Literacy Fun!

We have been working hard on our writing skills! We have been learning to use classroom resources to help us with our writing. We have also been learning how to draw our creations that we have been building. Our students have a writing journal that we use to reduce the amount of loose papers moving between home and school. 

Our students use their sight word lists everyday! We are so proud of all the strategies they use to help them be successful. Some of them use rulers to underline the word they want to write. Others use an eraser. Some students use their pencil to underline and then erase it. We have a math word list and sight word list they use. 

Click this image to head to tpt for a copy.

Year 2 students (Senior Kindergarten) have chosen a writing goal that they want to work on. They wrote their goal and stuck it to their basket on their desk so they can see it when they are writing.

We have also been learning about whole body listening. We watched the video from Sesame Street to help us. We then did this follow up worksheet (click worksheet image for link to tpt).

At Home Learning Resources

Hi all!

Oh man do we miss being in class!

Until we're able to be back in schools again, we thought we'd pass along some resources for learning at home. Parents, we know this is a difficult time as many of you are not only parenting/teaching but also working from home. So, we hope some of these resources help you during this time.

1. Scholastic- Learn at Home
This website has Grade level books and activities on various curriculum topics daily.

 https://classroommagazines.scholastic.com/support/learnathome.html

2. York Region District School Board website

The YRDSB has created a document that has countless links to free resources online. Each link tells you grade level and subject area. 

http://www.yrdsb.ca/Students/Pages/Online-Resources.aspx

3. Ministry of Education- Ontario

The Ministry has created a list of free resources available to families at home. 

https://www.ontario.ca/page/learn-at-home

4. Reading at Home for Parents

This website has video tutorials to help parents get their kids reading at home. They also have links to many free reading resources online.

https://www.thedailycafe.com/content/reading-home-parents

 5. Art for Kids Hub

This website has drawing tutorials. You can search topics on the website, which you can't do on YouTube. Their YouTube channel has many free drawing tutorials. 

https://www.artforkidshub.com/

https://www.youtube.com/user/ArtforKidsHub

6. Cincinnati Zoo

The zoo is doing live safaris each day at 3pm EST. You log in through Facebook to watch. 

http://cincinnatizoo.org/news-releases/cincinnati-zoo-is-bringing-the-zoo-to-you/

7. Audible

Audible has created a free list of books for young readers. 

https://stories.audible.com/start-listen

8. Toronto Zoo

The Toronto Zoo has some resources for parents with links to activities as well as some live videos of animals.

http://www.torontozoo.com/zootoyou

9. Storyline Online

This YouTube channel is full of stories. There are videos of celebrities reading various books aloud.

https://www.youtube.com/user/StorylineOnline/videos

How to Talk About COVID-19 with your kids

There has been a lot of news out there that is overwhelming, confusing and downright scary. How do you talk about this with children, without scaring them?

I found this comic book created by Malaka Gharib  to help tell kids the story and to simplify it.
(Click here to go to the article).

You can download and print the image and turn it into a mini book. There is also a Chinese language version (click here).

Watch here for how to fold it. You can also use this video to make your own mini books at home!

Remember to stay home and wash your hands!

The Mitten- Mandala Art

We were challenged as a school to decorate the windows beside our classroom doors. We have been exploring lines in art and used this in our collaborative creation. Using acrylic paint and a clear plastic table cloth, we created a winter themed mandala as the background for our representation of the book 'The Mitten'. Here are photos from the mandala painting process.

We read the book together as a class and discussed what animals they wanted to create to add to our window scene. Students used a variety of materials to make their animals.

(click here to link to Amazon to get your own)

Here is the final product, while we didn't win the challenge we were proud of how our window turned out! 

Inquiry Time

Welcome to Grade 1 and 2 in Room 116! 

We have had a great first month in our class. Students are settling into routines and building friendships. Let us tell you a little about how we start our days. We start each day with ‘Inquiry Time’. During this time students are engaging in a variety of activities of their choice. We use this time for ‘work on writing’ as well as small group reading instruction. Our students make choices about where they want to engage in the classroom and then they select a writing format to share their thinking, creating and ideas. 

It seems we have a class of architects and engineers as building and creating seems to be a favourite activity. Here are some of their creations:

Soccer field 

Toronto

A library

Using base 10 blocks for a house

Canada's Wonderland

Students also explore a variety of math concepts during this ‘Inquiry Time’. They have done:

• geometry

Pattern Blocks (click for link to purchase)

Pentominoes (click for link to purchase)

• counting

• adding 

Exploring making 10 with Sum Blox

• patterning 

Keva Planks (click to purchase)

• measurement 

Measuring with Linking Cubes 

We believe that you can use play and open exploration to engage students and we need to remember that in Grade 1 and 2 they are still kids and deserve time to explore ideas through play. Providing this time allows students to:

• build social skills
• build curiosity and learn to ask questions
• learn to take responsibility for their learning
• use creative thinking
• express their ideas and knowledge in various ways (structures, loose part creations, writing, conversations, etc.)
• build problem-solving skills
• access various curriculum strands
• work on learning skills
• share explorations through various writing formats