Grade 1

  Dear Grade One Families, The holidays are just around the corners, which means that there will be a lot of things happening in and out of the classroom. In ELA, we will focus on the long vowels and consonant-vowel-consonant pattern for phonics. This month, we will be doing a Christmas Reader's Theater where students get to practice and read aloud their lines for the plays, giving them an opportunity to build reading fluency and improve their communication skills. Not only do the students have the opportunity to practice specific phonics skills, they also get to make character headbands, necklaces or puppets. I am so thrilled for this activity! In Religion, we will be looking at learning about Advent as the season in which we get ready to celebrate Jesus Christ's birth at Christmas. To make it more meaningful for the first graders, we are making a Christmas Lapbook. These lapbooks are mini books of foldables about the same topic that are organized and kept together in a file f...

Hello Grade One Families, We have gotten off to a great start this year, and I can't believe we're close to the end of 2024. This month, we will continue to focus on learning long vowel sounds and the consonant-vowel-consonant words. There will be leveled books introduced to the students as they do their Literacy Centers during Guided Reading. It is also encouraged that you continue to read books with your child nightly and use the guide questions given to you to check for understanding of the story read. In Math, we will continue to work on patterns and relations and will begin to do some adding and subtracting to 12. Students will explore from a variety of hands-on activities, math centres, word walls, sorting cards and task cards. In Social Studies, we have been talking about responsibilities and rights in the school and community. We will share ideas and learn that rights are something that someone should be able to have no matter what (food, shelter, safety, love, etc.) We...

Hello Grade One Families, HAPPY FALL! What a great start to the 2023-24 school year! It has been a pleasure to meet my Grade One families joining in our Meet the Teacher Night in early September. I can't wait to take this journey with you of educating and making learning fun for the First Graders. This month, my main focus is on teaching alphabet sounds and sight words, but throwing in some fun activities that are themed to make kiddos more engaged in learning new content. There will also be some guided reading and Daily 5 activities that are introduced where students work in five different literacy stations. In math, we have been working on Number Sense where students represent numbers in different ways like the written form, dots, objects, ten frames, fingers, etc. Looking back, last month, we made a beautiful art project in connection to the Truth and Reconciliation activity. We learned as a class that it is important to build respect, understanding, and empathy and that every o...

Hello Grade One Families,   Welcome Back!         As the summer winds down, children are preparing to return to school, looking forward to new learning experiences and playing with friends in safe environments. I, as well, am very excited and thrilled to welcome my first graders and have them as part of our school community. As we gear up for another exciting year of learning and growth, I wanted to share a sneak peak of how a Grade One Class will look like. Looking ahead, for the first few weeks of the month, our focus is mainly to get acquainted with the daily routines, including the attendance, using a washroom pass, walking in the hallways in a respectful manner, practicing mindful breathing exercises, and learning to resolve conflicts when interacting with friends. We will also be talking about our classroom rules focusing on how to be respectful, be safe, be responsible, and be mindful. But most importantly, we will try and work on creating a positive lear...