Ms. Schmidt's Grade 1/2 Blog

We have had an exciting week!  Here are a few of the highlights.  Coulee Walk We enjoyed a beautiful morning in the coulee on Tuesday.  We spent some time with elder Saa'Kokoto who taught us some blackfoot words, told us about some of the plants (sage, rose hips, cottonwood) that we see in the coulee and shared the importance of Na'a (mother earth) for all of us and our animal friends.  We also spent some time with our artist, Karen. She encouraged us to use the "gifts from nature" to create some Land Art. We were excited to show our creativity using the twigs, grass, berries and leaves from Na'a.    To finish up our morning in the coulee, we started with blank canvases, gathered materials found in the natural environment and worked collaboratively to create these land art masterpieces!  Bigfoot                                             ...

Sight Words Sometime over the next week, your child will be coming home with a short list of  sight   words  in their Home Reading log. Sight   words  are commonly used  words  that young children are encouraged to memorize as a whole by  sight . It is important that they can automatically recognize these  words  in print within three seconds without having to use any strategies to decode them. It's like when they read their own name; they don't need to sound out each letter. They simply recognize it at a glance. Learning  sight   words  is ONE reading strategy that can help kids build fluency and confidence as readers. Please practice the list of  sight   words  each time your child does his or her home reading. Mastery of a word occurs when: your child already knows the word by  sight  and can read it automatically without sounding it out or if it is newly learned word, when your child has succes...

  Beaded Number Line This week in math we created beaded number lines. These number lines have 100 beads.  We alternated colours every ten beads and added a washer to help us count by 5's. We will use our beaded number lines to help us in math throughout the year. Social Studies We are continuing to learn about the prairies. After listening to the story, The Little Red Hen students used pictures, drawings and words to create storyboards in order to help them retell the story. They are now working in small groups to tell their own version using prairie animals. They are using the popsicle stick puppets they created to help them retell their prairie version of the story. Upcoming Dates Monday, October 18: Professional Development Day - No School for students Thursday, October 21: Library Day Tuesday, October 26: Coulee Walking Field Trip - Please email me if you are able to volunteer. Friday, October 29: Pumpkin Fest/Patch. Students are invited to wear their Halloween costumes t...

Seasonal Changes We have been very busy exploring and observing seasonal changes!  We enjoyed a Fall Senses walk around the school yard and focused on using our senses to help us explore and describe our observations. We found "crunchy" leaves, saw "fluttering, swirling" leaves in the "breeze",  and felt "crisp" wind on our cheeks. We sketched and labeled fall trees. We learned that chlorophyll is what makes the leaves green! We thought it was pretty interesting to learn that leaves actually have all the colours in them but autumn is a time for the red, orange, yellow and even purple  colours to "shine" through! We also took a little time to have some fun in all the leaves! Upcoming Dates Monday, October 11: Thanksgiving Day - No School - Enjoy! Wednesday, October 13: Picture Day