Reading in Grade One

Dear Parents,

I've been finding myself challenged to take pictures of all the learning going on in the classroom, while trying to facilitate it. It's been a couple of weeks now and I keep meaning to take photos and post them, then realizing I haven't. But there is still great learning going on.

Here's a little bit about the language program in my room, to keep you in the loop:

Students read independently or in partners on a daily basis and I frequently read aloud to the whole class as well.

We began our reading buddies program, pairing with Ms. Oseghale's Grade 3 class, and reading together weekly.

We've also been lucky enough to have Mira and Tiffany (parent volunteers) reading together with students, especially those that need extra support.

On a weekly basis, students also cycle between a number of reading related activities:

•  Levelled Reading Groups with the teacher, where we read a book together and practice a reading related concept with me.
• Word Work, where they get to practice that same concept independently
• Word Games, where students play games in groups and partners with current spelling vocabulary or focus words
• Journal, where students write about their lives or tell me stories and practice writing concepts
• Reading Responses, where students reflect on read alouds in words and pictures. 

I frequently read aloud, either books relating to concepts in Social Studies, Math, or just great stories to share together.

Some examples of books students have been asked to respond to include a picture book called Haunted House by Jan Pienkowski (a favourite artist who makes pop up books). Students were inspired to make pop up cards of their favourite parts. One of my favourite things about teaching is being able to share books like this that have so many hidden treats in the illustrations to explore.

My favourite part on this page is the spaghetti monster in the fridge, but all the treats hidden in the cupboards are pretty fun to explore.

The crocodile in the bathtub was a class favourite.

Friday, in honour of the first pizza day of the year, we read a picture book called Pete's a Pizza, where the parents of a little boy named Pete make him into a pizza to cheer him up when it starts raining. We talked about what cheers them up in their responses. Some like downtime to watch tv, some liked tickles or hugs, and still others talked about going to play with their mom or dad, so it was quite sweet as well.

Pete's parents pretend to make him into a pizza to cheer him up. 

Today, Ms. K read a Todd Parr book: It's Okay to Be Different, and students reflected on the things that make them unique on the inside and the outside.



Not all our stories end up as Reading Responses though.

Last week, we finished our second class novel "Junie B. Jones, First Grade at Last". Students identified with Junie, I think, and enjoyed acting out the story as I read and trying to figure out what some of her made up expressions meant. There are many Junie B. Jones books, so if your child really enjoyed this one, it might be a series to explore. Our first novel was Nate The Great (also a great series to explore together).



Hopefully, this gives you some points of conversation to begin talking to your child about what's going on in the classroom. I'll try to connect about our math program next time, since we're finishing the Number Sense and Numeration unit and beginning a quick look at Patterning.

First Project (and a more general update)

Dear Parents,

I sent home a timeline project outline earlier this week with students, which I hope you've had a chance to look at. Please let me know if there's been any slip between home and school. I've given a month, but I know that Halloween will be very busy for everyone, so please plan accordingly.

In my letter yesterday, I said I'd show some examples of other student projects from the web to inspire you. Here they are. The balance of words and pictures will of course depend on student ability. There are 6 events requested, and I would advise chunking this to do one a night with students.







In class, we've also brainstormed some questions for students to ask their parents. Here's a sample student letter and the big list of questions we generated this morning. The letter went home on Wednesday afternoon.





















In math news, we continue to work on triangle numbers and using manipulatives to help count bigger numbers. I'm noticing students using their own patterns to help them sort things in the wild as well:

Organized by colour

10 of light, 10 of black

Matching numbers is more fun with a magic cube

These guys made their own triangles

Dice games help build counting skills

In Social Studies news, we looked at residential schools as part of the Orange Shirt Day initiative. I used the book, "When I was Eight" and we compared our school experience to that of its protagonist, Olemaun. There's a display up in the hallway to show our thinking:

Olemaun had to sleep at school/I get to sleep in my own bed

Olemaun did not like the school/I love school because I love math

 You can see that students are relating their own experiences to those of Olemaun. It's not always clear if students get the big picture yet, but by introducing these things early and building empathy, one hopes to start the process.

We also read another book called "Shin-Chi's Canoe" about a little boy sent to residential school, who keeps his toy canoe. Students talked about what they would keep from home to remember. Answers ranged from photos of their families to stuffies that grandmothers had given them.

In reading news, we played some games with letters. This group was practicing using magnetic letters to make their words and then using some fancy writing skills to write them on the white board:

Hope this gives you a good picture of the work we're doing together and a sense of the kinds of games we play to help us learn.

Sincerely,

Ms. Goegan