Reminders

• Friday November 30th, Monday December 3rd: Puppet Making in the Classroom! If you have any tube socks (without patterns) that will fit over a 3 inch styrofoam ball that have lost their mate, can you please donate them for this project?  Thank you! Thank you to the few volunteers who will be helping us on Friday afternoon :).
• Tuesday December 4th: Field Trip to the Revelstoke Museum
• Wednesday December 5th: Avalanche Awareness presentation at BVE

Language

Students have settled into their Daily 5 routine. They have successfully learned ‘Read to Self’, ‘Work on Writing’, ‘Word Work/Study’, ‘Read to Someone’, and ‘Listen to Reading’.  Each day during our Daily 5 time, students choose the order in which they want to practice their literacy.  Students generally have time for 3/5 options each day. I am now able to conference individually with students or in small groups each day and set goals for reading and writing.

***If your child does not come home with new word study words at the beginning of the week, it means that they have not completed their weekly word study work in class and will continue with their words from the previous week.  Please continue to play the sorting games at home to support your child.

Reading: Students learned about metacognition this week and how we need to be thinking, connecting, predicting, visualizing and inferring while we read.  This is what good readers do!  We will continue to study connecting through Reading Power in the months to come.

Writer’s Workshop: Students will be writing a letter to their Pen Pal in a grade 1/2/3 Montessori class in Vancouver.  Students will work using the writing process.  They will write a draft, edit and write a final copy to mail to their Pen Pal.

Ask your child about GUM!  

It stands for: give it a go, underline it, and move on, when it comes to spelling in their writing. This strategy allows students to try spelling the word on their own, recognizing when they might not have it right, and moving on so that they can get their thoughts down on paper.  Please try to reinforce this strategy at home.

 

French Pilot Project: Every Wednesday afternoon.  Students are learning basic French language through songs and games.

Library: Tuesdays.  Book exchange will be at 9:40am due to scheduling for the next 3 weeks.

Read Aloud: We are reading Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone written by J.K. Rowling.

Math

This week our classroom bank and currency will get up and running.  Students will be learning how to handle money, earn money (through classroom jobs, care of materials, being your best tickets), save money and make change in the classroom. Students will be able to purchase for time for work they really enjoy, such as ‘listen to reading’, ‘drawing time’, ‘read to self’, ‘work on writing’, and ‘read to someone’ time.

I recently ordered many new manipulatives for our study of mathematics.  I am so excited to teach the students how to use the materials to strengthen their foundational knowledge in math. Below are a few photos of the material your children will be learning.

The Hundred Board (I ordered 6 of these!): used for understanding numbers in sequence, skip counting, number patterns and counting.

The Stamp Game: used for addition, multiplication, subtraction and division

The Addition Strip Board: used for basic addition

The Subtraction Strip Board: used for basic subtraction

The Decanomial Bead Box: used for understanding quantity, comparing, addition, and most of all multiplication (1-10)

 

 

Students have been practicing their numeracy using various manipulatives in the classroom.  Students will be learning about place value and practicing their number concepts before moving into static addition.

Science

The salmon eggs have arrived! We will begin our study of salmon this week!  We will begin learning about the tank and tank rules and expectations.  We will be educating our fellow students outside the classroom about how to take care of our salmon while they are living in our hallway.

Social Studies

We have started studying ourselves with the hope that understanding ourselves will lead to a greater understanding of the people in our community and the world. This week we will be looking at our family and what makes it special.

 

Arts Education

Puppet Making! We will spend Friday afternoon and Monday morning (December 3rd) to make our puppets.  Big thanks to Sharon Mackenzie (Hysen’s Grandmother) for helping us with this project.

Music: Wednesdays, 8:30am with Mrs. Snider

 

Gym

Mondays (nature walk through the back woods with myself), Tuesdays (Mrs. Snider), Thursdays (Mr. MacKenzie): 8:30am