Christmas Cookies

Thank you to Clark and his family for the cookies and decorations!! We had a blast!!!!!!

Ps. Amazing job today at the Christmas Concert!!!! :) 

Christmas Concert Tomorrow

Don't forget that our Christmas Concert is tomorrow at 9:30 a.m.

Please remember to bring a hat, sunglasses, and any cowboy/girl items you can find! 

Hope to see you tomorrow morning! :) 

Where the Wild Things Are

We've been doing some work with the book "Where the Wild Things Are." Check out our artwork! We made fantastic monsters using paint and markers! We learned about different lines in art too! 

Look at Bernard today! One of my students used our million dollar word today and said "Bernard is very generous." Too cute! We also got our letters back from Santa! Needless to say we had an exciting day!

Please remember to send in a hat, sunglasses and anything cowboy like that you have at home! 

Thanks!!!!

If Santa was stuck in my chimney...

Today we brainstormed what we would do if Santa got stuck in our chimney! We could poor syrup down the chimney to make it slippery or someone said we could call the fire department! We also decided that Santa eats too many cookies so we thought of some healthy snacks to leave him too! 

Also look at our daredevil Bernard zip lining!!!!!

You're Hired!!!!

Our elf applications have been returned and everyone was accepted! Each student is responsible for reporting to Bernard about naughty and nice behaviour they see around the school! 

Have fun! :) 

Mrs. Murray

Candy cane hunt!!

How sweet! Bernard hid candy canes all over the room for us today! His bandaids are off and he is back to himself! :) 

Room 10 is something to sing about!!

Room 10 sure is something to sing about!!!! :) 

We had a very interesting day today! There was a situation with Bernard our elf.  I am sure you will hear all about it! Anyway all is okay and Bernard is safe and we are all very happy! 

Here he is! He was delivered from the postman today and he is safe with just a few bandaids! :) 

Spider-Man Elf?

Can you believe Bernard today?? Haha he thinks he is Spider-Man!!!! We have a silly elf don't we? :) 

What will he be doing tomorrow? 

Mrs. Murray 

What does Rudolph say?

Here is the music to practice our song for the assembly! 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pCw7jkaRGys

Elf on the Shelf

As promised from Santa, we have a special visitor from the North Pole who came today and brought a letter and our elf applications that were all approved! Please say hi to Bernard, our elf who will be reporting back to Santa with the naughty and nice behaviour he sees!

Can't wait to see what he is doing tomorrow! 

Mrs. Murray

Eat Your Words

Our word work center for this week involves Fruit Loops!! The students make their words of the week out of the cereal and then they get to eat their words!! Delicious and fun!!

Mrs. Murray

Elf Applications

Today we sent Elf Applications to Santa because we want to apply to be an elf. We were all very excited! Santa also wanted our fingerprints, so in red and green we put our fingerprints on our resume! 

I hope he picks us for the job!! 

Also, on Monday Santa told me there is going to be a surprise here waiting for us!! We can't wait!!!! What could it be?

Mrs. Murray

Penguin Art

Look at these amazing pieces of Art!!!!! Miss. Johnson showed the students how to use plasticine and we read books from "Barbara Reid" and learned from her too! 

We also had some penguin brain food to keep our energy up!! :) 

Mrs. Murray

Incredible Assembly

Wow!!!!! What an incredible job today at our assembly! You all did amazing! I heard nothing but great things all day! I am so proud of all of you! Hard work sure pays off! Now onto practicing for the Christmas Assembly!! :)

Don't forget tomorrow is pizza day!

Also please return your report card envelope if you still have it at home! 

Mrs. Murray

Special Guests

Today we had a Community Helper (helpers) and a friend of Mrs. Murray's come into our classroom today to talk about their responsibility in the community! Officer Forrest is a K-9 Officer and Koda is his Police Dog! We learned so many incredible things today about their job and we got to ask questions too! We even got a collector card to keep! 

Dinner Talk: Ask your child 2 things they learned about Officer Forrest and Koda. 

Mrs. Murray 

Go Cats Go!!!!

In honour of the Ti -Cats we did some Tiger Cats writing today to cheer them on and hope for the win on Sunday! We also had some black and yellow treats to go with it! 

Oskee Wee Wee!!!! (We learned the cheer today, see if your child remembers it)!

Mrs. Major Ti-Cats Fan Murray :)

Measuring with Gummie Worms

We are well into our math unit on measurement and we have been having a blast measuring with lots of different non standard units, such as paperclips, dominoes, blocks, toothpicks and even gummie worms!! They even got to eat them when we were done! 

Don't forget that tomorrow is wear pink day to show support for our anti bullying week!! 

Also, report cards are sent home tonight!!!!

Mrs. Murray 

Spaghetti Dinner

Don't forget to purchase your tickets for Queensdales Spaghetti Supper Friday, November 22nd. Let me know if you need the order form again! I will be there and I hope to see my smiling students as well! :) 

Mrs. Murray 

A Bad Case of Stripes

We are finishing up our "making connections" strategy and read a fabulous book called "A Bad Case of Stripes." The book had a great message - be yourself!!!! 

Remembrance Day

Look at our amazing artwork we did to honour the Veterans. We had an incredible discussion about Remembrance Day and why it is so important. 

On Monday, we will be singing a song for the school called "See the Veteran". Please practice singing it this weekend. It is located in your BEAR books! 

Have a great weekend!

Mrs. Murray

Kindness Pays Off

We did it!!!! We filled our "Kindness Kernels" jar by showing respect and being kind to one another. We will be having our kindness kernels popcorn party tomorrow! Thanks for making me proud every single day!

Mrs. Proud Murray 

Family Trees

We learned all about the importance of family trees today in social studies and we made some super cool pieces of art! Thanks for sending in your hand prints! It's touching to hear how much these students value and adore their families. Family is number one on my list!!!! 

Mrs. Murray 

More addition strategies!!!!

I was amazed at how well the students were adding today using lots of different strategies! 

Addition Strategies

Over the weekend practice adding using the many strategies we have been learning! The 100's chart, number line, drawing pictures, and counting on!

Have a nice weekend and don't eat too much candy! Thank you to everyone who brought in my favourite chocolate bars today! You are so thoughtful and always thinking of me! :) 

Mrs. Murray  

5 Little Pumpkins

We have had a lot of fun singing the song "5 Little Pumpkins". We have actions for the song, and we also made little paper puppets to help tell the story! You will find the song in the BEAR book this week, but for now, here is a video to watch and sing- along! 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cm1qvX1ygOo

Don't forget that on Thursday we have our Halloween Parade and Party! Please bring in a peanut-free snack that we can enjoy if you can!!

Thanks so much,

Mrs. Murray

Finished Product

Our hallway is starting to look spooky!!!! Here are the finished products from our Halloween art "In a dark dark wood"! 

We also put up our candy corn math art! We are getting a lot of great compliments on our hard work!

Please please don't forget to dress warm tomorrow for our Pumpkin Patch trip! 

Ps. Write the word PUMPKIN in your agenda for tomorrow and get a prize!!!!

Pumpkin Fun

Thank you to Clark and his family for bringing in pumpkins for everyone as well as Apple Cidar! I saw so much creativity today! Pumpkins as bats, spiders, vampires and more! We had such a great day! Thanks again Clark!!!!

Ps. Friday is our trip to the pumpkin patch! Please dress extremely

WARM!!!! 

Coins

Tonight you will see your child's Coin Quiz in their important bag! Please practice at home the names and values of the Canadian coins! 

Here are a few online games that you can check out! These games will be challenging but try them out! 


http://ca.ixl.com/math/grade-2/coin-values

http://www.mathsisfun.com/money/money-master.html

http://ca.ixl.com/math/grade-2/which-picture-shows-more-up-to-1-dollar


Have fun!

Mrs. Murray 

Witch Finger Reading

I just love making learning fun! When we read "independently" I sometimes have my students wear witch fingers so that they remember to point to the words they are reading! The kids just love it! Thank you to Cynthia and her Mom, who brought in a glow in the dark witch finger for everyone so that they get to keep their own! That was very thoughtful! Thanks so much!! After we read, we turned out the lights and watched them glow in the dark! Way too cool!!!! 

Mrs. Murray

In a dark dark house there was a....

To start off our art project we watched a "scary" story called "In a dark wood..." This really got us in the Halloween spirit! Our lesson was on shades. The students loved watching the paint get darker and darker as we added more blue to the white! Stay tuned for the finished product! 

Art, Candy and Math all in one!!

Our Candy Corn math unit has been so much fun and very tasty! This activity was challenging but I am so proud of all of my

students, they did amazing!! I guess the candy helps!! :) 

Candy Corn Math

We added some excitement to our "place value" math lesson today! Instead of counters we used Candy Corn to get in the holiday spirit! After we were done we got to eat the candy!!!! It was delicious! 

Practice at home identifying your tens and ones! 

PRIZES UP FOR GRABS :) 

Every once in a while I am going to have a little contest to see who is checking our website on a regular basis! You are a winner if you are reading this right now! Write the word "Turkey" in your agenda and if I see it tomorrow you win a prize! Thanks for checking our blog!!

Mrs. Murray

Our Needs

Our "Living Things " Science unit is almost coming to an end! Today we looked at our needs and a deer's needs! They were the same!!!! Please review at home our needs to survive!

1. Food

2. Water

3. Oxygen

4. Shelter

5. Sun 

Smiley Sentences

Thanks to everyone who came out for Meet the Teacher night, I had a blast meeting all of your families.

At school we are really working on writing complete sentences. Each student has their Smiley Face guidelines at their desk when writing and it's also on our board to reference! When working at home you can reference the smiley face sentences as well! (See picture above)

Great job on the homework! I know it might seem hard right now but as the year goes on and we learn more and more it becomes a great routine and it becomes much easier! Few reminders: the students do not have to know how to spell the million dollar word (this week was gigantic),  they only need to know the meaning! Also, for the Thursdsy "test me on my words", you actually do the test at home. This gives you a chance to see how they are doing with their sight words as well! 

Have a great weekend! Thanks for all of the toonies for Terry! We had a blast and got lots of pictures for our scrapbooks!

Mrs. Murray

Science is FUN!

Well Grade 1's, we are well into our Science Unit on Living Things and we have learned so much about their basic needs, and how all living things are important and should be treated with care and respect. Right now we are learning how to look after our pet frog, Froggy, and the care he needs. Here is an interactive game called:Growing Plants where you will learn how to take care of a plant, and the resources from the environment it needs to stay alive. (Click on the green words Growing Plants!)

Parents: An expectation in the Grade 1 Science Curriculum under the Needs and Characteristics of Living Things Strand, is to investigate and compare the basic needs of humans and other living things, including the need for air, water, food, warmth, and space using a variety of methods and resources. This online activity is a great tool to explain the basic needs of plants. Perhaps you and your child can look after a real life plant together at home and provide your child with a real life example of how important these basic needs are for not only plants, but us too!! 

Happy Gardening :)

Mrs. Murray

You're Knockin' My Socks Off

To motivate each table group, we have a new reward system called "You're knockin' my socks off!" The sock moves throughout the day to the group who is working the quietest. The group with the sock at the end of the day gets the prize that is in the sock! It has worked like a charm!!!!

Mrs.Murray

Puzzles

Today we made "skip counting" puzzles! What a blast! Tonight see if you can put together your child's puzzle! It is in the important bag with a paper clip! 

Reminders:

It seems like the Home Reading program is a success so far! I see lots of reading being done at home! That makes me

so proud! Over the next few weeks I will be reading with each student and testing them using our DRA kit (diagnostic reading assessment)! 

Mrs. Murray

Marshmellow Spaces

When we are printing in Grade 1/2, we often forget to put spaces between our words, and as Mrs. Murray calls it, it looks like alien writing. Canyoureadthiseasilyordoesitlooklikealienwritingtoyoutoo?

Haha...so for some motivation we used marshmellows as reminders to put a space! After we were done we got to eat them! Needless to say, everyone had spaces in between their words!

Marshmellow spaces sound much more fun than finger spaces!

Have a great weekend!

Don't forget Scholastic orders are due October 2nd and Picture Day is October 1st!

I can count backwards!!

Over the weekend I want you to practice with your "Caterpillar", counting backwards from 20! 

We got to meet Miss. Johnson this week and she is a student at Brock University in Teachers College! She will be learning from me and the students over the next couple months and helping out in the classroom a few days a week! From Nov 18th - Dec 20th she will be with us everyday teaching and learning from all of us! She is lovely and very excited!

Have a great weekend and don't forget to read your B.E.A.R books!

Mrs. Murray

Dinner Talk

Tonight at dinner, ask your child what in our world has a Life Cycle and what doesn't?! We learned about a humans, a chickens, and a flowers life cycle today in Science!

Pizza Forms

Happy Monday everyone!!!! I saw this picture and couldn't resist!!!!

If you did not receive a purple pizza form or blue milk form on Friday please let me know! They were handed out last minute on Friday and I just want to make sure nobody was missed!

Pizza money is due on Monday,

Sept 23! 

I hope everyone enjoyed their BEAR books this weekend! Stay tuned this week for "Snuggle Up" books that will be sent home nightly if they are returned each day! 

Mrs. Murray