Terry Fox, Our Hero

Today we walked for Terry Fox.

Last Friday we watched a short video about him and his Marathon of Hope. Then we talked about his life and why he was important. Then we made some posters advertising our walk.


We talked about the features of a good poster. I think that they understand about leaving some white space so you can see the important parts!









(click on the above pictures to see them a bit larger -- they are wonderful!)

My Promise

This week's poem does have some difficult words for the 1s to read -- but it does have lots of familiar words!

Grade 1 Words:
do
my
I (it has to be upper case!!)
on
and

Grade 2 Words:
less
mess
test
best
neat

Table Groups

One of our tasks last week was to name our table groups. I left it up to the group members to decide on their name, and then they made a sign with their group. Some groups decided quickly -- and one group took all day! But it was up to them to reach a consensus -- a name that they could all agree upon.
The groups are always "fluid". The group that you are in this week might now be the group that you are in next week.... but you might be in that same group for the whole year! (not very likely with all of the same group members though).

These are our groups! (I didn't give any input on making the sign... we'll use these signs when we talk about the criteria for a good poster, but they will understand that these are perfect first attempts! I was amazed at how well each group worked together. I am so proud of all of the students in Room 15!

Super Spy Kids!


Super Tigers!

Kung Fu Geckos!


Magic Wands!

Ninja Dogs!

It's really fun to call out the names. "Okay, the Kung Fu Geckos may return to their seats!" "The Ninja Dogs can line up for home time!"

Math Monday -- Sorting and Patterning

Our first unit in mathematics will focus on sorting and patterning.
The learning goals for this unit are to:
- Recognize and sort attributes. Children look for things they think have something in common. For example, they may choose objects that are the same colour, size, or shape.
- Describe and draw patterns. (The Grade 2s will also EXTEND the pattern)
- Talk about a pattern rule.
- Use one attribute to make a pattern. (The grade 2s will use 2 ATTRIBUTES)
We will be starting by sorting the items that go into the garbage, and items that go into recycling! ( a lot of paper has been thrown into the garbage over the past few weeks :)
On Mondays I will list some "Home Connections" that you can practice with your child to help reinforce the learning that is happening at school.

Home Connection: Sort Laundry or grocery items into groups with your child (for example, all socks, all shirts, all whites). Talk about how the items in each group are sorted.
GRADE 2: Ask your child "Why do we sort laundry before washing it or putting it away? What other things to we sort?"

*** please note that we will focus a bit on number sense and numeracy each week throughout the year!

Bingo!

On Fridays we will be playing many different kinds of Bingo. This week we started with Numbers from 1-20. Everyone won a prize this week -- so if your child came home with a small toy this week -- it was a Bingo prize. Sometimes the prizes will be stickers, sometimes prizes from our prize bin.

Curriculum Night

I was saving lots of our work to show all of the parents in person on Curriculum Night, which was scheduled for September 27. But due to the re-organization of the classes (do to over-enrollment, we were allocated one additional teacher, so some classes that have more than 20 students need to be adjusted -- we will have NO changes in room 15!), Curriculum night has been moved to October 12. Hopefully this date will remain firm.

So, on our blog, I will be showing some of the ideas that we have been working on (don't worry, I'll save some surprises for the children to show to their parents and caregivers in person.

Pizza

Our poem for this week is Pizza!


Our Words for this week are:

Grade 1 (the words are not in the poem this week)
The Word Family "at"
at
cat
sat
mat
bat

Grade 2
The Word Family "eat" (2 are in the poem)
eat
treat
meat
seat
beat

On Friday the whole school will have a pizza lunch!

The proceeds from the Lunch will go towards a donation to the trust of 2 of our students who tragically lost their mother in a fire over the summer. If you would like to donate any additional funds, please send them into the office asap.
(Both girls have moved away from Earl Beatty to live with their father, they would have been in Grade 2 and Grade 6 this year)

Lines

We have been learning about straight lines.
Although I didn't ask them to, many of the students labeled their lines horizontally, vertically and diagonally.
We are doing lessons like this in our Art Journals. Sometimes the Art Journal will be for "technical" work like this, sometimes it will be for free, creative exploration.

Names

Our poem for this week is called "Everybody Has a Name"

I am reading many books that have to do with names. We are trying really hard to learn each others names. We are doing lots of activities and games that involve names. I'm pretty sure that everyone in the class knows my name..... although two keep calling me Mr. Brown :)

(I will show more of the name books later this week)

Today our Words of the Week notebook went home. Please review the words with your child and return the book (in the zip lock) on Friday. On Friday we will try to write down the words correctly! At school we will be doing many activities with these words -- and especially trying to use them in context, which makes them much easier to learn. Please see the note that is enclosed in the zip lock baggie for some ideas of how you can reinforce the words at home. If you have a great idea of how to use the words at home, let me know and I will share it on the blog!

This week's words are:
Grade 1
it
is
to
me
be
Grade 2
as
has
was
the
are
(many of the words come from our poems. If it is not in the poem, it is usually a "word family" word that goes with one of the words in the poem -- e.g. as. has. was)

(this is a tiny composition book in a regular sandwich bag)

Welcome to Grade 1-2!

Welcome to Room 15!
We're having a great learning adventure this year -- I'm glad that you have come to join us!
We started the week with a new poem that has lots of high frequency words in it. We put some of them on our Word Wall.


Then we looked at our poems in our poetry books and circled the Word Wall Words (don't worry, Grade 2 parents, the more challenging Grade 2 words will come shortly!)


We'll focus on a different poem every week. Through the poems we will work on our reading fluency, word study, punctuation, visualizing, and vocabulary. We'll be using some familiar songs too!