Mrs. James's Grade 1 and 2 Christmas Tree

This is the class's Crystal Explosion tree. This is not an ordinary tree. It's a magic tree. The tree grows crystals out of it and when it's tomorrow we'll see all the crystals. It's an experiment. We made this tree in our class and other people helped. It's growing crystals out of it but they're first starting little, but they're going to grow bigger to be crystals. This is how we made the tree. We put water in the tub and then we got magic powder and the powder is magic. We made the crystals with the salt and the salt was in the water and when the water went into the root the salt went with it and it went to the colours on the tops and it made the salt turn colours and made it into crystals.

Written by the grade one students in our class!

Cheerios, Cheerios.... And More Cheerios!

Today students made their own quantity number line which they will be able to use to help them to compare and order numbers from least to greatest or greatest to least. It was a challenge, but many students demonstrated perseverance today! Some students used clothespins or some other method to mark the groups of ten cheerios to help them keep track all the way to 100.

How old are your grandma and grandpa?

Sometimes our learning is planned ahead of time, but often, some of the best learning happens when real things come up on the spot! One day a student in our class shared that her grandma was turning 75. We got talking about how old everyone's grandma and grandpa were (or how old they lived to be) and we used our quantity number line to compare. The quantity number line is a string with 100 beads on it. We can clip clothespins on to represent different numbers and compare which is bigger.

Comparing Animals

 In Science, we have been comparing a variety of animals. Students are very interested and have a lot of knowledge already about many different animals. On Friday, we wrote about animals that move on land, in water or in the air. We found that some animals could move in more than one of those places. It was a great learning experience for Science and also for Writing. A lot can be learned by just writing one word. It can be broken into parts by clapping the syllables. It might have parts in it that are in other words we know.

Self-Regulation

Self-regulation will be a focus in many classrooms at Ballantrae P.S. this year. It is an area in education that is increasingly gaining attention. In short, the ability to self-regulate is the ability to maintain a calm, alert and focused state of mind, regulating behaviour, emotions and learning. Follow this link to learn more:

Self-Regulation Explained

So what are we doing? We are "up-regulating" and "down-regulating" throughout the day. To help students move from hyperalert to calmly focused and alert, we listen to relaxing music, nature sounds or chimes. You'd be amazing at just how calming this can be. To help students move from hypoalert to calmly focused and alert, we get up and move around. We have found lots of opportunities for counting and exercising!

At home, observe your child carefully. Notice when he/she is calmly focused and alert. Is it after a really good night's sleep or a filling and nutritious snack? Maybe it's after being outdoors and getting exercise. Also, talk to your child regularly about how he/she is feeling and what is making him/her feel that way. Children's lives look playful and easy, but to them, sometimes life can feel really stressful. They need help figuring out how they are feeling, why they are feeling that way and what they can do about it.

Are there monsters living in your closet?

Students are still having lots of fun with the monsters they have created. We read a funny book about how to get rid of monsters that live in different places in your home and then talked about where their monsters live. They have created habitats for their monsters by painting a picture or actually building the habitat out of plastercine or other craft materials. Many students are working together to build an environment or ecosystem for several of the monsters to live together.

During our sharing time, a lot of their Science learning is evident. We are finding out about the kinds of things the monsters need to survive and also the similarities and differences between the characteristics of the different monsters. Some questions you could ask your child about his/her monster are: Describe its habitat. How does it stay warm or does it like the cold? How does it move? What does it eat? What are its enemies or predators? How is it similar to another animal you know about?

You've Got Mail!

Today we started our classroom mail. We read some of "The Jolly Postman" which included real letters they took out of envelopes. There was an apology letter to the three bears from Goldilocks and another to the giant from Jack of Jack and the Beanstalk. Students then had a chance to write a letter to a friend or family member. Each morning, whoever is the mail carrier for the week will deliver mail to our classroom mailboxes, to other classrooms or to zipper bags if students have written to a family member. They are all anxiously awaiting the morning mail delivery!

At home, you can encourage your child to write letters too or to write emails to family members. Including photographs would make it even more fun. As well, it would be helpful for students to know their home address so that they can address their letters to a family member. Many students could either tell their house number OR their street name.