A Gingerbread Community!

The students in Room 15/16 have started to learn about communities. We have talked about the communities we live in, the important buildings and people in our communities and the difference between urban, suburban and rural communities.

Next week on Monday and Tuesday the students will be building a gingerbread community in our classroom! Each student has made a plan for a specific building they will be creating. Each student will make their building on a piece of cardboard so they are easy to transport home at the end of the week. We will be using graham crackers, icing and candies to decorate. This week, students made a materials list outlining the types and numbers of candies that they will need for their building. This is just like an iLab plan! They will be getting only the materials that they have written down on their list. Together, we created a shopping list to make sure everyone would have what they need. These materials are specifically for building. We have talked about how we are using candies to decorate, but students will be reminded not to eat any of the candies, graham crackers or icing at school. On Wednesday or Thursday next week, students will be able to bring their building home! Since we will be working on these buildings together and we will be putting our community together on the floor in our classroom (the cardboard pieces will be placed on the floor), we recommend that the buildings only be used for decoration once they come home. The boys and girls are very excited about this project! If you have any questions or concerns about this, please let use know.

Reminder: Monday is fun sock day and we have caroling at 9:30am in the gym

Stuffy Party?

We were shocked to walk in the classroom this morning and find that our stuffies had a bit of a party last night while we were away! This is what we saw when we walked in the door:

We were inspired by their overnight adventures, which made us think about other adventures that our stuffies might enjoy. We spent the morning writing comics using our stuffy as the main character. We learned about the parts of a comic and the similarities and differences between comics and regular picture books. Our comics included our stuffy as the main character, an adventure of some kind and some thought bubbles and speech bubbles.

This afternoon we started planning our gingerbread community buildings. Can your child remember which building they will be creating? Gingerbread building will be happening on Monday and Tuesday afternoons next week from 1-2:15pm.

PJ and Stuffy Day!

We had such a fun day today! We were excited to play with our stuffies and show them what Grade 1 is all about.

This morning we wrote stories with our stuffies. We worked with a partner to create a setting and used our stuffies as the characters. Then, we wrote our stories in our green journals.

Next, we had snack with our stuffies.

Then, we taught our stuffies how to use the iPads. We worked together to record a partner sharing what they know about patterns. At lunch our stuffies were responsible for watching the iPads while we went outside! That was a pretty big responsibilities for our stuffies. They did a great job!

This afternoon, we brainstormed a list of what our stuffies might need for their sleepover tonight at Maple Ridge. Our list included: food, water, beds, blankets, pillows, a bathroom, toothbrush, toothpaste, soap, a stuffy to cuddle, a game (incase they get bored, or can't sleep) and a picture of their owner (incase they feel lonely overnight).

At the end of the day, we took our stuffies to music with Mrs. Hebenton. Then, we did bedtime yoga and put our stuffies to sleep.

The teachers are just getting ready to head out for the night. We have checked on all of the stuffies and they are fast asleep! Some of them are even snoring! Nite nite! See you in the morning stuffies!

Stuffy and PJ day and Studio Bell

Reminder that tomorrow is pajama and stuffy day. Students are encouraged to dress in their jammies and bring a stuffy that they are comfortable leaving at the school overnight for a sleepover (just the stuffies are sleeping over!) We will be basing some writing and building tasks around this experience.

We had an awesome time at Studio Bell today! Students were introduced to a variety of instruments that they could try. We learned about patterns that make up music and created our own patterns to record into songs. Ask your child about the Kimball Organ. How does it work? What are some of the parts? There is a picture below if they need a prompt.

We did it!

Since the beginning of the year, we have been working hard to fill our 3 pillars of care! Students have been earning gems when they show care for themselves, others and our place. Today, our jars are finally full!! This means that Room 15/16 has earned a pyjama and stuffy day on Tuesday, December 10th. On Tuesday, students are invited to wear their cozy pjs to school and bring a stuffy with them. Tuesday night, the stuffies are going to have a sleepover at Maple Ridge (not the children, just their stuffies). This means that students should bring a stuffy that they will be ok without for one night. We will spend the day teaching our stuffies all about Grade 1 and then tuck them into bed in our classroom for the night. The students are very excited that they have finally filled their pillars of care! Great job boys and girls!!

December is going to be very busy at Maple Ridge School and in Room 15/16. Here are some important updates and information:

December 9th-13th
December 9th - National Music Centre Field Trip - all grade 1 classes
December 10th - PJ/Stuffy day and stuffy sleepover - Room 15/16
December 13th - Last day for Food Bank donations - we are collecting donations for the Calgary Food Bank at Maple Ridge this holiday season - we will be tracking our class donations on a hundreds chart between December 9th-13th

December 16th-19th
*Caroling and Talent Show - students will be going to the gym to participate in caroling each day this week as well as watching the grade 3/4 talent show each day (Grade 1/2 talent show will be happening at the end of the year) Families are welcome to join in the gym for caroling each day
*Holiday fun - students are encouraged to participate in some holiday fun by wearing fun socks, sweaters, green/red and fun hats this week - the list is below
*Gingerbread community - we will be building a gingerbread community in our classroom on Monday (December 16th) and Tuesday (December 17th) - we are looking for volunteers to help with building and working at our "candy store table", if you are available to help out please email your child's teacher
December 16th - Fun sock day, Caroling and Talent Show 9:30-10:30am, Gingerbread community building 1-2:15pm
December 17th - Ugly Christmas sweater/Cozy sweater day, Caroling and Talent Show from 2:30-3:30pm, Gingerbread Community building from 1-2:15pm
December 18th - Wear green and red, Caroling and Talent Show 9:30-10:30am,
December 19th - Fun hat day, Caroling and Talent Show from 2:30-3:30pm, Last day of school before Winter Break

More information to come about our Gingerbread Communities. If you are interested in volunteering in the classroom with this activity, please email your child's teacher.

Community

Community will be a focus for the next few weeks before Winter break. Yesterday we began with kids brainstorming what is in a community and how to define it. They worked as teams to draw and write about what things are in a community. 

Now that we are done our animal research, students are representing their understanding about animals in winter by creating a diorama to show what their animal looks like and what it does in the winter. 

Last week we spent some time representing numbers from 10-20 in different ways. This is a bit of a review of tally marks, ten frames and decomposing a number into parts (20 can be 10 and 10). We also explored early base 10 concepts by noticing 11-20 are '10 and some more.'  Practice with counting sets of objects at home and talking about the number (odd/even, more/less) will reinforce understanding and develop mental math skills. 

Reminders: Thursday is STEM night from 6-7:30

Please bring a food donation for the food bank.

The Three Little Pigs and the Spaghetti Tower Challenge

Today we started talking about the parts of a story. We learned that stories have a beginning (characters, setting), middle (problem) and end (solution). After reading The Three Little Pigs the students created an outline of the beginning, middle and end. We will be talking more about story writing in the coming weeks.

This afternoon, the students were given the challenge of creating a house made out of spaghetti that would keep one of the little pigs safe from the big, bad wolf. First, they had to draw a plan. Then, they got to work at building their creation.

Our sight words this week are: help, away, here, make and yellow.