October Update

October Info:

1. School Pictures are on Tuesday Oct. 27. 
2. We have been practising our printing once a week with a Therapy Assistant from Alberta Health Services. The students are developing great habits such as starting at the top of the letter, holding their pencil properly, and improving their fine motor skills. After each session with Miss Brenda I have been sending home practise sheets. Feel free to practise printing at home with your child. So far we have worked on "flag pole" letters (l, i, t, k, j), "half moon" letters (c, a, d, g, q), and "bounce" letters (r, n, m, h, b, p). The next 2 weeks we will work on "mountain" letters (v, w, x, y, z) & "goofy" letters (e, f, u, o, s).
3. The Halloween classroom party will be on Friday Oct. 30. Kids are not supposed to come to school dressed in their costumes because we are still doing learning activities for the majority of the day. They can bring their costume in a plastic bag and put it on at 11:45 am (during middle recess). We will be doing fun Halloween activities in the afternoon (such as making a witch’s brew by mixing colours and doing a Haunted House listening activity, reading Halloween books, etc.). We will also have special snacks at our party. Previous years I have divided the class into groups, and each group has a designated holiday that they will be responsible for snacks. This seems to work well, but I am always open to other suggestions! Group 1 will bring snacks for our Halloween party. Other groups will be asked to bring snacks for other parties later in the year, such as Christmas & Valentines. Group 1(Halloween Snacks): Declan, Leah, Layla, Alexa, Jakob & Larissa.  Here are some suggestions for snacks:  Cheese and crackers, vegetables and dip, chips, cookies, cupcakes...please make a note in your child’s agenda what you would like to be responsible to bring. If you are unable to bring a snack, no worries, just let me know and we can work something out. Each child should bring their own drink. Then at 2:05 there will be a costume parade in the gym, where everyone gets to show off their costumes.
4. I will be sending home a sample of your child's writing. We have been doing guided writing, where we create the sentences together and spell words together as a group. We even do step by step drawing together for the illustration, then they can add more details and colour it on their own. I use a rubric to grade their writing (see below). They are aiming for all the skills in the column under the happy face. Soon students will start writing on their own. They will be expected to compose an original sentence (eventually multiple sentences) and use their knowledge of letter sounds and phonetics to spell the words. We have a word wall in the classroom that can also help them with spelling.