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 (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.

Patterning in Math

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 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

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