Thanks to everyone who came out to the BBQ and Curriculum Night this week! I met a lot of family members and we chatted about a lot. Here are some highlights. The Power of - YET! As teachers and parents, we've all heard those three words - "But I caaaan't!" 😉 There are a lot of things that some of our students can't do in Room 108 ... write independently, spell difficult words, count beyond 20, listen without interrupting, tie their shoes, hang on the monkey bars, jump rope, read a picture book, remember to bring home their water bottles at the end of a long day! But, these are things that they can't do ... YET! We've continued our TRIBES conversations and have been talking a lot about GRIT - trying something new, even if it's difficult and we're afraid to make mistakes. Check out author Todd Parr's read aloud of It's OK To Make Mistakes on YouTube (we have this in class - we'll read it next week) Reading Try to read for 15 minutes a day - and there are MANY ways to read: - parent reads a chapter book; stop to discuss what might happen next, ask "if you could be a character, which one would you be and why? - parent reads a picture book, from start to finish, as child listens - parent reads a picture book, child tracks the writing and points to each word as they're read aloud - child "reads" a picture book; they can use the pictures to retell favourite parts (ignoring the words, but focusing on comprehension and story patterns) - use a picture book and play "Eye Spy" - the word the, where do you see it on the page? Use our word list! - recognize the letters and words on a cereal box at breakfast in the morning! Once students have mastered Sight Words and can recognize them without having to sound out each time, reading will become more fluent. Play these Sight Word Games at home! *While these are games that students can play independently, please sit with your son or daughter the first few times they play. Writing For some of our grade 1 students, I'm scribing for them when they write: they tell me their thoughts, I write it on a dry erase board, then they copy the words onto their writing paper. As a first step, this is OK! Students need to practice the mechanics of writing before they worry about how to spell each word. For our developing writer's, we focus on asking questions that our reader's might want to know - giving more information and details - use who, what, where, when, why, how to pull more, to s t r e t c h ideas. For example: At school, I like to play. At school, I like to play at recess. At school, I like to play on the monkey bars at recess. At school, I like to play on the monkey bars with my friend Leah at recess. At school, I like to play on the monkey bars with my friend Leah at recess because it's fun to swing. We focus on: Lower Case Letters - use capitals for names, places and at the beginning of a sentence, but now, all other letters should be lower case. Spaces between words & letters - we use the term 'finger spaces' in between words, as well as 'meatball spaces' (larger) between words and 'spaghetti spaces' (smaller) between the letters of a word. Spacing on the page - like reading, start at the left and work your way to the right. If a word won't fit at the right edge of a page, then skip down to the next line and start it from the beginning. Temporary Spelling - we come back to "YET" and it's OK for students to spell many words phonetically at this age. Measuring as 'mechuring' or climber as "klimr" - if a student has the sounds, from beginning, to middle to end - that's great! The only words that we stress students should spell without mistakes are the ones from our word list. There are others that they can find in the room and copy - words from title pages of a book (e.g., Scaredy Squirrel), or words from our schedule of the day (Gym, Writing, Music, Science etc). - but that's a next step. Next week, we'll look more closely at math and our Number Books...
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Students have been cooperating and working as a team to earn gems all week! While we're doing independent work at our tables, we like to listen to "the quiet music" because it helps us concentrate: CBC Radio 2 Calming Music Zen Music Tribes For more info, visit the Tribes Website Students have been learning about our Room 108 Community Expectations and have agreed to follow these rules: - Appreciations (not put downs) - Participation (with a right to pass, and then be revisited) - Listening - Mutual Respect (of ourselves, others, and our environment) When talking about Appreciations, we read & discussed: One David Goes to School When talking about Participation, we read & discussed: Little One Step Wemberly Worried We discussed the word "Grit" - Wemberly was definitely in need of some! Grit is when we - try - even if we're worried, scared, tired ... we keep trying and believe in ourselves. We also discussed the word, "Fail". It's OK if we fail, if we're not perfect (nobody's perfect!), if we don't get it right the first time. When talking about Listening, we read: David Gets in Trouble! SLAM! A Tale of Consequences When talking about Respect, we read: Zero - respect yourself, believe in yourself - you are WORTH something Whoever You Are - respect others, because we're all the same inside Math As we continue to work on our Number Books (we're at day #9!), students are learning to represent #s with organized, images, stacked in long rows (remember, "row, row, row your boat - horizontal) and tall columns (remember, "big tall columns we see on buildings - vertical). If we stack our images (rather than draw them all over the page, in no order) it helps us to see them quickly, without even counting - this is a strategy called subitizing. When we see the dots organized on a die, we can just see the number, we don't have to count each dot individually. Practice using these dot plates at home and talk about how you see the #s to know what they are. For example: Visit this website for more information, for downloadable & printable resources at home. Make your own plates (or flash cards) to play with at home!
Grade 2 students who have mastered some of the Most Frequently Used words can use these games
ABCya! Alphabetize write a list of ANY words (preferably some word list words) and then put them in alphabetical order ABCya! Sight Word Bingo choose second or third grade ABCya! Spelling Practice choose second or third grade Please practice sight words at home, in the car, as you walk to and from school - anywhere you can! When writing, students are asked to find common words on the 100 Most Frequently Used Words list: You may also want to use the Dolch Word lists to practice other, commonly used words: Start off simple and easy with any 2 letter words. Read the words on the list aloud and have your son or daughter repeat after you. Ask them to use a yellow marker or a crayon to highlight the word after they've said it out loud. You write a word, then they have to read it, or vice versa.
Make your own Sight Word Memory Game (use a computer to print, or just write your own on scrap paper!) Starfall Sight Word Memory Game Dolch Sight Word Memory ABCya! Signt Word Bingo *If you find that your child is struggling with letter / sound relationships, please visit: Starfall ABC practice each letter and sound, listen as the computer prompts ABCya!Alphabet Match play an extension activity as follow up Wednesday September 7th First thing before entering the class, students checked their backpacks for their Yellow Home Notes Folder (to be returned to school on a regular basis) and for water bottles to be kept in the room throughout the day. After going through and discussing our schedule for the day, students finished "This is me ..." writing and drawing then had the option to share their work in the Author's Chair. When you come for the Welcome Back BBQ Night on Sep 22, be sure to check out their work displayed on our board in the classroom! After recess, we started a Writer's Workshop where students worked on two pieces, a "_____'s Family Picture" page and a "On my summer holiday" page. In the afternoon, Helena taught Health Class; throughout the year students will talk about personal safety, nutrition, hygiene, physical fitness and they'll also take time to do some mindfulness activities. Both Helena and I enjoy using Go Noodle - check it out at home for FREE! Create a log-in for your family and enjoy tons or videos that promote physical fitness as well as calming, mindfulness strategies (I love the Categories: Stretching {yoga exercises} & Calming, as well as the Channels: Flow & Think About It). Go Noodle Parent Info Letter & Crossword Search for Kids For Math on Day #2 we continued to use Words (two), Images (🔺 🔺), Numbers (2), Tally Marks (II) and the Face of a Die (⚁) to represent the #2. Some grade 2s remembered using ten frames from last year as well as number sentences (addition and subtraction). After Recess, students were excited to explore Centres in the Classroom. - Puppets - Games (Connect 4, Battleship, Sorry, a Geometry/Cube Game) - Artwork - Bin Toys - Book Nook - Big Blocks (but in our room, they're empty plastic buckets!) * Soon, we'll open the Listening Centre with Books & CDs as well as the Computer Centre We finished the day with a closing circle, checking in to see how the second day at school was for everyone. I'm happy to report that we had many students show the 👍! Thursday September 8th Students started the day again at a Writing Block, finishing up their Family Pictures and their Summer Retellings but today, they edited their work to make sure there were words (a sentence, or a word / letter label) and a background for their pictures. We joked that many of their family portraits must have been taken during a big snow storm ... because there was so much white snow in the background! But no, instead they added sand, sky and water for beaches or tables, couches, and windows for living rooms at home. After recess we began a new Writer's Workshop and discussed "Coming back to school, I wonder..." , as well as "I worry ...". While on the carpet students had a chance to Think to themselves, Pair with a partner on the carpet to talk in a small group, and then Share with the whole group afterwards. (See Think, Pair, Share strategy). Once they all were set with ideas, they went to work independently on their writing. Before students had a chance to finish we went to a Primary Student Assembly with both HPAS & Annette classes. We met Mrs. Keenan & Ms. Tahirovic and they reminded us of the school rules and expectations. After lunch we really focused on adding number sentences to our Math Book for Day #3. Here are a few we thought of: 1+1+1 = 3 1+2=3 2+1=3 3=2+1 3=1+2 3=1+1+1 ... some of our students are beginning to use subtraction sentences too! We had a shorter center time before recess, but as soon as students heard our tidy up song (we find it much easier to tidy if there's fun music playing in the background), they earned a gem cooperating and working together to pack up our room so quickly. Gems are a positive reinforcement strategy that we use throughout the year; we have two small bins, one full of purple gems and the other is empty. If students work together, cooperate, follow the expectations as a whole community, then a gem is moved from the full bin to the other. Once they're all earned ... we celebrate their teamwork with a gem party! (more info when we get to that point). On Day 3s, Violet will be teaching a double Music period after PM recess and then she'll do dismissal in the White Circle outside at the end of the day. Friday September 9th Once again students started off the morning finishing their writing from the day before and had the chance to share their work in the Author's Chair. After recess, they began their last two pages of their All About Me booklet with one about "I get excited about ..." and "I feel OK when ...". Once students finished, we stapled all their Writer's Workshop pieces together to make books; students did some Buddy Reading with one another, sharing their stories and offering feedback in the form of Stars and Wishes (I really like how you sounded out those words; I wish you'd printed more neatly because it's hard to read). Now that we've discussed Number Sentences (particularly addition), students were introduced to their Red Math Folders in their Work Cubbies. To begin the year, the Red Math Folders are full of Colour by Number activity pages that students can work on whenever they finish their classroom work, during centre time, during the morning arrival routines - it's there to work on. Day #4 in the Math Books again reviewed Words & Numbers but we focused on neat and organized Images. Now that our numbers are growing, we need to be sure our Images are in groupings, columns & rows make it easier to count objects. A read aloud that many of us were familiar with in Have You Filled Someone's Bucket Today? Throughout the week, individual students are caught filling other people's buckets (making the right choices, following the routines, going out of their way to be kind to others). For example: - Jackson was kind and let another student play with a toy that he wanted at centre time - Alex S. found a word list and worked on his writing independently, finding words he needed in the room - Cale helped me find something that I'd misplaced in the room and that I was looking for - Maggie was helpful with a grade 1 student and showed her words on the word list - Kira took a risk and showed her classmates where to find something in the classroom ... there are lots of ways that students can 'fill their bucket' and at times, I might see them and ask them to write their name on a paper droplet and put it into our classroom bucket. At the end of the week I pull a few droplets out of the bucket and those students are recognized - they might get to choose our class read aloud, a game that we'll play together, or they might even go home with a trinket like a sticker or a pencil for home. After recess we met our new Book Buddies for the year from Anastasia's grade 7/8 class (ask your son or daughter what their buddies name is!) and then students went to Gym class with Helena. Fun and Run We heard on the announcements this week that Fun & Run is starting up - and some of your kids are interested in joining in! (I volunteer on Tuesday mornings, hope to see you there) What a fantastic first day back to school! We have a group of 18 students (10 grade 1s and 8 grade 2s) that seem eager and ready to have some fun this year in Room 108. First, we took a good twenty minutes to wander the room, meet each other, explore a few centres and get comfortable. After that, we listened to the story “The Night Before First Grade”. Students took a healthy snack out for morning recess, then came in ready for math- we talked all about the number 1 (the word, numeral, what it looks like on a die and as a tally mark) and represented in it our student created “Number Books”. We played a mystery bag game before lunch and learned a little bit more about one another. In the afternoon, we listened to the story “My Happy Book”, did some mindfulness breathing, and thought about the things in our lives that make us feel happy. Once we shared at least one idea on the carpet with the group (my family, the beach, water parks, video games), students went to their tables to start their “This is me…” writing (still in progress). At closing circle we listened to two more stories, “First Day Jitters” and “Say Hello” before the students went to gym with Helena.
If you find it tricky to get them to answer “what did you do today?”, ask your son or daughter about: - Gems - Droplets - Washroom routines - Lunch bins - To finish the sentence “1, 2, 3, eyes on me …” Please be sure to check your son's or daughter's Yellow Home Notes Folder - caregivers have some homework this week ; ) Please feel free to comment below and let me know if your little ones have any feedback once they get home! Looking forward to a great year, ~ Kelly |
In our Room 108 Classroom Community, we foster an engaging, respectful and caring environment. I aim to balance a consistent program with flexible responsiveness to students' individual needs. Archives
November 2017
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