Christmas Hampers

This week:

Monday: Star Student Bailey

Tuesday: Spelling Test

Wednesday: Chapel

Thursday:

Friday: Hamper items due

Christmas Hampers: Please bring in all items for our classroom hamper by Friday this week.  I am still looking for someone to deliver the hamper over the weekend or early next week.  If you would be able to do the delivery please let me know.  Thank you to everyone who signed up and already brought in items.

RACK: Please send in pictures/stories of RACKs. Below are the ideas for RACKing that we came up with in class.  Tanner shared a picture of him setting the table.  Another student made a card for a friend.

Science: We have been taking an in depth look at each of the Five Senses.  We have learned about hearing, sight, smell and touch.  We are working on Taste.  We have spoken about how animals use their senses.  We've also covered what happens when we are missing one of our senses.  We have discussed how our senses help us learn about good, bad, and danger around us.

Math: Have you checked out our Christmas trees in the hallway?  Each one is decorated with a different math theme to show you all the different ways we can make a number.

Mrs. McCrea has sent out the details for the upcoming Christmas festivities happening in the school over the next couple of weeks. Please go over them carefully.  If you have questions please let her or myself know.  I'm looking forward to an exciting couple of weeks!

December!

December is going to be such an exciting month!  The students are already buzzing with anticipation for the events to come this month. 

We have been learning about the Advent season in the classroom.  Each week the students will receive a colouring page with the idea that we covered for the week.  They do not need to be sent back to school, they are for you to see what they learning.

Christmas Hamper preparations are underway.  Our class will be putting together a hamper for a family.  The list will be posted/emailed shortly. 

Today we did the Reading Raffle for November home reading.  It sure was exciting!  For December students won't have an official reading log, but they are expected to read as often as possible.  We will have another incentive program for January.

RACKED - Each class in our school will be participating in a service project this year.  Our class is going to be RACKing people during the month of December.  Random Acts of Christmas Kindness is not meant to be any extra work (or cost) for you.  The students are brainstorming ways in which they can show others kindness without expecting anything in return.  They will be given a set of 12 RACK cards to use during December.  I can't wait to see what kind of stories we get as a result of this project.  I'd love to hear feedback from you as the month progresses as well.




A field trip form was sent home today for The Cat in the Hat.  If you are able to join us please let me know ASAP so I can plan out the rides.  Looking forward to it!

This week:


Monday: Star Student: Mitchell

Tuesday: Spelling Test

Wednesday: Chapel

Thursday:

Friday: Pizza Day

Last week of November

Monday: Star Student: Lucas B.

Tuesday: Spelling Test

Wednesday: Chapel, Pizza Orders Due, New spelling words go home

Thursday:

Friday:

Volunteers:  During the month of December I would love to have parent volunteers come in periodically to read Christmas books to the class.  Part of the social studies curriculum is learning about traditions, and cultural stories.  If you have a Christmas book/story that is part of your family tradition I would love it if you could come and share it with our class.  The best times to come read to the class are at 11:00 or 1:00.  Please let me know if you would be interested.

Curriculum overview:

English Language Arts: We have been really working at Story Mapping books that we have read.  We are now focusing on applying those skills to our own writing.  This week students are starting a new piece of writing that has a Christmas theme.

Math: Grade 1s have been working hard at understanding how to represent numbers 11-20.  We are working on showing those numbers in various groupings.

Math: Grade 2s have been working at estimation and counting.  They have learned and practiced how to make a good estimate and then count the group of objects using 2s, 5s, or 10s.

Science: We just began a new unit: The Five Senses.  So far we have just done an intensive look at our sense of sight.

Religion: We will begin discussing the Advent season this week.

French: We are working on our numbers up to 12.

Student Led Conferences

Well this week is definitely a full week.  Five days of school, and Student-led Conferences.  If you haven't yet scheduled your conference please do so ASAP.  The sign up sheets are posted outside of the office.  We have been working hard to put together our portfolios.  I am quite surprised by the student reflection pages, many of these students are hard on themselves and expect a lot of themselves.  I can't wait to see them working towards their goals in this next term.

Please remember to sign the report card envelope and return it to school.

This week:

Monday: Star Student - Emma

Tuesday: Spelling Test

Wednesday: Chapel

Thursday:

Friday: Scholastic Book Order Due

See you soon!

SNOW!

Snow - Please make sure you are prepared to go outside for recess everyday.  It is a good idea to have extra gloves and socks in case they get wet.  Thank you.

Star Student - Heruy

Tuesday - Spelling Test

Wednesday - Chapel

Thursday - Report Cards go home

Friday - No School

Reading Raffle - at the end of November we will be holding a Reading Raffle in our classroom.  Students get a ticket each day that they do their home reading.

Student-Led Conferences - please sign up for a conference.  The sign up sheet is outside of the office.  The students are preparing to show you their portfolios.

Last week we spent time learning about Remembrance Day.  Did you see our poppies in the hallway?

November is Here

Lots of important things are coming up real fast.  Reports will be sent home next week.  The sign up sheets for Student Led Conferences have been posted outside the office.  Please sign up for slot with your child.  They are looking forward to showing you their portfolios.  If you are unable to attend during those times please let me know as soon as possible.


Monday - Star Student - Kalea

Tuesday - Spelling Test

Wednesday - Chapel at 9am

Thursday - Remembrance Day service at 11am

Friday - No School

Huge thank you to everyone who sent in food for our Halloween party.  The kids had a blast!  Check out the Wild Thing pumpkin we came up with...

 This week we used white glue to create texture on a pumpkin.  We then traced the glue with sharpie marker, coloured with oil pastels, and did a final wash with water colour.  You may have seen our pumpkins at the fall supper.

End of October

Wow!  The last week of October is already here.  We have learned a lot so far this year, but there is still a lot of ground left to cover.

We have spent a lot of time working on Science goals.  We have focused a lot on the change in season and the way that it affects plants, animals, weather, temperature and people.   We have also been learning cycles of time; days of the week, months of the year and seasons.

Grade 1s have been working hard to represent numbers to 10 with digits, words, pictures, ten frames and tally marks.

Grade 2s have almost mastered even/odd to 100.  We have already started skip counting by 2s, 5s, and 10s starting from any point on the number line.  This is a lot easier with manipulatives.

Important Events this week:

Monday - Star Student - Rowan

Tuesday - Spelling Test

Wednesday - Costume can be brought to school to be worn in the afternoon.  A party food sign up is posted outside the classroom

Thursday - Orange Reading Log Calendar is due...a new one will be sent home

Friday -

Saturday - Fall Supper!  See you there!

In the swing of things...

I hope you had a good long weekend (if you were lucky enough to get one).  The kids had loads of great stories to share this morning.

This week will be a full regular week.  We have almost mastered the first three portions of The Daily Five; Read to Self, Read to Someone, and Work on Writing.  We will be learning how to Listen to Reading, and do Word Work in more detail over the next couple of weeks.

We also started Story Mapping this past week.  Here's a visual of some of the elements we have been working on.

In Science we are working at learning the months of the year.  Here are a couple pictures from our books.

Math lessons are going well for both grade ones and twos.  Grade 1s are focusing on learning to represent numbers with pictures, numbers and words.  Grade 2s are working with numbers to 100, with a focus on odd and even right now.

Next week is Halloween!  We will be having a Halloween party in the classroom.  Students are welcome to bring a costume along to school to wear for the school parade in the afternoon.  Please send a costume that students can easily put on themselves.  Also, please do not send masks to school, we would like to be able to see their faces.  I will put together a sign up sheet for party food/drinks and post it outside the classroom in the next couple of days.

The latest Scholastic flyer is full of Christmas Gift ideas.  If you ever place an order as a gift and need me to deliver it to you directly please just put a note with the order and I will make sure I don't put it in the hands of your child.

As always, if you have any questions or concerns please let me know!

Wild Things

We had a fabulous time at MTYP today.  We saw the play Where the Wild Things Are.  It was an interactive play where the students played the part of the Wild Things!!!  Can you figure out who each Wild Thing really is?  Look closely...

Big Thanks to everyone that drove us there today!  Your time is appreciated.

Thank you to everyone who remembered to send a booster seat.  I appreciate your diligence and attention to detail.  Everything went smoothly because of your help!

Short Week

Monday

Star Student: Kirsi

Tuesday

Field Trip: Please remember to send a booster seat if you indicated that you would be sending one
Watch for pictures of our masks on the blog this week!


Wednesday

Lulu and the Tom Cats performance at 1:30 at the school, everyone is welcome to attend.

Thursday

Last day of the school week!

Friday


No School: I will be learning about current Math trends in education

Notes Home This Week
Today you will see a number of items coming home with your child:

Reading/Writing: I have prepared a handout for you with tips for helping your child with reading/writing skills at home.  The students are familiar with the strategies and ideas suggested on these pages.  The only thing that I want to draw your attention to is the suggestion of reading for 30 minutes a day.  Thirty minutes a day should be a goal.  Not all students are ready for that amount of time.  Start with a small time fram, like 3 minutes.  Students are familiar with the concept of building reading/writing stamina.  If you have any questions about this page please let me know.  I would like to help you and your child build successful homework routines.

Volunteers: I know so many of you want to help.  I've prepared a list of the things that I could use your help with.  If you're interested sign it and send it back to school.  Thank you.

Scholastic Sea Creature Contest: Scholastic is running a contest that fits nicely together with our creative lessons on Where The Wild Things Are.  If you are interested complete the page and mail it in, or send it back to school and I will mail it in.

CLWR
This month the school is collecting notebooks for our CLWR project. 

Fall Supper
The Fall Supper is coming up!  Be sure to get your tickets, and drop off donation items in the office hallway.

Happy Thanksgiving!

God's Blessings!  I hope that your family had a chance to celebrate Thanksgiving in whatever way was meaningful to you.  We spent a fair amount of time discussing God's gifts to us this past week.  The students made turkeys and pumpkin pies to show the things they are thankful for.

 In our classroom we have a place to keep track of the objectives that we are currently working on.  I will post a pic of them periodically so that you have a snapshot of what it is we are learning and working on.  These boards do change often, sometimes daily depending on which objectives we are focusing on. 

 One of the things we have been talking about in Social Studies is the diversity in our classroom community.  We continue to work at filling each others buckets with love and respect.  Here is an artwork display that we created together to show "The colours of us", based on a childrens picture book call, The Colors of Us.

A couple more youtube videos that we have been using in the classroom:

Alphablocks!  These episodes help students learn the sounds of the alphabet, and how to put words together.  

Counting to 100.

October already?

Well it's October!  We have been learning about seasonal change in Science class.  We had a real good look at some signs of fall on our field trip last week.

 We saw garter snakes heading into the dens for the winter.

 Yes, even I held a few snakes. (P.S. If you haven't returned your photo release form to the office yet please do so.  I'd rather post pictures of the students than myself)

  We also saw a lot of Fall leaves.

I also wanted to share with you what we have been working on in Math class.  Both the grade 1s and the grade 2s are learning about Patterns.  The Grade 1s are primarily working on repeating patterns, while the Grade 2s just started working on increasing/growing patterns. 

Can you figure out the rule in each of these growing patterns?

Last week we also learned about why Terry Fox is an important Canadian figure.  All students participated in the school walk.  It was a beautiful Fall day to be out for a walk.

This coming week we will debrief our field trip, learn about Thanksgiving and wrap up the pattern units.  We will also get our spelling routines back on track.  On Tuesday students will (finally) do their first spelling test.  They will come home with list #2 as well.

Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns!