers. Room 1 and the Portable came too. We learned that our new centers are more like projects and we will get to have lots of choices about what we want to do. We also learned that to get these choices we will have to show that we can be really responsible. Our new centers are: Book reviewer, writer, researcher, scientist, mathematician, and performer. We will get to start these new centers tomorrow. Ask me what center I am planning to try first!

After that we had library and then we had a little bit of time to work on our All About Me writing. Our goal is to have this page all finished tomorrow so that we can move on to the next part of this work next week.

After recess we continued with our big spelling test. Today we finished the first 50 words! Then we did math. Now that we are finished our mathlympics and have done so much good practice with our counting patterns we are doing a "show what you know" activity to see what we are able to do all by ourselves. So far Ms. Boyer has been really impressed with our counting patterns!

This afternoon we worked on animal research. Before we got to work we each went with a buddy to share the work we have done on our diet page. We needed to prove to our buddy that we had really completed all the "must haves" for that page. If we discovered something was missing we had to fix that first before we went on to our other sections. The last step before we got to work was we had to make a plan and tell our buddy what we would finish today. Then we went to work. At the end of our work time we got back together with our buddy and showed them what we had finished share our work so far.

Then it was time for gym. We played relay games again. One of the relays included lots of crabwalk. Our arms got really tired!

At the end of the day we said goodbye to our student teacher, Ms. Douglas. Today was her last official day working in our classroom. She will be going back to Mount Royal to write her exams and finish up all her assignments. She said she would like to come back and visit us again and may even come to volunteer on some of our Fresh Air Fridays!

Our helper tomorrow is: Leander

Welcome Back!

Welcome back! Today we got ourselves back into the swing of things with journals. We wrote about our holidays and tried to add lots of details. Some of us didn't quite have a chance to finish so we will be working on our journals during center time tomorrow.

After recess we started a big spelling test! This test is to see how our spelling is coming along and to see what words we need to focus on for the next three months. Today we did the first 25 words. Then it was time for math. We did one last medal tally for our Mathlympics. We figured out that our class earned a total of 404 medals!!!!

This afternoon we worked on our animal research. We reviewed our must-have list and talked about some important words related to survival. Ask me what each of these words means:
1. Hibernate
2. Migrate
3. Adapt
4. Predator

Once we are finished our research we will be making dioramas to show what we have learned. Please start trying to find a shoebox that would work for a diorama. When you find a good one, please write your name on it and bring it to school. 

Then we had gym. We played relay games and learned a new warm-up game to exercise our core muscles. If you would also like to strengthen your core, ask me to show you the plank game.

After that we went to music.  We played some new games. The first game was a note-naming game. Ask me about the game!

Tomorrow our helper is: Abdul Ahad