It was a wonderful year in 1A! The Grade One team loved teaching these amazing students.
Here is a link to the Summer Learning Resource page
Category: General Studies
Building, Mapping and Collaborating in 1A
Collaboration is a learning skill that all grade one students work on throughout the year. Working and communicating with different partners and small groups takes lots of patience.
Teachers help students navigate any problems or conflicts as they arise. They arrange for students to work with different classmates throughout the year to practice communicating and collaborating.
In Social Studies, students started creating maps with a partner. Each group created a community map and presented it to the class.
The class had so much fun creating their communities that we decided to work all together to create one community. Each student chose a specific community helper to research. They also needed to make the community building each helper worked at. The ER doctor built a hospital, while the principal and teacher made a school and playground together.
| Student | Zev | Delilah | Rachel | Levi | Ilay | Aliyah & Maia | Miles | Nate | Emma |
| Community Helper | Vet | Vet | Postmaster | Farmer | Chef & Restaurant Owner | Teacher & Principal | Policeman | Firefighter | ER Doctor |
| Community Building | Animal Hospital | Animal Shelter | Post Office | Barn&Farm | Restaurant | School & Playground | Police Station | Fire Station | Hospital |
The students researched and wrote about their community helper’s role and responsibilities. They presented their findings to the class. They designed and created community buildings. Together they decided on symbols for the map key and worked on mapping the 3D community.
The collaboration I have seen over the last few weeks has been terrific. The children have been so supportive and encouraging with each other. Best of all, the children had so much fun.
OJCS Summer Reading Challenge
Brigitte, our librarian, has launched the first-ever school-wide summer reading challenge. Check your child’s note tote for all the information. The students are excited to take part in the challenge. I explained the challenge to the class today, and the children talked about visiting their local libraries to borrow books.
Here are some of her recommendations for K-1 and 2-3
The Three Little Pigs
1A had fun reading The Three Little Pigs recently. After reading the story, I challenged the class to build three solid houses that the big bad wolf couldn’t blow down. The requirements were that each group needed to make a straw house, a stick house, and a brick house. The students got excited and started to build. The Big Bad Wolf/Mrs. Bennett came calling.
I huffed and puffed, used a hair dryer, and made wind with a plastic top. As much as I huffed and puffed, I could not blow the houses down. All the structures were stable and standing: the children were so happy.
The class wanted to write a new version of the Three Little Pigs. Listen to the children read their story of The Three Little Pigs.
Listen to the stories we wrote and recorded. We hope you enjoy them.
A special Day in 1A
There was a special surprise in the library today. Melanie came to enthrall us with her performance of Opera Mouse.
You can see more info about the show here: https://www.melaniegall.
This afternoon there was a wonderful Shavuot Assembly on the front lawn of our school. It was beautiful to sing and gather together in the sunshine. The students donated lots of food to the Ottawa Kosher Food Bank.
We finished off the day with a frozen Menchies treat. Yum!
Scribble Bots
We had so much fun in the Makerspace last week. Mr. Ray challenged us to make a Scribble bot. He told us that we would need to use our engineering skills to make a moving robot. He told us the materials for building would be three markers, a plastic cup, a motor, a battery pack, and lots of tape. First we made a plan of what we wanted to build.
The next step was to start building. It took lots of patience to attach all of the parts. We had to tape our markers inside the cup, making sure everything was stable. There was a lot of trial and error with attaching the battery pack wires to the motor. Mr. Ray helped us problem-solve and get our scribble bots ready to scribble.
The scribble bots started to move and scribble. It was so exciting to watch them move and scribble on the paper. Take a look at them in action below.
Yom Ha’atzmaut
It was a special week at school. On Yom Hazikaron, we remembered the brave Israeli soldiers who fought for Israel.
Yom Ha’atzmaut was a day full of celebration on Israel’s 75th birthday. We started by decorating our classroom doors and lockers in blue and white. We think we did a pretty good job, don’t you?
All the classes had the opportunity to visit different stations. We learned a special dance, played Twister with JNF, sang karaoke, played musical chairs, and did Israeli Just Dance.
At lunch, we ate delicious falafel. Special Thanks to Levi’s dad for helping make the falafel!
We finished the day with the whole school in the gym doing the special dance we learned in the morning. A birthday cupcake was the special treat we got to eat. It was such a fun day!
JNF Art Contest
The Jewish National Fund has created an art contest that students and families may participate in. Check out the pamphlet below to learn more about it!
Contest:
- Draw or paint a picture (8-1/2” X 11” and suitable for framing) following the story A Tree in the Desert by Avirama Golan.
- Watch the story on YouTube (https://youtu.be/FbevCoM9_2U).
- The artwork can be of the Negev, Ben Gurion, or a tree in the desert.
Innovation Day in 1A
Our Innovation Day projects have been inspired by the book Make Way for Animals! A World of Wildlife Crossings by Meeg Pincus.
The students’ challenge was to design and build a structure to help animals cross busy roads. All projects needed to be strong enough to hold 100g, and at least 30 cm long.
The class got busy planning, designing, cutting cardboard, and gluing. Many designs changed during the building process, but ultimately they all worked. Students practiced their patience and perseverance and were proud of their accomplishments.
Innovation Day was exciting. Showing the projects to the parents and other classes was lots of fun. Now the students want to keep building and planning with more STEM challenges. As a teacher I have to admit these challenges are so much fun.
The latest from 1A
A Virtual Author Visit
JK to Gr. 2 students got a virtual visit from Lark the Shark author Natalie Newman from her home in the U.K. The story and presentation helped our students learn about sharks and their role in the ocean ecosystem. Natalie shared how she wrote the book with her son and her son after learning about pollution in the ocean in his Grade 2 classroom. The students were curious about the publishing process, and Natalie talked about how they wrote the book. I think some students will be writing their books one day.
Math Olympics
In honour of Pi Day on March 14th, students celebrated a love of Math by participating in the first-ever 1A Math Olympics. The children picked their teams a chose a name. The Marvelous Mathers, Math Detectors, and the Air Force A Math AA teams problem-solved, collaborated, and had fun with Math.
Congratulations to the Marvelous Mathers for winning the 1A Olympics!
Take a look at our opening ceremony
La semaine de la Francophonie
La semaine de la francophonie was lots of fun. The students loved all the French activities on Wednesday afternoon. The first stop was visiting the Makerspace cafe for croissants and hot chocolate. Obstacle courses, word searches, and bingo helped the children review all the French they are learning this year.
1A enjoyed a workshop with Quinn, our school social worker. Quinn taught about empathetic and active listening. The children practiced using listening skills by playing a few games. The students will continue to work on these skills throughout the rest of the year.
Purim,la joie du carnaval
A different week Rush Week full of happy faces, fun, smiles, and dazzling colours has finished. Purim allowed me, along with my kiddos discover what this celebration means and symbolizes. Through fun activities, we watched, heard, and told the story of Purim in French. We discussed the good and bad main characters of the story. We learned new vocabulary and hid by dressing up in costumes, appearing as something else, while our true selves remained hidden underneath the masquerade. It was an incredible experience for ME and a fun time for THEM!
Both classes got together on Purim to have Ruach filled day. We made graggers. We loved listening to the Megillah Reading Rabbi Kenter. We had a fabulous fashion show. It was amazing how everyone got the same overall score from our judges. Moreh Saar, Ms. Karissa, and Mrs. Bennett claim all participants gave their best performance, so they had to give everyone the best possible score.
