Classroom Happenings

Last week was a busy one in Grade One. We celebrated the conclusion of Channukah with our Grade 7 buddies by making dreidels, we created counting by 5s flowers (which came home on Friday in the children's
home folders) and we started our unit on storybook characters who teach us real life lessons. The below photographs show the students in 1C retelling the story of Wemberly Worried using picture cues:

What a fantastic start to Grade One! We are going to have a fun year!

Teachers and parents really enjoyed looking at your 'The Best Part of Me' project!

Here are a few pictures from the project, can you guess who the pictures belong to?

Last week was a busy one in Grade One. We celebrated the conclusion of Channukah with our Grade 7 buddies by making dreidels, we created counting by 5s flowers (which came home on Friday in the children's
home folders) and we started our unit on storybook characters who teach us real life lessons. The below photographs show the students in 1C retelling the story of Wemberly Worried using picture cues:

What a fantastic start to Grade One! We are going to have a fun year!

Teachers and parents really enjoyed looking at your 'The Best Part of Me' project!

Here are a few pictures from the project, can you guess who the pictures belong to?

We're Reading For Beads and Focused on High Reading Success

According to leading literacy expert, Richard Allington's research, "extensive reading is critical to the development of reading proficiency (Krashen 2001; Stanovich, 2000). Extensive practice provides the opportunity for students to consolidate the skills and strategies teachers often work so hard to develop...By successful reading, I mean reading experiences where students perform with a high level of reading accuracy, fluency, and comprehension. When a nine-year-old misses as few as two or three words in each one hundred running words of a text, the text may be too hard for effective practice. That text may be appropriate for instructional purposes but developing readers need much more high-success reading than they need instructional difficulty reading. It is the high accuracy, fluent, and easily comprehended reading that provides the opportunities to integrate complex skills and strategies into an automatic, independent reading process".

Starting this week: during our book exchange time, the students will pick a partner to read to in an effort to maximize their reading opportunities.

 

An Art Lesson For Parents

An Art Lesson for Parents

If you have read to your child recently, draw a body; for you have begun to build a very basic part of him.

If you have read to your child about a child like himself, a neighborhood like yours, or a family like yours, put arms on the body; for you have helped your child to find a place in the world and to reach out and embrace this world.

If you and your child have used reading for a specific purpose: to look up a phone number, to read a recipe, to follow a map, to discover an advertised product, draw a head on your child's shoulder; for you have given him a key for unlocking information.

If you read to your child about something far from him, different customs, values, or environments, then put legs on him; for you have given him a way to walk into the world.

If you read a comic, a funny story, or enjoyed a poem together, you have given your child something extra that will add color to his life.

Finish your drawing by putting clothes on your child; for you have given your child warmth, color and style

You have put beauty into your child's life.

-Author Unknown

According to leading literacy expert, Richard Allington's research, "extensive reading is critical to the development of reading proficiency (Krashen 2001; Stanovich, 2000). Extensive practice provides the opportunity for students to consolidate the skills and strategies teachers often work so hard to develop...By successful reading, I mean reading experiences where students perform with a high level of reading accuracy, fluency, and comprehension. When a nine-year-old misses as few as two or three words in each one hundred running words of a text, the text may be too hard for effective practice. That text may be appropriate for instructional purposes but developing readers need much more high-success reading than they need instructional difficulty reading. It is the high accuracy, fluent, and easily comprehended reading that provides the opportunities to integrate complex skills and strategies into an automatic, independent reading process".

Starting this week: during our book exchange time, the students will pick a partner to read to in an effort to maximize their reading opportunities.

 

An Art Lesson For Parents

An Art Lesson for Parents

If you have read to your child recently, draw a body; for you have begun to build a very basic part of him.

If you have read to your child about a child like himself, a neighborhood like yours, or a family like yours, put arms on the body; for you have helped your child to find a place in the world and to reach out and embrace this world.

If you and your child have used reading for a specific purpose: to look up a phone number, to read a recipe, to follow a map, to discover an advertised product, draw a head on your child's shoulder; for you have given him a key for unlocking information.

If you read to your child about something far from him, different customs, values, or environments, then put legs on him; for you have given him a way to walk into the world.

If you read a comic, a funny story, or enjoyed a poem together, you have given your child something extra that will add color to his life.

Finish your drawing by putting clothes on your child; for you have given your child warmth, color and style

You have put beauty into your child's life.

-Author Unknown