Throughout October, we had a few Skype calls with Mrs. Obach's Grade 1's in Hamiota and Mrs. Caldwell's Kinders in Oak Lake to compare our communities. I really enjoyed this experience and I couldn't imagine doing this without technology to teach the students how the size of a community is related to the number of features present. The picture below was taken by Mrs. Caldwell during one of our Skype calls and was posted on Twitter after. :)
We visited the Pumpkin Patch by Oak Lake, Manitoba on Friday, October 7, just before the Thanksgiving weekend. It was a bit chilly and a little windy, but we made sure that we were bundled up warmly so that we can still enjoy our trip. We looked at different farm animals, had water duck races and went on a hay ride. Since it was a bit chilly out, we ate our lunch in the school bus then left back for Brandon to finish up the school day.
We took a short time in the mornings when we had longer periods of Math to work through our counting booklets and to show the numbers in different ways. The numbers 1-4 show different ways of the numbers being represented. Numbers 5-10 were very similar so I decided not to post them.
A few weeks ago, we started talking about Rights and Responsibilities. The students understood almost right away what a responsibility was since we have been practicing with taking care of our agendas and putting things away when we are done with them. It was a little harder for them to understand what a right was (something you should have to survive, things that are protected). Some thought that toys were a right, but we didn't need that to survive and we didn't need to protect it. We came up with a good list of Rights and Responsibilities after our discussions.
At the beginning of the school year, we had a brainstorming sessions of what a great classmate is. Here is what the students came up with:
On Thursday, June 23rd, we walked to the Murray House Cancer Treatment Residence to present two sturdy folding chairs with money from exchanging pop tabs at Wesman Salvage.
Before we started our tour, there was a kind, older lady who gave a short speech of how generous we are to be thinking of others. Very sweet! At the end of our tour and presentation, a couple staying in the house gave a $10 donation towards our gift for next year! There were a few more people in the lobby for our presentation so I can see that our visits and gifts are becoming very popular. :) On Friday, June 17th, we took a trip to Brandon University for a Mini U field trip! We had lots of fun doing Science, craft, and Lego stations in the morning then did some games in the gym in the afternoon.
The weather on June 14th finally cooperated enough (not too hot, windy or rainy) that we can head outside for a bit of math exploration. Here are a few examples of the shapes found in our environment:
Top left: triangle Top right: triangle and diamond Bottom left: rectangle Bottom right: circle On June 13th, our class rode on a bus to Gentrice Farms south of Brandon. We heard a story first from Mrs. Arthur then split into 2 groups: one group went on a hayride and the other saw different animals up close then switched. We also saw some pioneer tools and finished off with the students pulling an old plow like the horses do!
On June 9th, the Firefighters and Paramedics came to New Era and had 4 different stations for the students to learn and explore: spraying a fire hose, evacuating a smoky house (not pictured), ambulance and fire truck. It was very fun, but the downside was that the sun was a little too hot.
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