Newsletters

                                                                                                  June 3,  2014

Dear Parents,

I can hardly believe that the end of the school year is just weeks away! What a pleasure it has been to teach your children and to work alongside you. I hope you will enjoy reading the final newsletter for this year.

In Language Arts, we are working on practicing our printing and we have a few more letters from the alphabet to explore. It’s quite amazing to see how far the students have come in their printing skills since the start of the school year. In phonics, we finished learning about beginning and ending blends and we are now looking at special vowel combinations (diphthongs) such as (ea, ow, ou, oo, au, aw) and the irregular sounds they sometimes make. Our phonics unit will end with a look at beginning digraphs (i.e., words that contain sh, th, ch, wh). We have also been exploring plural endings. Our long awaited unit entitled “Stories From Around the World” has commenced. We will be ‘traveling’ to places such as Cambodia, Holland and India. On our journey we will investigate the common elements that all stories share. The students are coming to understand that all stories share common elements (such as characters, setting, problem, solution, moral) and that no matter where in the world, or from which tradition these stories emanate, we as the readers, can identify with them because of these very characteristics. Each time we “visit” a new country, we will plot our course on the large world map in our classroom and after hearing a story, the students will be required to respond in writing to what they have heard. However, there is a catch. They are required to respond in a different way each time they hear a story which acts as a way of encouraging them to appreciate all the elements that make up story writing. Each student chooses a different sentence starter and a different element to examine each time they respond in writing. Working on reading comprehension activities as well as creative writing exercises continue to be areas that we focus on in Language Arts. Recently we also began looking at singular and plural concepts and the students have grasped the grammar rules associated with pluralizing words correctly. I am so proud of how far each student has come since the beginning of Grade One. As the year draws to a close, I still have a number of students who continue to be extremely motivated to earn beads on our ‘read for beads’ chart. I appeal to you to foster this motivation during the summer by reading on a nightly basis with your child. Practicing reading regularly during the summer months can only serve to improve overall fluency and comprehension and will prepare your child well for the start of Grade 2.

MATH: Most recently, we have been learning about Measurement. Areas we’ve worked on include measurement in terms of length and width, measurement in terms of weight, measurement in terms of capacity and most recently, measurement in terms of time and temperature. Instruction in measurement gives children practical applications for the other mathematical skills they are learning. They have been given opportunities to explore their world by measuring and estimating the size of both real and imagined objects. They have also been learning to compare the relative sizes of non-standard units by measuring the same object using different units of measurement. Understanding that 100 centimetres = 1 metre has also been a feature of our recent learning and the children are beginning to feel comfortable using rulers and tape measures to measure objects. With their Grade 7 buddy, the students measured objects in the classroom as well as various body parts for comparison. Fun was had by all. We have also devoted time in math to learning subtraction facts and strategies. Earlier in the year, the students learned to employ counting back strategies to subtract but we are now taking a look at strategies that involve learning to compute problems more efficiently such as: getting to zero, one less, two less, subtracting neighbours etc. Learning subtraction facts will allow the students to compute subtraction problems with a greater sense of ease and speed as counting back can be labour intensive. Subtraction can be thought of in two ways. First, subtraction is a process of removal (i.e., I had 7 marbles and I took away 3, which left me with 4). However, subtraction should also be seen as a process of comparison (e.g., if I have 7 blocks standing next to 8 blocks, by way of comparison, they are just 1 away from each other). We will continue with our subtraction strategies until the end of the school year but we are also going  looking at  addition containing 3 addends (e.g., 3+5+2 = 10). The students will be revisiting various strategies they learned last term which must be employed when calculating more complex addition equations. For example, they will learn to first determine the presence of any doubles within the question (i.e., 5+5+4). Last term the students learned very catchy mnemonics to help them remember their doubles facts, particularly for the higher doubles facts. They are as follows: 6 + 6 is batmitzvah 12, 7+7 is grade nine 14, 8+8 is sweet 16, 9+9 is car 18 and 10 + 10 is fingers and toes 20. These doubles are easy to calculate and once this part of the problem has been computed, the children have been learning to “count on” without using manipulatives. If they know that 5+5 = 10, then completing the rest of the problem is easier (10+4=14). We will also explore strategies that involve tackling the biggest number first as well as grouping numbers to simplify the calculation. Engaging the students in dice games as a way of improving the speed at which they compute addition with three addends will form part of our study. In pairs they take turns rolling three dice at once. They add the dice up and are then required to record their answers graphically. Thus far, I have been impressed with the children’s abilities and the confidence they’ve shown in moving away from using concrete manipulatives.

We have almost finished our unit on Spiders in Science and the students thoroughly enjoyed learning about the adaptations made by these amazing arachnids. The most exciting part of this unit involved learning about the crafty and resourceful hunting spiders who employ incredible strategies to catch their prey. The students learned to distinguish between insects and arachnids and they learned the difference between web-weaving vs. hunting spiders. Each student has created his or her very own anatomically accurate spider. These spiders can be seen in our classroom. Overall, I feel we’ve really come to understand how valuable spiders can be in terms of keeping the insect population at bay (phew) and how incredibly smart and adaptable these creatures are. Our final Science unit will focus on Plants and how these living things survive and grow. We will be planting beans to grow in our classroom and with a number of in-class experiments, which focus on how plants get the nutrients they need to grow, the students will learn that all living things depend on certain environmental requirements for survival.

Our recent visit to Aldor Acres Dairy Farm helped solidify some of the information that the students had learned in class with regard to the needs of living things. A few highlights of the trip included being able to milk a cow, having some delicious chocolate milk and seeing the baby kitten.

In Social Studies, we are learning about Canada. The students know that Canada is made up of 10 provinces and 3 territories and many are able to name some of them by heart. We’re learning to distinguish between our province’s capital (Victoria) and the country’s capital, (Ottawa). Moreover, the students are learning about the RCMP, the First Nations People and the pioneers and they can already name many common Canadian animals and symbols. During our unit, the students have learned about all things Canadian and soon they will be using that knowledge to design their own personal Canadian stamp. They will be required to design a stamp that incorporates symbols of Canada so as to represent the country appropriately and as a way to showcase what they have learned throughout the unit. A unit test will serve as a conclusion to our unit on Canada.

 Reminders:

o   Wednesday June 4^th and Thursday June 5^th – Shavuot – no sessions.

o   Friday June 6^th –Sports Day-students are to come to school in their house colours. A list of house colours for each student is displayed outside your child’s homeroom class. There will be full day of school on Sports Day. Regular classes will be held in the morning and Sports Day will take place in the afternoon.

o   June 13^th: our Buddy picnic will take place at Braemar Park (weather permitting). The grade 7s will present their grade 1 buddy with a self-authored book featuring the grade 1 student as the main character…shhhhh –this is a surprise.

o   Our Year-end field trip will take place on Friday, June 20^th at Queen’s Park Arenex in New Westminster. It promises to be a fun-filled day and a time for us to spend one last fun day together before the year is over. More info and volunteer opportunities to follow.

o   Due to warmer weather, children are no longer required to wear the grey vest or sweater as part of their uniform. Should they want to however, they are of course allowed to wear either. Notwithstanding, during the day, children are removing their sweaters/vests, and some of these items get left lying around. In order to avoid lost items, please ensure that your child’s name is clearly inscribed on the label.

o   If anyone has kept the booklets we have worked on throughout the course of the year and is willing to part with them so as to provide me with sample student work, please feel free to donate these completed booklets to your child’s teacher at any time.

o   Please note: any students with summer birthdays WILL have their birthdays recognized and celebrated on the last day of school.

As the time for saying farewell approaches FAST, I am filled with emotion and pride at the wonderful progress and growth each child has made.

Warmest regards,

Ms. Cross

 




March Newsletter

                                                                                                           April 1^st, 2014

Dear Parents,

The end of the school year is fast approaching and as usual the Grade 1C classroom has been a very busy place, where hard work and a fervent commitment to learning continue to prevail. I am constantly fascinated by the rate at which the children learn. They show such a willingness to learn new concepts and despite the fact that the general studies program is condensed into a half day, the students continue to absorb and retain so much of the information they learn. I am, as always, so proud of their achievements!

In Language Arts, aside from the weekly constants (word families, printing, spelling and journal writing) we have just finished working on our Kevin Henkes unit. The students learned many wonderful morals and came to understand that characters teach us real life lessons. The Grade Ones have recently been engaged in creative writing activities. We have focused on including characters, a problem and a solution in our stories. The culmination of this is exemplified in the wonderful sticker stories which are on display outside our classroom. The students had to choose 3 stickers and then compose an imaginative story in which they incorporated and linked their characters. Moreover the students had to create a problem for their characters and then provide a reasonable solution at the end. Sequencing. The students are about to start learning to use time-order words such as first, next, then and last to summarize and then retell a story in correct sequence. As a culminating task, they will use pictures only to write an original story in correct sequence with their Grade 7 buddy. In phonics, we have exploring beginning consonant blends and as we move into term 3 we will tackle ending blends, finally ending the year with a review of all concepts we’ve learned this year. The students will also learn how to tackle dipthongs which are words that contain special vowel combinations, including “Y” as a vowel and digraphs, such as ch, th, sh and wh. In terms of grammar, we will also be exploring singular and plural and other parts of speech. Reading comprehension activities, punctuation and capitalization activities and buddy reading continue to be features of the Language Arts curriculum as well.

In Math, we completed our geometry unit in which we examined both 2D figures and 3D solids, their attributes and properties. We have also been working on Addition and Subtraction to 18 as the students practice using the “counting on” and “counting back” strategies they’ve been introduced to. Employing their mental math short cuts (doubles, near doubles, Mr. 9, using 10 and partners of 10) has also formed part of our daily practice. Please practice all addition and related subtraction doubles with your children at every opportunity (e.g., 5 +5=10, 6+6=12 etc). Knowing their doubles will enable them to compute addition and subtraction problems with greater ease and speed. Interwoven into addition and subtraction, we’ve also been looking at word problems. Because the students have become so good at using the learned addition and subtraction strategies, most are finding that interpreting word problems is manageable. Our final math units will focus on addition with multiple addends which will be taught alongside word problems, a closer look at subtraction to 18 and measurement.

In Science, we have almost completed our unit on Force and Motion and the children have become quite skilled at making predictions and hypotheses based on prior knowledge or logic. Using a specific but basic scientific structure, the students have learned to hypothesize, conduct their own experiments and then record the results and conclusion in words and pictures. Using different materials to exert force on certain objects, the children have recently learned about concepts such as friction and gravity. As a way of exploring forces and motion, they have been given many opportunities to manipulate objects by pushing, pulling, throwing, dropping and rolling them. In short, they have come to understand how force and other contributing variables (such as size, surface and mass) can affect the movement of any given object. Towards the end of April, a visit from Mike from Mike’s Critters will serve as a good introduction to our final units of study in Science, which will focus on the Needs of Living Things. He will no doubt, bring many creepy crawlies into the classroom. Within our Needs of Living Things unit, we will be investigating Plants and then Spiders.

Our Social Studies/Health and Career Education units are well underway. We have just been working on our Family unit. The sensitivity that each child has shown when discussing different family dynamics and compositions has been nothing short of inspiring. I have been so pleased with their interest in learning about diversity and various families from around the world. Next term, we will continue to examine families in all their uniqueness and similarities. Thereafter, we will begin our new Social Studies unit on Canada. I am already impressed at how much the students know about the country in which they live. Feel free to practice naming the capital cities of both Canada and British Columbia and talk to your child about Canada’s indigenous animals. We will also be learning about the First Nations people as well as the pioneers. Our health and career education unit will focus first on Nutrition and a visit to Aldor Acres Dairy Farm towards the end of May will tie in nicely with this unit.

The addition of our Nifty News project, which acts as a supplementary feature to the Social Studies curriculum, has proven to be a most worthwhile component. Those students who have completed the project thus far and presented their news to the class have all done outstanding jobs. I thank you for your help in making this new addition so successful. By participating in this home-school activity, the learning is manifold: 1) the students are learning about important current events, 2) they are learning effective research methods with the help of an adult, 3) the researchers/presenters are learning to summarize information and communicate their thoughts and feelings both verbally and in writing and 4) the audience (i.e., the listeners) are learning to listen actively and respectfully. I so look forward to hearing the bi-weekly presentations and all the students are learning so much. Please feel free to come and look at the schedule of presenters in our classroom to see when it will be your child’s turn to present. Although I would like to stick to these dates as closely as possible, they are not fixed in stone and in the event that you decide to go away or your child is absent from school, we can reschedule their presentation date. Please remember to write a comment on the inside cover of the booklet when it has been your child’s turn to research and respond to a piece of news.

Reminders and Important information:

1.    April 10^th – 1C Pesach show

2.    April 11^th – last day  of school before Pesach break

3.    April 28^th – school resumes after Pesach break

4.    April 29^th – In house visit from Mike’s Critters

5.    May 16^th – Lag B’Omer picnics.

6.    May 19^th – Victoria Day – No sessions.

7.    May 20^th – Pro-D day. No sessions.

8.    May 26^th – Field Trip to the dairy farm (no volunteers needed)

9.     If you intend removing your child from school for an early vacation prior to any set holiday time, please let me and the office know in advance (in writing).

10.   Please try to have your child at school as close to 8:15am as possible (i.e., when the doors open). Many children are arriving at 8:30am and they invariably miss our morning activity (which often entails completing work from the day before). This 15 minute window affords the students the opportunity of catching up on unfinished work.

April/May at a glance…

Language Arts	Math	Science	Social Studies/Health and Career Education
- Weekly constants (spelling, word families, reading groups, journals, phonics-digraphs, dipthongs, special vowel combinations, word - Reader’s Theatre - Poetry - Literature Unit: - Stories From Around the World - Capitalization and punctuation - Comprehension - Examining parts of speech - Creative writing	-Addition and Subtraction:  review and addition with multiple addends. - Word problems - Dice games - Measurement	Needs of Living Things: - Plants - Spiders	-Family continued -Canada - Nutrition

Thank you to all those parents who take the time to read the monthly newsletters and for the interest you show in our Grade One program. I look forward, with great anticipation, to a very successful culminating term together.

Kindest regards,

Ms. Cross

March 7^th, 2014

February Newsletter 2014

Dear Parents, 

We are only four short months away from the end of the school year! The progress that each child has made over the last six months is immeasurable and I am thrilled at how motivated the children are to learn.

In Language Arts, the students continue to be engaged in the weekly constants (word families, printing, spelling, journal writing and guided reading groups). There are many children who have moved from using solely inventive spelling in their writing to employing many words spelled in their conventional form. In phonics work, we have completed our long vowels booklet and the children will soon begin working on identifying, spelling and reading the beginning blends in words, including l blends, r blends and s blends (e.g., clown, tree, snake). Each child now feels compelled in their own way to sound out the words in the morning message. In poetry, our monthly Chicken Soup with Rice poems (which are always affixed to a window in our classroom) have become a way of marking the beginning of a new month.

We have started to focus more this term on writing creatively. This allows the students to write not only with a purpose in mind, but also serves as an opportunity for them to practice incorporating correct writing conventions in their work (i.e., punctuation, capitalization and parts of speech). Progress has been made with regard to learning how to correctly punctuate and capitalize words and sentences when writing. This concept is one that needs to be reinforced over and over again and many of the children in Grade One are slowly beginning to integrate this necessary element of language in their writing. Comprehension activities have also become a main feature of our language lessons. Fluent reading does not always denote comprehension and so the children have been engaged in comprehension-style activities such as predicting events based on known facts, sequencing events, making inferences and deductions and connecting ideas together. This is a new experience for the children and so continuous practice is vital. We will continue to examine these areas as we move forward into the third term.

In Reading Power, we have completed all three strands of connecting (text-to-self connections, text-to-text connections and text-to-world connections). Our Kevin Henkes unit which focused on the wonderful morals that storybooks contain culminated with a look at personal family life lessons. Throughout this unit, students were able to make all sorts of connections and they became really adept at making these connections automatically. Making connections to what one is reading enhances reading comprehension skills and allows students to reflect on the message the story is trying to convey. Our next reading power is “visualizing. Readers who are able to visualize images while reading or listening to a story, comprehend what they read more easily and are able to make meaning from stories more readily. Our exploration of visualizing as a reading comprehension strategy, will culminate in a project whereby the students will conjure and create their own imaginary creature.

In Math, we have almost completed our geometry unit which has focused on

2-D figures as well as 3-D solids. The students have become quite adept at remembering the names of these shapes and solids and can now distinguish between the two. They have also been engaged in activities which ask them to organize these shapes and solids according to various attributes (e.g., those that have flat sides, corners, points, those that roll and stack etc). Building towers, learning about symmetry and investigating tessellations by manipulating a finite set of shapes to cover an entire plane with no "holes" or uncovered spaces, afforded the children opportunities of developing their spatial awareness. This week, we enjoyed our long-awaited 100^th day of school!  Some of our 100^th day activities included: decorating special 100th day glasses/masks, making froot loop necklaces using 100 pieces, walking 100 steps from the grade one classroom and seeing where it led, predicting what we may look like in 100 years time (if we were still alive), planning what one might buy with $100 and counting from 0-100 and recording the numbers on a 100s chart. Counting the days was well worth the wait and fun was had by all. We have also continued to work on our addition and subtraction to 18 skills. The students have shown great improvement with adding and are really making use of the many different strategies I have taught them to make addition problems easy and fast to compute. Please continue to practice doubles, near doubles and using 9 and 10 to add easily. Practicing “counting on” and “counting back” is also strongly advised when adding and subtracting respectively. Subtraction is our next area of focus and we will be learning a “counting back” strategy. Next, we will begin to learn how to read, analyze, interpret and solve addition and subtraction word problems. The students will learn to look out for key words which help us decide whether we need to add or subtract to solve a particular problem. Moreover, they will have the opportunity to work with story mats and concrete objects to create their own word problems for a friend to solve. Our unit of study will conclude with the creation of a word problem on the iPads in which the students will photograph and record their voices solving the word problem they create with a partner. All parents will receive their child’s word problem via e-mail.

In Science, we are well into our next unit, Force and Motion and the students have been given opportunities to identify where motion exists around them, to describe various types of forces and various types of motion and they are often involved in activities that require them to examine the relationship that exists between the two. The students continue to be engaged in science experiments and as the unit continues, we will be exploring topics such as gravity and friction. Many of our experiments will be student-led as they learn to hypothesize, conduct their own experiments and then record the results and conclusion in words and pictures.

In Social Studies we have just about finished our unit on Mapping and Direction. The students are now quite skilled at using a compass rose to determine coordinates and landmarks on basic picture maps. The children had lots of fun pretending to be human compasses in the classroom as they pointed their “needles” (pointed hands) north, listened for directional commands and then moved around to face a particular direction (S,E,W,N) depending on the command. The Grade Ones also enjoyed creating a bird’s eye view map of our school playground and they loved working with directions on an animated computer game. This month we will begin our Family unit, in which we will explore different kinds of families (e.g., varying family compositions), what constitutes family, immediate and extended family members, how families share and interact and we will compare and contrast our own family practices and traditions with families from around the world. Through books and in-class projects, we’ll explore the multi-faceted nature of families.

Reminders:

à Regular Friday dismissal commences on Friday March 14^th. School will therefore end on Fridays at 3:20pm instead on 2:20pm. However, next Friday is Purim. On this day we have an early dismissal at 11:25am but the following week, school will end each Friday at 3:20pm.

à Our show and tell replacement “NIFTY NEWS” has already begun. We have presentations on Tuesdays and Fridays. Each student’s presentation dates have been pre-determined. Feel free to come and look at the list of names and presentation dates outside our classroom.

àPRO – D Day: March 25^th – no sessions.

à Model Seder: Thursday April 3^rd at 8:45am

à April 11^th: Last day of school before Pesach break

MARCH/APRIL AT A GLANCE:

Language Arts	Math	Science	Social Studies/Personal Planning
- Weekly constants (spelling, word families, Guided reading groups, journals, phonics:{blends} - Punctuation and capitalization - Reading Power: Visualizing - Creative writing - Reader’s theatre - Comprehension activities - Introduction to elements of story writing with a focus on sequencing by using time order words (first, next, then and last)	- Addition and Subtraction cntd. - Word problems	- Force and Motion cntd.	-Family

Kindest regards,

Ms. Cross

January Newsletter 

Dear Parents,

January has come and gone, but in the Grade One C classroom we’ve been extremely busy and have accomplished a lot. The students have come back to school after the winter break excited for term two and ready to learn. The growth evident in each and every student is immense and on a daily basis I am impressed with the students’ willingness to learn, to cooperate and to help one another along the learning curve we’ve come to call “Grade One”.

In Language Arts, the students continue to work on the various weekly constants including printing, word families and phonics. Most recently, we have explored the “op”, “ot”, “et”, “en”, “ug”, “un”, "ash", "ack" , "all" and "ank" word families, we have printed upper and lower case letters up to and including “k” and in phonics we’ve been focusing on long a. We have learned the magic e ending, and shortly, the students will also be introduced to the long vowel combinations such as “ai”, “ay”, “oa” “ee” and “ea”. It has been inspiring to watch the children absorb and retain new information and many of them are now independently able to recognize and distinguish short vowel words from long vowel words.

The weekly spelling words have become increasingly challenging and most of the students are motivated to study for these quizzes in advance. When responding in writing, particularly during Tuesday journal time, the students are becoming increasingly aware of visual cues around the classroom (e.g., the word wall) and they are now confident inventive spellers who rely on their own sounding out skills whenever necessary. We have also begun to focus on more creative writing which allows the students to use their imaginations when writing instead of only focusing on writing from personal experience. In terms of the conventions of writing, we’ve also begun to focus more stringently on the use of punctuation and capitalization in writing and soon the students will begin working on a punctuation and capitalization booklet in class, in which they are required to fix incorrectly punctuated sentences. Other areas we’ll focus on include the use of periods, appropriate use of upper case letters when and where applicable, quotation marks, contractions and other punctuation marks.

We are in the midst of completing our Kevin Henkes unit, which explores finding the moral or lesson in each story. Through character analysis, the Grade Ones have come to understand that from Kevin Henkes’ storybooks, which are rich in important life morals, we can learn imperative lessons that pertain to our own lives. From Wemberly in Wemberly Worried, we learned that “worrying takes the fun out of everything”. From Lilly in Lilly’s Purple Plastic Purse, we learned that “it’s important to say sorry when you are wrong.” And soon from Sheila Rae in Sheila Rae The Brave, students will learn that “little friends can turn out to be great friends.” From Chrysanthemum we will learn that we should “treat others the way we want to be treated” and finally, from Chester, Wilson and Lilly in Chester’s Way, we will learn that it’s important to “always include others” AND that “it’s important to try new things.” We’ve also continued to practice making text-to-self connections and text-to-text connections whenever we read stories that are in keeping with our Colourful Characters literature unit. This unit will culminate with a look at each of the students’ family’s mottos/family life lessons. Stay tuned for more information on this. We also continue to have our weekly guided reading circles. We read and analyze simple stories, both fiction and non-fiction and in our reading circles the students learn to call upon effective reading strategies when faced with an unknown word. With early readers, there tends to be a heavy reliance on sounding out unfamiliar words or looking only at the pictures to check for meaning and context. However, successful readers rely on a variety of reading strategies and not just the obvious aforementioned ones. For example, looking for words inside words (SMALL = ALL), skipping ahead, substituting what makes sense, looking for familiar patterns (LOOK/BOOK both contain OOK) to name a few. Through our reading groups, we also practice other important reading behaviours like: predicting events, use punctuation to guide understanding and improve expression and fluency, summarizing and retelling the story in our own words, and reflecting personally on the text. Discussing the text, role playing portions of the text and taking turns reading, have allowed the children to begin making more meaningful connections between what they read and what they write. Because comprehension, (in conjunction with fluency) is now becoming a larger focus of reading in Grade One, it would be most beneficial if parents would continue to ask probing questions of their child when reading. Basic recall of information through question asking is good but it is even more important for parents to encourage text – to – self connections and text – to - text connections when reading. For example, if reading a story about a child feeling left out, ask your child if he or she has ever felt that way and to relate the story to “self”. Further to that, ask your child to explain how others might feel and what the moral or lesson of the story is. Also, asking your child to recount the details of the story by summarizing and retelling the events, in sequence and in his or her own words, is a very important aspect of reading comprehension. Being able to retell stories and calling on the most salient parts from memory is something that children learn to do with practice. In the next month or so, we will begin working on elements of story writing (including characters, setting, story order, problem, solution and moral) and so in order to prepare your child for this, please focus on the above-mentioned areas when reading.

          In Math, we completed our unit on graphing and students had many opportunities to graphically represent and record data. To that end, the children learned how to gather information through question-asking activities and we graphed many of our “favourites” including: our favourite type of weather, our favourite season, our favourite time of day, our favourite fruit juice etc. We also graphed the weather during calendar time and throughout the duration of our weather unit. Using correct mathematical language to describe and compare graphing results such as the most, the least and more than became features of our daily math activities. We are now into our new math units for this term. We have just begun our Geometry unit which first examines two dimensional figures. Soon we will begin to look at three dimensional solids.  Throughout the unit, by using concrete manipulatives, the students will be learning to identify and describe two-dimensional shapes. Moreover, they will also begin to explore, identify and classify three-dimensional objects according to their properties and attributes. Constant practice with addition and subtraction to 20 and counting by 2s, 5s and 10s continue to be part of our math activities. With regard to addition and subtraction to 20; please help your child remember his or her doubles. A couple of weeks ago, I sent home a doubles sheet for you to post in a visible spot in your home. Thank you to those parents who have helped in this way. It is really important that your child learn his or her doubles because knowing one’s doubles makes adding other numbers much simpler. These doubles should be learned by rote and so extra home practice is vital. At the start of the school year, we used manipulatives (counters) to add and subtract small numbers. Slowly we began moving away from concrete manipulatives and moved onto using a number line. Now, at this point in the year, we have made a move away again from using the number line and we have begun to employ counting on and counting back strategies to add and subtract higher numbers. Please see me should you need further clarification of the strategies we are now employing in grade one. This term, aside from learning our doubles, we will be learning number facts/bonds (e.g., what makes ten?), doubles minus 1, doubles +1 numbers +1, numbers -1, numbers +2 and numbers -2. The number nine becomes very important when learning to add quickly, mainly because of its proximity to ten.

This month, we continue to explore weather in Science, with activities that focused on integrating Language Arts with Science. A particular focus in this unit has involved looking at clouds. Next week, students will learn the names of the most common types of clouds (cumulus, stratus and cirrus). Each student will make their own cloud information booklet which include the most important features of the aforementioned clouds as well as an imaginative interpretation of an ink-blot style cloud print. Soon, we will start working on our next Science unit; Force and Motion, wherein the students will explore how different forces can be applied to objects to induce movement. Self-directed experiments with marbles as well as a look at the role that friction and gravity play in force and motion will lead the students on this Science journey.

In Social Studies we have been exploring maps and direction. The students have learned about the points on a compass rose and how to use these cardinal points effectively by navigating themselves through pictorially represented maps. Soon we will begin identifying the features of a map, including interpreting map symbols and reading legends. The children have also learned special map terminology and have come to understand that maps are depicted from a bird’s eye view perspective. Soon, they will be replicating the playground at school in the form a basic bird’s eye view map. We have enjoyed many interesting books on maps and during computer lab times, the students will be working on a program called Trudy’s Time and Place House in which they are required to lead an ant character towards a jelly bean by navigating him north, south, east or west.

Reminders:

- February 10^th -  B.C. Family Day: no sessions

- February 11^th – Reading break: no sessions

- Pink Shirt Day at VTT- will take place on Wednesday, February 26^th. Pink shirts will be worn to support anti-bullying efforts.

- February 27^th and 28^th– P.T conferences 
- ^{March 14th} – Purim carnival : 11:25am dismissal

FEBRUARY/ (MARCH) AT A GLANCE:

Language Arts	Math	Science	Social Studies/Health and Career Education
- Weekly constants: (spelling, word families, journals, phonics: review of long vowels and intro of beginning blends - Punctuation and capitalization cntd (sticky dot writing) - Reading comprehension activities - (predicting, making inferences, identifying the main idea, characters, setting, problem, solution, moral etc) - Identifying main sequence of events in a story and in written work (focus on first, next, then, last). -Poetry -Story writing -Buddy reading -Reader’s Theatre - Text – to – world connections, introduction to VISUALIZING.	- Geometry - exploring 2D and 3D shapes - Addition and subtraction with mental math strategies -word problems - 100th day celebration	Force and Motion	- Mapping and Direction cntd. - Celebrating Families - Intro to Nifty News à Show and Tell replacement

Thank you to all those parents who continue to read with their children on a nightly basis. I can appreciate how busy your lives are and taking the time to read with your child has served to enrich the work we do in class. With each passing week, the children grow and mature into independent thinkers and I continue to be inspired by the wonderful work each child produces.

Kind regards,

Ms. Cross

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Dear parents,

It’s hard to believe that the first term is almost complete. We have a short but exciting month ahead and we will be exploring many interesting topics in class. It has been wonderful to watch and facilitate the ongoing progress each student has been making. Thank you to all the parents for your support and enthusiasm towards the program at school. 

In Language Arts the students have been working on various writing activities with a focus on responding from personal experience. Practice with correctly forming letters, using correct punctuation and capitalization and learning to space words along the lines, have been areas we have focused on as well. Furthermore, the students have been learning to add more descriptive language to their writing and I have been encouraging them to take more risks in their written responses. Now that the spelling program is underway, the students have been motivated to use a combination of conventional as well as inventive spelling in their writing.  In phonics practice, we continue to review the short vowel sounds in words. In word families, we’ve moved on to explore the “it”, “in”, “ig”, “ip” and “op” and “ot” families and during our brainstorming sessions, the children come up with such unique and amusing words. They are clearly beginning to integrate their knowledge of word family patterns with other language-based activities, such as recognizing words within other words, rhyming words etc. In reading, I have been inspired by the measurable growth each child has made. Despite the varying reading levels in our class, each child is reading and they are all so motivated to “read for beads”. Thank you to those parents who continue to read with their children on a nightly basis. The work you are doing with your children at home is invaluable and without question fuels the whole learning process. Just a reminder: the home reading leveled readers are designed to be short, succinct texts. Please don’t worry if your child is reading any given book very quickly. They are supposed to be read in this way and shouldn’t take long to read. Moreover, for those students who are already reading chapter books, I encourage parents to count every 10 minutes as 1 book entry on the reading log so that these kids can earn beads at the same rate as their classmates. Various poetry activities and whole language activities continue to be features of the Language curriculum and are often integrated with Science, Social Studies and Health and Career Education.

Next week we will also begin to assess each child’s reading level using the DRA (Developmental Reading Assessment). This assessment tool (created by Pearson Education) aims to assess reading fluency, comprehension and vocabulary. The results of this assessment will allow us to give each student an overall a score and will target the areas that require work or improvement in terms of their reading.

In Reading Power we have continued to explore “text-to-self” connections by way of stories that contain messages that are easy for students to connect with. Text-to-self connections are personal connections that a reader makes between a piece of reading material and the reader’s own experiences or life. In the coming weeks, we will begin to look at the next part of connecting on the Reading Power continuum. This involves making “text-to-text” connections which is much harder to do since we are asking the students to connect two texts to each other. Sometimes when reading, readers are reminded of other things that they have read, other books by the same author, stories from a similar genre, or perhaps on the same topic. These types of connections are text-to-text connections. Readers gain insight during reading by thinking about how the information they are reading connects to other familiar texts. “This character has the same problem that I read about in a story last year,” would be an example of a text-to-text connection. Over the last couple of weeks, the students made wonderful self-to-text connections. We read, The Recess Queen and My Many Coloured Days, both texts that deal with feelings. The students all had a very good first go of trying to make text-to-self connections.

As part of our Reading Power program, we are also just about to start a literature unit that goes hand in hand with what is being taught in terms of connecting. This literature unit is called, Colourful Characters: Story Book Characters Teach Us Real Life Lessons. We will be looking at the literary works of well-known author, Kevin Henkes whose wonderful stories are laden with important morals and life lessons. Each time we study one of his stories, the students will be responding to the literature in a variety of ways. We will also be looking at stories with similar messages written by other authors so as to make text-to-text connections more easily. Through read alouds, class discussions and written tasks, the students will learn to identify important morals or lessons embedded in children’s stories. A main skill that the children will learn during this unit is the importance of being able to retell the main parts of a story in their own words. This is a very significant indicator of solid comprehension of each and every story read or listened to. One way this will be achieved will be through book treasures. Book treasures and how to conduct this retell task will be explained in detail and when the time comes, each student will come home with their very own book treasure for certain stories so as to ensure that practice opportunities at home are numerous. As a final task of this unit, the children will research their own FAMILY LIFE lesson to share with the class!

In Math, we have continued to explore number concepts. Some areas we’ve focused on include but are not limited to subitizing (i.e., recognizing number groupings at a glance), adding sets of dots, using 10 frames and ordering and comparing sets. Moreover, with practice the children have shown great improvement in their ability to make reasonable guesses when estimating groups of objects. We have also been practicing addition and subtraction using the number line which forms the basis of using “counting on” and “counting back” strategies. Many have shown improvement in their overall computation skills. During December we will begin our data analysis unit, in which we have focus on graphing. We will graph many things including the weather and the children will become familiarized with important math vocabulary such as “more than”, “less than”, “equal to”. Concepts which include reading and comparing graphs will introduce the students to the basics of statistics. They will learn to sort objects to one chosen attribute and will collect first-hand information by counting objects, conducting surveys, measuring, and performing simple experiments. We also continue to practice counting by 1s, 2s, 5s and 10s in a more formal capacity. Counting by 5s is the trickiest but I have taught the students to remember the pattern; when counting by 5s, each digit either ends in a 5 or a 0. Please continue to practice rote skip counting with your child at home.

In Social Studies/Health and Career Planning, the children have been engaged in activities which require them to respond personally. They then share information about themselves with their classmates. We have discussed the various rules we have in our homes, highlighting for the students that each family follows a set of very different rules at home, e.g., "take off your shoes at the front door", "don't use too much toilet paper", tidy up after playing with toys", and "take your plate to the sink when you have finished eating." The students were very perceptive, understanding that rules exist to protect us and keep our world ordered and safe. Understanding that we can have a multitude of roles at any given time (e.g., daughter, sister, friend, artist) has helped the students understand the definition of a role and each student has come to realize his/her place in our community through a study of roles. This unit culminates with a look at responsibilities. The children are learning that a responsibility is "something we care for and can't forget to do". In the context of this very articulate Grade 1 definition, we have been looking at responsibilities from the perspective of fulfilling duties/chores at home as well as from the perspective of doing good deeds. The students have also been given opportunities to role play certain scenarios in which they “show” desirable/ undesirable behaviours and we’ll be role playing how to fulfill responsibilities at home and at school. Through important stories and discussions, we know that we are all responsible for our actions towards others.

           

In Science, we have just about completed our magnets unit and the students have thoroughly enjoyed experimenting with magnets in the classroom. We conducted a number of Science experiments which involved the students using magnets to test for attraction/ repelsion. We have also been learning about Autumn and the fascinating environmental changes that occur during this season. During our mini unit on Fall, we brainstormed various fall activities as well as all the different things we could do/make with fall leaves. Then each child collected their own magnificent fall leaves. Based on a book called, “Look What I Did With a Leaf”, by Morteza Sohi, the Grade Ones, together with their Grade Seven buddies, created colourful artwork and used the leaves to produce various creatures/animals. An accompanying acrostic poem describing the season finished off this most successful project. The students also learned a lot about hibernation and what exactly takes place during this time. We learned that some animals naturally adapt to the changing weather conditions, whereas some animals need to hibernate in order to survive. As a culminating activity, each student created their own unique bingo card using hibernating and non-hibernating animals. We all had great fun playing hibernation bingo. This unit on Autumn has been a great way to introduce our next Science unit, Weather, wherein, we will be exploring various weather conditions and phenomena, tracking the temperature and graphing the weather on a daily basis. I’ll be asking that each child look up the temperature (either from the television, from the internet or from the radio or newspaper) every day. Each morning/afternoon the students will have the opportunity of recording the weather in degrees, Celsius on the board. We will compare and contrast the answers on a daily basis. Before we go on winter break later this month, we will be taking part in an in-class workshop. Scientists from High Touch, High Tech will be coming in to conduct a weather workshop with our students. They will learn about extreme weather conditions and phenomena and it is sure to be a worthwhile learning experience. There is no cost for this in-house workshop and it will happen on December 18^th.

DECEMBER / JANUARY AT A GLANCE:

Language Arts	Math	Social Studies/Personal Planning	Science
-Journals - Printing - Reading groups - Word families - Spelling - Phonics – conclusion of short vowels and intro to long vowels - Sight words - Whole language activities (responding to literature and poetry) - Colourful Characters Literacy unit -Reading Power (text-to-text connections)	- Weekly estimating activities - Data analysis-graphing - Review of counting by  2s, 5s, 10s with a focus on skip counting - Review of addition and subtraction to 12 – with a focus on counting on and counting back without visuals (i.e., without the number line) - Geometry	- Personal development - Rules, Roles and Responsibilities cntd. - Connecting experiences at home and school with larger community - Mapping and direction	- Weather continued

Reminders:

1.     If your child is absent or away from school due to illness, please remember to send in a note on their return explaining the reason for their absence. If you are intending to take your child out of school for an extended period of time (i.e., for a vacation), please remember to send a note (to the office and to me) explaining the reason for their absence beforehand. In this case, your child will be marked “excused” in our attendance records as opposed to “absent”. The Ministry of Education requires that we correctly document all absences.

2.     Now that the weather is getting colder, please make sure that your child has a jacket/coat to wear at school for the various outdoor recess times. Since they are bringing more outer wear to school, please label their uniforms, jackets and boots. It makes it easier for me to help them find lost items.

3.     Footwear: according to the parent handbook, students are required to wear dark coloured shoes (like runners or plain shoes). Many students are coming to school in either multi-coloured shoes, high top sneakers or ugg type boots. Please be advised that these rules are not teacher made but school policy. To that end, kindly ensure that your child comes to school with the appropriate footwear. Moreover, due to the frequency with which we have rain in Vancouver, please make every effort to send you child to school with rain boots, even on days when there is no rain forecasted (these can be left in their locker). Even on a sunny day, there are still huge puddles outside and it would appear that many students are accidentally falling into these puddles. Please also keep an extra change of clothes (including most importantly socks, underwear and pants) at school in your child’s locker and replenish the supply when a change has occurred during the day.

4.     Our Weather Or Not science workshop will take place on December 18^th.

5.     Report cards will ‘go live’ for parents to view online the day before school ends for winter break on December 20^th.

6.     There are many children who are very hungry at the end of the day and are complaining that they are not sent to school with enough snacks. Please can you send your child to school with two snacks (one for morning and one for afternoon recess times).

Thank you to all parents for a wonderful first term. It’s hard to believe that it’s almost finished!

Warmly,

Ms. Cross

November 4th, 2013

Dear parents,

November is now upon us and the children are busy and productive at school. I am excited about how they are learning and the tremendous amount of progress each student has made in this short time. During the month of October, we achieved a lot in the classroom and beyond.

In Language Arts, we continue to practice printing the upper and lower case letters of the alphabet and whenever we do so, the children come up with their own alphabet words to accompany the letter being studied. Our weekly journal writing has allowed each student to become more comfortable with the writing process and with each passing week, they gain the confidence to use inventive spelling and sounding out techniques to write about their weekend happenings. In word family practice we have completed the “am”, “at”, “ap”, “an”, “it”, “in”, “ig” and “ig” families and in phonics, we have been learning the short vowel sounds. Whole language activities, which are often integrated with other parts of the curriculum, continue to be a most enjoyable part of the language program as the children have the opportunity to add a sense of creativity to their work, particularly when responding to literature. Our spelling program commenced three weeks ago and the children seem to be excited about the challenge that a spelling program offers. The weekly spelling quizzes are intended to be low-stress “spell-checks” which will improve the children’s overall ability to spell words correctly when writing a sentence or story. The students are expected to use the learned words in their writing at school. I have also begun introducing the children to various sight words from the Pre-primer, Primer and Grade One Dolch lists and through various activities, including sentence writing and informal games, the students are beginning to learn how to spell these important words. Each time we learn a new word, I attach that word to our alphabetized word wall in the classroom and once again, students are expected to spell these visible words correctly in their writing. 

Our Home Reading program also began with a bang last week. The students are so motivated to read for beads and I am so proud of students and parents alike, who have committed so fervently to the process of home reading. In an effort to maximize time spent reading, each morning and each afternoon when the students in 1C enter the classroom, they will be expected to read to a partner for a few minutes. In keeping with current research and literature around the behaviours of competent and effective early readers, students should and must be engaged in “high success” reading experiences and these reading experiences should be numerous and meaningful. In leading literacy expert, Richard Allington’s book, What Really Matters for Struggling Readers: Designing Research-Based Programs, Allington emphasizes the need for more in-school reading, noting evidence indicating that increased reading volume raises the level of reading proficiency (p. 24). He thus argues that any successful restructuring of reading comprehension instruction must include increased reading volume. To that end, one of the many ways in which we endeavour to make this happen, involves having the students read to each other every morning. This week I will begin to train the students on the ‘elbow to elbow, knee to knee’ sitting position which encourages book sharing in a functional way. Moreover, weekly guided reading group sessions with 4 different reading groupsled by Ms. Evans and I are proving to be invaluable times to explicitly teach many good reading habits, behaviours and strategies to the students. We read various fiction and non-fiction texts and we are focusing on learning effective reading and comprehension skills. Moreover, the students are learning to use punctuation and writing conventions to further improve their reading skills.

In Math, our estimation jar activity proves to be a highlight of our week. The children look forward, with great anticipation, to making their estimates and then counting the objects in the jar at the end of the week. There is always much excitement as the winner of the “game” is revealed. Thank you to those parents who have promptly sent the jar back to school filled with new items on Mondays. We have also been working on other estimating activities in class and the children have been learning to make reasonable guesses when “eye-balling” groups of objects. During November, we will be practicing basic addition and subtraction to 12, using a number line as a way of introducing counting on and counting back strategies when it comes to adding and subtracting. For the most part, the children have been learning to recognize objects, dots and numbers between 0 and 10. Counting and recognizing groups of numbers has helped the children see number groupings in a new way. Our weekly math toolkit activities and games have proven to be most beneficial and the students use certain tools to work in partners or small groups to practice concepts we’ve been learning about. Recently, we have been working with our froggy number lines to add and subtract and we continue to look at variations of ten. We also continue to practice a variety of math skills, including counting by 1s, 2s, 5s, and 10s during our calendar activity time.

In Social Studies/Health and Career Education our ‘All About Me’ theme continued with a look at names and how they define and shape our identities. Each child made a beautiful name wheel which focused on their names and “told a story” of how and why they got their name. They also finished working on their “All About Me” booklets and together with their Grade Seven buddies, completed various theme related projects. In an effort to learn about empathy, kindness and sharing, we have recently read stories linked to these ideas. Most relevant to this topic, was the reading and understanding of the message inherent in the well-known story, “The Rainbow Fish” by Marcus Pfister. Each student responded to this story by making their very own rainbow fish and by writing an accompanying sentence in which they expressed empathy for the characters in the book. We have already begun our new Social Studies unit entitled, “Rules, Roles and Responsibilities”, wherein the students are learning to define, compare and contrast each of these concepts so as to better understand their place in our social community. This unit is one that will resonate with students and with parents alike, on many levels. It is our PROGRAM OF INQUIRY designed to help the students learn about rules, roles and responsibilities by making connections across the curriculum. We will discuss the various rules we have in our homes, highlighting for the students that each family follows a set of very different rules at home, e.g., "take off your shoes at the front door", "don't use too much toilet paper", tidy up after playing with toys", and "take your plate to the sink when you have finished eating." We will also discuss rules at school which are more similar and universal for everyone. The students will come to realize that rules exist to protect us and keep our world ordered and safe. This unit culminates with a look at responsibilities. The children will learn that a responsibility is "something we care for and can't forget to do". In the context of this very articulate Grade 1 definition, we will be looking at responsibilities in terms of chores and duties as well as from the perspective of doing good deeds. Through important stories and discussions, we know that we are all responsible for our actions towards others. In Grade One we all strive to be responsible citizens by enacting mitzvot and deeds of kindness.

This month in Science, we continued working on our magnets unit. The children are busy learning about what magnets are made of, how they function, the effect that the poles have on attraction and repelsion, the earth’s magnetic field and how a compass operates. Opportunities to explore magnets by participating in hands-on activities and learning to classify objects that repel and attract magnets, form crucial parts of this unit. We have also been learning about Autumn and the many changes the occur in our environment with the change in weather and temperature. Most recently, the students have been learning all about hibernation. Ask your child to tell you about how to distinguish hibernating from non-hibernating animals and the many adaptations that some animals make in order to survive the cold winters. You’ll be amazed at how much your child knows!

NOVEMBER AT A GLANCE:

Language Arts	Math	Social Studies/Personal Planning	Science
-Journals - Printing - Reading groups - Spelling - Phonics – short vowels cntd. - Practice of weekly sight words - Whole language activities (responding to literature and poetry - Kevin Henkes unit - Reading power (self-text connections).	- Estimating cntd. - Addition and subtraction to 12 - Recognizing, building and ordering sets of objects - 10 frame work - Math toolkit - Introduction to Graphing (Data Analysis)	- Rules, Roles and Responsibilities	- Magnets cntd. - Weather (end of Nov and Dec)

Reminders:

1. Daily home reading is a very important part of the Grade One year. Please continue to read with your child as often as possible. I am thrilled at how motivated the children are to ‘read for beads’ and I appreciate the effort that you have made to help sustain the home reading program. Some of the students are wanting to move extremely quickly through the home reading levels. Although I am delighted with their desire to challenge themselves, I ask that you encourage your child (as will I) to remain on the level they are currently on for a reasonable amount of time. Daily reading does not have to be “hard” or “harder” each time and should primarily function as a source of pleasure and enjoyment. Furthermore, the readers in our leveled home reading section are designed to be short, succinct texts with repeating pattern sentences. As a result, children should be spending about 10-15 minutes a night reading. It is therefore perfectly normal for your child to be finishing these readers quickly. They are intended to be short texts aimed at developing fluency and adding to each child’s growing sight word bank. Please also feel free to supplement your child’s home reading with books from home or the library which can then be recorded on their reading logs as a way of affording them the opportunity of earning more beads. Lastly, for those students who are already reading chapter books, please note that how you record the books on their reading logs may be different. They may count each chapter (+/- 10 pages) as one individual book so that they earn beads as quickly as their peers.
2. November 11: Remembrance Day
3. November 12: Pro D Day: no sessions
4. November 15^th: Early Friday dismissal time begins (2:20pm)
5. November 19^th: Individual photo retakes
6. November ^{21st and 22nd:} P.T Conferences.

At the beginning of the school year at “Meet the Teacher” evening, I distributed a parent package containing important information and activities relevant to our Grade One program. Within the package, I included three sight word lists and I provided all the parents with a website that you may visit to print off the each of the words in each list as flashcards (the flashcards are already prepared in flash card form for you on the website). Many of the students have informed me that they are indeed practicing sight words every day but there are also many who are not. Please visit the following website:  www.mrsperkins.com/dolch.htm , print out the flashcards for the Pre-primer, Primer and Grade One Dolch sight words (the second item in each list numbered 2, 3 and 4) and practice these nightly with your child. Should anyone need me to walk them through how to access these flashcards, please come to me after school and I will gladly demonstrate. Practicing sight words is an excellent way to foster reading skills and you will notice an improvement in your child’s reading fluency and confidence level when these words are committed to memory. We of course practice three new sight words a week in class, but the added practice is highly recommended and very beneficial.

7. To study for our weekly spelling quizzes, please visithttp://www.spellingcity.com/kaplancross/

Help your child select from a host of games and tests as a way to practice the words. Click on the buttons that say: TEST ME/ TEACH ME/ PLAY A GAME.

As we move through the month of November, I am confident that all the children in Grade One C will achieve great things. Thanks again for your continued support.

Warmest regards,

Ms. Cross

October 5^th, 2013     

Dear Parents,

What a great start to the year! The students have been busy learning the routines of the classroom while becoming reacquainted with one another. The classroom has been an exciting place to learn and each child has been developing many skills each day. I have thoroughly enjoyed getting to know the students and aiding them in the learning process.

In Language Arts, we have begun printing the letters of the alphabet as we review and build upon what was learned in Kindergarten. Using correct upper case and lower case formation and employing the correct pencil grip have been areas we have focused on in printing. The students have been writing in their journals every week and have produced wonderful results. They have begun to employ many writing strategies such as sounding out words, using inventive spelling and adopting correct punctuation. During the month of September, the children have also been working on phonics activities, beginning with a review of initial consonants and continuing with a look at short vowel sounds. In word family practice, we have begun to work on the “at” and “am” families. Sequencing activities, poetry, and whole language activities, continue to be features of our lessons. We are also about to start our new reading power program, with an exploration of CONNECTING. How can we as readers/listeners make meaningful connections to stories we read/hear? As we begin to learn the reading powers, I will be looking to see how well the students are able to make connections following a reading. Making personal connections from a story to themselves or their own personal lives, making connections to an illustration they see in a story or making deeper connections to the message implicit in the story will be the focus of our CONNECTING strand. At home, you can practice these very strategies by asking your child questions like, “what does this story remind you of?” , “who does this character remind you of”, “how has something similar happened to you?”, “does this story remind you of another story you have read?”

In math the students have been working on refining their patterning skills. They have been engaged in various patterning exercises which ask them to ‘finish the pattern’, ‘create a pattern’ and ‘make up a pattern for a friend’. Sorting, counting and a review of basic addition have also been focal points of the curriculum this month. Children often learn important math skills through game playing. As a result, they have been engaged in several game-oriented math activities, including dice games, games which involve making various permutations to arrive at different addition sums and games which allow for practice in graphing various items. During morning calendar, math skills have been interwoven into the various calendar activities. For example, we often practice counting by 2s, 5s and 10s. We have been tracking the number of days we’ve been at school, graphing the various weather conditions on any given day and next week will see the introduction of our very first experience with our math tool kits. Students will be given hands on activities to explore the items and manipulatives inside their personal math tool kit. Most importantly, we have begun to look at combinations of 10 through the use of ten frames and dot cards. Learning to subitize is a developmental pre-requisite to counting. From the Latin word meaning ‘suddenly’, subitizing is the direct and immediate recognition of the number of a group. Simply stated, it is fast number recognition. If someone shows four fingers for only an instant, one recognizes how many fingers they are holding up without counting. And that fast recognition is important. For example, subitizing will later help children with adding. At first, many children add 4 + 3 by counting out four objects, then three objects, then counting all seven. This is called “a counting all strategy”. The trouble is that their memory of the three and four on one hand, and the seven on the other, is too far away for the child to make a connection. But if a child subitizes the four, he or she is more likely to count on, starting with four, then five, six, and seven. Then, he or she learns a more sophisticated counting strategy and starts learning the fact that 4 + 3 = 7.

Our Social Studies and Health and Career Education curricula are often integrated and during the month of September we have been working on establishing a peaceful classroom by creating effective classroom rules and routines. At the same time, the students have thoroughly enjoyed exploring our “All About Me” unit, wherein each child has been able to share with the class, known or unknown facts about themselves, their favourite things and their likes and dislikes. By sharing individual stories with one another, the children have come to realize how special and unique they are individually.They have also come to see how we all share common bonds which allow us to relate to one another on many levels. In the coming month, our “All About Me” unit will continue as we work with our Grade Seven buddies on various in-class projects. We will be completing an activity in which the students need to record their phone number and home address. Although I will be providing the students with this information visually, please practice this very important information so that he or she is able to recite it by rote.

This month in Science, we have begun to explore Autumn and the many changes that occur during this fascinating season. Soon, we will be exploring hibernation and estivation (summertime dormancy for animals who need a reprieve from very hot weather). We will also be starting our first formal Science unit, MAGNETS, shortly. The students will have many opportunities to use magnets to explore attraction and repelsion, learn to determine the kinds of objects that are attracted to magnets, learn about the poles and conduct simple experiments with magnets.

Each student in Grade One has been partnered up with a buddy (/buddies) in Grade Seven. Every Thursday, the Grade Seven students visit our classroom and they work together with their assigned Grade One buddy/ies on various activities. The buddy program serves to unite younger students with older students in the school and the benefit of such a partnership is endless. Acting as role models, the Grade Seven students take their positions very seriously as do their Grade One counterparts. We have already begun working on an in-class “All About Me” project which entails having the Grade Seven buddies interview their Grade One partner/s. The culminating project involves the students sharing “what’s in their heart” with one another.

Coming up in October:

OCTOBER AT A GLANCE…

Language Arts	Math	Social Studies/Personal Planning	Science
-Journals -Printing -Reading activities: reading power -Whole language activities -Guided reading groups -Formal commencement of home reading program - Phonics (short vowels continued) -Intro and practice of weekly sight words - Formal commencement of spelling	- Number Sense: including but not limited to: - Counting/Subitizing - Combinations of 10 - Addition and subtraction to 12 -Building/comparing /ordering sets (number relationships) -Estimating	-All About Me cntd. -Empathy training -Friendship - Rights, Roles and Responsibilities	-Magnets

Reminders:

1.     Our weekly estimation activity will continue. At some point, your child will win the estimating game and will bring home a jar to fill with objects for the class to estimate. Please watch for the reminder notice that will go home when your child wins the game.

2.    Show and Tell is ongoing in the first term. Please watch for the reminder notice that will go home with your child when his/her name is randomly picked from a hat. (Show and Tell will be on Mondays unless otherwise informed)

3.    As the cool weather is approaching, please talk to your child about dressing properly when outdoors. Many children want to go to recess without a jacket. In addition, please remember to send a snack for recess as the children are hungry by mid-morning and by mid-afternoon.

4.    Please empty the home folder when it is sent home and return to school on Monday.

5.    Please ensure that you have an extra change of clothes in your child’s locker at all times.

All the students have been working very hard at school and I am very proud of all their achievements. I look forward to a very productive month in October.

Warm regards,

Ms. Cross

HOME READING UPDATE

Soon, I will begin introducing the students to the home reading program and your child will be bringing home their first two books, along with their reading log. Many of them are very excited about being part of this incentive program. Based on in-class assessments, your child will be started on a particular reading level. In October, (as per our discussion on “Meet the Teacher” evening) the children will begin exchanging books for themselves, along with your help. I will review with the students, strategies to use when choosing a ‘just right’ book and I will inform them of the level that they are currently on. They will then have the opportunity (following reminders from me) to exchange books either first thing in the morning before school starts. They may also change books at the end of the school day if for some reason they have forgotten to do so. Please note that if you wish to supplement your child’s reading by having them read books from home or from the library, you are welcome to do so. Any reading done at home under parent supervision is considered “home reading” and CAN be recorded on the reading log. This will then count towards your child earning a bead on our “read for beads” board. The leveled readers in our classroom are there to serve as a starting point to help gauge the level at which your child is reading, and as a book bank to help you and I ensure that your child is reading appropriate books. For now, when the home reading program begins, the children will be able to take two books home from the classroom reading set at a time. As they become more confident readers, I will allow them to take more out at a time. I do however ask, that they return their books before taking new ones home.

LEVELS

Red (beginning level)

Yellow

Blue

Green

Orange

Turquoise

Purple

Gold/Silver

Ruby

Sapphire

Black – Chapter books

* Please be advised that there are “in between”/ “transition” books for each level in our classroom reading set. For example, if your child is moving from the red level to the yellow level, there might be a red-yellow book for them to read before they graduate fully into the yellow level. To check the level of the book, look at the back of the book. The flower petals on the PM readers or the stripes on the PM + readers will indicate the various levels. Notwithstanding, please note that strict adherence to the in-between levels is not imperative.

Thanks in advance for your commitment to the home reading program.