Happy Halloween

It is hard to believe that we have been in school now for two months! Where has the time gone?  We have been up to quite alot in the past few weeks.  Here is a snap shot of what we have been doing...

Language:

• We are working on writing simple sentences.  Students are being encouraged to sound out unknown words, look around the room as well as use our posted word wall.  Students should be writing our weekly word wall words accurately in their writing.  We have also been discussing how sentences begin with a capital and end with either a '.!?'  
• In reading, we have been discussing what strategies we can use when we encounter a word we do not know.  Each of these strategies is associated with an animal.  In the weeks to come ask your child about them!

Math:

• Students have been learning all about ways to represent numbers.  We have been learning how to use ten frames, tally marks and picture representations to show a number.  Students have also been learning about how to write the numbers 1-10 using words.
• We continue to work on how to talk about our math think using weekly number talks.  Ask your child about our number talks and what happens when we talk about number

Science:

• We continue to explore seasons and changes in the weather and how we adapt to these changes.

Happy Thanksgiving

First off, I would like to wish everyone a very Happy Thanksgiving!  I hope everyone is enjoying quality time with their loved ones.  I look forward to hearing from everyone on Tuesday all about their time away from school.

In math, we wrapped up our exploration of sorting and patterning.  This coming week, we will begin our new unit on number sense and learning all the ways to show numbers.  If you do not already do so, follow our twitter feed to see how we learn to represent numbers to 20.

In language, we continue to add words to our word wall.  Through cheering and incorporating them into our writing, our goal is to make these words familiar to students.  Please continue to practice the words written in their agendas as often as possible. 

This week we also began our participation in the Global Read Aloud project.  The author of focus this year is Mem Fox.  We are very excited to partner up with Miss Kumar's Grade 1 class in Singapore.  This week we will be using their class blog to share our responses to the book Possum Magic.  Once we have begun successfully sharing our ideas, I will post the link to their blog. 

Weekly Update

A big Thank You to everyone who came out to our Meet the Educator night.  It was so nice to connect names and faces and see just how excited the students were in showing off their space!  I hope everyone was able to take their homework suggestions package home as well as your easy communication reference magnet for your fridges.  If you are missing either of these, write a note in your child's agenda and I will send home another copy.

We hope you were able to take a look at our name art that was posted in the classroom on Thursday.  This was part of a series of discussions on how we are unique just as our names are.  Students are learning that each and every one of them bring individual skills and knowledge that make our class what it is... a welcoming and inviting community.

Our class, along with Mr. D's grade 4 class, have begun a journey centered around the big question "What does it mean to care?"  This deep learning journey will help students to develop their 6 competencies of which our main focus will be on critical thinking.  As your child about our weekly visits with our Grade 4 buddies and follow our twitter account to see students in action.

This week in Language we introduced five word wall words.  Each Monday a new set of words will be written into the agenda for students to practice both at home and at school.  We also continued to work on improving our basic printing skills by practicing individual letters. We have also been exploring how to write sentences that incorporate our word wall words, in our journal.

In Math, students continue to develop their patterning skills by both creating patterns as well as explaining the patterns they have created.  Our focus this coming week will be on sorting skills.

We gathered all the grade 1's twice this week for a launch activity for our Science unit on the seasons.  We created an anchor chart on everything we know about Summer and on the first day of Fall we explored what we currently know about the fall season.  I encourage students to go for a walk in the days to come to see if they can identify hints that 'fall' is around the corner.

This week students brought home their first of many library books.  Our library day is Wednesdays.  Please remind your child to return their books each week so that they can take out more!

Classroom Update

It is hard to believe that we are approaching the end of our second week at school.  Here is an update of some of the things that we have been up to.

• Introduced our morning calendar routine
• Worked on strengthening our printing skills (our name and the letters A & B)
• Journal entry (On the weekend, I...)
• All about me poster (look out for these when you visit the school September 21)
• Explored what we know about patterns and growing our brain backpacks to add new information about patterns (how to create and describe patterns)
• After reading Stand Tall Molly Lou Melon,we create our very own prayer boxes as unique as we each are.
• We read Only One You and then painted a prayer rock to put inside our prayer box.  Our first artifact!
• We met with our Grade 4 buddies and learnt how to log ourselves into our chromebooks.
• We created a group Padlet with our grade 4 buddies showing our answers to the question "What does it mean to care?"
• Using playdough, we created a display of what we cared about. 

Thank you to everyone who returned all the forms that were sent home last week.  The donations of kleenex is also greatly appreciated!

Tomorrow is National Dot Day.  I encourage everyone to come to school in anything that they might have at home that has dots on it!  Follow our twitter feed tomorrow to see the fun we will be having (@MsJobst1).

And we are off!

It was great to meet many of you this week!

Our days have been jam packed!!! The students and I have been having a great time getting to know each other and learning about some of the expectations of grade 1.

Each student has brought home their mail bag which includes their agenda, my welcome letter, a parent information form (your homework!), school calendar, consent for the use of student information form, as well as an information form from the office.  Please take some time to review these items and return the information forms at your earliest convenience.  Please initial the agenda every day.

Some of you have been asking about donating additional classroom supplies.  Our number one item would be kleenex.  Another individual item that students would benefit from having would be a set of headphones to use with our classroom chromebooks. If you send in a pair of headphones, please be sure to label them and store them in a ziploc bag.

If you have any questions/concerns, please do not hesitate to either write a note in the agenda or give the school a call.  Here's to a wonderful year!!!