Housekeeping Items!

Thank you for continuing to send in a FILLED water bottle to school each day.
Remember to SIGN your child's agenda each evening and remove any notes that may have been sent home.  In order to promote good personal organization and responsibility, we ask that the RED HOME-READING FOLDER and the LEVELLED BOOK remain in your child's agenda bag.  This way, when they go to do their book exchange at school, everything is where it should be!  

The Provinces (and Territories) of Canada

In order to help the children learn the names of the Provinces and Territories of Canada, we have been singing this song in class!

Snuggle Up and Read Across Canada!

Today we introduced the children to our home-school reading program. Other than practicing the weekly word wall words, daily reading and the completion of the red home reading log, is the only other regular ‘homework’ in grade one.

Each day your child will select a book from the either the yellow, blue or red bin. (Yellow being the easiest level, red being most difficult, and blue falling somewhere in between). All students have begun with books from the yellow bin until such time as we can assess their reading level. The children ARE NOT expected to be able to read their ‘snuggle up’ books independently.  Having said this, If you feel that yellow is absolutely too easy (after a few days of reading yellow books together), please jot a quick note in your child’s agenda and let us know. We value your feedback.

The students will exchange their books each day at school.  Once they have 10 entries in their reading log, they will receive a reading star and move provinces on our map of Canada.  It is up to the children to tell the teacher when they are ready to move provinces. Once they read 100 books, they will receive a Canada pin and then begin the whole journey again.      

We really hope you enjoy reading nightly with your child. It is an important way step in the development of their reading ability and special time spent together.

Week of September 25th - 28th

Thank you!

Thank you parents for coming in to meet us and visit your child's classroom. We look forward to working with you throughout the year!

Dates:

TUESDAY, SEPT. 26th  is PICTURE DAY! Wear your best smiles😊.

THURSDAY, SEPT. 28th is our first LIBRARY DAY! Look in your agendas for a note home on Monday. Every Library Day is "Bring your stuffie to school" day!

WORDS OF THE WEEK (Week 3):  This week's words will focus on the short e sound.

Words: let tell then    when     well red get   went     yes

This past week we worked really hard on patterning. We practised making patterns with our loose parts, and we learned how to name patterns (AB, ABC, AAB, ABB). We then created pom pom patterns, and pattern bracelets! Ask your child to create different types of patterns (i.e. AB, AAB). We will continue to work on patterns this week.

We are learning to read!

We learned about two strategies that help beginning readers:

Eagle Eye (Look at the pictures) “Eagle Eye has very good eyes, and he knows that you have very good eyes too. He says that when you come to a word that you don’t know, you should use your eyes to look at the picture for clues to help you figure out the word.” Look at the pictures for clues. Look at both pages. Reminder of the ‘Author’s Promise:’ that the words must match the picture. 

Lips the Fish (Get your lips ready) “Have you ever looked directly at a fish and watched their lips? What do you see?” Your child should tell you how a fish purses their lips together. “Can you squeeze your lips to look like a fish?” Tell your child…, “Lips the Fish has a strategy that will help when you come to a word you don’t know. He says we need to use our lips to say the first sound of the word and read until the end of the sentence. Sometimes, before we know it, the right word just pops out.” Use beginning sounds. Say the first few sounds of the word. Read to the end of the sentence and say it again. 

Ask your child to practice using these when reading with him/her.

TUESDAY is PICTURE DAY!

Say Cheese! This coming Tuesday, September 26th is PICTURE DAY for all staff and students!

22 Prompts to Get Your Child to Talk about Their Day!

The best way to find out about your child's day in grade 1
is to talk to them.  Below is a list of questions/prompts that may
help you get the conversation started!

1.  What was the best thing that happened at school today?   

2.  What was the worst thing that happened at school today?

3.  Tell me something that made you laugh today.

4.  Who do you like to sit beside in class? Why?

5.  Where is the coolest place at the school?

6.  Tell me a weird/new word that you heard today. 

7.  Tell me something weird/funny/kind that someone said.

8.   If I called your teacher, what would she tell me about you?

9.   How did you help somebody today?

10. How did somebody help you today?

11. Tell me one thing that you learned today.

12. When were you the happiest today?

13. When were you bored today?

14. Who is someone new you would like to play with at recess?

15. Tell me something good//funny/amazing that happened today.

16. What do you think you should do/learn more of at school?

17. What do you think you should do/learn less of at school?

18. Who in your class do you think you could be nicer to?

19. Where do you play the most at recess?

20.Who is someone funny in your class? Why is he/she so funny?

21. What was your favorite part of lunch?

22. If you got to be the teacher tomorrow, what would you do?

Week of September 18th - 22nd

Week of September 18th - 22nd

Dates to Remember:

Thursday, September 21st is Open House.

BBQ from 5-6 and classroom visits from 6-7. Come and have your child show you around our Grade 1 classroom.

Wednesday and Friday are Gym days!

Class Visits on Thursdays to Learning Commons coming soon - stay tuned!

Our Week in Review:

Last week we continued to work on establishing rules and routines in our classroom. Our read alouds are focusing on The Golden Rule, and how we can respect ourselves, others, materials and our environment (SOME). 

We started "Weekly Words". Ask your child how to read them using different voices (i.e. opera, angry...). We will be starting our 'Read Across Canada', a nightly reading incentive program September 25th.

In Math, we begun on Number (1-20) and  Patterning (repeated sequence of colour, shape, word, picture, number) through guided exploration. Some ideas to help you practice these concepts with your child:

- count by 1s to 20 using dried beans, beads or other objects of interest to your child

- conservation of number: show your child 6 objects ordered as pictured below. Which has more? Your child should count each set and determine they have the same amount.

- match the written number to the number of objects

- make a pattern with beads, colours, buttons

In Science, we have begun a Tree Inquiry and have selected two trees from our yard. We will be documenting the changes throughout the school year. We are talking about our weather and current season during Calendar time. We are also collecting items from our natural world for our Discovery Table. 

In Language, we are focusing on Oral Communication. We are learning to listen with our "Whole Body" - eyes on speaker, ears open and ready, bodies still. Ask your child one of the signals we use in Gym class to STOP (i.e. BE A TREE). We are reading our Weekly Words and identifying their common sounds. This week's words focus on the short "i" sound.

Week 2

Sound: short i

Words: is him big will it little      into      did     in

In Gym, we are focusing on following safety rules and playing games involving Space Awareness. Ask your child how to play "Party On, Party Off".

In Religion, we are learning about following the Golden Rule, and acting as Jesus would. We are learning our prayer before eating. Ask your child if they can recite it to you!

Have a great week and we look forward to seeing you on Thursday, September 21st!

'Words of the Week' Begins!

Each week the students will be given a new list of words to practise and learn (see attached list).  The words are grouped according to their common  sounds (i.e. vowel sounds, beginning blends, etc.). We will introduce the words in class and your child will write them in his/her agenda where it says 'Word List.'  From time to time, you may see 'Review Week' where the word list should be. This just means that we are taking a week off from learning new words in order to review what we have already covered.

We do ask that you review the weekly words at home with your child in order to build high frequency word recognition and overall language fluency.  We assess their recognition of the words on a monthly basis. They are NOT expected to be able to spell the words - just read and decode them. Reviewing 'Words of the Week' should fun for both you and your child.  We do not suggest spending any more that 10-15 minutes at a time practising the words/playing games with the words. We also understand how busy life can be and that it isn't always possible to practise the words each day!  You will have to work out your own system at home for supporting this important learning initiative.

Some suggested activities that you could do with your child at home are:

-write the words on a recipe card/flash card and build your set of cards
-have your child identify the beginning blends/vowel sounds in the words
-have your child orally use the words in a sentence

 

Words of the Week

Week 1

Sound: short a

Words:   a at an ran call can as was ask

Week 2

Sound: short i

Words: is him big will it little      into      did     in

Week 3

Sound: short e

Words: let tell then    when     well red get   went     yes

Week 4

Sound: short o

Words: of on not hot off top stop   upon     God

Week 5

Sound: short u

Words: jump     run     must    under cut    but    much    fun up

Week 6

Sound: sh

Words: she fish    push      wash   shop short      wish

Week 7

Sound: ch

Words: which    watch   chair     such    church    teacher     chin

Week 8

Sound: th

Words: the think there they    them thank     that    this

Week 9

Sound: ee

Words: be me we need    been tree   see keep

Week 10

Sound: er

Words: after     her every   very over   paper    under

Week 11

Sound: ar

Words: car are far hard    part   star     start     apart      art

Week 12

Sound: 3 sounds of y

Words: buy  by fly my your   you yellow story any    many

Week 13

Sound: oo

Words:    book   look    cook      good     food     soon too     took    cool

Week 14

Sound: qu

Words: quarter quick queen quilt    quiet    square

Week 15

Sound: ow, ou

Words:   around   down   out    our    found  now   how    own   grow   would

Week 16

Sound: ay, ai, a_e

Words:   play make ate    train     always     away    say    have    came    may   

Week 17

Sound: oy, oi

Words: coin boy toy point     boil     joy      choice     noise

Week 18

Sound: oe, oa, o_e, ow

Words: toe coat    boat   open    close home     low    blow     snow

Week 19

Sound: ie, igh, i_e, y

Words: like ride   fly why light    white    cry     line   tie    high

Week 20

Sound: u_e, ew, ue, ui

Words: new cube  use   fruit    blue   few    true grew

Week 21

Sound: ee, ea, y, e_e

Words: here   hear  eat read   only  easy   many happy even     mean

Week 22

Sound: long vowels review

Words: here   open    take    came gave   each     time

Week 23

Sound: er, ir, ur

Words: hurt    turn     first air girl were bird letter

EXTRA DOLCH WORDS:

Week 24

Words:   go    do    or    does    has    once    for   give    sit    am

Week 25

Words:     so    his    one   to    no    what    he    all    saw    four    two

Week 26

Words:    want     said    kind   who   got   brown    where   put   find  

Week 27

Words:   funny    if   six  please   round   cold   five   people

Week 28

Words:   goes    green   pull    done     fall    far    full   ten