Books for Me!

On Friday every student at the school got to choose a book to take home with them.  Yes, for keeps, thanks to Books For Me, a non-profit society putting books into the hands of children. You can learn more about them by clicking the link below.  The program expanded this fall to include three new schools, including Champlain Heights Annex.  Lucky us!

http://booksformevancouver.org/index.html

Chalk Pastel Sunflowers

This week we read poems and books about sunflowers and looked at Van Gogh's famous sunflowers before creating our own works of art.  The children drew one or two large sunflowers in pencil on black construction paper.  They started with the centre, then added petals.  Some added leaves and stems.  The second step was tracing over the pencil lines with white glue. The next morning, they were so excited to see the glue had dried clear overnight (insert ooohs and ahhhhs here).  Introducing the chalk pastels resulted in a round of applause.  These artists were eager to begin.  They chose their colours thoughtfully and began blending, mixing and smudging to their hearts content.

I love how they were able to choose contrasting colours for their backgrounds.  The sunflowers really pop!  Here are the finished pieces.  Aren't they beautiful?

Fletcher and the Falling Leaves

And all at once, summer collapsed into fall.  With the first official day of fall less than a week away we say farewell to the long sunshiny days of summer, to embrace autumn, synonymous with back to school.  Time to bundle up, pull out the rain boots, make hot chocolate and curl up with a good book.  I'm not sure if it's the back to school buzz or the crisp, fresh air and changing leaves, but this is my absolute favourite time of year.

Fletcher and the Falling Leaves is a beautiful story by Julia Rawlinson, and illustrated by Tiphanie Beeke. After listening to the story, the children drew pictures and added labels and words to show their understanding of the story.  They used a Story Map framework to organize their thoughts and ideas.

Characters:

 A fox named Fletcher

Setting:

 The forest in Fall

Problem:

 The leaves keep falling...he thought the tree was sick

Solution:

Fletcher saw icicles sparkling on the tree and it looked more beautiful than ever and he knew it wasn't sick, it was changing with the seasons

Lesson:

 Living things grow and change with the seasons

I look forward to reading more picture books by Julia Rawlinson's this year, including Fletcher and the Christmas Snowflakes and Fletcher and the Springtime Blossoms.

Welcome to the Class Blog!

I am very excited to be starting a class blog with this wonderful group of first and second graders.  My hope is that this blog will be a fun way for the children to share and celebrate their learning with you at home.  It will be a springboard for conversions with your child about their school days.  I will showcase special events, activities, writing and artwork on the blog through photographs and hopefully video too.  We will be discussing and practicing internet safety in class and any blogging done by students will be done under supervision.  If you have any questions or concerns please feel free to contact me.  I hope you enjoy this lens into our Grade 1/2 classroom.  It's going to be a terrific year!  Please bookmark our blog, share it with friends and family near and far, and visit us often.                                                                                                                                                                                                                             
                                                                                              Warm Regards,
                                                                                              Mrs. Russo

Last week we discussed what good readers do before and during reading.  They make predictions!  We practiced with a back to school favourite of mine called Wilson and Miss Lovely, by John Stadler.  The story is about a bunny named Wilson who adores his new teacher at school.  However, one morning Wilson finds himself at school all alone, carrying out his daily routines, but something mysterious is drawing ever closer and revealed bit by bit, page after page.  We stopped to predict what the mysterious creature might be.  Using clues revealed under flaps on the pages the students drew and labeled their predictions.


Some of them included...
- a dinosaur
- the ogo pogo
- a fire breathing dragon
- an iguana
- Wilson's teacher in a costume
- Miss Lovely (Wilson's teacher)

Click on the pictures for a closer look!

We also discussed story grammar and worked in small groups to create a Story Map.  We decided that the setting in a story can sometimes change and that there can be more than one problem too.  We'll continue to use this language and framework to discuss stories we read together in class.

After reading with your child, or after they've read alone, talk to them about the characters, setting, problem and solution in the story.