Good morning and happy mother’s day!
The class created their own versions of “Waterlilies and Japanese Bridge” painted by Claude Monet as a gift for their moms.
After learning about Monet and his waterlily garden, the class used pastels, watercolour paints, and a bit of salt to create their own versions. The kids created cards and decorated their bags before putting their artwork into a frame.
Our class along with the other grade 1 and 2 English classes, enjoyed going on a field trip to MTYP. The Manitoba Theatre For Young People, was hosting a production from Australia called “ZOOOM”. Yes, it has three Os. The interactive production was inspired by the classic book called “Harold And The Purple Crayon”, but with a modern twist. I have to be honest and say that it was my favourite production that I’ve seen at the theatre with a class and I’ve been to a lot of them! The kids were asked to come with a piece of the dark. We talked about what that could be in our class and decided that since we were learning about the Earth, Moon and Stars we should make a representation of that. When the kids entered the theatre they were greeted by kind people who took their dark and gave them light in a form of a hand held light. The production used lasers, screens, and the hand held lights to create an imaginary world. There was even a dance party with the light switching colours!
Part of the grade 1 science curriculum is daily and seasonal changes. We have been talking about these changes throughout the year as the season’s changed. We have been examining this process a bit closer this month with the essential question, “How do patterns affect daily and seasonal changes?” Our inquiry explored how we have day and night, how the sun is the center of the solar system, how the Earth moves in an orbit, how the moon orbits the Earth, and how we have seasons. Making connections to time was a big eye opener for the class. A year is one orbit around the sun, a day is on rotation of the Earth etc. The class made stop motion videos to show their understanding of this process. The videos are on the ipads at the school and I’ll add a few to this blog post later this week.
We read the book “The Sun Is Kind Of A Big Deal” and learned that the Earth is in the perfect location in our solar system to support life. The Sun gives us heat and light. We also have to protect ourselves from the Sun and the class brainstormed ways we can do that.
The kids are in the middle of using the Pebble Go website to research the Sun, Moon or the Earth for a research project. They are working in partners to find information.
Earth Day was earlier this month and the class learned that we only have one Earth so we better take care of it. The class participated in activities and stories related to the reducing, reusing, and recycling.
Each students made their own reusable shopping bag and recycling truck art project.
Dental hygiene was a focus in health this past month. Why is it important to visit the dentist, brush our teeth, and eat healthy? We found out through a variety of books, videos, and experiments. The class even made a tooth ninja to help remind our families about the importance of dental health.
Earlier in the month we had a big down pour. The sky opened up and it rained! I took the opportunity to drop everything and talk about bit about why it rains and the water cycle. We read the book “The Big Umbrella” from our school library and painted our own big umbrella art pieces. We discussed what an umbrella had to be made off to protect us from the rain and what materials are waterproof.
Easter was a few days after spring break. We read the book “The Tale of Peter Rabbit” by Beatrix Potter. We looked at the way the illustrated painted to pictures and how the pictures were a muted colour. The kids then followed a direct drawing lesson to sketch and then paint their own versions of Peter Rabbit!
I Love To Read activities also happened that week. Dress as your favourite book character was a hit!
Math activities this month have focussed on partnered math games reinforcing addition and subtraction strategies. The class has been learning the names and attributes of both 2D and 3D shapes. Guided math groups have been working on fact families. More examples and pictures of our math time will be in our next blog post. During this time I’ve been focusing on the groups and haven’t taken that many pictures. 🙂
Until next time…