Last week was a short week, but the students were still able to learn a new poem and make another procedure.  We created a class procedure on How to Make Hot Chocolate.  If you were wondering why your child came home with a chocolate mustache last week, you now know why.  The students also continue to practice measuring length.  We are working on the importance of taking our time to be accurate in our measurement.  The students had a scavenger hunt to find different yellow strips that they had to measure using cubelinks.  You can practice measuring at home by using other non-standard units such as, paper clips, spoons, bottle caps or anything else you can find.  This week, we will be working on choosing the appropriate unit of measure.  In Science, We have been learning about different energy sources, but took a little break from it to discuss our five senses by doing a few experiments.  We listened to sound effects to see if we could identify the sounds, smelled different scents to see if we could figure them out and even tasted without using our sense of sight. Was your child brave enough to do it? Ask to find out and see if  they remember the five senses.

Happy Monday everyone!

The students continue to work on procedural writing in our Language program.  We started the unit by doing procedures together as a class and small groups and moving towards independent work.  Last week, the students created a procedure on how to make ice-cream. Yes, the students made real ice-cream AND it was delicious.  They learned the importance in being specific in their steps.  Ask your child why they needed to be specific in our procedure on how to make ice-cream. In Math, the students continue to measurie the length of different objects using non-standard units of measure, such as their own hands and feet, cubelinks, and paper clips. We have been estimating the measurement and then finding out the actual.  A few things they have measured books, desks, their feet/arms, and name tags.

The students had a fun morning with scientist Judy for our Scientist in the School workshop on Energy last week.  It was a great kick off to our new Science unit. We have also started our new unit in Math.  The students have just started Linear Measurement.  We have discussed why measurement is important and what we need to remember when we are measuring different objects. The students will have a brief quiz on patterning this week. Please note that your child should have brought home a letter and rubric about Procedural Writing.  Please return the rubric to school with your initials/signature to show that you have read the expectations.  We will use this rubric at school to assess their writing.

This week the students have been working on procedural writing in Language.  As a class, we wrote a procedure on: How To Blow Your Nose.  The students were introduced to the words we use when writing a procedure such as first, next, then, after that, and finally.  You can have your child make procedures at home using these same starters.  Some examples could be how to set the dinner table, how to make a bed, or how to brush your teeth.  The students continue to work on patterning in math.  They have been making their own patterns using different attributes and different pattern rules.  Ask your child what type of pattern they made with their snake. We will be wrapping up our unit on patterning next week.  This week we also started our new science unit on Energy by watching movie on what energy is.  The Scientist in School will be a great kick off to the unit.  

Hello everyone,

I'm just writing our weekly update.  This week, the students have been learning their new math unit on Patterning.  Some of the key words they are currently working on are pattern rule, core, attribute, repeat, and extend.  See if your child can tell you about any of these concepts.  We will be working on these concepts for another week.  We have also started our new writing unit on Procedural Writing.  We call it the "How To" writing.  Ask your child the different ideas we generated for "How To" writing.  We are still in the very early stages of this writing unit.  The focus thus far was to introduce the topic by reading a story about a procedure and working with partners to generate some ideas on topics.  This week the students learned their new writing goals.  Ask your child for their personal writing goal that they are currently working on.  In reading, we are still working on different reading strategies, such as vowel pairs and sound blends.  Try looking for some of these when reading the Snuggle Up books. This week we also finished our science unit on Daily and Seasonal Cycles.  We will start our new unit on Energy next week.

Happy Halloween!  It has been an exciting week getting ready for Halloween.  The students had a great time making crafts with the parent volunteers.  Thanks again to the parents that volunteered to make the crafts! The students also had their spelling test and math test on Data Management this week.  Congratulations 1A for working so hard.  Since it was Halloween week, it was a great opportunity to discuss the importance of safety and tie in Media Literacy.  We discussed different types of media and how they contain messages.  We then watched a brief video on what Media Literacy is and then went on a walk to find different "media" forms with messages.  Ask your child what we found or click on the video: Media Literacy Video to learn about media literacy. The students made posters about safety tips on Halloween night.  Ask your child for their safety tip.   Also this week, the students wrote Halloween stories.  We discussed how every story must have a problem and a resolution.  The students were very excited to write their stories. Don't forget to read your child's new poem for the week.  Have a fun and safe Halloween!

Dear parents,

It has been a productive week!  We finished our printing program, finished learning about our first artist Piet Mondrian, and finished our first unit in Math: Data Management.  WOW! Some of the key vocabulary the students learned in Data Management were: survey, tally marks, categories, conclusion, title, bar graph, pictograph, data, and key.  The students will be given a brief assessment next week on Data Management.  Please make sure to use IXL to practice and review the concepts we learned.  On Monday, we will learn our new math unit: Patterning.  We have also started our Spelling Program.  The students practice their words by doing different spelling activities and at the end of the week, they have a spelling test.  In Social Studies, we have been learning about the different rules and responsibilities we have in school and at home.  We will continue to look at this for the next few weeks.  As part of our Language Program, the students looked at action words in their poem and vowel pairs (ea, ee, ai, ay, oa, ie) in the morning message.  Ask your child why these vowel pairs are important.  You can also look at the video if they don't remember why.

VOWEL PAIRS VIDEO

Time flies when it is a short week.  The students continue to work on a letter each day and consolidate what they have learned in data management (graphing).  We have made graphs about favourite fruit, season, pet, and even favourite Mondrian painting.  Ask your child which is their favourite art piece.  We have been making Mondrian inspired artwork to learn about the primary colours.  As part of our reading program, the students are beginning to identify the story elements such as characters, setting, conflict, and resolution.  We will be practicing this often throughout the year.

Hello everyone,  

As for an update this week, much of it has been our regular routine with printing and the morning meeting.  We also continue to work on Data Management in Math and The Seasons in Science. In Math, the students are surveying their friends and recording the data using tally marks.  Ask your child when to draw the line diagonally for tally marks. They then use this data to create bar graphs.  Ask your child if they can remember the different parts to a graph.  In Science, the students worked in groups to discuss different activities, clothes, and signs for the four seasons.  We also discussed the months, weather and holidays associated with each season.  We will look further intro these concepts next week. 

*Your child should be bringing home his/her poetry book every Friday to read with you.  Each week we look at a new poem and learn new reading strategies.  This week, we looked at words that rhyme and plural words.  Ask your child about the words they circle and the follow up activities that correspond with each poem. Please remember to bring the poetry book back on Mondays, so we can learn our next poem.

I hope everyone enjoys the long weekend and has a wonderful Thanksgiving.

Friday, October 3, 2014.

Can you believe it’s already October? As we move into October, the students continue to practice the rules and routines of Grade 1 while learning to build their stamina for reading, writing, and math.  This week, we have been working on printing during our Language periods.  We have been discussing the importance of detail, creating a picture in your head, and taking time with work.  As for Language concepts, we are focusing on uppercase and lowercase letters during our morning meeting and poetry periods, as well as, making sure to use punctuation at the end of sentences.  We also can't forget about those finger spaces! In Math, the students have been surveying their friends, collecting data, and recording the data into graphs.  Ask your child some of the graphs they have completed in our class book and what they learned from these particular graphs.  This will be the focus in math for October.  We have also been working on the seasons for Science. 

Don’t forget that students can utilize IXL to reinforce math skills and Raz-Kids for reading.  I have assigned A.1 and A.2 on IXL and students should be reading every night (Snuggle Up or Raz Kids).  Please ask your child to retell the story as this is the most important part to reading and understanding stories.  Reading is thinking!

Friday, September 26, 2014.

Happy Friday everyone!  It looks like it is going to be a beautiful weekend.  I hope you all enjoy the weather...however, if you could please make time to go through Raz - Kids and IXL A.1 if you haven't already done so. The students will also be bringing home their poetry books. Their new poem is about the months of the year.  We discussed the use of upper case letters for the names of the months and we looked at the ending "er".  We are trying to get the students to understand that vowels need to be in words.

In our morning messages, we have been looking at using upper case letters at the beginning of sentences and using periods at the end of sentences.  We have also emphasized putting 'finger' spaces between words so we can read it and it makes sense. Pinpoint some of these concepts when reading with your child. You can count the words in each sentence and asking them how they know, look at how many sentences are on a page or in a book and how they know that as well.

We continue to work on our printing.  We have now looked at all of the vowels, which is useful as we can begin to play arrange the letters that we have printed to create words.  It is a great strategy to get students to sound out words and stretch the words when reading.  We will continue to do a letter each day until we complete the alphabet.  This work has helped them create stamina for working at their desks.  

In math, the students have made many hands-on graphs.  For example, everyone in the class took of a shoe and we had to organize them into three groups and then graph the results.  Ask your child, which type of shoe the students in Ms. Kim's class wore the most.  We will continue with graphing for the next few weeks.  They are learning to label the graph, collect data, read graphs, and make conclusions.

We have been looking at the different signs for each season.  We have played many games to help us categorize different signs and events in each season.  We discussed colours we would see in different seasons, what trees look like in each season, and activities we would do.

Friday, September 19th

The students continue to work on printing their letters each day.  You can help your child practice the letters at home and make words using the letters that we have learned thus far.  We have looked at the letters Cc, Oo, Ss, Tt, Vv,Ww, Aa, Dd, Gg, and Uu.  You can also review when we use upper and lowercase letters and what sounds they make and how to properly form the letters.  We also learned a new poem this week about colours.  Please make sure your child reviews their poems at home.  We will be working on colours words next week as well.  As for Math, the students have started Data Management (Graphing).  We have made many graphs together as a class.  Ask your child what some of those graphs were about (number of letters in our first name, favourite colour, and favourite animal).  We also introduced our new Science unit: Daily and Seasonal cycles.  We discussed what the four seasons are and what clues tell us it is that season.  Ask your child for some of those clues.    

IXL:

Your child should have received their username and password for IXL.  I have already assigned A.1 for homework.  Your child may be eager to work ahead or go on other sections.  I don’t mind if they do this.  I only assign particular sections to practice the concepts that we are learning at school to reinforce learning.   

Ms. Lee:

We will have a student teacher starting on Monday.  She will be here everyday from 8:45 - 11:30 until the end of January.  The students are very excited!

Friday, September 12th

Happy Friday everyone,

This week the students have been reviewing some letters and numbers.  We are currently working on printing our letters both in uppercase and lowercase.  We have also been practicing our numbers by counting to 100 by ones, fives, and tens.  In addition, the students have been practicing how to spell the number words.  These concepts have also been reinforced in our morning message.  Each day, the students will be looking at a message that needs to be edited.  This week, we have been looking at using uppercase and lowercase letters, number words, the date, and the vowel pair "ee".  As stated in previous posts, the month of September is a time for review and to ensure the rules and routines are in place.  This week, we introduced a new routine in the morning called Bell Work. Ask your child what they are to do during this time.  Your children will be coming home with their poetry book today with two new poems to read and enjoy.  Don't forget to bring back the duotang on Monday.  I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend.

Wheels in Motion

Hello everyone,

Congratulations, we are into our second week of school.  I'm sure there have been many different emotions for both the students and the parents.  Just keep in mind that it is a difficult transition into grade one as the children are getting used to going to school all day.  Yes, I have had many students reach for their backpacks at lunch :) However, they are quickly making new friends and learning the routines of the class.  Learning the rules and routines of grade one is probably the single most important concept for students to learn.  Well established rules and routines make the entire school year run smoothly.  Therefore, we will be working on these rules and routines for the month of September.  Additionally, we will be using the month of September to review concepts the students learned in Kindergarten and taking the time to assess where the students are in academic areas, such as reading, writing, and math.  I will keep you posted on what is going on in the classroom, so please make sure to check the blog often.

Terry Fox Walk

Our Terry Fox Walk is fast approaching.  We are having a few fundraising events this week and next.  Lemonade will be sold on Wednesday, September 10th and Wednesday, September 17th at lunch and there will be a shoe sale on Friday, September 12th and Friday, September 19th at lunch. On the day of our walk: September 24th; lemonade and shoe sales will follow the event.  I hope to see you there.

*FYI: We will be walking rain or shine.  We will only change the date to the following day if there is thunder/lightning.

Welcome!

Hello everyone,

I hope you all had a wonderful summer and are ready for a new school year.  I have been busy planning a fun year, and I am looking forward to sharing it with all of you.  I will see you on the first day of school: Tuesday, September 2, 2014.  See you then!

It is a short week this week therefore, the students will not have spelling words this week.  I have been emphasizing in class the importance in reading every night as the number of students exchanging snuggle up books and logging onto Raz Kids has decreased.  As a result, the students made paper cubes that had different questions they could answer after they read their books.  We discussed in the class that reading is thinking and that we read for meaning.  Many of the students are learning that reading is not just about being able to read the words on the page, but being able to retell the story and make connections.  Once the students finish their cubes, they will bring them home to use after reading each book.  We also had a smart board lesson on Fractions today.  We reviewed the vocabulary words: numerator and denominator and drew pictures of different fractions.  Ask your child if a fraction is bigger or smaller than one whole.  

The students have been working on their new Language unit: Non-Fiction.  To start, they have been looking at different text features found in non-fiction books.  If you have any non-fiction books at home, see if your child can identify some of the features.  They are learning that we read non-fiction writing differently than fiction stories.  Ask your child why we read non-fiction books.  Today, they looked through magazines to look for text features and cut and pasted the text features they found.  We will continue to look at text features before they start responding to non-fiction books and writing their own non-fiction reports.  We have also started a new Math unit: Fractions.  Today, we looked at what the denominator and numerator represent.  Ask your child what a half, quarter, or third means.

I can't believe it's already the month of May.  During the month of May, the students will be working on non-fiction writing pieces.  We have just started this unit by discussing some of the features in non-fiction writing.  Ask your child to tell you a few of them.  We will be looking at different text features for the rest of this week, which will then be followed by non-fiction writing.  As for math, the students are adding and subtracting money.  We will be doing this the for the rest of the week and then by next week, we should be learning about fractions.  The grade one students are working on Energy in science.  They have finished their "Saving Energy" posters and will begin to create an energy saving device.  The grade two students are still conducting experiments on both air and water in science class.

The students will be starting non-fiction writing this week.  We will begin by looking at different text features found in non-fiction books followed by writing non-fiction (research) writing pieces.  You can included non-fiction reading into your snuggle up time at home to help introduce the features of non-fiction.  In Math, we are working on Money.  We are identifying the different coins and how to count money in different ways, such as showing 25 cents in three different ways.  We will then slowly start making change.  You can help at home by counting by fives and tens. As for Science, the grade one students are looking at the use of electricity as an energy source. They are looking at how much we use electricity and how we can minimize the use. The grade two students continue to work on the unit: Air and Water.

I hope everyone enjoyed the Easter holiday.  The students started a new recount today about their weekend.  They only had time to start their brainstorming web.  Ask your child, what they have to remember what to put into their recounts.  As for Math, we started our new unit today, which is money.  Today, we discussed how to identify all of the coins, the names and the denominations.  We listened to a song about coins to help us with the symbols on the coins.  Do you know the different symbols?

The grade one students are working on their energy unit in Science.  Today they finished their energy chains.  The grade two students are learning about air with Mrs. Wilson.

The students have been working diligently on their recounts in Language.  Ask your child what a level 3 recount needs.  The students will work on recounts until the end of April.  We are also wrapping up with Symmetry in Math.  They have been making symmetrical art pieces, such as butterflies and mosaic tiles. This will be the last week for the unit.  Our next unit in Math will be money.  Get going on this unit by reviewing the different types of coins and how much they are worth.  The grade one students are looking at the different forms of energy in Science.  We will then discuss the importance of conserving energy and how to help the environment.

The students have been working hard on their recounts.  Each week they are completing a  rough draft involving their weekend.  They are organizing their recounts to ensure each writing piece includes the 5Ws and having an opening and closing sentence.  Ask your child the type of sentence he/she should end their recounts with.  As for math, the students are learning about symmetry.  Ask your child about the line of symmetry.  We have just started the unit, so they are exploring different objects that are symmetrical.

The grade one students started their new science unit: Energy.  We have started to discuss the different sources of energy and what energy is.  We are still in the very early stages of this unit as the students are trying to figure out what an energy source is.

Happy Monday everyone,

Not much has changed in our Language program.  We are still working on Recounts for our writing unit and working on Reading Responses.  When you are reading stories at home with your child, discuss the different story elements such as the setting, characters, problem and solution.  You can even ask them to give you a retell of the story.  The students have started their new unit in Math: Probability.  The students are already experts in the topic.  They are learning the vocabulary associated with Probability, such as certain, likely, unlikely, and impossible.  Give them examples of each and see if they can figure it out.  A couple of examples I used in class were: Ms. Kim will give you an extended recess and we will have Math tomorrow. One activity the students have been very excited about are their Picasso drawings. They are almost complete! The grade one students are tweaking their community by making road signs and greenery.  Once they have finished their final touches, we will begin mapping the community.

The students are learning about Pablo Picasso in art.  Today, they were introduced to some of his pieces and had the opportunity to create their own inspired pieces on a website.  They enjoyed it so much that I told them I would put the site on the blog.  Please click on the link to have your child create Picasso inspired pieces at home.    Click Here

Welcome back from March Break! I'm sure we are all excited to be back into our regular routine.  The students worked on recounts in writing by retelling their adventures during the March Break.  Ask your child what they decided to write about.  We discussed the importance in choosing one event to write about and then adding supporting details regarding that one event.  We will continue to work on these writing pieces for the next few days.  As for math, the students reviewed area by creating robots using grid paper.  They then had to count the area of different parts of their robots.  There will be a test on Linear Measurement on Friday.  The grade one students are responsible for Length and Area using non-standard measurements and the grade two students are responsible for Length, Area, and Perimeter using standard measurements.
The grade one students are still working on their structures for their community in Social Studies.  We have briefly started mapping by discussing the different cardinal directions (North, East, South, and West).  Ask your child how they can remember the directions.

The students have been working on their recounts last week and this week.  We are at the stage of proofreading and editing them.  In Math, the grade one students learned how to measure things when it is not a perfect line.  Ask your child what strategy they can use.  The grade two students worked with metre sticks.  Ask your child to order from smallest to largest the units millimetre, centimetre, and metre.  If you want to challenge your child ask your child how many millimetre in one centimetre or how many centimetres in a metre.  Our next concpet in Measurement will be Area for both the grade one and two students and the grade two students will also learn about perimeter.

The grade one students are creating structures of the local community.  Ask your child what important structure they are creating for our community and which community helper may be associated with that structure.

We have been reading a few stories the last few days to help us understand recounts and personal narratives.  We have been reading each story and trying to figure out why it is a good example of a recount and personal narrative.  The students have chosen one "moment" that they will be writing about tomorrow.  They had to brainstorm different ideas about their moment, such as what they saw, how they felt, and even what they might have heard.  Talk at home with your child about the moment they chose to give them some ideas to write about.  We also had the opportunity to measure different objects in the classroom using different units of measure.  Ask your child what they have to remember when measuring different objects.

It was the 100th day of school today!  The students had a great time counting to 100 by making 100th day hats and playing the math game race to 100.  They also made pictures using the number 100.  Ask your child what they made out of the number 100.  Even for our bell work today, the students had to write 100 words! A favourite activity for the 100th day of school is the Fruit Loop Necklace.  Yes, they made those as well!  We had a exciting day.  We will continue with our regular program tomorrow.  We will start linear measurement in Math (measuring length) and write recounts for our writers' workshop.  We have been writing recounts every Monday with On the weekend I... however, we will look at the different criteria for recounts.  We will also being our guided reading groups next week.  In Social Studies, the grade one students are learning about different community helpers and the grade two students are learning about Lunar New Year.

Valentine's Day is this Friday, so the students may bring Valentine's Day cards to hand out to the students.  If your child does decide to hand out cards, please ensure he/she gives a card to each student in the class.

The students have been working on their Flat Stanley letters this week.  Most students have completed their final copies.  We will be addressing the envelopes soon and then mailing them off! YAY!  We have also started our new Math unit this week on Measurement.  We have started with measuring the temperature.  The students have been able to identify different temperatures and the appropriate clothing to wear at these specific temperatures.  During learning buddies, the grade five students helped our class create a paper thermometer.  The grade one students had Social Studies today and learned about different community helpers. Ask your child some of the helpers we discussed in class today.

We have started our Flat Stanley Project.  Last week we read the story and coloured our Flat Stanleys.  Today, we started the rough draft of our letters.  Ask your child some of the ideas they have to include in the body of their letters.  In Math, we are just wrapping up our unit on two dimensional and three dimensional shapes and figures.  We will start our new unit this week on Measurement.  Make sure your child knows the number of vertices, faces, edges/sides for each shape and figure.  This afternoon, the students were working in groups to perform skits.  They are learning to stay in character.

The students finished writing their letters to either Chester or David today.  Ask your child who Chester and David are.  We also worked on two dimensional shapes in Math.  The grade one students went on a shape hunt around the classroom looking for rectangles, squares, triangles, pentagons, hexagons, and octagons. You can do this at home as well.  The grade two students worked on word problems.  They had to come up with different combinations of two dimensional shapes based on the number of vertices.  Ask your child what their combination was.

The grade one students started a new Science unit on objects and materials.  Today, they "investigated" five different materials.  Ask your child what they did and what they learned.

Happy New Year everyone!

I hope everyone has had a fantastic start to the new year. I sincerely wish all the best to all in 2014.  I would like to start off by saying how much I appreciate the wonderful class gift that everyone contributed to.  It was very generous and thoughtful.  I would like to thank all of the parents that have volunteered in the class.  You have made a difference to all the students in the class.  THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!

As for the first day back, the students wrote a letter to the Vice Principal to review the parts of a letter.  We will continue writing letters until the end of January.  We  also reviewed our addition strategies in Math. Today, we looked at anchoring numbers to the number 10.  That is, 4 is 6 less than 10 or 8 is 2 less than 10. In the afternoon, the grade two students had Science with Mrs. Wilson and the grade one students discussed animal adaptations.  The students then had Computers and Learning Buddies.