The Super Kids have had a very busy October full of hands on learning opportunities, guest presenters, and even an election! We began the month talking about Thanksgiving, what we were thankful for, and painting turkeys with fall colours.
After reading A Plump and Perky Turkey by Teresa Bateman, the class was given a challenge. Build a hideout for the turkey so he wouldn’t get caught. The structure had to hide the turkey from view and they had to work together in teams.
We continued our inquiry unit on the five sense and explored how scientists use their senses to observe. We invited the optometrist from our local eye clinic to our classroom to talk to us about our eyes. Dr. Shane Corelson and his staff from Sage Creek Eye Centre agreed to join us and Mrs. G’s class. They set up centres for the class to rotate through to learn more about why taking care of our eyes is important. The class got to try on lenses, learn about contact lenses, learn about colour blindness, and how we see. Thank you to Dr. Corelson and the staff at Sage Creek Eye Centre for taking the time out of your day to join us. 🙂
Learning about sound, how our ears work, and designing our own musical instruments was a lot of fun. The class learned about sound waves, how they travel, and made cup phones to demonstrate this. Then the class was challenged to make a musical instrument from recyclable materials they brought from home.
playing our instruments video (1)
Ms. Lagimodiere’s 3/4 class are our new learning buddies! I couldn’t be happier about it to be honest. Ms. Lagimodiere and I even teared up when we saw our classes together. The last few years we haven’t been able to have buddies because of restrictions and cohorts. Many of the kids in her class were in my class for grade 1 and 2. Both classes are so excited to learn together. Apparently ,her class cheered when they heard we were going to work together this year. 🙂 They have joined us a few times this month. The first time was a get to know you event. Her class came with questions for us to help get to know each other. The second time our buddies had gone to the school library and took one book our just to read to us! Many picked their favourite when they were in grade one. I guessed what book a few of the kids would bring and I was right. 🙂 They will be joining us this week to help us finish our nocturnal animal dioramas.
Diwali is a holiday that many of the Super Kids celebrate with their families. Part of the grade one social studies curriculum is to learn about each other, our traditions, and the holidays celebrated in our classroom community. We first learned about Diwali with the help of some picture books and videos. Then the students rotated through some activities related to the “festival of lights”. Rangoli is sand art that is a traditional apart of Diwali celebrations. We created our own with colourful sand. Students also looked at the symmetry of the Taj Mahal and were challenged to make their own structure with the blocks that had symmetry. Students used toilet paper rolls to create firework art and they also created their own clay rangoli inspired pieces with beans. Unfortunately, they didn’t make it home. The tray they were on was accidently was knocked off the table and they broke. We do have some great picture of them and the kids were very good about it. Accidents happen.
On October 26th Winnipeg held their mayoral election. Our school was a voting site, so this was a great opportunity to learn about voting. The class was met with a sign on our door saying “Vote Here”. They entered and had to register to vote in the great cookie election!
What is an election? Why do we vote? When do I get to vote? These were some great questions generated in our morning meeting discussion. We read the book Sophie Valdez Future Prez by Andrea Beaty to help us understand how kids can make a difference.
We learned that candidates that want your vote often send you information, put ads on tv, talk at events, and even come to you house. Our election was very exciting. Would Oreo or Chips Ahoy Chocolate Chip Cookies be voted best cookie. Before we could vote, we had to watch commercials to try to sway our vote. Students scanned QR codes and watched commercials featuring each cookie. Would these commercials sway our opinion?
Our teacher librarian, Mme. Meg and the library assistants came down to vote too.
Then it was our turn. Each student was checked on the registration and then cast their ballot in secret. They even got “I Voted Today” stickers.
We then sat in a circle and tallied our results. It came down to the last vote. We had a drum roll and…chocolate chip won by one vote! The next day the kids came in very excited to share with me that some of them had gone to vote with their families the night before at our school. They also wanted to share with me who had won and was Winnipeg’s mayor.
Our buddies joined us again just before Halloween to help us with pumpkin math and science centres. They measured each other with pumpkins, predicted if the pumpkin would sink or float, weighed a pumpkin, and measured how tall the pumpkins were.
Staying with the pumpkin theme that day, we also made pumpkin art with chalk pastels.
The Super Kids walked into the classroom on Halloween to find a game board projected on the whiteboard. They had to complete a series of Halloween challenges to get a special surprise from me at the end of the day. They were so excited!
The first challenge was to head up to the library where Mme. Meg had set up some spooky activities for us to do after we signed out our new books. She read us the book Creepy Crayon by Aaron Reynolds. The activities related to the book.
Next, the class headed back to the classroom and completed a series of challenges mixed in with movement breaks throughout the day. Tic Tac Toe, Halloween bingo, and witches hat toss where part of the next challenge.
Then the class created their own spider or monster with playdough, pipe cleaners, and googly eyes. They had to write a sentence about their creature in their writing books.
Another challenge was graphing the witches brew ingredients. This math challenge had the class working in partners.
Movement breaks to ghostbusters and monster mash was needed to help get our bodies moving!
Next, the class had to become computer programmers and code their friends movements. Using arrows and Halloween themed action cards, each group created their own code for other groups to work through. Action cards included flapping like a bat, saying boo, and stirring a cauldron.
Following an art hub video for a direct drawing lesson was a fun activity that calmed the class down from a very exciting day. With step by step instructions, each student created their own Frankenstein.
The day was full of learning, adventure, and fun. The class completed the game board and got a special treat bag from me to take home.
Throughout the month we have been researching nocturnal animals. What are some things that go bump in the night? Animals of course. Each student got to pick the animal they wanted to learn more about. In groups they researched the animal’s appearance, habitat, food, and some fun facts. This week our learning buddies will be joining us to help us create our dioramas. Each diorama will have a plasticine animal, water source, habitat, and food displayed. We have already been working on our night time backgrounds. Once that is complete each student will make a stop motion video. We can’t wait to share our learning with our families on student led conferences coming up later in the month.
Stay tuned… 🙂