Coming Home Soon!

 Here's a few pics of the bear project we just did!
The kids were very focused and worked like crazy on these! What a great job! They will be coming home on Friday! Good work, Grade Ones!

December News!

Sight Words This Month 

 swim, run, look, said, see, on, not AND up, down, in, out

 

Word Families/Phonics 

ug (ran out of time last week!), cousin ed, old, OA sound

Language arts

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 making lists and writing letters! (to guess who?) Our focus continues to be on CAFE reading strategies and  writer's workshop! We are starting rotations where the kids get to choose either Read To Self or Work on Writing during specific time blocks!

Doubles Poem

Here's a peek at our next addition strategy: using doubles!

0+0=0 (Oh! Arms make a circle)

1+1=2 (Ewww-hold your nose)

2+2=4 (More! Hands palms up,)

3+3=6 (Kicks! Kick your leg)

4+4=8 (That's great! Pump arm up as if to cheer)

5+5=10 (Again! Both arms up in the air)

6+6=12 (Dig and delve-digging motion)

7+7=14 (Let's lean)

8+8=16 (You're keen-point with finger )

9+9=18 (Jellybeans-pretend to throw one up and eat it)

10+10=20 (That's plenty-rub tummy)

Math/Computers

We are moving into centres to practise hands on with our counting on strategy and will continue working on numbers to 20. We will soon start tackling subtraction and fact families to help children see the relationship between numbers in addition and subtraction equations.  We are also always working on counting by 2 to 20 and 5, 10 to 100 as well as  counting backwards from 20.   Check out Houghton Mifflin's site: http://www.eduplace.com/kids/mw/g_1.html#

Science/social

We really enjoyed our trip to Helen Schuler to learn more about Seasonal Changes and have started another  unit in science learning about our 5 senses-especially the sense of taste!! (thank you to my special jellybean sorter- you know who you are!) In Social we are continuing My Community, focusing on how people live, work,and play together peacefully. A big part of our discussion will center around Social Responsibility and we will embrace this concept through continuing to collect pull tabs in support of the Ronald McDonald house in Calgary and the Sock it to'em Program for Lethbridge charities.

Health/Art/Gym

In Health we will be learning about feelings and how certain emotions can make us physically tired or hot.  We also have several lessons coming up on personal wellness including more dental health and finding out how much sleep does a grade oner (and a grade one teacher) really need? In Gym we will be starting a new volleyball unit and are hoping to get some beach ball games going! When we are brave enough to go outdoors we will try our hand (or feet in this case) at snowshoeing!  In Art, once again, thanks to our art mom for a wonderful bear project! We've got some special surprises coming up--no sneek peeks this time!
 

Dates to Remember!

December
4,11,18 After school skating at Nicholas Sheran Arena (3:30-4:30)

7 SHOW AND TELL DAY

7,14,21 LIBRARY DAY (We will not be taking out books on 21st)

13 MMH Christmas Gala (6:00-8:00pm) family event

19 Dress Like Christmas assembly (8:30am)

20 Class Christmas party in afternoon

21 Last Day for classes

　

January 7, 2013 is the first day back for classes!

 

Merry Christmas!

Helen Schuler Nature Centre

What a crisp day down at the Nature Centre! The kids had fun pretending to be Chickadees and learning how people and animals adapt to weather changes in fall!  Thanks again to my caravan of drivers! You are awesome! Check out a few pics of the day!

Bear Mania!

Here are the bear masks we made in art today! A huge thanks to Mrs. Wilde, our Art mom, for planning and prepping the lesson! The kids were so proud of their creations!  They are excited to bring them home! We just need to add the ears so watch for them coming home in backpacks soon!

Report Cards Are Coming!

Thank you for so many of the yellow conference forms that I have already recieved! If you haven’t seen a Grade 1 report card, they are divided into sections. The first being Personal Growth, and then into separate subject areas. The grading scheme is different than kindergarten, and is as follows:

For Personal Growth & Effort:

V- Very Good

A- Acceptable

N- Needs improvement

For Subject Areas:

4 Excellent achievement of grade level expectations

3  Meeting grade level expectations

2 Approaching grade level expectations

1 Not meeting grade level expectations

You’ll notice that the two major areas on the report card are Language Arts and Math strands. Please keep in mind that the expectations in these subject areas change throughout the year- for example the reading level goal for June is much higher than the reading level goal in November. In Science and Social, we focus on different units throughout all reporting periods.  

Grade 1 is a big change from Kindergarten, and the  first page of the report card  focuses on Personal Growth. It’s quite the step up from half day to full day school, and each and every day we focus on things like  how to be part of our classroom "team" and  work together! All kids are learning how to be friends that support one another and solve problems.  We are helping them develop into responsible students who can make good choices for themselves in years to come.  Thanks for all you do at home to reinforce these skills! I often see examples of kindness and sharing where kids volunteer to help clean up or just offer a word of praise on a job well done. 

And speaking of wonderful citizens, there is a special day coming up on November 24th celebrating the Lethbridge Regional Police Service!

A Glimpse of Our Day!

 

What a wild and exciting day! We had the cast of batman, darth vader,zombies, princesses, tinkerbell, the green lantern and even a few ninjas in our class today! Check out all the yummy treats and fun activities we've done over the last few weeks!  The water colour bats were from one of today's centres and the lanterns (which are coming home in backpacks tonight) were an art project from last Monday! There are tea lights inside so you can put them in your window tonight! We had bat cupcakes, kitty litter (chocolate pudding!) and treat bags galore!  There were even some healthy veggies and dip and string cheese with crackers and real juice! Thanks so much for coming out to our parade and for all the time and effort that went into these goodies and costumes for the kids! I'm off to trick or treat!
 

Happy Halloween!

The big day is almost here! One more sleep until trick or treating! I can't wait to see all the costumes tomorrow! The kids are so excited to show off their spooky suits at the parade. We will be starting just after lunch around 12:30-12:40. Please feel free to come and bring your camera!

The grade one teaching team has dreamed up a super fun day of Halloween Centres where the kids get to rotate through all the classrooms and do a different activity, craft, or game with each of us "batty" girls! My centre is going to incorporate the smartboard where the kids (hold your breath) actually get to throw a KOOSH ball at an image of pumpkins in a pumpkin patch that links to a ton of fun songs, games, and learning challenges!

I am hoping to follow up the big candy night with the writing activity shown in the picture above! In Grade One, the kids get to learn how to make lists and write instructions, what better way to teach this than by telling someone how to make a witch's brew! There are picture prompts of spider webs, and bat wings, and lots of other slimy ingredients for writing success! Thanks to Shelley Gray for another fantastic activity from teachers pay teachers!

Thanks again to all the parents who are bringing special treats for our party and to those who have been helping out both in and out of the classroom!

The kids watched a really great Halloween Safety link http://www.halloweenmagazine.com/safety-game/sent to us from Mrs. Fallwell and if you get a chance, you might want to run through it one more time before you head out! Hope you all have a spooktacular night!

Stay tuned for your November Newsletter coming soon!

Word Sorts!

New for the week of September 24-28 are word sorts! The whole class will be starting with the same set of pictures/letter sounds for this first sort until everyone understands the routine and types of sorts that we will be doing each day.  Eventually the kids will be getting their own sorts based on the assessment that I've done so everyone will have specifically what they need!  My plan is to keep the same sort for 2 weeks with re-assessing done every second Friday.  Eventually I am hoping to move these sorts over to part of our Daily Five called Work on Words! Each little piece is starting to fall  into place!  I'm excited to see how the kids like their sorts and want to say a HUGE thank you to my home helpers who have been tirelessly cutting and cutting and cutting in preparation for this program!  I will keep you posted!

Our sight words for this week are red, yellow, blue, yes, no and letter sounds reviewed are m, d, g, f and if time short o/u.  The word family focus is {ap}.

Here is a quick glimpse of what's to come in science.  We are learning to extract natural colour from flower petals and then use the colour to paint a drawing of a favourite place.

In Social we have our FNMI liason Candace Bradford coming in to teach the kids about the history and meaning of the colours in the Metis sash that was worn long ago.  This ties both Science and Social curriculum together!

In Math, we continue with Number Sense and will be adding these concepts to our morning desk work books. We are learning what number comes one more or one less than a given number, how to recognize and print number words to 10, and counting and making tallies to 15.

Also, a special thanks to all those who volunteered to walk with us on the Terry Fox Walk on Friday!  The kids were soooo amazing! Everyone was full of energy and smiles, even at the very end!

Super Start-Up Week!

What an amazing first few weeks of grade one! The kids have really risen to the challenge of Daily Five and have blown me away with "Read To Self!"  They are using words and phrases like "independence", "read the whole time," and have learned 3 ways to read a book 1. read the pictures 2. read the words and 3. retell the story!  I LOVE THIS PROGRAM. What better way to become a great reader than to spend more time in the day practising!  Can't wait for the next lesson which is choosing a "Good Fit Book" using the IPICK system:

I-I choose a book
P-purpose-why do I want to read it
I-interest-does it interest me
C-comprehend-am I understanding what I read
K-know- I know most of the words

We are also diving into "Work on Writing" and the first thing the kids will learn is to focus on ideas and underline words they can't spell and keep going. (spelling will be prioritized once they've developed a base of word wall words and phonetic skills).

Amidst all of this, we are also reviewing letter sounds (ck, e, h, and r for this week), introducing 5 more sight words (play, my, here, is , the), and practising 2 word families (at) and (in). Whew!

In Science we are starting a colour unit and Math is number sense/printing 0-10 review.  Social Studies is all about friendships and rules this month and in Health we are learning about Terry Fox including the Terry Fox walk Friday September 21st.  If you would like to walk with the class, please email or send a note. A letter went home Friday with all the details of the walk. Our class buddies up with their Grade 3 (Mrs.Burke) book buddies for the hike to Nicholas Sheran!

That's about it for now! Thanks once more to all who volunteered for the many, many jobs available! You are appreciated!  Check out the pics for a sneak peak of the art project planned for September! Textured Pumpkins from the DeepSpace Sparkle site!

Cafe & Daily Five!!!

We made it back from a fabulous holiday full of boating and eating  some of the most amazing seafood dishes known to man!!! So delicious!!! During my travels I was on the hunt for 2  "teacher" books created by the now famous Two Sisters called The Daily Five & The Cafe.  I think I found the last copy not on back order anywhere in the world. I am sooooooo excited to have tracked down these books and have read them front to back many many times! I cannot wait to get started with some of these ideas in my classroom this year! Could it really be true there is a way to meet the needs of every single child, and to let them have ownership of their learning and STILL HAVE FUN!?!!?!?! I can hardly sleep thinking about the endless possibilities for my kiddos this year!  

Three Of My Favourite Sites For Kids!

Of course there are a ZILLION sites for kids but these 3 are definitely at the top of my list! The first one is starfall.com which is fantastic for kids learning to read and reading practise. There are lots of fun interactive games that the kids love.  Your kiddos my have used it in Kindergarten and will be able to navigate easily. 

My second favourite is storybird.com which really gets the kids writing because they are inspired by gorgeous artwork from zillions of artists. They get to choose their favourite pictures and then add their own text! They choose the layout and publish an actual BOOK they made themselves! You used to not be able to print these stories but now you can which is a really great feature!! You do have to sign up and get a password, etc.. but everything is totally FREE! We have done this in the computer lab and the kids LOVE it!

Last but not least for science and math is studyjams.scholastic.com which is aimed at a slightly older crowd than grade one, but they still have many primary units for our grade ones (plants, animals, ordering numbers, and more!)  I love this site because it has lots of mini movies,games, show me how features and even SONGS to get the point across.  When the little guys see the animated teenagers they are instantly hooked, who doesn't have a big brother, sister,or  cousin to look up to? Hope you have time to check these out with your sweeties!

Pictures from the Coast! Let the sun shine!


 

WOW! What a view!



Hydrangas Everywhere!



Yummy with butter! Can't wait!




Life on "The Highway"

 



























































Welcome to my new blog!

I am super excited to have created this brand new blog and can't wait to post a million things!
This will be the first of many projects and pictures all about the crazy things going on in my Grade One classroom!  Stay tuned as I learn how to manuver in this new blog location!  See you in September and Welcome to Grade One and First Grade Lemonade!  (PS-the name of the blog came from my LOVE of the drink lemonade but I also like to think that I live my life by the philosophy that when life gives you lemons--and let's face it, sometimes it really does--you can truely turn it into the sweetest and most delicious LEMONADE!  My favourite is actually PINK!