Patricia Polacco's The Keeping Quilt

Last Friday, Ms Poulis (our Principal) read us The Keeping Quilt by Patricia Polacco.

Here is Patricia Polacco reading her story:



Here is Patricia Polacco showing the real Keeping Quilt:



In The Keeping Quilt, Ms. Polacco shows us her personal story and her culture.  The book shows how her family migrated to America and brought their culture with them -- over the course of more than a hundred years.
We are exploring what our stories are... who we are.... who our families are....

Welcome to Grade 1!

Welcome, parents and children, to First Grade!

 This week has been a whirlwind!

We have been settling into the new routines of Grade 1 on the second floor.   We are getting used to not having a bathroom right in our classroom. This is proving to be very novel for some students, who are asking to go to the bathroom every 15 minutes or so :). I am trying to learn who really needs to go, and who is just going for some exploration time! We are also getting used to trying to "go" at recess or lunchtime, so there aren't so many disruptions during class time.

Lunchtime is very similar to Kindergarten right now -- we are currently eating in our classroom. Room 14 joins us. We went over some rules and talked about how to make good choices:

 

Class Picture Day is onWednesday, September 10. Wear a smile!

Please follow our Twitter feed @msbrownsroom to see what we are doing throughout the day (as on the blog, I do not show the faces or the last names of the students).

Happy Fathers Day!

  We made collograph prints for our dads. They are like making a giant rubber stamp. We glued yarn, foam sheets and cardboard onto a foamcore backing to make the "plates" (like making a collage). Then we rolled ink onto them and printed them.

They turned out fabulously!!

We will be taking home the original plates too -- they look very cool! You can make some more prints at home by rolling printing ink onto the plates, then pressing on some paper (we hand pressed the prints). You could also use acrylic paint -- or fabric paint if you wanted to make these into tshirts!

What a Wonderful World

What A Wonderful World

I see trees of green,
red roses too.
I see them bloom,
for me and you.
And I think to myself,
What a wonderful world.

I see skies of blue,
And clouds of white.
The bright blessed day,
The dark sacred night.
And I think to myself,
What a wonderful world.

The colors of the rainbow,
So pretty in the sky.
Are also on the faces,
Of people going by,
I see friends shaking hands.
Saying, "How do you do?"
They're really saying,
"I love you".

I hear babies cry,
I watch them grow,
They'll learn much more,
Than I'll ever know.
And I think to myself,
What a wonderful world.

Yes, I think to myself,
What a wonderful world.
 
Words of the Week 

Grade 1+2

white

night

bright

sky

skies

Bonus word: myself

We are working on different long i sound letter combinations (silent e, igh, y , changing a y to an i and adding 'es')

(This is a "heads up" to Grade 1 parents -- these words are not really "Grade 1" words!  However, the Grade 1's in Room 15 are all such voracious readers that they are very familiar with these words and are ready to add them to their r"repertoire"! Great work Grade 1's and Two's!!)

Planting

 

Planting
By Dick Wilmes
I took a little seed one day
About a month ago.
I put it in a pot of dirt,
In hopes that it would grow.
I poured a little water
To make the soil right.
I set the pot upon the sill,
Where the sun would give it light.
I checked the pot most every day,
And turned it once or twice.
With a little care and water
I helped it grow so nice.

This week we are focusing on R- Controlled Vowels. 

When an R follows a vowel, the sound of the vowel changes. We have already worked with "ar" ( with our pirate sounds). 

We will be learning that R is a very bossy letter sometimes! When is follows an i, e, or u -- it makes that vowel say the "r" sound!

R loses its bossiness when the silent e comes on the scene, however...... 

 

Words of the Week    vowel +r

Grade 1+ 2

dirt

water

turn

car

care

bonus word: pour

Maps

Maps

Maps help us figure out

where we need to go,

which provinces we’ve visited,

and those we ’d like to know.

Maps show lakes, mountains, rivers,

north, south, east, and west.

Maps show parks, beaches, cities,

but do not pick the best.

See how Canada lies

Between Atlantic and Pacific?

Maps name all four oceans –

They ’re wonderfully specific.

Words of the week

maps

north

south

east

west

*ocean

  (please remember - that the star word is a bonus word -- a challenge -- it is not at their level!)

Instagram!

If you have an instagram account, you can follow us @msbrownsclassroom! 
(as always, no photos of faces)

It's become increasingly more and more difficult to blog from school (I can't log in on our classroom computer or laptop), So we have had less pictures this year than in previous years.....

However, the school now has sets of ipads -- so maybe we can use these to blog more (although the blogging app doesn't work very well either)

Keep checking back!