Adams Apples

Welcome Back!

2011-08-31T20:45:00.000-07:00

I can't believe summer is over and we are back to school! I think this has been the fastest summer in history! I am excited to be back and am looking forward to working with my new class!

I am excited to be using some new materials in our classroom this year. We have new reading resources called "Balanced Literacy" so we have lots of shiny new books to read! We will also be using many literacy stations thoroughout the year which bring a real hands on approach to reading and writing.

We have BRAND NEW computers in our elementary computer lab which I am excited to get the students using.

I am looking forward to a wonderful year, keep watching the blog for new and exciting things we do in the classroom, and I hope to provide you with a window to peek in at what we are doing in Grade One!

Hat Day at OneTrueMedia.com

2010-12-02T15:06:00.001-08:00

Every year the Grade Ones read the selection entitled “Favorites” and wear their favorite hat to school. This year was hugely successful, we even had a bike helmet with lights, welder’s helmet, and a hard hat! Listen to the students read “Favorites” and enjoy the slide show of all their hats. “Have you got a hat that you love to wear? A hat that you take most everywhere? You wear it to school, you wear it to bed, you never, ever take it off your head. You wear it to play and to do your math, but your mom won’t let you wear it when you take a bath!” (by Sonja Dunn, Collections reader series)

Make photo slide shows at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Roy G. Biv

2010-12-02T14:21:00.001-08:00

To help the students remember the colours in the rainbow, we meet a character called Roy G. Biv. (Roy G. Biv is an acronym for the colours in the rainbow in order – red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet) In our class, this is a kid who lives in the rainbow who wears a rainbow cape and a fedora spy hat. Roy G. Biv visited our classroom and I don’t think any of the kids will forget his name!

The King's Punch at OneTrueMedia.com

2010-12-02T14:18:00.001-08:00

As part of our “Creating Colour” unit in science, and as part of our AISI project which is focused on helpoing the students to be 21st century learners, we did a “real world” project in which we made punch for the king’s party. Our King, had requested purple punch for his party. The students experimented with primary colours to come up with purple punch for the party. They were also able to create green punch and orange punch.

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

The King's Frames!

2010-10-27T20:20:00.000-07:00

As part of our school wide AISI (Alberta Initiative for School Improvement) project for this year, we are challenged to engage students in “real world” tasks that require higher level thinking, self-direction and collaboration. The Grade One class has taken "real world" and put our own imaginative spin on it. We have been working on a number of projects for "The King". As we all know, the king is not real, but we do happen to have a king that can visit our classroom. So for starters, "The King" asked us to use the patterns we had been working on in math to creat some picture frames for his wall, and some tiles for his floor. He deemed that the frames and tiles must show a good and correct pattern, be colourful, neat and pleasing to look at. The students went to work and created both frames and tiles for "The King". Much to our delight, "The King" visited our classroom and chose both a frame and a tile to take back and use in his castle. He also requested that we use our skills that we are using in our "Creating Colour" unit to make him some purple punch for his upcoming party. Stay tuned to see how the punch turned out.

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year!

2010-09-08T20:49:00.000-07:00

Yes, it's that time of year again, BACK TO SCHOOL! Many parents are thrilled and many are a little sad, especially some of you with little ones in the early grades. It's exciting and emotional as they leave the nest and strike out on their own on a daily basis in Grade One. We try to have as much fun learning as possible to make this transition easier for the children. For most of them, it is no problem at all. For a few it can be a bit traumatic, but letting them go is the best thing (and the hardest) for parents and care givers to do. They may want to cling to your leg, but trust me, once you are gone they are just fine.

We have already had the excitement of visiting the kindergartens and reading them a story and we are enjoying our letter review and colour word work. Keep watching for exciting things happening in the classroom!

Happy Back to School!

Grade Three Chicks at OneTrueMedia.com

2010-04-19T14:50:00.001-07:00

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Our esteemed Mrs. Coutts always does a fabulous project every year with her Grade Threes, she brings eggs in and over the course of the week the Grade Threes watch them hatch into chicks. We are always lucky enough to get to hold the chicks. Here are our Grade Ones enjoying their moment in the chick limelight!

Wolf Proof Houses at OneTrueMedia.com

2010-04-19T14:20:00.001-07:00

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

As part of our school's AISI (Alberta Initiative for School Imrpvement) project, we have been exploring the levels of Bloom's Taxonomy. These are different levels of learnig, and it is thought that higher levels of learning occurs when teaching is done using the higher levels of thinking. For example, students retain more when they actually do a hands on project rather than just being told the information. Bloom's levels of thinking are remembering, understanding, applying, analyzing, evaluating, and creating.

We looked at each level of Bloom's and our group focused on the higher level of evaluating, and what that looks like at the different grades in our school. After some technological difficulties with our group's presentation to staff, I decided to just post this to my blog. Thanks to my colleague Mrs. McMahon for providing me with this excellent idea. The videos in this post show Grade One students evaluating their building projects. The task was to create three houses, in the pattern of the Three Little Pigs, one of straws,(drinking straws) one of sticks,(popsicle sticks) and one of bricks (lego). Then we tested the houses using a fan to see if they were "wolf proof". The students did work prior to the video to evaluate their houses. Many found nothing at all wrong with their houses, and many saw nothing at all wrong with trying a format that another student had found to be unsuccessful. I found that in general, evauation was a tough concept for these little ones.

Our Box Town at OneTrueMedia.com

2010-03-11T20:21:00.001-08:00

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

We have been working on our science theme of Building Things over the past month. We worked together to build a box town. We have been meeting our outcomes by building models of objects, including houses, trees, pop up flowers and vehicles that really move! When we put all our creations together we had a fabulous BOX TOWN! Check out our little video of our work.

Olympic Fever Hits Grade One

2010-02-18T15:02:00.000-08:00

With the Olympics in Canada it makes it all the more exciting for us Canadians. And one of our students is heading there next week, so our class has been VERY interested in the Winter Olympics. We made our own torches, and are working on a book in math called "Do the Olympics Measure Up?" We looked at all sorts of ways that measurement is used in the Olympics and made comparisons. We also had the honor of being torch bearers for the opening ceremonies of our very own "Kindness Olympics". Our Charater Education (or Expect Respect as we like to call it around here) theme for February is Kindness,and we kicked off the theme with a mini opening ceremonies where the Grade Ones carried in the "torch". They were also accompanied by one of our staff members who carried the torch in Yellowknife in 1988! She wore her outfit from that experience. Check out the video of our little torch relay!

Happy Hundred Day!

2010-02-10T19:25:00.000-08:00

February 10, 2010 was the 100th day of school in Forestburg Grade One. This brought a lot of excitement to our little classroom. The students were invited to bring a collection of 100 objects. These included pennies, candies, lego, hockey cards, miscellaneous objects, tea bags, 50/50 tickets, pasta, rocks shells, beads, index cards, raisins, smarties, and popcorn. We enjoyed seeing the collections everyone had brought. We read several 100 Day stories, and we made some super cool 100 shaped glasses. We wrote the numbers from 0-100 and built groups of 100 using a variety of manipulatives. We made igloos in science using 100 marshmallows, which fit in perfectly with our Building Things science unit. We were also surprised with a visit from Zero the Hero, who visits us every ten days of school. We finished off the day by writing about what it would be like to be 100 years old and drawing self portraits of what we will look like at 100 years old! It was another great day where a lot of learning was accomplished and we had a lot of fun doing it!

Why Adding and Subtracting are Important

2010-02-10T19:06:00.000-08:00

In grade one, learning how to add and subtract is big. BIG! The kids like adding and subtracting, but not often are they asked WHY they have to learn this. I asked my 19 Grade Ones WHY adding and subtracting is important. Here is what they came up with. Adding and subtracting is important because:

-I have to know the score of the hockey game
-so I know how tall I am
-to play games
-so I put in the right amount of gas
-so I can tell time (x2)
-so I can count money (x6)
-so I can play "Making Sandwiches" on X-box
-so I can be a teacher (x2)
-you have to get enough chemical (farmer's son, referring to spraying weeds!)
-I need to know how to do it when I am in a higher grade
-if I did not know math I would not know numbers
-to be smart, math is fun!

Wow! The amount of good ideas these little guys come up with always blows me away. These ideas were so good I just had to share them, and we are going to put them in our portfolios as well. Great job Grade Ones!

Forestburg Gets 1 Million Towards new multi use complex!

2010-01-26T17:59:00.000-08:00

Monday, January 25 was a very exciting day at Forestburg School. During our Expect Respect Assembly, where our theme was co-operation, we had a visit from our Mayor, Bob Coutts, and our MP, Leon Benoit. They were there to make the announcement that Forestburg will be receiving a $1000000 grant towards our new Multi Purpose Complex. This has enabled the committee to go ahead with building plans to start this spring and to hopefully finish to open for next season. The excitement was amazing and it was a very memorable and moving presentation.

Polar Express Day!

2009-12-15T09:57:00.000-08:00

On Friday, December 11 the Polar Express rolled into the Forestburg Grade One. This is possibly one of my favorite days of the whole year. I had my daughters transform the Art Room into a "train" before school started by arranging chairs in two rows like on a train. It was a surprise for the students when they read our morning message that this would be Polar Express Day. We got our tickets and headed to the "train". I, in my conductor's hat of course, punched the tickets as they boarded the train. Polar Express soundtrack is playing in the background. Our EA handed out hot cocoa to everyone as we boarded the train. I read the Polar Express and the kids enjoyed the hot cocoa. (Only 1 out of 28 spilled!) We also handed out "candies with nougat centres as white as snow". One child received the first gift of Christmas, a bell. All the students also received a bell as they got off the train at the end of the story. Then it was back to the classroom and we read and coloured a Polar Express story, "Winter Train, Winter Train", that is patterned after "Brown Bear Brown Bear". We did a Polar Express math activity and finished off the day by watching the movie "The Polar Express". I hope the kids had as much fun as me that day!

What Helps Me Learn

2009-11-21T20:30:00.000-08:00

We received a letter from our Superintendent that invited students to tell him what helps them to learn. As we read it together, the students decided they all wanted to make a picture showing how they learned. Here are our pictures! Enjoy! See how we learn in many different ways!

Hopscotch in November

2009-11-08T14:44:00.001-08:00

How many times will we be able to say we played Hopscotch in November in Alberta with NO COATS! What a fabulous day!

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Halloween

2009-11-05T20:39:00.000-08:00

We had a great time on Halloween. We were down in numbers due to the flu, but the healthy kids that were there had a great time.

Franklin's Backpack

2009-10-26T08:34:00.000-07:00

Our class has several different home learning activities that the students get to take home periodically throughout the year. The first one is "Franklin's Backpack". Inside is a Franklin the Turtle stuffed animal, the story "Franklin's Blanket" and a small blue blanket, just like Franklin's Blanket. There are instructions how to complete the activities and a sheet for the parent's to sign when the child has completed the activities. And because Franklin likes flies, I include a mini pack of Smarties (flies!) to enjoy after all that hard work.

Thanks to the great Mom that sent me this picture of Franklin enjoying a sleep over at one student's house, she said she just missed catching her son reading to Franklin! She did catch this great picture though! Thanks for sending it in!

Meet Roy G. Biv!

2009-10-21T13:57:00.000-07:00

Roy G. Biv! Roy G. Biv! Inside the rainbow is where he lives! Today we met Roy G. Biv. Roy G. Biv is an acronym to help remember the colours of the rainbow (red, orange, yellow, blue, green, indigo and violet) In our class, he is a spy kid with a rainbow cape named Roy G. Biv! Here is some of our work. We are hoping that Roy drops by for a visit some day soon!

Stone Soup

2009-10-12T20:44:00.001-07:00

I found a stone in my soup!

Stone Soup

2009-10-12T20:25:00.000-07:00

Friday, Octber 9 was Stone Soup Day. Our Expect Respect Theme for October is Sharing, so Stone Soup is a perfect activity to demonstrate sharing. All elementary students brought a vegetable and the staff brought ground beef and parent volunteers worked hard to have soup ready for us by lunch time. It was delicious! Some people even found stones in their soup! We read several different versions of the story Sone Soup and discussed how the characters in each story shared. We made our own stone soup booklets and made vegetable patterns in math. It was a great day!

2009-10-01T21:31:00.000-07:00

Wow! September has come and gone! Some days feel as though they are passing at the speed of light; keeping 28 little bodies occupied keeps one busy! We have had lots of excitement this month! We have gone from apprehensive kindergarteners to full fledged Grade Ones who are learning to READ! That's right, READING!

Yesterday we went on a leaf hunt. The kids were sooooo excited and of course I forgot the camera. Today we went on a Village Tour. The weather was gorgeous and we had a great time. We visited Mayor Coutts at Home Hardware, and toured down town. We stopped to visit Brooke and Ocean's Grandma in the Convenience Store, and we were so cute she gave us a slurpee!!!! Thanks Grandma!!!

School Supply List

2009-07-24T20:01:00.000-07:00

Has it really been since February since I updated this blog? That's unacceptable! But any hoo, here we are on the 24 of July and my new grade ones are excited about what to shop for for GRADE ONE! This is it! Real school! I know you are all excited! Me, not so much yet, it's still the middle of summer. But come around the 23 of August, that same old September excitement will come back. So here it is if you need to know, the GRADE ONE SCHOOL SUPPLY LIST!

Shoes for indoors and the gym (1 pair)
6 white erasers
art shirt
scissors
4 large glue sticks
1 bottle white glue
1 box kleenex
1 duotang
1 - 2" binder
pencil box
wax crayons - pkg of 24
10 HB pencils
back pack
scribblers - 2 - interlined
- 2 - 1/2 plain 1/2 interlined
Last name A - L - 1 box large Ziploc Bags
Last name M - Z - 1 box small Ziploc Bags

Please put your child's name on everything, even each individual crayon!
I will keep the extras and hand out as needed.

HAPPY SHOPPING!

The Adventures of Flat Stanley

2009-02-17T20:00:00.001-08:00

Hop On Board the Polar Express!

2008-12-15T14:18:00.001-08:00

On Monday, December 15 the Polar Express rolled into Grade 1/2. The day started when Mrs. Adams read "The Polar Express." The students sat in chairs in the pattern of a train, and needed a ticket to board the Polar Express. Polar Express theme music played in the background. The conductor punched their tickets and the waitress served hot cocoa to drink just like in the story. Jace received the "first gift of Christmas" and at the end of the story everyone got a bell to keep. The day continued on with Polar Express Reading, Writing and Math. The day concluded with watching the movie the Polar Express. The students sat in the train chairs and enjoyed yummy popcorn.

Gingerbread Day

2008-12-15T14:10:00.000-08:00

Friday, December 12 brought more excitement to the Grade 1/2 classroom. It was GINGERBREAD DAY! We listened to "Gingerbread Baby", "Gingerbread Girl", "Bad Boys Get Cookie", and "Gingerbread Friends". We went to www.janbrett.com and built our own gingergread houses and gingerbread friends. Our day concluded with decorating our very own gingerbread friends. It was an awesome day!

2008-12-01T19:52:00.000-08:00

Also, please check out the link below "Dalton Sherman"! What a speaker! And he is 10 YEARS OLD!

Sixty Days of School

2008-12-01T19:42:00.000-08:00

Another busy week has flown by. This past week was highlighted by Jersey Day on Wednesday, and the SIXTIETH DAY OF SCHOOL on Friday. So on Wednesday we were decked right out in jerseys of all sorts, and Friday it looked like the sixties invaded our classroom. On sixties day, we dressed like we were from the sixties, listened to stories wrote in the sixties, made necklaces with sixty pieces of rotini, put sixty decorations on a Christmas tree, and did sixties dances. All in all it was a great week and I think everyone enjoyed themselves. I believe that if the kids are happy and want to be there, they will learn so much more.

Welcome to Adams Apples

2008-11-24T18:48:00.000-08:00

Hello All! Welcome to the first blog on Adams Apples! The soon to be famous blog spot of Mrs. Adams of Forestburg School in Forestburg, Alberta, Canada. I would like to use this spot to post interesting events and happenings in my Grade 1/2 classroom at Forestburg School.

Right now, we are getting ready to start lots of exciting things in preparation for my FAVORITE TIME OF YEAR, CHRISTMAS! Our Author of the Month for December is Jan Brett - Gingerbread Baby here we come! And I am very excited to start a Five Senses unit called "Sense-ational Senses" which explores the Five Senses with a Christmas Theme. I am also in the process of re-vamping and updating our class website, so watch for exciting new changes there. So keep watching for exciting new entries to "Adams Apples!"