2014 Olympics

With a new month come new units, and I was so excited to fire up the Olympics unit here in Grade One. Most of them had an idea about what the Olympics are, but they didn’t know the history and the traditions behind it all.

On Monday, we had our own opening ceremony (even though the real ceremonies didn’t take place until Friday). I printed off pictures of flags of the countries that are participating in Sochi 2014 and put them in a bucket. The kids closed their eyes and picked one, and did their best to recreate it on a larger piece of paper. They turned out really well. I pinned them on our bulletin board in the hallway with the following famous Olympic quote: “The most important thing is not to win but to take part” –Pierre de Coubertin, founder of the International Olympic Committee.

The panoramic feature on my iPhone made the wall look a little warped. Just ignore that.

Our big idea for our literacy unit is Perseverance. All my read alouds are sports stories about characters that persevere through challenging times. Our Olympics bulletin board in the classroom is a nice visual reminder that our Olympic athletes must have perseverance to do what they do.

In math, we are beginning our measurement unit. In Grade One, it’s all about measuring with non-standard units (so no rulers; no centimeters; no metres). I gave them some diagnostic pieces throughout the week to see what they were able to do. They really enjoyed the capacity activity.

Want to know their favourite thing in this unit so far? They LOVE telling time. They always ask me if we can learn more about time. We have only touched on the hour so far but they’re dying to know more about when the minute hand touches “all those other numbers”. I love their enthusiasm.

See my mistake in there? The kids caught it as I was proudly showing them the new poster. Now I can’t stand it that I had to squish an extra word in there.

In science, we are starting our Needs and Characterisitics of Living Things unit; however, we haven’t got too far into it yet because of the Olympics. So far, we have discussed our 5 senses in our bodies.

Funny story time:

Me: Your nose helps you smell. What kinds of things can you smell in our classroom?

Kid 1: Crayons

Kid 2: Pizza

Kid 3: You

Me: Me? What do I smell like? (I’m feeling nervous at this point)

Kid 3: I don’t know. Nice; like my mommy’s perfume.

Which is funny because I don’t wear perfume to school. What a confidence booster!

I'm not big into rewards systems because I think respectful and positive behaviour should be an intrinsic value, but with the Olympics this year, I thought I'd try something different this month. I have four table groups and each one is assigned a different Olympic sport. I use this graph to award points to the groups who demonstrate positive behaviour, the ability to follow instructions, and who get their jobs done when asked. It teaches place value as well because every time they reach 10 points, they get a big happy face. They even remembered our Big Idea way back from September: Graphs help us see information easily. 

Well that was short and sweet, I know. Next week I’ll have more because there are some exciting times coming up. Valentine’s Day AND the 100^th Day of School!

Happy Sunday!