Christmas Fun

Posted by kathycassidy

Over the last days before our Christmas break, we had a lot of fun doing special Christmas activities. We got to shop at the “Christmas Store” in the gym, choosing special gifts with the help of our big buddies…

…and then getting them wrapped by the helpers who donated their time.

Finally, they were all ready for us to take home.

We also hand-made our Christmas cards…

and made special wrapping for our clay gifts…

We decorated Christmas cookies…

and made a cooperative mural.

The highlight, though, was the Christmas concert.

Have a Merry Christmas and a wonderful holiday from all of us.

Pajama Day

Posted by kathycassidy

What fun to get to wear your pj’s, housecoat and slippers to school! Add your blankie, a pillow and a stuffed animal and learning is sooo much more fun. We did feel a bit sleepy, though…

Glimpses Into Our Classroom

Posted by kathycassidy

Check out some of the things we’ve been up to this past week.

Wearing mustaches in support of Movember…

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…learning about one and two more and less using a Bee-Bot…

…playing a game of Guess My Number with a first grade class in Texas…

…and reading our wonderful new books. Every year, the Children’s Book Centre donates a book to every grade one student in Canada. This year’s choice was Small Saul by Ashley Spires.

Stools That Tilt

Posted by kathycassidy

Some intriguing boxes from Trade West showed up in our classroom.

We opened them to discover four motion stools. The bottom of the stools is slightly convex so that the stool wobbles deliciously as you sit on it. Perfect for little bodies who need to move!

The lure of the boxes was too great to resist and the children had a lot of fun cooperating to make some intriguing creations. Thanks, Trade West for these wonderful stools!

Stuffies At School

Posted by kathycassidy

This week our book for the Global Read Aloud was Twenty Yawns, a story about a child who needs to find her stuffies to sleep. On Friday, we brought our own “sleep aids” to school. They helped us to read, to write and to think with the students in Illinois about how having a stuffed toy makes us feel.

When I Grow Up

Posted by kathycassidy

As part of education week, we talked about some of the things students could be when they grew up and chatted on Skype with a nurse. Some of the students chose to dress up as the person they wanted to be “when they are big”.
A lot of the students were willing to share their future goals in the photos below.

The Global Read Aloud

Posted by kathycassidy

Our class is participating in the Global Read Aloud. Together with thousands of other students around the world, we are reading five books by Lauren Castillo. When we talked to three classes of students in Illinois today, we not only discussed our favourite parts of the book The Troublemaker, we also found out that they are ahead of us in time! How cool is that?

Terry Fox Run

Posted by kathycassidy

Terry Fox is a Canadian hero. Even though he had lost one of his legs to cancer, he tried to run across Canada to raise money for cancer research. Sadly, he lost his battle with cancer before he could complete his run. Every year, Canadians run for Terry. Below are some of the students at the run. The photo was taken by Kristina Seiriene.

Building Our Stamina

Posted by kathycassidy

Our class has been trying to extend the time they can “read” books by themselves without interruption. We call this building stamina. Ask your child how many minutes they can now do. Just look at these diligent readers.

We’re Back!!

Posted by kathycassidy

I have a brand new class of grade one students and we have been busy learning about each other and about our classroom. Take a peek at some of what we have been up to.

Trying out the new Lego wall…