Looking for Leprechauns

We've been reading all about Ireland, St. Patrick's Day and leprechauns. Here are some of the books we've read and activities we have completed.

 

On Monday, we read "The Luckiest St. Patrick's Day Ever". After reading the story, we shared some our luckiest memories and wrote about them. We also completed some cute leprechauns to go along with our writing.

 

On Tuesday, we read "The Leprechaun's Gold" and completed another cute writing activity.

 

Finally, today we read "Jamie O'Rourke and the Big Potato". Here is a link to an online version of the story.

 

 

We also completed a sequencing activity where we retold the beginning, middle and end. Unfortunately, I did not get any photos of this.

 

We also started a little creative story writing assignment. Each of the students wrote about what they would do if they ever caught a leprechaun. We are going to take our "rough" story drafts into the computer lab tomorrow and complete a published version that we can print and display in the hallway. We're hoping that all this leprechaun themed writing and art work will attract some sneaky little leprechaun guests to come and visit us in our classroom before the end of the week. Guess we'll just have to wait and see!

 

In other news, we are just finishing up our gymnastics unit for P.E. The students rotated through a number of stations which included parallel bars, climbing apparatus, spring boards, ropes, and balance beams. Over the past two weeks, the students visited each station in a circuit-like rotation. I was very proud of each and everyone for following through with all safety measures and precautions. This has definitely been one of our favourite gym units to date.

 

 

 

Don't forget --- Friday is Emerald City Day!

Come dressed-up in your best green gear!!!!!

 

 

Liquids and Solids and Gas - OH MY!

If you read our last post, you would know that we just completed our informational writing unit. Our final drafts are complete, along with a cute craftivity, and are now on display in the hallway. Don't they look amazing!

 

Here is a close-up of one.

 

Lion and Tigers and Bears - OH MY!

 

Our new Language Arts theme is "Fairy Tales". We started reading "The Wizard of Oz" and we are absolutely loving it. This is the version we are using for our class read aloud times.

 

 

This story has provided a lot of opportunity for discussions about friendship. Today we took our discussions a bit further and practiced our conversation skills by learning appropriate ways to "join in" when we see a group of friends playing together or maybe even other students we may not know.

 

First, we learned, discussed and reviewed the steps needed to appropriately join in and play with others. We kept with the "Wizard of Oz" theme and called it...

 

 "Follow the Yellow Brick Road - Steps to Joining In".

 

 

Second, we discussed positive and appropriate ways we could respond and created a reference chart for future discussions.

 

 

 

Next, the students were partnered up and provided a scenario that would cause then to want to join in. Here are a few of our scenario cards.

 

 

Then, together in pairs, the students brainstormed a joining in statement along with a positive response on a conversation bubble activity page.

 

Last, the students role-played in front of their classmates, acting out each of their scenarios.

We will continue with our "Wizard of Oz" friendship theme tomorrow with some more writing activities that I will be sure to post.

 

Liquids and Solids and Gas - Oh My!

 

Oh My! was exactly what I was thinking when I decided to complete some messier experiments in matter this week. At first I was worried that the mess would be too much but the students were awesome and even though there were a few shrieks of excitement, it was well worth the end result.

 

On Monday we read a  Dr. Seuss story called "Bartholomew and the Oobleck". 

 

 

This story is about some ooey, gooey green goo that a king orders from his royal magicians. After reading the story, we made our very own oobleck. It was a sunny days so we decided to take the experiment outside and have a little more messy fun.

 

 

 

 

Today, we experimented with ways to blow-up a balloon using baking soda, vinegar, a small bottle and of course a balloon. We used our super scientist knowledge to form a hypothesis, complete the experiment and then discuss our observations. The look on their faces says it all.

 

 

 

 

We had so much fun, I will definitely be searching on Pinterest for some more fun experiments to try out before Spring Break!

 

Hope you enjoy your evening!

-Mrs. Singh

How To Blow A Bubble

This reporting period, our Language Arts writing goals focused mainly on informational writing. First we worked on our non-fiction penguin themed writing. Once our penguin theme unit ended, we moved onto procedural writing in the form of "How To" booklets. To kick off our procedural writing unit, I searched through Pinterest looking for ideas that the students would find fun and engaging. I came across the cutest activity that required the kids to write the instructions for blowing a bubble. The fact that they got to chew bubblegum in class had them hooked immediately. Our "How To Blow a Bubble" writing and craftivity turned out great. They were on display in the hallway until today.

The bubblegum writing activity turned out so well that I immediately knew any other procedural writing activity needed to be as hands-on as possible. So that is exactly what we did! Over the last two weeks, students were partnered-up with another class member. Each group was given an envelope containing pictures that could be manipulated to "make" whatever product they were writing "How To" instructions for. There were 10 different products in total and each student completed approximately 6 activities each. I wish we could have completed all ten activities, but with the terrible round of the cold and flu which hit our school, it was nearly impossible. Let's hope that it is all behind us now!

(*if you are another teacher reading this post, I highly suggest you check out this resource. It is amazing. Just click here .)

This is an example of the "How To Make A Pizza" packet.

Grade one students manipulated the pieces to make the product, then sequenced the steps using transitional words as well as completing a cut and paste activity. Grade two students completed a sequencing activity but then wrote the instructions out, including transitional words, rather than the cut and paste portion. The students loved this unit and their procedural writing as well as their reading skills certainly improved. Tomorrow, we will be publishing our favourite "How To " activity to display in the hallway along with a cute craftivity.

In other news... 

Anti-bullying Day was successful. Check out our classroom full of pink shirts.

-Mrs. Singh



Elf Applications And A Little Fa La La

Today we performed "All I Want For Christmas Is My Two Front Teeth" at our school's Christmas concert. We did a great job! Among all of our Christmas concert excitement, it also snowed a ton the entire day. We could help but take a class photo with all the snow in the background. Here we are smiling and posing politely for the camera.

 

How could we not take a goofy photo?

 

 

Speaking of concerts and singing...
Here are some adorable Christmas carolers we made over the past week to inspire us while we practiced for this special night.

 

 

In other news, Santa sent us an urgent memo! It seems that he may need some back-up elves to help him up in the North Pole. You know, just in case one of his regular elves comes down with the flu. Of course we all wanted to apply for the job. Here are a few of our elf job applications.

 

Amy applied to be a baker elf. Her previous experience includes cooking with her Mom and she would also like to learn a little more about measuring. I think Amy would make a great baker elf. Her desired pay is marshmallows. I am sure the North Pole has plenty of those.

 

 

Lucia applied to be a stable elf. She has a lot of experience with horses. She enjoys feeding and riding horses and reindeer are similar to horses so she feels she would be perfect for the job. I think so too! She would love to be payed with sour keys! Yum!

 

Puneet applied to be an elf spy. The kind that checks up on children to see if they are being naughty or nice. Her previous experience includes spying on her brother. Apparently she is also great at playing pranks on her brother as well. I am positive that the North Pole needs someone like you, Puneet! Puneet's desired pay is nothing. She'll just do it for free!

 

 

I guess we'll just have to wait and see if any of Santa's elves come down with the flu or anything else.

 

I hope the snow lasts overnight and does not get washed away. We did not get a chance to enjoy it today. Maybe tomorrow.

 

-Mrs. Singh

 

 

 

 

 

Its Christmas Time

You know it is nearly Winter when you encounter three different types of extreme weather just on your commute home. It all started with a hail storm. After about ten minutes it turned into snow (and not the kind that melts when it reaches the ground) and finally when I reached my driveway I was met with torrential rain and wind. What's next? Hopefully it won't affect our travels to school tomorrow morning.

 

Today was quite the busy day with concert dress rehearsals and holiday excitement in the hallways outside our class. It can be a little tough to concentrate and stay focused, but amongst all this holiday excitement we managed to get in some amazing writing. I was especially impressed with Kai and Amy for completing not one, but two holiday writing assignments in class this morning. Way to go! Thanks for making our class a pleasant place to be!

 

Important Reminders

Dec. 18 - Gingerbread House Day (Div. 3, 4 & 5)

Dec.19 - Christmas Concert at Port Kells Church @ 1:00 and 6:30

Dec.21 - Pancake Breakfast…wear your PJ’s

 

 

Enjoy your evening! See you tomorrow!

Mrs. Singh

 

Pete the Cat Saves Christmas

I just realized that I did not post any photos of our Christmas desk decorating activity last week. Here's a little photo display...

 

When we finished decorating our desks, we began a fun Pete the Cat Saves Christmas activity booklet. If you have not had a chance to read any Pete the Cat books, you need to run out to our public library immediately and sign one out. I think Pete the Cat might just be one of our favourite series of books. Here is a short video link to Pete the Cat Saves Christmas.

 

 

 

Our love for Pete the Cat has also inspired our Pete the Cat math themed centres focusing on learning to read a write number words.

 

We've also been working on our holiday themed writing skills over the last two weeks. We have been using the "someone, wanted, but, so, finally" graphic organizer to help the students sequence the steps to write an effective paragraph. Here are a few examples of our work:

 

 

The amount of detail in each of the paragraphs varies depending on the student's grade level as well as their abilities. A few of the students had the opportunity to publish their paragraphs on our blog. You can check them out here.

 

Now it is time for a little elf update. Here's what she has been up to this week.

 

 

Important Reminder

 

The Santa / Christmas store will be open tomorrow.

 

Enjoy your evening!

 

Mrs. Singh

 

 

The Naughty Bear - A Christmas Story by Will

A silly white bear wanted  to open  presents. But instud he got a lump of coal. So he decided he would be good next yer.

The end

By Will

Two Christmas Stories by Puneet

Deck The Halls

Once there were two funny  bears hoo wanted to decorat a tree. But they got tanguled up in lights. So they asked brown bear for help. Finally they got untanguled and made the tree and became freinds.

Santa's Delivery



Santa wanted to deliver toys. But his sleigh broke down. So he asked a friend for help. Finally he deliverd the toys to all the good children.



By Puneet

A Little Elf Stopped By...

Did you know that our class has it's own elf? She showed up yesterday above our whiteboard along with a story book. This morning we walked in to find her buddy reading with Fin. I wonder where she will be tomorrow?

 

 

We decided on the Christmas concert song that we will be performing this year. We'll be singing "All I Want For Christmas Is My Two Front Teeth". We've been very busy learning the lyrics as well as some fancy footwork the last two days. With all this Christmas spirit in the air, we decided to write our letters to Santa. We displayed them in the hallway for everyone, including Santa, to see!

 

Here are a few of our letters:

 

 

Lucia had a lot to tell Santa. Her letter turned out to be 3 pages long. Wow!

 

 

- Mrs. Singh