Kenneth D. Taylor - Mrs. Brar

Saturday, May 6, 2017

Friday, May 5, 2017

Reminders
Our in school field trip will be taking place Monday from 9-11! Thank you so much to our volunteers who will be coming in to support. Volunteers, please arrive by 845.

Students in Mrs. Brar's and Ms. Lightfoot's class began the week learning about the different parts of the plant as they are already, experts on what plants need to live. Today our classes continued our exploration of plants - by planting our own lima bean seeds!

Each student received one lima bean seed to observe, make predictions, and generate any of their wonders. This seed will remain in a plastic bag with a wet paper towel so we can watch it germinate and then dissect it!

With the help of Mrs. Brewster, each student packed their cups with soil

and planted another seed!

We're excited to see the seeds sprout next week!

Ask your child: What did you observe looking at your lima bean? What do you predict will happen or it will look like? What wonders do you have? Where did you put your cup when you finished planting?

We also had the opportunity to watch the osprey from the Calgary Zoo!

Click here to watch the live feed: https://www.enmax.com/community/keeping-up-with-the-ospreys

We researched a bit more and learned that the Osprey's eat fish. This is why they build their nests close the water! We learned that during the winter they migrate to South America. We learned that the osprey's predators are eagles and owls. (source: https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Osprey/lifehistory)

Here are some screen shots of what we watched throughout the day. Some of these images are from an osprey in the states who's eggs have already hatched. The Calgary eggs have not hatched yet so we are excited for that to happen!

Mr. Dyck also shared a nest with us that was built in his backyard. He was observing (from a distance) a robin sitting in her nest. Unfortunately, it appeared that the robin did not survive as she did not come back to the nest for many days. We talked about predators and the life cycle and how this is all a part of life. Mr. Dyck brought in the nest for us to take a closer look. In the nest were two eggs which again, unfortunately, will never hatch.

Thursday, May 4, 2017

Today is Arbour Day! Each student in grade 1 came home today with a tree to plant. This ties in perfectly with what we are learning about right now - The needs of plants! Below are some instructions on how to plant your tree.

Please ask our child: What does a plant need to grow?

We spent a lot of the day talking about plants and describing all of their parts.

Please ask your child to tell you what each of these parts are!

We also completed flower paint art - ask me what I did!

Wednesday, May 3, 2017

Today we read a story by Lisa Brown called How To Be. We learned how to be a bear, a turtle, a money, a snake, a dog and a spider! We used this format, and write about how to be a friend! Enjoy our brilliant writers below! (click on the pictures to enlarge them)

In math we practiced identifying different attributes of 2D and 3D shapes. We played the game, whats in my bag. Students chose either a 2D or 3D item, described it to their partner with the goal being that their partner should be able to guess what shape is in the bag, within 1-3 tries.

We quickly noticed that the words we use to describe each of the 2D shapes are different from the ones to describe 3D shapes. Please discuss these differences with your child

3D shapes can hold things inside of it!

2D shapes are flat.

Tuesday, May 2, 2017

Tuesday, May 2nd, 2017

Yesterday we had a wonderful presentation from Steve Harmer. Steve is a former principal and now offers motivational shows and incorporates magic within his program. Yesterday we watched Brilliant and Resilient.

We learned more about the words Brilliant and Resilient

Brilliant means showing exceptional (amazing, awesome wonderful) ability, skill or talent. We shared how the students in our room are brilliant readers, writers, mathematicians, ambassadors and so much more!

Resilient means being able to bounce back into shape after being squished, stretched, or bent out of shape! He shared the 7C's, each of which help us be more resilient and able to handle the challenges we face throughout life.

Steve shared with the students about how he learned to ride a unicycle. He shared his story about how it was so difficult to do but he showed persistence and every time he fell off he got back on again. He never gave up and now he can ride it so well! Our class then shared our success stories with things that we have learned how to do and how we got there. One very brave student Mark, shared how when he first started skating, it was difficult! He would fall down and it hurt very much! But each time he fell, he got back up and tried again! All of our students were surprised to hear this story because during our inline skating, Mark was skating so well! Mark shared how hard he worked to get to that point and how he never gave up! We are learning this each day - Please share with your child today, something that you tried to do, struggled, and how you never gave up and learned!

We will be focusing on the 7C's that Steve Harmer introduced to us yesterday. Here is a sneak peak of the words. These words come from Ken Ginsburg's work titled Building Resiliency in Children and Teens.