Scientists inSchool!

Thanks again to everyone who helped out! Here's a few pics for everyone!

January News 2014!

 

Welcome back! Hope you had a relaxing break with your family! Starting in January our class will begin having Show and Tell days where your child is in vited to bring one favourite toy, object, or treasure to share with the class. Sharing Day will be every Thursday and your child will be asked to give the class 3 clues about their item (for example:  what is it made of, what it’s used for, colour, size, etc.) and once it is revealed tell us one reason why the item is special to them.  Children are welcome to bring an item every Thursday if they choose or may bring them only once or twice a month. It is entirely up to your family to decide.  I will be taking marks for speaking skills after we have practised a few times and will be looking for good volume, clarity, eye contact, and if your child is able to stay on topic and answer questions from friends. It’s a great way for all of us to learn more about your child and to build confidence in their speaking skills! 

Sight Words for January

6-10	13-17	20-24	27-Feb. 31
he	away	eat	blue
she	come	please	came
we	three	be	make
was	green	me	take
will	see	saw	name

 I want to send out a huge thank you for your support and enthusiasm for our spelling program! The kids are loving it and I’m so excited to see the kids using their lists during our word work time and scoring through the roof on their spelling tests! Way to go! Keep up the amazing work!  You may have noticed that the first 5 words on your list are also our sight words for the week or previous sight words.   Now that the kids are reading these top 5 words easily, it’s great to see them jump into spelling them in their daily writing! Remember the new lists will always come home on Mondays in the green scribblers and the homework gets returned on Fridays. I’m glad many of you have had a chance to try spelling city and love to get emails of spelling homework throughout the week.

Our phonics focus for the month is long vowels, we will reinforce the difference between short and long vowel sounds and learn about Magic E at the end of words which taps the vowel and makes it say it’s long sound, as well as Two Vowels Walking, the First One Does the Talking. These can be a little tricky and the kids need lots of practise both decoding and blending for reading AND writing. We will also focus on editing skills watching for spelling, meaning, capitals, spaces, and ending punctuation! 

In Math we are diving into our next big unit which is addition and subtraction to 12. Within this unit  we will be using all kinds of tools to help the kids get a concrete grasp of how doubles and eventually doubles plus or minus one makes addition and subtraction faster and easier to solve! (ie. If 6+6=12  then 6+5=11 and 6+7=13) We will also be revisiting how to count back. Just like we learned the strategy of counting on for addition we will reinforce counting back for subtraction! (7-5=2 , we would think 7, 6, 5).  I decided to save our 2D shapes and 3D objects unit to be taught alongside our Science Building unit.  

We are finishing up the senses unit first, focusing on hearing, touch and sight over the next few weeks.  After that we will be starting a very hands on and creative Building Unit.  The children will be transforming a variety of materials into recycled treasures over the next few months! 

In Social, we are continuing our mapping unit which includes learning cardinal directions, finding Lethbridge on a map,  landmarks, and rural vs. urban communities and more!

 

Important Dates to Remember!

Jan. 6	Welcome back! First day back to school /Library Day Mondays
9	Show and tell day
10	Spelling test
15	Hot Lunch Day School Council Meeting at 6:30pm
16	Show and tell day
17	Spelling test
23	Show and tell day
24	Spelling test
30	Show and tell day
31	Spelling test

UPDATE: We have a special presentation by SCIENTISTS IN SCHOOL  on Wednesday January 29 from 12:25-3:09.  I will be looking for 4 parent volunteers who are able to come in and help out with Science centres for that whole block of time.  If you are interested please send me an email! Thanks so much! 

Christmas Party and More!

The kids have been having fun with our class "Elf" whose name is Sparky! He does all sorts of crazy things including leaving footprints all over the room! Thanks to Cara Carroll for this "Elf Is In The Building packet



Can't wait to see what Sparky will do tomorrow!



More from "Elf Is In The Building" mini writing project!



Add caption



Enjoying treats and Polar Express!

We had a super generous parent give special Christmas reindeer antlers or Santa hats to all the kids! Looks like Christmas came early this year! We must have made Santa's "nice" list! Yay!



Thanks Mom! Makes me hungry just looking at the picture!



Thanks so much for the yummy snacks! The kids loved them!

This was so delicious it was gobbled up almost before I could snap a pic!

This was part of an art project provided by another extremely generous parent! The kids got to paint real pine cones and we "tied" them in to a special project.  No peeking until Christmas!

GRINCH DAY!

Hi everyone! Just wanted to post a few quick pics for you! The kids looked amazing in their Christmas/Grinch outfits! Thanks for joining in the spirit of our day!

This is Max--the Grinch's dog who thinks he is a reindeer!

 

Grinch Mania! Who could it be?

   



 

December News

Important Dates To Remember!

 

3       Hot Lunch Day
6       First Spelling Test
9       Les Bucherons arrive at MMH
10     Last day to request extra tickets
2,9,16Library Days
12     Christmas Concert at Southminster Church
13     Les Bucherons perform and "sugar shack"
16-20 Christmas carols in the gym daily 8:30am
18      Dress like Christmas assembly 8:30
19      Class party and all books due in library
20      Last day of classes before holidays
Jan6   First day back in 2014!

Christmas Concert

December 12, 2013 6:30-7:45 pm

Christmas Concert this year will be held at Southminster Church located at 1011 4^th Ave. South (across from the Yates Memorial Centre). All the children at MMH will be working with Les Bucherons, which is an artist in residency program to create and perform a selection of songs and dances all with the theme “Vive Le Francophone Culture!”
Each family with students attending MMH will receive TWO tickets, as seating is limited at the church. (Families that require more than two tickets (i.e. a family with more than two parents involved), are asked to submit their request in writing to Mr. Bryant by Tuesday, December 10th.)
Grades K-5 performers are to arrive at Southminster between 6:00-6:15 p.m. and can be dropped off at the east side entrance (on 11th Street on the east side of the building). Students will then be taken to designated spots to get organized to perform. All “ticket holders” will then enter Southminster through the front (main) doors.
The actual performance will take place from 6:30 to 7:45 p.m.
The second option will be to join a “web cast” of the concert! No matter where you are in the world, you will be able to log on and view the concert from the comfort of your own home! Details of exactly how to join in on this web cast will follow.
As we have done in the past, we will have a silver collection to help offset rental costs. This year we are also asking each family to bring a donation of non-perishable food items that can be donated to a local food bank. These can be dropped off in the main lobby as you enter the church.

Language Arts

We have been learning about Bears and will be finishing up our mini-research projects this week followed by a Bear Fun Day where grade one students will rotate through all the grade one teacher’s classrooms for a literacy or math activity that is --you guessed it--all about bears. My centre this year will be bear math problem solving and some of the other activities include tasting favourite bear foods, reading bear sentences and colouring to show comprehension of the passage, listening to bear instructions, and much much more!
The children have been doing a wonderful job on their sight words and word families each week! Keep up the awesome home reading! This month we will be learning to make lists and to write letters! (to guess who?)

Spelling Program

Today your child is bringing home their NEW spelling program in a small green/white scribbler. Instructions are glued into the front cover, but basically there are 12 words on the list and your child has highlighted the ones that he/she is responsible for learning for the spelling test each Friday. If you have any questions please don’t hesitate to jot me a note in the agenda or send a quick email!

Sight Words For December!

Week One: said, look, see, on, not

Week Two: will, out, up, down, in

Week Three: today, day, yesterday, tomorrow, was

Math

We are moving into subtraction this month and our first mental math strategy will be counting back. Similar to counting on, except that we are going down the number line in the opposite direction! The key points for kids about this strategy are:
1. I can use counting back when I subtract 1,2,3,4 from a larger number. For example with the equation 8-3, the student begins with the “8” in their head and then counts back “7,6,5”
2. I should only use counting back when I subtract 1,2,3,4 because any higher and I might get mixed up with my counting.
I am also hoping to have time to squeeze in a fun 2D shapes/3D objects unit as well. We get to do a lot of hands on experimenting with objects in this unit, which will likely spill over into January and ties in nicely to the building unit we start in Science when we get back.

Science

We kicked off our Science unit about the 5 senses with a popcorn lesson, where we used all our senses to see, hear, smell, touch, and yes! finally taste the salty, buttery popcorn! Yum! In this unit we learn that each of our senses provides information about particular aspects of our environment; and that, together, the senses enable us to know things and do things that we would not otherwise be able to do, or at least not as easily. We will also learn about the function of our senses, how they are cared for, how they could be damaged and how one’s

own ability to sense things may differ from those of other people and other living things. Throughout the unit, we will have a chance to sharpen the use of our senses and discover “juicy” words to describe the information that our senses provide.

Social Studies

In Social we are continuing with Looking At Our World which includes distinguishing geographic features in our own community from other communities. By the end of the unit the kids should be able to identify some familiar landmarks and places in our community, and know why these landmarks and places important to Lethbridge (ie. High level bridge, Old Man River, Nikka-Yuko Japanese Gardens, Nicholas Sheran Lake). They also get to learn the differences between rural, urban, and suburban communities and will be able to find Lethbridge and Canada on a map! And if that were not enough, they also learn to use a simple map to locate specific areas within the school and community, ask for directions, and understand that globes and maps are visual representations of the world! Just the other day we took a peek at Google Earth and even found Mike Mountain Horse from both a bird’s eye view and a street view. The kids were pretty excited and will likely be asking you to find their own address! We also started creating a map of our classroom to show how a map legend works and to start thinking geographically.

A Glimpse of Our Fire Safety Day!

Thanks to the Lethbridge Fire Department for their Hazard House Presentation!

Being Fire Detectives with magnifying glasses searching for upper and lower case letters and words!

NOVEMBER NEWSLETTER AND MORE!

Thank you so much to everyone who helped organize our Halloween Party and for providing treats, creating amazing costumes, and joining us for pictures and parading! What a fun day!
Our district caretakers are hosting the annual Sock It To’ Em program from Nov. 4-Dec. 12 where we encourage students to donate a pair of new socks for families in need. We will be starting a new unit about Bears very soon! This theme will encompass all areas of the curriculum as we read and complete many projects related to bears. A fun part of our Bear Unit is the school wide Pajama Day on Nov. 14^th. The Grade One classes all get to bring their Teddy Bears on this day and will read, write, and do math with their favourite stuffy all day long! 

Parent Teacher Interviews

This year all the grade one teachers will be doing Student Lead Conferences instead of traditional Parent Teacher Interviews. Thank you for returning your preferred time choices so quickly. I have completed the schedule and slips will be coming home today with your assigned time. In this Student Lead Conference format, your child will lead you through a number of activities designed to highlight their strengths and also help set personal goals for growth. I’m looking forward to having the kids show what they know and to talk to each of you!

                                Curriculum Focus For The Month!         
          LA:Bear Theme
          Continue adding new word families each week
          Build number of words recognized by sight
          Printing (staying on the lines, words are units that must be in a        
          specific order to make sense)
          Focus on short vowels and how they glue CVC words together
          Sayn’slide words (practising the skill of sounding out)
          Review of Café reading strategies Check for Understanding and      
          introduce Cross Checking , Tune in to interesting words and back-up
          and  reread!
          Daily 5 Read to Self and Word Work continue

Math: Unit 2 Representing numbers to 20
Making sets 10-20
Ordering (before and after 10-20)
Read and write words 10-20
Count up and back to 20
Continue to subitize and learn power of 10 games
Addition to 10
Count by 2 to 20 and 1, 5, 10 to 100

Science: Seasonal Change
How people dress and activities we do in fall
Identify and describe plant & animal changes in fall
Social: My Community, My School
How do people cooperate and live together peacefully
How do groups make decisions
How do people help each other at home and school
How do our actions contribute to the well being of community

Health:Personal Health Wellness
identify the specific physical changes that occur during early childhood (losing teeth, walking, talking, growing)
Gym:Basketball Unit
Demonstrate basic movement skills while learning and participating cooperatively in the game of basketball.
Art:Composition Unit
Students will create artworks based on personal choices and show how they can contrast subject matter (bears) with the background for emphasis. They will use texture to highlight the main part of their composition. 

                              Report from School Council
FMMH Society is now applying for an application with the Lethbridge Casino. They also informed the council that the magazine fundraiser might not reach last year’s goal.
There was a Spring Dance Proposal by Shanea Nilsson for Spring of 2014.
Community Representative: School Council is seeking someone from the community to become a Community Representative for MMH. The requirement is that the Representative does not have a student that attends MMH. If anyone knows of someone that maybe interested, please let me know.
It was brought to our attentions of the overwhelming number scooters at the MMH, so the Council & FMMH Society is looking into get a scooter rack. Right now we are checking into some information of the cost, designs and who will be building it. Will keep you posted on this matter.
If there’s any questions or concerns on the following items that was mention above or if parents have any ideas or suggestions anything, please feel free to e-mail me @ dhicks30@shaw.ca.

Thank you for your time,

Deanne McDonnell – Class Rep

Spelling Program Coming Home Soon!

This month we will be starting our grade one Spelling program. More specific information will be coming home in the next few weeks along with Spelling Lists and a homework packet on Mondays. You will notice that some of these words are previous sight words and some are phonetic words. This homework has activities for you and your child to do together every night for the week and then return the sheet by Friday. One of the choices from the list is www.spellingcity.com We have been on this site together as a class and in the computer lab as well. If you want to check it out ahead of time, the game the kids really liked was Hang Mouse. Your child will be responsible for practising his/her words each week. Now that your child is reading words by sight, we challenge them to spell them correctly in everyday writing. There will be a test on Friday of these spelling words. (I’ll email the exact date of the first one!) These words also go up on the word wall so children can refer to them if they get stuck during writing. It will save them time and help them get their ideas on paper more quickly if they already know how to spell the words.

What is the Difference Between Sight Words and Spelling Words?

Sight words are words that your child needs to be able to read or recognize by sight. These are words that are not sounded out, but that the brain learns to remember by the shape and chunks in the word. Each week these words are written in agendas under Words Of The Week. We do a variety of activities to master these words including smart board interactive lessons, reading the room, Work on Words during Daily 5 time, and reading them A LOT in our everyday assignments! Spelling words are words that the kids can usually sound out phonetically. We teach them to stretch the sounds when they are writing so that they can hear and record each sound.




Sight Words for November 
Nov. 4     Dog, cat, fish, bird , do
Nov. 11  Jump, swim, fly, run, ran
Nov. 18  Orange, green, it, can
Nov. 25   Big, little, stop, what