We have had a very busy week with the start of our Three Left Feet dance residency. Alara, our dance instructor, has led us in three sessions. We have now learned the entire choreography for our show next week. We hope that many of you will be able to come to the performance next Thursday, September 25th from 10 - 10:45am.

In Literacy, we have now learned all of the vowels and the two sounds each vowel makes. Each day, we print a letter in our printing notebooks and list many words beginning with this letter/sound. Letter and word games are played during the week to practice and reinforce our learning.

In Math, we are also focusing on practicing the proper formation of the numbers and have worked with numbers 0 - 5 so far. We are also reviewing /learning how to represent numbers using tally marks, ten frames, dice, and numerals.

The students really enjoyed being able to share the special items in their All About Me Bags with their classmates. Thank you for helping your child select items for this activity. We practiced asking the presenters questions about their objects as well as sharing comments.

We have had Gym classes outside this week. Mr van Sluys taught the children some games that can be played on the compound surrounding the playground. They learned hopscotch and some ball games. We will be outside again next week.

Please remember to have your child return their library book on Monday each week as we exchange our books on Tuesday. Mrs. McLean, our librarian, appreciates having time to check the books into the library's system prior to our exchange.

Thank you to everyone who was able to drop-in for our Open House yesterday. I enjoyed speaking with many of you.

This week we started to work in our printing notebooks with the letters A and E. I will introduce the vowels first and then we will work through the rest of the aplphabet. Our focus is on proper letter formation, size, and spacing. We spend time learning the sounds each letter makes and identify words that begin with the letter.

We are doing similar work with the numbers 0 -9. Any extra practice you can provide your child at home for both letter and number formation serves as great review and skill-building opportunities. Children often love fingerpainting, forming the letters/numbers out of playdough, writing them in chalk on the sidewalk, writing with markers, etc.

This week in Gym was spent "conditioning" for today's Terry Fox run. The students set a goal for how many laps they hoped to run and many of them either attained or exceeded their goal. Thank you very much for your generous donations in support of the Canadian Cancer Foundation.

Every day, we have "Calendar Time" in the morning where we practice counting, identifying odd and even numbers, practicing the days of the week and months of the year, and recording how many days we've been at school using numerals, tally marks, ten frames, and place value blocks. Next week, we will be focusing on representing numbers using tally marks and ten frames during our Math lessons.

I sent home a small "homework" task with he students today. Your child has brought home an "All About Me" bag to fill over the weekend with four small objects and/or photos to share with their classmates next week. Please have them choose only 4 objects and make sure they can allfor inside the bag. Please also label their bag with their name. We will share a few bags each day. I'd like to have all the bags back to school by Wednesday.

** We have a dance residency beginning next week with a local dance company called Three Left Feet. Please make sure your child is dressed in clothes that are appropriate for dancing. This residency will be going on for the next two weeks culminating with a sharing assembly in the Gym on Friday, September 25 from 10:45 - 11:30. Parents and family members are welcome to attend! :)

A friendly reminder that our library day is Tuesday. Please have your child return their book by Monday each week to give our librarian time to check the books back into the system. Thank you for your help with this.

I've enjoyed getting to know all the students over the past four days. We have been doing some letter and number review, learning new Grade 1 classroom routines, and have gone to both Gym and Music classes.

Please remember to send your child with a pair of indoor shoes that can be left at school. These shoes should be sneakers that are non-marking and suitable for running in Gym classes.

Please label your child's clothing and belongings. Many items stray from their owners during the day. Having a label makes it easy to get pieces back where they belong.

We ask that toys, stuffed animals, playing cards, etc. be left at home. Children do not have opportunities to play with these during the day and they can often be a distraction when the children know they have them in their backpack. All school supplies are given to the children by the school so it is not necessary to send pencils, crayons, or notebooks to school. Thank you for your support. :)

Our Library day will be Tuesday beginning on September 16th. Your child will be able to take out one book each week and will need to return it by Monday the following week.

A message from Mr. van Sluys (our Gym teacher)

The school Terry Fox Run will take place on Friday, September 12th at 9:00 am. Students are encouraged to bring in Toonies for Terry to support cancer research. If we reach our fundraising goal of $1150, we’ll celebrate the following week with a special “Wear Your Favourite Sports Swag” day!

I am looking forward to meeting you all next Thursday, September 11th at our Open House from 4:30 - 6:30pm.

Please do not hesitate to contact me at jllarmer@cbe.ab.ca with any questions or concerns throughout the year.

I hope you all enjoy a relaxing weekend!