October 23- 27

Happy Friday! We had a wonderful week again this week. We had a fire drill this week and they did amazing! Make sure if you have no signed the consent form for Tuesday that you log onto Power School and do that!

LA: We talked lots this week about good fit books, we used the acronym "I Pick"

I choose
Purpose
Interest
Comprehend
Know

We also talked about what to do if we do not know how to spell a word during writing time. We worked on reading and answering questions about Halloween themed sentences. We finished looking at the individual sounds (there is a phonics book in their kanga pouch you do not need to send it back). Next week we will begin looking more into the short vowel sounds.

Math: Still working on our 1-20 knowledge we have been talking lots about odd and even numbers. We also practiced working with these numbers by working through our math centers. The students are getting much better at doing their 'jobs' during center time and transitioning with ease between centers.

Science: We had our Fall quiz earlier in the week and finished that topic up. We switched back to looking at creating color. Many of the kiddos had a hard time identifying color words again so we spent some more time on that. We also looked at primary and secondary colors. We talked about mixing colors and next week we will get to do it ourselves. We used color paddles to look at mixing colors too and learned a fun song to remember the primary colors.

Social: We continued to talk about our groups by looking at how some of our groups fit into other groups we are part of. For example their family and our school are all part of the community of Leduc. This was an amazing realization to them.

Keep a look out this weekend I will be posting a page with their Raz-Kids passwords as well as some apps/ websites you guys could work with at home. Many of you stressed to me how difficult it is to get them to do work at home. Perhaps some of these apps and games could help ease that for you.

October 16-20

Odds and Ends

You will see that my blog has changed a bit, I had a technology guru come and help me in hopes to make it more functional and efficient for myself and for you all. If there is something you would like to see on here I am open to suggestions! At the top of page you will see a Kid Zone tab, this is where I will be putting links for the kids to click on and work with once we start with Chromebooks next week. Many of the links there will not work for you at home, if you would like some websites I will be putting a tab for you all up in the future. There is also a tab with the list for class party sign ups. If the date that I signed you up for does not work please let me know as soon as possible. Also if you are willing to fill one of the spots e-mail me to confirm I know many of you said you were willing which is greatly appreciated! I also added a spelling list tab which has the spelling words for the entire year! That way it is always there for you in case you cannot read it in the agenda(grade one printing is sometimes like solving a puzzle) or your kiddo was absent. 

Language Arts

We are still working on the printing and individual sounds each letter makes.We have also been practicing lots with taking CVC words, stretching out the sounds we hear and putting those sounds down on paper. I have completed their testings that I will be sharing with you at parent teacher conferences. If you have specific concerns send me a note in their agenda so that I am prepared with the best resources/answers I can provide you.

Math

We have been practicing our counting by 2 skills more this week and are getting much more fluent at it. We are still working to build our number sense for 1-20. We also practiced the rules and responsibilities for working in math centers with activities we are familiar with. Next week we will be continuing with new centers.

Science

We have wrapped up learning our the Fall season. Next week the children will have a quiz on their knowledge.

Social 

Still working on building our classroom community we read the story "What it Means to be Kind." We had scenarios that we worked through and had conversations. We brainstormed ways we could be kind to each other every day. The students also watched a Franklin video and had to identify the groups that Franklin was part of in the story, they also had to brainstorm groups Franklin was part of that may not have been in the story.

If you have not signed up for conferences next week please do so! If you cannot make it next week but another time in the future works please let me know. Thank you for all you do have a lovely weekend!

October 9-13

For a short week we were very busy here in 1P! We did a lot of informal assessments with week on their number sense as of right now, their letter recognition, sound recognition, and they did a Schonell spelling test. These tests really helped the students remember what 'Volume 0" is in our classroom as well as the importance of not yelling out the answers during 'tests.' We will continue looking at their current phonemic awareness next week with a few other assessments you will have a chance to see at Parent Teacher Conferences. We finished our week with a lovely scarecrow craft this afternoon. 

Odds and Ends

-If you have not done so please sign up using the link below

- Our school has popcorn Wednesdays! On Wednesdays please if you wish you can send your child with 50 cents to give to me first thing in the morning, and then they will get a bag of popcorn at snack recess. It is a fairly large bag of popcorn most of the students couldn't even finish one. 

-On Wednesday you do not have to send your child with a lunch, one of the parents is bringing in a pizza party to celebrate one of our kiddo's birthday!

- I will be away on Monday along with the other grade one teacher to go learn some things!

Home Reading

Thank you for committing your time to home reading! They are so exciting every morning to come in and read to me. A great strategy some parents have been doing especially with the level AA books is covering the pictures and making the child look at the words. A great progression would be to cover the pictures and look at the words, see if there are any words they recognize or can sounds out, then look at just the pictures and what they see. Then go on to looking at them together. Remember that it is hard for those little ones to sit for that long after a long day of work, maybe read a page then have them get up and do five jumping jacks. Make it fun for them then you will not be wanting to pull your hair out as well!

Language

As said above the kiddos did a few informal assessments this week. I assessed their individual letter recognition and sound recognition. We continue to look at practicing our phonemic awareness and practicing printing 'perfect lowercase letters' many of them still have a hard time with this concept especially for the 'loopy letters' such as S, J, G, and F. We also did an amazing job working through the first two centers of Daily 5. The children are really starting to get the hang of what the expectation is during Read to Self and Work on Writing. They loved using the whiteboards during work on writing to practice printing their number words. 

Math

The math assessment package I put together took us a lot longer to get through than I had anticipated. We were looking at putting numbers into a ten frame, how many a number is, recognizing the number word, and numbers that come before, after and between in the numbers 1-20. We worked more with partner work and flashcards looking at grouping the correct numeral, pictorial and written card. We have introduced counting by 2s and man is it tricky for us! We will be continuing on with this next week. 

Science

We continue to talk about Fall this week. We did some writing about "My favorite things about Fall." and built them into acorns! They are both adorable yet slightly creepy looking. 

October 2-6

What a beautiful Fall week it was! We were very busy this week learning. After being away last week the first couple days in 1P were getting back to our normal routine and expectations.

Odds and Ends

-We started our home reading this week. This is an excellent nightly practice to do with your children. As we are still working very hard to develop our reading skills it is not critical for you to receive a new book everyday. Please aim for fluency with the books. If the books your child is receiving seem too easy or difficult, put a note in the agenda and we can alter it to what fits your child's need. Most have gotten in the habit to bring up their duotang once they have completed a book, if you do not receive a new book I did not receive the duotang, just once again put a note in the agenda and I will ensure they take it out and get into that habit. 

-I put a notice in their kanga pouches today, please go on Powerschool and sign the permission form for them to partake in the Halloween parade at Salem Manor across the street from the school. 

-If you want signed up for your child to receive photo retakes those will be taking place on Wednesday

-The milk program and popcorn day will be starting next week!

-See below blog post to sign up for Parent Teacher conferences!

Language

We talked about why we celebrate Thanksgiving, then went to our writing notebook and completed the three sentences "I am thankful for my______." We continue on working on our phonics focusing on individual letter sounds. On Rainbow day we read some silly poems about eating a rainbow and a poem to remember the colors of the rainbow. We have also been practicing the skill of labeling a picture. This is a great way to introduce them to identify details that they see in an image. We are also practicing finding the right word for the specific item by thinking about the sounds we hear and matching it to the words in the word bank. We also introduced the skill of "Work on Writing" for our Daily 5 program. We will be working further on this later in the week. We had our spelling test this morning but it was my week teaching the gym so I will have them marked for Tuesday!

Gym

We have introduced basketball to the students! They have loved learning how to dribble, weave through pylons and shoot on the basket. Basketball is also a great way of talking about keeping our heads up and being aware of the people around us!

Math

We are still practicing our numbers to 20. We focused on looking at the 'teen numbers.' A very common mistake in grade one that we are working at is the children look at the second number and use that first (for example: the number 14 some will say 41 or just 40 and drop the 1 completely). I gave each of the children a number sign and we practicing lining up starting at 1, then starting at 20, we also started looking at skip counting by 2's(but this is still a work in progress, ask us about it next week!) We have been looking at ten frames for the numbers and working with flashcards to match the right number with the right ten frame card. 

Science

We took a break after our spelling test to focus on the changes in the Fall season. We went for a nature walk where we were on a mission. We did a checklist of clothing items we would/wouldn't need to go outside in the Fall. Then the next step on our mission was to find 2 different leaves and two pine cones. We started using the leaves to get an imprint of the leaves to put on our science bulletin board. You will also see the pine cones that we found on our walk now attached to their Thanksgiving wreaths we made this afternoon

Social

We took a break from looking at the various groups to talk more about kindness in the classroom/ to our classmates. We talked about what being 'frustrated' feels and looks like and how sometimes when our friends feel frustrated what is best for us to do. We also did a working together activity and practiced the rules for working with a partner. 

I hope that you all have a wonderful long weekend, Happy Thanksgiving. I am very thankful to have each of your kiddos in my class :)

Parent Teacher Conference 2017

On October 24-25 we will be having our parent teacher conferences. Each time slot will only be fifteen minutes and we will not be able to run over that time. Click the following link and sign up for a time that works best for you!

Parent Teacher Conference Sign up

Important dates for this week

Tuesday: Miss. PB away in AM for curriculum mapping at head office
Wednesday: Return their picture order form to me! Even if you would like retakes please return on Wednesday. Also it is library day
Thursday: Rainbow day! Wear every color you can!
Friday: Birthday celebration!

September 25- September 29

Another week in grade one, the students had a new experience this week-substitute teachers! As many of you know I was gone a lot last week, I was away at cross country, was at a teaching conference, as well as I had a personal emergency that resulted in me unexpectedly being away for two more days. From my messages from the subs the class had a challenging couple of days, which is very common with any sub. I'm sure you all remember the substitute teacher days. They did almost everything that I planned for them in my absence though which is fantastic! As many of you may have noticed the spelling test did not get done on Friday. With the excitement from their first long assembly, and the Terry Fox Walk it just did not happen. Which is fine I will do it on Monday no problem! 

On Wednesday prior to me leaving we had a very adorable talk as a class as we learned about Terry Fox. We looked at the difference between a superhero and a real hero. We talked about how Terry walked for us and that is why he is a hero in Canada. They also wrote in their writing notebooks about the real life heroes they have in their life. 

Math: We are still working hard on knowing our numbers to 20. They finished their number booklet and also did a cut and paste activity of reorganizing the numbers in proper order. They have also been practicing counting with buddies playing a few different math games I taught them. Knowing what number comes before any given number and after will be the focus this week. 

Science: We worked on a booklet called "Green, green what is green?" where they had to identify things in our life that are a specific color. The kids had their first science quiz this week after we have been really focusing on identifying color words. This was a good place to take a break in our creating color unit as we are going to turn our focus to fall this week.

Social: Earlier in the week the kids completed their "My groups" books. We then moved into looking specifically at our school community. The various people that work within our school, their job, their names. This week we will looking at the symbols that represent groups. 

Language: We continued looking at the "I Spy" story. The children reconstructed the story using sentence strips, they read it to their buddies, we read the story as a class, it has been great fun! We also read a version of "5 Little Monkeys" and then compared the two number stories. How were they the same? How were they different? The children also worked hard in their journal notebooks writing two different entries. One entry relating to science, the other was the heroes in our lives. They continue to work through a alphabet sound a day, as well as continue to practice which uppercase and lowercase letter go together. 

We will be starting home reading this week please keep an eye out for a yellow duotang, there is a letter to the parents inside. It gives you questions to ask your child about the story to ensure they are not just reading the story, they are comprehending what is being read. There is also a log in there to keep track of once your child has become confident in reading the story. I will try my best to have this out for Monday but it may have to get pushed to Tuesday while I get everyone organized and back to our routine. Thank you all for taking the time to read my blog and continuing to support our grade one journey.