Week 25

- March 09, 2018

MESSAGE FROM MS.STAROSTECKI

This week our focus was preparing for the Spell-A-Thon. As a class, we practiced and reviewed all 50 words that the students will be tested on the spelling test on March 14th. The whole class was quite successful at spelling the 50 words correctly. The students know that any letters that are flipped (i.e. d/b, p/q) will be marked as incorrect. Watch out for those silent "e" words or magic "e" words! These are the words they need to study a bit more...

are

have

said

they

with

you

come

down

like

little

one

out

some

too

was

what

will

REMINDERS

STUDENT LED CONFERENCES on March 13th.

SCHOLASTIC BOOK FAIR runs from March 12-14th.

SPELL-A-THON PLEDGE FORMS Please return pledge forms to the school no later than Monday, March 12th, but DO NOT send any money until after your child has written the test and we have sent the marked test home that will be attached to the pledge form. In order for prizes to be drawn, all money needs to be in by Tuesday, March 20th! We will be having a wrap up assembly on Thursday, March 22nd. PLEASE MAKE ALL CHEQUES PAYABLE TO RBES. Thank you very much for your participation!

SPELL-A-THON spelling test will occur on March 14th.

SCHOLASTIC BOOK ORDER due on March 16th.

FAMILY DANCE on March 22nd.

NO SCHOOL (PD DAY) on March 23rd.

SPRING BREAK from March 26 to March 30th.

NO SCHOOL (EASTER MONDAY) on April 2nd.

LANGUAGE ARTS

LISTENING GAMES I read the book, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs by Judi Barrett to 1C this week. Our phonological awareness activities were focused around the book this week. A super fun, imaginative tale for weather watchers of all ages. This book skillfully and subtly blends funny storytelling and full-color illustrations with a very real twist about how weather can affect people's environments.

WRITING

Last week 1C starting writing opinion pieces. They needed to state an opinion and support it with two reasons. Today during Writer's workshop the Grade 1's published their first good copy on the Chromebooks. They did so well, I am super proud of their typing progress on their Chromebooks! Next week, we will begin a keyboarding program!

WORDS THEIR WAY Throughout the week, the students reviewed the consanant blend "sp" "sk" "sm" with words such as spider, skull, smile, spoon, skeleton, smell.

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.

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.

MATH

The students are learning to skip count by 5s to 100. Please practice counting by 5s at home!

1C learned about ordinal numbers!

This week, the Grade 1s started their ADDITION unit. When we add two groups together the answer is called a SUM. The students learned to add within 5 using three different strategies. They can use their fingers, draw pictures and they can use small objects. They practiced their new addition skills while playing a fun math card game called Adding War.

SCIENCE

This week, 1C learned about two of the five senses: sight and touch. They can label the parts of an eye and tell me ways their eyes keep them safe. When talking about sight the students learned about blindness, color-blindness, the Braille alphabet and how the eye works. When talking about the sense of touch, students used various words to describe textures around them. They also took part in a sensitivity test. One partner closed their eyes while another lightly poked their partner's knee, elbow, back, cheek and hand. They were shocked to find out they could not feel the poke on their knee or elbow.