A new look for our class blog

Our class blog is moving! Please refer to our new blog site http://msketcheson.edublogs.com for updates on the learning going on in our grade 1 classroom.

Please note, I will no longer be updating this blog. I will leave this blog up as I transition to the Edublogs website.

Finished dream sticks

Today we worked on sketching and labelling our dream sticks, making sure to include lots of details!

We also used watercolours to show the different colours we saw in fall leaves.

Dream Sticks

As part of our investigation into dreams, the grade ones have been creating dream sticks- and they look beautiful! Each string on their stick represents something special to them. More pictures to come as we hang them in the classroom.

Counting our classroom

We are moving into looking at numbers and counting. Today, our first activity was a challenge: students were asked to 'count the room'. They worked hard to count how many chairs,desks,carpet squares and turtles (!) were in the room.

Happy thanksgiving!

Wishing all of our grade 1 families a happy long weekend!

5 senses with Scuba Charlotte

We had a great presentation this morning! Students became 'scientists' and moved through 5 stations to learn about their 5 senses.

Thank you very much to the parent volunteers who helped run the stations! 

We will continue to bring in activities like these throughout the year where help is always appreciated!

Silent Sits outside

As part of our work getting ready for Nature School, we brainstormed today about what a 'silent sit' looks like and sounds like. Students came up with a checklist to see how they did after 3 minutes of sitting outside looking for 5 different fall colours.

We used hula hoops to define our sit spot, and we did a great job! After we came in, we used our sketchbooks to draw the colours we saw.

Circle patterns and communication

Today we had a class presentation on using good communication skills. Students learned that to make themselves understood they need to remember to:

In the afternoon, we used our 'beautiful stuff' to create circle patterns. We are getting really good at describing our patterns with letters and creating a variety of different ones! 

Leaf art and science journaling

We spent some time today looking at the leaves we collected yesterday. Students had to choose 5 leaves that were special to them and record that in their science journals.

After they finished, they used the rest of their leaves to create some leaf art!

Looking for fall leaves

For science today, we talked about all the different kinds of leaves we see in the fall. Students brainstormed what they wanted to look for and we went outside. Tomorrow we will make some observations about our leaves and use them for an art project.

Our pattern trees have added some fall colours to our class walls!

Word work

Today we started looking at different ways to practice our letters and star words. We used whiteboards, pipe cleaners, foam letters and wood pieces to build our words. 

Also, check out the circle patterns we made with our beautiful stuff!

Text to Self Connections

Our school theme this year is looking at "What is my dream?".

Today, we read a book about a little girl's dream and then made some Text to Self Connections. That means that students can think of something they have experienced in their life that relates to the book we are reading. This is an important part of becoming a 'super reader'!

We also voted on where to hang our 2 class dreamcatchers - stay tuned for some student created ones coming in the next few weeks!

We voted to hang both dreamcatchers on the whiteboard