April 22-25

 It was another week packed with learning and fun, as we really start to shift our minds towards being ready for City Hall School.  Here is some of the things we got up to this week in our learning.

City Hall Ready - Walk to the Ridge

Even though it was a little chilly, the sun was out and we took a walk together to the ridge on Tuesday.  We got a different perspective of the land and saw some landmarks far away.  We then captured what we saw in a landscape drawing.  We are really starting to build our stamina for sitting and sketching.  We even got to sit on the camping stools!  Take a look!

   

          

More Time Outside

We took time on Thursday to go outside as well.  We did a Daily Double journal, where we recorded observations from around us, using our 5 senses.  We noticed many different things, especially connected to spring.  We then reflected and wrote down ideas starting with I think…. I notice…. I wonder….  This time allowed us to notice and pay attention to the world and things around us.  

 

Learning Intentions:

I can collect ideas that are inspired by a variety of experiences 

I can express ideas through a variety of different written forms 

I can record factual information in various ways

I can describe seasonal changes

I can describe how seasonal changes affect humans and animals in the environment

I can record seasonal changes over time

I can recognize familiar landmarks and places in our own community from other communities

City Hall Special Guest - Miss Janelle - Friday 

We ended our week with a special guest joining us - Miss Janelle. She will be our City Hall School coordinator who will be joining our class each day, during our days at City Hall and coordinating the activities and experiences that we will be doing each day.  She has already met a few times with Mrs. Kosior and Ms. Gardner to talk about our big question about stories, and has helped to create a plan for the things we will do together.  We are getting very excited.  

We are excited for….

• Seeing the City Hall School classroom in person

• The revolving door going into City Hall

• The city bus we will get to take to and from City Hall

• Using some lockers for the week inside our classroom

Miss Janelle read a story book to us.  We then got to look at some special artifacts she brought from City Hall School.  We looked at them and also thought about what we noticed, what we thought and what we wondered.  We thought about the stories that the artifacts might be about and can’t wait to explore more artifacts when we are at City Hall School and learn more about the stories of our city and our connection to it.  

 

        

Next week, we will also be having a guest joining us from the Mustard Seed, to talk a bit more about things we might see while we are downtown.  

How can you help your child get ready for City Hall School?

Walking is going to be a part of our days every day when we are at City Hall.  To help your child feel ready, it may help to go for a walk together every day - start off short and then build up going a little farther each day.  This will help get your child’s legs ready and strong for walking downtown!  

Take a trip downtown?  If your child isn’t familiar with the downtown area and is having feelings of nervousness, going together as a family for an outing together might also help relieve some worries and help your child to feel prepared too!  

Literacy 

This week we focused on reviewing long vowel sounds with silent e with g making the “j” sound with silent e and some exceptions to the silent e rule, such as v at the end of a word but still needing a silent e and scribal o.  These are some interesting and challenging rules to remember, so a few minutes of extra practise can definitely help.  Please see the following home practice. 

April 14-17

A Couple of Reminders:

Home communication folders have gone home again this pass week with another update connected to reading.  We continue to build our understanding of new letter sounds and the rule of silent e and a few extra minutes of practise can go a long way each day.  Thank you to your support with returning home decodables.  We are over halfway to our class earned reward!  

We will also be going for a community walk on Tuesday after our morning recess.  More details will be coming in your messenger.  Please help your child be dressed for the weather on Tuesday!  

Lots was going on again in Grade 1 this past week.

Here are some of the top highlights from our learning.

City Hall Ready - Outdoor Exploring and Sketching!

The weather was so beautiful on Tuesday, that we took advantage to go outside and explore the land.  We continue to look for the stories of this place and were looking for the story of spring.  We did a Zoom-in journal activity, by picking something that was interesting to us to draw.  We then “zoomed in” closer, drawing a smaller part of the object.  We did an amazing job at sitting and sketching quietly.  

    

Learning Intentions:

I can collect ideas that are inspired by a variety of experiences 

I can express ideas through a variety of different written forms 

I can record factual information in various ways

We went out again on Thursday and took a closer look at the garden space.  We noticed some different signs of spring and different plants that are growing in this area.  We Zoomed-in again, sketching what we saw.  It was definitely a bit chiller than on Tuesday!  Yay, Spring.  We will continue to be going outside in the next few weeks, so dressing for the changing temperatures and being outside will help us to enjoy the changes of the season!  

   

Gym (Scooter Boards)

In gym class, kindergarten and grade 1 students are focusing on large group skills. Safety was our priority this week while learning about scooter boards. Students did an excellent job working in pairs and as a large group to learn new skills. 

   

Learning Intentions: 

• I can move my body in different ways using a scooter board.

• I can stop safely when I’m riding a scooter board.

• I can take turns and share the scooter board with my classmates

• I can follow a path or line with my scooter board.

• I can keep my balance while riding the scooter board.

• I can try new ways to ride (on my stomach, sitting, on my knees, etc.).

• I can listen to instructions and follow the rules during scooter board games.

Math

We concluded our investigation of representing numbers by decomposing and composing numbers.  Students built their understanding by “composing” a number by putting together groups to create a number.  Conversely, students built their understanding of “decomposing” or taking a part a number by breaking it into groups.

Learning Intention

• Compose and decompose numbers to 100.

• Representing number to 100 in a variety of ways

Composing Numbers

Generally, “to compose” means to create something by putting things together. You compose numbers by putting together two or more quantities to create a larger quantity. For example, you can put together 3 tens and 4 ones to create 34.

You can put together more than just tens and ones.

For example, if you put together 4 eights and 4 ones, you would get 36.

If you put together 8 and 11 and 20, you would get 39.

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Decomposing Numbers

Generally, “to decompose” means to break something into parts. You decompose numbers by breaking them up into smaller quantities.

For example, you can break 56 apart into 5 tens and 6 ones.

You can also break 56 apart into 8 groups of 7.

You could also break 56 apart into 11 groups of 5 and 1 more.

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Helping Your Child With New Words

Ask your child to put together some smaller numbers to create bigger numbers. As you talk about the task, use “put together” and “compose” interchangeably so that your child will learn that they mean the same thing.

Similarly, ask your child to take apart a big number. As you talk about the task, use “take apart” and “decompose” interchangeably so that your child will grasp that they mean the same thing.

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Helping Your Child

When items come in packs (e.g., of 2 or 3 or 4), have your child figure out how many items are in several packs.

Alternatively, ask your child to figure out how many packs you need to open to have a particular number of items.

Literacy

This week we focused on reviewing long vowel sounds with silent e and the sound “c” makes “s” with silent e and well as g make the “j” sound with silent e.  Please see the following home practice.  

April 7-11

 Another week has flown by.  Just a few follow up notes:

• Thank you for returning home communication folders.  We have an update on learning we would like to send out this coming week, so please return if you have not done so already.

• Thank you for all the adult volunteers that have reached out in regards to volunteering for our City Hall School experience in May.  The week is starting to fill up.  If you are still interested, please let me know before Easter weekend.  

• We have had a good return on our home decodable texts this past week as well.  We are excited to earn our class reward!  Keep it up!

Some highlights from the learning this week:

Literacy/Writing:

This week we continued to build on our understanding of non-fiction texts, with a closer look at instructional writing.  How-to writing is a way of writing directions of how to do something for others to follow.  We were asked to write instructions for an ‘alien’ who wouldn’t know how to brush their teeth.  We then looked at the instructions that some students wrote, and noticed that if we don’t include enough detail, the instructions are not clear for the reader.  

 

Learning Intentions

I can create written messages, in the form of instructions, to represent ideas and information

I can express ideas and information through the organization of instructional writing

I can record factual information in various ways

Social Studies 

We continued to expand and build on our understanding of rural communities.  We looked at pictures of rural communities with small groups and recorded what we noticed, thought and wondered.  We also looked at a picture of a rural place, labelling and making labels for all the different things in an urban community, to help build vocabulary.  

  

 

Learning Intentions

• Recognize different groups or communities

• Identify familiar landmarks and places in my community 

• Identify important landmarks and places significant features of the community

• Identify differences between rural and urban communities

City Hall School Preparations:

Thank you to our parents who attended the Parent Council meeting last week and heard about our ongoing learning that has been taking place focused on our big question connected to City Hall School.  

We are starting to ensure we take time during the week to include time for us to build on our journaling skills and have ways of recording our observations when looking at different things in different places.  We went out to the learning grounds and engaged in a sound-scape.  We listened to the sounds around us, and recorded different sounds we heard using symbols, labels or simple pictures to record them.  We did a great job of sitting with our journals and recording our observations.  

 

 

Learning Intentions:

I can collect ideas that are inspired by a variety of experiences 

I can apply creative thinking to create a representation of a message

I can express ideas through a variety of different written forms 

I can record factual information in various ways

March 31 - April 4

 Dear Parents,

We hope that everyone had a restful spring break.  A few reminders as we begin this last portion of the year.

• We sent our red communication folders home before the break so that parents would have a chance to look at their child’s work during conferences.  If you have not already done so please return your child’s red folder. 

• In hopes of continuing to practice our decodable home reading and offer an incentive, I will be tracking our home reading exchanges. When we have reached 100 exchanges as a class we will have the opportunity to have an earned class reward that we will decide on together as a class.  Please continue to help your child remember to return their decodable books on Mondays and Thursdays.   We are now learning new spelling rules and patterns every day in word work, and 5-10 minutes of home reading each night will help to strengthen these reading skills!     

• As mentioned, we will be going to City Hall School at the middle of May.  We will require 5 volunteers every day.  Please take a look at your schedule and see when is a good time for you to volunteer.  An email will be sent to all volunteers with clearance asking for your help to make this amazing experience possible for your child and our class.

Social Studies

In preparation for City Hall school, we have continued to build our understanding of Urban and Rural communities.  Students worked on a picture study, continued to develop vocabulary around these two types of communities, and illustrated their understanding of what an Urban community looks like.   

     

Learning Intention

• Recognize different groups or communities

• Identify familiar landmarks and places in my community 

• Identify important landmarks and places significant features of the community

• Identify differences between rural and urban communities

Literacy

During our literacy time, we began looking at different types of texts, fiction and nonfiction.  Students listened to several examples of the type of text then worked to record their reflections and gather information from each text.  Our understanding of fiction and nonfiction texts grew as the week progressed.  Ask your child which texts they enjoyed most this week.

    

     

Learning Intention

• Examine ways that messages can be organized and presented for different purposes.

• Describe the differences between messages that are imaginary (fiction) or real (non-fiction).

• Investigate meaning communicated in texts.

• Listen to a variety of fictional and informational texts that are read aloud.

• Identify key ideas and details from texts.

Math

In math this week we have continued to build our understanding of representing larger numbers.  Through problem-solving situations, students used a variety of materials to show and explain different visual representations of larger two-digit numbers.

Learning Intention

• Recognize quantities to 10.

• Represent numbers to 100.

• Represent quantities using words, numerals, objects, or pictures.