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!