Tuning-in to Sharing the Planet

 This week in Grade 1 we continued to tune-in to our new unit: Sharing the Planet

We thought about the Learner Profile Attributes we are focusing on in this unit.

Finally, we unpacked the central idea: Our actions affect the Earth's resources and people.

We also took a look around our school to see what natural resources we could find:

Reminders!

May 3rd-7th: Golden Week Holiday

Monday, May 10th: Yearbook Cover Art Contest Due

• Theme: Sharing and Caring
• Orientation: Portrait (Vertical)
• No school logo please

May 14th: Last Scholastic book order for this school year. 

Have a wonderful Golden Week Holiday!

Grade 1 Assembly Video!

Expressing Ourselves and Tuning-in to Sharing the Planet

Throughout the year Grade 1 inquires into How We Express Ourselves:

How We Express Ourselves: An inquiry into orientation in place and time; personal histories; homes and journeys; the discoveries, explorations and migrations of humankind; the relationships between, and the interconnectedness of, individuals and civilizations, from local and global perspectives.

Central Idea: 

Our uniqueness is expressed in creative and artistic ways.

Lines of Inquiry:

- what makes me special

- how our feelings are shown through what we create

- how we can understand others better by appreciating other people’s work

- how reflection helps us improve our artistic expressions

Concepts: Causation, Perspective

Approaches to Learning: Communication Skills, Self Management Skills

Learner Profile: Open-minded, Reflective, Communicator

Last week we learned a little about the modern dance choreographer Martha Graham and how she showed feelings and helped her audience connect with their feelings through dance. The students then worked with a partner to express a feeling through movement with scarves.

We also reflected on the feeling given in our Monet bridges on Seesaw.

In literacy, we thought about an author's purpose, reviewed contractions, and investigated the function of verbs. 

We also began tuning into a new Unit of Inquiry by mind mapping what we thought about "Sharing the Planet", doing a chalk talk about different problems our earth faces, and finding books in our library that might help our inquiry.

Upcoming:

Thursday, April 29th: 

• School Photo Day
• Virtual Sleepover 6pm-7:30pm

May 3rd-7th: Golden Week Holiday

Monday, May 10th: Yearbook Cover Art Contest Due

• Theme: Sharing and Caring
• Orientation: Portrait (Vertical)
• No school logo please

Concluding our How We Organize Ourselves Unit

We finished our shelters this week and tested them out! Stay tuned for our assembly video next week showing the results!

In Maths, we honed our skip counting and decomposing skills by calculating costs. Check out the costs we calculated for our shelters! We are continuing to work on counting to 120, decomposing numbers into tens or fives and ones to add sums to 100. 

In literacy, we wrapped up our information writing unit and will begin writing opinion pieces from next week. We are also studying mentor sentences from books to learn the importance of different parts of speech.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Construction has begun!

Grade one began construction on our shelters this week! As teams, they were tasked to build shelters suitable to an environment with a lot of rain and some earthquakes. To do this they will have to take all of the knowledge they have acquired through their investigation of materials, roof structures, and maths to calculate the cost of materials as well as design and build their shelter. This unit also focused on students' social and communication skills to work as an efficient team. We cannot wait to see the finished products!

We were very fortunate to have Mr. Morineau as a guest speaker (via Zoom) to share his expertise working with shelters made to transport things. The students noticed some structural designs and the importance of many skills needed to build shelters. They also thought the explosions were cool and the cat was cute. 

In arts, we dabbled into expressing ourselves with the impressionist, Claude Monet. 

Finally, a very BIG THANK YOU to the PTA who generously delivered Easter treats to the school today!

 

Shelters: Materials and Structures

Grade 1 was fortunate to have an expert in materials used to build shelters, Mr. Henrik Kohberg (Grade 2 Ella's dad), share his knowledge and answer some of our questions from our wonder wall!

Mr. Kohberg mentioned cost as a major factor in material choice, so we took all of the knowledge we gathered through our experiment and the guest speaker and thought about what materials might be most expensive and least expensive.

Finally we thought about the structure of shelters. In groups, we discussed, then shared the possible pros and cons of different common roof structures. 

Next week we will begin our shelter building challenge! Please collect stones if your plan is to use them as a material in your building!

Upcoming:

Mondays: 

• Turn in Word Study books (remember to not only sort and paste, but practice writing/using your words!)
• Reading Log check

Tuesdays:

• Library

PE Wednesdays and Fridays

School Calendar Modification

April 10th - NO SCHOOL/Fair due to COVID-19

April 12th - Regular School Day