Polar Bear Adoption: SEVEN polar bears!

Students have been working hard on their polar bear adoption cookie fundraiser and their hard work paid off on Friday when they were able to adopt SEVEN polar bears.  Way to go Grade 1s!!

Remembrance Day

Before we attended the Remembrance Day service at the high school this morning, we read about animals involved in war on this website.  It was really interesting to find out how animals helped during the wars.  Students summarized their learning by Tweeting facts about each animal - check out @MrsObachsClass at twitter.com

http://www.veterans.gc.ca/eng/activities/kidszone/tales_animals

16 students, 4 volunteers and 47 dozen cookies later!

What a busy day!  We started making cookies for the polar bear adoption fundraiser today with the help of some wonderful parents and community members.  Students worked in teams to mix, bake, bag and deliver cookies.  Students even took the great photographs below.  I saw lots of learning today as students worked together: reading recipes, measuring ingredients, counting cookies and excellent cooperation. Together we made 47 dozen cookies this afternoon!  We were very lucky to have such strong support – thank you to our volunteers for their partnership!

Grocery Shopping

We went to the co-op this week to buy groceries for our cookie fundraiser.  This is the grocery list that students made after reading many recipes and deciding on the best recipes to make.  Students did a great job of working together at the grocery store and they carried lots of heavy bags of groceries back to the school!  Way to go Grade 1s. 

Helping Animals Video

We made a video about helping animals after Alyssa from Alyssa's Ark Small Animal Rescue came to see us.  She needs old blankets, towels and old clothes for animal beds if you have any to donate. 

See our video here http://animoto.com/play/raThBLzVJA3G18RAnFH6Sw

Math Game: More or Less Board 2

Here's a variation of the previous game.  We are currently playing on this board  at school using 1 die only (but feel free to try 2 dice!)

Materials:
* 2 dice
* a gameboard for each player
* bingo chips or other objects for markers
* spinner (we used heavy paper and a fastener to make ours!)

How to Play:
*the first player rolls the dice and adds together the numbers on the dice
*the first player spins the spinner
*the first player covers the square that corresponds (ie: roll a 2 + 4=6 and spin 1 more, then cover 7) 
*the next player goes and follows the same steps
*a player wins when he or she covers 5 squares in a row


Variations:
* cover all squares to win (blackout game)
*play with 1 die

Math Game: More or Less Board 1

Here's another math game to enjoy!

Materials:
* a die
* a gameboard for each player
* bingo chips or other objects for markers
* spinner (we used heavy paper and a fastener to make ours!)

How to Play:
*the first player rolls the die and spins the spinner
*cover the square that corresponds (ie: roll a 6 and spin 1 more, then cover 7) 
*the next player goes and follows the same steps
*a player wins when he or she covers 4 squares in a row


Variations:
* cover all squares to win (blackout game)

Math Game: Dice are Nice

We are back at school and learning lots!  Here is one of our fun math games called "Dice are Nice". 

Materials:

gameboard

die

bingo chips or other markers (different for each player)

How to Play:

First player rolls and covers the matching number on the board

Second player rolls and covers the matching number on the board

Players continue taking turns until all of the squares are covered

The winner is the person with the most squares covered at the end

If all of the spaces for a number are covered, the player loses their turn. 

Variations:

Play to get 3 in a row

To print your gameboards, copy and paste the image below into a word processor.  Resize as necessary.

QR Codes explained

If you want to learn more about QR codes, the Grade 1s and Kindergartens watched this interesting video today.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2VsZDIoCfsc

More awesome reminder stickers!

We were excited to design more reusable bag reminder stickers today!  See our design below and feel free to download our PDF version from SkyDrive so you can print your own using Avery Labels #06499.

Reminder Stickers with QR Codes

This morning we started designing our reminder stickers to help people remember their reusable bags.  The stickers were one of the solutions the Grade 1s came up with when we found out from the RCMP officer that hanging things from our rearview mirror was not legal or safe.

We used the Avery website to design our stickers and students chose the colours, images and messages to include!  We followed the criteria that students had set for reminder tags and stickers.

While we were designing, I noticed that QR codes were an available option, so I explained to the students that QR codes were like barcodes that they have at the grocery store.  Everyone was very excited to include a QR code and the students decided it should link to Mrs. Caldwell and I's blog about the project. 

Please check out our reminder stickers and print yourself one or a whole sheet to share (we used removable Avery Labels # 06499).

You can download the PDF file of the stickers here.

Math Game: Pairings

We make our gameboards reusable by laminating them so we can use dry erase markers to play, then erase to use the board again and again!

Reminder tags

Our friends in Kindergarten at Oak Lake Community School did an investigation and found out that a lot of people at their Co-op were forgetting their reusable bags.  We decided that we could help by making reminders for people, so we have been busy designing and creating reminder tags.   Students came up with lots of great ideas and we can’t wait to get our reminders out into the community and world!  Below are 3 samples of our digital designs.  Please feel free to print one for yourself (maybe on recyclable paper) and help contribute to our goal of increasing reusable bag use!  We’d love it if you left us a comment telling us where you will put your reminder and if it helps

CDW Teaching with Technology Contest Winners!

We are the 2011 CDW Canada Teaching with Technology Video Contest Winners!  Check it out at:
http://www.teachingwithtechnology.ca/winners.php

Words of the Week: June 11-15

Our words of the week are built from the letters in "vegetables".  We read this word in the book The Bug Hotel.

I'm Back!

After some technical difficulties with using Blogger on my school laptop, I am now back online and things are working great!  Sorry for the lull in posts if you follow for games and letter tiles.  Hopefully it will be smooth sailing from here...

Math Game: Addition Race

Material:            Game board

Die or dice

Symbol cube or spinner (more,less, 1 more, 1 less, 2 more, 2 less)

Different coloured counter for each player

Players:              Two or three

Rules:                 The first player rolls the cubes to start a number sentence.  For example, if the player rolls “3” and “one more than” then the number of spaces to move must be “4”.  If the cubes read “5” and “less than”, then the number of spaces to move can be anything less than 5.  A player must have the exact number in order to finish. For example if a player needs a 2 to finish but rolls a “2” and “more than” then she misses a turn and play passes to the next player.

                          If you roll “more”, you can move up to 6 spaces more. 

Note:

Say a number sentence with each roll of the cubes.  Example “One more than 3 is 4” or “2 is less than 5.”

Source:              

Manitoba Education http://www.edu.gov.mb.ca/k12/cur/math/games/index.html

Words of the Week: April 16-23

Our words this week are built from the letters in princess.  We found this word in the story I Promise retold by Susan Hughes. 

Music Game

Mrs. Penner showed us a fun music game online today!

go to:  http://www.nyphilkids.org/games/main.phtml? to play

Words of the Week: March 19-23

Our words are built from the letters in drinking. 

Words of the Week: March 12-16

Our words this week are built from the letters in dinosaur.  We read this word in the story Not Another Dinosaur! 

Math Game: Mooove it!

Words of the Week: March 5-12

Our words this week are built from the word mountains, which we read in the book Camping at the Lake

Words of the Week February 27-March 5

Our words this week are built from the letters in measuring.  We read this word in a book called Making Ice Cream. 

Storybird: Adventure of the Apple Tree

Mrs. Caldwell and the Oak Lake Community School Kindergarten class started this Storybird and sent it on to us to finish.  We had fun adding to the story and giving it a title.  See our work at:

http://storybird.com/books/adventure-of-the-apple-tree/

Words of the Week: February 21-27

Our words this week are built from the letters in "fingers".

Words of the Week: February 13-21

Our words this week are built from the letters in camping.  We read this word in the book called Camping at the Lake by Dianne Meili. 

February 7 - 13: Words of the Week: Hamster

This week's words of the week are made from the letters in hamster.  Have fun building words!

Flippers Letter Tiles (last week)

January 23-30 Words of the Week: Antlers

Our words of the week this week are built from the letters in the word "antlers".  We read this word in our story called "Is This a Moose?"  by Jenny Armstrong.   Have fun building words!

Doubles

Materials:
* a die
* a gameboard for each player
* blocks or other objects for markers - 9 for each player

How to Play:
*the first player rolls the die
*say the doubles fact for that number (example: 6+6=12)
*cover the square that goes with that fact
*the next player goes and follows the same steps
*someone wins when all the squares are covered.

Variations:
* cover 3 in a row

Math Game:100 Chart Tic Tac Toe

Materials:
100 chart
deck of cards with face cards and 10s removed
bingo chips, pennies or other small object - different type for each player


How to play:
*first player draws two cards and states the 2 digit numbers he or she can make (ie:  cards 4 and 8 can make 48 or 84)
*first player covers the numbers with their marker
*second player draws two cards and states the 2 digit numbers he or she can make (ie:  cards 4 and 8 can make 48 or 84)
*second player covers the numbers with their marker
* covered sqaures can be "captured" if opponent draws the correct cards to cover the space
Repeat until a winner is declared.


Object of the game:
Cover 3 numbers in a row.

Variations:
Play with more players
Try covering 4 numbers to win, 5 numbers etc. 
Create your own number chart and adjust cards accordingly. 
After 1 player gets 3 in a row, both players count each marker on the board as 2 points regardless of location on the board and count each capture as 5 points.  Tally points after a set number of rounds and declare a winner. 

I'm Elmo and I know It

A cute and fun Sesame Street Video:

Click here to watch the "I'm Elmo and I Know It" music video

Adding Doubles

Today we learned about adding doubles.  If you can find doubles at home, please share with us!  You can draw them or photograph them.  Doubles can be sent in your child's planner or emailed to lobach@pwsd.ca

Here is my doubles fact from home: 

2 horse legs + 2 horse legs = 4 legs
Doubles fact: 2+2 = 4

My horse Galena trying out her new zebra print blanket on Christmas day!

Words of the Week - Sleeping

Our words of the week are built from the letters in sleeping.  Try building the words using these letter tiles. You might even be able to find more words to build! 

Willie Wiggle Wiggle Worm Puzzles

We've been working on a challenging and exciting new kind of puzzle.  The Willie Wiggle Wiggle Worm story and parent/teacher instruction video can be viewed at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QrodjaKx2Cc&feature=player_embedded

Select puzzles from below and try them out or create your own puzzle and try to solve it!  Have fun and remember that Willie Wiggle Wiggle Worm CAN'T do diagonals or he'll snap in half!

Words of the Week - January 9-16

Our new words of the week are built out of the letters in "different".  You can build the words at home using the letter tiles below - just print the strip of letters and cut them apart!