Dear Families,
Thank you for checking out my last blog post! I received some very thoughtful and kind responses from a few parents in the agenda which made my heart smile! I truly enjoy writing to all of you and providing you with information/updates on our learning each week. I will also do my best to post purposeful photographs so you can see your child in “learning action!” I am blessed to have such caring, cooperative, and hard-working students. They make it a joy to come to school every day!
Thank you for checking out my last blog post! I received some very thoughtful and kind responses from a few parents in the agenda which made my heart smile! I truly enjoy writing to all of you and providing you with information/updates on our learning each week. I will also do my best to post purposeful photographs so you can see your child in “learning action!” I am blessed to have such caring, cooperative, and hard-working students. They make it a joy to come to school every day!
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| Caring friends - Kurtis & Miika :) |
At the beginning of the month at our first Character Education assembly, we recognized students for Character. Congratulations to Kurtis and Miika for demonstrating caring in your thoughts, words and actions! You are a model for 'We show kindness towards each other!' Thank you for setting a positive example in and out of our classroom community! I am so proud of you Kurtis and Miika J
Learning Buddies:
Every Day 4 from 2:40-3:20pm, your child has been given the opportunity to work closely with a Grade 5 student, we refer to these older students as our learning buddies, they are serving as a mentor and support for us. I am very fortunate because I have taught most of these Grade 5’s last year when they were in Grade 4. They are a wonderful group of students who I am so very proud of and look forward to them inspiring, guiding, and teaching their younger buddies.
Here are some of the learning activities that your child has done with his/her buddy so far:
* Using the school Ipads for exploration in language apps
* Preparing for “Stone Soup” (safely cleaning, peeling, and cutting veggies)
* Math Games (E.g., “Race to 10” & “Rock n’ Roll”)
* Learning how to use our new school Laptops (E.g., signing in/out, how to find specific apps for math, language, science, social studies)
Please now enjoy some pictures below that I took on Tuesday. The children are all playing a math game called “Rock & Roll.” Ask your child about how to play this fun and engaging math dice game and maybe you can do it at home, too!
Every Day 4 from 2:40-3:20pm, your child has been given the opportunity to work closely with a Grade 5 student, we refer to these older students as our learning buddies, they are serving as a mentor and support for us. I am very fortunate because I have taught most of these Grade 5’s last year when they were in Grade 4. They are a wonderful group of students who I am so very proud of and look forward to them inspiring, guiding, and teaching their younger buddies.
Here are some of the learning activities that your child has done with his/her buddy so far:
* Using the school Ipads for exploration in language apps
* Preparing for “Stone Soup” (safely cleaning, peeling, and cutting veggies)
* Math Games (E.g., “Race to 10” & “Rock n’ Roll”)
* Learning how to use our new school Laptops (E.g., signing in/out, how to find specific apps for math, language, science, social studies)
Please now enjoy some pictures below that I took on Tuesday. The children are all playing a math game called “Rock & Roll.” Ask your child about how to play this fun and engaging math dice game and maybe you can do it at home, too!
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| Layla & Nolan with their Learning Buddies - Wyatt, Kendra, Julia |
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| Brody & Carissa with their Learning Buddies - Bradley, Alexandra, Izzy |
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| Ashlee & Jacob with their Learning Buddies - Mickayla, Ryan, Jacob |
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| Karina & Miika with their Learning Buddies - Leah, Eryn, Trista |
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| Daniel & Emma with their Learning Buddies - Ava, Anjoli, Alexander |
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| Alexander & Ava with their Learning Buddies - Xavier, Carrie-ann |
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| Kaden & Kurtis with their Learning Buddies - Luca, Steven, Jax |
Science:
This week, we had a whole class discussion about the importance and benefits of The Sun. I read a non-fiction text which had many fascinating facts/information about the Sun. Ask your child to share some of these facts with you. I am looking for them to share some of the following (see below).
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| Non-Fiction Text for Science |
HINTS:
* The Sun is a star
* Plants need the sun to help them grow
* The Sun is a ball of burning gases
* It is the closest star to Earth
* The Sun is the center of the solar system
* If the Sun were the size of a beach ball, Earth would be as small as a pebble
* The Sun gives Earth light and heat
* The Sun rises in the EAST and sets in the WEST
Writing – Grade One Scrapbooks:
This year, your child will be writing for specific purposes. One of these purposes will be writing a “Recount” about a favourite experience (memory) from each month. So far, we have written about our favourite memory from September. For example, some topics that students chose to write about was:
· Terry Fox Run, Dot Day
· class field trip to The Plowing Match
· Thankful Stones
· W.A.L.T.
· Science table.
This scrapbook will be a collection of recounts, illustrations, and photographs for you to enjoy! In a way, it’ll serve as a personal yearbook from Grade One. I am so pleased with the boys and girls scrapbooks thus far, they are filled with neat writing, colourful illustrations, and lovely photographs. When we meet at the Student-Led Conferences in November, I’ll be sure to have these out for you to have a look at.
Literacy Workstations:
This week, I introduced ‘Literacy Workstations.’ I have organized Language Groups (your child is in either the Blue, Green, Orange, Yellow, or Purple group) and we will be working at these literacy centers that help build upon and reinforce learning in reading and writing skills. There are 5 Workstations, they are the following:
· Guided Reading (reading a levelled book with the teacher)
· Word Work (focusing on our ‘key words’ and sentence building)
· We Write (write a letter, card, or special note to a family member/friend/peer)
· Tech Time (using laptops, Ipads to use language apps E.g., Tumble books, Starfall, Spelling City)
· I Inquire (at the science center - exploring/investigating/writing ‘I Wonder’ questions of inquiry)
Every day, I will be rotating workstations, so each group participates in all five by the end of the week J Please ask your child what colour group they are in and what workstations they have done so far. The students are very excited about these centers because they get to work in small groups to have fun in a purposeful and meaningful manner.
Here are a few pictures of the students at their Workstations J
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| Cassius & Nolan - Tech Time using TumbleBooks |
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| Karina & Hannah - "We Write" a letter to Mom and Daddy! |
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| Carissa & Emma - "Tech Time" using www.starfall.com |
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| Miika & Jacob - "I Inquire" at the Science Table |
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| Ashlee, Kurtis, Brody, and Ava - "Word Work" using letter stamps to make 'key words' and writing sentences |
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| Karrington, WALT, and Alexander - at "Guided Reading" with the Book: How do Polar Bears Keep Warm? |
"I always knew that deep down in every human heart, there is mercy and generosity. No one is born hating another person because of the colour of his skin, or his background, or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite."
~ Nelson Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom
Namaste,
Miss P. Gill
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