How  many Cheerios are there in this box?  Each class had its own box of Cheerios to count.

First we estimated… We first counted a handful to give us some idea. There were 84 in a handful. We tried to think how many handfuls there might be in a box. Nevertheless we guessed a VERY wide  range, such as………..10,  102, 1,000,000, 56,  two hundred elevenses!!!

Then we counted by 10s and put them together in 100s.  We put all the 100s together on a broom handle like a giant abacus.

We counted the 100s

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Happy 100 Day! February 17th was our 100th day of School in Kindergarten and Grade One!

We have been counting the days using popsicle sticks. Each time there was a bundle of 10 it had to move from the Ones Place to the Tens Place!!! Those were small moving days.

Today all the Tens bundled together made 100 days! They could no longer  stay in the Tens Place. We had to find another place for them to go…………. the HUNDREDS PLACE!  Today was  a MAJOR MOVING DAY!!! We have been working on this  Place Value Math since Day One in September.

10……..20…..30…….40…….50…….60…….70……..80……..90………100!

We have been counting UP to 100 and DOWN from 50…………..50+ 50 = 100………….60+40 = 100………72+28=100…….85+15=100………….97+3=100……….. 100+0=100!!!!!!!
And we have each been bringing in our 100 posters to present and share.
They are now up on the walls in the classrooms and hallway.

On the 100th Day of School, we made 100 numbers on our papers and whiteboards. We had fun in the Gym with all the Primary Kids. We did the HUNDREDS of Physical Challenges that Mrs. S. and her Gr. 2/3 class set for us. Thanks Big Buddies! We had fun!!

Check out some of our counting, our posters, and our 100 Day Celebration:

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A big thank you to the parents for helping us with our homework ! Families have been so creative and we have all enjoyed the children’s presentations.  Today we had a Gallery Walk and went to see our friend’s work in each others classes. Please come and see our posters!!

In Kindergarten and Grade One we are constantly and consistently working on getting along and being positive with one another. Valentine’s Day gives us a concentrated opportunity to say nice things to everybody in the class and to practice our manners.

Last week Larissa’s Mum cut out a whole load of  shapes on her “Cricket”. With her help and a bunch of other parents we made gorgeous frog and ladybug cards. We put them together and gave them googly eyes. They made a lovely display in our Hall Cabinet.  We also made envelopes to put our Valentines in. Thanks to all those parents who helped us that day!

On Valentine’s day we brought special wishes for our friends in the way of cards, cookies, cupcakes, chocolate cake and…….. lollipops and candy!

We had a lot of fun delivering all the wishes and did a LOT of reading!!  Some of us had written on every single card by ourselves!! What a lot of printing practice and patience on the part of both child and parent!

We had more fun opening our envelopes and reading our cards. It was good for us to go to our friends and say “Thank you very much for my card ( cookie, cupcake, candy, lollipop) ” and to reply “You’re welcome “. We practiced “Thank you…..you’re welcome” and using people’s names….. life skills that take you a long way!

We had more fun with friends and fruit when we made Friendship Fruit Kebabs. Many thanks to the parents who came to help us cut , peel and assemble our kebabs. They were delicious!

At the end of January, we were very lucky to have our Gr. 6/7 and Gr. 3/4 buddies, and LOTS of helpful parents, join us for an hour long skate! We rode the bus to and from the rink, which was also exciting.

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After skating we headed back to school for big recess and a regular afternoon. Boy, were we tired at the end of the day!!

Now the Kindergartens have joined in on our Home Reading program, we thought we could take a moment to remind you of the importance of this daily routine. Here are some great examples of how to read with your children:

Reading with your Kindergarten Child

Reading with your Grade One Child

These model videos demonstrate questioning and thinking techniques that will help your child with valuable comprehension skills that will help them to become better readers.We want to acknowledge the important role that parents and families play in the literacy of our youngest learners. Thanks to those of you who joined us in the gym today for Family Literacy games on January 24th.

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A big thanks to the parents who helped make these delicious rolls with us… The smell tantalized the entire school! And the recipe made enough for us to have 2 each!! Yummy!

Cook Time: 25 minutes

Total Time: 25 minutes

Ingredients:

• 1 loaf frozen bread dough, thawed
• 2 tablespoons melted butter
• 2/3 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts or pecans
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/3 cup heavy cream
• 2/3 cup sifted confectioners’ sugar
• 1 tablespoon milk
• dash vanilla

Preparation:

Roll dough to a rectangle, about 18×6 inches. Brush with the melted butter. Combine brown sugar, chopped nuts, and cinnamon; sprinkle over dough. Starting at long edge, roll dough up, jelly roll fashion; moisten edges and seal. Cut roll into 20 slices. Place rolls, cut side down, into two lightly buttered round cake pans. Let rise for about 1 1/2 hours, until doubled. Pour the cream over the rolls then bake at 350° for 25 minutes. Combine confectioners’ sugar, milk, and vanilla, adding more sugar or milk if necessary. Drizzle over rolls while still warm.
Makes 20 cinnamon rolls.

Baby Lucas came to see us this week. He is now 5 months old. We can really see him beginning to show us how he is feeling. He was very smiley and happy when he visited with us this time.

One of our baby sisters also arrived part way through Baby Lucas’ visit and the two babies seemed to enjoy being together.

When Lucas came to visit we discussed feelings and how he shows his emotions as a baby, compared with how we might show our emotions as bigger kids. We will continue to talk about feelings in class and read some stories to help us learn more.

A great book about feelings that you may want to read at home is The Feelings Book, by Todd Parr.It has colourful, emotive characatures that really show the different range of feelings we have as human beings.

We had quite an exciting performance at school this week. The percussion group, ScrapArtsMusic (SAM), performed some amazing beats and tunes on their funky instruments crafted from junk! They use scrap metal and tubing to create amazing drums, wind instruments, and other percussion instruments.

We were so excited when Ziven got to go up as a volunteer and play the foam block marimba (giant xylophone) with the band. It was a very energetic, UPBEAT performance!

If you’d like to hear some of SAM’s music, you can visit their YouTube channel…

Last week, we had a Snow Day! The school was closed because the power was out and the roads were unplowed and dangerous. Nearly 20 cm of snow fell!

When we came to school the next day, we read a fun book, called Snow Day. We were lucky enough to still have lots of snow to play in, to sled on, and to make SNOW ICECREAM! Yummy!

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Here is the recipe for Snow Ice Cream, in case we have another Snow Day and you’d like to make it at home with your family:

Ingredients:

• 1 large metal bowl full of CLEAN snow
• 1 cup of sugar
• 1 can of condensed milk
• 1/2 a cup of cream
• 1 tsp of vanilla
• a big spoon to mix it all together

These ingredients can be adjusted to taste. You may need to add a pinch of salt if your snow is too melty!

Now that we have our feet planted solidly in the New Year, January 2011, the month of December seems a distant blur… It was a very busy time in our classrooms and we neglected the blog.

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Mrs. M and Mrs. H both had a very relaxing Christmas holiday and are only now catching up with the blogging! We hope you and your families had a restful and fun-filled break, as well!

We are happy to be back at school and have already had many exciting events and experiences in the New Year to blog about too! Now that Christmas Catch Up is done, perhaps we can get back on the blogging bandwagon!

Happy New Year!