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!