Time for Castles

The Grade 1J's made castles on Friday.  One boy in our class said it is because "we need to experience how to build castles".  We have been reading a story in our reader about two boys who build their first sandcastle of the season.  We made a text-to-art connection and built our own castles.  A retired teacher in our community saves his scraps of wood for us each year.  Now that the glue is dry, we will paint our castles.   It's so much fun!

Blog Comments

Hello, Grade 1J!  I just want to let you know that I enjoy reading all your blogs.  You are doing an amazing job.  I have been making comments to your blogs.  If you don't have a comment from me, it is because I had a problem opening the comment section to your blog.  I will make a comment to you when I figure this out.  In the meantime, keep blogging!

Grade 1J Writes!

Wow!  The Grade 1J's are very excited about their blogging!  Grade 1J, I like reading what you have been writing in class and at home.  I see you have been commenting on each other's blogs, too.  Keep up the great work!

Grade 1J's Write Blogs

It is a snow day today.  Some Grade 11 students have come to help us learn to write our own blogs.  It's fun!

It's a Snow Day!

We are having a Snow Day in our classroom today.  There are only 9 out of 19 students here, including 2 country children.  (There are even teachers and teacher assistants who were not able to get in to school today.)  We are using our time to do practice, review and corrections.  The students who are here today will not cover any new material.  (This is so that anyone stuck at home will not miss the introduction of new work.)  We will all have so much fun in the new snow at recess.  The Grade 1J's wish everyone a "Happy Snow Day!" 

Happy St. Patrick's Day

We had an exciting early St. Patrick's Day in Grade 1J.  Friday found us all wearing green to school...it was great!  We all became a little bit Irish as we listened to leprechaun stories and did our check for understanding work, toured Ireland, did leprechaun math, and learned Irish step dancing, all with our SmartBoard.  We ended the day with lime flavoured ice-cream floats, green cupcakes, dill pickle and sour cream & onion chips (because they have green flecks of flavour on them), and green candies.  The only negative part of the day...we were having so much fun learning that I forgot to capture the happenings with our camera!   The class asked me if I could post the sites we saw today.  I've added some below and to our classroom links.   You could also use these links to search further for other famous step dancers.  Enjoy and may the luck of the Irish be with you!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yE1OQAoSWAU  (watch the beautiful scenes and hear the music of Ireland)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YGsb199yN-k  (a six year old girl step dancing)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OTq2Cew4UmI&feature=related (five and seven year old boy and girl step dancing)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uWhxDD2Fy1w (watch this clip from a movie of a leprechaun that would be a good movie to rent or purchase)

New Links and School on Monday

There is school for Macklin students on Monday, February 12.  (This means that the Macklin School calendar is different than the Division calendar for the months of March and June.)  Monday, March 19 is a day off for students and is a P.D. Day for staff.)

Hey, Grade 1J...check out the new links I've added for you.   Have fun!

What a Super Sharing Time Today!

We had an awesome Sharing Time today!  We were excited to hear that one of our classmates won a bowling tournament this weekend in Edmonton and is off to Newfoundland in May for Nationals...congratulations!  Another classmate returned from Disney World with lots of stories to tell and pictures to see.  Thank you to her for sharing the beaded necklaces she got at the Mardi Gras Parade with her fellow classmates and teachers, and for the gift to me of a picture of my favourite character (Winnie the Pooh) and the key chain!  Congratulations to the boys in the class who said they also won their hockey game this weekend.

 This month, in recognition of those tricky little leprechauns that are out and about during the month of March, we are telling jokes for our Sharing Time program.  (What did the ocean say to the sand?  Nothing...it just waved!  - told by a boy in our class today) 

We are presently having a blizzard...it started to snow just after the students got out of school today.  We are in a snow warning area and are expected to get 8-10 cm of snow tonight. There could be another  2-4 cm of snow and drifting snow tomorrow...I wonder if we'll have a "snow day"? 

Hello...I have added a Parent Link section to our classroom blog.  The first features I've added are from a passion of mine...preserving memories, organizing children's memoribilia, scrapbooking and photography.  I hope you feel as inspired from these two leaders in this field as I have been, even if you don't scrapbook.  I am especially fond of Becky Higgins and all that she does and have followed her scrapbooking projects for over ten years.  I find Becky easy to listen to and before I forget, I'm not promoting her product...although it is neat...but her style and words of wisdom!  Stacey Julian is a recent find of mine and so far I've only enjoyed the two links of hers that I've added to my parent link list.  Enjoy!  Let me know what you think.