Forever Friends

So many lovely spring pictures books to read and share with the class, but this one, Forever Friends is the simplest of stories about true friendship. With a focus on Carin Berger's collaging technique, we recreated a spring scene using a variety of materials with different textures.

• blue background
• wood grain drawer liners (giant roll of sticker paper)
• painted paper in pink with added texture (patterned rollers) 
• different shades of green paper and crepe paper for leaves
• sharpies
• shredded Kraft paper
• mini eggs

Thanks to the five boys who painted paper during Centres the day before to share with their classmates!

The drawer liners were pre cut to fit the paper but still managed to create a few sticky situations. A few friends took the backing off before cutting out their branches, eek. But, with a little teamwork every twig was carefully placed. Next, flowers were cut from the painted paper and leaves were added. The flowers were finished with sharpie detailing. The finale was rolling and wrapping the shredded nest and deciding on its perfect resting location on the cherry blossom trees before choosing a mini egg for their tummies and one for their nests. Hot glue ensured the eggs wouldn't disappear.

Collaborative Community Map

As a culminating activity to consolidate our learning and exploration of community in Social Studies (just prior to Spring Break) we joined forces with Ms. Koo's K/1 class to create this collaborative mapping masterpiece of our community, Champlain Heights. This was no small feat, let me tell you. It quickly became their project and was tackled with full enthusiasm and determination from every angle. Once we got going, there was no stopping this crew of kids. They were passionate about including all of the places and spaces they felt really define, represent and meet the needs of their families in the community. We could barely keep up!

To create the map we consulted google maps to help draw out a simplified version of the community streets. Chalk on black paper. Did I say simplified? This hood is a web of tightly knit co-ops with cultasacs and crescents so inticrately woven it's near impossible to recreate on a scale that would sufficiently support forty plus paper bag houses to represent the single most important place in each child's interpretation of community - home. We quickly realized there was zero chance of fitting all of the colourfully decorated houses accurately on the map. Hence, the birth of the pin and string system. The kids were responsible for creating their own street labels and with google maps and some quick estimation, we got every home secured to the map.

The children decided on which additional places and spaces were important to include on the community map. Using oodles of paper and supplies parks, shops, cars, schools and fire halls were constructed and lovingly situated on the map. It was surprising how particular these customers were, cars had to be in exact spots, as did trees and shrubs!

When asked what makes their community great, this is what Division 3 had to say...

• I live close to my friends
• I can walk to my friend's house 
• I can walk to school
• Its prettiness
• Everything

When asked what places were important to them they said...

• My school
• Waterpark
• Nana's house
• My home
• Independent 
• Bus stops

When asked how they'd describe their community they said...

• Clean
• Tidy
• A nice place to live
• Beautiful
• Special
• Comfortable 

There's no place like home.

Pink Day

The lead up to Pink Day spurred on important discussions about friendship and anti bullying. Messages of friendship quickly emerged that were worthy of sharing with our peers at the assembly. Children selected messages that were meaningful to them and we helped to write them on their hands to symbolize 'using their words' and saying 'stop' to bullying. Please visit your child's Seesaw portfolio to view the slideshow that was created and shared.

Initially when asked what they knew about Pink Day this is what they shared...

• reminds us to not be a bully - Derick
• a day to be really nice - Hawken
• you wear pink - Violet
• you can wear red or pink - Maisy
• or purple - Eli
• it's a day to have fun, sing and play with friends - Octavia
• be healthy and strong and take care of each other - Markus

With more discussion we focussed our attention to messages of friendship. They set off to write their ideas on post it notes and before coming together to share our thinking with the group and choosing a message that spoke to us. The slideshow was well received at the assembly and the messages were powerful reminders to choose love, accept each other and celebrate diversity. Here are a few...

Be kind.

Choose love.

Don't bully.

Find your voice.

Say stop.

Friends first.

Be sweet.

Speak out.

Be a friend.

100th Day of School

What a big week at school it has been. We celebrated our one hundredth day in first grade on Tuesday. This is a big deal, trust me. We've been counting daily and watching the groups of ten grow and grow. Each time we add the tenth stick to our 'ones' jar and it's time to regroup and make a bundle of ten we sing our bundle song. "Bundle bundle bundle bundle bundle." It's definitely worth the request, to hear this tune from your little one. We sing that little verse for each group, or bundle of ten, and each time we add a bundle the octave goes up a notch. I'm surprised the windows didn't crack when we sang our bundle song this week...ten groups of ten. Can you say high pitched?  We used a giant elastic to make one group of one hundred. Exciting stuff. Really. Exciting. Stuff. Seriously.

The kids had fun working on different 100 day activities, but the highlight was probably the 100 kisses challenge. This frightened them at first, I get it. Until I explained that the kisses were Hershey's kisses (insert huge sigh of relief). When they returned to class after recess their mission was to find 100 hidden kisses around the classroom, each of which was numbered on the bottom from one to one hundred. They could only find one at a time and had to return it to the 100 chart in the middle of the carpet, matching the corresponding number on the bottom to the chart. This way...we could track which ones were missing. Sure enough, one was missing, but don't despair, Ms. Sandra spied it after not too long. We found you after all #32. 

This week the kids have been bringing in bags filled with one hundred items. Here's a peek at what 100 looks like so far...

Very excited to see what the coming days and months bring with this exceptional group of kids. We've had such an awesome term of learning together. I'm so proud of their ability to question, ponder, and contemplate their way through new learning experiences. I'm looking forward to them having the opportunity to share their work with you during student led conferences coming up. 

Rain Clouds

This experiment was a lot of fun…raincloud in a jar. We may have added a little too much cloud, aka shaving cream, which in turn required more drops of water than anticipated. Kids didn't seem to mind, as it meant more drops for them. I wanted to share a few more photos than you got to see on their Seesaw posts last week.

It's finally raining!

Year of the Rooster

In celebration of Lunar New Year, and the year of the rooster, we painted…roosters! We used two paintings I found on Etsy as our inspiration. The lines were simple and the brush strokes were bold and easy to follow. After quickly modelling both versions for them, they chose their favourite and set off to paint. I was impressed how confident they were with the task (no pencil drawing, just paint) and how they jumped right in. They are becoming flexible in their artwork, able to adjust and explore and let things happen in real time. Not one student asked for another piece of paper. They're learning that art evolves and takes shape as they're creating. They were immersed in the process. It was quite beautiful. The roosters are beyond amazing - cock a doodle doo! I don't think people would believe six year olds painted these feathered friends. Happy Lunar New Year!

Counting collections

This week students partnered up twice, to work cooperatively on developing and expanding their knowledge of counting strategies. We drew popsicle sticks (with their names on them) for partners. This is always cause for excitement. The kids genuinely embrace the spontaneity of random partners which I think is pretty special. They're open to working and learning from one another, which enhances the learning experiences in the classroom. Working cooperatively with peers requires thoughtful communication, creative and critical thinking and problem solving skills. It's fun listening in on their conversations as they negotiate, choose strategies and work together to count their collections.

groups of ten emerge

counting by twos

more groups of ten

twos into tens

On the second day, new groups were created and new jars were selected. We added a recording component to this activity for the first time as opposed to a whole class share out afterwards. Transferring their thinking and counting to paper challenged them to represent their understanding in a new way.

Some drew pictures, others drew circles to represent groups and some tallied.