Painting with tints and shades

We mixed white and black with blue paint to make various tints and shades.

Spiders

How do you respond when you see a spider?  Does it depend on its size or colour?  We have finished our short study of spiders.  We learned that they can live almost anywhere in the world!  Like all living things, they need certain things in order to stay alive.  Some spiders build orb webs, the circular ones that we commonly see and associate with Halloween but there are other kinds of webs too.  We also learned that spiders have an exoskeleton and two main body parts, a cephalothorax and an abdomen.  Did you know that all spiders have 8 legs but not always 8 eyes?  They also have spinnerets on their abdomens which help to guide the silk that they use to build their webs.  We had fun creating art to show what we know about spiders' bodies.  Here are the rest of our spiders:

Blogs We Follow

We have added some links to our blog.  If you look off to the right of this post, you will see the heading "Blogs We Follow".  How many of you remember Ms. Brown, one of our Kindergarten teachers last year?  Ms. Brown now teaches a Grade One class at another Surrey school and is excited to reconnect with the students she taught last year!  You can look at her class blog by clicking on her link.
I have also linked Mrs. Betts' class blog - Mrs. Betts is one of our Grade Two teachers at Chantrell Creek.  She and her students blog regularly so you can see what the grade twos are up to.
Lastly, Mrs. Sue's library blog is listed.  Check it out - you will see lots of fun sites to visit and photos of things and people that you will recognize!

Daily 5

Daily 5 is a large part of our Language Arts program.  Our students have quickly learned how to make good use of their time to work on 5 activities.  You may have heard them talk about one of the five activities:
- Read to Self
- Read to Someone
- Word Work
- Work on Writing
- Listen to Reading
Now that they have become independent at these for short periods, they will be able to choose which activity they work on each day but will be monitored to be sure that all are covered over the course of 6 days.
While the students are independently working, the teacher is listening and teaching reading strategies to small groups or individual students.
We invite parents to volunteer to help us during these morning activities.  Feel free, even if just once, to sign up to come join us and help us become better readers and writers.

MindUP

In Grade One social and emotional development is a substantial part of our curriculum.  We learn about how to recognize and regulate our own emotions and how to interact with others effectively. 
We began the year in our classroom by introducing the 5 Parts to being an engaged listener. We need to be sitting still, with eyes on the speaker and ears open, mouth closed and brain engaged. For many five, six and seven-year olds this takes time and much practice (especially the sitting still piece!). We have also been working on focussing on our work in the classroom while blocking out distractions around us. When social conflicts occur, we have  discussed appropriate ways to solve problems with others. We will continue to review, discuss and role-play ways to solve problems throughout the year as this is also a skill that takes practice.

This past week we introduced the MindUP  program to our students.  MindUp is a series of lessons designed to teach students how to identify and regulate their own emotions and behaviours and be mindful of their attention and focus.  To learn more about the program visit: thehawnfoundation.org/mindup/ 

Or for a video visit this link: The MindUP Program

Our lessons to date have introduced our brain as having many important functions.  We have learned about three that have very important functions to prepare us for learning. The prefrontal cortex helps us make good choices. The amygdala is our security guard. The hippo campus is the brain's memory maker.

Pumpkin Math

This week we estimated the circumference of Mrs. K's pumpkin and measured it.  We also scooped out all the seeds.  After a good discussion about why we wouldn't be able to count the seeds in the tub they had been dried in, the students decided it would be best to count the seeds into groups of 10.  First they estimated the number of seeds and then the work began.  The students glued each group of 10 onto card.  They were quick to revise their estimates once we started counting the 10's-excellent!

MONSTERS!

Last week we made little monsters with our Grade 3 Buddies - thank you Grade 3's!  We started with a toilet paper roll that our big buddies painted for us.  Then we added construction paper, eyes and pipecleaners to add features.  Here are some of the results. 

Acceptance

Today we read the story ONE.  We talked about practising acceptance.  Everyone counts and everyone matters.

Welcome Families!

We welcome our new students and their families and THANK YOU for looking at our blog.  We look forward to sharing the year in our classroom with you.  We will try to blog often to give you snapshots of our learning as it happens and we hope that you and your child will visit often and add your own comments to extend our learning and motivate us to continue to ask questions and explore topics.

Please read the Visitor Etiquette link carefully so that we all blog courteously and safely.

Thank you and enjoy!

:) Mrs. Drew and Mrs. Keturakis