Langevin Grade One

This week, our classes visited the Children’s Reading Place.  This is a very special location in Inglewood where a home has been transformed into a beautiful place to read and explore books.  Students were able to explore all the NOOKS and LOOK at BOOKS at their leisure.  For more information and to visit the CRP with your family visit  www.clagaryreads.com . On our walk, we stopped at a spot by the river to do some exploring and look for landmarks.  With their parent volunteer, students used a compass to find north, south, east and west.  Looking in each direction they found landmarks.  We talked about what a good landmark is and how we use them.  We are excited to begin some more work with mapping in the classroom and exploring more of our community next week!

We visited the Calgary Zoo to work on our photography skills and sketching.   Throughout the day, students had an opportunity to walk through the Canadian Wilds and take photos of the animals in their habitats.   We practiced using the zoom feature on the iPads and talked about how we need to make sure the photo isn’t too close because then it will be blurry. They also worked on sketching like a scientist by visiting their favourite animals and taking time to add details to their sketches. Students also had time to explore on their own.   Everyone did a great job of walking on this trip and we had such a beautiful day! Here are some photos from the day, taken by our budding photographers!

Finally, a beautiful autumn day! We had a jam-packed day today at Bebo Grove, Fish Creek Park.  In the morning, students explored the area with their group.  They were encouraged to build, collect and investigate nature however they wanted.  One group was lucky enough, and quiet enough to see two deer in the forest! Others found twisty trees, chipmunks, heart-shaped rocks, insects and much more! After a nice lunch on the sunny riverbank, we split into three groups.  One group, focused on photography with our resident expert, Sarah.  They practiced taking photos of nature using the elements of photography and taking photos of their friends.  Next, students went on a leaf hunt, looking for different shapes and sizes of leaves.  For each different leaf that they found, the did a wax crayon rubbing in their journal.  Lastly, students played a game of "Fox and Hare". Students who were hares were give bags of coloured cubes and had to hide.  Next...

Photography Field Study On our trip to SPI last week, students focused on the elements of photography.  Sarah met with our students in the morning to share some different techniques for photography and capturing your subject in a good photo. We learned the following elements that we then had the opportunity to practice using iPads in the field. Point of View Ants Eye View and Birds Eye View Rule of Thirds Pattern/Texture/Shape/Colour Symmetry Leading Line Since our field study, Sarah has returned to our classrooms to help celebrate our success from St. Patrick's Island.  She also helped us to critique our photos.  We are looking forward to learning more with her on our field study to Fish Creek Park next week.

Welcome to Grade One! The first month of grade one has come and gone.  It was been great getting to know all of our new students and families.  We are so excited for the year ahead.  Here is what we have been up to so far! Our First Field Study - The Fragrant Garden We visited a local, community garden to work on "sketching like a scientist" and finding a "quiet place".  Both of these skills were worked on the first week in our classrooms and will be revisited throughout the entire year.  Students are encouraged to look closely and sketch what they see, taking their time to add details and look for unique traits in objects.  We started this in the classroom by describing various objects in  a large group.  Pinecones, leaves and sticks were placed in the middle of our circle and we took turns describing their differences and trying to guess which one was being talked about without saying what it was. We then spent time in our naturalization a...