Week 21

- February 07, 2018

MESSAGE FROM MS.STAROSTECKI

Winter is upon us once again! Just a reminder to send ski pants, toques, mitts and boots each day. A number of our little ones had to be sent in during recess time to borrow extra items from the office. Thank you for your help with this.

REMINDERS

NO SCHOOL (TEACHER'S CONVENTION) on February 8th and February 9th.

SKATING WEEK from February 12th to February 15th (except for February 14th). 1C will be skating from 9-9:30am. Parent volunteers are welcome to join us on or off the ice. Please let me know if you would like to help out!
We will be leaving for the rink at 8:45am.

SKIP-A-THON Pledge envelopes were sent home last week. All students are encouraged to try to donated a toonie to this worthy cause...heart and stroke disease affects all ages! Choose to pledge online instead and make it easier for all. There are tax receipts for $20 donations. Donations are due by February 14th. Please support your child's fundraising efforts by registering them online at jumpropeforheart.ca.

PENGUIN VISIT on February 14th (1:00-1:45 pm). Please fill out the permission form on Powerschool (payment is available online).

100TH DAY OF SCHOOL on February 16th. The students will be taking part in numerous activities celebrating the number 100. I have attached an information letter about a 100th day project that will be due on February 16th.

SCHOLASTIC BOOK ORDER is due by February 16th.

NO SCHOOL (FAMILY DAY) on February 19th.

PINK SHIRT DAY on February 28th.

HOME READING The books will be exchanged every Friday. You may also read books from home or the library, just make sure you log it! Our classroom goal is to read (or have a book read to us) at least 7 books per week.

LIBRARY Please bring back your child's library book each Monday so they may exchange it for a new one.

LANGUAGE ARTS

LISTENING GAMES I read the book, Emperor's Egg by Martin Jenkins to 1C this week. Our phonological awareness activities were focused around the book this week. Can you imagine speding the winter outdoors in Antarctica without anything at all to eat? That is just what the male emperor penguin does. While his mate is off swimming in the ocean and catching loads of fish, he stands around in the freezing cold with an egg on his feet for two whole months, keeping it warm and watiting for it to hatch. A story about the most devoted dad!

WRITING We read Snowmen at Work by Caralyn . 1C brainstormed ideas of what kind of jobs snowmen carry out at night when the world goes to sleep. The students wrote a sentence or two about what kind of job they would want if they were a snowman.

Later on in the week, the students wrote about the steps involved in "How To Build a Snowman". They learned how to add details to their sentences to make their writing more interesting to the reader. Way to go 1C, a lot of hard work this week!

WORDS THEIR WAY Throughout the week, the students reviewed the diagraphs "ch" and "sh" with words such as chop, cherries, chief, cheese, short, shirt, shark, shop.

RAINBOW WORDS Next week, 1C will be learning five new Blue Rainbow Words: here, his, into, just, look. I encourage for you to practice Rainbow Words with your child to increase their exposure and improve their word recognition. I will be informally assessing each student at the end of each week to see if they are able to read and recognize their Rainbow Words.

DAILY 5 The Grade 1's are working towards staying focused for 15 minutes during each of their centers during Daily 5. During Daily 5, they complete all of their centers including Read to Self, Read to Someone, Listening to Reading and Word Work. Keep up the hard work Grade 1!
While they reading the students are practicing the Skippy Frog, Flip the Dolphin, Chunky Monkey, Stretchy Snake, Eagle Eye, Lips the Fish strategy.

Skippy Frog who skips the word. Reads to the end of the sentence. Hops back and re- reads the sentence.

Flip the Dolphin tries the short vowel. If it doesn't sound right, flip the sound to the long vowel and try it again.

Chunky Monkey looks for hunks and chunks they know inside a word.

Stretchy Snake reminds the students to "S-T-R-E-T-C-H" it out and to say each sound slowly then say it fast.

Eagle Eye serves as a reminder to look at the pictures for clues when reading a book.

Lips the Fish looks at the beginning and ending sound of a word.

SCIENCE

The students continue to explore the changes and preparations animals go through in preparation for the season of winter. 1C completed a project that shows human and animal preparationg for winter. I read the book "Over and Under the Snow" and the students used their knowledge of hibernation, migration and adaptations of animals to create a beautiful project together based around the book they studied earlier.