In Bloom

Just a quick post this morning; I have a busy day ahead of me! There was a big focus on science this week, as we got further into our Needs and Characteristics of Living Things unit.

Science

We did a little bean seed activity I have heard about and then found on Pinterest. You place a moist paper towel in a Ziploc bag, and put a bean seed between the towel and the bag. You hang it in the window and you should be able to see the roots start to grow.

We planted them on Wednesday and they still looked like this on Friday when I left. I hate to be a negative Nelly here, but a part of me doesn’t think this is going to work. I hope I’m wrong! Either way, I told the kids that there are lots of scientists whose experiements don’t work. They just try again another time…

…Hmmm. Come to think of it, it goes along nicely with our big idea about PERSEVERANCE. Okay, I’ll no longer be bummed if they don’t grow. It will just be a new teachable moment.

­Math

We continued measuring with non-standard units. They had a blast estimating and measuring how tall they were using a straw. They estimated that I would be 56 straws tall. I must look like a giant to them!

Art

We always end our Fridays off with art and I sometimes find myself in a rut because most of the time, I put more effort into the activity than I get out of it from the kids.

But not this time.

All week, the kids at the art centre had one simple job: paint a piece of paper. By Friday, I had sheet after sheet of painted paper, all with different designs and textures. We used them to make Eric Carle art.

I read them The Tiny Seed and they made pictures of flowers. They turned out great! These artists literally worked until the last second to perfect their masterpieces.

A spiral-cut centre makes a great 3D flower!

And that was our week! Next week is another short week for me because I have TLC planning {Teaching Learning Cycle} to plan with my grade partners for our March units. All these short weeks are making February fly by!

Enjoy the end of the Olympics. I’m so proud of all our Canadian athletes; especially the women’s hockey team. Fingers crossed that the men will play just as well tomorrow. I’ll be watching, bright and early.

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!