Week 8

Reminders

SOCKTOBER:
Robina Baker Elementary School is collecting socks for Youth Empowerment Support Services. The socks need to be brand new (no used ones). Thank you, in advance, for your participation.
Field Trip October 25, You can pay online via Powerschool.

R.E.D. Reading Log:
Please remember to fill out the reading log EACH TIME you read a book with your child. Our classroom's goal is reading 5 books per week. Each time they read 5 books in a week I will put their name in for the draw for 2 tickets to Laser City.

Other:

• Grade 1C will be able to check out the Book Fair on Monday, October 24th at 12:45-1:15pm.
• Alberta Art Gallery Field Trip is on Tuesday, October 25th. The cost of the field trip is $19. Payments can be made online or at school (cash or cheque)
• Please bring back R.E.D. folders every Monday so that your child can get their home reading book exchanged. 
• Parent Meetings are on Tuesday, October 25th (3:15pm-7:30pm) and Wednesday, October 26th  (3:15pm-7:45pm).

Congratulations to our Student of the Week!  

Language Arts

This week, our class continued to expand on the story of  Stellaluna by Janell Cannon. It is a story about a baby bat that was separated from her bat family and ended up living in a bird's nest with a bird family. The Grade 1's created their own bats! During Writer's Workshop, they had a chance to write a few sentences about some of the things they have learned about bats. Parents will be able to check out our "bat cave" during Parent Teacher Meetings next week! Their bats look fantastic.

1C started a new Rainbow Word activity this week. They worked on Word Sort Work in their Word Work folders. The students used this week's Red Rainbow Words during this activity and sorted the words by how many letters are in each word. It is nice to see that the students are increasingly recognizing some of their Rainbow Words in books that they are reading in the classroom or at home.

On Wednesday, the Grade 1's had their very first reading session in Mrs. Waters' Kindergarten class. 1C was very excited to show their Kinder reading buddy all the things they know about books. They were extremely proud of themselves that day. Reading to Someone is something that I will be gradually introducing into the class' Daily 5 program. So far so good!

Math

Grade 1C learned about composing and decomposing a number this week. A tough concept but they are getting the hang of it. A fun activity to try at home might be to use Cheerios (or beads, pom poms) as counters and finding as many ways to make a number using two groups (i.e. a group of 2 and a group of 3 makes 5) OR finding as many ways to split a number apart using two groups (i.e. 5 can be broken down into a group of 2 and a group of 3). I would love to hear about what your family came up with!

In addition to our mini bat unit, the students took part in a survey in the classroom. I asked the question, "Do you think bats are cute or creepy?". The students graphed and interpreted the data. They had to record the results on a graph and tally the results. They came to the conclusion that most people in their class think bats are CUTE... (???!!!)
...I'm glad I have some brave students in my class because I know whom I will be calling if I ever run into a "bat situation".

Science

Grade 1C already knows that when they mix certain primary colours they create secondary colours. This week, they wanted to find out what colours make up the colour black. The students acted like Scientists and made observations, carried out an experiment, recorded the data, and communicated their findings with their fellow classmates. By dropping little droplets of water (with a pipette) on top of a black dot that was created with black marker, the students were able to observe the various colours separating and spreading on their coffee filter  The class discovered that black is made up of the following colours: green, blue, red, yellow, purple, pink, teal, peach, brown and gray.

This week the focus was dark vs. light colours AND translucent vs. opaque colours. Today, the students linked their Creating Colour unit and their Watercolour unit (in Art) by using dark colours to create abstract spooky trees.

Social Studies

The class finished up presenting and sharing their Family Heritage projects. The presentations have been a nice way to learn about everyone's families and traditions. The students will have multiple opportunities to work on using a strong voice while presenting and working towards showing respect by demonstrating whole-body listening while being an audience member.

Grade 1C was introduced to the world of mapping this week. They really enjoyed the book My Map Book by Sara Fanelli. In the book, the character illustrated a map of his bedroom, a map of his family, a map of his day, a map of his tummy, a colour map, a map of his neighbourhood, a map of his heart, a map of his dog, a road map, a map of his face, and a map of the seaside. The students discussed the many reasons of why maps are important to use. Following the discussion, the class created a map of the neighbourhood surrounding our school.

Have a fabulous weekend!