We enjoyed our first full week of school! The students are developing more stamina and getting used to the full-day routines of Grade One.  :)

This week, we practiced printing and reviewing words that begin with letters S, T, P and F. We have also added the words "a" and "it" to our high-frequency words. Last week we focused on "is" and "the". The students practiced identifying and reading these words daily in a variety of simple sentences. 

Today, I sent home an optional activity for the children to complete at home to practice simple short vowel "a" words. If your child completes the work, please send it back with your initials on it and I will give them a sticker for their effort.

We started to review simple patterns in Math this week - both AB and ABC patterns. We created movement and sound patterns as a group and identified some patterns in pictures. The students also worked with colour blocks to create as many 3-coloured patterns as they could. We will continue to identify, create, and extend 2, 3, and 4-part patterns next week.

The students enjoyed sharing their All About Me bags with their classmates this week. It was fun to see the special items each child brought in. Thank you for your support with this activity.

On Thursday, we went to the library and each child took out a book which hopefully made it home alright! :) Please help your child ensure their book is returned by Wednesday each week so they can get a new one on Thursday.

We celebrated our 10th day of Grade 1 yesterday with a special activity brought to us secretly by Zero the Hero. "He" visits every ten days of school but we never get to see him - he's sneaky that way! Yesterday, he left pipe cleaners and beads for the students to make a 10-bead bracelet. He will help us to mark each day of school that ends with a zero up to 100 when we will celebrate our 100th day of school.

This morning, we met our Grade 4 Buddies in Mrs. Miller's class and did a fantastic art activity to get to know one another. Please see the photos below and ask your child to tell you about this activity. We will get together every Friday with our Buddies to participate in a variety of learning activities.

Next week, we will participate in a Dance Residency at our school put on by the dance company Sound Kreations. We have four sessions and then a performance on Friday from 10:30 - 11:30. Please ensure your child wears comfortable clothing for these days. Our sessions during the week are from 8:05 - 8:35am. It will be important that the children arrive at school on time to get the most from these sessions. The children will perform on Friday from 10:30 - 11:30am. You are invited to attend! 

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.

Curriculum Newsletter part 2

 

Curriculum Newsletter

 

The students did a great job on their animal research projects. They will bring home the written portion of their project on Monday. It was great to see the creativity the students put into the dioramas and the creation of the plasticine animals. The students had the chance to view one another's dioramas as well as those made by Mrs. Burch's students today. All dioramas were sent home today. Thank you once again for your support with this project.

With the weather being so nice these past few days, we were able to do a community walk to the Pirate Park on Wednesday. If time permits, we may go for another walk next week.

We also had the privilege of a one-hour lacrosse session on Wednesday with Dan, one of the players on the Calgary Roughnecks (professional lacrosse team). The kids were able to apply the skills they learned earlier this year with Mr. van Sluys and enjoyed learning some new tricks.

Thank you to everyone for your generosity with regards to the Grade 3 fundraiser. The Grade 3s made $3200 for The Calgary Bridge Foundation! A cheque will be presented to the organization on Thursday during our school's final assembly.

A few notes about next week:

Please ensure all library and Home Reading books are returned by Monday if you have not already done so.

I will be sending home the students' notebooks, Visual Journals, pencil boxes, indoor shoes, etc. on Thursday. Please send a reusable or large plastic/cloth bag for all of their materials.

If your child will be leaving school early for holidays or will not be attending the last day of school, please let me know so that I can get their things organized to go home. 

We will be having a pj day on Wednesday for those children wishing to wear pj's. They can also bring one small stuffy to school with them if they choose. Also, if they have a board game or other non-electronic game they'd like to bring to play with some of their classmates, they can bring that. They will have the option to watch a movie or play games and have centers for part of the afternoon. They may want to bring popcorn or another special snack for the movie/games time. Please do not send candy.

Our Sports Day will be on Tuesday from 1:00 - 2:15. Please remember to send your child with a sunhat, sunscreen that they can apply independently, a water bottle, and good outdoor shoes for running. Also, everyone is encouraged to wear a tropical-themed shirt for this event.

**Our last day of school will be Thursday and dismissal is at 12:00pm.**

Our phonics focus this week was on words with "ui" and "ew". The five words we worked with throughout the week for shared reading practice and writing were: new, chew, threw, fruit, and juice.

The students were very excited to have two blocks of time this week to use the iPads. They were given time to explore the website PebbleGo and choose an animal or insect to research. We also had some time to explore a few of the learning apps for word and number work that are installed on our school iPads. We will have one or two more blocks of time with the technology next week to work on the research project. The students will begin work on their animal habitat diorama Monday and will make their animal out of plasticine. 

** Please ensure your child has their shoebox or similar-styled/sized box from the dollar store at school by Monday to begin their work.**  You may want to talk with your child about other items they would like to include in their dioramas that are appropriate for their animal's habitat. They may want to collect pebbles, grasses, small twigs, Lego or Playmobil trees and bushes, etc. I will provide paints, paper, and plasticine. Thank you for your support of this work. See below for an example of a diorama.

We have been learning the function and importance of the parts of a plant this week. Our classroom garden boxes are bursting with life and it will be exciting to see what's come up when we return on Monday. We planted tomato, zucchini, kale, cucumber, and many other seeds. Every morning, as soon as they enter the classroom, the students go to the windows to see the changes. :)

Today, our buddies taught us how to use the educational program Minecraft Creative on the desktop computers in the library. The students were very engaged as they took instruction from their older buddies. They learned how to navigate the program and started to create treehouses. 

With the weather being so nice these days - and the energy levels so high :) - we will plan to do 1 or 2 more community walks next week. Please ensure your child wears good walking shoes to school each day.

A Father's/Grandfather's Day card came home in your child's backpack today. Happy Father's Day on Sunday to all of the Dads and Grandpas!

MTS News!

We had another great week full of a variety of learning activities - both indoors and out!

On Tuesday, we went on a community walk to the Inukshuk Park with Mrs. Burch's class. We made observations of changes in the neighbourhood as people begin to welcome summer weather to their homes. Many people have started to garden and we noted lots of flowers, bird feeders, and lawn furniture being put out on porches! At the park, spiders and mosquitoes were noted and we could hear the constant chirping of birds. It is nice to see the neighbourhood coming to life with the warmer temperatures!

We enjoyed observing changes in our four ducklings this week as well as they grew and became more animated. We had the opportunity to observe them many times in the classrooms and out in the open area as they explored an enclosure, swam in a small pool, and had the freedom of a larger space - the open area/hallway outside our class. Our buddies joined us today to enjoy our feathered-friends. The ducklings are returning to the farm tomorrow and we were sad to say goodbye today. This has been an incredible experience. Being able to wait patiently for close to a month for the eggs to incubate, witnessing the pipping and hatching of one of our ducklings, and observing the changes in their size and abilities over the past two weeks has been a fantastic learning experience.

As our year begins to wind down, we are reviewing much of what we have learned in Math and Language Arts. This week, we reviewed fact families with addition and subtraction as well as representing numbers using multiple means - tallies, equations, base ten blocks, etc. Our phonics focus was on words ending in y. We learned that when a three letter word ends with a y the y makes the sound of a long i and when it has more than 3 letters the y makes the sound of a long e. We have also been working to identify characters, setting, problem and beginning, middle, and end in different stories. We have started planning our own stories through the use of a Roll and Write story activity. We will complete this work next week.

Shoeboxes Needed! :)

Next week, we will start an animal research project. Students will be using a program called Pebble Go! to learn about an animal of their choice. Each student will need a shoebox to create a diorama of their animal's habitat - forest, marsh, mountainous environment, etc. Please have your child bring in a box by next Friday, They can bring it in earlier as well. Please ensure their name is printed on the lid of the box. If you have an extra box to send, it would also be appreciated.  

Gym will be held outside all of next week as long as it's not raining. Please ensure your child has outdoor shoes suitable for running as Mr. van Sluys is doing Track and Field activities with the students. 

Other school news!

On Thursday June 20, the Grade Three students at our school will be hosting a Global Citizenship fundraiser in support of the Calgary Bridge Foundation for Youth, which supports newly arrived immigrants and refugees. They will be selling various student handmade items for $2. There will also be lemonade and fudge bites available for purchase. If you would like your child to participate, please send money with them and we will help them select their items to purchase. Thank you for all of your support! - The Grade Three Team

It has been great to see all of the students walking or riding to school on Thursdays (and other days of the week).  Every Thursday is a Walk or Ride day, and we are encouraging all students to get to school in an active way.  We are doing this because it is: good for the environment, good for our bodies, and it's fun!  - Mr. van Sluys