Our focus this week in Word Work was on the soft c sound in words ending in e. The focus words we used daily in our Shared Reading sentences were: face, race, rice, and dice.

In Math, we continue to hone our fact recall skills with Math Minutes twice a week. The students are given 15 addition facts to solve in one minute. We have been practicing our doubles facts as well as identifying numbers that we can add together to make ten. We will continue to do Math Minutes twice a week for the rest of the year. Next week, the students will be given 15 subtraction questions. The facts have a sum no larger than 10 for these timed "tests".

We continued to work on our Animal Movements booklets in Science and are close to having them complete. We have been focusing on animals that fly, hop, swim, walk, and climb.

It has been very interesting to observe our eagle family this week as the eaglets are growing and changing daily. They are beginning to grow their feathers and are much larger and stronger than they were prior to Spring Break. If you have not had a chance to see them yet, you can view them at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4-L2nfGcuE.

Today, the students worked on a torn paper art piece of an eagle. They had to tear small pieces of magazine photos and collage them to create this art. We will finish these next week. The finished one below was done by one of our Grade 4 buddies but the Grade 1's art will look very similar!

We continue to work with the 5 W questions (who, what, where, when, why as well as how) when writing sentences. This week, I gave the students the picture below and asked them to come up with an "I wonder" question for each "W". Please see some examples below.

It looks like we will have some great weather for at least the next few days. I hope you can all get out and soak in some sunshine. Enjoy! :)

This week's Word Work focus was on "Bossy e". The students learned that Bossy e will jump over the consonant in front of it to make the vowel say its name like in the words "tube" and "hide".

In Science, we started our "Book of Animal Movements". We brainstormed many ways animals can move and made our first page about 1 - 3 animals that swim. Each student could choose which animals they wanted to draw for this page. Our booklet will include 5 animals and their respective movements.

Everyone was excited to build a leprechaun this week. We discussed different features that might attract a leprechaun such as; gold coins, rainbows, signs that welcomed leprechauns, and/or advertised "Free Gold". Each trap needed to include a trap door or a one-way door and the students were encouraged to provide a soft landing for a leprechaun, should one fall through a trap door! :) Ladders, ropes, and ramps were built to allow the leprechauns to reach the pots of gold. We are anxious to see on Monday morning if anyone will have been lucky enough to catch a leprechaun and be granted three wishes! :)

In Math, we focused on data collection and graphing. We reviewed how to represent numbers using tally marks and to write sentences using "the most" and "the fewest" to describe the survey's data. The students also completed two Math Minutes, an exercise I plan to use twice a week for the next little bit to develop quick recall of basic addition and subtraction facts.

In Social Studies, we worked with vocabulary to describe a rural community and labeled a photograph of a rural scene. We will move on to mapping skills next week.

We celebrated "Pi Day" with our Buddies today. The students created bookmarks using a variety of circular stickers. They had to choose how many of the numbers in addition to 3.14 that they wanted to represent. Then they chose a coloured sticker for each number and represented Pi in an artistic manner on their bookmark.

Upcoming Dates

March 17                             Wear your Green for St. Patrick's Day

March 19                             Dress like your favourite character from a book

March 19                              Fun Lunch - Subway

March 20                              NO SCHOOL FOR KINDERGARTEN

March 21                              NO SCHOOL

March 20 & 21                     Parent/Teacher Conferences - ONLINE

March 24-28                        SPRING BREAK - NO SCHOOL

April 18                                Good Friday - NO SCHOOL

April 21                                Non-Instructional Day - NO SCHOOL

April 22                                Bow Habitat Station Field Trip - Sharma/Klasen

April 24                                Bow Habitat Station Field Trip - Holt/Pynn/Thomson

April 30                                Grade 3 & 4 students visit McKenzie Highlands School

April 30                                Fun Lunch - Little Caesars

This week we focused on words containing "or" for our daily Shared Reading and Word Work. We continue to work daily on sentence writing using picture prompts and questions. It is great to see the progress the students are making in their ability to come up with sentences that include good description and detail. We have also been practicing identifying mistakes in given sentences. The students are becoming good at identifying incorrect letter sizing, missing punctuation, and spelling errors.

In Math, we continue to build our addition and subtraction skills through daily word problems, worksheets, and games. The students practiced solving equations that used three addends such as 4+5+2. We also started to learn about surveys and graphing. We will continue to do this work next week. The students will be able to create their own surveys and will poll their classmates. They will keep track of answers by using tallies and will then graph their results.

This week, the eagles we observe via webcam had two eaglets. Their third eaglet is pipping and will most likely fully hatch in the next day or two. Please see last week's blog for a link to the webcam. We've been watching Jackie feed the two eaglets and it's been incredible to witness the precision with which she can pass small pieces of fish from her beak to their tiny mouths!

We did not have a chance to go on a community walk this week. We had hoped to go with our Buddies today but had to change our plans. I will take the students for a walk early next week.

Thank you to everyone who sent in a cereal or shoe box with your child this week for Leprechaun traps. We will begin work on the traps on Tuesday. I would like to have all boxes in by Monday. Thank you. :)

Online Parent/Teacher Conferences

With labour action by CUPE Local 40 members limiting access to CBE schools after hours, the decision has been made to move March parent/teacher conferences online.

Conferences will take place on Thursday March 20 and Friday March 21. Bookings will close on Thursday March 20 at 2:00pm.

On Saturday March 15 at 8:00am, please go to your CBE Account to book your conferences.

You will receive an email confirming your date and time and providing a Microsoft Teams link for your online conferences.

I hope you all enjoy a wonderful weekend!

We continue to learn how to identify, read, and spell words containing r-controlled vowels. This week we focused on words with "er". Our focus words for Shared Reading were: tiger, water, paper, and germs.

In Math, we spent most of the week learning about 3D shapes. We identified these shapes/objects both in our classroom at in our homes. The students participated in games and activities that reviewed and reinforced the names of these objects. Next week, we will learn about the properties of the 3D shapes - whether they can stack, roll, and/or slide and we will touch on the terms "faces" and "vertices".

Here is a link to a song about the 3D shapes that the students enjoyed: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2cg-Uc556-Q 

Thank you to everyone who supported your child in completing the 3D Shape Hunt "homework" task I sent home this week. The students really enjoyed sharing some of the objects they found and we had a large variety of examples for each shape.

We have been keeping an eye on Jackie and Shadow - two eagles nesting in Southern California. The pair shares the responsibility of tending to their 3 eggs and we love getting a glimpse of the eggs when we can. "Pip Watch" begins this Saturday. This is when the eggs might begin to hatch. See information from The Friends of Big Bear Valley below. I have also included a link for the live webcam. if you'd like to take a look. I'd highly encourage taking a couple of minutes to check it out.

* Webcam link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4-L2nfGcuE

This Thursday, we spent a lot of time listening to stories, conversing, and writing/drawing about the importance of kindness, tolerance, and respect to mark Pink Shirt Day. A fantastic organization in the United States called Lifevest Inside made this video about the power of random acts of kindness. The students asked to watch it again as soon as it was finished. Many said they loved it! It's an excellent reminder of the impact a kind gesture can have. It is one of my favourite videos.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nwAYpLVyeFU

***With St. Patrick's Day approaching, the students are going to be challenged to plan and build their own "Leprechaun Trap". Each child will need to bring in their own shoe box or cereal box with which to make their trap. All other materials will be supplied by the school. Please have your child bring in their box this coming week so that construction can begin on Monday, March 10th. Please do not do any work on the trap at home.***

Now that the weather is warming, our playground area and field are becoming very wet and muddy. Please ensure your child comes to school with appropriate footwear and clothing. I would highly encourage you to pack either rain/splash pants and/or an extra pair of pants and socks as we do not have any extra clothing at school. Thanks for your support with this! :)

I hope to take the students on a community walk at some point next week to observe the many different components that make up a neighbourhood - homes, mailboxes, light standards, fire hydrants, etc. This will be weather dependent so your child should be prepared to go any day next week.

I hope you all enjoy a wonderful and relaxing weekend!

In Word Work we continue to focus on words with r-controlled vowels. This week we learned many words that contain "ur". Our daily Shared Reading words were: curl, turn, hurt, and fur.

On Tuesday, we celebrated our 100th Day of School! The students enjoyed rotating through all six of the Grade 1 classrooms to participate in different activities focused on this milestone day. Please ask your child to share some of the activities they did during this day.

One of our student's (Reese) mom is a firefighter in Chestermere. She came to speak to us about working in this profession, what a day at the station can look like, the equipment that she wears and uses, how we can prevent fires, and what we need to do in the case of a fire. The students were interested to learn how much protective gear she has to wear and how much it weighs. She carries approximately 75 pounds when attending to a fire! We have been fortunate to have both her and Constable Kruger in to speak and represent community helpers. She encouraged the children to find out what their family plan is in the case of a fire - how to leave the house and where to meet (Muster point).

If you work as a community helper in any capacity and would be willing to speak to the students, I would love to hear from you. Please send me an email at jllarmer@cbe.ab.ca. Thanks in advance! :)

In Math, we continue to work at developing our strategies for solving addition and subtraction problems as well as practicing how to determine when a word problem is asking us to add and/or subtract. Next week, we will turn our focus to learning about 3D objects.

As a tie-in to our focus on Shapes we worked with our Buddies today to create square and colour art inspired by the work of the late German artist Joseph Albers. We are very fortunate to be Buddies with Mrs. Miller's class as Mrs. Miller has a great passion and talent for Art and generously shares her knowledge and excitement with us. I did not take pictures today but here are some examples of Joseph Alber's squares and a screenshot of a children's book about this great artist.

A friendly reminder that Library day is Thursday. Please help your child remember to bring back their book(s) each week. Thank you.

Next Wednesday, Feb. 26 is Pink Shirt Day. This is a day focused on showing respect, tolerance, and kindness toward one another.

There is no school next Friday as it is a Professional Development Day.

I hope you all can get outside and enjoy these warmer temps this weekend. Have fun! :)

This week we focused on r-controlled vowels. Our focus words for daily shared reading were: dirt, shark, turn, and never.

We will continue to work with r-controlled vowels for the next couple of weeks. This week we did some word work specifically with words containing "ar'. We brainstormed a big list of words we already know that have this sound and then began looking for these words around our room and in books we have been reading. The students also played a roll and read game with a partner to practice reading many "ar" words. You may want to ask your child if they can tell you some of these words. You can ask them to tell you words that rhyme with jar, car, etc. We also call this letter combo the pirate letters since they say "Arrrrr!" :)

Here is a screenshot of the game should you want to print it/copy it onto another paper and play over the weekend.

As we continued to learn about what makes up urban, suburban, and rural communities, the students were challenged to sort pictures into each category. We learned, amongst other facts, that cities have more people and cars compared to suburban communities and that rural communities are surrounded by a lot of natural or farmed spaces and the homes are widely spread apart.

We enjoyed a visit by our school-appointed police constable, Constable Kruger - or Constable Mike, as the students called him. His wife, Mrs. Kruger, is one of our Grade 3 teachers! He spoke to the students about his role as a police officer and community helper. He talked to them about his uniform and the tools on his "just in case" tool belt. He also brought a fantastic activity for the kids to do to show how they can be great citizens and "fill other people's buckets" with kind acts. We hope to have him visit our class again before the end of the year.

We started to learn about length in Science this week as related to Properties of Matter. We did a lot of hunting in the room to find things that were shorter and longer than our arm and we began using these terms to compare classroom items. Next week, we will begin to focus on how different objects move. All of this work lends itself well to our writing and word work. We are beginning to build vocabulary!

In Math, we continued to practice identifying missing numbers in Fact Families as well as create equations with the 3 numbers of many different fact families. We also played a shapes Bingo game to review the names of all the 2D shapes.

Since we will not be at school on Thursday for our library time, we will go on Tuesday instead. Please ensure your child returns their book by that day. Thank you.

I put this blurb in last week's blog regarding Valentine's Day. In case you didn't see it, here it is again:

A note about Valentines Day 

Although we are still two weeks away from Valentines Day, I know many parents are purchasing cards for their child to give to friends at this time. As Teacher's Convention is on Feb.13 and 14th, we will pass out cards on Wednesday, Feb. 12th.

If your child would like to bring Valentines cards for their classmates, please have them sign the cards with their name only so that they can be handed out in an efficient manner. Please have your child bring a card for all their classmates as we do not want anyone to feel left out. We have 21 students (including your child) in the classroom. Please do not include any sweet treats to the cards. This is a CBE policy. Thank you for your cooperation. :)

Upcoming dates:

February 12                         Red Day - To Celebrate Valentine's Day

February 13 & 14                Teacher Convention - NO SCHOOL

February 17                         Family Day - NO SCHOOL

My apologies for this late blog post.

This week we continued to focus on letter blends. The words we worked with daily during Shared Reading were: clap, glad, black, and slip.

We read the Ukrainian folktale, The Mitten adapted by Jan Brett, this week. In the story, many animals find a cozy place to find refuge from the winter weather in a boy's lost mitten. The children were asked to pay careful attention to the sequencing of events so they could complete a retelling activity afterwards. We are beginning to focus on story structure and will continue to practice identifying beginning, middle, and end as well as characters and setting in future stories. This is all in preparation to write our own stories! 

In Math, we were learning about fact families. Fact Families can be a bit of a tricky concept for some students to grasp so we will continue to work with them using visuals and moving pieces next week. Here is an example of a fact family:

We have started to learn about communities in Social Studies. We brainstormed different communities we belong to such as, family, school, classroom, sports teams, and neighbourhood. We also started to learn about urban, suburban, and rural communities. We will delve deeper into this topic next week.

In Science, we continue to learn about the properties of matter and are learning many descriptive words to use to identify and explain objects both man-made and found in nature. Next week, we will be doing many hands-on activities to learn about length, area, and weight.

On Wednesday, we celebrated Chinese New Year with stories, art, and learning some facts about this holiday from one of our classmates. 

A note about Valentines Day 

Although, we are still two weeks away from Valentines Day, I know many parents are purchasing cards for their child to give to friends at this time. As Teacher's Convention is on Feb.13 and 14th, we will pass out cards on Wednesday, Feb. 12th.

If your child would like to bring Valentines cards for their classmates, please have them sign the cards with their name only so that they can be handed out in an efficient manner. Please have your child bring a card for all their classmates as we do not want anyone to feel left out. We have 21 students (including your child) in the classroom. Please do not include any sweet treats to the cards. This is a CBE policy. Thank you for your cooperation. :)

Upcoming dates:

February 12                         Red Day - To Celebrate Valentine's Day

February 13 & 14                Teacher Convention - NO SCHOOL

February 17                         Family Day - NO SCHOOL