January

Happy New Year!

I hope you all had a relaxing and festive Christmas. We're back into the swing of things now- working hard and having fun. Report cards for term one are fast approaching. I will begin writing them this weekend as they will be sent home in a few short weeks. You will see letter grades beside each of the subjects and then specific comments about children's learning. If you ever have any questions or concerns about the content of the report card, please do feel free to write me a note in the agenda and we can set up a meeting to discuss it. Each and every child has made tremendous progress and should be proud of their accomplishments so far this year. Remember, each child learns at their own pace, in their own way. If you are seeing the growth, regardless of the report grades, that is certainly something to celebrate.

The Curriculum This Month.........

Language Program: We are working on a unit all about Media Literacy. In this day and age, the amount of information that is available to us is increasing at a rapid rate. We are surrounded with media everywhere we we look. Children are growing up with the internet and ever changing technology at their fingertips. So it's important that we spend a little bit of time creating awareness about the media messages we are exposed to everyday. We will be critically examining various forms of media and therefore better equipping the students make decisions about the true meaning of messages. Some examples of media around us are....
- billboards
-books
-cartoons
- movies
-commercials
- internet
-magazines
-paintings and photographs
-video games
- radio
- menus etc
The children will have an opportunity to examine commercials and ads that are targeted towards a specific audience like adults or children and then we will be looking at what the implied and hidden messages are. For example, why do kids Happy Meals look different than an adult meal? Why do they show older kids playing with younger children's toys? etc.... This unit is a great way for us to think critically about what we see in the media. We will be incorporating our reading, writing and oral communication into this unit but we will also continue with our traditional levelled guided reading groups and literacy centres.

Math: We didn't get time before the holidays to begin our unit on 3D geometry so we have started now. Please see December's post for more details about what children are learning. They are having a great time exploring the attributes of different 3D shapes through building and sorting activities. If you would like to support your child with the concepts from this unit, here are some ideas:
- play "I spy" in your home or on a walk if the weather ever gets warm enough to go outside. Look for shapes that are rectangular prisms, cylinders, sphere's, cubes etc.
- have a race to see who can locate and collect the most of one shape in your shape in your house ( ie. I found a board game, cereal box and tissue box and they are all rectangular prisms!)
- play a sorting game- collect objects that all have something in common ( ie. they all roll) place them in  one pile and then another pile with things that cannot roll. Have your child guess what the sorting rule is

Social Studies: We are creating a mini city of Brantford in our classroom as kind of a fun way to recount what we have learned during our community helpers unit.
Science: We will start a unit on Structures and Mechanisms. Children will discuss different materials used to make various structures in our homes, classroom and outside environment ( park equipment, cement, metal for our chairs etc) and learn why and how structures are created ( ie. a stop light is tall so that people can see it and made of metal so that it can withstand the weather etc). We will look at structures in nature and structures made by people. We will even explore various famous structures around the world.... Colloseum, Leaning Tower of Piza, CN Tower etc. Finally, at the end of our learning, students will demonstrate what they have learned by creating their own structure!

December News

Time is racing by and it's almost Christmas! The class has been working very hard on our song for the concert. Many children in our class have also joined the primary choir and will be performing additional songs for the concert on the 18th.
I have to take a moment to share how proud I am of the children in this class. We have come such a long way since September in our reading and writing. They continue to amaze me each and every day. I can tell you wholeheartedly that I feel very blessed to be their teacher. We are having such a wonderful year together!
 Hopefully you and your child have had an opportunity to check out the raz-kids online reading program. Some of you are already familiar with it from previous years. I apologize that it was so late coming. The original account that was set up for our class wasn't working so we had to wait on approval for another and Mr. Ouellette just received it a week ago. I know that its a wonderful tool for those who do have computer and internet access. We will also be using the school netbooks to practice in class later in the year. Remember that students can write each raz-kids book on their reading log and it will count as a book read for our reading competition throughout the year.

The curriculum this month will be centered around the theme of the holiday and Christmas season. We will be exploring some beautiful literature as a class and we will continue to work on our reading comprehension strategies and skills in both small groups, partners and as a whole class. The kids are working at remembering to stop and think while they read. They have special bookmarks that we made that help to remind them of the special kinds of questions they should ask themselves as they read to improve reading comprehension.
In writing, I have special news...... our letters to Santa have been answered! He delivered them right to our school today..... they even arrived ice cold!! Our writing this month will be writing in response to reading activities. In math, students continue to complete the unit on measurement. We have just begun to learn about area. We will hopefully have a little bit of time to begin learning about 3D geometry where we study the attributes of shapes such as spheres, rectangular prisms, triangle based pyramids etc. We have lots of fun in this unit because in order to explore we get to do some fun building! In social studies we will continue to explore our local community of Brantford. I would like to take this opportunity to personally thank all the parents that have given us their valuable time to come in speak with the children. What an amazing opportunity it has been for us.

If I don't see you personally before the holidays, I want to wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Hopefully you all have some time off to rest and relax and enjoy family time.

See you in 2014!

My apologies in advance for the previous post, for some reason the site will not publish the spacing as I typed it. Please bear with me as you read it all lumped into one paragraph. :)

November News

Happy Mo-vember! A few quick points... We have just been informed that Picture Re-Take Day is tomorrow- Friday! So sorry for the last minute notice. A special thank you to all of the parent volunteers who were able to come along to Brantwood Farms and the Safety Village. I really appreciate your time and assistance. For those who were unable to join us on the Safety Village trip, I wish I had video-taped the children driving those jeeps around the mini-village. We had some up on curbs, on the wrong side of the road, running red lights and even crashing into medians and each other. It was hysterical.... but the children had a riot! The Curriculum This Month.... In reading and writing we will be focusing on a Remembrance Day theme. This is sometimes a very challenging topic for children to grasp. We do talk about war and how many soldiers gave their lives in the name of freedom. We discuss how there are many countries still at war around the world and explore what the word "peace" means to us here in our own community and at our school. You may have children asking some challenging questions about the reality of war and each family may choose to address these questions differently. Students will also have an opportunity to learn about the structure of letter writing as we will be writing letters to war veterans to thank them for their service to our country. This is always such a wonderful experience for the kids. In Math, we will begin a new unit on measurement. Students will learn the basic principles of measuring length and area using non-standard measuring units (paper clips, snap cubes, pencils etc). A question might be "how many paper clips long is your desk?" or " how many cue cards does it take to cover the surface of your desk?" You can support your child at home by playing silly games like "Let's see how many running shoes it takes to measure the length of our hallway using the same shoe over and over again!" You can also begin to introduce your child to measurements in centimetres or metres at home... let them help with a measuring tape. Or you can look at these websites together: http://www.funbrain.com/cgi-bin/meas.cgi?A1=s&A2=1&A3=0 http://www.kidport.com/Grade1/Math/MeasureGeo/G1-M-MG1-1-1b.htm http://www.beaconlearningcenter.com/WebLessons/MeasuringTools/default.htm In Social Studies we are studying our local community and how humans meets their needs in the community. We have talked about the difference between needs and wants. Something that is sometimes an interesting discussion with little ones! Kids are learning about how there are various community helpers that meet these needs for us. For example, police officers keep us safe, grocers sell us our food while farmers grow it. I am wondering if there are any parents who might like to come in talk about their jobs as community helpers? For example, fire fighters, police officers, nurses, bankers etc. It would just be a brief chat with the children about what you do and then an opportunity for them to ask you questions. Thank you in advance!!!!!! To reinforce your child's learning, you can take them to this site where they get to build their own community! http://www.sfsocialstudies.com/k/u2/index.html In Art, we will be responding to different design challenges making prints and Remembrance Day themed works of art. Thank you again for all of your support with your child's learning. I very much look forward to seeing you at the student led conferences next week!

Portfolios, Roots of Empathy

Hi everyone!
Just wondering if anyone is missing a Brantford Public Library book called Touch and Feel Dinosaur? It was accidentally returned in our library bin. I don't want anyone to have extra fines. Send me a quick note in the agenda if this belongs to you. Thanks.:)

I also wanted to fill you in on some other news from our classroom.

Roots of Empathy:
We will be starting a program called "Roots of Empathy" whereby children learn all about the development of an infant through the first few months of their lives. Mrs. Metcalfe, who is off on maternity leave, has kindly agreed to bring her sweet bundle of joy in each month so that our class can learn all about the baby. Roots of Empathy is a wonderful program that has been proven to be effective in reducing levels of aggression among schoolchildren by raising social/emotional competence and increasing empathy. I had the pleasure and privilege of being a part of the program with my old class when I was off with my son Alex, and I can certainly say that it was an extraordinary experience that I will never forget.
 To learn more about this program,  you can visit the link below:
http://www.rootsofempathy.org/en/where-we-are/north-america/canada/ontario.html

Portfolios:
Our class will begin using portfolios as a means to store and keep track of our work. We will be using these portfolios so that children can look at their work from the beginning of a unit and then see first hand how much they have learned at the end by noticing the changes and improvement in their learning. Part of the goal is to make students reflective learners who can see their strengths and areas of need and then work, with my support, to set goals and improve their overall learning. We will also be using these portfolios as a tool to share our learning with you during the interviews this year. As you may have already heard, we will be doing student led conferences this year, and your child will have the wonderful opportunity of guiding you through collections of their work, different assessments etc. Soooo..... this does mean that you will see a little less coming home, as I have been storing it in each child's portfolio. Thanks for your patience with this!

October News in Grade One!

The students have been working very hard and I am so proud of them. We have come a long way since the beginning of September already in the areas of independence, work habits, printing skills and reading. The children have continued to develop friendships and a sense of mutual respect toward one another as a classroom community. We have such a lovely group this year, we talk a lot about taking care of one another and showing patience and kindness to each other because we all have to spend each day together in one room.

October is a busy month for us at school. We will celebrating Thanksgiving with lots of fun activities that coincide with our reading, writing, math and art. We will also be having a Halloween dress up day on the 31st and a class party. Kids will be parading through the school and neighbourhood to show their costumes. For the class party, you are welcome to send some treats with your child if you like. Please be sure they are peanut and nut free. Thanks so much!

The Curriculum This Month......

Reading: Our Home Reading Program is off and running. Hopefully you are enjoying reading with your child each night. I do my best to match the book close to your child's reading level. When we do reading assessments to determine a reading level, we look for three things: your child's accuracy and ability to solve the words on each page, your child's comprehension and understanding of what they have read, and then we look at how fluently they can read the story. Is it read word by word and choppy? Or does it flow like natural speech with expression and intonation in their voice? So even though your child may be able to read all the words on a page, comprehension and fluency also account for the level of book that is appropriate to them.
We will also be sending home the logins for our RAZ kids online reading program soon. Mr. Ouellette has signed our class up, we are just waiting for the passwords. If your child enjoys reading online this is a great program. You can listen to the book first and then practice reading independently. There are also quizzes that kids can do after to check for understanding. If your child more readily reads the online books rather than the book bag books, by all means record these books on your child's reading log and send it in so that we know that they have read it. It will count toward the total number of books that your child has read this year and I want to make sure that they get credit for all the books they have read independently.
The ideal goal for students in grade one is to be reading at a level I-J by the end of the school year. Don't worry..... we've got all year and lots of time to practice!

Writing: Each child's goal is to be able to write one to two sentences independently with the help of their personal dictionary and the classroom word wall (these have our spelling words posted that we have already learned). We will be working on a writing process called "Try One, Try Another." Children will write about a specific topic, then receive some feedback from me about their specific work and have the opportunity to use the feedback and classroom learning to "try another" and show their very best work. This is a great way for students to visually see their learning and improvements. It also allows me to assess the very best work that kids can show me.

Math: The children have been working hard counting by 2's all the way to 100. This is a skill they really need to know, so please continue to practice with them whenever you can. I am impressed with their improvements this week! We also exploring number relationships. You can support your child with these concepts by doing the following activities:
- practice estimating using 12-13 small objects scattered ( not in rows or groups). Ask "is the number of objects closer to five or ten? About how many are there? Then count.
- your child is using "10 and........" to represent numbers from 11-20. Count out 14 small objects and ask your child to put 10 on one side; then count what is left (i.e. 14 is 10 and 4.)
- show a number of objects between 10 and 20. Ask your child "what is 2 more?" and "what is 2 less?"

Science: This month we are exploring daily and seasonal changes. We have had a great time using magnifying glasses to investigate nature outside and look for signs of fall. We have even learned about different kinds of leaves that are found on the playground. Students will be challenged to assess the impact of daily and seasonal changes on outdoor activities ( farming, gardening, swimming etc) and then we will look at how various innovations have allowed for some of these activities to take place out of season ( i.e. greenhouses allow farming in the winter). We will also take it to the next level by looking at how the change in seasons can impact society and the environment. For example, the in the winter, some people suffer from seasonal affective disorder, people use more energy by turning up the heat in the winter time. People use appliances at peak times which put a strain on power supplies etc.

As always, if you have any questions or would like to discuss your child's progress with me, I am always available to chat on the phone or meet with you in person. Please just write a note in the agenda and we can arrange something. Thanks again for taking the time to read this. Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family. I wish you all a restful and relaxing long weekend with your families.

Some new updates...

You can add these to your calendar at home.... Blue and White Day: We are having our first school spirit day. Children are encouraged to wear as many blue and white pieces of clothing on Friday, Sept 13th to show their school spirit. Terry Fox: We are doing a school wide Terry Fox walk on Sept 27th. Permission forms will be coming home soon. We are also asking for donations from each student if possible. Thanks in advance! Gym: Gym will be every Day 2 and 4. You can mark these on the board calendar in your child's agenda at the front or right now they fall on Monday and Wednesday. Ms. Sabatino will be teaching our class gym, health, drama and music. Library: Mrs. Kneebone will be volunteering in the library and taking our class down in the next week or two. I will speaking with her about which day works best and let you know as soon I can. Our library has so many new and wonderful books this year. Ms. Sabatino has been working really hard to buy and catalogue many new additions that kids will love!!! Book Orders: I have sent out Scholastic book orders to each child. If you are ever interested in ordering, it's a great way for us to get new books and resources for our classroom. With every order that I send in, Scholastic gives me free bonus points which I use toward buying great things for our room. PLEASE SEND IN CHEQUES ONLY AS I CAN'T SEND CASH IN THE MAIL- THANKS SO MUCH! :) Highlights Magazines: I am sending home little slips with each child in case your family wants to order a subscription. Even if you dont want one, please sign and send back...... if I send in all the signed forms (even when you dont order).... they will give our class a free suscription for the year that we can all enjoy! Spelling Words: Next week we will begin our spelling program. In your child's agenda you will see a list of words that they can study and work on at home throughout the week. We will have a weekly spelling quiz on these words. We will focus on the word structure throughout the week and expect kids to be able to independently spell them by the end of the week. They can take a peek at our word wall if they absolutely can't do independently, but my hope is that they will study and learn the words to use them in their own reading and writing. It would be a tremendous help if you could assist your child with learning these words at home. You can build them out of playdough, paint them on the sidewalk with water and a paintbrush, write them on a chalkboard in your kitchen, build them out of magnetic letters....anything that works to reinforce them. Thank you for taking an active role in your child's learning.