Hi everyone and welcome to our classroom blog! Here you will find the latest news from our classroom as well as upcoming events. This blog is intended to be an information source for parents. When the blog is updated, I will email the parent group.
September Learning
In Language Arts, we have been reviewing letter sounds, and early sight words. Please take a moment and have your child read the sight words that are written in the agenda. The goal is for students to be able to read and recognize these words quickly. We call them popcorn words because students should be able to say them as quickly as a kernel of popcorn pops. This will help to create fluency and improve comprehension later on when children begin to read longer texts.
We have also begun work on word families and have completed -at,cat, pat, rat etc. -in,” pin, fin, etc and -ap, tap clap snap etc.. Printing and drawing lessons for the letters “s,a,t,i,p,n,c” have been covered. The children are enjoying the drawing aspect of these lessons and are looking forward to sharing their “masterpieces” at our “Student-led Conferences” in November.
Have you heard of the Daily Five? The Daily Five is a framework used to teach Reading and Writing. Here is a link that provides a good summary of the approach. We have been learning about the first element called Read to Self.
Click HERE to check out a power-point presentation on the Daily 5.
All grade one classrooms are using this framework to promote independence in language skills. Each day as a class, we time how long we can “Read to Self” properly and then chart our progress. The students are really excited as we are building stamina every day! We talk about how they are 3 ways to read a book: Read the Pictures, Read the Words, as well as Retell the Story. the children khow how to do this, so try it with a picture book at home!
Click HERE to check out a power-point presentation on the Daily 5.
All grade one classrooms are using this framework to promote independence in language skills. Each day as a class, we time how long we can “Read to Self” properly and then chart our progress. The students are really excited as we are building stamina every day! We talk about how they are 3 ways to read a book: Read the Pictures, Read the Words, as well as Retell the Story. the children khow how to do this, so try it with a picture book at home!
In Math, we have been working on Number Sense with numbers 1-10 both printing and representing. We will soon begin a unit on “Patterns in Our World”.
In Science we have been focusing mostly on the unit Creating Colour but have also been talking about Seasonal Changes.
For Social Studies, we have been talking about “Friendships” and “Belonging to Groups”.
We have had three guest teachers this past month. Mrs. Kitagawa our school counselor came to talk to us about friendships, Candace Bradford, the FNMI teacher, stopped in to teach us about colours in our natural world. She had interesting information to share about the significance of colour in the Metis Sash. Students then created their own sash. The third guest teacher, Mrs. Baker, the Learning Coach for MMH, visited on Wednesday to give us a sensory lesson. This lesson taught the children how to get “just right” for learning.
Thank you for filling out and returning all the forms that were sent out at the beginning of September! I know that the first few weeks of school are often filled with lots of paperwork so I appreciate your help with that. For those of you who signed up as a volunteer, I will contact you when we need your help in the classroom!
Also,thanks to those parents who have signed up to bring snacks for parties! If you haven’t yet, please sign up outside the classroom door to help bring snacks and treats for parties throughout the year! When it comes time, you will receive a reminder for what you’ve signed up for.
I know that in the past, we have allowed parents to bring cupcakes or special treats to celebrate birthdays. This year, the Grade One team has asked that parents do not send cupcakes or treats on your child’s birthday. We will make sure that your child’s special day is celebrated, and students will do an activity in honour of the birthday person! We have lots of special days throughout the year where students will have treats. We hope to alleviate some of the stress on parents, especially since not all parents are able to bring treats. Thanks for your understanding!
I know that in the past, we have allowed parents to bring cupcakes or special treats to celebrate birthdays. This year, the Grade One team has asked that parents do not send cupcakes or treats on your child’s birthday. We will make sure that your child’s special day is celebrated, and students will do an activity in honour of the birthday person! We have lots of special days throughout the year where students will have treats. We hope to alleviate some of the stress on parents, especially since not all parents are able to bring treats. Thanks for your understanding!
October
Our first week of October will be a busy one!
In Language Arts, we will continue to work on sight words , printing, word families, and our Daily 5 program. I PICK good fit books will be the focus this week. I - I choose the book P - What is the purpose (enjoyment, fact finding) C - Comprehension (do I understand what I am reading) and K - do I know most of the words.
In Math, we will finish up Number Sense with the numbers seven, eight, nine and ten. Later in the week we will begin the unit Patterns in Our World.
In Social Studies, we will continue to learn about belonging to various groups and the rights and responsibilities that go along with belonging. An important group all children belong to is their family group. We will begin discussing families. Perfect timing I’d say, as we also prepare for the Thanksgiving weekend! Keep your eyes out for a special surprise coming home at the end of the week. I know the students are going to be very proud to be taking this home for the long weekend!
In Science, we will begin mixing primary colours with a sticky lesson involving corn syrup and food colouring. We will also be reading a story entitled “Mouse Paint” followed by a colouring activity to show how we get the secondary colours of orange, green and purple.
We’re excited to have a guest Fire Fighter come in to talk to us about Fire Safety on October 3rd! Fire Prevention week is from October 8th to October 12th and the theme this year is “Have 2 Ways Out”. We’ll be sending home some Fire Safety information and activities that you can do with your entire family.
Here is information about school wide events:
On Wednesday Oct. 3rd, we are having our first Character Education Assembly of the year. There will be a number of these throughout the year, as we are focusing on Character Education across our school. We began this last year, and what happened was all of the students (grades 1-5) were divided up into “Families”. Each Family consists of 1 teacher and approx. 25 students from all grade levels. We meet monthly, do fun activities together, and gather in the gym to celebrate the month’s theme.
Since your kids were in Kindergarten last year, they weren’t placed in a “Family” yet, so this is a big step for them! On Wednesday afternoon they’ll meet their MMH Family which is pretty cool, as this will be their Family until they leave MMH after Grade 5. I’m looking forward to catch up with my Family from last year, and also welcome the new Grade 1s to the bunch!
October 18th is “Dress Like Your Favourite Book Character” Day! It will be exciting to see what our Grade 1s can come up with! If a favourite book character has a really difficult costume, consider bringing a prop in that you could be used to explain.
Another day you’ll want to mark your calendars with is the Scholastic Book Fair on Oct. 25th and 26th. Ms. Renner has been busy organizing this, and the book fair always has an amazing selection. Our class will visit the book fair on both days. Usually, the first day we just go and LOOK and write down titles and prices on a wish list. Then, the second day, if the student has brought money they can shop. Please feel free to come visit and shop in the book fair yourselves! It will be open from 8:30-11:45, and again from 12:30-3:30 on Thursday, and 8:30-11:45 on Friday. You are welcome to visit the book fair with our class, or you can go at your own convenience. If you choose to send money with your child, let me know via email or agenda if there’s a specific thing they’re SUPPOSE to buy. If there’s no instruction, I usually tell them they have to purchase at least 1 book so that they don’t spend all their money on erasers and posters. Due to the book fair, I will not be sending home a Scholastic order for October.
Dates to remember at a glance…
Monday October 1st- “Walk to School” Week begins!
Wednesday October 3rd- Guest Speaker about Fire safety
Wednesday October 3rd- Character Ed. Assembly @ 12:30 & MMH Family time
Monday October 8th- Happy Thanksgiving! No school
Tuesday October 9th- Professional Learning Day: No School
Wednesday October 10th- School Council Meeting @ 6:30
Thursday October 18th- Dress Like Your Favourite Book Character Day!
Thursday October 18th- Professional Learning day in the PM-students dismissed @ 11:45
Friday October 19th- Professional Learning Day- No School
Thursday October 25th- Scholastic Book Fair
Friday October 26th- Scholastic Book Fair
Monday October 29th- Picture Retake Day
Wednesday October 31st- Happy Halloween! Halloween parade in the pm and class party
