November 25-28

 November 25-28

Social Studies - Our City as a Community

Students spent the week preparing for our visit to the Sam Centre by learning about the greater community that we belong to, our City of Calgary. By viewing pictures, reading stories, watching short videos, and studying artifacts, we built on our understanding of community by learning about landmarks that make our community special, and logos or symbols that represent our city.  On Thursday we had the amazing opportunity to visit the Sam Centre on Stampede Park. While at the Sam Centre students learned about the original caretakers of this land - the Indigenous peoples of southern Alberta, the beginnings of Stampede, our tradition of pancake breakfasts, our rodeo roots, and the role of agriculture at Stampede, and all the music entertainment and general western hospitality that goes along with the 10-day festival of Stampede that brings our city together!

Learning Intentions

I can recognize the logos and symbols that represent our city community

I can belong to more than one community at a time

I can appreciate multiple points of view, cultures and experiences within their groups and communities 

I can understand what helps us recognize different groups or communities, such as landmarks, symbols, logos and clothing. 

November 18 - 22

 November 18-22

Don’t forget our field trip is this Thursday, November 28th to the Sam Center.  More reminders will be sent by messenger later this week!  Rest up, because it will be a very busy and exciting day for us as learners!  Yeehaw!

Social Studies

Learning Intentions:  

I can identify, understand and appreciate the roles and responsibilities of important people in my school community.

I can understand what our rights and responsibilities are at school.  

I can understand ways that people help one another at school, to ensure the vitality of the school community

This week, we continued to build on our understanding of our important school community and looked at our roles and responsibilities as students when we are at school.  We also had 3 Special Guests who visited our grade one community and told us about what their roles and responsibilities are for our school, and how they help make our school great.

Our first guest, Ms. Shawna, told us about her role and responsibilities as our Facility Operator.

We thought it was important that she is responsible for:  

- cleaning of the inside of our school

- snow removal (with her snowblower too!)

- sidewalks are cleared

- the heating system inside the building and the boiler, 

- making sure fans are blowing air

- taking out the garbage

-  supporting the principal, assistant principal -

- solving problems and using tools, like screwdrivers and shovels

- doing laundry

- keeping things safe for everyone when they are at school

Our second guest was Mrs. Dupuis.  We found it interesting that for her role as a Administrative Assistant some of her responsibilities are:

-is responsible for safety, like fire drills

- helping people if they are hurt - first aid, ice packs

- booking the buses for field trips  

- paying for things for the school  

- order school supplies 

- photocopying things for teachers

- helping Mr. Newman and Mrs. Scarrow with their jobs    

- helping parents and answering the phone when people call the school 

Our third guest this week was Mrs. Scarrow.  We learned how she is the principal and some of her responsibilities are:  

- keeping everyone safe, working with police and fire departments

- doing paperwork

- organizing events for the students like the halloween dance

- works with teachers, students in “Student Voice”, parents

- answer questions of anyone in the school community

- helps organize and make decisions 

She said that we could help make her responsibilities easier by taking care of one another at school.  

As we learned about each important person, we created our visual journal page to capture our learning and understanding.  

November 14-15

 Dear Parents,

We hope you all had a restful fall break!  The next few weeks will go by quickly as we work towards our Winter Concert and all the festivities that come along with the season.

Please watch for our Parent Communication Duotang to come home next week.  In there, you will find an update of your child’s skip counting by 2’s, 5’s, and 10’s and counting backward from 20-1.  

Math

Although it was a short week, we worked hard to represent our understanding of numbers up to 50.  The following is a summary of the concepts and an illustration of some of the tools that we used to show our understanding of these larger numbers. 

Learning Intention:

I can represent numbers to 50. 

I can describe what the representations show.

Using 10-frames to Represent Numbers

Students will use full 10-frames and one partially full 10-frame to represent numbers that include some tens and some additional ones.

•	For example, they can show 35 as:
•	They can show 27 as:

When a number under 100 has two parts as these do, showing some groups of ten as well as some ones, it is called a two-digit number.

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Helping Your Child

Provide opportunities for your child to count at home in situations where there are up to 50 items. You can count aloud with your child if your child finds that helpful.

Play a card game. Create two sets of cards, one showing the numbers 1, 2, 3, and 4 and the other showing the numbers 0 through 9. Place each set in a pile, face down. Turn over one card from each pile and have your child say the number. (Use the pile containing 1, 2, 3, and 4 for the tens digit of each number.) For example, if you turn over a 2 and a 7, your child should say “27.”

Literacy

During our focused literacy lessons we have been learning about one of the sounds that “C” makes.  This week we concluded our lessons on learning C says “k”.  The following are some home practice that your child may do to solidify their understanding of this tricky sound.  

We have now completed focused literacy lessons for the following sounds:

a    m s  t  p  f  i  n  o  c  d 

Just like counting, continued review and practice of letter sounds and making words help to solidify them into automatic skills in both reading and writing.  

November 4-7

November 4-7 

In Social Studies and through our literacy time we have been building our understanding of “Community”.  Specifically, we have looked at the physical communities we belong to and the social groups we are part of.  Through reading stories, viewing short videos, and taking our learning out on the land the grade ones have added to their understanding of our school community and the social groups that we are a part of. Along with this study of our school community, we were asked as a grade group to think about and represent our foundational ideas of Andrew Sibbald for our school mural.  Students expressed their thoughts about special places, people, and activities of our school community in pictures and writing, along with a sensory reflection of our outdoor learning space.  As a culmination of our week, students participated in our Remembrance Day ceremony by creating artwork, contributing to a wreath that was presented, and through their thoughtful participation at the ceremony to recognize and show respect for the special community of those who have served and continue to serve our country through the Canadian Forces.  

Learning Intentions

• I can organize my thoughts to share ideas and information

• I can create written messages that align with an intended audience or purpose

• ​​I can transfer my understanding of words to different situations.

• I can identify which groups I belong to 

• I understand I belong to more than one group

• I appreciate belonging to groups enriches my identity

Writing samples and brainstorming pages for writing about the Special things in our School 

Reflections of See, Think and Feel after being outside and looking closely at the land our school is on and what we notice about the outside of our school building

Remembrance Day Assembly and Art pieces 

October 28-November 1

 This week, we took a dive into our work on writing.  We went through the writing process of brainstorming, drafting and revising.  We focused on the topic of a group that we each find we are a part of - Our Family!  We read a few anchor texts to get us thinking about our own families, and then brainstormed ideas about who or where are family lives, something special we do together, food we enjoy eating together and a secret surprise.  We then spent time working on turning our ideas into complete sentences to share with others.  We learned something new about one another.  It was hard work, as we worked to sound out words.  Writing requires a lot of concentration, and I am proud of each student for their ability to work hard to record their ideas to share with others.   

Learning Intentions:

I can generate ideas that can be expressed through messages 

I can write sentences that contain complete thoughts and makes sense

I can attempt to spell unknown words using letter/sound relationships 

I can add images to written messages 

I can print letters and words with appropriate sizing, focusing on the use of lower case letters

Math

This week, we started to explore ‘teen’ numbers and build our understanding of these numbers.  Below you will find a summary of the key ideas your child has been learning.  You can use this summary as background as you support your child’s work. Some suggestions for simple activities you can do with your child are also included.

Learning Intentions:

I can represent quantities using words, numerals, objects or pictures.  

I can begin to visualize quantities between 10 and 20 as groups or 10 and another quantity (ex. 13 is 10 and 3 more) 

Saying the Numbers Between 10 and 20

The names of numbers between 10 and 20 follow an unusual pattern. Rather than saying ten-one, ten-two, ten-three, and so on, we say eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, sixteen, seventeen, eighteen, and nineteen.

Students can think of thirteen as “three-teen” and fourteen as “four-teen” to help make the connection between 13 and 14 and what we say.

Eleven and twelve are special cases; their names do not follow any predictable pattern.

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Representing Numbers Between 10 and 20

Every number between 10 and 20 can be represented using one group of 10 and another group of 10 or less.

•	Students can use counters and 10-frames to represent the numbers 10 to 20:
•	Students can also use number racks to represent the numbers 10 to 20. Beads are moved to the left to represent a number: The beads on this number rack represent 13.
•	Any number can be represented by a word, a numeral, a picture, or model.

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Helping Your Child

You can use everyday objects, such as rocks, sticks, or spoons, to help your child connect the words for teen numbers to the quantities they represent. Provide opportunities for children to count at home in situations where there are more than 10 items but not more than 20 items.

Children do not need to learn how to write the words for these numbers.

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Notes

Many students write numerals for teen numbers incorrectly because of the way the numbers are said. For example, they might write seventeen as 71 since they hear the 7 first. It takes time and continued attention to ensure students get this concept straight.

Phonics (Literacy)

We continue to work on building our understanding of letters and sounds, and apply these to word work practise every day.  This past week found us reviewing the sounds for i and n. We have also added on reading a short, decodable text to go along with our letter sounds, and then work to add a picture that connects to the story that we read.  Thank you for taking on the extra reading practise at home!  Our students are excited to share their knowledge and skills with you.  

Learning Intentions

I can associate sounds to letters  

I can read simple, and decodable texts independently 

I can read 1 and 2 syllable words that include the most frequent letter-sounds used 

I can read and write consonant sounds in the beginning, middle and ending of words using the letters that represent them