Short but Sweet!

This was one busy short week!

Graphing the results

We started off the week making a graph in math of our dinosaur art! Last week we read the two books, "Can I Have a Stegasurus, Mom, Please?" and "Can I have a T-rex, Dad, Please?". We talked about what dinosaur they would like and what they would do with them. In art, chose a herbivore or a carnivore (Stegasaurus or T-rex) and decorated their creature with stripes or spots! We added them to our Dino Walls. Aren't they great!

Our Dinosaurs!

In Math we are also starting our unit on measurement! This unit is always so much fun, we get to use a bunch of school supplies and items as non-standard units to measure other objects. We talked about measuring as a way of comparing two or more items and different ideas of non-standard units, such as, paper clips, erasers, pencils and even kids!

With our Language Arts focus on Dinosaurs we have explored Non-Fiction and Fiction books about dinosaurs. After reading some Non-Fiction about T-Rex's we wrote some T- Rex Similes. Using fun non-standard units we estimated "a T-Rex was as tall as.." a bunch of crazy ideas!

A T-Rex is as tall as a giant oak tree!

On Earth Day we took some time to make a list of 10 things we could to do help our Earth. They came up with some wonderful ideas as a class. In the afternoon we buddied up with Grade 2 and set out to clean up the school yard!

We braved some strong winds!

In Social we talked about changes that happen in our family and communities. As a project today we sent home a Ancestor Interview! Students are to find a grandparent, aunt or uncle to interview about what life was like when they were young! It should be interesting to hear what kind of toys and food all the grandparents liked!
If you are missing the forms for the project you can click here.

In Science we watered some bean seeds and are watching them grow! In groups we are observing our bean every 4 days to see what changes have happened. Only one bean has sprouted a little root so far but our scientist are hopeful!




Have a wonderfully long weekend!

Roaring like Dinosaurs!

What a wonderful and busy week! Swimming has been keeping us active in the afternoons and hungry! We have really been appreciating the extra snack in the afternoon. :) This was our last week of swimming!

We're roaring for dinosaurs! Monday morning I had *found* an enormous egg in my backyard! We looked at the egg and made some inferences and guess as to what might be in it based on how it looked! Some of the guesses were hilarious (Tigers, Alligators, or Monkies)! Then I started to give them clues and we drew our new inferences. Later when we checked the egg we had a new class member, CHOMPY!

What We Know and What We Wonder About Dinosaurs!

To help us tap into our previous knowledge of dinosaurs we made a chart of what we already know and some wonders we might have. Throughout the week we have read both fiction and non-fiction books about dinosaurs.


This week in Math we looked at Number recipes, the many ways to make a number! This included tallies, words, drawing objects, filling ten frames, and number sentences! The students got to try out Roll & Draw, where they have two dice to create a number and then show that number in as many ways as they can!

We have been Making 10 all week! To practice this mental math strategy we have been working with Unifex cubes to find which number buddies make 10! (1 and 9 are buddies, 2 and 8 are buddies, etc...) We have coloured some rainbows and played Dinosaur True or False in Math Centers time. We We even made homes for all our Making Ten Facts Families!

This unit in Social  is all about our families and communities in the past. This week we discussed what Past, Present and Future meant and some things that we would see in each category. It was pretty crazy for them to imagine a world without TV's, radios and Ipads!

We got the chance to peek inside a bean seed this week in Science! After soaking a bean we could split it open and look at the little root that began to grow, two little leaves, and where the plant food is kept. After we drew pictures of what plant we would like to grow one day!

Have a wonderful weekend everyone!!

First Week Back!

Hello parents and family!

 This was our first week together and it has gone great! I have really enjoyed getting to know all of the students and hearing about some amazing Spring Breaks! 

In Language arts this week we have been practicing writing perfect sentences. As a class we talked about all our different Spring Break adventures and used our 5 senses in writing to describe what we saw, heard, smelled, tasted and felt! 

In groups the students had to unscramble sentences strips! Each group of four was given a sentence to unscramble, rewrite on their whiteboards and share with the class. Once they had shared we put the sentences in sequence and made a class story! 

This week we had some time to introduce a new Word Work activity, Rainbow Writing. The students really enjoyed using different colours to practice sight words from our word wall. 

In Math we started out reviewing all the different ways we can solve math problems. We made a book of our strategies for our math folders to help us remember! We also practiced our counting and adding and subtracting skills in games and centers. 

In Science this week we have focused on seeds - what they are, what they look like and what they definitely are not! The students separated a bunch of items into a "seeds" and "not seeds" pile and we discussed what they all had the same or different. We also read the story "The Tiny Seed" by Eric Carle to follow the life of a seed and learn how they make their way from the plant to the ground to make new plants. 

Swimming was great this week! We go again next week on Monday, Wednesday and Thursday! The students are doing amazing jobs splashing, floating and dunking their heads under the water! Next week I will be bringing the camera so I can share how awesome they are doing! 

Have a good weekend!

Welcome Back!

Welcome Back from your Break!

I am so excited to have the opportunity to work in this classroom with your children! I have had a few opportunities to come and peek at the work they do and I can already tell we're going to have an amazing end to our year!

Just some things about this blog - I will work on updating this blog weekly and keep you all informed on what fun stuff we get up to in class! I will try to put up as many pictures as I can as well as use this space to remind us all of any upcoming important dates or activities.

Every Monday I will post the Spelling Words on the right hand side of this page, as well as, the sight words for the week. This will help if any papers get lost on their grand journey from desk to back pack and hopefully - home!

If you can any questions about the blog please feel free to contact me, by email (cassandra.potter@blackgold.ca) or by contacting the school by phone.

Happy First Day back Kiddos!