February News

It is hard to believe that February is here already!  Students have been working hard to do their personal best in both classroom work and in social interactions with their peers at recess times.  Ask your child how they are being a "great classmate?" 

Reading at Home

Please remember that your child should be reading at least 10 minutes each night, at home.  A good goal to work on is becoming a fluent reader.  As your child reads, listen for fluency (the tone and rate at which they read).  To achieve fluency, your child may have to read their book many times.  Fluent reading sounds very natural.  If your child is reading word by word, ask them to "make it sound like talking" and see if this makes a difference. You may also want to record your child reading and play it back for them, asking if they think they sound expressive?  Thank you for continuing to read at home regularly!

Writing

The students have been working hard to develop their writing skills and are learning to use capitals and periods appropriately and to remember to put finger spaces between their words.  While phonetic spelling is accepted and even encouraged, the children are expected to spell the words that are on our "word wall" correctly.  Now we are working on including describing words and detail in our writing.  The children have been working in their journals to print two sentences.  We have also been practicing identifying and printing rhyming words and putting words in alphabetical order (ABC order).


Math
The 100th Day of School is almost here! We count up to it from our first day of school in September.  The number 100 is such a landmark number and we will put a lot of time and effort into exploring all we can about it during our math centres, this month.  "100 Snowmen" is a fun book we will be reading and we will be celebrating that we are 100 days smarter!


Valentines Day is quickly approaching as well.  Please look for our Valentine's mailing list (classmates’ first names only) in your child’s agenda!


Together in learning,

Mrs. M. Novak

Reading Practice

Home Reading Folders were sent home a few weeks ago to help your child in his or her quest to become an effective reader.  Please try to read with your child at least 10 minutes per day.  A Treasure Chest Prize will be awarded each time your child reads 10 books!

This year in Grade One we will be working hard using reading strategies that will help your child comprehend text better.  Our class will work on a variety of reading strategies throughout the course of the school year.  We will work on each strategy multiple times.  The goal for your child is to be able to apply all of the strategies independently before, during, and after reading. 

Reading is the most important skill a child learns in Grade One, where the emphasis in on learning to read.  By Grade Two, the emphasis shifts to reading to learn.  Therefore, the stronger your child's reading skills are, the easier Grade One will be!

Thanks so much for your support at home!

Mrs. M. Novak

Welcome

Welcome to our Blog!  What a great start in Grade One!  It has been wonderful working with your child and seeing so many smiling faces.  I am really looking forward to sharing many experiences with your child this year!

In math, we are working on patterns.  In class we have talked about the core of the pattern.  The core is at the beginning and is the smallest part of the pattern that keeps on repeating over and over again.  We have discussed what changes in a part.  Together we came up with a list of things that can change in the pattern.

-colour

-size

-shape

-number

-letter

-object

-growing

At home, you can have your child find patterns in their environment. 

Thanks for your support!

Mrs. M. Novak

Year End Reminders...

It’s hard to believe that our year is almost at an end!  We’ve had a wonderful year, full of celebrations and personal and academic growth. I am so proud of each and every student and the progress they have made over the year!

Grade Two is just around the corner… What can you and your child expect?  What can you do to prepare?  Many things will stay the same.  You will continue to support and encourage your child.  You will continue to work with the teacher to give your child the edge everyone needs to get the best from the school experience.  Learning will carry on.  In many ways, Grade Two consolidates the learning of Grade One.  You can prepare for a successful year in Grade Two by continuing regular reading times, challenging your child with real-life mathematical tasks, and taking advantages of opportunities for your child to write.

Let the weeds take over the garden, skip lunch, and forget to feed the fish, but DO NOT SKIP REGULAR READING WITH YOUR CHILD!

Thanks for an amazing year!!

Together in Learning,

Mrs. M. Novak

Book Fair Reminders

The book fair will run from Monday, May 6 until Friday, May 10, during 2nd nutrition break, in the school library.  It will also be open from 5:00-6:00 pm before the school play on Tuesday, May 7 and Wednesday, May 8.  All purchases benefit Cobblestone school!

MAY news...

It is hard to believe that May is here already!  Time flies when you're having fun!  

Reading & Writing
Please continue to participate in the Home Reading Program! It really helps support your child's reading ability and their confidence in reading.

We are working on procedural writing - How to... 

Together the children and I will demonstrate how to ...Make Rainbow Floats (you can ask them how to make one!).  There will be more to come this week and next.  It’s a chance for children to “be bossy and tell people what to do.”
Useful/Helpful Transitional Words:
First
Next
Then
After
After that
Finally

Math

We are just finishing up our Money Unit and our next unit of study is Telling Time. The children will be making a clock in class. They will be using our clock manipulatives at school and their homemade clock will be sent home for extra telling time practice.

The children will learn to read digital and analogue clocks, and then use them to identify benchmark times (e.g., times for breakfast, lunch, dinner; the start and end of school; bedtime) and to tell and write time to the hour and half-hour.

They will also name the months of the year in order, and read the date on the calendar.

The children will also estimate, measure, and describe the passage of time, through investigation using non-standard units (e.g., number of sleeps; number of claps, number of flips of a sand timer).

We will continue to work on positional/directional words and pattern counting by 1's, 2's, 5's 10's and 25's to 100.

I'm sure time will continue to fly, as we have fun learning during our Telling Time Math Centres!

Together in Learning,
Mrs. M. Novak

Choosing the Right Book...

Choosing the right book.  Some children may choose a book that is just right, too easy or too hard.  We have talked about what each book would look like.  I have written some descriptors that we generated together.

Too Easy (not really paying attention/reading too fast)
Have you read it lots of time before?
Do you understand the story very well?
Do you know almost every word?
Can you read it smoothly?

Just Right (paying attention to words/not stuck on every word/not rushing)
Is the book new to you?
Do you understand a lot of the book?
Are there just a few words a page you don't know?
When you read, are some places smooth and some choppy?

Too Hard (can't understand words/reading so, so, so slowly)
Are there more than 5 words on a page you don't know?
Are you confused about what is happening in most of the book?
When you read, does it sound pretty choppy?
Is everyone else busy and unable to help you?

Together in Leanring,
Mrs. M. Novak