Honeybee Stories by Grade 1 Authors

As the culminating task in the narrative writing unit, the students wrote a three part story of a honeybee using the writing process (e.g., brainstorm, rough copy, proofread, student/teacher feedback, good copy, self and student evaluation). The stories were creative and humorous and the students wanted to share them with parents. Félicitations les amis!

Allison

Ava

Jed

Margarita

Mirlind

Jennifer

Recon

Raphael

Sofia

Daliyah

Raihan

Hayat 

Emilian 

Stay tuned for more videos...

Academic Update

Dear parents,
The school year is flying by. Take a look at what we are completing in each subject area.

1. In Mathematics, we are identifying, describing, and building 2 and 3 dimensional shapes through centre activities. Our culminating activity will consist of building a 2-D and 3-D robot describing the shapes used and three types of energy we discussed in Science. Another interdisciplinary task the students can enjoy.

1st Centre: 2-D shapes with geo-boards and elastic bands

2nd Centre: 3-D shapes with toothpicks and play dough

3rd Centre: 3-D shapes with straws and modelling clay

4th Centre: 3-D shapes with connecting straws

We completed a geometry graphic organizer by identifying shape attributes, corners, sides, and surfaces/faces.

2. In Language, we are continuing the weekly 'Mon Partage de Livre' reading programme. Students are asked to bring their leveled books back every Friday, as we have centres and guided reading assessments on that day. For the culminating task in the narrative writing unit, students wrote a detailed fiction story about a honeybee. The stories took a while to produce because students went through an extensive writing process (e.g., printing exercises, rough copy, proofreading, wordwall & dictionary, peer/teacher feedback, good copy). The final copy of the story was video taped. Please view the following blog for presentations. Bravo les amis!

The dictation words for the week of May 25th - 29th :

3. In Science,  we are wrapping up our unit on Energy. We learned about objects that use electrical energy in the classroom and around our homes, the sun is the primary source of energy for many living and non-living things, and that sunlight and wind are strong sources of energy. We had many outdoor learning experiences, thanks to the beautiful weather we have been blessed with.

4. In Social Studies, we will be learning about family dynamics, responsibilities, and roles. Students will be asked to gather family pictures to discuss a timeline for a show and tell presentation in June. They will also explore how their families are similar and different. This project will be completed in class, but it wouldn't hurt to start preparing.  

5. Please return the signed and completed trip form and money no later than Friday, May 29th.

Please continue to encourage your child to speak, listen to, and read French books. I am pleased with many students who are enjoying the French programme.

Until next time!

Joyeuse fête des mères!

Happy Mother's Day to all the special women in a child's life (mother, aunt, grandmother, caregiver).

Your child spent Friday afternoon reading the book entitled Je t'aimerai toujours by Robert Munsch. As young as the students are, they were able to understand that a mother's love goes far beyond words can explain. Since "pictures speak louder than words", here is a glimpse of the book:

 

 

We then sang a lovely song for our mothers/caregivers!

Translation: I will love you forever. The night like the day. And as long as I live, you will always be my mother!

Now, we were super excited to finish making surprises to place in a loop bag. The loop bag was decorated with meaningful items that your child wished to share with you (e.g., feathers to travel together, flowers to plant together, butterflies to stroll in the park together, etc.).   

We then made charm bracelets!

Enjoy your special day and years and years of happiness with your child. 

Fun in the Sun Planting!

What beautiful weather these days. We have truly been blessed with loads of sunshine! So, my class and I planted Marigold flowers and Cone flowers in the front school garden. Yellow and orange flowers were specifically chosen because bees are attracted to bright yellowish colours, anticipating nectar to use to make honey. Cone flowers, also known as Echinacea flowers are hardy plants that attract butterflies, honey bees, and humming birds. We hope to see beautiful insects and birds visiting our school!

We enjoyed planting in the sun. The easy part is done, the next step is maintaining the flower garden.

We want to help the honey bees survive. So we made cards for our parents explaining how to plant flowers and which flowers are best suited to attract the honey bees. Please ask your child to explain the process using the spelling words for this week (une plante, une fleur, une tige, une feuille, une racine).

Lovely rocks decorated as honey bees by the students in Mme. Paré's class.

Academic Update

Dear parents/guardians,
There are only two months left until the summer break. It seems that time is flying, however, we still have quite a bit to cover. Take a look at what we have accomplished.

In Language, we are learning about how to write a narrative. We played a game matching the correct parts of a sentence with the labels, who, what, where, and when. We were able to correctly identify the parts of a sentence (e.g., verb, noun, time, location) and discover how fun it is to write a detailed sentence.

'A long time ago, a big dog slept on the moon.' 

'This morning, my teacher drove her car to the beach.'

'Last night, a scary lion found a ring in my dreams.'

The graphic organizer consisting of the 4 W's (When, Who, What, Where) helped students create humorous sentences.

The students were introduced to a Venn diagram in order to discover the similarities and differences between a honeybee and a wasp. 

For our weekly shared reading, we learned about the cone flower (Echinacea). We discovered that honey bees, butterflies, and the humming bird enjoy the nectar of the cone flower. It is a hardy plant; as the roots survive the long winters. The cone flower is a medicinal plant which helps fight colds. We will be planting the cone flower some time this week in the school garden. 

We used our Reading Comprehension graphic organizer to help us with strategies before, during, and after reading. Ask your child to discuss the strategies they learned with you. 

As a culminating task, we watched the Bee Movie to develop our oral communication skills in French and get inspired to write a short narrative story. Thanks to Lisa for letting us borrow the movie. 

As homework, the students were asked to brainstorm ideas about the name of their character, where the story will take place, when it would take place, and one event that would happen. 

Link to online French dictionary: www.wordreference.com

We refreshed our word wall with removable words by posting our new vocabulary for writing a narrative involving a honey bee. 

In Mathematics, we have completed the unit on equal expressions. We learned about balanced and imbalanced equations through a revision on addition and subtraction.  

The students were assigned a number and were asked to share as many equations (through addition, and/or subtraction) equal to the given sum/difference. 

As you know from last weeks dictation, we have been learning about 2-dimensional shapes. Students will classify objects by their shape and attributes such as number of sides and corners. Later, they will build their own shapes using toothpicks, modelling clay, and geoboards. Keep an eye out for our next adventures. 

In Art class, we learned about collaboration through a team task of creating a honey bee hive. We used newspaper, glue, tissue paper, and balloons. The students assigned roles and responsibilities within their groups and worked well together. I was proud of their listening, sharing, and concentration skills. 

Our finished products...honey bee hives. We decorated the school with Clairlea hives. 

A honey bee named Alisha decided to spend some time with our class telling us stories and playing games with us Friday afternoon. 

Until next time! A la prochaine!