Week 13-14 December 7th, 2018

Here is an update on what we have been working on these days.  There is never a dull moment around here but you can be sure we are always learning!

We finished up our science Colour unit this week with a couple science experiments. We took some observations and made some conclusions.   We also wrote in our Science Journal a summary of all the things we remember about colour.

We worked on a couple different art projects over the last two weeks.  One was a collaborative art project where students worked in partners to make shooting stars.  The had to cut out tracers and work with one another to hold the star in place as they drew around it with chalk and spread the chalk out around the tracer.  They were very happy with the end result.  

We continued with our Owl topic too, doing so many cool things.  We finished off our information booklet, with all the owl vocabulary that we learned.  Students wrote definitions and drew pictures to remind them about all these tricky words.  

We read the story Owl Babies and used it for inspiration for our next art project...

And then as a summary we wrote a paragraph and students needed to include anything they knew about owls.  We used this project to learn about a "rough draft" and a good copy.  It was quite the process but we worked on making sure our sight words were spelled correctly and we sounded out anything else.  If students could read me back what they wrote no changes were made to their spelling.    Students also had to remember to use capital letters, periods and finger spaces.  Grade 1 is hard work but we are getting into the groove of things now!  I don't want to post too many pictures of the owl books because the students are very excited to read and share them at home with you!  We will also be sharing them around the school next week.  They are OWL EXPERTS!!!

In other areas of Language Arts students are getting so good at our daily language arts routine.  Students are very excited about reading and we love hearing one another read.  It is a pretty exciting time for the Grade 1's as we see them really making progress in their reading and fluency.  No one gets more excited than me as we hear students read out loud with confidence!  

I'm sure you have all heard about our recent "TRIP."  We prepared for a few days this week by making suit cases, passports and scrapbooks and today we loaded the train to our first stop in our own Country of Canada.  Next week we will be boarding the plane to Hawaii, Germany, Mexico and a few others.  We are also excited to hear about your family Christmas Traditions next week.  

We also wrote a quick letter to Santa.  We didn't ask for any toys though, we just told him a few things about ourselves.  We will see if he has time to write back!  

In Math we have been focusing on numbers to 20, working on the terms greater than, less than and equal too.  We have been working on number lines and with 100's charts to develop our number sense.  Students have been working on skip counting.  We have also really been talking about numbers that are one or two more than another and one or two less!  We love Math in 1B!  

We collected over 200 items for the Christmas Elves Project this week.  We sorted our items in groups of 2's, 5's and 10's and practised counting them!  Way to go 1B Families, that is a lot of donations! 

Everyone did an excellent job at the Christmas Concerts!  Thank you to everyone for coming out!  

Enjoy the long weekend!  I'm headed to Cochrane for a Ringette Tournament so I will see everyone Monday!  

Week 12 - November 25th, 2017

Please take some time to log onto power school this week as I have updated quite a few assignments on there.  If you have trouble logging into your account please contact the office.

This week in math we are back to focusing on numbers to 20.  We played a subitizing bingo game where I showed students the numbers in a variety of ways (10's Frames, Tally Marks, dice, dominoes, fingers) and they had to identify the same number in dots.  I told them this was "Mental Math" and they weren't allowed to count the dots, they just needed to look at the dots and decide what number it was.  They loved this game and we played quite a few rounds.  Students had to have great listening ears and pay close attention to make sure they had the best chance of getting a Bingo!

We also worked on counting groups of objects and identifying whether groups were bigger or smaller than one another.  We talked about the words "most" and "least".  Next week we will be moving on to "greater than", "less than" or "equal to".

In our Language Arts blocks we started a new program that we call "making words".  Students get select letter tiles and need to make words with them.  This helps with both their reading and their writing.  When students make new words they also write them down in the word work book.  

We also continued to work on our sight words this week in some different ways.  The students liked this crazy shape writing to practice their new yellow words.  

We also started a mini study on Owls.  We are going to do some research and studying about Owls over the next couple of weeks.  

We celebrated the 50th Day of School with another visit from Zero the Hero!  He left us a little treat and a fun booklet to work on.  We did a hidden number activity, a writing activity and practised our skip counting by 2, 5 and 10.

The students really loved our Science Experiment this week.  We learned about making predictions, listing materials needed, and asking questions.  We used coloured washable markers and put large dots of colour in the centre of a coffee filter and sprayed them with water.  We predicted what would happen and then we tried it out.

They were so excited to see all of the different colours that came from the black markers, and of course when the primary colours started mixing they were equally amazed.  When done, students wrote down their observations.

Congratulations to Layton for being 1B's Student of the Week.  Layton is so fun in 1B, he is always helping his friends and doing his best work.  He is an awesome reader and is learning to spell new words everyday!  Layton loves Grade 1!!!

Week 11 - November 17th, 2018

We had a jam packed week in 1B again this week.  

We completed a whole unit on 2D shapes in Math.  We went on a shape hunt, we made shapes with the geoboards, and we drew the shapes and labelled them.  We will keep practisng the shape names and characteristics going forward, but 1B is excited about shapes!

Next week in Math and until Christmas we will be focusing on numbers to 20.  We will be learning some new math games, and working on our number sense. 

In Language Arts we are still practising our daily listening games working on phonemic awareness.  In easy-to-understand terms, phonemic awareness is the ability to identify, think about, and manipulate sounds in spoken speech.  Phonemic awareness is actually a critical skill that is a precursor to reading.  We want to ensure that children have a solid understanding of the sounds of speech.  We really love our listening game time, students are focused and dedicated to understanding how words are formed.  This will help them so much in their reading.  

We also wrote our first letter to our pen pals this week.  I have a good friend that teaches Grade 1 in Grimshaw, Alberta so our class has become pen pals.  We read a few stories about what it means to be a pen pal and it ties well into our Social Studies curriculum where we learn about different types of communities.  We sent them some information about Devon, and our School, as well as a picture of us with all of our names.  Students came up with some questions for them, and we gave them some interesting facts about ourselves.  They were very excited!  We will send letters back and forth all year!  

We continue to work on word families during part of our mornings as well.  Students are excited to spell and read new words each day.  

On Thursday we had Teachers Pet in for an In-School Field trip.  The students listened to legends and learned three new games, as well as made a beautiful dream catcher.  I wanted to keep the Dream Catchers for a few weeks at school, but the students were too excited to bring them home!  The students did an excellent job listening and following instructions, they were pretty tricky to make, but we had a group of amazing parent volunteers to help us!  Thanks so much for helping us.  

On Friday we worked a bit more on our Science topic Colours.  We did some paint experiments with mixing colours, and making colours lighter and darker. We also talked about the differences between manufactured colours and colours found in nature.  Students generated lists of words of colourful items that are found in nature and items that are man - made.  Next week we have a couple of colour experiments planned!

Over the last two weeks we have started our daily reading groups in Grade 1.  Students are divided on reading readiness into 4 groups and go to a different room each day at 11:25 to work on targeted reading strategies.  It is so awesome because the Teachers working with each group can plan activities specifically for each groups level!   

Cecil was 1B's Student of the Week on Friday!  Cecil is so fun in 1B, he is a good friend and is working hard at persisting with difficult tasks!  He is a master at computers and often shows me how things work!  We love having Cecil in 1B!

The school was donated 2 cases of bananas this week so on Thursday we had a banana break, and anyone who could eat a banana or wanted a banana got one!  

Enjoy your weekend!