Monday, 5 May 2014

Catholic Education Week


Catholic Education Week starts today! Here's look at the events happening this week...

Monday - School Liturgy followed by Music Monday at 1:00pm
Tuesday - Open House 7:45-8:30am
Wednesday - Author Visit
Thursday - Shamrock Spirit Assembly at 2:00pm
Friday - Cleaning Up the Capital


Book Fair -Tuesday, Thursday & Friday

Please join us for Open House tomorrow May 6. We will begin with a muffin breakfast in the gym. Families are invited to bring a breakfast item to share with their family. Coffee and juice will be provided. The students have been working hard all year and are excited to show you some of their learning. You are invited to visit our classroom between 8:00-8:30am. Hope to see you there!

The Grade 1 Team

Tuesday, 8 April 2014

Spring Update

Happy Spring!

The snow is finally melting and we are beginning to see signs of spring. April showers bring May flowers and lots of wet clothes… Please ensure your child has an extra pair of socks packed in his/her bag, splash pants are also encouraged on wet days.

Lenten Project 
Thank you for your generous donations to the Barrhaven Food Bank with our Lenten Spirit Days. This week is we are collecting non-perishable food items to fill the front foyer of the school. Students are invited to bring in food items any day this week.

Items Needed
We are in need of tissues, wipes and glue sticks. If possible please send in these items for the class. Thank you to those who have already sent some.


IMPORTANT DATES
Good Friday – April 18th  – no school
Easter Monday – April 21st  – no school

In Language we will be focusing on recounting an event in writing (e.g., My Weekend). Our reading comprehension focus this month is on making inferences using pictures and words from the text. We will also be working on non-fiction features such as diagrams, labels and the table of contents.

In Mathematics we will be working on solving addition and subtraction problems. The students are encouraged to explain their thinking and answers using pictures, numbers or words. 

In Science continue to work on our living things inquiry. The students have come up with several questions about living things and are researching their questions in books and online.

In Drama the students will be learning to role play and tell stories.



The Grade 1 TeamJ


Monday, 7 April 2014

Grade 1 Math

We are now working on solving word problems with numbers up to 20. 
Students will be applying addition or subtraction to solve a Math problem (POW-Problem of the Week). 
They will be encouraged to show how they arrived at their answer using numbers, pictures or words.
Please see samples to help your son or daughter arrive at their answer.



Thursday, 27 February 2014

Thank you to all the volunteers in Mrs. Smith's class who helped to make the day a great success! The students loved looking for signs of nature on the scavenger hunt and venturing out on snow shoes for the first time! Students will be able to apply their experience at the Mill of Kintail to our next Science Inquiry unit (Needs and Characteristics of Living and Non-Living Things).

Tuesday, 25 February 2014

Mill of Kintail

Thank you to all the volunteers in Mrs. Colasante's class who were able to help out on our field trip to the Mill of Kintail! The students had a great time snowshoeing and going on a hunt for signs of living things! We saw animals, some habitats, animal tracks and food animals find to eat in the winter. It was a wonderful learning experience that tied in well with our current science inquiry about living things. See some of our photos below.

* Note- Mrs. Smith's Grade 1 class field trip to Mill of Kintail is tomorrow, February 26. Dress warm and have fun!







Monday, 10 February 2014

Winter Wonders

A Look at What’s Happening…

Thank you to all the parents/grandparents who volunteered for our skating day a couple weeks ago. Your help was greatly appreciated. Hope you can make it out again.

Shamrock Spirit Week (February 10-14)
The students are invited to dress up for the following days:
Monday- Jersey Day
Tuesday – Crazy Hair/Hat Day
Wednesday -  PJ Day
Thursday – Olympic Day (wear the Olympic Colours) & Play Day outside (PM)
Friday – Pink, Red and White Day

Valentine's Day
Please make sure that if your son or daughter chooses to give out Valentine cards they have one for each child in the class, as to avoid any hurt feelings. There are 19 students in our class. A class list of names was sent home Monday.

Report cards will be sent home on Friday, February 14th.  There is no formal interview schedule for this term. Interviews will be at the request of parents or teachers.

Winter Clothing
With winter weather and recess often comes wet clothing. If possible please put an extra pair of mittens and socks in your child’s backpack in case they get too wet during recess.

Classroom Items needed:  tissues
With the winter weather comes lots of sniffles…we are just about out of tissues for the class. Please send in a box if possible. Thank youJ

IMPORTANT EVENTS
Skating Days - Thurs., Feb. 13th 10:00 - 11:00 am
100th Day of School – Fri., Feb. 14th
Report Cards  – Fri., Feb. 14th
Family Day – no school – Mon., Feb. 17th 
Field Trip – Mill of Kintail – Tues., Feb. 25

CURRICULUM HIGHLIGHTS


In Language we will be focusing on procedural writing (e.g., How to make a sandwich). In reading comprehension we will highlight the strategies of asking questions while reading and determining main ideas in a text. We will continue to introduce five new word wall words a week. Please review these words with your child and help them to recognize them quickly. These words are high frequency words which are found in many texts that the children read. In order to help them become fluent readers it is important that they are able to read these words by sight without having to try to sound them out. 

In Mathematics we will be exploring the attributes of three dimensional figures (e.g., sphere, cube). The students will also begin to recognize these shapes in the world around them (e.g., a party hat is a cone). Later in the month we will be learning to identify coins and using coins to count money up to 20 cents. The students will also be describing coins (e.g., state that a dime equals 10 cents, a quarter equals 25 cents).

In Science we will begin our new inquiry which will focus on living things. The students will come up with wonderings about the needs and characteristics of living things and investigate their wonderings throughout the unit.


In Music we continue to work on indentifying the beat and rhythm in different songs. We will also explore how music evokes different feelings within us.



The Grade 1 TeamJ

Thursday, 30 January 2014

Thank You

The students had an awesome time skating today! Thanks again to all the parents and grandparents who were able to volunteer and help make our skating day a success.

The Grade 1 Team