We have had quite the busy short week.
In Math we rotated through a number of centres, involving decomposing numbers as an addition strategy, counting money, working with frames and arrows to follow rules as well as telling time to the hour and half hour. Today we complete our Unit 3 assessment. We are so proud of the progress our little ones are making in Math. In Language Arts, and our UOI, we are integrating our reading, writing, and researching skills to write animal reports. Students have been placed in groups of 4, to research a specific animal. We went to the library to visit Miss Lanto to see what non-fiction books she had on our animals, and began to read together to find facts about animals appearance, habitats, diet, and additional facts. The students did a great job recording their ideas, and will begin writing their full sentences in their own words next week. They really do prove that little ones can research. They will also be making posters as a group to present their information. Since we will be learning to present shortly, we had the grade 3 class come in today to present their 'natural resource UOI' projects to us. It was great for the grade 1s to learn what a good presentation looked like, while learning about how to conserve. Lastly, I wanted to thank you all for your generous donations to the food drive. Our class currently has 1470 points. While I am praising them for the amount of points received, we are also talking about how this is not about a prize, but about helping those in need. Many thanks to all of you who have donated and taught your child a lesson on charity. A big thank you to Priya's family for donating 100kg of rice! There is still time to donate up until December 2nd if you would still like to send in a donation of rice, oil or beans. Happy Thanksgiving!
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'I want to begin by apologizing for not capturing more of the cuteness that was character dress up day. We were so busy learning that I didn't have time to pull my phone out of my pocket.
Today we worked more with counting money. I am amazed at how well our little ones are able to switch from counting by 10s, to 5s, to 1s, while carrying a total in their head. It really is impressive. We learned how to represent money using the cents sign (¢) and the dollars sign ($), with decimal places. (ex. $0.45). You can practice this skill at home even without American coins by using the letters d for dimes, n for nickels, and p for pennies. We use these abbreviations at school to help with your tutelage at home. We continued to learn about questions today. Today, I provided students with a number of answers, and they were prompted to write questions (using question marks as ending punctuation) that made sense to go with the answer. We discussed how it was important to use the question words we learned yesterday. In ELL time, we learned about a 'Did You Know?' section, and what the word 'facts' means. This is a place for students to write additional facts on their bee reports that they will be starting tomorrow! We also had Mrs. Yvonne come visit us to learn about all the amazing things we are doing during our Daily 5 time. She was SO impressed by how independent our little ones are when it comes to being responsible for their literacy and staying on task. Our grade ones have set the bar for what great learning looks like, and I am always proud when someone comes in to watch and learn from our learning. Parents: If you have not yet emailed me about arranging at time to discuss your child's report card and set quarter 2 goals, please send me an email with some times that you are available to meet (next week if possible.) Constant communication is my priority, in order to for us to work as a team to help your child succeed. :) We had a great first spirt day in our pyjamas. We began today learning about a new coin, the dime. We began counting money with bases of 1s, 5s, and 10s. This is a skill that requires more practice, but we were very happy with how far students have come along using this foreign currency. While the concept of American money is not relevant to most of our students, it is another way to represent numbers and practice counting with a variety of number bases, while learning about 'trading'. During ELL we learned about the diagraphs th, sh, ch, and wh. We watched an alphablocks video and played a game where students put a diagraph on their head (see picture above). Students gave the child wearing the sound different words that had that diagraph in it. The students had to guess what diagraph was on their head. It was a lot of fun. After that, students rotated through 4 different sorting activities working with these diagraphs. If you are unaware what a diagraph is, ask your child, they should be able to tell you. For our UOI today, students continued to research about honey bees. We reviewed the words appearance and habitat, and introduced the word diet to our vocabulary. Students are busy writing down their ideas about these headings, and will be producing sentences for a report later in the week. For our Language Arts/Daily 5 time, we were lucky to have Swastee (Anish's Mom) back with us this week. Students curled up in their pyjamas and worked on their literacy skills. Remember that you should be reading every night with your child on kidsa-z. Try to read a variety of fiction and non-fiction. The end of the next quarter is January 22nd. By then you child should be reading between level F and H in order to receive an 'S' on their report card. Please make sure you are reading books at your child's level every night. If you are not sure what books are level appropriate, please use the app. This is decided for you. If you need additional assistance with supporting your child's reading, please arrange to meet with me. Counting on a Calculator, Non-Fiction Features, Long and Short Vowels, Report Writing, and Growing11/13/2015 The grade 1s have been working really hard using frames and arrows to follow math rules (ex. add 5 each time, count back by 2s, etc.). Today they learned that they can use a calculator to help them count/follow a rule. As a class we worked together to type in the number we wanted to start at (for example 25) then punched in the rule (-2). We used the '=' equals button to continue counting. Every time we pressed the 'equals' button again, it told us what came next. We talked about how it is important to be able to use a number of strategies to solve problems, and using a calculator is just one strategy we can use. In Language Arts we have been focusing on recognizing and using non-fiction features. We have learned about photographs, labels, and the table of contents. We learned that we do not need to read a fiction book in order, and that we can use the table of contents to find the information we are looking for. We are going to be writing our own non-fiction texts about animals, or insects shortly, and learning about these features will help us become better writers. When you are reading non-fiction books on kidsa-z ask your child to help you find features like captions, labels, headings, contents, index, glossary, photos, maps, charts, timelines, etc. In ELL time, we have been working on long and short vowels. The first graders spent the last two days playing different board games, learning vocabulary, and isolating long and short vowel sounds. It was a lot of fun. During our UOI time, we have been working on filling in a graphic organizer all about bees. Students are learning the words appearance, habitat, diet and facts. These are the headings they will be using when they complete their own research paper. The vocabulary building that is happening in our class amazes me daily. Your children are sponges for using new words. I LOVE it! We have also been tending to our garden. I have posted some pictures below of the growth we have seen over time, we have beans, peas, pumpkins, corn, watermelon, sunflowers, pineapple, and some 'mystery plants' growing. Soa and I are so proud of the responsibility and pride that the students are taking in their garden. They water, weed, and care so well for their plants. We are looking forward to eating the 'fruits of our labour.'
What is Words Their Way?Words Their Way is a developmental spelling, phonics, and vocabulary program. It was developed by Invernizzi, Johnston, Bear, and Templeton. Words Their Way is intended to be a part of a balanced literacy plan that includes fluency, comprehension and writing. Word study is implemented as a small component of the literacy plan but it is also interwoven in actual reading and writing texts. Words Their Way is an open-ended individual process. An assessment is given to determine where to begin instruction. Based on assessment results students are given words to study in order to discover the common attributes. In this manner students are actively constructing their own knowledge of spelling patterns. Students learn features by completing activities such as word sorting, word hunts, games and drawing and labeling. Students work individually, with partners, and in small groups to encourage cooperative learning and individual responsibility.
We had a fantastic time this morning telling stories about all of the fun Halloween activities each of us did over the weekend. Afterwards, we used our projector and an interactive 100 chart to look for number patters when counting by 2s, 5s, and 10s. We talked about how each of the columns on the 100 chart has a name (the 1s column, 2s column, ....10s column). Tomorrow we will be exploring the 2s pattern in small groups. In Language Arts, we learned that there are 3 parts to a fiction story; the beginning, middle and end. We learned that the beginning of the story tells how the story starts, where the setting is, and who the main characters are. We will be exploring, beginning, middle and end this week, as well as the words problem and solution. Please ask your child about these parts during your nightly reading. We wrapped up our sub-unit on plant life cycles today by running centres where partners moved around the room reviewing the material that we have learned over the last 5 weeks. We will be moving on to animal life cycles tomorrow. We were very happy with how our students were approaching mastery of these important skills. We will continue to learn about the plant life cycle by taking care of our classroom garden which continues to shoot up and strike our children with wonder and awe. During the Daily 5 today, students were introduced to a number of different things they could write. Students made choices, and began to write letters, menus, comic books, lists, and stories. It was nice to see them so excited about writing. |
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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