Jon Klassen Visit

Today was the big day we've been preparing for. JON KLASSEN came to visit our classroom and school.

If you don't know him, you should check out his books!

Photo Credit Autumn Le Brennan

Source

Source

He is an amazing author and illustrator. He's even received a Caldecott medal and a Caldecott honour, which recognize each year's most distinguished American picture book for children.

Before he came we brainstormed a list of things to do to make him feel welcome in our classroom.  One student mentioned that we should give him tea.  That gave us the idea to have a tea party for him.

We decorated and tidied our classroom. Mrs. Lowe made tea and cupcakes. We were SO excited.

Jon Klassen came and had tea and cupcakes with us. Then he read his book called "I Want My Hat Back" and showed us how he makes his illustrations. 

After recess we met with all of the kindergarten and grade one students. He read a some stories that he had written and illustrated and some that he had just done the illustrations for.

Then he taught us how to draw one of the illustrations from Sam and David Dig a Hole. It was SO fun!

If you'd like to meet him yourself, he will be at McNally Robinson tomorrow, November 15 at 2:00 pm.

Being Prepared

Today we talked all about being prepared for school and all of the things we need to have a great day of learning. Two things that came up were food and good clothes for outside.

We used a bunch of lunches to make one awesome, healthy lunch. Then we worked together to label the items. The kids in our class are getting really great at sounding out words.

I asked the students, "Why do we need a healthy lunch?" 

Here's what they said:
If you eat candy you'll be fat. - Yuan
We need a healthy snack to get big and strong. - Brayden
So we can grow up like the big kids. - Alfonso
So your brain can wake up. - Landyn
If you are hungry and you don't have any food you'll be really hungry. - Isabella

They also had some other great ideas for healthy snacks and lunches:

• bananas
• apple
• oranges
• corn
• salad
• fruit salad
• apple sauce
• pear
• grapes
• carrots
• sandwich
• cheese
• watermelon
• milk
• meat
• spagetti
• chicken noodle soup
• potato salad
• macaroni and cheese
• crackers
• soup
• 1 treat 

Then we talked about all of the things we need to be warm and comfortable at recess. Students go outside for two 15 minute recesses and one 30 minute break at lunch. They will go out unless it is colder than -28 with the windchill. It is really important that they are dressed for the weather, including the windchill.

We used our Smart Board to make this drawing together and the students labelled all of the things this little student needs to be ready for outside.

This student is ready for winter recess!

We have also posted this picture by our door so students can check that they have all of their belongings, before they go outside.

Beautiful Stuff: Part 1

This week we have decided to start collecting "Beautiful Stuff."  The plan is to explore our idea of what is beautiful. We will look closely at, touch, sort, categorize and label our collection.

To start I asked the students, "What is beautiful?" Here is what they said:
A fancy mermaid queen - Charlotte
Mom - Justine
Butterfly - Parker
Flower - Jaiden
Stars - Jaylene
My skirt - Isabella
Rabbits - Matthew
Flashing lights at night - Justin
Tree house - Brodie
Thomas the Train - Brayden, Kayden, Alfonson
Shirts with hearts, flowers and stars - Jolena
Everyone's hearts - Yuan
A fancy dress - Kaylee-Ann
Tomatos - Rachel
Pinky Pinky Dog - Renee
A heart and a flower - Frankie

Then we talked about the beautiful stuff we could find in our houses. We decided to write our parents a note about the plan. We also discussed that we will be sharing these items so we should not bring our most special objects.

The very next day, almost all of the students returned their boxes, filled with beautiful stuff!

We waited for one more day for the rest of the boxes to come in and then we started to explore what was inside. 

I decided to have the students open their boxes in small groups so that I could observe and record some of the conversations that took place.  Some of the students already started sorting and categorizing their collections. - Mrs. Lowe

We can't wait to continue to open and explore our boxes of Beautiful Stuff!

Thank you so much to all of the parents for supporting this exciting project. We couldn't do it without you!