OCTOBER NEWS!

Fire Prevention week is October 6-12 and our class will be doing a variety of activities related to the theme “Prevent Kitchen Fires!“ Please take some time to map out and discuss your family’s fire escape plan with your child. Don’t forget to return your entry form for “Fire Chief For A Day” and a chance to win a computer by October 3^rd.Our Halloween parade this year falls on a Thursday so students will need to bring simple costumes that they can change into over the lunch hour to be ready for the big parade which starts right after lunch! There will be a costume parade through the hallways with the entire school.Please join us if you are able and don’t forget your camera!

Language Arts Fall Theme

Review of letter sounds,

word chunks or families ,

sight word recognition ,

printing (directionality, magic c bunny, spacing),

 CVC words and sayn’slide words

 Choose Good Fit books

Check for understanding when reading

Cross Check :match first letter, sound right, make sense?

Small moments (true accounts) writing

 

Math Number sense to 10, making sets 5-10,

ordering (before and after),

read and write words to 10,

one more, one less,

count up and down to 20,

review of patterns, beginning addition,

subitize-knowing a number by it’s pattern ( ie. Dice) without having to count from one. We use power of ten cards and dice patterns.

Science Colour Unit:Identify colours in a variety of natural andmanufactured objects, compare and contrast colours, using terms such as lighter than, darker than, more blue, brighter than order a group of coloured objects, based ona given colour criterion, predict and describe changes in colour that result from the mixing of primary colours mixing a primary colour with white or with black.

  Social Studies Belonging In A Group: • What helps us to recognize different groups or communities (e.g., landmarks, symbols, colours, logos, clothing)?

• In what ways do we belong to more than one group or community at the same time?

• In what ways do we benefit from belonging to groups and communities?

• What are our responsibilities and rights at home, at school, in groups and in communities

 
Health Wellness (personal and safety)

describe the health benefits of physical activity

determine reasons for and apply safety rules at home and at school; e.g., demonstrate fire safety behaviours

describe and apply appropriate street safety behaviours in the community; e.g., as a pedestrian, passenger, cyclist

  Gym Games Unit to encourage cooperation and positive interactions with classmates. Game etiquette and fair play in small and large group games.

Art Reflection Unit

Creating and appreciating patterns and prints in nature

Fall theme using apples, leaves, pumpkins, and more!

Computers

We are learning to log in by ourselves with our own usernames and passwords! Getting pretty fast at it too!

One more little tidbit for you!....

　

Sight Word Games

Here are some fun sight word learning games for you to do with your child. These are words that are commonly found in reading and will strengthen your child

’s reading fluency. At this time of the year these words are meant to be recognized by sight only . After we have built up a base of 50 sight words, we will begin the process of learning to spell them. Just make the words into  flashcards and then you can start playing!Let the kids get creative making their word cards... (gel pens, glitter glue, markers, stamps, mini-stickers)! Enjoy!

Game 1-GO FISH

There are two sets of cards and all need to be cut out. Deal 5 cards to each player and turn the rest of the them upside down to form a pile in the center. Take turns asking

“do you have the word ____”. If yes, the card is given to the player, who makes a matched set and lays them down. If no, the player is told to “Go Fish”, or take a card from the pile. Play continues until all cards are gone. Winner has the most pairs.

Game Two - Memory Match

Turn all cards upside down on the table. Players take turns flipping over 2 at a time to try to make match. The idea is to use visual memory to recall where the words are located. Play continues until all cards are gone. Winner has the most pairs.

Game Three- Oh NO!

On one of the blank cards print the words OH NO! Put all the cards in a container (hat, box, pillowcase), including the OH NO card and take turns drawing them out one by one, reading the word as it is pulled out. If read correctly, player keeps the card. If not, it goes back in the box. The goal is to pull all the cards before getting the OH NO card. If the OH NO card is pulled, then all the cards go back in and you must start over. This game works best with 3 or more players.

Game Four- Old Maid!

On one of the blank cards, draw a funny character and put her in the deck with the rest of the cards. Play the game as per instructions for Go Fish. Goal is to make matches and not be the player left with the funny character (old maid) in your hand.

Game Five- Bingo

Using the bingo boards, have players write in any of the sight words wherever they wish. One player is the caller and calls out words in random order. Players colour in the space on their board if they have the word. The player with all spaces coloured first yells BINGO! Game continues until everyone gets a bingo.

Here's a list of the sight words covered up to and including the first week of October!

 

a

am

like

to

play

is

my

here

yes

no

something

at

school

the

blue

yellow

house

park

store

go

going

 

　

September News

Welcome to Grade One and to our classroom blog!  We've had a busy month with the kids getting to know each other and starting to learn the classroom routines!  They have already gotten into the habit of handing in their agendas all by themselves first thing in the morning!  This will become even more important when the home reading books start coming home in October.

 We have started diving into a program called the Daily Five and the kids have built up their reading "stamina " from 3 minutes to 12 minutes! WOW! They have learned that there are 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!  This year I'm going to teach the next lesson as a song- if you want to practise at home follow along with this link..http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vfecFjBHfc8

The lesson 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

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 27th.  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. I will be sending home some Terry Fox tatoos and name badges on Thursday night for you to do with your child in preparation for Friday's Walk. 

A HUGE thank you to everyone for returning library books on Monday. Getting to take home the school library books for a whole week is a new experience for the kids and they LOVE the excitment of checking out their new ones every Monday.  If there is ever a holiday, we will try to reschedule our library day for Tuesday or Wednesday.

Our art day is always on a Wednesday and we often choose to do our really messy, goopy, colourful projects on this day! Bearing that in mind, I will do everything possible to keep clothing clean (we do have a few art shirts available) however, you may want to avoid the "brand new" outfits on this day. Here are a couple of the beautiful fish rocks that we made a couple weeks ago to go with our story "Only One You".  The story is about a little fish Adri who goes out into the world but first gets some pretty great advice from his parents including "treasure your family and friends."  My family and I collected the rocks for this project on a hike and the kids created some incredibly unique designs....take a look!

That's about it for now! Thanks once more to all who volunteered for the many, many jobs available! You are appreciated! I will email dates/times individually for home reading and art helpers!

First Day Fame!



Photo taken from September 5, 2013 Lethbridge Herald

Welcome back to school! What a way to start the year-our first graders are already famous! Look at those adorable faces ready to dive into learning!  Hope everyone has had a good first week and please check back for more posts over the coming weeks!