Month: September 2017

This week the Super Kids were invited to join our neighbouring 1/2 classroom for a Skype call with a Neuroscientist!  We learned how the brain sends and receives messages.  I was so impressed with the questions that my amazing kids asked.  One student made a connection to our lesson on sight last week and asked why people were blind.  They wanted to know if it was because their eyes didn’t receive messages from their brain. Another asked how do we feel hot and cold.  Wow!

We also re-read the book Press Here and used it in a different way.  We focused on learning the words cause and effect.  As Newton said “For every action there is an equal or opposite reaction”.  We decided to put this to the test!  I challenged the class to get into groups and create their own chain reactions.  The class used marbles, balls, blocks, dominoes, and their imaginations to engineer their reactions.

    

 

chain reaction-1zpt6di

The class loved it and didn’t want to stop.  This week we will be learning about incline planes, how things move, and testing our theories.  Your child is welcome to bring in anything that they would like to use, to create another chain reaction on Wednesday.  Ideas the kids came up with were paper towel rolls, toilet paper rolls, toy cars, etc.

We have been busy practicing math games so we can start our guided math rotations this week.  The Super Kids will be put into groups that will cycle through different math activities that focus on developing their number sense.  Students will be working with me, in their guided math group, as one of the rotations.  We tested it out on Friday and the class did great!  The two groups that meet with me learning about number lines and how they can help us count up and back from a number.  The grade one group focused on adding with a 1-10 number line and the grade two group used a 1-20 number line to share their knowledge of addition.

   

To celebrate the first day of fall, we invited our 5/6 buddies to join us for our apple investigation.  Each Super Kid became an investigator.  They had to predict if the apple would sink or float, how many blocks tall was their apple, how long of a string would fit around the apple, and how many bear counters would match their apples weight.  Lately they estimated how many seeds were inside their apple before I cut it open for them.   Then they shared it with their buddy!

What a week of learning!

Have a great weekend! 🙂

 

 

 

 

 

What a week it’s been!  The Super Kids celebrated “International Dot Day” on Friday.  Haven’t heard of it? Peter H. Reynolds wrote a series of inspiring books for children about being artists, making your mark, and being proud of your accomplishments.  As you can probably tell, I love these books!  The first of the series is called “The Dot”.  “International Dot Day” was created to celebrate this book and the way it encourages children to be creative.  The Super Kids came to school dressed in their dots and ready to celebrate together!

Peter H. Reynolds also wrote the following books with the same theme.

We learned about two famous artists that used dots as the inspiration for their art work.  First we learned about the famous Russian artist, Kandinsky.  We looked at his artwork and talked about what shapes we saw.  We found out that he was inspired by music and his paintings represent what he felt music looked like.

  

I read “The Noisy Paintbox” to the class to introduce Kandinsky and to help us understand his life.  Many students noticed that the book had an award on the front.  It has won the Caldecott Award, which is an award given out annually to books that are recognized for their illustrations.

We then created our own abstract dot art inspired by Kandinsky.  We put on some classical music and got started.  We used pastels and water colour paints to create our own masterpieces.

       

The second artist we talked about was Yayoi Kusama.  She is a Japanese artist who creates modern art by using dots.  She encourages children to make their own artist mark on the world and has created many interactive rooms, for kids to create dot art. We looked at the Queensland Art Gallery’s website and interacted with the Kusama activities on the whiteboard. Click on the link below to learn more about her and interact with the activities.

Kusama Dot Game

Throughout the day we read dot books that included “Press Here” and “Lots of Dots”.

 

The rest of the week was filled with learning new routines, meeting our learning buddies, practicing buddy reading and so much more.  Below are a few pictures of our very first “buddy reading” time.  We talked as a class about how there are many ways to read a book.  You can read the words and you can read the pictures.  Even if you don’t know the words a reader can look at the pictures and create their own story.  The class was excited to dive into the books and look for word they knew.  The grade 2 Super Kids were eager to share what they know with our grade 1 friends.  As you can tell the Piggy and Elephant books by Mo Willems are a big hit!

    

We meet our 5/6 Learning Buddies this week and went on a scavenger hunt with them outside.  Not only did they have to find things, but they had to climb and swing with their buddies!

    

At the beginning of the week, I was inspired by the class’ questions about the birds they were seeing outside.  The class loved the fact that our main floor learning commons has round dots in the windows to protect birds from flying into them.  When they came back from music class, the students were surprised that I had set up an art activity based on our conversation!  I love those days when your plan changes and you just go with it!  We broke out the watercolour paints and created our own James Rizzi inspired birds.  James Rizzi was an American modern artists that is known for his bright use of colours and child like drawings.

  

 

      

Working on our journals, learning new math games, and practicing our graphing skills can tucker a class out.  When we can feel our energy dropping down, it is time for a movement break.  Below is a picture of the class getting our blood pumping with a “Just Dance” video. The second picture shows the class calming down for focussed work with a GoNoodle video called melting.

I hope my Super Kids and their families have a great weekend.  Remember that there is no school on Monday.  I’ll see you all on Tuesday. 🙂

 

 

 

 

 

We’re off and running!  After waiting for our amazing new school to open for what seemed like forever, it finally happened.  Ecole Sage Creek School is open!  As our vice principal, Mr. Bell, said at our first staff meeting, now it is time to put the soul into the building.

Thank you to all of my Super Kid’s families for taking some time to meet me during opening day conferences.  I hope everyone enjoyed exploring the school and seeing our classroom!  Since we’re called the Super Kids, we had to have a photo booth. Below are just a few of the great family pictures taken. 🙂

The first two days of school were spent getting to know each other and feeling comfortable in our new space.  We read the book “School’s First Day Of School” by Alex Rex to help celebrate our unique situation. The story is told from the point of view of a brand new school discovering its purpose.   Ironically, the book was re-read to us at our first full school assembly in the afternoon by our teacher librarian, Mme. Meg!

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After introducing a couple of math games, students were paired up to practice and develop turn taking.  In no time at all, the classroom was filled with giggles and chatter.  I couldn’t help but smile.  It’s one of my favourite sounds. 🙂

The Super Kids became scientists on Friday!  The class explored their surroundings with the help of magnifying glasses.  We watched a few clips from “Sid The Science Kid” on YouTube.  Our sense of sight is very important as scientists, but sometimes you need to take a closer look.  We then heading to our outdoor classroom to explore the surroundings.  So many questions came out of our exploration.  Why do ladybugs have spots?  What is our slide made of?  Why are spider webs sticky?  Why do bugs live in tree stumps?

        

Centre time at the end of the day, is a fun time and important in making new friendships.  A student told me that he now has 23 new best friends!  22 kids and 1 teacher.  🙂

     

I wanted to thank all our families for your patience as we discover our new routines and procedures.  I can’t wait to see my kids on Monday and continue our adventure together.  Enjoy the beautiful weather this weekend!