Today we looked at the website natureground.org to learn all about the alphabet signs around our school and Whispering Woods.  The project was all done by Dr. Coffin students more than ten years ago.  All the art work was done by students at the school.  On the website we looked at a map that shows where all the signs are located.  There is even one by the Whispering Grasses bridge going to Nose Hill.  We went outside and tried to find all the signs.  They were all over the school grounds, Whispering Woods and the Natureground.  We had a recording sheet to write what each letter stood for but when we tried to write the paper was too wet and most of them ripped into pieces.  Oh well, we tried to find them all anyway!

Once we got back inside we were given new recording sheets and we got to go onto the web site and look up the signs with our buddies.  We filled in the information we still needed.  This time we were warm and dry!

Many of us today forgot to bring mittens, socks, hats, boots and extra clothing to make sure that  we stayed warm and dry.  We talked about making sure that every Fresh Air Friday we needed to come ready for the weather and for learning outside.

Miss Boyer had sent Mrs. Hamby a video of herself dressed up this morning for her trip to Churchill to see the polar bears.  She also sent us a picture of what it looked like when they were landing.  She will post pictures to her blog on the weekend and then we can see them.  She will also show us the photos on Monday in class.

Reminder for Monday
Students were told today that they were allowed to wear their Halloween costumes on Monday after lunch.  If your child stays for lunch they may bring their costume and then put it on after they have eaten their lunch.  If you choose to take your child home for lunch on this day just let Mrs. Kidd the lunch room supervisor know.   We will have a small Halloween parade and special activities in the classroom on Monday afternoon.  If you would like to send special snacks in for the class that is up to you but certainly not expected.  A few parents had asked about this.

Today we watched a video about animals in the Arctic.  Our job was to try and remember the animals we saw in the video so that we could start a list of choices for some Arctic animal research.  By the end of our list we had twenty five animals to choose from.  Some of us decided to work with a partner and some of us decided to work on our own.  Ask me what animal I will be researching and who my partner is.  Tomorrow we will use books to see what information we can find about our animals.

Today we made cards to glue all our computer login information onto.  We have information about how to go to our account in Mathletics to practice our math; Raz Kids to practice our reading and then our login number with the CBE to go and look at our own Iris account.  We made one card for school and one card for home.  The school pays for Mathletics and Raz Kids which many parents and students have found worthwhile.  This also gives them a way to practice math and reading skills if you are interested in having a small homework routine at home.

Coming home today is the school photo proofs in case you are interested in ordering.

Our helper tomorrow is Vanessa.

National geographic kids has some good websites for animal research.  The video we watched was a national geographic clip on Youtube called "Arctic; Exploring Oceans"

Today in social studies we worked on our watercolor northern landscapes.  We are becoming good artists using watercolors.  Some of us finished, they look beautiful!

 In math we worked on an indoor pattern hunt and we had to record our patterns in our math journals using pictures, labels and letters.  We are trying to identify various types of patterns in different environments.  We learned that the first part of a pattern before it starts to repeat is called the core of the pattern.  We have to watch that they repeat three or more times to make sure that it is a pattern.

 We worked on the "I hear..."  part of our poems for Whispering Woods.  We practiced using juicy words to describe the sounds and then we tried to think of a word that would describe our sound such as bzzzzzzz, shhhhhshhhhh,  glick, glick, glick.  Some of us added those into our poems.

We enjoyed two David Shannon books.  One is called "Alice the Fairy" and the other one is called"Good Boy Fergus".  We enjoyed both of them.  He says that Fergus the dog is in ten of his other books.  Can you find them?

Today in gym we played with the skipping ropes.  We learned to do some tricks along with skipping.  One trick was called Swing skip and you have to swing the rope in a figure eight and then skip it.
In Music today we listened to a song called Fossils and we had to draw a picture of what we imagined.  We also had to see what instruments we heard in the song.  We heard a piano, xylophone a violin and a flute.



Tomorrow Payton is the helper for room one.

This morning we worked to become better writers by writing in our journals.  Some of us wrote about Halloween and some of us wrote about our weekends.  Each week we are trying to write more details and ideas.  Our word work practice has really made a difference for the grade one kids when they go to write in their journals. We are sounding out our words and now we don't have to ask for help all the time.

For math today we worked on a pattern challenge.  We needed to see how many patterns we could create using only two colors.  We added the letter labels to our patterns as another way to label the pattern.  We discovered that even when we put the colors in a different order it might still be the same pattern as another one when we add the letter labels.

We added a hydroponic fish tank and plant system to our classroom.  The fish create the fertilizer for the plants that are on top of the station.  The pumps carry the water and fertilizer to the plants and then it filters back.  It was donated by a student from Captain John. He had worked on it for a science fair project.  Thanks!

This afternoon we began a watercolor of our Northern landscape to be included in our Northern travel portfolio.    After studying the landscape last week we now know what we need to include in our landscapes.

We also had library and gym.  In gym we are learning to skip.  We have little cards that show special skipping tricks if we feel like we are ready to try them.

Hailey and Jordan shared about lady bugs and showed us some that they had collected.  Our helper tomorrow is Jordan.

Today we went outside to do a pattern hunt.  We had to find things in nature that had patterns.  We had a little checklist and the check list told us the kind of patterns we had to find.
It looked like this
1. AB pattern
2. color pattern
3. shape pattern
4. ABC pattern
5. Human made pattern
6. Natural Pattern
7. A pattern you make
8. Your choice

After we found all the patterns we took the Ipad and had all the photos downloaded so that we could print the pictures.  Once our pictures were printed we worked in our team of three to create our posters.

It took us the whole morning!  We sure worked hard.

 This morning we enjoyed out Author visit with Marty Chan.  Not only is he an author but he even did some magic tricks while he told his stories.  Diego and Isabel helped Mr. Chan act out a story. It was so funny.   We are bringing home book order forms in case we want to order any of his books.  We wrote thank you cards to him and wrote about our favorite part of his presentation or a message about our writing or a story of his that we enjoyed listening to.  We gave him our cards before he left at lunch time.  He was very excited to get them.

This afternoon we finished our Northern landscape sketch and worked to finish our suitcases.  Soon we will be ready to do our watercolor landscapes.  Then, it was time for music.  In music we had music centers.  We had a center where you had to make notes out of playdoh and a five little pumpkins center and acting out the poem.  We also had a pumpkin stew center.

In gym today we had relays with hoops and bean bags.  We had to do different things with the bean bags for each relay. 

In math today we had to finish our leaf books and then we could do Mathletics.  I am bringing home my Leaf book.  See if you can guess my sorting rules!

This afternoon we had a fire drill.  We needed to make sure we had shoes on our feet.  A good reminder for indoor shoes.

Tomorrow is Fresh Air Friday.  Please make sure that your child is wearing clothing that will keep them warm enough to be outside for most of the morning.

Yesterday I posted two blog messages.  One was specific to home reading.  If you did not see that message please scroll down a little further to the message that has a bright pink home reading title.

We have an author visit tomorrow, Marty Chan.  There will be an opportunity for kids to purchase books and most books will be between 5 and 10 dollars.  If you think that you might be interested you can check out his website at MartyChan.com.

Today we started writing our senses poems.  We had to find juicy words to describe things we saw  in Whispering Woods.  Tomorrow we will write our hearing ideas for our poem.  At guided reading time we had to work on finishing our journals when we were not at guided reading. In math we worked to finish up our leaf pages.  Tomorrow we will make the covers and put our Collection books together.
We worked on a sketch of the Northern landscapen this afternoon for Social studies.

In gym we had relays using hoops and bean bags.  Mr. Ogilvie taught us gym today.  In music we had to write our own music notes on special music paper.

We enjoyed a violin performance from our helper Logan today,  He played the song from Star Wars.  He is a great performer!
Thank you for all the good treats that we had at treat day today. We got to finish our snacks during Word work time.

Our helper tomorrow is Erik.

Volunteers for Home Reading Needed

We are hoping to get our home reading underway and look forward to having you volunteer!  You can sign up using the Google calendar to sign in for some home reading slots.  At this time we have only a few volunteers and we are hoping to have a volunteer each day.

This allows for the consistent practice that our grade ones need, along with in class guided reading, to really boost their reading abilities and confidence.  Home reading is a parent run program and can only be successful if we have volunteer help.

In signing up for a day you would be committing yourself to a 2 hour time slot.  At this time, you would be listening to the students from your child's classroom reread their book from the day before and help them choose a new book to take home and then record the title into the Home Reading Binder.
If you are interested you can let our room parent, Cassie,  know or email me and let me know which day you would be available.

Thank you for your support.

Donna Hamby

Today was picture day.  We had our pictures taken right away in the morning.  We also worked on journals during this time.

In math we worked on our leaf pages.  We got to make as many pages as we could in the time we had.  Each page needed to have a new sorting rule.  We will be making a book with our pages.

This afternoon we started looking at images to see what the landscape in Churchill Manitoba looks like.   We discovered that it is rocky, snowy and not very many trees in some areas.  The plants seem smaller.  We had to work with a partner to look at images and we had to choose the image that we thought showed the landscape the best.

In gym we played with hoops today.  We learned some new hoop tricks that we got to try and also had a sharing time. We had a book exchange for library today.  Some of us were reminded that we need to bring our books back before we can take out new books.

We have been working to make leaf collection pages out of wax paper.  Tomorrow is our last day for making pages and if we want we can bring leaves from home.

Tomorrow is treat day.  Please remember to send 25 cents if you would like your child to have a treat a recess.  Treats vary from cookies, cupcakes, muffins, popcorn, etc.

Just a reminder that this Monday, October 17th is picture day.

We started our morning by working to try and finish our suitcases of things to bring to the North.  After that we watched a story on tumblebooks about animals camouflaging themselves from predators we went out to play Camouflage in the Whispering Woods.  We had to hide like prey from one of the teachers who was the predator.  When Mrs. Hamby saw us she called us out and we had to come out of the woods.  Some of us had colorful coats so it was harder to hide in the woods.  We figured out different ways to hide. Crouching and laying down became one of our strategies and so did hiding behind bushes.

Our second session outside was sketching the Whispering Woods.  We read the story called, "The Magical Garden of Claude Monet" and we looked at how he sketched as he studied landscapes before he painted parts of his garden or scenes.  Some of us sat in the amphitheater and some of us sketched from the bottom of the woods looking up towards the woods.  We got to decide where we wanted to go.

We had a great Fresh Air Friday!

Today was our first fun lunch this year.  It was very exciting!  The classroom was buzzing all morning.

We started the day with guided reading and literacy centers.  Then we shared our ideas for the sense of taste. Most of our ideas were from our Thanksgiving weekend and all the good food we had for dinner. Mrs. Hamby brought some herbs from her garden and we could smell them and taste them if we wanted to.  She brought some thyme, rosemary, sage, lavender and bay leaves.  Some people use lavender when they bake.

in math today we started working on our attributes project using the leaves we had collected.  We had to sort our leaves and then we made our first "What's my rule?" page.  We arranged the leaves for our first sorting rule on wax paper and then Mrs. Hamby ironed the wax paper to "lock" the leaves in place.  Next week we will work on our other pages.  We can also bring leaves from home if we want.

This afternoon we added items to our suit cases that we made yesterday.  We also played "four corners" in gym and went to music too.


Our Helper for Monday will be Malik.


Tomorrow is Fresh Air Friday and we will be outside planting some bulbs. We will also be sketching and playing a game in the woods.  Please make sure that your child has appropriate clothing and footwear for the weather tomorrow as it will probably still be chilly in the morning even though they are calling for a high of 10.

Today in social studies we made a suitcase to show Ms. Boyer all the things she will need to pack to go on her trip up to the North.  She will need to include a water bottle, hat, snow pants, gloves, warm jacket, boots and a camera.  We will add more tomorrow and we will have to decide what else she will need.   As the travel agents,  we are making a travel package for her and the first thing she needs to know is what to bring...  We read a story called "Polar Bears Gift".  In the story the little girl helps the bear when he was hungry and hurt and in return he gave her little pieces of fur that were magic and she would never be cold or hungry again.

The some of us went with Ms. Stephure today to start our guided reading groups the rest of us will begin tomorrow.  In word work today the grade ones worked on spelling words with short a and short i using the word families "in" and "an" and being able to hear the difference between the two.  The grade twos worked on getting their "Words" spelling books and becoming familiar with the expectations for word work with Ms. Stephure.

We finished our leaf collection and will begin to work on our math/art project tomorrow.
We also went to the Whispering Woods to use our sense of smell.  We discovered sweet berries and  peppery sage and rotting leaves and crisp wet grasses.

In gym today we played a new Halloween tag game. It was called Ghosts in the Graveyard.

We ended the day with finishing up our journals and having some journal sharing time

Today we went outside in the Whispering Woods to collect leaves.  We were looking for leaves of different sizes, colors and shapes.

Today in gym we played a game called Snakes in the Grass.  In music we had to stomp and click our tongues.  We had to play or make a noise to show different kinds of notes and people had to guess. We are learning to recognize different kinds of notes.

We are going to become Miss Boyer's travel agents and help her get ready for her one day trip to Church Hill Manitoba to see the polar bears on October 28th.  We are going to do some research for her to help her get ready.  We are going to learn about an Arctic community.  This trip was a surprise early birthday present for her.

The grade two students will be going to do word work everyday Tuesday through Thursday, after recess with Ms. Stephure.  The grade ones have word work with Mrs. Hamby.  They will also begin their guided reading groups tomorrow with Ms. Stephure.  Grade ones will start on Thursday.

Our helper tomorrow is Solomon.  This Thursday is Fun Lunch.

Today we put together our recipe books and we will bring them home for Thanksgiving. If we had time we could add some more decorations.  We made carrot cookies and added the recipe to our cookbooks.  They were "deliciously, nutritiously awesome."  We can hardly wait to bring our recipe books home.
Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

We went outside to the Whispering Woods to use our sense of touch.  We used a Thesaurus when we came inside to make our describing words more interesting.  We also had quiet book time at our own desks.

In gym today we played Sea Anemone Tag and also Doggie Tag.  We got to choose our tag games today.

In music we played the Turkey Pokey and also Hiccup Buttercup.

There will be no school tomorrow and Monday.

Today our helper was Hailey and Freya will be the helper on Tuesday.

Card Fundraiser is due back on Tuesday.

We went to the Whispering Woods and we heard a lot of sounds.  By being quiet and closing our eyes we could hear more sounds.  We also tried to turn off our sense of touch. We could hear cars on the road and wind racing through the trees.  We also heard sticks snapping as kids walked and leaves crunching on the ground.

In math we got to try our mathletics account on the computer.  Soon we will bring home our account information.  It is the same user name and password as last year.  You can access it at home.

In gym we played puppy tag and rocket tag.  We also played a tunnel game.  After gym we got to share our journal writing with each other.  Some of us had journal finish up to do.  Grade ones are trying to write three ideas and grade twos are writing at least six sentences.  We can tell that we are already getting better at writing, especially the grade ones.

We had to put our cook books together and we will bring them home tomorrow as a Thanksgiving gift to our family.  We had to hole punch them so that we can bind them tomorrow with string.

We went to whispering woods to watch and see what we could see.  We all had to sit in our own spot and watch for ten minutes.  We were focusing on our sense of sight.   We saw birds fluttering in the aspen trees.  We saw rosehips surrounded by tangly thorns and leaves swirling on the grass.  We saw leaves laying on the path as we went down the hill.  We will do hearing tomorrow.  When we are finished we will be doing a writing project.

In math we had to record about our sorting activity yesterday.  We talked about how math writing is a little different than story writing.  We are looking for information.

We learned a new song in music today called Hiccup Buttercup.  We had to clap the rhythm with our hands and we had to tap the rhythm with our fingers on plastic blue cups.

We made vegetable prints for the back cover of our recipe books.  We used potatoes and beets to stamp our prints.

Today in gym we played Sea Anemone Tag and a Go and Stop game..  They were fun.  Mr Ogilvie was here to take us to gym today.

Coming home today will be the notice with information about picture day.  These forms need to be filled out and returned before photo day.

Today we got to choose our Helpers for tomorrow.  All our names went into a jar and we had to choose a name from each class.  We will continue this for the year.  The helper gets to bring something from our category to share to the class.  Our first category is to share a talent.  This can be with a performance, a video or a picture. The helper also gets to do other things like lead the line; do the warm up for the gym class and take the attendance to the office.  They also get to sit on a special chair when we are at our carpet meetings.  Our helper tomorrow is Madalynn.

In the morning we worked in our journals to write about our weekend.  We will have some time Wednesday to finish up.  In math we worked on sorting our collections from the woods.  Our challenge was that we had to start by sorting everything into 4 groups, then 3,2, and 1.  It got harder each time because we needed to use everything in our collection.

We had library this afternoon.  Some of us forgot to bring back our books but Mrs. Kidd said that we can borrow them for one more week.  

Today we played tag games in gym.  We played toilet tag, hot dog tag and What time is it Mr. Wolf?

We decorated some recipes this afternoon, they were Green bean fries and beet chips.  We also worked to finish our cover for our recipe book.  We read the story Stone Soup and talked about old folk tales.  Stone Soup is a story from France.  It was retold and made into the book we read in 1947.

Our school raised $1507.15 from our Terry Fox run.