What's New This Week

I can't believe Spring Break is already over and we've been back at school for our second week.

 

Reading and Writing

 

Before we left for Spring break, we celebrated everything to do with leprechauns and St. Patrick's Day. We engaged ourselves in a whole lot of St. Patrick's Day themed writing and story retelling.

 

Since we've been back, we have continued on with our story retelling unit with a fairy tales theme. We read two familiar fairy tales last week - "Cinderella" and "The Princess and the Pea". For each of the stories, we completed a "someone, wanted, but, so, finally" activity page to help develop our retelling skills. We also completed a directed drawing, crayon and water colour resist art project to compliment our "Princess and the Pea" activity. We will continue our retelling unit this week and hopefully move on to creating and writing our very own fairy tales next week.

 

Math

In the area of Math, we have started a new theme unit focusing on solving word problem. Our goals for this unit include solving a variety a word problems involving addition and subtraction, and using different strategies which may include :

- using a number line

- using tens frames

- drawing a picture

- drawing tally marks and

- using manipulatives

 

We have also learned to recognize several "signal" words which assist us in recognizing whether a word problem is asking us to add or subtract.

 

Addition Signal Words

more

combined

in all

sum

altogether

total

plus

 

Subtraction Signal Words

less

take away

fewer

how many more

decrease

difference

minus

 

 

Spelling

 

During this week's spelling unit, we will focus on the r-controlled spelling pattern ar. Our weekly words are now posted on spellingcity.com. Be sure to visit spellingcity.com for extra practice and review at home.

Looking for Leprechauns

We've been reading all about Ireland, St. Patrick's Day and leprechauns. Here are some of the books we've read and activities we have completed.

 

On Monday, we read "The Luckiest St. Patrick's Day Ever". After reading the story, we shared some our luckiest memories and wrote about them. We also completed some cute leprechauns to go along with our writing.

 

On Tuesday, we read "The Leprechaun's Gold" and completed another cute writing activity.

 

Finally, today we read "Jamie O'Rourke and the Big Potato". Here is a link to an online version of the story.

 

 

We also completed a sequencing activity where we retold the beginning, middle and end. Unfortunately, I did not get any photos of this.

 

We also started a little creative story writing assignment. Each of the students wrote about what they would do if they ever caught a leprechaun. We are going to take our "rough" story drafts into the computer lab tomorrow and complete a published version that we can print and display in the hallway. We're hoping that all this leprechaun themed writing and art work will attract some sneaky little leprechaun guests to come and visit us in our classroom before the end of the week. Guess we'll just have to wait and see!

 

In other news, we are just finishing up our gymnastics unit for P.E. The students rotated through a number of stations which included parallel bars, climbing apparatus, spring boards, ropes, and balance beams. Over the past two weeks, the students visited each station in a circuit-like rotation. I was very proud of each and everyone for following through with all safety measures and precautions. This has definitely been one of our favourite gym units to date.

 

 

 

Don't forget --- Friday is Emerald City Day!

Come dressed-up in your best green gear!!!!!

 

 

Why I Like To Inference by Puneet

We have been lerning how to inference this week. It is fun and I lerned alot. It's like being a detective and it's fun looking for clooes.

A Smorgasbord of Stuff

I'm back and feeling 100% better. All the hugs I got today sure helped out as well. I missed every single one of my 20 amazing students and am so happy to be back.

 

Today I introduced the class to a new reading comprehension strategy called inferencing. Inferring is understanding what is not written with

words in the books we read. We can take clues from the text (pictures clues, word clues, or how a character behaves and acts) and our schema (what we already know) to form a new idea.

We started our first lesson with a mystery box activity. I placed an object inside of a sealed box. The students took turns shaking the box and using their senses to guess what was inside. We recorded our guesess on a large chart. Next, the students were given four clues to help with their thinking .

1. It is black.

2. It is round.

3. It is made of glass.

4. It helps you to see different things in our world.

We recorded their new guesses on the chart and after a lot of discussion we opened up the mystery box to find...

You'll just have to ask them to find out what was inside. Now that we are warmed up and are becoming inference investigators, we'll be engaging in a number of activities over the next week or two to strengthen this important reading comprehension skill.

 

Computer Lab

After our Language Arts lesson, we headed up to the computer lab. The students have been working toward improving their keyboarding skills. At the beginning of each computer lab time, we take 10 -15 minutes to practice our keyboarding skills. You can visit the website that we use by clicking here. We've only been using this website since we returned from Winter break, but already I am seeing improvements in their keyboarding skills.

 

 

After our ten minutes of keyboarding practice, the students are always given the choice to continue or choose one of the teacher approved activities listed in their computer lab duo-tangs.

 

This may include accessing our raz-kids reading accounts,

 

engaging in some Math activities on Starfall Math,

 

or using our creative sides to create images on Kidpix.

 

Math

You may have noticed your child coming home with a Math activity containing 12 math addition or subtraction questions. These are part of our daily addition and subtraction Math drills. The students are given 1 minute and 30 seconds to complete the twelve questions. If they are able to complete all twelve question correctly during the given time, they move onto the next drill sheet. If they are unable to correctly answer each of the questions, they will receive the same drill the next day. Our goal is to have all students memorize their basic math facts in order to help them be successful with double digit addition and subtraction, a skill taught in grade two.

 

Literacy Day

This Friday is Family Literacy Day. I hope that many of you will be able to spend the first part of the morning reading with your child and engaging in some of the literacy activities happening throughout our school. Today the students chose their favourite book and created a cute craftivity to showcase our book recommendations for others to read.

 

 

Here are a few of our favourite fiction books.

 

As well as a few of our favourite non-fiction books.

 

 

Finally, here are two of our favourite classroom books decorating our classroom doors. These have been part of our read aloud times this year.

 

 

Gym

Last week I posted a few videos showcasing our amazing hula hooping skills. After another week of practice, we are now able to perform some more unbelievable tricks.

 

Here the are.....

*changes in level of body position while hula hooping

 

*changing the position of the hula hoop from our necks to our arms

*hula hooping while on our knees

 

Have a nice evening!

-Mrs. Singh

Place Value, Penguins and Hula Hooping

SNOW DAY!

 We spent a few extra minutes outside today to enjoy the small amount of flurries that accumulated on our school field. Wow, was it ever cold outside. Don't forget to bring your snow gear to school tomorrow,this includes your mittens and toques, just in case the cold weather keeps up.

Last week, we started making some New Years goals. They are all on display outside of our classroom. We will be working hard to accomplish these goals throughout the year.

In Math, we have been working on place value. We have been completing many hands-on activities to help us strengthen this important skill. One of our favourite and engaging activities we have completed are creating our initials with base ten blocks and recording the value.

We have also been learning a whole lot about penguins and non-fiction text features.

We are also creating our own non-fiction penguin reports. So far, we have written about how penguins look, where they live, what they eat, and about penguin families. My students favourite part has been learning about how the adult penguins regurgitate into the penguins chick's mouth to feed their baby. Totally gross but awesome at the same time!

Our non-fiction reports should be completed by next week and I can't wait to display all their learning and hard work.

Along with our study of penguins, we've been reading some works of fiction from the Tacky Penguin series. So far we've completed a Tacky the penguin craftivity, a Tacky descriptive writing assignment (adjectives) for the stories Tacky the Penguin and Tacky in Trouble. Tomorrow we'll be reading Three Cheers for Tacky and completing a few more writing activities based on the series.

Finally, in gym, we are learning to improve our hula hoop and skipping skills. I  was able to capture a few short videos that showcase some of our amazing hula hooping accomplishments. These kids are ROCK STARS!

The next two are some of the awesome tricks we have been practicing. The first one is hula hooping around the knees and the second one around the neck.

I cannot figure out how to change the position of the last two videos so you will have to view them sideways. If anyone knows how I can change this please let me know. I have tried everything.

Enjoy your evening. See you tomorrow!

- Mrs. Singh

My Dog is as Smelly as Dirty Socks

Wow, two blog posts in one night!

Today I reminded the students that we are working on writing that invites our readers to make connections.  Our writing topic last week and this week has been "Connecting to a Special Grown-up".

Last week we shared a number of anchor books related to our topic. We also discussed how the use of adjectives and similes can make our writing more interesting and different from anyone else's. One of my favourite books to introduce our writing topic and the concept of similes is My Dog Is  As Smelly As  Dirty Socks by Hanoch Piven.

You can watch an online video version of the book if you click HERE. After discussing the similes that were introduced in the book, we brain stormed a few of our own using our wonderful public librarian as inspiration. Here are just a few that we came up with:

 

Ms. Judy is as sweet as sugar and as smart as Albert Einstein.

She is as beautiful as a rose and as bright as the sun.

 

Afterwards, we made her a giant poster with our similes and presented it to her after our Thursday book club talks. I think she loved it!

 

On Monday, we completed a planning sheet and chose another special grown-up to write about. Many students chose their parents, aunts and uncles, or a family friend. We brainstormed memories, adjectives, similes and information for our special grown-up. After viewing a variety of writing samples, the students then wrote their own stories about the special grown-ups in their lives.  Here is one example from one of the grade one students:

 

My favourite part : "My mommy can cook really fast. She cooks like a wolf and she likes to take naps on Saturdays".

 

Wow! That must be some fast cooking. I  am sure anybody would need a nap on Saturday if they cooked like that all week longt! Too cute!

 

Next we'll be editing our writing for errors in spelling, punctuation and missing words. Then we'll begin publishing our stories by adding illustrations to our written work. Phewwww! It is a long process and a lot of hard work but I can already see so many improvements in our writing skills.

- Mrs. Singh

A Pizza Party and A New Reading Program

Our pizza party was a delicious success. Thank you so much to the PAC for organizing this fun and delicious lunch for our class. It looks like the PAC initiated Save Around coupon book fundraiser was a huge success. Thank you to everyone for supporting our wonderful school!

 

 

I am so happy because we officially kicked off our school and home reading program this week. All the student's now have access to hundreds of eBooks using the school's subscription to Raz-Kids.

This website provides students with a variety of books to listen to and read. They can even record themselves reading. Afterwards the students can take a quiz to check for comprehension.

To access your child's assignment, log in at:

 

 http://www.raz-kids.com/main/Login/teacherUsername/AngelaSingh

 

Each student was given their password today and this information was stapled into their planner.

Raz-Kids, SpellingCity, and Starfall are just a few of the teacher approved websites that we will be accessing during our computer lab times to help improve our reading skills.

Have fun reading!

-Mrs. Singh


Reading, Writing, BINGO, A Salamander, An Assembly, and Some Spelling

Just so you know, this post will be ALL-OVER-THE-PLACE. There is so much to write about because so much has happened this week.

First.....

This month our reading and writing goals have been focusing on connections. Making connections to the books we read enhances understanding. A story will become more meaningful when it triggers memories of similar experiences, feelings, people, or places from within our own lives.

Some of the types of connections students can make to the books we read are:

Text-to-Self : When a book reminds the reader of something that happened to them.
Text-to-Text : When a book reminds the reader of another book they have read.
Text-to-World : When a book reminds the reader of something that doesn't just affect them personally, but affects other people in the world.

Many of our connections happen during story read aloud times and group discussions.
I have been choosing to share books and stories about real-life situations, such as friendships, school, and feelings. Before, during, and after our read aloud times, the students are encouraged to make connections to the pictures, characters, and feelings from the stories.

Writing to connect is another important component of our Language Arts curriculum. This month we will be writing many personal narratives that invite readers to make connections to our own writing.
This week we wrote about different feelings and the experiences that cause these feelings. Before we begin any type of writing, we will usually complete a planning sheet that helps us organize our thoughts and ideas. Here are a few examples of our work...

A pre-writing planning sheet:

 

 

 

Two examples of student writing.

 

 

Second...

 

In math, we've been working on our number recognition skills all the way to 100. BINGO seems to be a favourite activity to practice this skill. Yesterday we had the opportunity to teach the sweet Kindies a little number recognition and play a little BINGO.

 

 

 

Third...

 

A special guest spent two days in our room this week. No, it wasn't the candy corn bandit but rather a very cute and slimy salamander. One of the our classmates happen to find the little guy near the basketball court by the doggy daycare. We quickly found him a cozy, moist aquarium where we could keep him safe. We spend a little time looking up information regarding his eating habits and habitat. We also had a little election and voted on a name. We decided on the name Zoom, appropriate because he was able to hide under the leaves in his aquarium so quickly. Today, with a little bit of sadness in our hearts, we let Zoom go and returned him to the spot we had found him. We knew he'd be much happier that way.

 

 

Fourth...

 

We completed a Remembrance Day writing activity with messages for the soldiers to display in the gym for our assembly.

 

 

 

Fifth...

 

Finally, I wanted to showcase a few more amazing spelling activities completed by three of my hardworking students.

 

 

A short vowel sunshine

and

a beautiful word pattern rainbow!

 

Some short vowel playdoh words

 

 

And Finally...

 

Don't forget that Sunday is Remembrance Day.

Please take some time to remember.

 

Have a wonderful weekend.

See you on Tuesday!

 

-Mrs. Singh

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Turkey For Thanksgiving

Today I read one of my favourite Thanksgiving stories to my students - A Turkey For Thanksgiving by Eve Bunting.

Two moose (husband and wife) are preparing their table for Thanksgiving dinner. They have all the places ready for all the animals to join them (rabbit, goat, sheep, etc). The only thing missing is .... you guessed it -  the turkey!  Mrs. Moose is extremely sad that they will not have a turkey, so her husband sets off to find one. Along the way he picks up all the animals that are going to join them for dinner and they attempt to find the turkey they want. They finally find one and the turkey takes off running in the other direction. Mr. Moose grabs him and takes him back in preparation to make Thanksgiving dinner complete. When they all get back, Mr.turkey is shocked to see an extra chair for him to sit in. He realizes that they weren't going to eat him, they wanted him to join them as a guest and he is very thankful for that.

After reading the story, the students were given a set of sentence strips. They placed the sentence strips in the correct sequence to practise retelling the story. Once they were done, the students read the sentence strips and "story" back to me.

On another note, thank you to everyone for getting their field trip permission slips in to me. I appreciate it. Have a nice evening.

 

-Mrs. Singh

Oh my gosh! It's a squash!

This week we have been and will continue to complete a number of reading, writing and art activities based on the book The Ugly Pumpkin by Dave Horowitz.

At the beginning of the week we read the story and discussed how the Ugly Pumpkin changed from the beginning of the story to the end of the story and completed a character change chart. Today, we continued our discussion, focusing on how the pumpkin must have felt not being picked from the pumpkin patch (sad, left-out). We followed up by making some text-to-self  connections and wrote about a time we felt squashed or sad and left out. Later this afternoon, we reviewed our school rule "Be Positive", and created a list of positive adjectives to show how he must have felt about himself at the end of the story. Tomorrow we will, complete our book study with a cute squash art activity and display all our hard work and learning on our classroom bulletin boards.

During the remainder of the week, we will learn more about squash as part of our Life Sciences curriculum. I have already brought one interesting looking squash into the classroom and tomorrow  I will be bringing in a few more.  Can anyone tell me the types of the squash pictured below?

 

 

-Mrs. Singh