Hello everyone!
The students continue to build stamina as they work and they are beginning to understand that producing work they are proud of takes time. We encourage the students not only to do their best, but to be proud of the their work. As the year progresses, we will discuss the importance of self reflection and improving their work.
You should have received a note last week regarding IXL and Raz Kids. If you have not yet logged on, please try this week so we can make sure all the usernames and passwords do indeed work. These two web resources will be the homework for grade one. Starting this week, I will be assigning weekly math practice that corresponds with our math program at school and daily reading. You can also practice snap words at home to help your child with his or her sight word recognition.
We continue to do our grade one program routine, such as our morning meeting, printing and poetry. Our daily morning meeting is where most of our learning occurs. This is where students are introduced to new strategies and concepts to apply to their reading, writing, and math skills. To give you an example, we graph the weather daily which helps students to create conclusions on the data that they read. We also compose and decompose numbers through a variety of smartboard slides. This week, we have been focusing on beginning each sentence with an uppercase letter. As the students continue to review their letter formation, this concept will also become clearer.
In math, the students have been looking at number words. We have used the vocabulary: digit, number word, and even and odd. Ask your child if she or he can explain these terms. We will continue to review these terms this week. The student have also been working on rules and responsibilities in social studies. They have been discussing the difference between rules and responsibilities found in the home, school and community and discussing how these may change over time.
We have also started asking I wonder questions. The notion behind an inquiry process is for students to ask questions and to have a voice in their learning. To begin, we have been reading a few books to pique an interest in the unknown and to ask questions that they may have already been reflecting on. This will help them get ready to use skills required for inquiry such as investigating, experimenting, and researching.
Monday, September 26, 2016
Monday, September 19, 2016
Monday, September 19th
Happy Monday everyone!
The students are beginning to understand and follow the new rules and routines of grade one. With every new class, the students need to learn what the expectations are of the classroom community. This week we focused again on our rules and routines, I have also started assessing students. Therefore, we have been reviewing letter and number formation. I have also assessed some students on their reading level. In grade one, we are not only looking at a student's fluency (the ability to read the words on the page), but also his/her comprehensions skills, such as retelling and making connections. That is, we are teaching students to read for meaning and to think about what they are reading.
This week, we started our Social Studies unit on Changing Roles and Responsibilities. This is a great opportunity to discuss, at home, the different roles each family member has and their responsibilities. We have been discussing the importance of rules and what happens when rules are broken. In math, we have been looking at numbers from 1 to 20. We are looking at recognition, the ability to print, and one to one correspondence. We have also reviewed counting by fives and tens to one hundred. Ask your child to count by tens with you the way he or she does in class. We have also started our Printing Program. Printing not only provides fine motor practice, but it also supports their letter-sound development along with building stamina to sit and work. It is important that students learn "stamina" to ensure they are able to pay attention, focus and learn. I have also introduced the different levels assessing so help with their stamina. We discussed how to create a WOW picture. Ask your child how to get a level 3 picture.
The students are beginning to understand and follow the new rules and routines of grade one. With every new class, the students need to learn what the expectations are of the classroom community. This week we focused again on our rules and routines, I have also started assessing students. Therefore, we have been reviewing letter and number formation. I have also assessed some students on their reading level. In grade one, we are not only looking at a student's fluency (the ability to read the words on the page), but also his/her comprehensions skills, such as retelling and making connections. That is, we are teaching students to read for meaning and to think about what they are reading.
This week, we started our Social Studies unit on Changing Roles and Responsibilities. This is a great opportunity to discuss, at home, the different roles each family member has and their responsibilities. We have been discussing the importance of rules and what happens when rules are broken. In math, we have been looking at numbers from 1 to 20. We are looking at recognition, the ability to print, and one to one correspondence. We have also reviewed counting by fives and tens to one hundred. Ask your child to count by tens with you the way he or she does in class. We have also started our Printing Program. Printing not only provides fine motor practice, but it also supports their letter-sound development along with building stamina to sit and work. It is important that students learn "stamina" to ensure they are able to pay attention, focus and learn. I have also introduced the different levels assessing so help with their stamina. We discussed how to create a WOW picture. Ask your child how to get a level 3 picture.
Friday, September 9, 2016
Housekeeping
1.Cross Country will begin on Tuesday, September 13th. Please bring your completed form to our first practice, if you have not yet done so.
2. Rotary Teachers
Mr. Blais for Health and Phys. Ed on Day 2 and Day 4
Mr. Lynde for Computers on Day 3 (correction as stated as Mr. Iceton)
Ms. McGee for Music on Day 1
Ms. McGee for Library on Day 5
*You can check for holidays, PA Days and Day Cycle on page 14 of your child's agenda.
3. Join us for curriculum night on Thursday, September 15th at 6:00pm in the gym (non-stage side)
2. Rotary Teachers
Mr. Blais for Health and Phys. Ed on Day 2 and Day 4
Mr. Lynde for Computers on Day 3 (correction as stated as Mr. Iceton)
Ms. McGee for Music on Day 1
Ms. McGee for Library on Day 5
*You can check for holidays, PA Days and Day Cycle on page 14 of your child's agenda.
3. Join us for curriculum night on Thursday, September 15th at 6:00pm in the gym (non-stage side)
First Week
Congratulations! We have finished the first week of grade one. This week we focused mainly on creating a safe and caring environment, as well as, practicing our routines and classroom expectations. To reinforce these concepts, we read many books that discussed empathy and respect, such as Have you Filled a Bucket TodayÉ and Chrysanthemum.
Another component that we are emphasizing in our classroom is a growth mind set. It is the idea that we are always looking to improve. We are trying to get our students to move away from ``Ì can`t`` to ``I`ll try``. We have discussed that``Mistakes are the proof that you are trying``.
We did many activities that fostered a growth mindset such as an art activity inspired by the book The Dot by Peter Reynolds and a STEM activity using the book The Most Magnificent Thing. Ask your child about these two activities.
Here is a list of some growth mindset books that we read:
The Dot
The Most Magnificent Thing
Beautiful Oops
The Girl Who Never Made Mistakes
Another component that we are emphasizing in our classroom is a growth mind set. It is the idea that we are always looking to improve. We are trying to get our students to move away from ``Ì can`t`` to ``I`ll try``. We have discussed that``Mistakes are the proof that you are trying``.
We did many activities that fostered a growth mindset such as an art activity inspired by the book The Dot by Peter Reynolds and a STEM activity using the book The Most Magnificent Thing. Ask your child about these two activities.
Here is a list of some growth mindset books that we read:
The Dot
The Most Magnificent Thing
Beautiful Oops
The Girl Who Never Made Mistakes
Thursday, September 1, 2016
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