Feb. 9

Hello everyone!

We have been very excited to record our home reading books each morning. Many of us have already earned our first animal card! We made a chart for our wall and have been tracking the books we have read. 3 books earns us 1 card. There are 24 cards to collect altogether.

We started our day by learning more about why we are doing "sit spots." We learned that sit spots can help you feel more connected to the land. We wanted to know more about what it means to feel connected to the land, so we read about how many Indigenous people believe that we are caretakers of the land. The land gives us food, clothes, and shelter, so in turn it is our responsibility to take care of it as well. Part of feeling connected to the land is recognizing that responsibility and doing our part to care for the land around us. The more connected to the land we feel, the more likely we will treat it kindly. 

Our pillar of the month for February is Love. We decided to use this for our journal writing today. We wrote sentences using "I love..." We each wrote 3-5 sentences to complete our journal, and we added pictures of the things we love to complete our entry.

Mr. Wiens came for music and then we filled in our calendar. Today was our 91st day of grade 1! That means we are halfway through the year, and halfway to grade 2!

After snack, we had recess and then literacy centres. Our reading groups today got to read one of Ms. Byrne's favourite books - The Peanut Butter Rhino. 

After lunch we did another practice sit spot. Don't forget that we are having some sit spot time outside tomorrow. The weather is supposed to be beautiful, but you may want to wear something you don't mind getting a little dirty - especially your pants!

We played a dice game to practice our Wow Words and then did some skip counting practice. We practiced more with using skip counting to help us add yesterday, and today we were using those skills, plus our number line addition to help us solve problems. We tried 10 problems independently and double-checked our work to see if we could find any mistakes. 

We started our next science unit today - mixing colour! We started by talking about primary and secondary colours. We made a chart with the primary and secondary colours listed. Then, we found the crayon to match each colour and coloured in a circle beside the word. We drew pictures of things that are red, blue, yellow, purple, green, and orange. Then, we got to choose 1 more colour from our crayons to add to the bottom of our charts. 

We played a team game of curling in the gym. We're getting really good at lining up our shots - we may have some future olympic curlers in our class! 

Student Shoutouts:

Cecilia - for rescuing our recess equipment when our soccer ball and basketball tried to blow away from us!

Ajay - for using his super reading skills to read a chapter book to a friend during our morning reading time.

Reminders:

Valentine's Day - We will not be handing out individual Valentine's Day cards this year. We will work on a craft together to celebrate the day on Monday. 

Thursday, Feb. 17 and Friday, Feb. 18 - No School - Teacher's Convention

Monday, Feb. 21 - No School - Family Day

Have a great evening!

-Ms. Byrne