Halloween in Grade One

Dear Parents,

I'm assuming you caught up later in the evening, but for those that missed the costume parade yesterday, this is a picture heavy post where I asked students what they wanted to show me on their costumes. Several students weren't sure they wanted to be photographed individually, so I gave them their space, but many were all too happy to show off their favourite part of their costumes. Here you go:

The group photo

What's the coolest part of your costume?

"I got a cool scar"

"I've got a cool scar too"

"Everything"

"These handcuffs"

"I like my arm bandages"

"The claws on my pockets"

"This lightening bolt is pretty cool. I'm the Flash"

"My favourite part are the wings"

"I like this mask."

"I love this dress and how it moves"

Looking forward to hearing about last night's adventures today. 

Sincerely, 

Ms. Goegan

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

Meet the Teacher Night

Dear Parents,

It was lovely to meet many of you again last night. For those that missed it, I've attached a copy of my 2018 brochure that outlines our year together.

2018 Brochure

Students were super excited to share student journals, family trees and their portraits with their parents. Stamps, lego, and our book centre also came up.  I'll update this post with a few pictures later as well.

I would like to be a dragon

I would like to be me

Student self portaits in our classroom

Who Am I? Student Questionaires

A family tree--students have compared similarities and differences

Some excellent questions were asked about schedule and routine. Here are some notes:

1. Having a pair of indoor shoes that stay at school is so helpful. Please send in a pair to help spare our carpets and keep the inside clean. 

2. Gym is Day 2 and Day 4. Students need to wear clothing they can move in and running shoes on these days. Mr. Dantowitz is our gym teacher. 

3. Library is every Day 4. It is normally taught by Ms. Smith, but please send library books back to school in Mr. Zippy and I'll make sure they are returned. 

4. Music is Day 1, 3, and 5. Ms. Fraser has asked students to bring in music from home for next week. (A note detailing this was sent home in Mr. Zippy)

5. Reading buddies are also Day 5. We're paired with Ms. Oseghale's class. 

6. If you forget any of this, or don't know when Day 1 is (right now, Tuesdays, but it will change!), you can always check our schedule posted right outside our door. If you would like a copy of this schedule for your fridge, email me and I'll send you a copy. 

(Disclaimer: It's meant to be a working document and a rough guide...we might do more art one day and make up social studies the next, for example.)

See you tomorrow!

Sincerely,

Ms. Goegan

P.S. Pizza Money has come due. I have not received as many forms as I would expect. It's online and was emailed to you. If you need a physical form, let me know.

P.P.S. Snack forms went home yesterday. Please send back the form and monies as soon as possible.

Week 2

Dear Parents,

First, I want to welcome 3 new students to my classroom starting on Monday.

Next I want to celebrate all our hard work and fun this past week.

You'll see our family trees in the hall, which celebrate each student's family. This is the beginning of our Social Studies unit all about Roles, Relationships, and Responsibilities, where students will be asked to reflect on their lives.

In math, we're continuing to work on composing and decomposing numbers. We've been focusing on fact families.



In Language, I've set initial reading levels for all students. All students have their own books they can read and we're practicing building stamina with focused reading. You should have seen this initial assessment come home in Mr. Zippy and I've adjusted reading levels on Raz Kids to match what I'm seeing in class.

I'm watching who's been using Raz so far, and hope that it's a valuable resource to you. In learning to read, daily practice is very helpful, so we hope to balance that between home and school.

While I've been doing that one on one work, we've also been playing games with letters and sounds. I call this "word work" and here are some examples from this week:

Students are working on putting these letters into alpha order and putting plastic animals that match initial letters (Can you spot the mistakes?)

,

separating vowels from consonants 

Stamping words

These are fun activities that students can work on independently, while I do more focused work with small groups or individuals. Students have been enthusiastic about this play and my biggest challenge is to take pictures of the learning while all this is going on. 

Sincerely, 

Ms. Goegan

Science Literacy Week at Annette Library

Just a neat afterschool stem workshop in our neighbourhood:

Build it with Keva Planks!

Celebrate Science Literacy Week & foster STEM skills with creative building challenges for ages 6 and up. Build a skyscraper, a flock of geese, a plane and more, with solid wood Keva planks.

Wednesday, September 19th

4-:00- 5:00pm

Annette Street Branch

145 Annette Street

(416) 393-7692

Week 1

Dear Parents,

We had a very productive first week. Student portraits are up in the classroom and look for a wall of mystery outside the classroom: Try to see if you can discover which student is which!

In this first week, I'm introducing students to routines and expectations, but also classroom resources. 

In math, students have been learning to show numbers on ten frames and hundreds charts by rolling 6 sided and 10 sided dice. They are using counters and other materials to help them make numbers concrete. Students have also been learning to "add on" or "count down" to get to their number rather than starting from zero each time, which gives them a number sensibility that helps when they are eventually working on addition and subtraction. We've been playing Chutes and Ladders (also known as Snakes and Ladders), to help practice these skills as well. 

In language, I'm working to determine every student's reading level with levelled books and introducing letter concepts with a variety of alphabet books. Students are helping me read and get a sense of the alpha order by using letters to organize themselves around the carpet, which was surprisingly difficult for even my higher readers. 

We also practiced stamping, writing on white boards, writing on chalk boards and writing in journals this week. I have a variety of different letter games, which students used to help complete rhymes as you can see in the pictures below. We're trying to build pattern recognition and chunking, as well as just practicing the letter sounds. 

Trying to find as many real words as possible 

Working on distinguishing consonants and vowels

Add caption

I'm looking forward to building on these concepts as we slide into week two.

Sincerely, 

Ms. Goegan