Tuesday, 15 December 2015

LAST NEWS OF 2015!


Hi everyone! Thanks for checking in! 
Well time is flying as we approach our last 3 days of school before the Christmas holidays!Thank you to all the families that were able to come to our Christmas Concert last Thursday!  It was super busy but a lot of fun! Thank you for your support in making it a special event!  
This is just a post to let you know about all the happenings for the next few days! 
Because of the busy week, there will be NO more agendas coming home and they will remain at the school over the break as well. 
Monday and Wednesday in the morning, we will be carolling in the gym at 8:30am.  If you’re around MMH from 8:30-9:00(ish), feel free to join us! On Tuesday and Thursday we will be carolling at 12:30!
 On Thursday we’re having Grinch Day!  The Grade 1s will be moving around to different themed centers in the morning.  Students are invited to dress in green, or as a “Who” from “Who-Ville”.   
On Friday the entire school is going to “Dress Like Christmas”.
We’re also having our Class Party Friday morning!  Thanks to those parents who’ve signed up to bring treats that day!  
So there you have it! Our last week for 2015:
Monday December 14th- Carolling @ 8:30
Tuesday December 15th- Carolling @ 12:30
Wednesday December 16th- Carolling @8:30
Thursday December 17th Carolling @ 12:30-Grinch Day! Wear Green!
Friday December 18st-Carolling @ 8:30- Last Day for 2015! "Dress Like Christmas!"
Monday January 4th- Classes Resume
In case I don’t see you before the holidays…
Thank you for such a fantastic first four months of Grade 1! I have so enjoyed getting to know all of you and your amazing children!  Have a wonderful and Merry Christmas! Enjoy your time with your families!!

Sunday, 29 November 2015

December News 2015


Tree of Hope at LRH
Our class helped to decorate this beautiful tree of hope that is on display at the Lethbridge Regional Hospital in the main entrance. Each envelope contains a drawing that is part of a bigger class book that we created in our room modelled after a National Geographic book called A Little Peace. The kids did a beautiful job and I wish they could see the joy on the faces of the patients as they open each precious letter handmade by our little guys! I kept a black and white copy of the book in our room on the class book shelf if you ever want to take a look.


Christmas Concert
 December 10  2015  6 :30 pm. 
at
College Drive Community Church 
(children arrive at 6:05pm) 

Tickets will be coming home soon!

Dress rehearsal will be held the day of the concert in the gym at 12:30


Important Dates to Remember!


1         9:45 University of Lethbridge Theatre Presentation 
           Hot Lunch Day

8          12:30 Dress rehearsal/ Christmas Concert (grades 2, 4) 6:30pm          

2,9,16 Library Days

10        12:30 Dress rehearsal/Christmas Concert (grades 1, 2/3, 3, 5)6:30pm 

17        Grinch Day-dress up like the grinch and get ready for fun centers           

14-18    Christmas carols in the gym at 8:30am  MWF this week
            Christmas carols in the gym at 12:30 Tues/Thurs. this week

DEC 18 Last day of classes for 2015 & class party! Dismiss at 11:35

Jan.4 First day back!   



Please check the lost and found for any missing items before holidays!


Language arts
We have been learning about Bears, real bears and fictional bears for the last week or two and the kids have had fun researching bear facts and will soon be making clay bears and have just finished their 3D habitats! 

In celebration of December we will be having a fun Grinch Day on Dec. 17th where grade one students will rotate through all of the grade one teacher’s classrooms for a literacy or math activity that is related to the Grinch.  We encourage the kids to dress up on this day, wear green for sure, and maybe even try out some Cindy Loo-Who hair!

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 focusing on writing letters (to guess who?) and tracking down the adventures of our Elf on the Shelf!


Sight Words for December! 
Week One : four, get, good, have, he, L blends
Week Two: into, like, must, new, no, Digraph (sh)
Week Three: now, on, our, out, please, Digraph (th)               
                 
            
              
      Math
We have started learning to count by 5’s all the way to 100. A couple fun songs you can check out on you tube are Scratch Gardens TheCounting by 5’s song and Mr. R’s Count by 5’s song. We are just finishing up our numbers to 20 unit and will be moving into subtraction and our second mental math strategy 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.

     Science
We are kicking off our Science unit about the 5 senses with a popcorn lesson, where we use 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
In Social we are starting Looking At Our Community 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! Very soon  we will be taking a peek at Google Earth and trying to find  Mike Mountain Horse from both a bird’s eye view and a street view. The kids usually get pretty excited and will likely be asking you to find their own address!  We also focus on creating  maps of familiar places and learning to show how a map legend works and to start thinking geographically.  This unit will most likely spill over into January as well.    



Sunday, 8 November 2015

Resources For Your Child!




Thanks so much for signing up for Parent Teacher Interviews! In preparation for our goal setting time together, I've created this page of links that are free for you to access with your child for some extra practice that will feel more like fun and less like "homework"!  

Math Number Sense & Number Words
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SzfFzJGwwZQ
http://www.starfall.com/
http://www.abcya.com/
http://www.topmarks.co.uk/maths-games/3-5-years/counting
http://www.adaptedmind.com/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e0dJWfQHF8Y
http://www.fuelthebrain.com

Easy to Read Books & Vocabulary Support! 
http://tarheelreader.org/

Sight Words
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1rmYfo84hyg
http://www.starfall.com/
http://www.abcya.com
http://netrover.com/~kingskid/sightword/dolchgames.htm

Letter Sounds

Jolly Phonics and more!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Djz82FBYiug
http://www.starfall.com/
abcya.com

Blending Words 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_3uQSIrbDp0
http://www.starfall.com/

Science Colour Mixing and more!
http://peepandthebigwideworld.com/en/kids/games/10/paint-splat/
http://pbskids.org/curiousgeorge/games/mix_and_paint/mix_and_paint.html


Parent Teacher Interviews

Parent Teacher Interviews


Hello Parents/Guardians!
 Thanks so much to all of you who have already signed up for Parent Teacher interviews!
The monthly Newsletter and Calendar is posted to our website each month.  

To see the Monthly Newsletter and Calendar on our Website:  mmh.lethsd.ab.ca

Mike Mountain Horse School

Click on the green sphere that says “Parents”

Click on Newsletter

Click on “Download” for November 2015 Newsletter and Calendar

 
To have the website send the monthly Newsletter and Calendar to your email address:

Mike Mountain Horse School

Click on the green sphere that says “Parents”

Newsletter

Under “Subscribe for Updates” and under “List” click the down arrow and select “Newsletter”

Enter your email address

Click “Subscribe”

Monday, 2 November 2015

NOVEMBER NEWS 2015

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!

After Remembrance Day we will begin our themed unit on “Bears”. This theme will encompass all areas of the curriculum. We will be reading several fiction and non-fiction books and creating many fun projects about Bears.

This year I will be holding traditional Parent Teacher Interviews.  You should be able to log on to https://mikemountain.schoolsoft.ca  starting on November 4th to choose your times for Thursday Nov. 12 or Nov. 13th.  I’m looking forward to having a chance to meet with each of you and talk about your child’s progress and goals. Please check the MMH school newsletter for more information about logging on.

Important Dates To Remember!
Nov. 4 Conference Manager opens to choose interview dates
Nov. 4, 18, 25 Library Days
Nov. 3, 10, 17, 24 After school skating @Nicholas Sheran Rink 3:30-4:30
Nov. 10 Remembrance Day Assembly @10:30
Nov. 11 No School-Remembrance Day
Nov. 12 No School-Parent Teacher Interviews 8:30am-8:00pm
Nov. 13 No School-Parent Teacher Interviews 8:30-12:00
Nov. 16 Rock your Mocs Day! Spirit Assembly 12:30
Nov. 9 Report Cards come home today!
Nov. 30 Safety City Assembly 9:00-9:30 in the gym

 Sight Words
You, all, yellow, where Nov. 3
Am, are Nov. 9
At, ate, be, black, brown Nov. 16
But, came, did, do, eat Nov. 23








Wednesday, 30 September 2015

OCTOBER NEWS!

It really is October already! I am so impressed with the excellent listening skills of this grade one class! WOW! They work together so well and are fantastically kind to one another. Thank you parents for the wonderful job you have done already which truly makes my job a JOY!!! We have jumped into daily 5 and have been spending a lot of time on fluency in reading familiar non-fiction passages each day.  I know I have said this before but a really big part of Grade One is learning the many many routines needed for a successful day.  You can continue to help your child by making sure they unpack and hand in their agenda each morning and put their lunch kits on the shelf to get ready for each day. Most are already doing this, but a little reminder never hurts!  The next big focus in our room after routines is sight words and letter sounds. I cannot stress enough the importance of sight words when helping your kids learn to read. These words provide a base to draw from so that students don’t struggle to sound out every single word they encounter. 

Sight Words This Month: look, make, me, my, not, one, play red, run, said, see, the, three, to, two, up, we

Please be sure to check agendas tomorrow for a paper copy of this blog that also includes a handy calendar to keep all the important dates organized for you! There is also information coming home about our Home Reading Program!

Fire Prevention week is during the month of October and our class will be doing a variety of activities related to fire safety. Please take some time to discuss your family’s fire escape plan with your child and do the little homework project that is coming home this week in your child’s agenda!

Our Halloween parade this year falls on a Friday so students can wear simple costumes for the big parade which starts at 8:30 through the hallways with the entire school.   Please join us if you are able and don’t forget your camera!

Curriculum Focus For The Month!

Language :Fall Theme 
Review of letter sounds, introduction of word chunks or families, sight word recognition,  printing, CVC words, sayn’slide words, reading strategies 1 & 2 (Lips The Fish) Look at the first letter and predict the word, Look at the picture and predict the word. (Eagle Eye)


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 and manufactured objects
compare and contrast colours, using terms such as lighter than, darker than, more blue, brighter than
order a group of coloured objects, based on a given colour criterion
predict and describe changes in colour that result from the mixing of primary colours and from mixing a primary colour with white or with black.

Social
Belonging In A Group: 
What helps us to recognize different groups or communities (e.g., landmarks, symbols, colours, logos, clothing)? (CC) 
In what ways do we belong to more than one group or community at the same time? (CC, I) 
 In what ways do we benefit from belonging to groups and communities? (C, CC, I) 
What are our responsibilities and rights at home, at school, in groups and in communities

Health
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!

Thanks for reading all the way to the end! Whew! 



Monday, 14 September 2015

TOONIES FOR TERRY 2015



As in years past we will be collecting Toonies for Terry to support The Terry Fox Foundation. It is the foundation’s 35th year!!  Mike Mountain Horse has a goal of $3,000.00. That’s approximately two toonies/student. Thank you for helping keep Terry’s dream alive.
More information about the assembly will be coming soon.
Join us on our walk around Nicholas Sheran Lake on Friday September 25 if you can. We leave around 9:00am. Please email me at linda.payne@lethsd.ab.ca if you are able to walk with us!

Tuesday, 1 September 2015

Welcome Back!



Welcome to Grade One! Congratulations on finding my blog and if you are ever looking for more information about your child's school year, curriculum focus, routines, special events, or even just a peek a our day, this is the place to look!  Of course MMH also has it's own website which is also very helpful to find things like bell times, school calendars, and school wide newsletters. Please check them out at http://mmh.lethsd.ab.ca/

I'm looking forward to meeting all of you and getting to know the kids tomorrow! I'm sure I'm not the only one who will have a hard time sleeping tonight!  See you soon!