There was tons of hands-on learning this week, which we all know I LOVE! In Math we reviewed time, and fractions. Students used fraction strips to compare and order fractions by size. We also spent some time reviewing telling time. I am so impressed by how many of our little learners can tell time to the 5 minutes! This is above and beyond the skills required for first grade. Mrs. Jennifer will be very happy next year. We have also started exploring elapsed time, and will continue working on this next week. In Language Arts, we worked on the last two necessary skills to master from our American Common Core curriculum; verb tenses and root words. Students found identifying root words so easy, that we extended our learning to explore different prefixes and suffixes. I know I have said it a million times, but I am so impressed by this group's ability to understand new concepts so quickly. During our unit of inquiry (UOI) time, we have been exploring the line of inquiry that the earth changes over time. This is linked to a number of Next Generation Science Standards that the school will be fully implementing next year. We got a head start on learning about plate tectonics and erosion. We learned how over time wind breaks down landforms and did an experiment where we blew on sand sculptures to show just how much wind is needed to break them down. This takes a long time! After learning about erosion, Kayla asked why the earth isn't flat. This was a great way for us to transition into discussions about plate tectonics and how mountains are formed. We watched a video (see below) and did an experiment with mars bars to show how mountains are formed. The smiles on their little faces while doing this could move mountains. sFirst Grade Families,
We were so luck to have the field day and concert covered through video and photos. Below you will find a youtube video of our concert, and a link to Heidi Yanulis' website with AMAZING photos from the field day of your children soaring in the air for their long jump. If you are interested in Heidi's photography services or prints, you can visit her professional website at http://www.heidiyanulis.com/ With Monday gone as a holiday, this week flew by. So many exciting things happened, We had our spring concert, our field day, and our service learning report out. It was great to see so many parents at both the concert and the field day cheering on their little ones. If you want to see times for your child's runs, or distances for their jumps, you can see the report outside the main office. In Math we are continuing to work on writing and solving word problems, addition fluency, and fractions of a whole. We learned a new card game to help with addition fluency this week that can be played with a standard deck of cards. Have your child teach you at home! In Language Arts, we have had a lot of fun with idioms. We learned a whole bunch of silly sayings, illustrated them, and practiced writing sentences. I will post them here, or in our little learners portfolios tomorrow or early next week. We have grazed the surface of our new UOI on Explorers this week, but will be getting down to it learning about landforms next week. I am so excited to see our little explorers in action! This week, we had our service learning report out events on Tuesday night at the concert, and on Wednesday morning at the ASA cafe. If you were unable to attend these events, or did not see our board, I have posted a picture of the board, and the accompanying text below. We have had the busiest of weeks! I was so busy prepping for all of the fun we had, that I didn't find time to post this week. This week as part of an exploration of our Communities unit, we practiced being good citizens by cleaning up the playground after snack. Students were also paired up with different members of our school community. They interviewed them, and helped them with some tasks. It was a really valuable experience. We then talked about how important it is to show thanks to community members. Our little learners made cards and hot chocolate to thank the helpers that they worked with. Speaking of thanks, I really loved all of the emails, cards and treats that were sent in for teacher appreciation week. I have the pleasure of doing what I love day in and day out. Teaching your wonderful children really is a pleasure. In Math this week we have been learning on building our addition and subtraction fluency, and adding and subtracting two digit numbers. We spent some time learning about number patterns on the 100 grid. Please continue to support your children at home with mental addition and subtraction within 10. In Language Arts, we are learning about conventions. We have been talking about different types of punctuation. This week we learned about contractions. On Friday, we did 'contraction surgery'. Students had to cut up two words, and 'stitch' them together as a contraction, adding an apostrophe. This was a great tie in with our community helpers unit. We learned about a special type of doctor called a surgeon. I have added a slideshow of photos below. We are nearly through our first full week of May! There are only 5 weeks left of first grade learning. With that said, we will continue to plough on with our rigorous curriculum, and I am confident that all of our learners will leave this class in June ready for second grade!
I am so proud of the massive amount of growth we have seen in our little learners, and was happy to see that the MAP tests confirmed what we already knew about the improvement level of our students. In Math this week, we have been solving word problems, and looking at parts of a whole, writing down fractions. We had our unit 8 assessment today. You will be contacted if your child received a perfect score, or if there is a need for remedial support at home. As always, if you would like to see your child's Math assessments, please make an appointment to come in and go over them with me. We have also been working on mental recall of basic addition and subtraction facts. We have been completing 'Math Minutes' daily and are trying to get 14 questions correct in one minute. Please continue to drill and practice this skill at home through tablet apps, flash cards and games. Today we learned how to play a game called hop to help us recall these facts. It was a great way to get some fresh air, move our bodies, and work on Math fluency. In Language Arts, we have been learning about the writing trait of voice. This week, we read the book 'ish' and discussed things that we are learning, or have learned to do. We then wrote freely (...kind of like a poem) as the boy in the story did to discuss things we are good-ish at. I have provided Kevin and Zara's excellent examples below. We also focused on the voice trait by reading the book "Voices in the Park'. This book looks at the 4 different points of view of people in a park. We then began to write recounts of an event in our school community from 4 different perspectives. It is amazing to see how our little ones capture the voices of their characters - Especially when their character is Mr. Mason. During our unit of inquiry time this week, we took a walk though the school learning about many of the helpers we didn't know existed. We learned what their jobs are, how they help us. Next week each student will be paired up with a school helper and required to do a research project on their job. We are all very excited. Tomorrow we have Matthieu Crette visiting us to discuss his important role as a community helper. We have very excited! First Grade Parents and Families, I am busy setting up for my after school cooking club, but I promised the students that I would post our newest class book so that you could read it to them tonight. Try to guess which page your child wrote. This was a great way for them to showcase both a silly, and serious voice in their writing. It also taught us a lot about word processing on the computer. I hope you enjoy it. Expect a full update on our learning later this week! Mason Try making it full screen for easy reading with your child. As always, we have been busy, busy, busy! I can't believe it is May already. They do say that time flies, when you are having fun, and that is exactly what Miss Soa, our little learners and I have been doing all year long! Exciting news! Our gingerbread men are popping up all over the world. Check out some photos here. In Math, our fractions focus has taken us from parts of a whole to dividing a number of objects into equal shares. The photos above are of us solving problems dividing different numbers of pennies equally between dinosaurs! This was a skill that we noticed was much easier for students who have siblings, and are used to sharing than for our only children, however in the end, we all had a solid understanding of this concept. In preparation for our MAP test, we also went back to look at strategies to solve word problems using the CUBES method listed below. The students rotated through 3 different centres solving a variety of different types of word problems. They wrote the MAP test today, and I am confident that we are going to see some serious improvement, just like our reading tests! In order to continue to gain mental math fluency, we began minute math quizzes this week. We will be carrying on with quick minute tests for the remaining 6 weeks of school. Remember that you can help your child become more fluent by using flashcards and playing simple addition and subtraction games at home. In English Language Arts, we have been working on our voice writing trait. Last week Lorena brought in an amazing book that matched our learning perfectly. This book is called 'The Book with No Pictures' by B.J. Novak. The students were so motivated by using the 'silly' voice and the 'serious' voice that the author includes in this book, that they decided to write their own class book with no pictures. I will send copies home when they are finished. We have continued to work on identifying community helpers, and have been categorizing them into groups. We have also been learning about the difference between urban, rural and suburban communities during ELL time. We will begin our research and interviews on school community helpers this week. Thank you to all of the parents who came out for student-led conferences. It was great to see how our little learners were able to independently show you what they have learned! Speaking of learning, we completed our first MAP test on Wednesday morning. The results that this test rendered confirmed our thoughts on the amazing improvements that our students have made. While we are still waiting for the official data, the original print outs, are something to be proud of. Dr. Amy, Soa and I are so impressed by the improvement rate shown by the data. Thanks for making sure that your child had a good night's sleep, and a big breakfast before this test! Aside from all of this outside excitement, we have been having fun trudging on with our in class learning. In Math, we have been learning about fractions as equal parts of a whole. We have been matching written fractions to pictures, and have been reading, writing and colouring a variety of fractions from 1 whole to eighths. In Language Arts, we have been learning about the 'voice' writing trait. We read the story 'Yesterday I Had the Blues' by Jeron Ashfrod Frame. To a large extent, writing with voice means writing with emotion. A young mother's memoir about having a baby may be joyful. A commuter's editorial about rising gasoline prices may be angry. A soldier's letter from the front lines may be cheerful, but tinged with sadness and even fear. Yesterday I Had the Blues is full of emotion, as described by a young boy who starts out with the blues, but winds up with the "greens" (hopeful). But his daddy has the "grays" (tense), his mama has the "reds" (annoyed), his sister has the "pinks" (cheerful), and so forth. By the end, we realize that what the boy truly has is a real family with real feelings. As a class, we talked about our feelings, and the different colours that they could be represented by. We then asked our students to put their ideas down on paper. It was amazing to see how colourful their voices were! During our UOI time, we have been working on comparing community helpers, discussing ways that they are the same, and ways that they are different. We have also been considering what type of a helper that we want to be when we are older. The photos below display our ambitions. With that said, we did talk about how there are many jobs we don't even know about, and that being happy with our jobs and our lives is very important. read aloud of Yesterday I Had the Blues begins at 15:19 Sorry for the delayed blog post. It has been a very busy week! We celebrated Malagasy culture, prepared for student let conferences, and had our International Food Fair. Thanks to all of the families who were able to make it to these events! We have also been busy learning. We spent a great deal of time in Math, working on making change, and have begun a week long unit on Fractions. We have been learning about, cutting, and sharing things equally. At home this week, please have your child cut things into pieces, share objects amongst yourselves or their siblings, and discuss everyday objects that are broken into equal shares. (For example, I am looking at my window frame, and television stand currently). Continue to help your child learn about change by giving them small amounts of money and having them buy things from the local shops around. I do, however, understand how difficult this is using Ariary as even small amounts of money are still large denominations. In Language Arts, we have really gotten into the 'voice trait' of writing. We have been discussing the different voices that are used in familiar stories. We have been learning that words and pictures help us convey our voice in our writing. Today we read the story 'Dog Breath'. The voice was silly. We thought of our own silly ideas and each wrote our own way that the children in the story could help the dog, Hally, get rid of her bad breath. Our Unit of Inquiry time continues to be focused on community places, helpers, and their tools/responsibilities. Today we sorted pictures, and descriptions of each different helpers into categories. We will begin to take a closer look at our school helpers later in the week. Tomorrow we are holding student-led conferences. If you have yet to sign up for a slot, I suggest you do so here |
ASA First GradersWe are caring, balanced , reflective, openminded, risk-taking, knowledgeable, principled, thinkers, communicators, inquirers, explorers and learners. Mr. Mason McCormickI am: a husband, teacher, friend, researcher, grad student, mulitliteracies specialist, designer, social media fanatic, lover of all things tech, creative, and progressive. I am an energetic, life-loving, no-nonsense person; passionate about respectful, rigorous, and relevant teaching and learning in the 21st century.
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