Long live the 80's! We were rockin' it today! Our classroom economy has gotten into full swing this week, with many of us realizing that we don't need to hoard our nickels... we can trade up for dimes, quarters and even loonies (for the wealthy among us)! Ever since September, we've been practicing breaking down large numbers into pennies and dimes. Now we are quickly making the connections with real money. With our Grade 1s, we have also been working on a new mental math strategy - "doubles plus 1"! Since we've become so adept at adding doubles quickly in our heads, this takes the strategy to new heights. "If I know that 4+4=8, then 4+5=9" ...voilà! No finger counting needed! In the mean time, our friends in Kindergarten have been continuing to work on their basic numeracy skills, and on practicing writing out their numbers. They also love trying to recognize doubles with us. In French class, we have reached a new chapter. We have officially made it through the entire alphabet...twice! We enjoy our class' alphabet rap so much that we often incorporate it into our pretend play during centre time. Without any prompting from Madame, we sit down and go through our letters and even our digraphs, pretending that one of our friends is the teacher and the rest of us are students. It always makes Madame smile when she sees that we are doing some serious learning through play. Since we have completed our alphabet review, we are now officially moving on to an in depth study of each of our Grade 1 digraphs (two letters together that make ONE sound: ch, on, au...) We're having fun doing representative drawings and sentences about our digraphs, and then being detectives searching for and writing down more examples of the digraph of the week. We have also been learning about "les adjectifs" (our "extra detail" words). Today we went outside and did a scavenger hunt for things that were "petit" (small), "doux" (soft), "vert" (green), etc. In the forest, we are practicing our fine motor skills by learning to tie knots. We're starting with just a basic overhand knot - the kind of knot we will need to know how to do when we tie our shoes. Those of us who caught on right away began practicing how to use the technique in different ways - to create a loop, or even beginning to do the "bunny ears" for shoe-tying. And of course, just as important as learning to TIE a knot is the skill of UN-tying a knot. This works so many great finger muscles and is such a great life skill! Another fun new tool that Madame introduced this week was VEGETABLE PEELERS! The sticks in the forest were finally dry enough that we were able to practice carving them. Vegetable peelers are a great stand-in for pocket knives for our little hands because they're not quite as dangerous. Nevertheless, they are most definitely sharp so we had to listen to Madame blather through some important knife safety guidelines before we were allowed to get our hands dirty. And, look! ...we figured out that we made a see-saw!...by accident, actually!
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