Welcome to my Blog! My hope is that this synopsis of our week will provide a jumping-off point for conversations with your child regarding their week at school.

This week we focused on the letters "A" and "M". We reviewed proper letter formation by printing them in our notebooks and practiced reading words that began with each of these letters. We will be moving through the alphabet over the next few weeks, working in our notebooks, playing letter games, and doing a variety of learning activities.

Your child came home with a purple Roll and Read sheet day to practice and/or review reading CVC (consonant, vowel, consonant) words containing the short letter "a" sound. To play this game you will need a die or a spinner. You can find digital dice online at https://www.online-stopwatch.com/chance-games/roll-a-dice/. Have your child roll the die then they can choose a word under that number to read. You may need to coach your child to sound out each letter and then"blend" the sounds together to read the word. We practiced some of these words in class this week so your child should have some familiarity with sounding them out. For children who can easily read the words, you can ask them to make up a sentence containing the word.

This year we will be learning seven Indigenous teachings called The Seven Grandfather Teachings. This week I introduced the teaching of Courage. I read the book Sheila Rae the Brave by Kevin Henkes and showed the students a video of Canadian high-diver Molly Carlson. In the video, Molly speaks about learning how to dive at a young age and how much courage she has to continually muster to perform her dives. We will continue to focus on this teaching next week as well.

Your child has also brought home a brown paper "All About Me" bag today. I would like to have all the bags returned by next Friday at the latest. Each child will have a chance to share their items with their classmates. This activity is a great way for the children to learn a bit about one another. You are welcome to send photos of pets, family members, etc. as one or two of the items.

In Math, we are focusing on numbers and patterns during September. We are reviewing correct number formation and how to represent numbers using tallies and ten frames.

I hope you all get a chance to be outside and enjoy this amazing weather this weekend. Please do not hesitate to contact me with any questions or concerns at jllarmer@cbe.ab.ca.