Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Tuesday, December 14th (72nd Day of School)

This week our class is busy getting ready for Christmas. We are practicing for the Christmas concert everyday this week so we will be ready for our big performance on Monday, December 20th. We are also participating in the door decorating contest with our school, so we will be spending some time decorating our door as a class. We will be making Christmas cards to send over to our friends at the Heritage Center as a Social Studies project to be a part of the community. Last week we wrote letters to Santa and even learned how to address our own envelopes, and then we made a trip to the post office to hand deliver our letters to the mail box. Keep checking the mail at home for a reply from Santa!



During all this Christmas preparation, we are still continuing with our daily routines at school. We are continuing to work on our number sense in math. In health this week we will have a special presentation on Thursday where a guest is going to come into our room and talk to us about feelings. In Language Arts we are continuing to work on spelling, making words, letter writing, journals, sight words practice and daily phonics. We will have a spelling test on Friday. Here are this week's spelling words:



Grade 1 (_an word family words):
pan
man
fan
can
ran
van

Grade 2 ('ea' vowel pair words):
mean
peas
seat
meal
season
leave
team
meat
eat
beat
dream
bean

Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Tuesday, December 7th (67th Day of School)

Only 12 days of school left before Christmas holidays. We are busy in the Grade One and Two classroom getting ready for Christmas. We began practicing for our concert yesterday. We will be singing a Christmas song and reciting a poem. Ask your son or daughter to practice their line for you while you are preparing supper or getting ready for bed each night so they are getting daily practice with their part at home too!

Thursday is early dismissal this week. Friday is hot lunch and also our spelling test and show and tell day. Spelling words for this week are as follows:

Grade One ('ap' word family words):
map
cap
tap
nap
lap
gap

Grade Two (words with the squeely ee's):
meet
free
queen
feet
street
feel
tree
sweet
week
seem
seed
bee

Wednesday, December 1, 2010

Wednesday, December 1 (63rd Day of School)

For the month of December, the Grade 1 and 2 students will be doing lots of exciting and new things! The month started off with a field trip today to see "Seussical the Musical" at the Yorkton Regional High School. The students really enjoyed the show and represented our school well with their outstanding behaviour!

Next week we will begin practicing for our Christmas concert. Each child will have one line to memorize. They will be bringing this line home to practice as well. Please encourage your child to practice it to an audience at home.

Grade One students have officially finished with new stories in their I Can Read books. This book may be kept at home or in their home reading bag for periodical practice at home to supplement their home reading program. We will still continue to learn new sight words at school weekly, so please continue to read with your child each night and watch their vocabulary grow!

Grade One and Two students have spelling words this week. We will have a spelling test for these words on Friday.

Grade One Spelling words:
go
me
to
is
you

Grade Two Spelling words (bossy r words):
car
hard
art
large
yard
sharp
start
mark
barn
park
far
farm

We are currently on the 63rd day of school. Please remind your child to fill in the days of school each day on their 100 chart.

November Star of the Month

The Star of the Month for November is Alia Breitkreuz!

Alia is star of the month for many reasons. Alia is always a positive role model for her peers and other students in the school. She always has a positive attitude which she shares with classmates. Alia always tries her best and does everything with 110% effort. She has also received the caring and respect awards in our class and is a great friend to everyone.

Congratulations Alia!

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Health - Buddy System

In Health today, we talked about the importance of having a buddy system. Here is a website we used with a book and some activities to learn about the buddy system:
http://billybuddy.ca/app/en/billy_games

Wednesday, November 24th (59th Day of School)

Link to the Musical Instrument Science Lab:
http://www.nyphilkids.org/lab/main.phtml

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Tuesday, November 23rd (58th Day of School)

Math: Power of Ten Cards
Game: 7up!
This game helps students recognize the pairs that add up to 10 (7+3, 8+2, 9+1, etc.) to make adding easier.
The Grade One and Two students have lots of fun playing these games, while learning at the same time!




Science: 5 Senses Experiments

We have been experiementing with our senses. We have been making various instruments to test our hearing and the pitches these instruments make. We also put our taste buds to the test when we found out what parts of our tongue is more sensitive to tastes such as bitter, sour, sweet and salty. Another experiment helped us learn that smell is a huge factor in what we taste, and our last experiment tested our touch when we tried out the hand thermometer experiement and quick catch experiment.
For links to websites where you can try out more experiments to test your senses and other science experiments, go to http://www.usborne-quicklinks.com/ca/ca_menu_areas_pages/science/science.asp?type=subject&menu=s100






There are no spelling words for Grade 2 students this week. Grade 2's will have another spelling list to practice for next week and Grade 1's will begin spelling tests next week too.
Grade 1's are almost finished their I Can Read books. Please continue to practice those sounds, stories and words with them nightly so that reading comes easier for them. Also, just a reminder to please listen to your son or daugter read their home reading each night! We are on the 58th day of school today for the 100 chart.

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Tuesday, November 16th (53rd Day of School)

Welcome back! I hope everyone had a relaxing and enjoyable long weekend!
This week in school, we are busy starting numerous new concepts. We are starting number sense in math and have been learning lots of new games to help us easily remember these concepts. Ask us about the new power of ten game we played with a partner in math today!
In science, we are exploring and learning more about our senses through experiments.

The Grade One students just discovered the "wh" sound at the beginning of words. Ask us to show you how we blow out the candle to make that sound. We are practicing sight words like where, why, what, when and our colour word for the week, white. We will also have a sound test again this week with the short vowel sounds: a, e, i, o, u.

The Grade Two spelling words this week are:
aim
sail
trail
nail
wait
plain
rain
praise
paid
mail
paint
tail
*All of these words have the vowel pair "ai" in them. We use the saying "when two vowel pairs go walking, the first one does the talking" to help us remember the sound that it makes so we are pronouncing the words properly.

Reminders:
*Please continue to fill in the 100 chart with your child every night. We are currently on the 53rd day of school.
*Thursday, November 18th is Early Dismissal.
*November 24th and 25th is Parent Teacher Interviews in the evening.
*A message was sent home in the agenda today about shoeboxes. We are going to be doing a craft that requires them. Please send at least one with your child. If you have any extras that you are willing to donate, they would be greatly appreciated. Please send them to school for Monday. Thanks!

Wednesday, November 3, 2010

Wednesday, November 3 (46th Day of School)

Last Friday we celebrated at school with the Halloween Carnival. Students from K - Grade 6 played games, won prizes and had a lot of fun! Here are a few pictures from the carnival:





This week we are learning about Remembrance Day and what it means to Canadians. We are practicing a poem to recite at the Remembrance Day service. Our Remembrance Day service will be at the school on Wednesday, November 10th at 1:00pm. Please feel free to attend.

Grade 1's are still learning lots of new sight words and stories each week. Please continue to practice new and old I Can Read stories, words and sounds daily. Our colour word this week is orange. Katelyn and Hayden will share orange things with us on Friday. We are also learning long vowels now. We are working on hearing the sound difference between short and long vowels in words.

This Friday will be show and tell.

Grade 2 spelling words this week are:
one
two
three
four
five
six
seven
eight
nine
ten
eleven
twelve

The Grade 1 and 2 students are now pattern pros! We are now going to be incorporating more numbers into our daily routine to build on number sense.

Today is the 46th day of school. Please remind your son or daughter to keep filling in their 100 chart each day after school so they can count up to the 100th day of school at home too!

October's Star of the Month

The Star of the Month for October is Hayden Berrns. Hayden was chosen as star of the month because he is always kind and helpful to others. When a classmate can't find the colour of crayon they are looking for, Hayden is the first to offer them his. He is always including all of his classmates in his games at recess.

Congratulations to Hayden!

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Tuesday, October 26th (40th Day of School)

Grade 2 Spelling words:
run
pie
note
biking
today
hiding
many
school
moon
bring
strong
cry
red
making
stood

Today is the 40th day of school. Please remind your son or daughter to fill in their 100 chart each day after school.

Just a reminder that Grade 1 students should be practicing their I Can Read books every night and reviewing previous stories, sounds and words too.

Thursday, October 21, 2010

Education Week: Oct 17-23 Valuing Diversity

In celebration of education week, we took the time today to talk about diversity in our classroom, school and community. We even took part in some activities to help us better understand diversity. We did a drawing activity where we drew a picture with our eyes open and we coloured it. It seemed pretty easy at first. Then our partner had to cover our eyes and we had to draw that exact same picture and colour it again. This time it didn't seem so easy. This helps us understand a little bit, what it would be like for someone who wasn't able to see. We had lots of fun with this activity, but it also taught us a lot too. Here are some pictures of us working with our star buddies in our classroom today:





Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Tuesday, October 19th (35th Day of School)

This week is education week! We have lots of exciting things going on in our school in celebration of education.
Monday we had hot lunch from Subway. The boys and girls volleyball teams played a few matches after school in preparation for their games with Saltcoats next week.
Tuesday is open house from 6:30-8:30pm. Come in and check out your son or daughter's classroom!
Wednesday we will have a student teacher volleyball game during period 7.
Thursday we will spend some time with our star buddies going to different stations throughout the school that focus on diversity in our schools.
Friday is wacky hat day! There will be a prize for the craziest hat for the K-Gr.4 students and another for Gr.5-Gr.8.

Grade 1 students are continuing I Can Read. Please practice the I Can Read sounds, words and stories with your son or daughter each night, along with their home reading.

Grade 2 spelling words for the week are:
bang
king
wing
swing
ring
long
bring
spring
hang
sing
song
strong

In science this week we started our unit about our five senses. We took a walk outside today to talk about what kinds of things we could see, hear, smell, taste and touch around us. Ask us about them at home!

Today is the 35th day of school. Please be sure you are filling in the days on your 100 chart at home!

Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Tuesday, October 12th (30th Day of School)

Congratulations to all the Grade One and Two students who have received the "Caught You Caring" award at school already. It's great to see everyone helping out at school and caring for our classmates. Keep up the great work!

Last Thursday while Ms. Holtkamp was at cross country, Mrs. Wlock came in to be our sub. We sang songs at the piano and made corn. We had lots of fun last week!

Grade One students are learning more sight words and stories this week. Please make sure you are practicing all the previous stories, words and sounds with them each night, as well as the current ones too. This week we are learning about the colour brown. Jade and Shae-Lyn will take the colour bag home and bring it back with 5 or 6 brown things in it to share with the class.

Grade Two spelling words this week are:
boot
fool
school
pool
room
noon
moon
loose
food
tooth
zoo
too

Please remember to fill in the days of school on the 100 chart each school day. We are currently on the 30th day of school. Please remember that it is important that an adult listens to your child read their home reading each night to help them with it. This ensures that all words are being pronounced correctly as students become familiar with new words. Thank you again for supporting your child's learning at home!

Tuesday, October 5, 2010

The Week Before Thanksgiving

This morning we had a busy morning. The Kindergarten to Grade 2 students worked together to make a special Thanksgiving craft. We talked about all the things we were thankful for while we were working hard. Here are some pictures of us working and some videos of some things we are thankful for too.






Monday, October 4, 2010

Monday, October 4th (25th Day of School)

Last Friday we ended the week by celebrating Terry Fox Day. The entire school participated in the walk/run where all students were paired up with their star buddies as they made the trip around town. We also did some research on Terry Fox during class last week. We learned that Terry had an aritificial leg that he designed to help him run and we also looked on the map of Canada to see how far he ran. We found out that he ran over 3000km and he ended his run in Ontario. We enjoyed the walk/run on Friday, and when we finished, we snacked on Smarties and juice.

Today in art we made scarecrows to display in our classroom. We had lots of fun making them and we're excited about our Thanksgiving craft that we will make tomorrow and bring home Friday to share with our families.

We also finished our letters to our pen pals today. We are writing to our pen pals who are in Grade 2 at St. Paul's School in Yorkton. We hope you enjoyed our letters from our pen pals that we brought home to share with you!

Grade 2 spelling words for this week are:
book
look
took
cook
hook
brook
good
hood
wood
stood
wool
foot

Grade 1 students are still working on their I Can Read books. Please continue to keep reading out of the I Can Read books each night, along with home reading. There will not be a sound test this week for Grade 1.

Have a great week and a Happy Thanksgiving weekend!

Sunday, October 3, 2010

September's Star of the Month

This year at Springside School, we are recognizing stars of the month. Last year, each classroom recognized a star of the week, giving each student at least one opportunity throughout the year to be highlighted. As a staff, we have chosen to recognize one student each month instead. This encourages students to go above and beyond our expectations and recognizing them when they do so.

As a reward, each star of the month will be given one free hot lunch and a write up about them will be posted on the star of the month board in the main hallway.

The star of the month for September is Ana O'Neill! Ana is star of the month because she is a really good friend to all of her classmates on the playground as well as in school. Ana also does her best work in class at all times and is very helpful to others. Congratulations Ana!

Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Tuesday, September 28th (21st Day of School)

Yesterday we had a special visitor in our classroom! Dina the dinosaur was here for Dinosaur School again. We met Dina and we talked with her about how to introduce ourselves to people we don't know. We learned how to be friendly and polite to our friends and classmates. We also talked about rules in school, our classroom and on the playground. After that we had a chance to play some fun games like school rules bingo and Dina Says. We had so much fun with Dina yesterday, we can't wait until she come back next week!

Yesterday, the Grade One students had time to do some phonics on the computers. We played picture match where we worked on the beginning sounds of letters and matched them with the pictures.

We are doing more I Can Read this week in Grade 1. The sigh words we are working on will come home in our I Can Read book this week. We are learning lots of new stories to read! Our colour this week is red. Hayden and Katelyn will bring the red colour bags back to school tomorrow and share their red items from home with us. The Grade 1 sounds this week are: Qq, Xx, and Zz. We are also learning some rhyming words this week too. We have learned words from the word family _at (hat, cat, mat, bat, etc.) and _an (can, man, fan, ran, pan, etc.).

Grade 2 spelling words for this week are:
sky
shy
by
cry
may
way
gray
today
any
only
many
very

Today in Phys. Ed. we played kickball. We liked it so much because we got to play kickball outside in the warm weather!

In math we are still making patterns. We made patterns using our classmates as manipulatives today. Check out our pictures and see if you can spot the patterns we made!




Please remember to keep track of the days of school on the 100 chart at home. We are currently on day 21. Thank you for continuing to read with your child at home every night!
Reminders for this week:
Wednesday is hot lunch day
Friday is the Terry Fox Run in the afternoon

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Wednesday, September 22 (17th Day of School)

We hope you enjoyed our pictures of us patterning in math last week. We will try to share more pictures with you as often as we can!

This week Ms. Holtkamp is away for cross country for a few days so Mrs. Wlock is coming in to be our substitute for those days.

We are learning about many different things in science this week. Since this week we will be celebrating the first day of fall, we will learn about all the changes that happen in our environment when the season changes. We are also learning about seeds and how they travel too.

In health, we are learning about school bus safety. We learned how to properly wait for the bus, how to get on the bus safely, and how to be good passengers on the bus so we are not distracting the bus driver while he or she is driving us.

We are still making patterns in math, but they are getting longer, and more complicated. We hope you liked the patterns we brought home last week to share with you.

The Grade One students are working on new sight words this week. Last week we made stories with our sight words and used the color green. Thank you to Mason and Merissa for bringing the bag of green items to share with the class. This week, one of our sight words is yellow. We have been making lots of new stories using the sight words we learned last week, as well as the new ones we have been learning this week. On Friday we will bring home our new I Can Read stories to share with you and practice over the weekend.

The Grade Two students are still learning new sight words too, and practicing all those sight words we learned last year too. The Grade Two spelling words this week are words that have the silent E as an ending. We are taking the silent E off, and adding an ING for a new ending. All of our words have this same ending this week. Our words for the week are:
roping
hoping
using
racing
making
ruling
naming
joking
biking
hiding
diving
baking

The Grade One sounds and letters of the week are:
Yy
Hh
Jj
Nn
Tt
Vv

Thank you for continuing to listen to your child read their home reading book every night. Be sure to take time to allow them to pick a book from home that you read to them as well. Modelling reading to your children will help them understand the importance of reading. Your support at home is greatly appreciated.

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Monday, September 13, 2010

Monday, September 13th (10th Day of School)

Today we began reading! The grade one students started sight words and are reading stories with the sight words they know.

The grade two students had some time on the computers today. We were practicing our spelling words on there at www.spellingcity.com. This is a good website to practice spelling on at home too!

In math, we are making more patterns. Blog permission forms went home today. Please sign and return them to school as soon as possible so pictures taken during class time of us working can be posted for you to see!

In health we are learning about street safety. We know the yield sign, stop sign, traffic light sign, and the railroad crossing sign. These signs will help us when we are riding our bikes around town or walking home.

Book orders will go home tomorrow. Please return them by Friday, September 17th.

Home reading continues to go home every night. Please be sure to read with your child and initial after they have recorded their book. This helps things run much smoother each morning!

Grade One sounds this week are:
Pp
Ll
Dd
Rr
Ss
Kk

Grade Two spelling words for the week are:
these
broke
blue
date
gave
came
grade
made
twice
note
pie
side

*Just a reminder that picture day is this Friday in the afternoon.

Tuesday, September 7, 2010

Tuesday, September 7th (6th day of school)

Today in math, we made patterns. We made our patterns out of blocks, shape pieces, bears, dice, apples and paperclips. We have a note for our parents about the patterning unit we will be working on in math. Please work on patterning with us at home!

We went to the library today to take out books. We will bring these books home tonight. Please read them with us. They should come back to school on day 4.

We also took home our first home reading book today. Please listen to us read and initial after we record our book.

In grade 1, we are working on 4 sounds this week. They are:
Gg
Bb
Mm
Ff.

In grade 2, our spelling words are:
it
us
him
has
job
red
as
if
up
not
yes
run

Wednesday, September 1, 2010

Welcome Back to School!

I would like to take this opportunity to welcome you and your child to the Grade 1 and 2 classroom. I am excited to welcome the Grade 1 students to their new class, as well as to have the Grade 2 students back for another year!

I am looking forward to the opportunity to meet with each of you, and to a happy and productive school year. This will be a very busy year, and I am eager to work with all of the students in helping them achieve their personal bests in terms of academic achievement, as well as personal and social skills.

Agendas will be sent home daily with a message for you to read. Please initial your child’s agenda every evening, as I will every morning. Please feel free to use this as a communication between home and school. Any important information being returned to school should be placed in the front pouch of the agenda. Plastic bags were provided to keep the agendas in. Please be sure to use these as they will protect the agendas in the event that there is a juice or water spill in their backpacks.

Each student will participate in a home reading program as part of the English Language Arts curriculum. One book will come home with your child every night. Your child should be reading this book each night and returning it to school the following morning. Your child has been encouraged to read proudly to you, so please make an effort to listen to your child read nightly. The children are eager to share their new reading discoveries, so please take the time to listen, encourage and praise! Your support at home will reinforce reading skills that are taught at school.

Grade One students will also begin the year with an “I Can Read Book”. This book will be used to teach basic sight words. New sight words and sounds will come home on Friday for practice over the weekend. These can also be reviewed throughout the next week.

Grade One students will have sound tests for the first four months of school where they will be tested on beginning and ending sounds in words. These sounds will be recorded on the right hand side of the agenda page for that week and will also be posted on our class blog. They will begin spelling words after the Christmas break. Grade Two students will begin spelling next week. Spelling words will be sent home weekly. They will appear on the right hand side of the agenda page for that week and will also be posted on our class blog. Sound and spelling tests will be on Friday, unless notified otherwise in the agenda. Please take time to practice these sounds and words with your child throughout the week.

The Grade One and Two students are counting to the 100th day of school! (The day will land sometime in February.) That is when we will celebrate the 100th day of school with a party! You can help your child keep track of the days of school by having them fill in a number on the 100 chart after each day of school. Do not include weekends. Please use this chart to practice counting to 100 and recognizing the numbers to 100. Your support at home will re-enforce counting skills, number recognition and the formation of numerals.

As mentioned earlier, our class will have a blog. The students and I will be working to add to our blog throughout the year. It will include any important news or information, such as spelling words, due dates for homework, etc. and a monthly calendar to inform you of what is happening in the classroom. This will also be a place where you can find out more about what we are learning in school. The students will share what they have discovered at school each day and I will post it on the blog. Please be sure to check it out and use the links provided as tools to encourage student learning at home.

Thank you for supporting learning at school by working with your child at home. If you have any questions or concerns please feel free to contact me at school (792-2080).

Ms. Holtkamp