Mrs. Cassidy's Classroom Blog

We've Moved! -- 09-13-12

2012-09-13T18:46:01-05:00

After seven and a half wonderful years in this blogging space, our classroom blog has moved to a new blogging host.

Thank you for being part of our learning journey here. We hope you follow us to our NEW BLOG.

CLICK HERE TO GO TO OUR NEW BLOG.

What We Learned in Grade One -- 06-28-12

2012-06-28T20:49:16-05:00

The students have taken phenomenal steps in learning this year. Below are, in their opinions, the highlights of their learning. I think you will notice a theme...

Celebrating Together -- 06-25-12

2012-06-25T20:51:28-05:00

Earlier this year, our class combined with a PreK class from China and a first grade and second grade class from the USA to make this e-book. In it, each of the classes shared some of their celebrations.

We hope you enjoy reading it as much as the children enjoyed writing it. Just click on the image below to read it.

Celebrate with us!

Reading Fluency with Elephant and Piggie -- 06-20-12

2012-06-20T16:45:23-05:00

The students LOVE the Elephant and Piggie books by Mo Willems. We've been reading them a lot lately to practice our reading fluency. Thank you, Kinderkids and Mrs. Knee, for telling us about Elephant and Piggie and for the great idea for the headbands!

Shaw TV's Story About Us -- 06-15-12

2012-06-15T12:29:42-05:00

The story that Shaw TV was filming in our classroom earlier this week is ready!

Checking Out the Viewfinder -- 06-14-12

2012-06-14T10:57:40-05:00

Two men from Shaw TV were in our classroom recently to film us using our iPads. The highlight of their visit was a chance for the students to check out the view through their camera!

Adding with our iPads -- 06-12-12

2012-06-12T11:03:16-05:00

We tried out a new app recently (Tens Frame) that lets us use the iPad as a math manipulative for addition and subtraction. Not one of the "counters" got lost and there was no mess on the floor to clean up afterwards!

A View From the Window -- 06-10-12

2012-06-10T16:49:42-05:00

This spring, our class has been working with other classes around the world--sharing and learning together. Several collaborative projects have resulted. The book below is one of the products from that collaboration and contains pages created by various PreK - 2 classrooms from around the world as part of the Flat Classroom Project.

Each of the participating classes focused on "A View From the Window" of their school in a different way. Our page (containing photos and text created by the students) is first, but it is fascinating to see what all of the other classes have created as well. Click on the image to see the finished product.

Working Together -- 06-01-12

2012-06-01T17:21:22-05:00

This week two special ladies came to our classroom to help us learn about recycling. With their encouragement, the children made some cooperative posters about recycling that will now hang in their office at Recycle Saskatchewan.

Reading to the Kindergrten -- 05-31-12

2012-05-31T17:59:57-05:00

Since the first week of school, my students have been asking me when it will be their turn to read to the kindergarten students. They remember when last year's grade ones read to them, and look forward to being the readers.

This week it was finally their turn.

The Pheasants Have Hatched! -- 05-24-12

2012-05-24T20:05:25-05:00

After having a chance to love and enjoy the new babies, we have given the pheasants back to the Wildlife Federation, who will raise them until they are old enough to be released into the wild.

Our Pheasant Eggs -- 05-18-12

2012-05-18T21:24:52-05:00

For the past few weeks, my students have been faithfully caring for some multi-coloured pheasant eggs we received from the Wildlife Federation. Once the eggs have hatched, we will give the baby pheasants back to the Wildlife Federation who will care for them until they are grown and then release them into the wild. They should be hatching in the next few days. We can't wait!

Bandwidth Issues -- 05-13-12

2012-05-13T17:14:45-05:00

If you follow this blog regularly, you will have seen the letter the students wrote last December to the Ministry of Education about the bandwidth at our school. Since then, the students have continued to wonder about this issue. This video shows the students continuing quest to understand, and finally, an answer!!

What's In the Bags? -- 05-10-12

2012-05-10T20:48:52-05:00

Do you wonder what is inside these gift bags?

We can't tell, because they are for our mothers for Mother's Day. We made them ourselves and know our moms will really like them!

The View from Up Here -- 05-03-12

2012-05-03T20:53:07-05:00

We're participating in a project that involves schools from around the world sharing what it looks like where they live. To show what it looks like around our school, we headed outside with our iPads to take pictures of what we saw. Many of the students felt they could get a better "view" from this dirt mound.

Our New iPads -- 04-28-12

2012-04-28T17:55:37-05:00

Our new iPads have finally arrived in our classroom! We christened them by playing new games, drawing and taking some photos. I think I can safely say that the students unanimously love our new learning tools.

Co-Authorship With Another Class -- 04-23-12

2012-04-23T21:35:20-05:00

Our class has been connecting and learning with classrooms from many places. The story below was written in cooperation with Mrs. Bair's fourth grade class in Pennsylvania. Our classes took turns adding to the story. We love the way it turned out!

Making Friends by kathycassidy, MrsBair on Storybird

Is the Mass the Same? -- 04-16-12

2012-04-16T20:49:23-05:00

Measurement is our latest topic in mathematics. Do you think these two objects have the same mass?

Easter Craft -- 04-08-12

2012-04-08T10:16:52-05:00

Sandra and Diane visited our classroom again to help us make another splendid craft. This time we made Easter egg window clings using Sandra's special paint.

Drawing Like Vincent Van Gogh -- 04-01-12

2012-04-01T19:13:19-05:00

My students are participating in a project called Vincent van Gogh Goes to School. Last week we imitated a famous painting of his called "The Potato Eaters".

This time we looked at the way he painted pictures of himself, and tried to copy his techniques. Here are our self-portraits.

Our Greek Connection -- 03-28-12

2012-03-28T19:51:27-05:00

A few days ago, my students made this video to introduce ourselves. It was posted earlier, but here it is once more. You may want to compare it to the second video.

A class of students in Kalamata, Greece saw our video and made this video for us in return.

Η τάξη μας! from Katerina Vigkou on Vimeo.

What a great learning opportunity for us! There are so many things that fascinated us about the classroom in Greece. Thank you, Ms. Vigkou's class!

Making Connections...Answering Questions -- 03-25-12

2012-03-25T22:06:21-05:00

Ms Bair's class in Pennsylvania saw our video that introduced us and our classroom. They made a video to introduce themselves and then this video to ask us some questions:

This video is our response. It includes our answers to their questions as well as some connections we saw--that is, something in our classroom that their video reminded us of.

Making Tipis -- 03-23-12

2012-03-23T08:22:42-05:00

After a tour of the Moose Jaw Art Museum and discussing the ways that houses and shelter have changed in Moose Jaw over the past one hundred years, the students created these tipis. The students were VERY impressed with their creations.

Practicing Our Counting -- 03-18-12

2012-03-18T14:57:20-05:00

Some of our counting goals for this year include
-counting to 100
-counting to 100 by tens
-counting to 100 by fives
-counting to 20 by twos

All of the children know which of these counting goals they have already reached and which they still need to practice. Below are some photos of the students practicing their counting using tools of their choice.

Introducing...Us! -- 03-10-12

2012-03-10T18:13:53-05:00

Over the next while, we will be doing some communicating and creating with some other classrooms from various places around the world. We wanted to introduce ourselves to them, so the students talked about the questions they had about the other classrooms. We decided that the other classrooms probably had the same questions about us, so we made this video to answer the questions the other students might have.

This video was planned, filmed and narrated by the students themselves.

A Visit From Constable Mohle -- 03-06-12

2012-03-06T20:06:10-05:00

As we were finishing up our Rules, Relationships and Responsibility unit, we had some questions about rules to keep us safe outside of our school or our home. Since no one knows the answers to those questions better than a police officer, we invited Constable Mohle to our classroom. Sure enough, he knew all of the answers.

Thanks, Constable Mohle, for helping us to learn!

We Won! -- 03-03-12

2012-03-03T15:37:18-05:00

Last fall, I applied to Best Buy's "Best in Class" contest. This week, some representatives came to our school to present us with this giant gift card. We also have some real gift cards that we can use to buy $20000 of technology for our classroom. I discussed our options with the students, and they agreed with my original plan to buy enough iPads so that all of the students will have access to an iPad at the same time.

Another highlight for the students was meeting Taggie, the Best Buy mascot.

We're looking forward to having this wonderful new technology in our classroom. Thank you, Best Buy!

Eating Pancakes at School -- 02-25-12

2012-02-25T22:04:57-05:00

Nothing tastes better than pancakes, and when those pancakes are accompanied by fruit and cheese they are even better. The children ate more than I imagined it would be possible for them to eat!
Check each of the students' blogs to see their video explanation what we did together.

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Our Learning Day -- 02-13-12

2012-02-13T21:23:10-05:00

On February 1st, as part of a cross-Canada project, the students took turns taking pictures of our day. Altogether, the students took 513 photos! Both cameras were full well before lunch and had to be emptied to allow pictures in the afternoon.

I asked them what they thought the story should be about, and the unanimous answer was "learning". The title was suggested by one of the students.

Together, the students wrote and edited the story of their day and we began to look through the photos they had taken to illustrate it. This proved to be a pretty arduous task given the number of photos, so I eventually had to take over this part. The students all approved of the choices I had made, so we can now share it with you.

We can't wait to see the stories done by other classrooms!

The 100th Day! -- 02-08-12

2012-02-08T21:39:25-05:00

At last we reached the 100th day of school. We had talked about it beforehand, and each of the children had thought about what he or she wanted to know about big numbers and about one hundred. Here are some scenes from our day.

Pajama Day -- 02-02-12

2012-02-02T20:03:34-05:00

Subtraction Stories -- 02-01-12

2012-02-01T20:28:30-05:00

My students have become experts in subtraction. To show their skills, each student made a video showing a subtraction story and the accompanying number sentence. You can see more of these great stories on the students' individual blogs. Just click on their names on the right-hand side. All videos are filmed by another student.

The Wellie Wang at Westmount -- 01-30-12

2012-01-30T13:41:50-05:00

Finally, it was our turn to do the wellie wang! It was cold and blowing, but that didn't dampen the spirits of the throwers.

What Are Antonyms? -- 01-30-12

2012-01-30T08:45:39-05:00

Antonyms are opposites. Check the pictures and descriptions on our blogs and I think you will agree that we know our antonyms!

We're Fluent Readers! -- 01-28-12

2012-01-28T16:35:44-05:00

The students are learning a new way to be fluent readers--by re-reading books they know. Check on the students' blogs to hear some some smooth reading of familiar books.

Thomas" Reading (mp3)

Wellie Wang -- 01-26-12

2012-01-26T16:14:10-05:00

Tomorrow, our class and two other classes in the school will be doing the Wellie Wang as part of the Kidlympics . We've been practicing our wellie tossing and have each chosen our favourite method of throwing. If you're not sure what a wellie wang is, check out the video below.

Silent E Stories -- 01-20-12

2012-01-20T19:49:27-05:00

Flu season decimated our classroom this week. To help the students who have been away understand about silent e and how it changes a word, the students who were at school made videos explaining what they had learned. One of the videos is below--the others are posted on each creator's blog.

Ask Me to Read This Word -- 01-16-12

2012-01-16T20:50:01-05:00

We're trying to learn words that are tricky for us! If you happen to see one of us with one of these lanyards on, be sure to ask us to read the word to you.

DS Day at School -- 01-15-12

2012-01-15T15:29:24-05:00

One day, the students brought their games to show us at school. Many of the students brought a Nintendo DS game.

After showing how everyone how our games worked, we used the PictoChat feature, which allows the DS and DSi's to wirelessly communicate with each other. We drew pictures for each other, practiced spelling some words and wrote number stories to go with problems.

The students loved it, and hope to do it again, soon!

Learning With Games -- 01-05-12

2012-01-05T20:50:20-05:00

Can using the Nintendo DS help us learn about rules? We think so. Today eighteen children tried using six NintendoDS with no rules. No one was happy. Together, the students helped to make some rules--you can see the results below.

Thank You For Helping Us to Learn -- 12-23-11

2011-12-23T10:05:46-05:00

On the last day of school before the Christmas holidays, we spent some time talking about all of the people who have helped us to learn so far this year. Here is our thanks:

'Twas the Week Before Christmas -- 12-22-11

2011-12-22T11:08:57-05:00

...and all through the school, the students were busy!

Every year, the School Community Council at our school hosts a Christmas store. The students can purchase new or gently used items for .25, .50 or $1.00. When these important gifts have been selected, a volunteer wraps the gifts for my students and he or she is able to take home purchased and wrapped gifts for their entire family. Just look at these busy and happy students!

We have also been busy beginning our learning about addition and subtraction. We began by making number trains as many different ways as we could.

Mrs. Marranan and the 2MGems sent us a wonderful picture book about Santa Koala. (The other book in the picture below was sent to my class last year.)

We liked the song about Santa Koala so much that we decided to sing it as a thank you for Mrs. Marranan.

Christmas Crafting -- 12-15-11

2011-12-15T20:58:09-05:00

Thanks to a generous donation of some Christmas ornaments, our class made some gorgeous wreathes. The students left the school excited to put their treasures up at home. Thanks for your help, Sandra and Diane!

Construction Day -- 12-10-11

2011-12-10T18:42:07-05:00

At the culmination of our unit about using objects and materials, we had a construction day. Each student created many delightful articles, but only shares one in the video below.

A Letter to the Ministry of Education -- 12-09-11

2011-12-09T14:03:46-05:00

This week my students were unhappy when some videos we were trying to watch kept pausing to reload during our viewing. This is the letter they wrote to the Ministry of Education to ask for increased bandwidth. We hope we get an answer!

Building Snowmen...With Clay -- 12-06-11

2011-12-06T21:09:34-05:00

We are very fortunate to have an Art Museum and Gallery here in Moose Jaw. The students learned so many things in the gallery (ask them about Resolute Bay) and from Christy, the resident artist who helped us make the clay snowmen.

Making a Number Line -- 12-02-11

2011-12-02T08:51:48-05:00

We are continuing to explore numbers up to twenty. The students in the picture above are helping to make a number line out of ten frames.
Parents, this is a very do-able at home activity. Make a series of Cheerios, Lego or any other small object you have lots of. Start with one, then put two, then three etc. up to twenty. Ask your child to write the numbers on small pieces of paper and add them to your "number line". Ask questions about which number comes "after" or "before" a certain number. Ask, "Which number is after eleven?" "Which number is two less than fifteen?" etc.
Enjoy math together!

Learning in the Snow -- 11-27-11

2011-11-27T21:05:32-05:00

Last week (before the melt we just had) the students went out into one of the ball fields to find some undisturbed snow and to learn a new word.

Movember Kids -- 11-23-11

2011-11-23T20:10:16-05:00

Our school sold chocolate milk and cookies as part of the Movember fundraiser. These students wanted to have mustaches as well. (And some students wanted nothing to do with it!)

Literacy: Take a Peek -- 11-19-11

2011-11-19T16:28:44-05:00

Take a peek into our classroom and see what it currently looks like during our literacy time. There are two things missing in this video. One is the teacher having conferences with individual students (someone had to hold the camera, after all) and the other is the hum of voices reading. Reading is NOT a quiet activity in grade one, but most of the children get very quiet when the camera is on.

Neither Rain, Nor Snow... -- 11-08-11

2011-11-08T20:51:14-05:00

Despite the snow on the weekend, the students watered their seedlings. We plan to keep watering them until the end of November as instructed by the greenhouse. The pine trees weren't the only thing that got wet as we carried the water from the school to the adjacent field!

Planting Trees -- 11-06-11

2011-11-06T18:43:39-05:00

Our class was given some pine Scotch Pine tree seedlings. Together with the grade six students, we planted them in the field by the school. We can't wait to watch them grow!

The Many Faces of Mrs. Cassidy -- 11-05-11

2011-11-05T11:01:51-05:00

Representing is a strand of our language arts curriculum that means showing your learning through a drawing, drama, or some other artifact. All of the students drew me this week to show what they have been learning about representing through a drawing. The characteristics we have focused on include shapes, size, use of space and details. There are four examples on the left, but each student has his own customized version of me posted on their blog. I have a lot of different looks!

Are We Alive? -- 10-25-11

2011-10-25T22:07:19-05:00

As part of our new topic, "Is It Alive?", we have been finding answers to our questions about the heart lungs and brain. Today we looked at a model of our heart and tried to hear our heartbeat. (We need a better stethoscope.). Later this week, we'll be talking to a nurse on Skype.

Those Tricky Words -- 10-20-11

2011-10-20T21:06:12-05:00

The students are having particular difficulty with two words we have learned, so to help us practice, we went outside and spelled them with leaves.

Ladybugs -- 10-17-11

2011-10-17T22:05:29-05:00

As a start to our next inquiry unit "Is It Alive?", we examined ladybugs, read books about ladybugs and watched video about ladybugs. We are now ladybug experts. Before we began, we had lots of questions. In the pencast below, the children share the questions they had, and the answers they discovered.

What We Know About Ladybugs
brought to you by Livescribe

Showing What We Have Learned -- 10-10-11

2011-10-10T19:49:36-05:00

While patterning will continue to be a focus throughout the year, we have officially finished our patterning unit. To show their learning, each child produced some type of an artifact to post on his or her blog. Some children chose to make a poster and talk about it on video. Others chose to use an iPad app called Screenchomp to explain what they had learned. A few children chose to make a pattern using Animationish, an animation program we have in our classroom. Still others chose to use a digital drawing program and to record their explanation on Audioboo.

Check the students' blogs (linked on the right) to see the learning they have shared.

Here is one child's patterning artifact as a teaser.

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Looking for Ladybugs -- 10-07-11

2011-10-07T22:26:53-05:00

It's amazing what you can find in grass. We found a lot of ladybugs as well as an assortment of other bugs. The ladybugs were very speedy and hard to observe. So, to slow them down, we put them in the fridge! Later, we looked at them with magnifying glasses. Ask your children what ladybugs REALLY look like.

The Great Oreo Cookie Stack -- 10-01-11

2011-10-01T15:36:18-05:00

Predicting, recording, counting, writing numbers, finding the largest number...we had lots of fun learning on our oreo stacking day.

How high do you think YOU could stack oreos?

Drawing Ourselves -- 09-25-11

2011-09-25T18:29:22-05:00

Check the upper right hand corner of each child's blog for his or her self portrait!

What Should We Do Next? -- 09-19-11

2011-09-19T21:18:02-05:00

More patterning--this time with boxes. This idea was from one of the students. Now to decided what to do with those gorgeous, appealing boxes that take up soooo much room.

Finding the Core -- 09-16-11

2011-09-16T12:56:30-05:00

If you are going to make patterns, it is helpful to be ble to find the core (the part that is repeated). So, this week we spent some time finding the cores of patterns. On each of the chilren's blogs is an example of at least one pattern they created and then found the core of. These patterns were mostly drawn on the top of our tables which have been covered with idea paint. Check their blogs to see some fabulous patterning.

Skyping with New Zealand -- 09-14-11

2011-09-14T21:53:51-05:00

This afternoon we talked on Skype with Year 2 class in New Zealand. After the students got over the wonder of the fact that we could see AND talk to someone outside of the classroom, we discovered some other things that seemed pretty strange to us. It was Wednesday when they called us, but it was Thursday in New Zealand. We thought that they talked funny, but they thought that we did. They told us that they go swimming at the beach on Christmas Day. These things seemed pretty strange to us.

They also helped us learn about patterns by telling us what they had learned in their pattern studies earlier in the year. They learned some of the same things that we have!

Tipi in the Gym -- 09-13-11

2011-09-13T21:46:28-05:00

Students and staff from John Chisolm High School came to our school and set up this tipi for us. The students from the grade four/five class took some time to tell us about what they had been learning about how the tipi was moved by First Nations People, how it was made and what the poles represented.

Patterns with Cake -- 09-09-11

2011-09-09T20:59:44-05:00

This week we continued to work different kinds of patterning. One of the children wondered if it was possible to make patterns with cake. As you can see, the answer is "Yes"!

Week One -- 09-03-11

2011-09-03T22:30:16-05:00

We're back!
I have a brand new group of lively five and six year old students who are eager to learn and connect with other classrooms around the world.
Our first week was a busy one. The Animoto below is a collection of images taken throughout the week. Most of the pictures were taken by the students themselves. Our first theme this year is patterns, which is VERY evident in the pictures below.

The Best Thing -- 06-24-11

2011-06-24T21:49:08-05:00

The end of the school year is always a time for reflection. In the video below, each of the students thinks about what the "best" thing each of them learned in grade one was. There are several fairly common themes...

Talking to New Hampshire -- 06-22-11

2011-06-22T06:34:18-05:00

This week we were able to talk on Skype with the Kinderkids--a class of kindergarten students in New Hampshire. We did the Double Dream Hands dance together and had lots of questions about animals for them. They taught us about the horseshoe crab, an animal that none of us had ever heard of before. Now, we are horseshoe crab experts. Just ask us.

We Know Plants -- 06-18-11

2011-06-18T11:56:50-05:00

As we finished our plant unit, the students thought about the things they had learned, and posted an artifact on their blog to show what their learning.

They chose many different ways to show their learning, such as video, pictures, writing etc. A couple of students even chose to use Storybird, such as the example below. As always, you can see the rest of the students' reflections by clicking on the student names on the right.

plants by kathycassidy on Storybird

All About Mrs Cassidy -- 06-11-11

2011-06-11T13:57:15-05:00

My students and I know each other pretty well. This week, in my ongoing pursuit of getting them to write more ideas about a topic, I asked them to write about me. I gave them several ideas for ways to start a sentence and then they were off and writing.

This is was a bit scary, as children are brutally honest, but their articles and illustrations gave me some great insight into their perceptions of me. Apparently I do not enjoy kids using swear words, kids not listening or kids who scream. You can read more perceptive comments on each student's blog.

Pheasant Babies -- 06-05-11

2011-06-05T14:55:17-05:00

Hatching pheasants is a chancy business. Not only are you never sure how many will actually hatch, you also cannot count on them to hatch when there are children around to see them. One year, all the pheasants hatched outside of school hours and I had some very unhappy children on my hands.

Fortunately, that was not the case this year. The baby pheasants fully cooperated. The children were able to witness twelve of the eggs hatching within a three hour period.

Then, when the pheasants had dried, they all got a chance to hold and love the babies a couple of times before Mr. Dodds whisked them away to the baby pheasant farm.

It was an exciting time-so exciting that I didn't take any video! Instead, here is a video I made of the hatch last year. This year's class love to watch it over and over.

Pheasants Hatching! -- 06-02-11

2011-06-02T08:54:37-05:00

We have pheasants hatching in our classroom. During our school hours for the next couple of days (9:00 - 3:30CST), you can watch along with us by clicking here:
Watch the pheasants hatch on a Computer
or
watch the pheasants hatch on an iPad, iPhone or iPod.

Clay Fairy Tales -- 05-31-11

2011-05-31T22:18:36-05:00

Do you know what good "representers" do? If not, my students can show you. They used colour, space, shape, size and motion in their clay representations of fairy tales. You can find a video example on each child's blog by clicking on their names on the right-hand side of this blog.

Reading to the "Kindergarteners" -- 05-27-11

2011-05-27T22:18:16-05:00

Each spring I take the students to the kindergarten classroom to show off their growing reading skills. This is a highly anticipated event! In fact, some of the students have been asking me since last September when it would be "their turn". The day finally arrived:

Butterfly Cam -- 05-20-11

2011-05-20T15:24:13-05:00

We have butterflies emerging from their chrysalis in our classroom! About ten butterflies were out when we left on Friday for our long weekend. You can see the butterflies live in our classroom by clicking on the links below:

Click here to view on a Computer or on an iPad, iPhone or iPod.

Note: This feed has been discontinued as the butterflies have been released!

To answer the most frequently asked questions:
The brown in the bottom of the container is a paper towel to help keep the butterflies from sticking to the plastic. The red that you see on the sides and bottom is NOT blood. It is maconium, which is tissues and colouring left over from the butterfly and wing formation. The small round lid contains sugar water, which the butterflies will drink until they are released into the wild.

Five Original Castles -- 05-18-11

2011-05-18T22:07:32-05:00

As an introduction to our geometry unit, the students used geometric solids to create five unique castles.

Google Docs and Vegemite -- 05-09-11

2011-05-09T08:43:14-05:00

Awhile ago, we started a google doc to collect breakfast foods and where the people who ate them lived. Many people from around the world contributed to the doc and helped us learn. (Thank you for that!)
Recently, we took all of the words from the google doc and put them into a Wordle. Here is what it looked like. You can clearly see some of the most common breakfast foods as well as where many people were from who helped us out.

The children noticed that a few people had written that they ate Vegemite for breakfast. We had to try it.

As you can see, not everyone thought it was the best food ever. Each child chose one word to describe the taste of Vegemite, and we again made a Wordle to see what the most common reactions were. Definitely mixed opinions!

Showing Our Addition Strategies -- 04-25-11

2011-04-25T15:29:49-05:00

We have learned several strategies to help us add numbers. My students each made a video to show the strategy that he or she preferred. It is fascinating to me to hear each of the children explain their process. Check each student's individual blog (linked on the right) to see and hear them explain their learning.

Happy Easter! -- 04-23-11

2011-04-23T13:23:59-05:00

This week Sandra and her wonderfully crafty helpers came to help us make these Easter Bunny containers. The Easter Bunny must have known what we were doing -- he stopped at the school while we were out at lunch to leave us a treat.

Two Kinds of Puppets -- 04-14-11

2011-04-14T21:06:31-05:00

We recently finished our sock puppets and have begun making up short puppet plays to show our classmates. The students have shown us lots of imaginative ways to tell stories.

This week we had another kind of puppet at school. We could see the people holding the puppets! Kids on the Block were at our school to talk about diversity. They reminded us that we can all do the same things--we just do them in different ways.

Shadow Cat -- 04-08-11

2011-04-08T08:56:57-05:00

One of the objectives of our curriculum is to be able to show what we have learned or know using various media. We have been practicing using drama to show what we know about animals. The students made a video of each other showing either cat or dog movements. Those videos are now posted on each student's blog. Here is one example of a cat. Check the student's blogs (linked on the right) for more catty or doggy drama. Thanks Mrs. Pavier for loaning us your shadow screen!

So We Started a Google Doc -- 04-03-11

2011-04-03T21:04:05-05:00

In social studies, we have been learning about the way that people are the same and yet have differences in their lives. The students in my class are all in grade one, but they don't all eat the same thing for breakfast. We wondered what other people eat for breakfast...so we started a Google doc . Over one hundred people from at least four different countries have added their breakfasts to our list. Now, we are busy using another Google doc to record our learning from the list. Thanks for helping us to learn!

Playing With the Dogs -- 03-28-11

2011-03-28T21:51:26-05:00

Children are attracted to games of all kinds, but the Nintendo DS are especially popular in my classroom. The students have been using the Pictochat feature to practice spelling words, to solve math stories and to think of numbers before and after. Recently, we began to play the game Nintendogs as well. The children enjoy the challenge of raising a dog together. The hardest part is waiting for and giving up their turn!

An Old Friend -- 03-20-11

2011-03-20T14:45:45-05:00

When a students moves from our classroom, we all miss him/her and wonder what their new classroom is like. Recently, we got a chance Skype with the class of one of the students who has moved. It was great to see our friend again and find out which things are the same and which are different between our two classrooms. it also provided a great sense of closure for the students and their teacher. I haven't heard an "I miss ..." since.

Pancakes -- 03-13-11

2011-03-13T19:26:07-05:00

Yum, yum! On Shrove Tuesday, we ate pancakes at school. They must have been tasty, as they all disappeared along with a LOT of fruit and cheese sent by our parents. As part of our reflection on the process, we each recorded the steps for making pancakes for our blog. Alex's instructions are below. You can check the children's blogs on the right hand side to hear each of their directions.

Listen!

We Are FAST!! -- 03-03-11

2011-03-03T19:39:15-05:00

This week, we watched this video showing how fast a boy in Quebec could put his snow clothes on. We wondered how fast we could put on OUR snow clothes. So we used a timer to see. Check the video below to see how fast we all are.

Some Grade One Moments -- 02-26-11

2011-02-26T14:29:45-05:00

I sometimes remember to pull out our Flip video camera when we are in the midst of our learning. That video footage often gets put aside and forgotten, but this week I decided to put together some footage from three occasions that were sort of special—learning to Zumba, printmaking and trying Mathletics for the first time. Enjoy these grade one moments!

Does It Help Your Learning? -- 02-18-11

2011-02-18T21:24:05-05:00

Today my classroom started a two week trial of Mathletics. There were cheers and squeals of excitement as the students set up their avatars and began to play the live games against other students from around the world.

The children left the school excited to continue to play the games during our break next week. When we're back together in March, we'll try out some of the other curriculum activities. The next two weeks are an experiment as we try out this new learning tool. Let me know what you think, grade one. Should we keep using Mathletics when the two weeks are up? Does it help you to learn?

We Use Wikis! -- 02-13-11

2011-02-13T19:37:42-05:00

As part of our animals unit, each child has chosen an animal that he or she would like to learn more about. As we learn about this animal, we will be recording our learning on our Animals Wiki.

Because we hadn't used a wiki yet, we practiced using a wiki by adding our names to the Kinderkids Names Wiki. We even hyperlinked our names to our blog, so that if anyone sees our names and would like to see our work, they can!

Names are very important to young children. (Just try accidentally calling a child by the wrong name and see what happens.) The Kinderkids have plans for the data they collect, so hop over to their wiki and help them out by adding your name.

You can watch our animals wiki grow over the next while as we use it to show our learning as well.

Do You Need It or Just Want It? -- 02-11-11

2011-02-11T19:04:44-05:00

We know the difference! Check out each student's blog to see a video (filmed by a classmate) explaining some of his or her needs and wants.

Hint: Unfortunately your browser does not have Flash Player installed or the Flash Player version is outdated. You need Flash Player to view media in this community. Download Flash Player

The Rituals of Our Lives -- 01-31-11

2011-01-31T05:03:14-05:00

What are some of our rituals? After discussing the rituals of our daily life, the students each illustrated a ritual and wrote a short description of it. Then, we put the rituals in order and recorded our voices reading what we had written. This video is special because, as you can see below, the students helped to edit it.

We'd love to know what rituals YOU have.

See What My Hand Can Do? -- 01-22-11

2011-01-22T15:42:33-05:00

We've just started a puppet unit, and our first puppets were hand puppets--literally. We dressed up our hands with marker, lipstick, stickers, yarn and fabric to make our own special puppet. Then, we made up a short puppet dialogue. One of the "shows" is below.

Guess and Check -- 01-11-11

2011-01-11T16:39:15-05:00

We've been practicing a new problem solving strategy in our class. We guess what we think the answer might be, and then check to see if our answer is correct. If it isn't, we make another guess, and check again.

Here is a problem for you to solve. Please leave a comment if you can figure out the answer, and let us know if you used the guess and check strategy.

There were twelve children playing on the playground. Some were boys and some were girls. There were two fewer girls than boys. How many girls were there on the playground?

Three December Moments -- 12-27-10

2010-12-27T15:01:36-05:00

The build-up to Christmas was hectic in our classroom. Here are three moments from that special time.

Each year, the parents' committee sets up a "Christmas store" in our gym. For sale are new and gently used items that have been contributed by parents and members of the community. The students can purchase these items for 25 cents, 50 cents or $1.00. The purchased items are then wrapped by parent volunteers so that the children can take them home and put them right under their Christmas tree. Here are some happy shoppers:

Our Christmas concert was another highlight for the children. They sang a French song called Bon Homme (snowman).

Mrs. Knee, who teaches the Kinderkids in New Hampshire, kindly sent us a special Advent calendar that had a video or other special activity for each day leading up to Christmas. A few of the children made this video to thank her.

Writing Letters to Santa -- 12-09-10

2010-12-09T21:38:25-05:00

After spending some time talking about the POLITE way to write a letter to Santa, we got down to work. You can write to him, too! He says he'll write back. His address is
Santa Claus
North Pole
Canada HOH OHO

This is For You, Gems! -- 12-05-10

2010-12-05T19:58:17-05:00

This week a parcel arrived for us from Australia. When we opened it, we discovered lots of wonderful and Christmas-y things from the land down under.

Later in the day, some of the students decided that they needed to make a video to thank Ms Marrinan, the teacher of the 2M Gems and her students. The Gems, who have been faithful commenters on our blogs, are on their summer holidays right now. This makes the students very jealous, but they are taking some consolation from the fact that the new Gems will be working in school while we are on holidays next summer.

Each student chose what he or she would say for this video. This is for you, Ms. Marrinan and Gems!

Holiday Traditions in Ms. Orr's Class -- 11-26-10

2010-11-26T21:06:56-05:00

Ms. Orr and her first grade students in Virginia made this Voicethread for us about their holiday traditions. You can see a bigger version of it here. Are some of your traditions the same as their traditions? Some of ours are.
We are also learning about traditions in our classroom. Watch for a video from us about our holiday traditions soon!

Making Clay Angels -- 11-25-10

2010-11-25T20:06:42-05:00

Here's a at peek what we did during our recent trip to the Art Museum.

We Can Solve Problems -- 11-19-10

2010-11-19T19:37:37-05:00

There's more than one way to solve a problem. Check out our video to see the ways we solved this one.

Do you have any other ways to solve our problem?

Being Shape Sharp -- 11-12-10

2010-11-12T22:04:42-05:00

Recently, author and illustrator Chris Tougas visited our school. He is very sharp in the way he uses shapes. He talked to us about drawing with shapes, and the way that different shapes can give us different feelings.

What feelings do you get from these round shapes

or these rectangular shapes

or these triangular shapes?

We get really different feelings from these pictures, so we are practicing using them when we draw as well. Now, we'll be shape sharp, too.

We're Readers! -- 11-06-10

2010-11-06T10:46:49-05:00

This week each of the students chose a book, and we recorded their reading using a tool called Vocaroo. Some of the students chose to read the words of a book they had been practicing, and others chose to "read the pictures" of a book. Each of their recordings has been posted on their blog (the students' blogs are linked on the right hand side of this page). Just click on the arrow on the right side of the Vocaroo icon to hear us. We're readers!

Can you guess which reader this is?

Something Spooky is Coming Your Way! -- 10-31-10

2010-10-31T09:02:44-05:00

Perhaps you have been wondering what all the students in our class will be wearing for Halloween? Wonder no more. This week each of the children drew a picture of themselves dressed up in their trick or treat finery. Have a peek at their blogs and you will be able to recognize the students when they come knocking at your door looking for candy.

Happy Halloween!

Fisher Dancers -- 10-23-10

2010-10-23T17:14:50-05:00

This past week, as part of our Education Week activities, our all of the students in our school walked to Riverview Collegiate to watch the Fisher Dancers. The Fisher Dancers are a family of dancers that values the traditions of their culture. It was a special opportunity for the students and they were fascinated by what they saw.

We're Thankful -- 10-09-10

2010-10-09T20:52:43-05:00

This week, four wonderful ladies who like to make crafts visited our classroom and helped us make turkey centerpieces for Thanksgiving. You can watch us in action, and hear one thing that we are each thankful for in the video below.

Happy Thanksgiving!

We're also thankful for our craft helpers!

Can You See a Pattern? -- 09-30-10

2010-09-30T21:13:28-05:00

We've just finished our patterning unit. Now, we notice patterns everywhere, and we can tell you all about them. We can also make patterns with all sorts of objects. Try asking us to make a colour pattern into an alphabet pattern, or to make that alphabet pattern into a sound pattern. We can do it all!

Patterns! -- 09-14-10

2010-09-14T22:37:13-05:00

Our first math unit is about patterning. For the last couple of days, we have been practicing making the same pattern in different ways, such as with letters, numbers, actions or sounds. Each of the students made a picture to post on their blog to show their understanding of this concept. Check them out!

A Peek into Our Classroom -- 09-08-10

2010-09-08T09:43:58-05:00

This year my class is using a program called the Daily Five. It is a method of teaching language arts that seeks to help children learn how to become independent learners who take responsibility for their own learning. For the first two weeks of school, we have been working on what it looks like to work by yourself. (I also want them to learn how to collaborate--that is next!) Here is a peek into what it looked like in our classroom yesterday while the students were practicing their independence.

Parents, you should be very proud. I am.

We're Back! -- 08-29-10

2010-08-29T20:36:18-05:00

We're back at school at last. We're making new friends, practicing new routines, having fun and learning together.

On Friday, we learned from someone the students had never met before. Her name is Ms. Marrinan, and she teaches the 2M Gems in Brisbane, Australia. She got up at 7:00 to answer our questions and to read us a story via Skype. We found out that it is winter in Australia right now, and that it was already Saturday in Australia when we talked to her.

Skype is a tool that allows us to talk to people in other places via the computer. We'll use Skype to connect with and learn from lots of people this year. We can't wait!

Our Learning Reflection -- 06-25-10

2010-06-25T13:21:17-05:00

All of us, including Mrs. Cassidy, have learned so much together this year. Below are some of our reflections about our learning.

The Forgotten Letter X -- 06-23-10

2010-06-23T21:24:31-05:00

Recently, while we were reviewing all the things that we had learned this year, we realized that we had not made a video about the letter x to put on our alphabet wiki. We remedied that with the video below, and not only showed our own learning, but made something to help next year's grade one class as well.

Rocks, Rocks, Rocks -- 06-17-10

2010-06-17T22:36:58-05:00

There are so many things that we want to learn. Recently, we made a list of things that we wanted to know about rocks. Dr. Trish Gregg, a geologist who lives in Oregon, came into our classroom via Skype to answer those questions. Here are the recordings of part of our conversation with her.

Word Families -- 06-15-10

2010-06-15T16:21:11-05:00

It's the time of year when we reflect on all the things we have learned this year. Here is a peek at some of the things we've learned about word families.

The Butterflies Are Free -- 06-05-10

2010-06-05T22:56:26-05:00

After a solemn ceremony, in which we each talked about our favourite thing about the butterflies, we let them fly free near our school. We had talked about the fact that butterflies have a liquid diet of nectar, so the children cleverly picked dandelions to attract them. It was one of those times you never want to forget--and we have a video so that we won't.

Our Very Hungry Caterpillar(s) -- 06-03-10

2010-06-03T23:10:39-05:00

About three weeks ago, some tiny caterpillars arrived in our classroom. These caterpillars grew at a furious rate (they must have been very hungry), and last week, they each made a chrysalis. This week, to the delight of the children, they have been emerging as butterflies.

In our writing, we have been talking about the trait of "voice". This is a hard concept to understand when you are in high school, and even harder when you are six or seven. To help the children understand that different people say things in a different way, or using a different voice, we read Eric Carle's story called The Very Hungry Caterpillar. Then, we each chose one of the foods that the hungry caterpillar ate to talk about. What would that food say if it wanted the caterpillar eat it? This was so much fun, that the children asked if we could make a video of our caterpillar.

Can You Solve It? -- 05-27-10

2010-05-27T21:10:26-05:00

For the past while, we have been working on addition, subtraction and story problems. Today the students showed their learning by making up an addition story problem using Storybird and solving it themselves. Check their blogs to see if you can solve the problems, too!

Paytonand#39;s Adding Problem by kathycassidy on Storybird

Pheasants Hatching! -- 05-19-10

2010-05-19T20:21:43-05:00

As you will hear in the video below, there was big excitement in my classroom as these pheasant eggs hatched. It was a tremendous learning opportunity for the students.
I streamed the event on the internet, and at some points there were up to 25 other computers watching along with us. These included other classrooms in our school, a grade one class in Manitoba, and someone in California. Some of the people watching typed in questions, which the students proudly answered as I typed.
I have had pheasants hatching in my classroom for several years, but this is the best "event" we have had. There were two other classes of students in my classroom watching as the first egg in the video hatched, which is a difficult event to predict the timing of. Sometimes the eggs have all hatched outside of school hours!
I want to say a huge thank you to Mr. Dodds and the Wildlife Federation, who brought us the eggs and will look after the pheasants until they are old enough to be released into the wild. Without their efforts, this wouldn't have been possible.

Happy Mother's Day! -- 05-07-10

2010-05-07T21:26:57-05:00

My students love their mothers! This week they used Sketchcast to draw pictures of the wonderful woman who is so important in their lives. Sketchcast makes a movie of the drawing process. While it is fascinating to see the thought process that each student went through to create the finished product, it is in real time, so the action is sometimes quite slow moving. You may want to drag the cursor across the bottom of the video to speed things up.
Here is one of the student's finished product. You can see the rest on each student's blog.

Look At Us Read! -- 04-29-10

2010-04-29T14:40:24-05:00

This morning we got to go to the kindergarten classroom to read to the kindergarten students. The students remembered being in kindergarten and being the listeners. In fact, they have been asking me since the fall when it will be their turn to be the readers. Today was the big day, and the kindergarten students were suitably impressed.

Telling our Stories With Storybird -- 04-26-10

2010-04-26T20:32:44-05:00

Recently, the students wrote stories using Storybird. I was impressed with the thought and time they put into creating these books. They choose pictures and words with care to tell their own story. Here is just one example. You can read the others on the student's blogs!

The Oops Fairy on Storybird

Look What We Have -- 04-18-10

2010-04-18T18:53:12-05:00

On Friday we became the guardians of 28 pheasant eggs. Our class will have to act like a mother pheasant would. We will have to turn them several times a day and keep them warm in the incubator. They should hatch in 24 - 28 days.

Our Big Blogging Buddies! -- 04-17-10

2010-04-17T13:47:11-05:00

It was a very special day when our "big" blogging buddies, who are pre-service teachers at the University of Regina, came to visit our classroom. We have been looking forward to this day for a looooong time and the students were very excited. Once they arrived, all of the big buddies and little buddies got down to work drawing each other. These drawings are all posted on the students' blogs along with the grade one students' reflections about the event.

After the drawings were complete, it was time to eat cookies and listen to Patrick Lewis, who teaches the big buddies, tell a story about a wide-mouthed frog! I didn't record this story, but you can hear him telling it to my class two years ago here.

One of the students, who was sick at home with the chicken pox, was able to chat with his buddies and watch what was going on in our classroom via Skype. He even got to hear Mr. Lewis' story as his big buddy sat and listened with the laptop on her lap.

Hello, Serbia! -- 04-11-10

2010-04-11T11:14:47-05:00

Awhile ago I was contacted by Susan Hart, a teacher at the International School of Belgrade. She suggested that we connect our classes in some way so that the students could learn from each other. Since connecting our classes through Skype was difficult with the time difference between our locations, I suggested that we exchange ten questions and each make a video of the responses. The first video below shows our answers to their questions, and the second video is their answers to the questions we asked.

This has provided lots of learning for the students, both in the making of our video and in seeing the differences and similarities in the other classroom. Thanks for making us a video, Ms. Hart's class! We learned a lot from you.

Grade 1A, ISB Serbia from S Hart on Vimeo.

The Incredible Patrick Lewis -- 04-08-10

2010-04-08T12:31:13-05:00

Last month, storyteller Patrick Lewis, who also happens to be our university blogging buddy's professor, came to Moose Jaw to tell us some stories. The students loved him and have been asking for the video that I took of his stories. I have separated the finger plays and rhymes he taught the children onto one video, and each of the stories onto three others. We can't wait until next week when the blogging buddies will all come to Moose Jaw to meet us!

Finger Plays and Rhymes

My Aunt the Tailor

The Teeny Tiny Woman

Why Dogs Sniff Each Other's Bums

Happy Easter! -- 04-02-10

2010-04-02T19:00:08-05:00

Did Our Grandparents Have These? -- 03-22-10

2010-03-22T21:50:35-05:00

After talking about how we had changed and things around us had changed, we also talked about how things might have changed since our grandparents were children like us. The list below is all the things that we have, but we don't think our grandparents had. Now, we are going to ask our grandparents to see if we are right.

Are you a grandparent? You can help us. Did you have things like this when you were a child? Pleave us a comment and let us know.

St. Patrick's Day -- 03-18-10

2010-03-18T21:31:53-05:00

Create a free digital greeting

We Are Great Readers! -- 03-10-10

2010-03-10T15:43:56-05:00

Click on the arrow below to hear what we all have to say, then go to each student's blog to hear a sample of his or her "fluent" reading.

Kaow Tom Anyone? -- 03-07-10

2010-03-07T20:19:57-05:00

This week, after talking and reading about foods from different countries, we tried eating kaow tom, a Thai dish with rice, pork, garlic and cilantro. Reviews were mixed as to whether it was something the children would want to eat again, but almost everyone was willing to try it.

One World, One Day -- 02-28-10

2010-02-28T20:33:25-05:00

Recently, we read a wonderful picture book entitled One World, One Day. It was given to us by Mrs. Knee who teaches the Kinderkids. This book helped us to think about the things we do each day and the way that kids all over the world do these same things. We liked it so much that we made our own version of the book and put it in the Animoto below.

Real Letters! -- 02-16-10

2010-02-16T08:58:27-05:00

Each of the students in my class has a blogging buddy (or two) at the University of Regina.These buddies are pre-service teachers who are part of a class about how to teach writing to young children. As part of the requirements for their class, they are required to comment on each blog posting that their six-year old buddy makes during this semester. Each Thursday, a few of my students also get to chat with their buddies via Skype. Last week we received real letters in the mail from our buddies. What excitement in our class! All of the students wanted their letter read aloud, but some of them discovered that they could actually read the letter themselves and the others could find words that they knew. It was a great literacy moment. Thank you blogging buddies.

Will You Be My Valentine? -- 02-14-10

2010-02-14T20:48:42-05:00

Early in the day, we put our valentines into the Valentine Bags that we had carefully decorated the day before. All day, they tempted us with their intriguing bulkiness. Finally the time came when they could be opened!

The 100th Day of School -- 02-10-10

2010-02-10T21:05:45-05:00

Don't mention to the students how hard they were working on the 100th day of school. They are convinced that we had a party all day!

Little Kids...Big Potential -- 02-03-10

2010-02-03T19:31:36-05:00

This is a video that I made about some of the ways that we use technology in our classroom. I was fortunate enough to win an award from Mindshare Learning with it.

Snow Day! -- 01-25-10

2010-01-25T21:54:23-05:00

Today was a snow day and only two students were at school. The snowdrift outside our window was taller than the students! Click here to see one of the things we did in the afternoon.

Snowmen Weather -- 01-22-10

2010-01-22T08:42:55-05:00

Unbelievably, we have been having snowman-making weather in Moose Jaw in January. These are the snowmen we made INSIDE.

The Olympic Torch in Our Classroom -- 01-14-10

2010-01-14T20:45:38-05:00

The father of two of my former students got to carry this torch when it was in Saskatchewan last weekend. Today he allowed his children to show it to us! In case you're interested, it weighs about five pounds and is white because of the snow.

Yum, Yum! -- 01-12-10

2010-01-12T20:02:45-05:00

If you're wondering why we were eating toast at school, check out the step by step instructions for making toast that the children posted on their blogs. We tried to write down all the steps in just the right order. Organizing their writing like this is just one of the things that good writers do, and we want to learn them all.

Watch Santa's Journey -- 12-23-09

2009-12-23T20:29:47-05:00

I promised my class that I would put this link up before Christmas. For years, Norad has tracked Santa's journey. This year, you can watch Santa's journey around the world on google earth, or watch live video on pre-positioned cameras.

Click here grade one!

Our Christmas Greetings -- 12-19-09

2009-12-19T20:08:43-05:00

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Tradition! Tradition! -- 12-05-09

2009-12-05T20:52:19-05:00

Just in time for Christmas, we have been talking about traditions we have. Last year, I created a wiki to collect traditions. This year, we checked out the traditions wiki to start our thinking about what our own traditions were. Check out the student's blogs to see one of their Christmas traditions. You can also add a tradition of your own to our tradition wiki. We'll be watching it to see what traditions other people have.

Our Trip to the Art Museum -- 11-30-09

2009-11-30T12:18:27-05:00

Media Literacy -- 11-24-09

2009-11-24T11:57:14-05:00

I made the video below for a presentation that I was giving about media literacy for primary students. It features students of mine from last year and this year. When I showed it to the class this morning, they wanted it to be put on our blog so that they could watch it again!

Look What We Know! - Numbers to 20 -- 11-17-09

2009-11-17T18:03:04-05:00

Operation Christmas Child -- 11-17-09

2009-11-17T09:13:20-05:00

Our school has been collecting toys and gifts for Operation Christmas Child. Good project. Great idea behind it.

Moon Rocks! -- 11-11-09

2009-11-11T20:42:12-05:00

Recently we had a surprise Skype call from Ms. Adams' class in New Hampshire. They had moon rocks in their classroom and wanted to show them to us.

The students in Ms. Adams' class were very articulate. Besides showing us the rocks in their plastic container, they showed us a model of the Saturn V rocket that went to the moon to collect the rocks, showed us how the moon goes around the earth, and the special case that the moon rocks travel in.

Thank you for helping us to learn, Ms. Adams' class. You were good teachers!

A Chat With Ms. Adams' Class from Kathy Cassidy on Vimeo.

Halloween -- 11-02-09

2009-11-02T17:26:14-05:00

Make a Smilebox slideshow

The Creepy Thing Outside Our Classroom -- 10-26-09

2009-10-26T13:15:43-05:00

A horrible thing has been growing on the wall outside of our classroom. Together with Mr. Silversides' class, we have been participating in The Monster Project . There are thirty-eight classrooms from nine countries participating in this project. First, each classroom was asked to write a twelve word description for one body part. We wrote a description for the hair. Next, each classroom had to build a monster using all of the descriptions that had been written. Our next project is to think up a name for our monster. It should be a name that describes him. Can you help us out? What do you think we should call our monster?

Have You Ever Had a Carmello Koala? -- 10-17-09

2009-10-17T21:19:49-05:00

We have. Nothing tastes as good as the Carmello Koalas we received from Ms. Marrinan, the teacher of the 2M Gems in Brisbane. She also gave us a book called Wombat Stew. It's a wonderful story about a lot of animals we do not have in Canada. We chanted and giggled our way through it. Thanks, Ms Marrinan! We loved the chocolates.

Since our first blog posts this year, the wonderful Gems have been commenting on our blog. Thank you, Gems, for being part of our learning.

We're Thankful! -- 10-12-09

2009-10-12T21:38:03-05:00

We're Thankful! on PhotoPeach

The Very Hungry Caterpillar -- 10-08-09

2009-10-08T22:27:22-05:00

To celebrate the 40th anniversary of the publication of Eric Carle's book The Very Hungry Caterpillar, our class did a reader's theatre production of this famous book with a class of first graders from Gadsden, Alabama. The Skype video recording is fuzzy, but there was some amazing reading for so early in the school year. Well done!

We Can - Patterns -- 09-30-09

2009-09-30T22:04:26-05:00

We've spent the last month learning about patterns together. Just look at all the things we can do now!

Pattern Around Us -- 09-15-09

2009-09-15T21:33:49-05:00

We've been looking for patterns in the environment around us. Can you find two patterns in this picture? Hint: We're standing on one.

Guess What We Are Learning About -- 09-09-09

2009-09-09T19:23:43-05:00

We're Bloggers! -- 09-02-09

2009-09-02T09:29:08-05:00

As of late yesterday, there are eighteen new bloggers in the blogosphere. Their names are along the right hand side of this page. Each child choose their own colour for their blog, and drew a picture of themselves to include. They have also all written their first blogpost. Most of these posts needed to include an editor's note to show what they wanted it to say, but keep watching. You'll see their writing skills grow before your eyes in their own personal space.

Check out my studnts' blogs. Leave a comment. We'd love it.

Things We Can Do -- 08-31-09

2009-08-31T17:53:49-05:00

As we thought further about our goals for this year, we made a list of things that we could already do well. This Wordle contains all of the items on this list.

New Year, New Friends, New Goals -- 08-25-09

2009-08-25T22:33:22-05:00

Our first day of grade one. What an exciting day! In between sorting supplies and meeting new friends, we took some time to talk about what things we might learn this year and what goals we might make for the year. To help us think about what we might learn, we talked via Skype to some "experts" about what they learned in grade one. We talked to Cindi Crandall , a grade one teacher in California and to Rodney Turner's grade four class in Glendale, Arizona. We also talked to Zoe Branigan-Pipe in Hamilton, Ontario, who read us the poem Captain Hook by Shel Silverstein before she told us about what she remembers learning in grade one. You can see her reading to us in the video below.

Reflecting on Learning -- 06-25-09

2009-06-25T17:14:14-05:00

In the midst of cleaning up our classroom, we took some time on the last day of school to think about what we had learned in grade one. Each child chose themselves what they wanted to share on the movie. It was interesting to me to see what each child chose to talk about. As you can see by the variety of answers, we have learned a lot this year!

Have a great summer, grade one, or should I say grade two! I'll see you at the end of August.

Representing With Clay -- 06-18-09

2009-06-18T21:22:21-05:00

Recently, we made some clay representations of a fairy tale. The students all chose which part of the fairy tale they wanted to use, and tried to convey their ideas using colour, shape, size, etc. Watch this slideshow of their representations to see if you can guess which fairy tale they are representing. If you're still stuck after watching, you can click here to see the answer.

The Bull and the Firetruck -- 06-18-09

2009-06-18T13:08:44-05:00

Joni Mailhot , who is an education student in Regina, called us on Skype yesterday to read us a story about a bull and a fire truck , and to ask us questions to see if we were good listeners. Here is the story that she read to us:

A Tale of Two Classrooms -- 06-14-09

2009-06-14T22:08:37-05:00

I was recently contacted by Travis MacLeod, who teaches in Seosan City, South Korea, to see if we could do a partnership between our classrooms. Since they are in school while we are in bed sleeping, we couldn't use Skype. We decided to do an exchange of videos instead. Each class made a list of questions they had for the other class to answer. Below are the video we made for the kids in Korea, and the one they made for us.

Baby Pheasants - the Video -- 06-14-09

2009-06-14T10:17:22-05:00

Baby Pheasants Hatching! -- 06-07-09

2009-06-07T15:42:00-05:00

Look what I found in our incubator when I came to the school today, grade one! Can you count how many baby pheasants we have?

Do you see the one that does not look fluffy laying in the middle of the right side? He came out of his egg just before I took the picture and has not dried yet. If you look closely, you can see a peck hole in one of the other eggs, too.

You can see them all when you come to school tomorrow morning!

Can You Solve It? -- 05-28-09

2009-05-28T21:08:42-05:00

This week the students wrote their own addition or subtraction story problems and had to solve them by making a picture on KIdPix.andnbsp; All of the number stories were great, and each student was able to solve the problem that he or she wrote.andnbsp; Emily's problem is indicative of the issues we have had over the course of this school year.

This is Sand -- 05-26-09

2009-05-26T21:55:30-05:00

My students have been pestering me for about a week to post a link to this site on my blog.andnbsp; They are fascinated by the images they can create using only coloured sand.andnbsp;

I never cease to be amazed by the way my students can take the basics of a website that I show them and begin to show ME other ways that it can be used.andnbsp;

Here you are, grade one.andnbsp; Enjoy.

Rocks, Rocks, Rocks -- 05-23-09

2009-05-23T15:14:26-05:00

This week a real, live geologist, Dr. Trish Gregg, called us on Skype from Oregon to answer our questions about rocks. She was very patient and told us that we asked good questions. We know a LOT more about rocks now. She inspired us to look more closely at rocks. In fact, we each also started our own rock collection!

We recorded our conversation on Skype. It is in three parts below because the video feed froze part of the way through our conversation, and Youtube does not allow videos longer than ten minutes.

Thank you, Dr. Gregg!

What Covers That Animal? -- 05-19-09

2009-05-19T21:45:51-05:00

Squeals of delight greeted me as I unwrapped these "preserved" animals. Viewing them gave us a chance to talk about the different kinds of coverings that animals (including, gasp, us) have. Several children have been waiting very impatiently for this picture to be posted.

Reading to the Kindergarten Kids -- 05-12-09

2009-05-12T22:58:08-05:00

Today we showed off our fabulous reading skills to the kindergarten kids. They were super listeners. We all remember when the grade one kids read to us last year, and we thought they were so smart. Now it is our turn to shine!

Mother's Day Preparations -- 05-10-09

2009-05-10T21:14:34-05:00

Now that it is Mother's Day, I am free to show you the photos below. Before this, they were top secret!

Listening -- 05-10-09

2009-05-10T21:02:31-05:00

One of the six "strands" or areas of our Language Arts Curriculum is Listening. One of our end of the year goals is to be able to tell what someone else has told us. To help us practice this, we sometimes share our thoughts with the person beside us, and then that person has to tell the whole class for us. It's not easy to be a good listener, but we're learning.

The Blogging Buddies Visit -- 05-03-09

2009-05-03T22:51:20-05:00

Here are some photos I took of our blogging buddy's visit--one of the highlights of our year!

Skyping With the Gems -- 04-29-09

2009-04-29T09:50:03-05:00

Tonight when we came to school for a literacy night, we got to talk with the Gems, our blogging buddies in Brisbane, Australia. It was six o'clock at night for us, and ten o'clock the next morning for them. Below is the first part of our call. Later, after we stopped the recording, we also each got an opportunity to ask and answer questions that we had about each other. We learned a LOT from them.

Learning Webs -- 04-26-09

2009-04-26T15:32:13-05:00

The children in our class have learned a LOT in their six or seven years of life. We spent some time thinking about who they have learned from and what they had learned from each of these people. We discovered that some things were the same and some were different. All of them had learned reading and math from their teacher, but each of them had learned different things from their grandparents. One of the groups they all felt they had learned from was their blogging buddies. While what they recorded on their webs reflected what they had learned from their "big" blogging buddies at the university, they also agreed that other classes of children in other places had contributed to their learning as well. If you are in one of those classes who has helped us to learn this year, THANK YOU!

Sorting Shapes -- 04-17-09

2009-04-17T17:07:41-05:00

We recently finished our math unit about shape. One of the outcomes we were trying to achieve was to be able to sort 2D and 3D shapes by their attributes. Just see how well we can do this in the video below.

My Aunt the Tailor -- 04-15-09

2009-04-15T22:16:12-05:00

At long last the day we had been waiting for arrived--our big blogging buddies from the university came to visit us. We drew pictures of our buddies, read them stories and munched cookies with them while we listened to Mr. Lewis tell us a wonderful story. Here is the story he told us. Filmed by one of Mr. Lewis' students.

Today is Monday in Louisiana -- 04-02-09

2009-04-02T13:01:27-05:00

Just look at the beautiful book and letters we received from Ms. Loughran's class in New Orleans! Some of the children drew pictures for us as well. We were especially interested in the recipe at the back for Red Beans and Rice. We just read a book about the ways that people from different places cook rice, and now we know another way.

Thank you Edward Hayes Charter School. We'll be writing letters back to you next week!

Aren't We Smart? -- 03-29-09

2009-03-29T23:16:58-05:00

By the end of the year, the grade ones should be able to count to one hundred by ones, fives and tens, and by twos to twenty. We are all well on our way to these goals. Check out our skip counting below. Filmed by Alyssa.

Why We Use Video -- 03-24-09

2009-03-24T07:41:41-05:00

Good morning, grade one! I'm in Saskatoon telling teachers about the wonderful work you are doing. I showed them the video we made about why teachers should use video in their classrooms. Here it is so that you can see it too.

Letters! -- 03-18-09

2009-03-18T22:31:46-05:00

Today we received letters (ones you can hold in your hand, not the digital kind) from our blogging buddies in Regina. Pure joy. Many of the children had no idea how to open a letter, but we soon figured that out and then helped each other read them. Thanks, buddies. Watch your mailbox. You just might get something back!

How to Skate -- 03-12-09

2009-03-12T22:37:28-05:00

For those of you who read our blog who do not yet know how to ice skate, this video contains demonstrations and several six year old explanations of how it is done. Follow their advice and you will be gliding around the ice in no time.

Mr. Brown Can Moo, Can You? -- 03-05-09

2009-03-05T20:02:09-05:00

In honour of Dr. Seuss's birthday earlier this week, we had a Skype call today with a grade one class in Alabama. Together, we did a reader's theatre of Dr. Seuss's book Mr. Brown Can Moo, Can You? The recording is below. The children in Alabama also recorded the call, and because of the way Skype works, their version shows my students in the large window, the way that the Alabama students are larger in our version. Watch both versions!

Cheetah, Pandas and More -- 03-02-09

2009-03-02T07:50:29-05:00

Check out the children's blogs to find out some of the important information each one has been learning about the animal of their choice. (Photo credit: Macee's Cheetah)

Look Who Hopped In! -- 02-25-09

2009-02-25T21:54:58-05:00

Just look at the wonderful pictures of kangaroos that Georgia from the 2M Gems sent us. They just hopped onto her poppy's lawn, ate some grass and then hopped off to the beach. We really like these pictures! Thanks, Georgia and Georgia's mom for helping us to learn. Our favourite is the picture of the kangaroos hopping. We are finding out about lots of different kinds of animals in science, and now we have learned about kangaroos too.

We also think we know what a poppy is. It must be a poppa!

Prairie to Pavement -- 02-11-09

2009-02-11T16:58:55-05:00

The children all agreed that today was the "best day ever" after our all day presentation about the importance of preserving wildlife and prairie habitat. A few of the great moments are captured below.

The 100th Day of School -- 02-10-09

2009-02-10T21:43:47-05:00

We had a huge celebration on the 100th day of school. It was so busy that I almost forgot to take a picture. We wrote the numbers to 100, made 100 dots, read 100 books, made a booklet about 100, ate 100 snacks and worked on puzzles with 100 pieces.

We have worked hard for the last 100 school days and have learned a lot of things. We can't wait to see what we will learn in the next 100 days!

Things We Can Do in the Winter -- 02-03-09

2009-02-03T08:46:13-05:00

Many days lately have been too cold to play outside, but on a warm day, we filmed this for the 2M Gems in Brisbane, Australia, where it is summer right now. We wanted to show them the things we can do in the snow. This was filmed by Meka.

Reading Smoothly -- 01-30-09

2009-01-30T20:00:17-05:00

One part of being a good reader is reading fluently. In grade one we call it reading smoothly. Reading smoothly is one of our reading goals, so we have been practicing to improve this. To help the children hear how they sound when they are reading, each child got to read a couple of sentences to post on their blog. Check out each child's smooth reading by clicking the arrow on the Vocaroo icon on their blog.

Grade one, can you guess who this reader is?

Do I Need It or Do I Want It? -- 01-29-09

2009-01-29T08:38:41-05:00

In social studies, we have been learning about the difference between what we need and what we want and what the things are that we really need. Some of the children show their needs and wants in this video. Filmed by Jeremy.

Representing Animals -- 01-24-09

2009-01-24T20:20:01-05:00

One part of our language arts curriculum is called representing. When we represent, we show our learning through drawing, 3-D representations or drama. Here are some of the children using shape, colour and details to show what they know about animals.

Nintendogs to the Rescue -- 01-21-09

2009-01-21T08:42:16-05:00

Just look what we are using in our classroom to help us with problem solving--Nintendo DS. For ten minutes each day, some of our grade seven reading buddies come to help us read the words and we "play" Nintendogs together. The children are in groups of four and take turns as the person holding the stylus. Problem solving was never so much fun!

Meeting Our Blogging Buddies -- 01-14-09

2009-01-14T08:47:09-05:00

It's amazing how much excitement the prospect of meeting our new blogging buddies from the University of Regina via Skype generated in our classroom. I felt like I was scraping the children off of the walls all day.

At long last (is it time yet?) the time arrived and almost half of the children had a chance to chat face to face digitally with their buddy. The others will get a chance to talk on Thursday.

Our partnership with them will last until the first week of April. My students get to be mentored by a teacher-to-be whom they adore, and the university students get to participate in the writing development of a primary student. It's a win-win situation.

Addition Strategies -- 01-08-09

2009-01-08T20:15:53-05:00

Watch as we explain what we know about addition strategies.

An Aussie Night Before Christmas -- 01-06-09

2009-01-06T08:33:47-05:00

Just look at the belated Christmas gift we got from the 2M Gems in Australia. The children hooted and laughed through the whole book. Before Christmas, I had read them several versions of The Night Before Christmas and we had compared them, so we were able to compare this version as well. Much different! The children especially loved the pictures. The one they are pointing to was their hands down favourite. If you can't quite tell why by looking at this picture, click on the picture, and then click on "all sizes" to see a larger version.

Thank you 2M Gems!

Season's Greetings -- 12-19-08

2008-12-19T13:35:56-05:00

This holiday season, I want you to know how much it means to my children that you are reading this blog posting. You are part of their audience, and a huge motivator for them as they write and show their learning in various ways. Thank you for that. Have a wonderful time with friends and family over the next couple of weeks.

The children's Christmas wish for you is below.

The Letter I -- 12-16-08

2008-12-16T08:41:23-05:00

We've now made videos to show you what we know about almost all the letters of the alphabet. Here is what we have learned about the letter I. Filmed by Kabry.

Tradition! -- 12-09-08

2008-12-09T12:01:21-05:00

After we collected rituals , we began talking about traditions. We have been involved in a Christmas traditions project with several other classes. Each class is creating a Smilebox of their traditions. Below is the link to our Smilebox. (I'm working on getting rid of those ads.) If you'd like to help us learn more about traditions, you can add yours to our traditions wiki .

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Do You Know How Many Days Until Christmas? -- 12-03-08

2008-12-03T21:32:16-05:00

We do! We made paper chains with one link for every day until Christmas. Every day, we are going to take off one link to help us see how close we are getting to the big day.

The Letter A -- 11-28-08

2008-11-28T14:10:31-05:00

Here are some things we know about the letter A. Filmed by Kya.

Seeing Laurel Dee Gugler -- 11-19-08

2008-11-19T16:16:17-05:00

What a lot of excitement there was in our classroom this morning as we got ready, boarded the bus and travelled to the Public Library . Author Laurel Dee Gugler was visiting Moose Jaw today, and we had the chance to sing, chant, listen and giggle with her. One of our students even won a book that she had written! The students have all written about their experiences on their blogs, and have drawn their memories of the event as well.

Rituals -- 11-18-08

2008-11-18T18:00:09-05:00

Can you think of some rituals that you have? This picture shows a ritual we have at the end of every school day--putting on our coats and getting our backpacks. We're learning what rituals are, and we need you to help us. If you can think of a ritual you have, would you add it to our wiki to help us learn? Just click on the word wiki and it will take you to our ritual page. Thanks for your help!

One or Two, More or Less -- 11-17-08

2008-11-17T16:34:33-05:00

One of our math outcomes is to identify the number that is one or two more or less than a given number. In the smartboard video below, four of the students demonstrate their thinking in finding these numbers.

Dancing Us -- 11-13-08

2008-11-13T22:18:22-05:00

Have you seen the Dancing Matt video? A teacher in New Zealand got the idea to try Matt’s dancing with classrooms of students from around the world. We had a great time dancing and love watching ourselves even better. Thanks for making the video, Ms. King!

Peace -- 11-10-08

2008-11-10T21:23:36-05:00

We took some time last week to talk about peace. Peace is not an easy concept when you are five or six years old, but by the end of our discussion, I could tell that the children understood the concept. The proof is in the photos below. Each of the children got to set up and take a picture of what he or she thought peace looked like in our classroom. I think they got it just right.

Our photos have also been included in a collaborative project started by Chris Harbeck in Winnipeg. You can see the peace pictures from eight other classrooms from Canada and Australia here .

Thank You, Mr. Shareski -- 11-07-08

2008-11-07T12:07:17-05:00

There was lots of excitement this morning when I brought in a new computer that is just right for little hands. The new Acer Aspire One is on loan from Dean Shareski , our division's digital learning consultant. It has replaced one of the five ten-year old Sunray computers in our classroom which we have only been able to get to work twice so far this year. (Server issues I'm told.) We talked about what things we might be able to do with it, and made this video of our thoughts.

Orange and Black Day -- 11-03-08

2008-11-03T08:40:12-05:00

October 31st was orange and black day at our school. Don't we look fabulous? Each of the children blogged about what they were going to dress up as for Halloween that evening. Check out their blogs to see!

Does Anything Look Familiar? -- 10-30-08

2008-10-30T18:08:15-05:00

Today the students got to bring an item of their own choice from home to show to the other students. At their suggestion, we took a picture of the items for this blog. Then, they wondered if any of the kids (or adults)who read our blog have any of the same things as they do. Do you?

A Horrible Thing Has Come Our Way -- 10-27-08

2008-10-27T22:09:25-05:00

There is a strange, yet somehow endearing creature on the wall outside of our classroom. We affectionately call him Mr. Slobberface. All month we have had a monster theme in our classroom as we have participated in Terry Simth’s Monster Project. This year, twenty-seven classes in nine countries each made an enormous fiend. Each classroom was responsible for a twelve word description of one body part. Our class made up the description for the tail. After all the descriptions were in, the classes created their own monsters. You can see some of the other finished monsters and their names here .
Our monster has been surprisingly docile for a creature so large. We just hope he doesn’t get hungry and eat one of the goblins from Mr. Silversides’ class on the bulletin board next to him.

Grinning Ghosts with Sandra -- 10-26-08

2008-10-26T21:59:41-05:00

V is for Video -- 10-22-08

2008-10-22T09:35:05-05:00

V is also for violin, vase and vampire. Check out the video to see what else we know. Filmed by Ashlee.

Dancing Monsters?? -- 10-20-08

2008-10-20T21:48:50-05:00

We had a great time this afternoon with a tool that was new to us called Pictaps . This is a tool which makes your drawing dance in a video. Since we have a monster theme in our classroom this month, of course we drew MONSTERS. These monsters are now dancing on our blog pages. You can see Deigan's monster, Bob, dancing below.

Checking Out Numbers -- 10-18-08

2008-10-18T18:08:47-05:00

We had a question: If you arrange a certain number of objects in a different way, does the number of objects stay the same? We are happy to report that the answer is "yes"! You can see some of the pictures we made to prove our theory on our blogs.

We've also been using ten frames to help us learn to recognize groupings without counting, and to practice counting on from five when we need to count. One day we made a giant ten frame on our carpet and used students for the counters. Can you tell what number we are representing?

Serendipity -- 10-17-08

2008-10-17T23:17:19-05:00

This morning we received a surprise Yackpack and then Skype call from a grade one class in Alabama. They are studying Canada and wanted to ask us some questions, including whether or not we had seen any moose. (Most of us had, although not in Moose Jaw.) From them, we found out that although it was sunny where we live, it was raining in Alabama, they start school at 7:50 in the morning and they have an ice rink that they like to skate at. A great way to start the day--an unexpected, pleasant surprise.

Our Wild Selves -- 10-17-08

2008-10-17T09:31:55-05:00

As part of the monster unit we are doing this month, we went to a site hosted by the New York Zoos and made our wild selves. Kabry's wild self is on the left, but you can check out each of the children's wild selves at the top of their blog. Just click on their name on the right.

Yawning and Yanking Yo-yos -- 10-16-08

2008-10-16T22:49:07-05:00

In our never-ending quest to bring you the letters of the alphabet, we now present the letter Y. It was filmed by Delaney.

Energetic Exercise -- 10-14-08

2008-10-14T21:26:10-05:00

All about the letter E. Filmed by Michael.

Zipping and Zombies -- 10-09-08

2008-10-09T17:35:45-05:00

Check out our zebra, zeros and the zany zoo. The video was filmed by Connor.

Ten Frames -- 10-08-08

2008-10-08T18:20:54-05:00

One more, one less, two more, two less... Today we used ten frames to help with these concepts. This is a good activity to pass time while you are travelling. What number is one more than five? What is two less than nine?

Queens, Quarterbacks and Questions -- 10-02-08

2008-10-02T09:11:02-05:00

This video is all about the letter Q. Do you know what letter is such a good friend to Q that he never wants to be in a word without it? This video was filmed by Jamie.

Numbers, Numbers -- 09-27-08

2008-09-27T21:10:19-05:00

We've begun a new unit in math about numbers to twenty. We've been practicing counting, writing and recognizing these numbers. Here are some of the students matching the numbers and number words.

Kids, Kisses and Kicks -- 09-27-08

2008-09-27T13:37:42-05:00

Filmed by Santee.

Nod, Nibble and No! -- 09-25-08

2008-09-25T22:45:54-05:00

Yet another in our alphabet series. Together with other classrooms, we are working on a wiki called Alphabet Antics on which these videos are also posted. We are learning from the things the other classrooms post, and they are learning from us. This video was filmed by Campbell.

Practicing Patterns -- 09-22-08

2008-09-22T13:27:30-05:00

Just in case you think we are only learning about letters, we prepared this video on our Smartboard to show what we have been learning about patterns.

J: Jump, Jog and Juggle -- 09-21-08

2008-09-21T19:06:27-05:00

We though of several J words with lots of action. Watch our action in the video below. It was filmed by Deigan.

And Now the Letter H -- 09-18-08

2008-09-18T21:40:46-05:00

It was H day today. Once again we are sharing what we know. Filmed by Hennessy.

W is for Wiggle -- 09-17-08

2008-09-17T12:57:52-05:00

And W is for lots of other things. Take a look at the movie to see what other things we thought of that start with the letter W. Filmed by Hazel.

What Can You See That Begins with G? -- 09-15-08

2008-09-15T18:11:14-05:00

We brought a lot of things that begin with the letter G to school. Some of them are on the left. Can you see a goat, a Gameboy, some glue, some grass, a guitar, some grapes, two golf balls and a gorilla?

The Dandy Letter D -- 09-11-08

2008-09-11T22:51:57-05:00

We had a delightful day designing this video for you about the letter D. Filmed by Niki.

The Colours of Days -- 09-09-08

2008-09-09T17:54:48-05:00

We recently talked about the way some colours make us feel, and that sometimes our day seems like a colour. Dr. Seuss's book My Many Colored Days helped us with this. Below are the children's paintings, using only the colour that their day made them feel.

And Now a Word from the Letter P -- 09-09-08

2008-09-09T17:33:24-05:00

We found out today that there are a LOT of words that start with the letter P. We made a video about some of them. It was filmed by Jesse.

Pheasants! -- 09-08-08

2008-09-08T22:48:00-05:00

This afternoon we walked over to Buzzy's Hill to watch Mr. Dodds release some pheasants into the wild. The pheasants were hatched in our classroom last spring, and now they are big enough to live on their own. We even got to touch the pheasants before we let them go.

Then we watched them fly away into the valley.

The Letter L -- 09-08-08

2008-09-08T18:25:00-05:00

We know a lot about the letter L. Check out the video below. Filmed by Macee.

R is for... -- 09-06-08

2008-09-06T12:54:06-05:00

Move your mouse to the left or right side of the pictures to see the other things that begin with R.

Crazy Clowns and Cozy Coats -- 09-03-08

2008-09-03T19:46:32-05:00

C-C-C-C. We made that sound all day long. The pictures below were taken by the children of objects in our classroom. Can you see the confetti over the pictures?

Terrific T Words -- 09-03-08

2008-09-03T09:26:48-05:00

After we brain stormed all of the T words we knew, we used Wordle to show the words we thought of together.

The Action B's -- 09-02-08

2008-09-02T17:02:43-05:00

We've learned that some B words are moving words. Look below to see our beautiful bows, bends, bounces and bumps.

F is for Favourites -- 08-31-08

2008-08-31T22:45:12-05:00

What things can you think of that begin with the letter F? Here is a picture of some of the things we thought of and brought to share. If you click HERE or on the picture, you can see the words for all the things we brought to school.

Snakes and Snails -- 08-27-08

2008-08-27T20:26:24-05:00

Today was all about the letter S. Check out the things we found in our classroom. The pictures were taken by children in our class.

The Letter M -- 08-26-08

2008-08-26T18:49:48-05:00

For the first month of school, we will be reviewing a letter and its sounds every day. Today we made muffins and wrote the letter m. Check out some of the things we know about M in the video below. It was filmed by Nick.

The First Day of School -- 08-26-08

2008-08-26T09:32:21-05:00

The first day of school is always exciting, but when you learn to "read" a book on that day, it is even better. After reading the book Brown Bear, Brown Bear together, the children each coloured their own version of this classic by Bill Martin Junior. Much to their delight, they could "read" the book themselves. Yes, the book is memorized, but this is one of the first stages of reading, and gives the students a great sense of accomplishment. We are all looking forward to learning to read!

The Blogging Buddy Rap -- 06-30-08

2008-06-30T15:57:49-05:00

On the last day of school, we made this tribute to our blogging buddies. Thank you Ms. Hayes' class in New Zealand, Ms. Marrinan's class in Australia and Mr. Lewis' class in Regina. You helped us to have a great year. This rap is for you. Turn your volume way up because some of our voices are small.

Rain Can't Stop Us! -- 06-26-08

2008-06-26T14:26:04-05:00

Even though it was a rainy day, the drizzle didn't stop us from enjoying the paddling pool at Parkhill Park.

Do You Know Your Plant Parts? -- 06-23-08

2008-06-23T17:33:51-05:00

We are just finishing up our science unit on plants. Since many of our wheat seeds did not germinate, we had fun today pulling up the ones that did and examining their roots. Then, we got some robust marigolds to take their place in our pots. Mat filmed this short video about the parts of plants.

See What We Have Created -- 06-22-08

2008-06-22T20:08:32-05:00

www.flickr.com

Over the past few weeks, the children have been doing some great work with drawing and collage. We have been focusing on details, use of space, colour, size and shape. Today I put a Flickr badge on each child's blog, showing some of the pictures they have made. They do not actually look like the badge above(check out their blogs on the right to see them), but I could not get their badges to work on my blog! The badge shown here displays Jasmine's artwork.

Cookies, Cookies! -- 06-19-08

2008-06-19T09:41:54-05:00

This week the grade eights at our school held a cookie sale. For the previous week each of the vendors had been advertising their cookies with posters around the school, so the sense of anticipation was high. As you can see by the photo, there were some very creative marketing ideas displayed. Each child had to vote for the booth with the best display and then vote with their money by purchasing the cookie of their choice. It was a great learning experience for the grade eights, and a "filling" experience for the rest of the school, who eagerly wait for their turn to be the cookie sellers.

What Does Equal Mean? -- 06-12-08

2008-06-12T22:49:58-05:00

Recently I was doing some assessment and I realized that some of the children are a little fuzzy about what "equals" actually means. This week we've done a few hands-on activities to get better aquainted with this famous concept. Today we made up some number stories that had the sum on either the left or right of the equation. They were so good that we decided to film them with our new Flip camera.

Now It's a Butterfly Cam! -- 06-10-08

2008-06-10T09:29:17-05:00

Update: We have now turned off our butterfly cam. We hope to relese them tomorrow if it stops raining long enough!
Only a few of our butterfiles have not yet emerged from their chrysalis. Until they do, our "chrysalis cam" has turned into a "butterfly cam". Once they have all emerged, we will release them outside. The red spots all over the container are not blood. It is a red liquid called maconium which is made of tissues no longer needed by the butterfly and leftover colouring from the wings. These seem to be especially messy butterflies.
Webcast by Ustream.TV

Painted Ladies--The Video -- 06-06-08

2008-06-06T18:40:06-05:00

We are currently broadcasting live from our classroom on uStream Tv. If you click here , you can watch to see if any of the painted lady butterflies have emerged from their chrysalis.

Pezzettino Pictures -- 06-06-08

2008-06-06T17:55:20-05:00

One of the ways you can get to be a better artist is to imitate art you like. We've been reading books by Leo Lionni and imitating his style. Today we read Pezzettino. The representations below are our tribute to his great pictures.

A Gift from Israel -- 06-03-08

2008-06-03T18:16:26-05:00

A few weeks ago, a teacher in Israel who was doing a research project about parent responses to blogging asked me if I would be willing to send home a survey to the parents of my students. Since many of the questions were similar to questions that I usually ask on a June survey of my own, I agreed to do so.

As a thank you to the students and their parents for completing the survey, the teacher sent the children bookmarks and flags from Israel. The students loved them. Thanks, Etty! And thanks parents for taking the time to fill out those surveys! Etty and I will both learn from them.

Caterpillars in Class -- 06-01-08

2008-06-01T21:00:17-05:00

Our blogging buddies in Australia have been asking some good questions about our caterpillars, so we made a movie to tell them what we know about them. The camera work was by a talented young six year old filmmaker.

UMOJA -- 05-25-08

2008-05-25T21:42:56-05:00

Recently, our school had the pleasure of hosting a concert by UMOJA, a drumming, dancing and movement group from Regina. It was a treat to hear these young students share their unique sounds and performance style. Their use of many different percussion instruments, varied repertoire and audience involvement kept the children spellbound. You can hear a sample of their music by clicking on the podcast link below. Thanks for coming, UMOJA!

Caterpillars and Kids -- 05-22-08

2008-05-22T16:56:47-05:00

We are now the proud parents of about forty caterpillars. We'll watch them grow and change over the next few weeks until they become butterfiles. The caterpillars are very self-sufficient. Now that we have put them in containers with food, they will eat and grow on their own until they make their crysalis. Unlike our pheasant eggs, they do not need to be turned!

It All Adds Up -- 05-14-08

2008-05-14T12:55:37-05:00

Did you know that there are different ways to add? We know at least three different strategies that you can use to add numbers. Take a peek at what we know. Camera work was by Hailey J.

Mother's Day Gifts -- 05-13-08

2008-05-13T17:10:53-05:00

Now that Mother's Day is over and there is no chance of someone seeing something before they should, here are some pictures that I took while the kids were making their gift for their mothers.

More Pheasant Pictures -- 05-13-08

2008-05-13T09:35:40-05:00

Here are some pictures that we took while an egg was hatching and when we got to hold a chick. Now, we have given the chicks back to the Wildlife Federation (much to the children's disapointment). They will keep them over the summer, and then in the fall, they will release them into the wild.

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

At Long Last--Hatching -- 05-11-08

2008-05-11T22:09:57-05:00

At long last, after what seemed like an endless round of turning eggs and waiting, some of our pheasant eggs began to hatch. We all got to watch as the eggs rocked, and the cracks in the eggs oh so slowly got longer. Then, wonder of wonders, one of the pheasants popped out of the egg right before our eyes. About an hour later, when we had all calmed down, we paused to make this movie of our babies with a few of the children sharing observations about what had happened. Carly did the filming.

Kookaburras and Kangaroos -- 05-09-08

2008-05-09T23:52:29-05:00

This past week the children and their parents bravely journeyed back to the school for an evening Skpye chat with our blogging buddies in Austailia. (The time change means that our school days do not overlap.) Each of the children got to have a brief chat with their buddy. When we reflected on what we had learned the next day, we discovered that despite the fact that they have to wear uniforms, don't play hockey until they are a lot older and don't have a gym at their school, they like a lot of the same things we do. The Gems posted an extensive list of these things on their blog. They mentioned kookaburras in our conversation, and since none of us had seen one, they sent us the link to this video, which the children have begged me to post.

Sorry, grade one, your favourite video of the kookaburra laughing won't post on our blog, but you can see it if you click here .

Podcasting for Fluency -- 05-06-08

2008-05-06T16:56:48-05:00

One of the reading skills that we have been working on lately is fluency. To help us listen to what our reading sounds like, we have been making podcasts of ourselves reading. Most of the children now have a recording of themselves reading a selection of their choice, and those that don't should have one tomorrow. Just click on the top icon (like the one below) on each child's blog to hear what fluent readers we are becoming.

Look at Us Read -- 05-01-08

2008-05-01T12:27:08-05:00

Recently, we grabbed some books that we could read well and headed to the kindergarten classroom. While we were there, we showed off our reading skills to these appreciative listeners. It seems like it was only last year when we were the ones listening!

Fancy Friday -- 04-26-08

2008-04-26T15:47:09-05:00

On Fancy Friday, we wore fancy clothes to school and used fancy words all day. We used fancy words to comment on the blogs of our buddies in Australia (we hope they notice our big words) and made some fancy pictures in the style of Leo Lionni. In the gym, we did some fancy footwork. This was all in honour of one of the six traits of writing, word choice, which we have been talking about and practicing for the past while.

Take a look at our fancy ensembles below.

Skpying With Memphis -- 04-24-08

2008-04-24T15:53:00-05:00

We had a Skpye conversation today with a grade one class in Memphis. In our class discussion afterwards, we came to these conclusions.

Some things are the same:
1. We all have jobs at home.
2. We have the same school rules.
3. We have the same rules at home.
4. We all like to play video games.

Here are some differences:
1. They have no school buses.
2. They have no girls at their school
3. They have to wear certain clothes.
4. They all stay at school for lunch.
5. They all get rides to school from their parents.

The Wide-Mouthed Frog -- 04-24-08

2008-04-24T15:41:13-05:00

Some of the blogging buddies and Mr. Lewis came back to see us this week. Mr. Lewis told us not one, but two wonderful stories. The children had heard this story about the wide-mouthed frog before and were so delighted with it that at one point they took over and began to tell the story by themselves.

You Gotta Have Rules -- 04-23-08

2008-04-23T17:54:15-05:00

We've been discussing rules in social studies. Last week we talked about rules in our family and this week we discussed the rules we have at school. Each of the children wrote about and illustrated a rule we have at school. A few of them were rules that I had never thought to articulate, but were certainly good things to remember. The picture on the right was done by Kayleigh and illustrates her rule "no pushing".

Access -- 04-21-08

2008-04-21T19:52:39-05:00

About ten days ago, ten shiney, new laptops arrived at our school, destined to be used by the four classrooms in our wing of the school. We have been waiting patiently ever since for the wireless to arrive as well, and this afternoon, it did! After a few instructions about care and use, the questions began. "Can we blog?" "Can we comment?" "Can I look at my blog?" Yes, yes and yes. To say the kids were excited would be an understatement and, yes, so was their teacher. We can't wait to see what we will be able to do with them.

Can You Guess? -- 04-17-08

2008-04-17T17:09:45-05:00

We've begun learning about geometry. Today we sorted some solid shapes. Can you guess how we sorted them? If you can't guess, put your mouse over the picture, and you'll see the answer.

We Have Eggs! -- 04-15-08

2008-04-15T17:07:42-05:00

Despite the excitement in our classroom, the children were able to calm down enough to tell you these things about the eggs that we have from the Wildlife Federation. Camera work by Jasmine.

Meeting Paulette Bourgeois -- 04-12-08

2008-04-12T16:45:28-05:00

Just look who I met, grade one. This is Paulette Bourgeois who wrote all of the Franklin books that we love to read. She autographed this book for me, and wrote a special message inside. I'll show it to you next week, and I'll tell you where she gets the ideas for her stories.

Writing Big Numbers -- 04-10-08

2008-04-10T21:39:54-05:00

Can you write the numbers up to 100? We can. We used our Smart Board to record what we know.

Punctuation on Vacation? -- 04-09-08

2008-04-09T09:35:12-05:00

When we were the library, we discovered a book that we had seen on the blog of our buddies in Austrailia, the Gems. We just had to read it, and guess what? We loved it too. The story is called "Punctuation Takes a Vacation". Just ask one of us and we'll tell you what happens when there is no puncutation around. Thanks, Gems!

Don't Let It Touch the Ground! -- 04-07-08

2008-04-07T21:41:04-05:00

It's harder than it looks to keep that big ball off of the floor, but our class and Mr. Silversides' class had a lot of fun trying.

Blogging Buddy Visit -- 04-05-08

2008-04-05T15:13:48-05:00

This week, after waiting for three months, the children finally got to meet their blogging buddies from the Univeristy of Regina. I can't tell you how many times in those months I answered the question, "when are our blogging buddies going to come to see us?" The children all took the opportunity to draw a picture of their buddy and to write about this auspicious moment. Then, it was back to our classroom for a wonderful story about the Wide-Mouthed Frog (thank you, Mr. Lewis)and sharing cookies. These students have been wonderful mentors to my children, and we will really miss them at the end of their semester.

Count, Count, Count! -- 04-03-08

2008-04-03T09:14:11-05:00

Just watch all the ways we can count! This was filmed by Hayley M.

It's Covered With What? -- 03-31-08

2008-03-31T18:19:46-05:00

Can you tell what kinds of animal coverings we saw today? Some of these coverings felt very strange to us. Thank you Ms. Connors, for letting us see them.

Our Yackpack is Back! -- 03-29-08

2008-03-29T19:38:33-05:00

Look, grade one, our Yackpack is back! Maybe someone will call us in our classroom next week when we are back from our spring break.

Egg Hunt -- 03-23-08

2008-03-23T09:35:36-05:00

On Thursday, the Easter Bunny contacted our principal, Mr. Pandila, to say that he had scattered some eggs out in the field near our school. Sure enough, we were all able to find some. We're not sure why the Easter Bunny left some out before Easter, but we think maybe he had too many to carry in his basket on Easter.

Happy Easter!

Representing the Earth -- 03-22-08

2008-03-22T10:32:33-05:00

After looking at a globe and checking out where we lived on it, we went to Google Earth to see a different perspective. We also checked out where some of our blogging buddies lived. Later, each of the children drew and labeled their own earth using Kidpix, a program that we have on the computers in our lab. This is the earth that Jaymes drew, but you can check out each child's model on their blog.

Comparing Capacity -- 03-17-08

2008-03-17T19:18:53-05:00

Who wouldn't like a chance to play around with and pour these beads? When the students did today, they were actually trying to find out which of their two containers held the most. This video was filmed by Nate.

Crafting Again With Sandra -- 03-16-08

2008-03-16T10:37:33-05:00

Sandra came to our classroom again with her baskets full of wonderful craft supplies. Some paint, feathers, clay pots and glue later, we had a duck and a rabbit to take home for Easter.Thank you, Sandra (and our other helpers)!

Taking Home the XO -- 03-12-08

2008-03-12T22:33:06-05:00

At Mr. Shareski's suggestion, the children are going to take turns taking the XO home to "research" the ways it can be used. Today the first child got to take it home. We can't wait until he tells us what he has learned tomorrow!

Clay Bowls -- 03-11-08

2008-03-11T23:12:18-05:00

The Art Museum in Moose Jaw is displaying a wonderful collection of pieces made out of clay this month. Besides the art exhibit, we saw a brick, a pipe and some dentures, all of which were made out of clay. We also got a chance to make our own bowls out of clay. One of the students explains how in the video below. The filming was done by Reagan.

The Pied Piper -- 03-06-08

2008-03-06T21:21:15-05:00

Mr. Shareski brought an XO computer to our classroom for us to try for awhile. This tiny laptop is from the One Laptop Per Child initiative. Our bargain with Mr. Shareski is that he will let us use it as long as we will use it to learn. He's coming back in April to see what we have learned. Don't forget to let him know, grade one!

We're in Print -- 03-05-08

2008-03-05T22:26:21-05:00

This week I received copies of two publications with articles about what we are doing in our class. One was in a newspaper published by the International Reading Association and the other was in Connect Magazine . Perhaps it was the novelty, but the children were all very excited about seeing themselves and what they do represented in this way. It was interesting to me to see kids who see themselves published in a digital format every day be so thrilled about seeing themselves in print media. Have I given them the impression that one form of publishing is more significant? I hope not.

Animal Acumen -- 03-03-08

2008-03-03T20:56:27-05:00

We have just finished up a unit about animals. The students are keen to show you what we know. We were about to use Flixn , when we noticed that the site and all of our videos there are about to disappear. So instead, we used our best speaking skills to bring you this podcast . You'll have to click on the words-the regular podcast feature isn't working as is should. (I think our Yackpack has disappeared as well. The website is returning emails. Isn't that three strikes?)

Are You a Good Speaker? -- 02-22-08

2008-02-22T08:19:43-05:00

From the class who brought you "What Good Listeners Do", we now present "What Good Speakers Do".
This was filmed by Morgan.

Skating! -- 02-19-08

2008-02-19T20:32:51-05:00

This video is for our buddies in Austrailia , where it is summer right now. We fell down a lot, but we had an awesome time! Kayeigh did the camera work.

Blogging Buddies: The Unabridged Version -- 02-15-08

2008-02-15T15:05:24-05:00

Update: Patrick Lewis has added a comment to this entry that explains the benefits of our partnership for the students in ELNG 325. If you make it through this long post, read his comment as well.

I’ve written a couple of times about the partnership we have with Patrick Lewis’ ELNG 325 class at the University of Regina , but judging by the questions that I have been asked lately, I haven’t done a very good job of explaining what we are doing.
Patrick’s students are learning to teach writing to pre-K to grade three children. Each of them has been partnered with one of my children. One of the requirements for their class is that they comment on the blog entries of the child they are partnered with. They have been asked to comment on the content, word choice, spelling, punctuation and grammar of the children’s writing. To help them do this, I have provided them with the rubric I will be using to assess the children at the end of the year.
We are also having regular chats with our blogging buddies via the Yackpack at the top of this page. Our first conversations were “get to know you” times, but now the conversations are mainly about writing—how the students feel about it and what they can do to get better. We have these conversations every Tuesday and Thursday from 2:55 to 3:20. (Central Standard Time) If you would like to listen in, you are welcome. Unfortunately, our regular conversations will have to be interrupted for two weeks while the university buddies have their Reading Week, and then while we have our Winter Break, but we will be back having regular conversations on March 4th. Until then, we hope some of the buddies will be able to pop in occasionally via the Yackpack to say “hi”.
My children love this partnership. They look forward to the time each morning when I read aloud the comments that we received the night before. Patrick has emailed us pictures of his students, and it is common for my children to have the picture of their blogging buddy out on their desk while they are working, or propped up just inside their desk so that it is the first thing they see when they open their drawer. The university students are being wonderful role models and are truly making a difference to the writing of my children.
We also have approval to use this partnership as a source of research. The official title is “Can grade one students’ writing development be augmented through online support with pre-service teachers?” Each of the students completed an initial questionnaire with the help of one of the university students, and will complete another one at the end of the university semester. We will also be using samples of their online and off line writing at the beginning and end of the project for data.
I’m very interested to see what the findings are, but from what I have seen so far, I think I know which way the results will lean!

Are You a Good Listener? -- 02-12-08

2008-02-12T12:02:41-05:00

Do you know what good listeners do? These children do. (Hailey J. did the camera work for this video.)

One Hundred Days at Last -- 02-07-08

2008-02-07T21:27:04-05:00

Just look at all the great collections of 100 things the children brought in to share with their classmates.
After we looked at the different ways to make 100, the children set to work at stations, showing what they knew about this wondrous number. After completing each activity, the students earned a star for their headband.
The video below was filmed by Brendan and narrated by Duncan and shows some of the activities we did today.

Someone is Watching You -- 02-06-08

2008-02-06T21:19:15-05:00

I continue to be amazed at the power of our big blogging buddies at the University of Regina. Each morning, I show the students the comments that were made the night before, putting them up on the Smartboard at the front of the class. There is a common theme to these comments--some positive remarks along with some suggestions for improvement. This morning we noticed that one of the buddies had not started her sentence with a capital letter, even though remembering to use a capital letter was one of her comments to my student. My children all thought this was quite funny. This afternoon as the students blogged, another student wrote “You for got to make a. Kapidl I no your tring to do a wundrful gob .Tri to kep on going”. (For those of you who do not speak emerging writer, it says “You forgot to make a capital. I know you’re trying to do a wonderful job. Try to keep on going.” This is a perfect parody of the kind of comments that the “big” blogging buddies make. The power of modeling!

Pancake Day -- 02-05-08

2008-02-05T21:33:57-05:00

Yum, yum! Even Mr. Michaluk couldn't resist the delicious pancakes we ate this morning. Lots of parents sent cheese and fruit for us to share as well.

Guess what? Our friends in Austrailia ate pancakes today, too!

One Hundred Days-Coming Soon! -- 02-04-08

2008-02-04T20:49:15-05:00

It's getting very close to the one hundredth day of school. To help get us ready for such a big number, we participated in The 100th Day Project wiki by adding some pictures to the counting book page. Come and join in-there are still numbers left to demonstrate.

Do You See What I See? -- 01-31-08

2008-01-31T20:06:04-05:00

Snowsuits and Snakes -- 01-29-08

2008-01-29T16:56:19-05:00

Only thirteen hardy students made it to school today in the minus forty-nine degree Celsius wind chill weather. Fortunately, they all arrived bundled up like these two.

With so many children absent, we went to plan B. I let the children choose and vote on what they wanted to learn about for the day. They chose snakes, although dogs were close behind. We had a busy day listening, watching, drawing and making. In the video below, the students showed some of what they learned today about these slithering animals. Preston was our camera man today.

Do You Need It? -- 01-28-08

2008-01-28T16:28:45-05:00

We've been learning about the difference between a need and a want. The children in the video below know the difference. Do you? The camera work for the video was done by Nic.

That's What I'm Talking About -- 01-27-08

2008-01-27T09:05:17-05:00

In my last entry, I crowed about the great comments that our big blogging buddies at the University of Regina were making and how effective their comments were in helping my children with their writing. Below is an example of the great work that these college students are doing. This Sketchcast was made by Corrine for her blogging buddy Hayley M. to help her learn how to use captital letters, lower case letters and periods.
This is the real power of blogging and other web 2.0 tools in the classroom. We invite the world in to help us teach.

More Yacking -- 01-24-08

2008-01-24T17:23:32-05:00

We have had a couple of "getting to know you" sessions via the Yackpack with our blogging buddies at the University of Regina, and will have another one next week. After that, we will start having regular chats to discuss writing.

Having these "big" blogging buddies has already impacted the writing of the children. As we headed off to the computer lab the other day, instead of reminding the children about what good writers do, I asked them what kinds of things their blogging buddies would be looking for in their writing. Because I provided the U of R students with grade one end of year expectations and they have been using these to make comments on my students’ blogs (which I have been reading aloud so that all of the children benefit), the children easily told me. “A period at the end.” “Starting with a capital letter.” “Spaces between words.” “Sounding out the words.”

The remarkable thing was that as they wrote on their blogs that day, they obviously thought about their blogging buddy audience. Not only did some of them address their writing directly to their buddy, (for example, “I like your name and i oslu like you.”) but there were more periods, capital letters and spaces in evidence than I had ever seen in their writing before. An authentic audience is a powerful thing.

Mr. Lewis Tells Us Stories! -- 01-21-08

2008-01-21T17:33:20-05:00

Mr. Lewis came from the university to tell us some stories today. He is a master storyteller. He enthralled the children with Alligator Joe, a story about the Dog People and Too Much Noise. I recorded Too Much Noise as a podcast below. The sound is quite faint. It was my first time recording on my new MP3 player, and the device obviously has to be much closer than the last one that I used. He has promised to come out and tell us stories again, so I'll work something out for a louder sound by then.

Picture Stories -- 01-20-08

2008-01-20T17:45:15-05:00

I recently asked the students to draw a picture that told a story. They used KidPix, a computer drawing program that we have on the computers in our lab. There are some interesting "stories" to be seen on the students' blogs. If you can catch one of my students, ask for the oral version of events. We'll get to hear it in class next week!

An Animal Sort -- 01-18-08

2008-01-18T08:49:57-05:00

Check out some of the ways we can sort animals. This movie was filmed by Jaymes.

Subtracting with Sketchcast -- 01-15-08

2008-01-15T17:39:13-05:00

Today we tried out an online drawing program called Sketchcast . Since it has an eraser option, it seemed a perfect way to demonstrate what we know about subtraction. Registration is required, so all of the students had to take turns on my computer. We did encounter lots of difficulties with saving our work, (couldn't get the voice recording feature to work) and only five of the children actually got to have a turn today, but watch for the others to post their own subtractions stories on their blogs in the next few days. Here is Madison B's story about cookies.

A Yack -- 01-14-08

2008-01-14T17:20:58-05:00

This picture shows Mr. Lewis, who is a professor at the University of Regina, telling a story in our classroom last year. He is presently teaching a class of pre-service teachers who are learning how to teach writing to young children.
For this university semester, our classes are "buddying up". Each of his students will be reading and commenting on the blog entries of one of my students. This is an ideal partnership. His students get to be involved in the learning of an actual primary student, and my students get to have the knowledge that someone in another city will be regularly reading and commenting on their writing. We did this last year as well, and it was hugely successful.
Tomorrow, January 15th, from 3:00 until about 3:20, the buddies will be having an initial “get to know you” chat via the YackPack at the top of our page. (We wanted to use Skpye so that we could see each other with the webcam, but during a trial run today, we decided that the sound was just not good enough.) Later on this month, we’ll use the Yackpack to chat about my students’ writing as well.
If you are interested, you are welcome to listen in. You just have to have this blog open on your computer and your sound turned on.

Fantastic Day -- 01-10-08

2008-01-10T17:33:23-05:00

Today was Fantastic Day in our classroom. We learned how to spell really big words like publisher, supersonic and fantastic. Now, we can spell any word we want. One of the students (filmed by Riley) shows you how in the video below.

What is Your Tradition? -- 01-09-08

2008-01-09T15:56:03-05:00

We've been learning about traditions, and we'd like you to help us learn more. We have started a wiki that you can add to to assist us. Just click on the word “wiki” in the last sentence, and it will take you there. Follow the directions at the top of the page to add something.

What traditions do you have?

Double Trouble -- 01-07-08

2008-01-07T16:50:52-05:00

We have no trouble with doubles! Talen filmed this video as another student showed us what he knew about adding doubles. He knows how to count on, too.

From All of Us. . . -- 12-22-07

2007-12-22T14:01:32-05:00

Making Santas With Grade Seven/Eight -- 12-14-07

2007-12-14T16:01:12-05:00

Shhh! Christmas Secrets -- 12-13-07

2007-12-13T21:28:35-05:00

We made something special with Sandra, our special craft helper, today, but we have to cover it up because it's still twelve days until Christmas!

What We Are Good At -- 12-11-07

2007-12-11T15:02:03-05:00

We are good at a lot of things! We are so good that we made books to show all of the things we are good at. In the video below, we show you one of the pages from our book and tell you just one thing that each of us is good at. We are also good at making videos.

Yacking -- 12-10-07

2007-12-10T17:47:04-05:00

We've been talking about the different ways that people around the world celebrate Christmas. On Wednesday, we are going to talk via our Yackpack to Mrs. Schwichtenberg's grade one class in Colorado to see how they celebrate Christmas. If you would like to listen in, just open this page at 2:00 pm Colorado time or 3:00 pm Saskatchewan time on Wednesday, the 12th.

A Dinosaur Story -- 12-06-07

2007-12-06T15:44:04-05:00

While learning about addition today, we made up stories about animals and dinsosuars to share with each other. Below is one dinosaur story we heard told on our Smartboard.

Christmas Wishes -- 12-05-07

2007-12-05T20:36:06-05:00

It's the season for wishes! Each of the children made a wish (it had to be for someone else, not themselves) and wrote about it on his or her blog. They also recorded their wishes as a podcast. Have a listen by clicking on the top icon below each child's writing.

We Spilled the Beans! -- 12-03-07

2007-12-03T20:53:10-05:00

Thanks, Ashley, for doing a great job as a guest blogger. (See, it wasn't so hard, was it?) I can't wait until I can read your blog in my RSS account.

We started a new math unit today--addition and subtraction. Can you make a number story from the beans in this picture? Can you make more than one?

Slithering, Balancing, Waddling or Hopping? -- 11-28-07

2007-11-28T16:21:58-05:00

Guest blogged by Ms. Weseen
Today in Science we learned all about animal movements. We watched a video and observed how some animals can crawl, prance, balance, waddle, slither, hop and fly. We also watched as some animals moved quickly or slowly. Can you tell what animal we are representing in the picture?

What Number Did We Build? -- 11-27-07

2007-11-27T16:14:07-05:00

Guest blogged by Ms. Weseen
In math we are learning to build numbers between 10 and 20. We have been saying the "teen" numbers as "10 and _____ more". In this picture we have 10 students and 3 more. What does this equal?

Is It a Car, a Truck or a Plane? -- 11-23-07

2007-11-23T16:09:59-05:00

Guest Blogged by Ms. Weseen
I have been interning in Mrs. Cassidy's classroom for the past three months. It has been a wonderful experience and I have learned so much! Right now we are doing a thematic unit all about "motion". The students chose to represent a vehicle of their choice. The students not only took in to consideration the type of vehicle they were to create, but also the time of day, and the season. Check out their wonderful work!

Viewing -- 11-20-07

2007-11-20T08:39:32-05:00

Look at this wonderful picture, grade one. I would like you to tell me about the picture on your blog. What do you see? What do the colours in the picture tell you? What does the location (where they are) of the people in the picture tell you? Does the picture make you think of any questions? Does it remind you of anything? What do you like about this picure and why?
This picture if from Araleya's Flickr Photostream .

Sharing Our Growth -- 11-19-07

2007-11-19T08:22:40-05:00

The students proudly led our first parent/teacher/child conferences of the year. Each child explained to his parents a self-assessment that he had done, showed off what he had decided was his "best" work and discussed his goals and how each of us at the conference could help him to meet them. The students were justifiably pleased with themselves and excited to work towards the goals that we have set.

All About Five -- 11-14-07

2007-11-14T14:02:10-05:00

We know a lot about the number five! Today we showed all the things we knew on the Smartboard.

Wetpaint Wikis -- 11-12-07

2007-11-12T14:59:54-05:00

Wetpaint Wikis, which we are using for our Primary Math Wiki now offers ad free wikis for educational wikis. This is great news for us, as it unclutters the page for little eyes that are learning to sift through information on the Internet. The picture on the left was contributed by the 1M Gems in Brisbane, Austrailia to our Patterns in the Environment page.

Thanks for all the great comments you have been leaving for us, Little Gems.

What is Peace? -- 11-09-07

2007-11-09T14:47:08-05:00

This Sunday is Remembrance Day in Canada. It is a special day that we use to honour the men and women who fought to give us freedom and serve to keep us safe. This is our tribute.

We Can't Wait! -- 11-08-07

2007-11-08T17:07:05-05:00

The children are getting excited about our parent/teacher/child conferences that will be held next week. We have been talking about them for awhile, and today we practiced what we will say and do at the conferences. The children are planning to share a couple of pieces that they consider to be their best work, the results of a self-assessment that we did and their goals.

The self-assessment is particularly interesting. It is not easy for six year olds to rate how well they are able to do things (they just know that they are great at everything), but it is still an important process for them. I often have to smile as a child solemnly tells me that he can do all of the things on the self-assessment really well (these are end of the school year expectations) when I know that in reality he is not yet able to do any of them. It's that innocence and confidence that keeps me teaching primary.

Crawl in Smoke -- 11-06-07

2007-11-06T16:51:29-05:00

We know lots of things about keeping safe if there was ever a fire at school or at home. Just ask one of us to find out!

Representing Pumpkins -- 11-02-07

2007-11-02T18:42:14-05:00

Have you ever considered the lines, shape, texture and space of a pumpkin? After their representing lesson, all of the students in our class could tell you all about these things. In the picture, one of the students is sharing what she learned about pumpkins and showing the model that she made.

Carving Jack-o-lanterns -- 10-31-07

2007-10-31T21:37:44-05:00

What a great time we had with our grade seven reading buddies!

Lots of Witches -- 10-26-07

2007-10-26T22:02:19-05:00

Here are some of the gorgeous witches that the children made this week. If you would like to see more of them, or other photos from our classroom, you can click on the picture to the left. It will take you to our Flickr account. Just click on "Mrs. Cassidy's Class' Photo Stream.

Showing Off -- 10-25-07

2007-10-25T09:28:46-05:00

This week we had some visitors from Yorkton come to see how we use blogging in our classroom. We showed off our skills on KidPix, the drawing program that we use, by drawing a picture of our family. I was proud of the effort that the childrn put into trying to show what each member looked like, which one was the tallest, etc. Check out the wonderful pictures on the children's blogs.

Healthy Snacks -- 10-23-07

2007-10-23T15:20:22-05:00

Our class has been learning about which snacks are the best to eat so that we can have energy and learn. Click below to hear our reflections and what we have learned.

How to Make a Witch -- 10-19-07

2007-10-19T16:23:56-05:00

If you want to see what the finished witches look like, check this spot next week!

Another Busy Day -- 10-18-07

2007-10-18T17:18:03-05:00

Here is a small sampling of what was happening in our classroom today.

A Hen Named Jen -- 10-16-07

2007-10-16T13:13:34-05:00

What do hen, Jen and Ben have in common? They rhyme! The ability to hear and make rhymes is an important skill for children who are learning how to read.

Here are some things that you can do to help your child learn how to rhyme:
1. Read rhyming books, such as nursery rhymes aloud to your child.
2. Pick a word and see how many rhymes (silly ones, too) you can make with that word.
3. Make up a short rhyme and see if your child can put in the missing word such as "I fell off the bed and I hurt my _____."

Primary Math -- 10-12-07

2007-10-12T14:22:46-05:00

This year, we are cooperating with some other primary classes from around the world in math. All of the classes are posting pictures of what they have been learning so that we can learn from each other. So far, there are pages about patterning and a page about numbers in the environment. Take a look at what we have been learning at Primary Math . So far, nine classes have asked to join our wiki. If your class would like to join, just let me know and I'll send you an "official invitation".

Our Trip to the Art Museum -- 10-09-07

2007-10-09T18:29:19-05:00

We had an exciting and messy time mixing colours at the Art Museum today. We also got to view some very special art work. Ask your child what the primary colours are and what colours you get by mixing them. He should be able to tell you!

We Are Thankful! -- 10-05-07

2007-10-05T11:45:30-05:00

It's a good exercise for all of us to pause to think of all the things that we have to be thankful for. Today we did just that.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!

Gobble, Gobble, Gobble -- 10-04-07

2007-10-04T17:56:05-05:00

Just look at the fabulous turkeys we had after we worked so hard cutting that foam. Thank you, Sandra, Sharon and Robyn for helping us!

Ash from New Zealand -- 10-03-07

2007-10-03T18:14:33-05:00

We were excited (and a little scared!)to read that Mount Rupahu, which is a couple of hours from the school that our blogging buddies in New Zealand attend, started erupting smoke and ash last week. In our classroom, we have a piece of volcanic ash that the blogging buddies sent us last year from that very mountain. The children have spent a lot of time looking at it and wondering. . .

The Terry Fox Run -- 09-30-07

2007-09-30T20:19:09-05:00

Terry Fox is a Canadian hero. After losing one of his legs to cancer, he determined to run from one coast to another to raise money for cancer research. Sadly, his cancer came back and he died before he was able to complete his journey. Every September, Canadians run to raise money for cancer research in honour of what Terry Fox began.

It was a hot fall afternoon, but the grade ones doggedly walked over to Guthridge Field and ran on the track with the rest of the students from the our school. Well done, grade one!

Looking for Patterns in our School -- 09-27-07

2007-09-27T17:23:25-05:00

We tried out a new tool called Voice Thread today. I have tried it beore, but didn't use the "every child talks" function. We had a few whoops! but we'll get better next time. Once a comment has been saved, it seems to be impossible to get it off. Just click on the arrow in the middle to get it started.

A Bad Case of the Stripes -- 09-26-07

2007-09-26T18:15:47-05:00

If you want to grab all of the student's attention, all you have to do is open a book and start reading. A Bad Case of the Stripes, by David Shannon, is a great place to look for patterns, as the children discovered when our intern teacher, Ms Weseen, read it to them.

You can find patterns everywhere. The ability to see patterns is an important reading skill as well. Try looking for patterns around your house with your child today. See how many you can find and tell your child to me know!

Which One Does Not Belong? -- 09-24-07

2007-09-24T17:53:55-05:00

We found out today that there could be many ways that one person does not belong in a group. Can you name some of them?

Eating Healthy Snacks -- 09-21-07

2007-09-21T09:50:30-05:00

We have been talking about healthy snacks at school, with the goal of having the children realize that healthy snacks taste good and help them learn. It is my hope that they will continue to bring healthy snacks to school after this health unit is finished.

Thank you, thank you, thank you parents who have been sending such wonderful snacks to school. The children have loved them. The quietest times in my classroom so far this year have been while the children are eating their yummy snacks!

Sorting -- 09-18-07

2007-09-18T13:08:12-05:00

We have been learning how to sort things by one characteristic. We've had lots of fun with shapes, but today we got to sort buttons.

Look carefully. Can you guess our sorting rules?

Our New Toy -- 09-14-07

2007-09-14T21:44:01-05:00

Our classroom has a shiny new Smartboard! Today we tried it out together for the first time. There are lots of things that we SHOULD be able to do with a Smartboard, but I haven't figured out how just yet. We were able to play an online pattern game together, though. The children were eager to have their turn to come up to the front to chose the correct shape to complete the pattern.

If you'd like to play the Crazy Pattern Game, go to my webpage (see the links on the left side of the page), and click on Math Activities, then Numbers, then Foundations and then the Crazy Pattern Machine.

Incidentally, if you are reading this and are clever with a Smartboard, I have a question for you. Why is it that I can work the links, scrollbar and minimizing tools, but I can't close a window(even if it is in the middle of a page)or use the back arrow?

Parents Go Back To School! -- 09-13-07

2007-09-13T09:39:28-05:00

Parents went back in school last night to learn how their children will learn to read and how they can help them. If you see any of these dedicated caregivers, be sure to tell them how pleased you are that they are so interested in their child's education!

Setting Grade One Goals -- 09-11-07

2007-09-11T13:13:07-05:00

We spent some time today talking about what goals were (they're not just the nets we use to play hockey) and to discuss what things they should be learning at school this year. After that, each child set his/her own goal for the year.

This is a hard concept for six year old children, and many of their goals did not necessarily reflect the things that I had intended to teach in our classroom. These goals are important to the children, though, so we wanted to share them with you. It is just over three minutes long, and worth several smiles.

The Newest Bloggers -- 09-07-07

2007-09-07T16:55:17-05:00

The world wide web has 22 new bloggers! Just click on one of the chidren's names to the right to see their own pages. Each child chose his own background, his own title and what he wanted to say about himself. They have also written their first article. Leave a comment. They would love it.

Yackpacking -- 09-06-07

2007-09-06T13:34:23-05:00

A classroom of grade one students in Melville and their teachers, Ms. Gavel and Ms. Koval, yacked into our classroom yesterday. They had some great questions about what we were doing in our classroom and we asked them some questions back. It was interesting for the children to see that other classes in other places are doing many of the same things that they are doing.

If you would like to yack into our classroom, we'd love to talk to you. Just click on the yackpack at the top of the page and hold your mouseclick down while you talk into your microphone. It is just like a walkie-talkie.

Apples, Apples, Apples -- 09-04-07

2007-09-04T21:24:55-05:00

Just look at all the things we did with apples. At the end of the day, we made applesauce. Yum, yum!

My Many Coloured Days -- 09-02-07

2007-09-02T08:26:25-05:00

Have you ever noticed that some days seem to have their own colour? We read a Dr. Suess book that talked about just that, and we all agreed that some days were brown, black, red, green, etc. Sometimes the colour changes through the day. Here are some of the children's representations of what colour their day was when they woke up in the morning.

We're Back!! -- 08-29-07

2007-08-29T21:28:28-05:00

The first day of school. . .new friends, my own desk (not those tables we used in kindergarten),a new teacher, brand new school supplies and "frogs jumping in my tummy". It was exciting but a lot of work for children who are used to only half a day of school. It was 9:45 when the first child asked me "but when do we get to play"? The children laboured much of the day to complete a book that each of them took home to proudly "read" to their parents, but by the end of the day, we were actually able to spend a bit of time in cooperative play. I’m looking forward to a marvelous year as we learn together.

Parkhill Park -- 06-28-07

2007-06-28T09:36:11-05:00

It was a day of perfect weather when our class splashed and played their way through the afternoon at Parkhill Park. It was a great way to finish off the school year.
These pictures are especially for our blogging buddies in New Zealand who found ice on their bird bath this morning. In a few months, it will be our turn!

Our Reflections -- 06-27-07

2007-06-27T09:55:35-05:00

Over the past few days, we have been reflecting on our learning this year. We have talked about what we could do at the beginning of the year, and comparing it to where we are now. All of the children took home a written self-assessment about their learning, but we wanted to share some of the things we have learned via our blog. Enjoy.

Our Trip to Buffalo Pound Park -- 06-25-07

2007-06-25T21:34:45-05:00

It was a long, hot day, but the children had a terrific time looking at animal habitats, finding different kinds of vegetation and pond dipping.

Releasing Butterflies -- 06-22-07

2007-06-22T12:41:21-05:00

The tiny caterpillars that came into our classroom two and a half weeks ago each made a chrysalis, and then two days ago they began to emerge--as beautiful painted lady butterflies. This morning we set them free to lay their own eggs so that the cycle of life could continue.

The Best Thing About Mrs. Lowick -- 06-21-07

2007-06-21T16:24:14-05:00

Mrs. Lowick, our principal, is retiring this year. The students and staff will miss her very much. This is a tribute from some students from each of the classrooms in the school.

Comments -- 06-21-07

2007-06-21T09:42:51-05:00

We have our comments back! It was my mistake. A few months ago, David Warlick, the talented and thoughtful creator of this wonderful blogging tool, added a new approval tool at the request of some of the users. Since I continued to get emails (the former method of approving comments and articles) for the students' blogs, I assumed that I was getting all of the comments. When I checked this new tool the other day, I discovered that I was very wrong! Now, I have many, many comments that I need to take the time to approve and reply to.
After I had approved some of the comments, I realized that email addresses are lost once something has been approved. I would love to have responded to some of the comments, but am now unable to. I especially wanted to reply to some people who asked about collaborating. (Yes, yes, yes!) School is out for us in a little over one week until the end of August. During the summer, I will try to get in touch with those of you who left me your URL, but if I don't, I hope you read this and get back to me.

Our Baby Chicks -- 06-19-07

2007-06-19T15:11:52-05:00

We are now the proud parents of 25 baby chicks. They felt squirmy and soft in our hands and we loved hearing them peep and watching them sleep, walk, eat or do anything else. This morning, they had to go to the farm to grow up to lay more eggs.
This was a wonderful learning experience for the children. They will be blogging about it in the next few days, and I hope they will be able to capture the excitement and rapture that has been obvious in the classroom.

The Eggs are Hatching! -- 06-17-07

2007-06-17T16:48:32-05:00

Just look what I found when I came to turn the eggs today, grade one and two-eighteen peeping, pecking little chicks. Four more eggs have peck holes. I hope some of them wait until tomorrow to hatch so that we can watch them come out!

The Mystery of the Exploding Egg -- 06-14-07

2007-06-14T18:23:43-05:00

We've been anxiously waiting for our chicken eggs to hatch. They should be hatching next Monday, the 18th. Today when we opened the incubator to turn them, we found that one of the eggs had exploded, leaving yellow yolk on the sides and bottom of the incubator. What makes an egg explode? We don't know, do you? If you do, let us know by emailing cassidy.kathy@prairiesouth.ca. We'd love to have you comment, but comments have not been getting through to my blog. (Fortunately, this does not seem to be the case with the students' blogs.)

Showing What We Know -- 06-12-07

2007-06-12T18:15:51-05:00

"Quiet on the set! Action!"
One of the areas of our language arts curriculum is called representing. This loosely means "show what you know". Here is take four (they wanted to get it just right!) of my class showing what they know about different kinds of literature.

Planning and Preparing -- 06-11-07

2007-06-11T17:32:38-05:00

We spent some time today planning and getting things ready for a new video that we are making. (We love Flixn!) The picture should give you some hints about what it will be about. Stay tuned. . .

More Yacking -- 06-08-07

2007-06-08T17:56:36-05:00

As you can see by the comments on the video below, the yackpack is a popular item in our classroom. Periodically, we have people yack in and share our classroom for a few minutes. This is always followed by "can we see where they live on google earth?" and a trip over to the world map (originally intended to keep track of blogging buddies) to add another red pin. In this way, we have visited New Zealand, Wales, Israel and various locations in Canada and the U.S. Just today, someone from Niagara Falls, New York had a short chat with us.
The picture on the left is small and makes it difficult to see the thirteen pins representing the different locations from which people have yackpacked with us. If you would like to see a larger (and clearer) version, just click on the picture.
We'd love to chat with you, too. If we're in our classroom when you call, we'll answer!

Our First Video! -- 06-07-07

2007-06-07T11:40:46-05:00

Finally, a video that we can make in our classroom, with our webcam, and upload immediately. It isn't possible to edit it, but the children, on the third try, thought that they had gotten it right. Their concerns with the first two takes were about how close they had held the microphone and whether they had remembered to stand in the middle of the screen. The children that you see looking over their left shoulder are checking themselves out on the screen at the front of the room. Thanks, Mr. Harrington . Great find.

Peeking Into the Classroom -- 06-06-07

2007-06-06T17:59:15-05:00

You can listen in to what was happening in our classroom this afternoon (well, actually the classroom across the hall) as the children again read their reader's theatre. Just before we began, I put my MP3 recorder on one of the front desks, and the podcast below is the result. There are four separate performaces. It is more difficult to hear the children who were in the last group because that group was the largest, so some of them were farther from the recorder, but your child is worth listening to. Even though I have taught many children how to read, this time of year is always magic as they proudly show off their new skills.

Creepy Crawlers -- 06-05-07

2007-06-05T20:44:27-05:00

About 40 caterpillars came to our classroom today. We carefully put food in the bottom of some containers, put some air holes in the lids and gently placed the caterpillars inside. They tried hard to escape, but we were able to keep them inside. We are going to be watching them for the next three weeks. In about one week, they should begin to form a chrysalis.

Reader's Theatre -- 06-01-07

2007-06-01T17:44:11-05:00

For the past couple of weeks, we have been practicing our fluency, volume and expressive reading using reader's theatre plays. Today each group showed the rest of the class their "play" and a couple of groups even got to perform for some children in other classes. Those who didn't will get a chance to be the stars next week.

Yackpacking -- 05-30-07

2007-05-30T17:30:25-05:00

This afternoon, four of my students got a chance to yack with their blogging buddies in New Zealand. They loved it! There is something about having control of the mouse and clicking on that yackpack. . . Also, it forces my children to speak loudly enough to be heard and clearly enough to be understood. (Two curriculum objectives if I ever heard them.) I had a few queries about what the NZ kids were saying, but generally I think that my children are deciphering the NZ accent much better than before. In fact, at the beginning of the year, my kids wondered if they were speaking Spanish.

Someone from Jerusalem yacked in a few minutes before NZ, and stayed around to listen to the conversation. So did a couple of other people who didn't identify themselves. Tomorrow, four more of my children and four of hers will get together for a chat. If you're interested to hear them, we'll be chatting on the Yack Pack on Ms. Hayes' blog at 3:00 Central time for us and 9:00 the next morning in New Zealand.

Primary Plant Project -- 05-30-07

2007-05-30T11:01:39-05:00

We spent some time recently looking at the Primary Plant Project ,a wiki created by primary teachers to show what their classes have been learning about plants. We were interested to see that while the tree we have been taking pictures of this spring is getting more and bigger leaves, the leaves on the tree in Ms. Hayes playground in New Zealand are changing colour and falling off.
It was interesting to see the seeds and sprouts of different kinds of crops on Ms. Gauley's page , and to see what seeds that had just sprouted looked like in Ms. Knee's kindergarten class in New Hampshire.
One of our pages of the wiki has a mystery. We have a theory about why our wheat plants turned yellow, but we're not sure. Take a look at our page and let us know what you think, especially if you have experience growing wheat!
If you would like to join our project, just follow the directions on the first page , or comment on this blog entry.

Habitat Reports -- 05-27-07

2007-05-27T18:29:02-05:00

Recently, the grade twos completed habitat reports that they had been working on with our teacher-librarian, Ms. Arndt. Last Friday, they shared them with the class. We were impressed! They have learned a lot about habitats and about presenting their work aloud to the other students. Now, they are experts! If you see one of them, ask them to tell you about the habitat that they chose.

Google Earth -- 05-22-07

2007-05-22T18:20:02-05:00

A comment from Paul Harrington about one of his students asking "Please Sir, where is Moose Jaw?" prompted me to "show" my children where each of the blogging classrooms on the left of our page are using Google Earth. Taighah summed it up when she blogged, "we went on the computur and saw the earth we went all the way down and saw roads and houses", and Kayd echoed all of the children's feelings when he said "Google Earth is cool. This is so cool." The children who were here this afternoon (the flu is sweeping through the classroom) all drew and labeled their own "earth". Check out their awesome drawings.

Baby Pheasants -- 05-18-07

2007-05-18T09:48:33-05:00

We've received lots of questions and comments lately about what is happening with our pheasant eggs. Despite our careful nuturing, none of them hatched. The representative from the Canadian Wildlife Federation (who gave us the eggs) and I have discussed why this might have happened, but none of the reasons had anything to do with the care they received in our classroom. The WF gave eggs to several classrooms in the city, and none of them had good hatches, although only ours had none.

To show the children what the baby pheasants looked like, Mr. Dodd kindly brought six pheasants that had hatched at his home to our classroom for the day so that we all had a chance to hold and watch them. To say the children were excited would be an understatement. The loud peeping kept us distracted all day.
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I'm a Star! -- 05-16-07

2007-05-16T18:13:05-05:00

We're all stars! Today, after we talked about the uniqueness of each person, each of the children chose their favourite place in the classroom to have their picture taken. (It's interesting to see how many chose the computer.) All of the children thought about some thing that made them a "star". We have a display about this in our classroom, but we decided to share how wonderful we are with our blog readers as well. We have a podcast of our star qualities, but I'm having difficulty with uploading at present, so I'll add it when I've solved the "technical difficulties".

Problem solved. Enjoy.

Wild Backgrounds -- 05-15-07

2007-05-15T18:21:53-05:00

The grade nines that I helped out yesterday had such a good time with the new background tool in Blogmeister that I gave my students a chance to try it, too. There are some wild backgrounds and text colours that I confess make it difficult for me to read, but the students each thought that the colours they had chosen were the best and yes, they thought they could still read the words very well. Check out some of their choices.

"Big" Bloggers -- 05-14-07

2007-05-14T13:18:05-05:00

This morning I was invited to a local high school to introduce a class of grade nine students to the world of blogging. As a teacher who usually works with 6-7 year olds, it was amazing to me how quickly they caught on. They are truly digital natives. By the end of one hour, almost all of the students had customized their backgrounds, found an image that they wanted and put it on, written a short article assigned by their teacher and commented on the work of at least one other student. Even the ESL (English as a Second Language) students were right with me. One student even figured out how to italicize her article, and searched and found the coding to change the font of her title.

Just as with my students, there were smiles when I pointed out the number of reads they had had already and more grins when they got comments from their peers. Just as with my children, they want an audience! They are now connected to the world.

Last night I told my daughter, who also goes to high school, what I was going to be doing today. “I wish my teachers would have us blog” was her comment. I wish they would, too. I’d be happy to come and help. Any takers?

They're Hatching Soon! -- 05-13-07

2007-05-13T16:32:51-05:00

For the past three weeks, we have been faithfully turning the pheasant eggs that are in an incubator in our classroom. Beginning tomorrow, May 14th, they should start to hatch. It is hard to concentrate on something else when the eggs are cracking and peeping, so we will spend a lot of time watching them. We'll keep you posted about what is happening!

Don't Peek -- 05-10-07

2007-05-10T16:00:44-05:00

Sandra visited again today and we made an awesome Mother's Day craft that we can't show you because our mom's might be looking. We covered up our desks just in time! If you are a mom, have a happy day on Sunday.

A Trip to the Clutural Centre and Art Museum -- 05-08-07

2007-05-08T17:59:56-05:00

This morning we took a bus to the Cultural Centre and had a look at some clay work by Wendy Parsons. She likes to do clay animals. Then, we walked over to the Art Museum, where we got to make and paint our own clay bowls. Christy will let them dry for a week and then fire them in their kiln. After finishing our project, we had a hands-on time in the discovery centre. (Just look at the pictures above to see how much we enjoyed our morning.)The Moose Jaw Museum and Art Gallery and the programs it provides are jewels in our community.

Bicycle Safety with Constable Rice -- 05-07-07

2007-05-07T15:49:08-05:00

Today we learned some great safety rules about riding our bikes and WE GOT SOME HOMEWORK from Constable Rice.

Here are some things to discuss at home:
How should your helmet fit?
Where should you ride your bike?
What hand signals do you know?

Our Amazing Wheat Plants -- 05-06-07

2007-05-06T17:40:31-05:00

Our amazing wheat plants have continued to thrive. We planted them 17 days ago, and they are now 28-29 centimetres tall. Hmmm. I think I feel a math problem coming next week.

Most of the children are wondering when it will start to look like the ready-to-harvest-wheat that we got last fall to send to our blogging buddies in New Zealand. If you know the answer to that question, please let us know.

Pigs, Pigs, Pigs -- 04-30-07

2007-04-30T19:34:21-05:00

What do you know about pigs? The children in my class know a lot. Just look at the wonderful pigs they made and listen to them tell you what they know in the podcast below.

Primary Plant Project -- 04-27-07

2007-04-27T09:44:33-05:00

Our wheat plants have continued to thrive. Yesterday, we were able to compare what we are learning in our classroom about plants with what a kindergarten class in New Hampshire did when they grew wheat, and ask them a question about what they had done. We did this through the sharing of the Primary Plant Project a wiki that links primary classes learning about plants. We're excited to see what other classes are learning. If your class would like to join, pop over and have a look at this beginning project. Come help us learn and we'll help you!

Finding Fractions -- 04-24-07

2007-04-24T15:29:50-05:00

We had a noisy time finding fractions in the classroom today, but the children found some great examples.

Look at it Grow! -- 04-23-07

2007-04-23T17:00:16-05:00

Our wheat plants are growing at an incredible rate. We planted them six days ago, and now some of the sprouts are 7-8 cm high. We had a great time observing, measuring, and recording what is happening to our plants.

Pheasant Eggs -- 04-20-07

2007-04-20T18:15:23-05:00

For the next 25 days, we are the guardians of 29 pheasant eggs. It is our job to turn them every day and to make sure that they stay warm and moist. We can't wait until they hatch! Stay tuned.

Seven Thousand Words -- 04-19-07

2007-04-19T18:30:03-05:00

If a picture is worth 1000 words, here are 7000 words about why I love to teach primary.

Yackpacking -- 04-16-07

2007-04-16T18:29:35-05:00

The kids and I had lots of fun with the yackpack today. In the morning, we had a quick talk with some teachers who were learning how to blog in North Battleford. A grade one teacher from Florida called next to ask about using some of the wonderful pictures that the children have made on KidPix in a project she is doing. This afternoon, we had a four-way conversation between us, that same Florida teacher, Paul Harrington in Wales and Jody Hayes in New Zealand. When we weren’t talking, they just enjoyed watching the number in the bottom corner to see how many people were on the blog.

We also had a conversation with a “stranger” who said he wasn’t from town (although the kids thought he sounded suspiciously like the vice-principal). He asked some personal questions like the colour of someone’s hair and whether anyone would like to meet him at the Mac store for a slurpie. Although tempted, the children knew the right answer to these questions. If the buzz in my classroom is any indication, there will be some yackpacking going on tonight from home.

Try Out This Walkie Talkie -- 04-13-07

2007-04-13T17:27:50-05:00

Here's something that I am trying out that I got from Clarence and Anne's blogs. You use it just like a walkie talkie. If you have a microphone, just click on the icon to talk. If I'm at my computer, I'll answer.

Update: Here are some things that I have learned about using this tool over the past 24 hours.

If it isn't working, you can try refreshing your page. That has solved the difficulties so far. (You also need to hold down the mouse button while you talk--just like a walkie-talkie.)

The number in the lower right-hand corner of the yackpack icon indicates how many people are on the page and could theoretically be in on the conversation. I had a three-way conversation this afternoon.

If you use the yackpack and someone (anyone!) has the webpage open, they will hear what you say. Take care!

Update 2 - I've moved the Yackpack to the top of the page.

Easter Egg Hunt -- 04-10-07

2007-04-10T22:54:34-05:00

This album is powered by BubbleShare - Add to my blog What do you get when you combine egg-shaped clues, squeals of delight and two classes of excited children? You get a wonderful way to end the week before our spring break--an Easter egg hunt. Thanks, Ms. D's class, for making it for us!

Our Blogging Buddies Visit! -- 04-04-07

2007-04-04T19:53:36-05:00

Today our blogging buddies from the Univeristy of Regina came out to visit us! The children have been hoping for this ever since they first heard about the buddies in January. Once the buddies arrived, we were all kept very busy and no one had time to be nervous.

First of all, each of the children drew a portrait of their buddy using KidPix, and then blogged about their buddy while the university students watched and offered encouragement. Then, it was off to the library where Mr. Lewis (their professor) retold us two of our favourite stories (you can hear them on the podcast below). Lastly, we went back to our classroom where we shared cookies and thanked our buddies for helping us learn how to be good writers.

This mentorship experience has been awesome for the children. They have been excited to read the comments of their buddies every time they got one (although sometimes they took a long time for the grade ones to read!). Talking to the education students on Skype and having Patrick Lewis come out to tell us stories have been highlights of the year. Thank you, blogging buddies, for the way you have inspired my children.

Carrying and Fact Families -- 04-03-07

2007-04-03T21:39:54-05:00

Today the children's blogs are about math concepts we've been learning. My instructions to them today when we went to the computer lab were to write about and illustrate what they knew about "carrying" (the grade twos) and "fact families" (the grade ones). Check and see the awesome ways that they explained their learning.

Just Look What I've Learned! -- 03-30-07

2007-03-30T15:28:49-05:00

Over the past week we have had parent/teacher/student conferences. Each of the children chose what they considered to be their best work to share with their parents. They also shared the goals that they had set for themselves for the rest of the school year.

I was very proud of you as you led the conferences, grade one and two. You've learned a lot and you were very professional as you showed it to your parents.

After a couple more months of school, we'll revisit our goals to see how we are doing.

Making Easter Pots -- 03-29-07

2007-03-29T18:41:43-05:00

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Sandra came back to visit today, and brought another fabulous craft with her. We painted, dabbed, and glued until we had a wonderful Easter pot. If you would like to see the finished product, just use the coin to scratch below:

The Important Thing About a Wiki -- 03-27-07

2007-03-27T19:40:39-05:00

Primary teachers have been using The Important Book by Margaret Wise Brown for many years with their children who are learning how to write. The simplicity, repetition and imagery in the book make it an excellent model for the children to follow. Today I used this book as I taught the children how to use graphic organizers to help them to sort out the things they want to write. We chose a wiki as the thing we wanted to write about together, and the paragraph below is entirely written by the children—ideas, order, words and editing. I was excited because not only did they understand the process that I wanted them to follow later on their own, but because they so get what wikis are all about! Here is what they wrote:

The important thing about a wiki is that anyone can edit it. A wiki can be about almost anything and you can comment when you edit. It can have 1000 names . You can put pictures on it or not, but the most important thing about a wiki is that anyone can edit it.

Check out the children’s blogs to see how they followed this patterned writing on their own.

Mr. Lewis Visits Again -- 03-26-07

2007-03-26T20:11:16-05:00

We had a rolicking good time when Mr. Lewis came back to tell us more stories today. He retold an old favourite from last time - Alligator Joe - and told us some great new ones like The Wide-Mouthed Frog, How the Birds Got Their Clothes, and The Stonecutter and the Mountain Fairies. As was the case last time, the children were enthralled.

I tried to make a podcast of the occasion as the children would love to listen to the stories again and again, (and everyone else should be able to hear the wonderful stories he tells) but had technical difficulties with saving from my MP3 player. Sorry, grade one and two!

Setting Goals -- 03-20-07

2007-03-20T17:20:40-05:00

How do you know where want to be unless you set some goals? Today both the grade ones and twos set a reading goal for themselves. By the end of the year they would like to . . . We are going to share these goals with our parents at student-led interviews next week, but today we are sharing the things we will do to help us reach the goals in the form of a podcast.

Making Bread -- 03-15-07

2007-03-15T21:28:20-05:00

Although we tried crushing the wheat to make the bread, we found out it was a lot of work to get enough flour to make a loaf of bread! It tasted great and made the classroom smell fabulous while it was cooking.

Some Mighty Cool Cats -- 03-14-07

2007-03-14T16:59:40-05:00

Even six and seven-year-olds can copy and paste html.

Communication -- 03-13-07

2007-03-13T09:41:30-05:00

In a recent social studies class, we made a web from a brainstormed a list of all the ways we communicate. When I saw the ways that the students had come up with, I suggested that they circle in red all of the ways that they communicate that their parents could not have. As the picture above shows, there has been a significant shift in this generation.

Noodle Pudding -- 03-09-07

2007-03-09T16:38:46-05:00

This week we read a great book called Grandma and the Pirates by Phoebe Gilman . We thought that grandma's noodle pudding must be very yummy if it caused the pirates to kidnap her to be their cook, so we made some to try it. Some of the children thought it was delicious, but some were not as keen.

You can try it yourself and see what you think.

Skyping Again -- 03-08-07

2007-03-08T17:09:13-05:00

The children who had not yet connected with their university blogging buddies got to do so today. Most of the children were rather shy about talking, but they were all thrilled to have their turn with the microphone and webcam.

One of the buddies had a great joke that made the whole class giggle. Why didn't six want to be next to seven? If you know the answer, send it to us.

Again, the quality is not great, but the podcast of our conversation is below.

Read, Read, Read -- 03-06-07

2007-03-06T19:40:31-05:00

Sometimes I think that primary teachers sound like a broken record. (You know, that OLD technology.) Read, read, read. At the risk of being too repetitive, I need to talk about it again. While I was away, the resource teacher was doing some benchmarking of the children in my class to check their reading levels. I was very happy with the progress of all the children, but the children whom I know are regularly reading at home did especially well. While there is really is no substitute for consistent practice of any skill, and this is especially true of reading. Keep up the good work, parents!

Microsoft Regional Innovative Teachers Conference -- 03-02-07

2007-03-02T23:20:19-05:00

I've seen lots of interesting things in my time here, but I've been busy working, too. I collaborated with a group of teachers from all over Asia to make up some lessons about Angkor Wat, the anicient temple in this picture. Also, I've been busy talking to other teachers about the things they do in their classroom with technology. The picture here was taken of me and the other Canadian teachers just before we presented our work. This has been an enriching and stretching experience. It has been exciting to learn from other teachers.

Images from Cambodia -- 02-28-07

2007-02-28T22:20:34-05:00

Look at this Cambodian instrument. It looks a lot like the instruments that you play with Mrs. Ludwar.

People who were visiting Cambodia could pay to have a ride on these elephants.

Would you like to sleep on this bed?

Driving a Tuk Tuk -- 02-26-07

2007-02-26T15:41:09-05:00

Actually, I didn't really get to drive it grade one and two, but tuk tuks are lots of fun to ride in. They don't have seat belts, so they are a little scarey.

I'm watching for your blogs. Where are the rest from the red group?

Narita -- 02-25-07

2007-02-25T20:21:58-05:00

Right now I am in Asia as part of the Microsoft Innovative Teachers program. This is a fabulous opportunity and I am thrilled to be able to participate.

Grade one and two, I took these pictures in the airport in Japan. Can you see what I could buy at the airport? Look how much it costs.

What do you think the other picture is?

The One Thousandth Name -- 02-21-07

2007-02-21T21:09:54-05:00

We did it! We now have a collection of 1000 names. We began our wiki on November 6th so it has taken us just under 4 months to accumulate the names. Thank you, thank you and thank you to all of you who took the time to add your name to our wiki. This is a break week for us, but the children will be thrilled when they go back to school next week.

Skyping -- 02-15-07

2007-02-15T17:24:21-05:00

This afternoon we got to talk to our blogging buddies from the University of Regina via Skpye. Both Mr. Lewis and myself had webcams, so we were all able to see each other as we talked. My children were a bit shy, but loved the experience and were captivated by the images on the screen.

I recorded our conversation using Power Gramo. Unfortuantely, there is quite a bit of feedback and an echo. If anyone who is reading this is techie minded and knows how to get rid of that, PLEASE let me know. To listen to our conversation, just click on the top icon below.

Hearts and More Hearts -- 02-13-07

2007-02-13T17:48:22-05:00

Over one third of our class was absent this afternoon. Flu season has truly arrived in our classroom. The rest of the class made some hearts to share with their friends and to share with others at Heart to Heart Around the World.

Telling a Tale -- 02-12-07

2007-02-12T16:57:17-05:00

Legends and folktales came alive for the students as Mr. Lewis, who teaches the university students who are our blogging buddies, told stories in our classroom. The children and I were entranced! We're looking forward to when he comes back to our classroom to tell more stories. Parents, ask your children about the stories that he told. They will be excited to share.

You can see more pictures of our time together by clicking on the photo above.

The 100th Day of School -- 02-08-07

2007-02-08T16:39:47-05:00

Please Help -- 02-08-07

2007-02-08T13:13:38-05:00

If you are a primary teacher who is using wikis with your class, or you know of primary teachers who are using wikis, please let me know. Besides just being curious (which I am), I am doing a session about using web 2.0 tools in primary classrooms and would like to be able to include more examples of wikis. Where are you primary wiki-ers?

Pyjama Day -- 02-06-07

2007-02-06T17:02:45-05:00

Recently, some of the children left their pyjamas on when they came to school for Westmount's Pyjama Day. What is it about the very cold weather that makes us think of staying in our pj's?

The wind chill has been below -25 degrees Celcius for the past week, so we have had indoor recesses. We're all (teacher included) getting a little squirrely. . .

"You Don't Say" -- 02-01-07

2007-02-01T17:04:24-05:00

Mosaic -- 01-31-07

2007-01-31T18:22:35-05:00

On a cold winter's day, we stayed warm inside. Enjoy the montage of some of the things we did together.

Wow! -- 01-29-07

2007-01-29T17:20:20-05:00

My children are very proud of themselves. Following an idea in the Class Blogmeister mailing group, I had the students make up their own text for the wizard to generate and then copy and paste the html into their blogs. They were very impressed with themselves, especially when a few older students who wandered into the computer room while we were working indicated that they had no idea what html was.

Curriculum Clarity -- 01-27-07

2007-01-27T12:05:28-05:00

For over a year, I have been privileged to work with a group of grade one teachers and representatives from the department of education. We have been endeavoring to distill the hundreds of curriculum objectives for grade one into a clearer format. We chose to work with the language arts curriculum. All of us in the group had taught grade one for several years, and we knew where we wanted our students to be by the end of the year, but we wanted a clearer focus about where our students should be throughout the year, particularly at the reporting periods. Also, while we all felt confident assessing reading and writing, we felt less comfortable with areas such as viewing and representing. After much discussion, it was decided to use rubrics to help to clarify our thinking. With much sweat and rewording (and rewording and rewording) we have struggled through the curriculum. After each time we met together, we would take the rubrics back to our classroom and match them up against what was happening there. Then we would go back and do some more rewording. When we met together this time, we continued work an assessment piece that would match the rubric. There is just a bit of rewording left to do (we hope).

This experience has been some of the best professional development I have ever had. It has given me much more confidence in my knowledge of the curriculum and the way that I deliver it in my classroom. Those 659 objectives just might be attainable after all.

Making Letters -- 01-24-07

2007-01-24T17:32:23-05:00

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Just for fun, we made some letters with our bodies in the gym today. We made all sorts of letters by ourselves and with one or two buddies. Then we made the word above. Can you figure out what it says?

Can You Name Our Patterns? -- 01-23-07

2007-01-23T16:58:09-05:00

Can you name the patterns that the children used to make these works of art? Some of them are tricky!

Teachers Blogging -- 01-20-07

2007-01-20T22:09:17-05:00

Today a dedicated group of teachers was hard at work blogging in our computer lab. Our local reading council sponsored the workshop. I had set up a blog account ahead of time for each of the teachers, but even with that already in place, I was impressed with how quickly they learned how to navigate the tools of Classblogmeister. I'm looking forward to seeing their children's work. (I have your URL's and I'll be watching!) By the way, the cinnamon buns were delicious.

Building Towers -- 01-19-07

2007-01-19T17:00:41-05:00

We've started a new unit in math about geometric shapes. Our first activity was to build towers with some 3-D shapes. In our discussion afterwards, we talked about which shapes were the best for building with and why. Below are pictures of the towers we made, along with each group's comments about things they had learned while making them.

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Safety First! -- 01-17-07

2007-01-17T16:51:00-05:00

In Health, we have been discussing safety rules of all kinds, but particularly on the playground and on the street. Today the children showed me what they had learned by illustrating a safety rule. One swimming rule seemed to be particularly popular. You can see which one by checking out the children's blogs. Mason's picture on the left shows "obey traffic signs".

Making Snowmen -- 01-16-07

2007-01-16T08:36:30-05:00

Ms. D's grade six and seven students came into our classroom to help us make snowmen. They were very patient and helpful and we now have frosty snowmen hanging from our roof. Thank you Ms. Derdall's class!

Describing Words -- 01-13-07

2007-01-13T21:14:40-05:00

Could you choose one word that described you? We've been trying to make our writing more interesting by adding describing words to what we write. After we read a book that had lots of wonderful adjectives in it, these children each chose a word to describe themselves. (Many of them were from the book we read.) Let us know if you can think of a describing word about yourself. My word is "content".

Graphs, Graphs, Graphs -- 01-11-07

2007-01-11T08:44:53-05:00

This month we're doing some graphing. Yesterday we made the graphs on the left of the favourite colours of the kids in our class. What colour do you think the really tall line in the middle represents?

We also made a graph of our favourite foods. Again, there was clearly a prefered food. We started wondering whether the graph would look the same if other people chose their favourite food. To find out, we set up a wiki. Pop over and add your name and where you are from in the appropriate column. Help us find out whether the graph will change.

We're Back! -- 01-08-07

2007-01-08T17:06:50-05:00

We're back and hard at work. For the next few months, we're going to have some special people reading and commenting on our blogs. The students in Patrick Lewis's "learning how to teach writing" class at the University of Regina will all be paired with one of my children for the next few months. This seems like an ideal match. The students get to see the actual development of a child's writing skills and to contribute to that development. My students get to have someone regularly reading their blogs and leaving comments for them. Today when I told the students about it there was a corporate intake of breath and a "yay!".

Welcome. I'm excited about the possibilites of this pairing.

Season's Greetings from Grade One and Two -- 12-22-06

2006-12-22T12:48:39-05:00

Podcasting for Christmas -- 12-21-06

2006-12-21T17:03:59-05:00

We have been doing some Christmas writing this week, so today we each recorded one of the things we had written on a Christmas podcast. You won't be able to see the words, but if you click on the top icon under the article's title, you will be able to hear the child read his/her article aloud. The grade ones are still emerging writers, so theirs are quite short and reflect the things that are significant to them at this season. The grade twos are beginning to write imaginary stories, and some of them even show evidence of a problem/solution and beginning to edit their own work. Just click on one of the names on the right hand side and have a listen.

We're Almost There! -- 12-20-06

2006-12-20T19:06:19-05:00

As I am writing this, we have 783 names on our 1000 name wiki. We hope to collect -- you guessed it--1000. We're getting close. Can you help us by adding your name? Just click here.
The "how to's" are at the top of the wiki page.

Christmas Secrets -- 12-19-06

2006-12-19T16:59:59-05:00

What are the kids in room 2 doing with all those jigsaw puzzles? Shhh! Christmas secrets!

And The Winner Is . . . -- 12-18-06

2006-12-18T16:55:52-05:00

The voting is finished in our classroom. The children in Room 2 have voted Martin Bridges: Ready For Takeoff as the Willow Award Winner. We'll have to wait until March to see what other classes thought.

Voting for the Willow Awards -- 12-15-06

2006-12-15T17:47:42-05:00

Over the past couple of weeks, we have been reading the books that have been nominated for the Willow Awards. The winner of this award is chosen by the children who read or listen to the stories. Today, we all voted in a private ballot for the book of our choice. The results should be tabulated by Monday. Stay tuned for our classroom results.

Christmas Store -- 12-12-06

2006-12-12T17:08:49-05:00

Today we shopped for Christmas presents for our parents and other relatives at the Christmas store in the gym. Gently used items were donated and cost 25 cents, 50 cents or one dollar for us to purchase. The money went to pay for the wrapping paper. The Warriors came and wrapped gifts for us in the morning, and the football players from Riverview were our celebrity wrappers in the afternoon. The children all excitedly purchased gifts for their family and took them home to proudly place them under the tree.

Making Snowmen Banners -- 12-12-06

2006-12-12T08:56:36-05:00

We had a great time making a craft with Sandra. Just click on the "play" button on the Bubbleshare above to see what we did.

Schools in the Past -- 12-07-06

2006-12-07T08:57:48-05:00

The grade twos have started a "Schools in the Past" wiki. This week, they are interviewing their grandparents or parents to find out how schools have changed. If you went to school "in the past", pop over to the wiki and record your answers to the questions on the wiki. We'd love to have a record of where you went to school in the optional box at the bottom of the edit page.

HOJA! -- 12-05-06

2006-12-05T17:11:57-05:00

Who can make their voices sound like musical instruments, kick their legs up higher than their heads, and entertain a gymnasium full of laughing children? Hoja can. The children clapped, sang and did the actions along with this energetic group of guys. Most of the children chose to blog about their Hoja experience today. Check out what they said by clicking on their names on the right hand side.

Paper Chains -- 12-04-06

2006-12-04T20:34:22-05:00

It's hard to wait until Christmas. To help us count down the days, we made a paper chain. Each night we get to take one link off of our chain. When the chain is gone, it is Christmas Eve!

We Have Snow! -- 11-28-06

2006-11-28T13:55:53-05:00

This picture is for blogging buddies in New Zealand and North Carolina. Do you see one of the children trying to catch snowflakes on his tongue? We're happy when it snows because we can play in it. Mrs. Cassidy is not as happy because sometimes the roads are icy and slippery.

One Thousand Names -- 11-25-06

2006-11-25T10:22:46-05:00

We're almost halfway there! If you haven't yet added your name to our 1000 name wiki, please pop over to the link on the left hand side and add your name to our list. The instructions are at the top of the wiki.

Learning and Setting Goals -- 11-22-06

2006-11-22T14:20:27-05:00

Today we spent some time talking about the things that we needed to learn in math this year, and the things that we had already learned. We now have a chart in our classroom that we can look at to check our progress. Each student did some thinking and writing about some things already learned and some things yet to be learned. After we had shared it with each other, we decided to share it with you! You can hear what the students had to say about their learning by clicking on the top link below.

Mary Shaw -- 11-21-06

2006-11-21T16:45:46-05:00

Just look at the special visitors who were at our school this morning! Mary Shaw, author of the Brady, Brady books, came to read us two of her stories, and she brought Chester with her! All of the children dressed up in sports jerseys to honour her coming.

The Miracle of the Christmas Tree -- 11-20-06

2006-11-20T17:17:40-05:00

If you're wondering what the spiders we were making in the pictures above have to do with a Christmas tree, you'll have to ask one of the students in my class about wonderfulUkrainian Christmas story we heard at the Art Museum today.

What Would You Do? -- 11-17-06

2006-11-17T21:10:45-05:00

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What could YOU do with all these shapes?

Dinosaurs--We Know it All -- 11-15-06

2006-11-15T20:29:00-05:00

Just look at some of the fabulous dinosaur posters that some of the grade two children made. To see the rest of the posters, just click on the picture and see the rest in our Flickr account. We are, sadly, finished our dinosaur unit. It was a lot of fun.

Now, the grade twos are going to study magnets, and the grade ones will learn about their five senses.

Constable Rice -- 11-14-06

2006-11-14T17:21:10-05:00

How can we stop bullying? This week we are having an emphasis on bullying prevention in our school. Constable Rice visited today to show us a video and talk to us. Did the boy in the video make the right choice?

Space Suit -- 11-11-06

2006-11-11T22:22:50-05:00

Hi grade one and two! Look what I found in Philadelphia. A space suit! I'll see you on Monday.

1000 Names -- 11-07-06

2006-11-07T16:13:25-05:00

Children often find it difficult to understand how big a number really is. On the hundredth day of school, we'll look at what 100 looks like, but we have been wondering what 1000 looks like. We wanted to collect 1000 of something, so we decided to collect 1000 names on a wiki.

Can you help us to get 1000 names? Just click on the link on the left-hand side of the page and add your name. You can add the names of people in your family, too. If you have never edited a wiki before, the instructions are at the top of the page. Thanks for helping us!

What is Peace? -- 11-05-06

2006-11-05T16:58:04-05:00

Peace is having friends. Peace is sleeping. Peace is no war. Peace is me and my sisters. Peace is no fighting. These are some of the answers by children in our class. What do you think peace is?

Halloween Dance -- 11-02-06

2006-11-02T15:01:30-05:00

What do you have when a whole class of children dresses in orange and black and dances in the gym with all of the kindergarten to grade three students from our school? A lot of fun!

Carving Pumpkins -- 10-30-06

2006-10-30T21:57:12-05:00

Just look at some of the gorgeous pumpkins that we carved with our reading buddies. Thank you grade seven!

How Big Were They? -- 10-28-06

2006-10-28T17:06:51-05:00

Just how big were those dinosaurs? To find out, we went out into the playground, measured and stood along the length of their bodies. Can you see someone with their hands in the air at the other end of this line of children? That would be the other end of a diplodocus. We're glad there wasn't a real one out there!

Signing -- 10-27-06

2006-10-27T10:09:45-05:00

Two mothers of children in our class came in to teach us how to do some signing. Can you tell what they are saying?

Halloween Haunters -- 10-26-06

2006-10-26T09:20:10-05:00

Take a look below to see some horrible Halloween haunters that we made with the help of some adults. Thank you parents who were able to help us, and THANK YOU Sandra for coming to show us how to make them!

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Podcasting -- 10-24-06

2006-10-24T18:16:30-05:00

Today we began the first individual podcasts of the school year. About half of the class has a podcast of their writing. The other half will get to finish theirs tomorrow. As before, just click on the top icon to listen to it, or the bottom one if you want to save it on your computer.

Harvesting Wheat -- 10-19-06

2006-10-19T22:35:45-05:00

To see our slideshow, just click on the play button.

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Parent Computer Night -- 10-18-06

2006-10-18T13:42:38-05:00

Earlier this week, our class had a computer night for parents to learn how to comment on blogs, how to write on a wiki and how to use Flickr. Here is part of what happened that night:

A Parcel for New Zealand -- 10-16-06

2006-10-16T19:01:25-05:00

We put some special things in a box for our New Zealand blogging buddies, but we can't tell you what they were because they might read this and find out. If you see one of the children in our class, be sure to ask them what we sent!

Boo! -- 10-13-06

2006-10-13T20:47:27-05:00

It's beginning to look very spooky near our classroom.

Graphing Cubes -- 10-12-06

2006-10-12T22:19:39-05:00

Working together, the children built lines of ten cubes, then drew the cubes on graph paper. The last step was to write the number stories.

A New Wiki -- 10-10-06

2006-10-10T21:53:14-05:00

We've just started a dinosaur wiki to record all the things we have been learning about dinosaurs. Check out our wiki by clicking on the link on the left side, then adding something to our beginning knowledge.

Turkeys Here, Turkeys There -- 10-06-06

2006-10-06T18:19:11-05:00

With Thanksgiving this weekend, we took some time to think about the things we are thankful for. Each feather on our turkey's tail has something that we appreciate written on it. Happy Thanksgiving!

-- 10-03-06

2006-10-03T18:38:47-05:00

Our Pumice -- 09-28-06

2006-09-28T18:20:44-05:00

We’ve been looking at the pumice that we got from our friends in New Zealand. We thought that the pumice was very light and wondered if it would sink or float in water. So, we made a tally of our predictions and put the pumice in some water to see what happened. Check out the results in the picture.

A Treasure Box from New Zealand -- 09-25-06

2006-09-25T18:40:57-05:00

Today we got a parcel of treasures all the way from New Zealand, sent to us by our blogging buddies in Mrs. Hayes class. The parcel contained some pumice from a real volcano and kina and paua shells. They also sent us some seeds and paua earings. It was sort of like Christmas.

The children had a wonderful time examining the exotic things in the box. Why is the pumice so light? How did the shell get so blue inside? Thank you blogging buddies! Watch our blogs for more about our New Zealand surprises tomorrow.

Setting Goals -- 09-21-06

2006-09-21T16:11:50-05:00

Today we spent some time talking about goals, and setting goals for the year. If you click on the top podcast link below, you will be able to hear a recording of all of the children's goals for this year. Some of the voices are quite soft, so you may have to adjust the volume on your speaker.

Canada's Food Guide -- 09-20-06

2006-09-20T17:59:38-05:00

Just look at the big food guide we made today. The students are getting very good at identifying food groups, even tricky foods like eggs and nuts.

Mmmm Muffins! -- 09-19-06

2006-09-19T22:58:59-05:00

We had some marvelous muffins today as the first of our healthy snacks provided by parents. I’ve blogged about this before, but I am often concerned about the snacks that children bring to eat at recess. Fruit, vegetables or grains help to give the children energy for the work they do at school. Potato chips and chocolate bars do the opposite. Hopefully, having healthy snacks together at the beginning of this school year will help the children to establish healthy snack food habits.

Good Listeners -- 09-18-06

2006-09-18T18:20:51-05:00

Just look at these good listeners who are listening to one of the grade two students read his take home journal aloud. Each of the children feels so special when they get to read or hear your letter written just for them!

For those of you who are new to my class this year, I usually take more pictures than the one that I use on the blog. You can see the others by clicking on the picture. It will take you right to our online Flickr album.

We Made Fossils -- 09-15-06

2006-09-15T17:58:30-05:00

It's amazing what you can create (and the mess you can make!) with some potting soil, glue and broken pasta. Our fossils are drying and should be ready on Monday.

We're Bloggers! -- 09-12-06

2006-09-12T17:32:02-05:00

Check out our first blog entries by clicking on the child's name on the right hand side. We'd love to get comments!

Guess Our Pattern -- 09-12-06

2006-09-12T13:05:22-05:00

We've been doing lots of patterning and sorting in math. Today we made a pattern of kids. Can you guess our pattern? Here's a hint: Look at our clothes.

Mrs. Nichol's Fossils -- 09-11-06

2006-09-11T18:11:53-05:00

Mrs. Nichol has a lot of cool fossils. Today she showed us some sea animal fossils and some fossilized bones. We wonder what kind of dinosaurs the bones came from. She told us how to look for fossils and showed us what stones look like that have fossils in them. We can’t wait to find some ourselves!

Making Fossils -- 09-07-06

2006-09-07T18:15:44-05:00

Today, as part of our study of dinosaurs, we looked at some awesome fossils. It was hard for us to imagine that they were living things many, many years ago. We are trying to make our own fossil. We buried a sponge bone in some sand and covered the sand with some salt water. Next week, we’ll see what happened to our bone. Does anyone have a guess?

A Long Day -- 08-30-06

2006-08-30T17:12:20-05:00

Today was a long, tiring day, especially for the grade one students. We were busy! Thank you all of you who were able to stay and help me sort school supplies. All of the students have a special book to read to their parents tonight. Enjoy!

What We Learned in Grade One -- 06-29-06

2006-06-29T16:43:10-05:00

The Bubbleshare below is the result of some brainstorming that we did on the last day of school. I wanted the children to have a chance to reflect on all that they had learned in the past ten months. Their learning curve was huge, but sometimes, because the learning takes place over a long period of time, the actual growth doesn't get recognized. It was one of those wonderful moments when they were able to look at the list and see their achievements. They were so impressed that they wanted to read the list "again". Way to go grade one! You are awesome!

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Summer Plans -- 06-28-06

2006-06-28T17:53:26-05:00

We have lots of plans for this summer! Click on the link below to hear what they are.

Penny Carnival -- 06-23-06

2006-06-23T17:29:37-05:00

Wow! We had a fabulous penny carnival this afternoon. All of the children got to try the hockey shootout, bowling, penny slide, crafts and lots of other fun things. Every child went home with a bag of prizes and a smile.

Thank you, Ms. D's class for a wonderful afternoon.

Butterflies Are Free -- 06-22-06

2006-06-22T12:34:25-05:00

Check out what happened to our butterflies by clicking on the butterflycam link on the left.

Young Author's Afternoon -- 06-21-06

2006-06-21T17:39:34-05:00

Last night's author evening was so successful that we decided to have a Young Author's Afternoon so that the students who weren't able to attend would have a chance to get some comments on their writing. It also gave students a chance to comment on the writing of their peers. There were a lot of interesting conversations going on about writing!

Young Author's Night -- 06-20-06

2006-06-20T21:13:43-05:00

We had a fabulous Young Author's Night tonight. The air was humming with the sound of authors reading their own writing to appreciateve parents, grandparents and friends. Each child signed autographs for admiring listeners, who in turn left written comments about the children's writing. It was a "not-to-be-missed" event.

News Flash!!! -- 06-19-06

2006-06-19T16:00:00-05:00

The butterflycam is on again.

Marsh Monsters -- 06-19-06

2006-06-19T13:10:46-05:00

On Friday we made our first visit to Buffalo Pound. Armed with buckets and sieves, we went pond dipping for "marsh monsters". Some interesting creatures made their way into our buckets.

I apologize for the fact that the butterflycam was unavailable over the weekend. The finest teckie minds in our division are working on it as I am writing this.

Is it Heavier? -- 06-15-06

2006-06-15T17:42:40-05:00

Our last math unit is about weighing and measuring. Today we had fun checking for things that were heavier and lighter. Sometimes we checked it out on a pan balance. You could have lots of fun with weight at home. Find three things that weigh about the same. Find two things that weigh more than a can of soup. Find three things that are lighter than a chair. What weighs about the same as you do?

-- 06-13-06

2006-06-13T17:12:53-05:00

The caterpillars that arrived in our classroom about 10 days ago have been eating and growing very quickly. They are now all in a chrysalis. We have them on the top and side of a clear container near the computer so that we can watch them from home, too, on the "butterflycam". (If you look closely you can see it to the left of the container in the picture--held in place with high tech packing tape.) I have put a link to the butterflycam on the left hand side of this page. The chrysalis sometimes move, so watch carefully! We expect some of them to start emerging from the chrysalis this weekend.

Young Author's Night -- 06-12-06

2006-06-12T18:08:29-05:00

Today we spent some time getting everything just right for our young author's night next week. On this special night you will be able to hear young authors read from their own writing. You'll also be able to comment on their writing and if you are very lucky, you will be able to get their autograph.

A Happy Teacher -- 06-09-06

2006-06-09T21:02:43-05:00

It takes so little to bring joy to the heart of a grade one teacher. A bouquet of drooping dandelions, a glimmer of understanding in a child's eye or a child sharing their latest "news" with you three times during the same day. The moment in the picture to the left was one of those moments. We were planning to do something as a group, but he just couldn't put his book down.

Pheasants Again -- 06-05-06

2006-06-05T18:41:59-05:00

At last, here is the complete story of our pheasant hatching journey. We got the eggs from the Wildlife Federation, a local group that raises the pheasants, and then releases them into the environment in the fall. (The kids in my class next year will get to help with the release.) Although 22 eggs hatched before we sent the stinky incubator away (birds that have hatched have an annoying habit), they all chose to hatch outside of school hours. The children did not seem to mind this, as they were quite enamoured by the babies and proudly showed them off to other classes in the school. Check out the Bubbleshare below to see some of what happened.

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-- 06-05-06

2006-06-05T17:41:14-05:00

We had a super time at the Art Museum today. We looked at several pieces of folk art and then made our own art out of clay. Our pieces are being fired in a kiln that we got to see, and will be sent back to us in about a week.

After our inside activity, we played a game called "Romeo and Juliet" outside on the lawn. Ask the children to tell you how to play it, but be prepared for some noise!

Twins -- 06-02-06

2006-06-02T17:52:45-05:00

Today was "Twin Day" at our school. Several of the children tried to dress the same as someone else in the school. Here is one of our sets of "twins". It was a bit difficult to write with the hockey gloves on!

The Big Red Dog -- 05-31-06

2006-05-31T16:46:59-05:00

Clifford, the big red dog, came to our school library today. He got lots of hugs and pats from the children. He was here to help us celebrate our book fair.

More Chicks! -- 05-30-06

2006-05-30T16:23:20-05:00

We have ten more chicks today! We watched all day, but none of the eggs hatched while we were watching.

Look at Our Chicks! -- 05-29-06

2006-05-29T18:14:08-05:00

This morning we came to school to find that eleven of our pheasant eggs had hatched! We carefully watched the other eggs, but although they rolled around and peeped a lot, no other pheasants came out. Several eggs have tiny peck holes, though. We hope that tomorrow we will get to see an egg hatch.

How Strong is an Eggshell? -- 05-19-06

2006-05-19T16:25:49-05:00

Because we are incubating pheasant eggs in our classroom, we have been talking and reading about eggs. Today we wondered how strong an eggshell was, so we set up an experiment to see how many books we could put on some eggs before they would break. How many books do you think they held before they broke? Check out the Bubbleshare below to find out the answer.

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Wiki, Wiki, Wiki -- 05-17-06

2006-05-17T18:27:05-05:00

The day that we started our new wiki, we realized that we had a big problem. The children usually work on their wikis and blogs during our �centre time�. One reading group has six children in it, all of whom wanted to work on the wiki at the same time. Since only one person can edit a wiki at a time, the children insisted that the only fair thing was to make enough wikis so that they could all work on one at the same time if they wished. So, we now have six classroom wikis. You can choose to help with our story about hockey, an imaginary airplane ride, soccer, a vacation to New Zealand, car racing or a story about children in grade one. As before, the children have given me a one-sentence beginning, middle and end to the story. The wikis are all linked on the left-hand side of the page. Let�s see what we can create together!

A New Wiki -- 05-15-06

2006-05-15T17:48:00-05:00

Our first wiki is sounding a lot more like a real story. The hockey kids in our class have been really enjoying it, but the non-sports oriented kids, while thinking it is cool, aren't really interested in contributing to it. So, today we started a new wiki story. We decided together that this should be an imaginary story and voted to make it a story about a magical airplane. As we did last time, we gave it a short beginning, middle and end. Pop on over and help us write it. We can't wait to see how this new story turns out.

Happy Mother's Day! -- 05-12-06

2006-05-12T18:20:47-05:00

Each of the children has a special article about their mother on their blog that includes a podcast. For this auspicious occasion, I have also included a podcast of each of the children reading a page from the booklets that we made for our mothers. I gave them several "sentence starters", and then they had to finish them in whatever way they thought was appropriate. They are too cute!

Why Blog? -- 05-10-06

2006-05-10T21:25:55-05:00

A question to a blogging group that I belong to asked if someone could give the reasons for blogging with primary children. This, along with the fact that Dean Shareski, our educational technologist, is coming to our classroom to videotape and interview the kids in action tomorrow, got me to thinking about why I do this. Here is my list so far:

1.The kids deserve a wider audience. Why would kids want to write on paper for only their teacher to see when they could write on their blog for the whole world to see?

2.The opportunity for comments about their writing to and from their friends.

3.An opportunity for family to be involved in and observe the children�s development.

4.A safe place to learn about posting to the Internet. Because I control the content, I can talk to any student who wants to post something that is unsuitable to help them learn about what a more appropriate posting would be.

5.The chance to learn about and from other cultures. The kids feel very attached to the two classrooms that are linked on the left-hand side of the blog, and talk about them in the same way they do the class next door. We have learned many things about other ways of life from blogging.

6.The prospect of learning a new form of communication. Blogging will probably not be around by the time my grade ones graduate from high school, but it is their introduction to a new way of communicating that surely will be.

Making Fossils -- 05-09-06

2006-05-09T18:07:36-05:00

Do you know how to make a fossil? Click on "play" below the picture below to find out how we did it. Our process only takes a few days instead of many, many years.

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Is This a Half? -- 05-09-06

2006-05-09T17:15:47-05:00

Our sharing (show and tell) was about things that are halves. Look at the picture. Can you figure out how it is a half?

Can Air Move Things? -- 05-08-06

2006-05-08T09:48:51-05:00

Can air move things? We tried moving a piece of paper using the air from our breath, and found out that it can! Which do you think worked better, using a straw or not using a straw?

We Have Eggs! -- 05-04-06

2006-05-04T16:02:13-05:00

We have thrity-nine pheasant eggs in an incubator in our classroom, courtesy of the Wildlife Federation. It is our job to turn those eggs several times every day until they are ready to hatch. Just look at the interesting colours!

What Do We Use Rocks For? -- 05-02-06

2006-05-02T17:36:49-05:00

Here's my latest try at using images in a podcast. Just click on the play button below the pictures to hear the narration. The pictures will automatically change as you watch the show!

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We Are Readers -- 05-01-06

2006-05-01T20:17:28-05:00

This is such an exciting time of the year in grade one. Children who did not yet recognize all the letters of the alphabet just 6 months ago can now pick up books and read them independently. They can all communicate their thoughts in words (with perhaps, slightly unconventional spelling), and are all justifiably proud of their accomplishments. Every once in awhile, one of the children will ask me what something says, and I say, "you tell me". They look at the words for a minute, then a slow smile spreads over their face and with a sheepish grin, they read it to me. I have the best job in the world.

A Podcast with Pictures -- 04-25-06

2006-04-25T16:53:24-05:00

Welcome back after our Easter break! Our science unit about the earth has led us to looking at rocks. The podcast below (less than a minute long) is about our rock search. This podcast has pictures attached and for some reason, it only works if you CLICK ON THE BOTTOM LINK BELOW.

If you are not seeing pictures to go along with the audio on your media player, (most computers have this ability turned off for some reason) you need to click on the down arrow (upside down triangle) somewhere on the upper part of the player. It allows you to access the application menu. Choose TOOLS, then OPTIONS then SECURITY. Check the box that says �Run script commands when present� and then �O.K.�. If you are still not seeing pictures, let me know and I�ll see if I can help.

Our Story Wiki -- 04-13-06

2006-04-13T17:39:16-05:00

�Why can�t we write a story about a kid who plays sports?� complained one of my athletic male students. That was the beginning of the idea for our wiki. We started by choosing a name for the main character, a sport (there were really no other options besides hockey to my thoroughly Canadian children) and some things that could happen at the beginning, middle and end of the story. We have added to it, but we would like your help. Check it out, and help us make it sound like a real story. You can find it by clicking on �Our Story Wiki�
to the left.

Just click on the edit button at the top, add as much as you like and then click on save. We are hoping that soon we will have a great story that lots of different people have helped us to write. If you�re a hockey fan, I�m counting on your help with the terminology.

Below is a podcast of the things we want to do during the Easter break.

Podcasting and Easter Baskets -- 04-12-06

2006-04-12T16:45:07-05:00

Check out the new podcasts we made this week!

This morning we coloured eggs to put in our Easter baskets. Only a few eggs were dropped! It is amazing how much excitement a few hard-boiled eggs can generate. Be sure to check the eggs for the special white shapes.

Showing Off -- 04-11-06

2006-04-11T13:52:21-05:00

It was our day to show off our reading skills for the kindergarten class. They thought we were fabulous readers (and we were)! The kindergarten students were such good listeners that I can't wait until they are in grade one.

Danger! -- 04-10-06

2006-04-10T17:50:35-05:00

What do those four funny symbols on the sides of some containers mean? A police officer visited our classroom today to tell us about these hazardous signs.

Can you remember what these three signs mean?

Go Team! -- 04-07-06

2006-04-07T17:21:20-05:00

Today the staff versus students basketball games were played. Amazingly, there was very little cheering for the teachers, and a lot of noise when the students scored a basket. The grade one students would have liked to be in on the action, but they had to be content with batting back the loose balls that came their way.

Smelly Sharks and Volcanoes -- 04-06-06

2006-04-06T18:28:13-05:00

A few days ago, we checked out the blogs of a grade one class in New Zealand. The children were puzzled by the picture of them holding their noses while they viewed the body of a dead shark. �Where could they see a shark?� was my land-locked children�s question. This led to lots of discussion and to other intriguing facts such as the idea that they are starting their school day tomorrow when we go home for the day.

Today, when a comment on our volcano blogs mentioned that they have a volcano about 3 hours from their school that actually spews ash from time to time, the class erupted in a chorus of questions (and jealousy). Too cool! This kind of learning could not take place without our blog.

Computer Pals -- 04-04-06

2006-04-04T18:32:03-05:00

Over the past few months, I have been in contact with a few other grade one teachers who are blogging about the possibility of our classes commenting on each other's writing. Today we commented on the articles written by a grade one class in Manitoba. One of the children in that class hadn't written an article since Christmas. I had to smile when one of my student's comments to that child's blog was "Christmas is past. Write something new." Now there is a student who understands what blogging is about.

Later this week, we will be commenting on the writing of grade one students in New Zealand.

The Pedometer -- 04-03-06

2006-04-03T18:11:48-05:00

We have a new gadget in our classroom, a pedometer. Today before we went out to be "in motion", we estimated how many steps it would take us to run around the field three times. One child got to wear the pedomter to see how close our estimates would be. Estimating big numbers is very hard, but we found out that we acutally ran for 1,499 steps.

Geometric Towers -- 03-30-06

2006-03-30T17:17:52-05:00

Today we made towers out of geometric solids. There were three rules. Your tower had to use at least four geometric solids and you had to use at least three different geometric solids. Also, your solids could be beside each other or on top of each other. This photo is only one of the towers. To see the others, click on the photo. Ask your child what was different about all the towers and what was the same.

Graphing Rockets -- 03-29-06

2006-03-29T16:40:18-05:00

This was a poplular activity. We made graphs out of rocket candies and then made up numbers stories about the colours of candy that we had. Our last activity (before eating them) was to make up a number story about how many candies we had all together. Amazingly, some kids had fewer than others. I wonder what happened?

Our Earth Reports -- 03-28-06

2006-03-28T16:50:47-05:00

For the past week, we have been writing, drawing and talking about the earth. Today, we began recording ourselves reading our writing, and each child's report, illustration and a podcast of their voice will appear within the next couple of days. Check them out!

Problems, Problems, Problems -- 03-27-06

2006-03-27T17:32:45-05:00

Today we each made up our own story problems about a picture. That was a lot of problems, but we solved them all!

This is a great activity for kids to do with their parents as well. Instead of the parent thinking up the problem, try letting your child make a problem up for you to solve. Children really understand the process if they can make up their own problem and tell you if you solved it correctly.

Geoboards and Unifix Cubes -- 03-23-06

2006-03-23T12:19:50-05:00

Children love to work with manipulatives in math. Today we used geoboards and elastics to make shapes. Then, we filled in the shapes with unifix cubes and filled the rest of the geoboard with another colour of unifix cube. These two colours gave us some great addition sentences.

Today I asked the students what they like to do best in math. To hear their answers, just click on the podcast link below.

Smack, Crash and Murder -- 03-20-06

2006-03-20T17:06:29-05:00

We've been talking about the words that are used to describe a group of animals. We've come across some really interesting ones like a crash of rhinoceros and a murder of crows. That's a smack of jellyfish to the left. On their blogs this week, the kids are trying out informational text writing by listing the group names they can remember. Do you know some others that you can share with us?

The Tricky Leprechaun -- 03-17-06

2006-03-17T12:45:00-05:00

A very clever leprechaun is loose in Westmount School. He made a terrible mess of our classroom, so that it took a long time to clean it up. Some of the children were sure that they had seen him running across the back of the classroom or moving the coats in the lockers. One student felt certain that he had left his footprint on the ceiling. Other classrooms have reported seeing his footprints in the snow. We think that he must have felt guilty about the mess he made of our classroom, because he left some green cookies hiding in the cupboard. Please keep your eyes peeled for this clever intruder, and let us know if you see any sign of him.

Trapping a Leprechaun -- 03-15-06

2006-03-15T18:06:42-05:00

The children have been busy making leprechaun traps in hopes of catching a leprechaun on St. Patrick's Day. The photo to the side is only one of the ingenious ways they hope to catch the clever little fellow. If you would like to see the other traps, just click on the picture and it will take you to our photo album. Good luck to them!

Once Upon a Time -- 03-13-06

2006-03-13T16:53:02-05:00

About half of the children completed their first "once upon a time" story on their blog this afternoon. I had taken four pictures that could be used to illustrate their story, and they had to imagine what could have been happening in the pictures. The picture to the left was by far the most popular. Check the stories out!

Quiet Critters -- 03-11-06

2006-03-11T11:40:28-05:00

This week some quiet critters visited our classroom to help us learn about animal coverings. All of the children got to touch and inspect them to find out what their covering looked and felt like. The caiman and turtle were so quiet that we gave them their own desk to watch us work. Why do you think they were so quiet?

Calculators -- 03-08-06

2006-03-08T17:03:15-05:00

Today our class used calculators for the first time. Don't panic. We aren't using them instead of leaning how to do addition or subtraction. Learning to use them is part of technological literacy. We practiced number patterns such as counting by ones, twos, fives and tens.

Cones -- 03-07-06

2006-03-07T16:21:42-05:00

Do you recognize any of these cone shapes that the childrenh brought for sharing today? Try going on a cone shape hunt around your house, or watch for cones when you are out driving around. Let us know if you see any. If you want to get ahead, we're also going to be looking for cubes and spheres as well.

Baa or Roar? -- 03-06-06

2006-03-06T16:19:08-05:00

Do you think March came in like a lion or a lamb? We're prepared either way. Do you recognize any of these critters?

Kids Helping Kids -- 03-03-06

2006-03-03T17:00:48-05:00

Today we went to the computer room with Mr. Silversides' class. They had never blogged before, and since we are now pros, we helped them to set up their own blogs. Thirty-seven kids and two slightly harried teachers had a great time together.

For now, Mr. Silversides' blog is linked off of my webpage. Go on over and have a look at their work.

Pancake Day -- 03-02-06

2006-03-02T16:42:23-05:00

Tuesday was Pancake Day for our class. We ate breakfast at school. Some parents sent us cheese, muffins or fruit which we ate along with the pancakes. Mrs. Lowick came to our pancake breakfast and she thought our pancakes were delicious. We did, too! After breakfast, we made a breakfast book. The breakfast in the book had even more food than ours did. We had so much food that we got to have a snack in the afternoon, too. Yum, yum.

Illustrating Our Stories -- 02-28-06

2006-02-28T15:40:37-05:00

Check out the kids' blogs! Each of them has a picture illustrating one of their articles. It has taken us several days (before and after the break)to accomplish this, so please be excited with your child. "Cyla Swimming" is just one example of the talent in my classroom.

Reading Take Home Journals -- 02-18-06

2006-02-18T11:37:16-05:00

Usually, I read your home journal responses aloud to the children on one or two days. This is very popular. The children all beam as their parent's letter to them is read aloud. This week several of the children wanted to read your letter aloud themselves. I always give them the option of asking me to finish it for them if they get "tired". Please carefully PRINT your responses from now on. Reading hand-writing is pretty much out of the question just yet, and even letters which are obvious to you and I are not always obvious to a six-year old.

Have a wonderful break together. Don't forget to spend some time reading. (I just can't stop myself from saying things like that.)

Pizza Lunch -- 02-15-06

2006-02-15T16:49:45-05:00

Today the Parent Association sponsored a pizza lunch at school. This is always a highlight. The kids love to eat lunch with their friends in the classroom. Because of the cold temperatures, the children stayed in the classroom after they ate instead of going outside.

Some of the children played "teacher". Watching children being me is an interesting experience. It feels a bit strange to hear the words that I know I use come out of their mouths. It makes me realize how careful I have to be!

Valentine's Day -- 02-14-06

2006-02-14T16:42:23-05:00

We had a "love"ly time giving and getting valentines today. I want to say thank you to the parents who sent such nice snacks to share. A few children had forgotten to bring a red snack, so the ones you sent helped everyone to feel part of things. We had some very interesting red snacks. Ask your child to name as many of the red snacks as he/she can.

A Question for Grade One -- 02-13-06

2006-02-13T12:11:05-05:00

I've been thinking, grade one. I know that many of you like free time the best in our classroom. Maybe we should have free time all day long. What do you think? Tell me why.

Getting Ready for Valentine's Day -- 02-10-06

2006-02-10T16:40:09-05:00

Today we made continers for the valentines we hope we will get next Tuesday. It is always amazing to see the variety of these creations. Red, white and pink do not necessarily say "Valentine's Day" to six year olds.

Wants and Needs -- 02-09-06

2006-02-09T15:41:34-05:00

We spent some time today talking about the difference between something that we need and something that we want. Is a Playstation really something that you need? Ask your child to tell you some things that he/she NEEDS.

More Blogging -- 02-08-06

2006-02-08T16:39:07-05:00

The children had a great time blogging again this morning. We have two first year education students who are in our classroom once a week, so it is a great help to have them there while we are learning "the ropes". All of the children should have now written more than one article and commented on at least one other student's writing. I have encouraged the children to blog and comment from home as well.

I have asked the children not to use their last name when they comment on each other's work. I love it if relatives record their name as "Mom" or "Uncle Joe". I don't want any last names that would make any of the children recognizable.

One Hundred Days of School -- 02-07-06

2006-02-07T16:16:45-05:00

We've been at school for 100 days! Today we celebrated this important event by jumping 100 times, having 100 pieces of snack, making necklaces with 100 pieces of cereal and lots of other fun things. To see some more pictures of us celebrating, click on the picture to the right.

Constable Pilsworth Visits -- 02-06-06

2006-02-06T16:42:05-05:00

Constable Pilsworth visited our classroom to talk to us about strangers. We found out that you can't tell if a stranger is a good stranger or a bad stranger by looking at them. Even if they look nice. Even if they know your name. Even if they want you to help them.

Remember your 100 things for the 100th day of school tomorrow!

One Hundred Books -- 02-03-06

2006-02-03T17:00:06-05:00

Two of the kids in our class have already read 100 books in our Reading Road contest. Way to go!

I don't want to discourage them, so I've started a new contest for anyone who passes the 100 book mark. I'll explain to the kids about "Super Star Readers" on Monday. Children will earn a trip to my prize box for every 25 books that they read. I also have some bigger prizes that they can choose from for each 100 books.

Little Bloggers -- 02-01-06

2006-02-01T16:59:33-05:00

We're blogging!! Today we wrote our first blog entries. The kids also got to choose a background and a name for their blog. Also, they put a self-portrait onto their blog page. They are pretty excited, as well they should be.

If you are reading this, make sure that you check out some of the kids' writing. Just click on their name on the right hand side of this page. You will notice that the number of "reads" are recorded under each blog entry. This is also exciting for the kids to think that someone, somewhere in the world has read their writing.

I would like to encourage you to "comment" on the writing that the children do. All you have to do is click on the word "comment" under the entry on the blog. It will ask you for your name, email address (that is optional) and a comment. You also have to type the word "midas" into that little box at the bottom. Then, just click on the word "submit". All comments are sent to my email so that nothing inappropriate is published. Later, I will teach the children how to comment on each other's writing, but right now they would be thrilled to hear from you.

Kids Blogging -- 01-31-06

2006-01-31T16:55:39-05:00

This month, the kids in our class will start blogging. Watch for it!

Yesterday, the children brought home a clock we had made at school. Ask them to show you how to make "o'clocks" and "half pasts".

Scavenger Hunt -- 01-30-06

2006-01-30T16:51:11-05:00

I hope you take the time today to do the webpage scavenger hunt that was mentioned on the school newsletter with your child. Here's a hint to help you with the item about this blog: click on the 10 at the bottom of this page to see the entry entitled "writing". Send the answers in tomorrow to be eligible for the prizes.

Voting -- 01-27-06

2006-01-27T16:12:47-05:00

Today we got to vote, just like our parents did earlier in the week. After reading the 6 books that our library had that had been nominated for the Willow Award, we got to vote for our favourite in a private ballot. No one was allowed to tell anyone else which book they voted for until after everyone else had voted.

Ask your child what his/her favourite was and most importantly, why it was the best.

Healthy Teeth -- 01-26-06

2006-01-26T16:03:13-05:00

Today we had a dental health educator in our classroom. All of the kids received a toothbrush, brushing chart and stickers. See our happy smiles? We want to keep them looking this good, so we are going to brush our teeth often.

The Willow Awards -- 01-25-06

2006-01-25T17:14:40-05:00

The Willow Awards honour Canadian and/or Saskatchewan books. Ten books have been nominated. Over the next few days, we will be reading them, and then voting for our favourite. Our votes will be compiled along with the votes of all the other participating classes. We wonder if our favourite will win?

Try reading two books to your child, then asking him or her to choose which one he/she liked the best. Be sure to ask your child what made that book the best.

Sharing -- 01-24-06

2006-01-24T18:13:48-05:00

Today our sharing was "something that reminds you of cold". Can you think why each of these items reminded their owner of cold? If not, ask your children.

My Rant -- 01-23-06

2006-01-23T16:34:21-05:00

Today for some reason, many of the children did their writing in point form, rather than sentences. For example, one child wrote "walked the dog, checked the food and water", instead of saying "Marvin walked the dog. He checked the food and water". Some of the children who wrote in this way usually write in sentences, but there are others who always find this difficult.

Teachers have been noticing for several years that the language skills of children are less advanced than they used to be. I was at a meeting of grade one teachers last week, and we discussed the fact that "back in the day", it was unusual for a child to think that the word train began with a ch. Now, it is very common. Drink almost always begins with a j in the writing of grade one children.

As a teacher, it concerns me that children's oral language seems to be slipping, both in their pronunciation and in the structure of their speech. If a child does not have a strong oral basis, learning to read is very difficult.

I love all of the new technologies that we have, and my life, like yours, is hectic and I don't talk to my children as much as I would like to. However, it does concern me that children now spend so much time watching TV, playing video or computer games, etc. There is not a lot of time left for just talking.

Making Butter -- 01-20-06

2006-01-20T16:10:56-05:00

Today we discussed some of the jobs that we do at home, and some of the jobs that children in the past had. We talked about churning butter, and made our own! We had to shake the jar a lot of times to get it to turn to butter. It tasted yummy on crackers.

On another note, we were discussing probability today. Ask your child to tell you something that your family always does, something that you sometimes do, and something that you never do. It will be a good review, and it is a fascinating journey into a child's version of life.

Writing -- 01-19-06

2006-01-19T16:22:46-05:00

We write almost every day in our classroom. Presently, we are writing a novel! It is based on a Marvin Redpost novel. After we read each chapter, we try to remember what the key ideas were in the story, and re-write it in our own words.

Surveys -- 01-18-06

2006-01-18T13:12:05-05:00

Today the children all composed their own question and surveyed their friends. Did you know that ten out of ten children in our class like to play hockey? That nine out of ten children like to use a Play Station? Ask your child what their survey question was and what the results were.

Animals and Us -- 01-16-06

2006-01-16T16:37:24-05:00

Today we talked about body parts that we have that are the same as an animal has. The picture to the right shows some of the kids pointing to body parts that they have that are the same as an animal has. We also read a book on the internet called "We Are Alike". See if you can find it under Browser Books on my webpage.

Activity Time -- 01-13-06

2006-01-13T16:29:34-05:00

Sometimes, when the children have completed their work, and the other children are finishing up, they have "activity time". This means that they get to choose to use the math manipulatives, read a book, do a puzzle, or interact with any of the other hands on activities in the classroom. It is always interesting to see what each student chooses. Some children always want to do the same activity, while others choose a variety of things. It is also fascinating to see the way classes of children like certain things. Some years, I have so settle disagreements because everyone wants to use the Lego. Other years, it has been the plastic animals or the writing materials. This year, your children all seem to want to play with the dominoes.

Reading contest -- 01-12-06

2006-01-12T16:04:48-05:00

Today we had our first prize day for our reading contest. There were a lot of animated faces as the children got to move their "marker" and received their prize. Some children even received two prizes. I'm thinking about what to do with the children who finish their 100 books quickly--they still need to be motivated.

Graphing -- 01-11-06

2006-01-11T16:40:36-05:00

These children aren't just wandering around the classroom, they are making a graph. Specifically, they are making a graph of the number of letters in their friends' names. There was lots of commotion, and lots of learning. One student commented, "Hey, I'm starting to really like this part of school."

Reading, Again -- 01-10-06

2006-01-10T16:07:40-05:00

This is a really exciting time of the year. The children all know most of their sounds and have an ever-increasing bank of sight words in their heads. Every time they read a book, they are learning a bit more about how to put words together. It is a thrill to see them pick up a book and read it independently!

Guided Reading -- 01-09-06

2006-01-09T17:30:51-05:00

Last week, we began doing our guided reading time in a different way. Every morning from 9:00 until 9:50, three teachers (including me)and one educational assistant are each working with a small group of students. The children are in groups which rotate through the various adults. Mrs. Hager and I each do guided reading when the kids visit us. Mrs. Arndt reads stories, does author studies and various other language arts curriculum activities. Mrs. Roach works on word work (spelling) activities.

It is such a pleasure to work with a small group of students in an uninterrupted way. The tremendous success that we have had with our students' reading over the past few years is, to a large extent, because of this small group time.

Ball Tag -- 01-06-06

2006-01-06T16:21:22-05:00

On Friday afternoons, we usually share the gymnasium with the other grade one class. We sometimes play ball tag, a game invented by the teachers to practice throwing and keep the kids moving. Ask your child to tell you how to play it.

Back at Work -- 01-05-06

2006-01-05T16:28:31-05:00

We're back at work learning how to read and write! I was pleased to see that so many kids had practiced their sight words over the holidays. It took a long time to listen to them all, but it was a pleasure to do.

This afternoon, we had an assembly to see a video about our new school division. All of the students received three little gifts from the new school division. If you haven't seen these, check your child's backpack.

Happy Holidays! -- 12-21-05

2005-12-21T14:02:19-05:00

Christmas Decoration Day -- 12-20-05

2005-12-20T16:19:07-05:00

Today was "dress up like a Christmas ornament" day. Usually, just the grade 6 to 8 classes dress up, but some of the kids in our class got right into the spirit.

We spent a busy day finishing up all of our Christmas writing, gifts and other activities. Don't forget to send a drink with your child for tomorrow.

Christmas in Italy -- 12-19-05

2005-12-19T17:23:25-05:00

Today we talked about Christmas in Italy, and read the story Old Befana by Tomie dePaola. Since Italy was the last of our countries to visit, we get to take our suitcase, passport and map home today. My voice is still not very strong, but with the help of my microphone and my daughter who is home from university, we had a quiet and productive day.

Please make sure that yellow pouches, Read to Me bags and library books are all back to school before the Christmas holidays.

Christmas in Sweden -- 12-14-05

2005-12-14T17:15:42-05:00

Today we "went" to Sweden to find out how they celebrate Christmas. We made St. Lucia buns and a julgranskorg ornament to hang on the tree. Can your child remember how to say "Merry Christmas" in Swedish?

We are not allowed to take books out of the library until after Christmas, but if your child has a library book at home, please return it.

Christmas Writing -- 12-09-05

2005-12-09T16:20:55-05:00

Today we wrote some imaginary stories about what would happen if our Christmas stocking was missing. There were lots of fabulous explanations from space aliens to a blind Santa who misplaced it. The children got to read their story aloud to the class. We loved hearing everyone's ideas.

Rehearsing for the Christmas Concert -- 12-08-05

2005-12-08T19:26:34-05:00

We had a great rehearsal Christmas concert this afternoon. I hope that is a good sign. The children are all very excited to do their best for you tonight. See you there!

Christmas Concert -- 12-06-05

2005-12-06T17:03:11-05:00

Don't forget our Christmas concert on Thursday night at 7:00. The kids are anxious to share their song with you. The doors will open at 6:30. From past experience, coming early is a good idea. I'll be in the classroom beginning at 6:30.

Christmas in the Netherlands -- 12-05-05

2005-12-05T17:22:44-05:00

Today we talked about how people in the Netherlands celebrate Christmas. We made cookies in the shape of the first letter of our name, and then pretended to be asleep while Saint Nicholas put them on our shoes.

Ask your child about the "horns" and how to say "Merry Christmas" in Dutch.

Indoor Recess -- 12-02-05

2005-12-02T15:22:48-05:00

Today the windchill was -25 degrees, so we had an indoor recess. The kids love this time, because they get to do all of the things they like best in our classroom. Teachers aren't quite as keen on indoor recesses as the kids don't get to go outside and run off their excess energy. Hopefully, the weather will improve for next week!

Warrior Visit -- 12-01-05

2005-12-01T16:52:43-05:00

Yesterday, two of the Warriors visited our school. They read the kids a story, talked to them about how important it was to read and left them with autographed bookmarks and a free ticket to the next home game. If you haven't yet seen these items, it's time to clean out your child's backpack. I most appreciated when they shared with the kids about books they were currently reading, and when they like to read. Their visit was one more way to show the kids the value of reading. Even their heros do it!

SQUIRT -- 11-29-05

2005-11-29T16:10:22-05:00

Every day we have SQUIRT. SQUIRT stands for super quiet uninterrupted reading time. "Quiet" is more than a bit of an exaggeration as all of the kids read out loud, but you get the idea. Each of the children has a bag of books in their desk that are at their own reading level. They find a spot in the classroom that they like and then read them. The books are regularly changed, but it is very exciting in our classroom when someone is allowed to trade their books in for some that are at a higher level!

-- 11-28-05

2005-11-28T17:19:18-05:00

Today we spent some time making patterns with paper chains. These chains are attached to a bell. We'll take them home on December 1st, and start taking off a link every night before we go to bed. There will be one link for every night until Christmas Eve.
Tomorrow our sharing is about different ways you can move. Can you think of a way you can move that no one else will think of?

Subtracting With Goldfish -- 11-25-05

2005-11-25T16:26:15-05:00

Right now we are practicing addition and subtraction. Today we used gold fish to practice subtracting. Yumm!

Letters to Santa -- 11-24-05

2005-11-24T16:57:44-05:00

Today we wrote letters to Santa. This was pretty exciting and the writing hum in the classroom (the sound of kids sounding out the words they want to write) was definitely up a notch. The kids all put out lots of effort. You wouldn't want Santa to have a letter that was less than your best, after all. As long as the office has your current address, the children should be receiving a reply from him in a couple of weeks.

Looking for Photos? -- 11-23-05

2005-11-23T17:01:09-05:00

I just wanted to remind you that if you click on a photo on my blog, it will take you our photo album in Flickr. For exammple, I only posted one picture of our trip to the Art Museum yesterday on the blog, but I put seven of them in the photo album. Your child is almost certainly in one.

At the Art Museum -- 11-22-05

2005-11-22T17:09:10-05:00

Today we had a fabulous time at the Art Museum. We looked at some of the abstract paintings of Henri Bonli, and learned the four elements of abstract art. See if your child can name them for you. Later, we created our own abstract pictures using colours that made us feel happy, sad and angry. These pictures are on display in the hallway outside our classroom.

Thanks so much to all of the parents who drove us to the Art Museum today. We couldn't have gone without you!

The children also learned a great new math game. Ask them to tell you about it.

Doing the Locomotion -- 11-17-05

2005-11-17T16:10:08-05:00

Today we learned a new dance called the "Locomotion". It was one of several dances that we did as part of our In Motion activities. There were lots of giggles and lost parts of the train as we were doing it.

If you haven't yet returned the permission slip for our trip to the Art Museum next week, please send it tomorrow.

Halloween Poem at Last! -- 11-16-05

2005-11-16T18:00:35-05:00

Oh happy day! I think that I have finally figured out how to get this podcast working. Click below to hear our (outdated) Halloween poem. Now that I have solved this puzzle, I'll try to get something a little more current.

It's Winter! -- 11-15-05

2005-11-15T17:43:09-05:00

With the arrival of all the snow this week, we are taking quite a bit longer to get dressed and undressed every day. The children always get faster at dressing as the year progresses, but at this point, there are lots of "lost" mittens (did you check on the floor?)and hats.

Don't forget to bring your library books tomorrow, and return your permission slip for our trip to the Art Museum.

Sight Words -- 11-09-05

2005-11-09T16:38:34-05:00

Keep up the awesome work practicing the sight words at home. It is so exciting to see children read all of the words on a ring and then to get their prize. They have such a feeling of accomplishment. It is even more exciting when they recognize a word in a book and say, "Hey, that word is on my sight words". It brings joy to a teacher's heart!