April Dates

April 5th - Hop-A-Thon
April 6th - Good Friday (no school)
April 9th - Easter Monday (no school)
April 13th - Grade 1 trip to Jubilee Theatre to see "Alice in Wonderland"
April 27th - Professional Development Day (no school for children)

April News!

* I apologize for neglecting to put March's letter on the blog*

Dear Family,

Well, spring has finally arrived! The children are excited about the sunshine and nicer days.  Our playground is fairly dry, but splash pants and rubber boots will help keep your child dry and “mud-free”. Please ensure your child is dressed appropriately for outdoor play…hats and mittens are still necessary most days!

We are continuing to work on sight words, and have two more weeks worth of words after this week.  After all sight words have been introduced we will be working on mastery of these words; identifying, reading sight words in context and writing sight words in context. Please continue to review with your child sight words that he or she is still struggling with.

Please read the weekly poem with your child each night, and have your child answer the questions on the back of the sheet by Friday of each week. We review this poem each day in class so your child should be fluently reading the poem at home by the end of the week. We will be completing another set of reading records with your child before the middle of May, and will keep you updated on your child’s progress via a phone call or email. 

We celebrated our study of instructional writing by following directions to make ice cream! We will be working on fiction writing and will be starting a small research project toward the end of the month.

In math, we will be working on the concept of subtraction, and will be completing a unit on geometric shapes. Please continue to review the addition facts flashcards that were sent home with your child. In the next few weeks subtraction facts flashcards will come home. As we move toward the end of the year, the rest of the addition facts and subtraction facts will be sent home for practice. I am sending home a song we have been using to practice our skip counting (on the back of this sheet) – please continue to practice this at home.

We are learning about our senses in science and will be doing some experiments as we explore our five senses. We will also do some follow up to our discussion of what life was like in the past as part of our social studies unit on place and time. Our science, social studies and health curriculum is integrated into our literacy block.

Please continue to keep us updated on any questions or concerns you may have. Thanks for your continued support at home.

Mrs. C and Mrs. Newson

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We have been using this song in math to practice skip counting. Please continue to practice skip counting at home!

Skip Count (to the tune of Skip to My Lou)

Skip count, skip count, count by 2

Skip count, skip count, count by 2

Skip count, skip count, count by 2

We can count to 20!

2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 18, 20!

Skip count, skip count, count by 5

Skip count, skip count, count by 5

Skip count, skip count, count by 5

We can count to 50!

5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35, 40, 45, 50!

Skip count, skip count, count by 10

Skip count, skip count, count by 10

Skip count, skip count, count by 10

We can count to 100!

10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, 90, 100!

February Dates

Feb. 1st - PD day (no school for children)
Feb. 14th - Valentine's Day party
Feb. 15 - 100th day of school
Feb. 21st - Islander Day (no school)

It's February!

Welcome to February! The children are enjoying all of the snow on the playground, and we are busy at work in our class during this productive time of the year.

We have finished sight word testing and we are continuing to do reading records with students. You may have noticed that your child has moved up to more challenging books for their nightly reading. Some of these books may also be a bit lengthier and more detailed than the books they were bringing home previously. Try to spend a few minutes with your child after he or she has read to ask some general questions about the book. This may require that your child has to refer back to the book, or may have to re-read the book in order to answer your questions. This is fine, as often your child is concentrating on fluency during the first read through and may need another chance to read the book to focus on comprehending the material.

We have also been working on several strategies for solving unknown words in reading. Your child should not simply try to sound out every unknown word. We have been focusing on using meaning (what makes sense) and structure (what sounds right) along with visual information (what looks right). Students have been using lots of strategies along with sounds, such as using the picture for support; skipping the unknown word to read to the end of the sentence, then re-reading the sentence to try to solve the word;  and thinking about what makes sense within the context of the story. This does not mean that sound/letter relationships should not be used, but  sounding out is often a time consuming task that makes the children lose the meaning of what they are reading.  As well, if your child makes a mistake when reading please give him or her  the opportunity to notice the error and correct it on his or her own. If your child does not notice the mistake, tell him or her that he or she made a mistake on that page and ask him or her to re-read it to see if he or she can notice the error.

In math, a baggie has gone home along with +0 and +1 math fact flash cards. The cards should be cut and kept in the baggie. We are currently working on our double facts (e.g 2+2, 3+3, 4+4) and a sheet of these will go home when I finish introducing these in class. As each new set  of math facts comes home, please cut out the flash cards and add them to the baggies. Please take a few minutes each weeknight to practice some of the math facts. When subtraction is introduced, flashcards will also be sent home.

We are also working on numbers to 100 in math. Later this month, a hundred chart will go home with your child along with some sample ideas to try with your child.

This month is a busy one in grade one! On February 14 we will be having our Valentine’s Day party in the afternoon. I have included a class list of all students in the class. Students do not have to make Valentine cards, but we ask that if they do that one is made for each child in the class. On February 15 (unless we have a storm day before then) we will be celebrating the 100^th day of school. A note will go home a little closer to that date asking children to bring a collection of 100 items to school. You may want to start thinking about some things your child might want to bring in. Some examples are 100 paper clips, 100 pennies, 100 cotton balls, 100 Q-tips, etc.  I will be talking in class to the children about how 100 is made up of 10 groups of 10, so you may want to have that same discussion at home with your child as they are counting their 100 items to bring to school.

We have almost finished our sound study for the year. Your child’s sound scribbler is being sent home as we have started a new scribbler to work on the remaining sounds. You can use this scribbler to review the sounds with your child. We rely heavily on our sounds when writing unknown words.

Thank you so much to Deb Gallant, who along with her children Jazmyn and Gideon did a presentation for the class about Chinese New Year. We will be celebrating the end of Chinese New Year on February 7 with a lantern parade. We love having visitors to our class and if any parents would like to come in to share expertise in a certain area or to read a favorite story we would be more than happy to have you. The children feel so proud when they see their parents visiting the school!

As always, please feel free to contact us with any concerns or questions you may have. Thanks for your continued support,

Mrs. C and Mrs. Newson

Happy New Year!

Welcome to 2012! I hope you all had an enjoyable holiday and a restful break. This time of year is usually very productive at school (if we don't have too many storms!) and you will really began to see some amazing growth in your child over the next few months.

We are back to work right away learning more sight words and reading our poems and books. We would like for you to take some extra time this week reviewing all of the sight words, especially if you took a break from this over the holidays. We will be testing your child's sight words again after we finish week 12 and will send the results home to you. We will also be working on reading records this month, and you may find that you child will be taking more difficult books home to read. Please let us know if her or she is having any difficulty with these.

In our integrated theme, we will be working on the new year ( in relation to the calendar) and daily and seasonal changes. We integrate this work into our language arts reading and writing time, as opposed to having a separate time designated for science, social studies or health.

In math, we have started our next unit on addition and subtraction. In a few weeks your child will be taking home a baggie with math facts to practice. As we introduce new facts, a sheet of flash cards will go home to add to the baggie ( similar to the sight word flashcards that come home).  This will be an addition to the homework your child should do each week night, but it should not take more than a few minutes each night.

Please continue to keep us informed if you have any questions or concerns.

Mrs. Connolly and Mrs. Newson