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. 

  

Learning Electricity & Gas Safety from Atco

On Monday a theatre group came to our school to teach the kids about electricity and gas safety. The link below takes you to the web page with more details.

http://www.atcogas.com/Community/Community-Involvement/ATCO-Energy-Theatre

Grade 1 Homework

Dear Gr.1M Parents/Guardians:

Homework in grade 1 isn't really homework. It's more like a suggested routine to reinforce the skills they learned at school. It's good to practise a little reading and spelling every night. Just 10 minutes max. 

Every week the kids will get spelling words (unless it is a short week, then I give them a break). Practise a couple spelling words each night. You can use play dough to make the words, white board markers or chalk, or anything that makes it fun. Some parents use flour on the table to print the words in the dust. I find the kids retain the info better if the activity is more creative and hands-on. You can also use the computer, we use a website called Spelling City at school (http://www.spellingcity.com/1mason/). This link goes directly to my page, (or you can search for my name Kim Mason). I have typed in all the word lists that they will be using throughout the year. This week we are on list LN11. The word lists follow a program called "Words Their Way", which identifies each child’s spelling stage and tailors activities to each individual. Not everyone will have the same words or same number of words. The program allows me to differentiate each child's instruction. Here is a link to check out the program, https://www.pearsonhighered.com/educator/series/Words-Their-Way-Series/10888.page. 

Another thing to routinely practise each night is reading. We will start with reading "sight words", then move onto levelled books in a month. Next week I will be sending home a "ring of words". On each "ring" will be 10 words which are sight words, which means the words shouldn't need to be sounded out, rather be recognised by sight. Some sight words don't follow the rules for sounding out so are best to be known by sight (such as "the, was, are"). Every Tuesday I have a volunteer who goes over the word rings with each child. If your child knows the word the volunteer puts a hole punch in the card. After 3 holes are punched in the card (3 separate days tested on the word) a new word will be put on and the old one taken off. If anyone would like to volunteer to help with word rings please let me know, the more frequent we do word rings with the children the faster they learn to recognise the sight words. 

Sight Words Video

A few parents have asked for the order of letters for the show and share days. Remember this year I am trying something new with Show & Share. For years, I have tried to think of a way that makes sense for six year olds to connect immediately with the sounds that we are working with. I finally found something that both the students and I love! As each letter is introduced I ask the children to bring in something that STARTS with that letter. I tell them they can bring a show & share item any day or every day if they like. As we start our phonics lesson, I let students "Show and Share" about the item they brought. They put it on our counter and I add the word to the word wall. This should help students with initial sound concepts as well as making real connections with the phonics concepts and the items. The letters follow this order: p, u, o, m (we have finished these 4), x, short "a", d, t, s, r, h, "ar" pair, j, k, f, b, g, c, l, short "e", "th" pair, n, long "oo", short "oo", short "i", "ch" pair, long "o", long "e", w, long "i", "ou" & "ow", lond "a", "sh", "ur" & "ir" & "er", v, y, "or", q, "oi" & "oy", "wh", z, long "u", "ng".

Cross Country Race - Thursday!!!

Here is the schedule for race day on Thursday!

September 2015 Update

Dear Grade 1M Parents/Guardians,

From time to time I like to send email/Blog updates to keep everyone well informed of all the class & school events. If you have any questions, feel free to email me anytime! kim.mason@gshare.blackgold.ca

I usually don't assign homework, however occasionally it may be sent home with your child if he/she hasn’t completed the work in the allocated class time or was absent. A rule of thumb for time spent on homework is for each grade to add on a zero and that is how many minutes of homework a night (ex. Gr.1 = 10 min., gr.2 = 20 min). Of course each child varies.…Routinely it is good to do a couple spelling words each night (we will start Spelling words next week, they will be printed in your child’s agenda book), as well I will be sending home a word ring to practice at home later this month (the word ring has 10 sight words, some can be sounded out phonetically while others are simply memorization from sight. Practice reading the words with your child, then please return them to school every day so your child can get tested at school on how many words they know without help. At school we punch a hole in the card if they can read the word on their own. After 3 holes, then they get a new word put on the ring). In October I will be sending home levelled reading books for your child too. More details about home reading next month.

This year I am trying something new with Show & Share. For years, I have tried to think of a way that makes sense for six year olds to connect immediately with the sounds that we are working with. I finally found something that both the students and I love! As each letter is introduced I ask the children to bring in something that STARTS with that letter. I tell them they can bring a show & share item any day or every day if they like. As we start our phonics lesson, I let students "Show and Share" about the item they brought. They put it on our counter and I add the word to the word wall. This should help students with initial sound concepts as well as making real connections with the phonics concepts and the items. 

Some important things happening this month are: 

1. Cross Country Race - Thursday Sept.17 (Time is unknown presently, but when I know we will print it in our agenda books).
2. National School Terry Fox Run - Wed. Sept.30 (Toonies for Terry donation if possible)
3. Library day for our class will always be on a Monday - students are allowed to take home 2 books, please keep them in the plastic bag they will receive in order to keep books from getting damaged.
4. Volunteers - if you would like to help out in class, please let me know, the extra help is greatly appreciated!!!!
5. Each student is asked to bring in a Ziploc bag with extra clothes to keep in their locker all year.  This is in case of emergencies such as accidents on the playground in the mud etc.  Please pack an extra pair of pants, shirt, underwear, & socks as well as an extra toque, mitts & scarf. 
6. Mrs. Schmidt teaches music to the class on Monday & Wednesday. 

Here a couple fun videos to help the students learn their letter sounds.

More Info and Reminders as the End of December Approaches

Dear Grade 1 Parents/Guardians,

I’m sure it’s just as busy at home as it is at school! So much to get done before Christmas! And so little time!

Here are your reminders for December:

1. Tomorrow (Thursday Dec.10) we are going to the Rec Centre to watch the Holiday HoHoHo presentation. Please fill out the permission form (if you haven't already done so) and return to me by tomorrow (Thursday) at the latest. Here is a link to the permission form if you can't find it. https://drive.google.com/a/gshare.blackgold.ca/file/d/0B9S_0dJruYWvakpQR1NTLUhEQjQ/view?usp=sharing 
2. Thank you to Liz & Kristie for volunteering to join us at Holiday HoHoHo and help with supervision during our mini field trip. 
3. This week is Computer Science Week. We have been learning to CODE. Here is a link for more information about coding. Hour of Code
4. The Christmas Concert is on Wednesday December 16. There are two identical performances, 1:30pm & 7pm. Students are expected to be at both performances.The afternoon performance is to accommodate grandparents or relatives who are able to attend during the day. We try to encourage people to come to the afternoon performance if they can because at night the gym is packed…sometimes we run out of chairs and people have to stand. So if we can get some people to come during the day this makes more room for others at night. On the evening performance, please bring your child to the classroom at 6:45 (15 min. early). They should be wearing nice dress clothes, no costumes this year, just the puppet we made at school and a battery operated tea light.
   
   They will stay in the classroom during the concert, only going to the gym during their scheduled performance. So you do not have to supervise your child, I will be with them in the classroom while you enjoy the show!
5. Friday Dec.18  – last day of school before the holidays! We
   will be walking up town in the afternoon to go carolling. Please return the permission letter that I will send home on Thursday. Make sure your child has suitable clothing for the weather, keep an eye on the forecast, in case it is cold, the kids need snow pants if we are walking around town for an hour!
6. On the last day we have a small Christmas party the last hour (from 2-3pm). This is when I give the kids a present from me (a book) and we have snacks (group 2 is responsible for food this time – Cathryn, Shelby, Audrey, Axel, Justin & Dana). Just a reminder about party food – please try to bring in a healthy snack like cut up fruit, veggies, or cheese & crackers, etc.. We can have some sweets or chips but maybe let me know what you plan to bring (note in agenda or email) just so we can coordinate - so we don’t all bring the same thing!
7. I am always grateful to receive gifts from my students, but usually each year I ask for a charitable donation in lieu of a gift. Don’t feel obligated to donate or buy a gift, but if you were planning to give a gift please consider a donation instead. Some local charities are Thorsby FCSS & Christmas Elves. Several families in our own  community are in need, especially at this time of the year. Thank you for your consideration.
8. Here's a picture of our Rudolf drawings: 
   

Sincerely,

Ms.Mason

Santa Video..........