Update from Ms. R

 

The homework for this week is for families to sign in to our Google Classroom and to complete and return the language and math activities. This homework is due on Sunday, October 5th.

The students are working hard at their schoolwork, but also on how to act in school, for example, remember to put up your hand to speak, write your name on all your school work, push your chair in when you get up from your desk and to wear a face mask properly (over the nose and under the chin).

Notes for parents:

1. Please send a full water bottle with your child each day. (Filling water bottles at school can happen, but can also be a sanitary issue.)

2. Please remember to SIGN and DATE your child's health screening app or sheet EACH DAY.

3. Please remember to send a book or quiet activity for your child to do after they eat lunch. We provide paper and crayons for them, but it's nice for them to have something else to do.

4. Please send a lunch container that your child can open INDEPENDENTLY. I can help your child, but each time I open a child's container, I have to wash my hands or apply hand sanitizer before AND after I open it.

5. If your child is away from school, the work that he or she missed will be sent home to be completed and returned to school.

6. If possible, please have a paper calendar at home that your child can easily see (possibly on your fridge). Calendars can be found at the dollar store. Time, as measured in days of the week and months of the year, is an abstract concept that is difficult for young children. The class is learning about the days of the week and the passage of time as measured in days and months. Having a calendar at home, is a great opportunity for your child to show what he/she knows.

7. Please ensure your child's backpack can hold your child's lunch bag and water bottle. This eliminates the carrying the lunch bag/water bottle separately.

News for September 25

 

The class was busy this first full week of school! They played math games, learned to read, understand and spell some word wall words, collected acorns, made art and much more!

Writing: The children glued photos of their Lego structures in their journals and wrote about what they made. We practised listening for the first sound in words (called the "onset" sound) and how to use this information to help read and write a word. 

Word Wall (spelling): Each day the children work on reading, understanding and spelling some high-frequency, irregular words. English has so many words that are not spelled as they are pronounced and the spelling of these words must be memorized. This week, the children practice reading, spelling and writing: the, saw, book and school (bonus). At the end of the week, these words go on the class WORD WALL, for the students to reference as needed.

Later in the week, the children counted how many acorns she/he used in his/her acorn art and then wrote about this in their journals.

Reading: The students now receive formal phonics instruction. Phonics is the matching of letters to the letter sounds. Phonics understanding is fundamental to reading and writing skills. The class is learning a program that uses American Sign Language (ASL) alphabet signs to match to the letter sounds. This week the children learned and practised the letters and sounds from A-O.

During our read aloud time, we talked about the ways to read a book. Children can "read" a book by looking at the pictures, by reading the words or by listening to books read aloud. Since this year, children cannot touch the books that I read aloud, I will list the books that I read aloud, along with videos of the books being read aloud at the end of these postings every week.

Printing: The students are practicing the correct formation and correct printing of capital letters, ("always start your letters at the top"). This instruction is integrated with the phonics lessons and the class reviewed the capital letters A-O.

Math: The children practised counting orally from 1 to 50 each day following a 100 number chart, to increase fluency and the 1:1 matching of the number words said aloud to the written numbers. We played lots of games to help the children understand the concepts of "before", "after" and "in between".  For example, "What number comes before the number 24?". The class had a chance to create little math books where the children wrote and drew representations of the numbers 1 to 10. Each child now has his/her own grade one math workbook. The students learned how to find a particular page number in the workbook. The class learned the written number words that go with the written numbers from 1 to ten, for example, 3 = three.

Oral Communication: On Monday, I introduced the "star student" program in my class. Each day a child has the chance to be the "teacher" and lead the class through the 10 minute morning message routine. This week, students volunteered but eventually everyone will have a chance to do this job. Our stars this week were: Robert, Krishna, Monet, Bradley and Owen.

Science: As we continue our understanding of living things, the class took a nature walk around the field, looking at trees, tree stumps, grasses and flowers. We wrote a letter to Mrs. Farrelly for permission to go to the front of the school to collect acorns from the oak trees there.

Visual Art: The children each have an art journal that they can use during free time when their formal lesson work is finished. The students created art sculptures using the acorns they collected, white glue, black marker and recycled cardboard boxes. At the end of the week, the students created name art using white crayon on big, black paper. This name art is now on display on each of the children's desks.

Finally, our principal, Mrs. Farrelly visited our class this week to give us a small branch from an oak tree in her backyard that still had 6 of the acorn "caps" attached, as a connection to our science unit.

Books read aloud this week:

The Incredible Book Eating Boy by Oliver Jeffers

Do Not Open This Book by Michaela Muntean

I Wish That I Had Duck Feet by Dr. Suess

Life-Size Zoo by Teruyuki Komiya

A Fly Went By by Mike McClintock

Here are the links to the read aloud videos:

The Incredible Book Eating Boy

Do Not Open This Book!

I Wish That I Had Duck Feet

Life Size Zoo

A Fly Went By

News for September 18

 

Well, we had only two days together this week but the children were very busy!

On Thursday, we spent time learning the new routines of school and the steps we all have to take to stay healthy and safe. The children were very good about keeping their masks on, washing their hands, putting on hand sanitizer, keeping distanced away from others, not sharing materials and staying at their desks. These are not easy things to do for a group of five and six year-old children...

Reading : The children reviewed "concepts of print" which involves talking about what written language is and more specifically how to read (e.g., left to right, top to bottom, use letter sounds to help decode words). During our read aloud time, we talked about the parts of a book as I read aloud the book, The Secret Life of Squirrels - Back to School. The children were introduced to Frisko the squirrel puppet, a mascot for our class. (A video of this book being read aloud can be found at the end of this posting.)

If you and your child would like to learn more about this book and its author, Nancy Rose, here is a link to her website:

http://www.secretlifeofsquirrels.com/

Writing: The students reviewed the letters of the alphabet by tracing the forms of the letters. They wrote their first stories about the animal art they created.

Math: The class reviewed the ten digits that make numbers, 0 to 9. They traced the forms of these numbers. They were introduced to a 100 chart and practiced sequential counting by ones to 50. We played a math thinking game, where the students had to determine the number between two given numbers, for example, "What is the number between 23 and 25?"

Science: We started our first research project about squirrels! I recorded the questions that the children had about squirrels, like "What do they eat?" and "Where do they live in the winter?" (We will learn the answers to these questions next week.)

The children were also challenged to make a stable structure using Lego bricks. Each child had his/her own bag of Lego bricks and the students created wonderful structures. There are parks, castles, boats and even a chocolate factory!

Gym: This year the gym teacher for our class is Ms. Francesca. The children had two outdoor gym times this week.

Visual Art: Each student chose a card with an animal puzzle on it. After colouring the animal parts, each child cut out the parts with scissors and glued the parts on construction paper to create the finished animal. Many children chose to draw a background for their animal.

Books Read Aloud this week:

The Secret Life of Squirrels - Back to School by Nancy Rose

Here is a video of this book being read aloud:

Welcome to Room 222!

 

Hello and welcome to Room 222! This year we are a group of 17 grade 1 students learning and growing together.

This year will be very different from any other school year. The COVID-19 virus pandemic has required many changes to the way teachers teach and the way the school day is organized. However, I will do my best to get your child excited about learning as we learn new skills and new information about the world.

Every Sunday I will post news and photos on this blog to show and explain to you the activities that your child did the previous week. Please check here every week and start a conversation with your child about what the class was doing in the photos.

(In the photo above, I am pictured with our new class friend, Frisko the squirrel.)