October 1st, 2018 week with Ms. Selimos

Hello Parents and Students,

The weather certainly took a turn for winter this week.  Please remember to send your child to school with a jacket and some mittens, as the temperatures are dropping. 

 PWIM = Picture Word Inductive Model. The PWIM poster this month is of a classroom. This week’s PWIM lesson focused on plurals and sorting PWIM words based on this concept.

This we introduced the Writing Traits ELA component this week.  The focus was “topics.”  What is a topic?   Can you write a sentence based on a certain topic?  They each had a choice of writing about a fish, a monster or a robot.  Writing traits will be shared at the November Goal Setting 3-way conference.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wkvfztlC2ho  

Pizza song based on 2^nd writing traits lesson with the topic of PIZZA.

We also began our PRINTING BOOKS.  Have your child sing to you the song:  Smells like Thanksgiving.  See photo.

The phonics letter of the week was Cc.  We brainstormed food words beginning with Cc, explored rhymes and solved mystery sentences. Charlie and Cindy really liked the ‘C’ lesson.  The children were able to successfully figure out the 8 sentences with “c” words.

We had a lot of fun on Thursday singing Happy Birthday to our lovely Ms. Daniels and surprised her with some singing, birthday cards and a gift certificate to pamper herself. 

We hope the turkeys made it home safely before the Thanksgiving long weekend.

For Math this week, the Grade One’s have been working on number sense with numbers 0 to 10. We have been practicing our number words every day, and have been working on writing our numbers correctly without reversals. This could still use much practice at home. Does your child recognize the word ‘five’ or ‘seven’? The students have been exploring with counters and ten frames what one more and one less looks like, or two more and two less. For example, if my number is 6 (six) what is one more than 6 and what is one less than 6. See what your child knows and practice at home with any group of objects. The children also played some POWER OF TEN GAMES.

Explore POWER OF TEN GAMES AT:   http://poweroften.ca/category/addition/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=58kC6zoarG0         Halloween night number song

The first few lessons were challenging for some of the Gr. 2 students.  In this unit the children will be expected to be able to SKIP COUNT by 1s, 2s, 5s and 10s FORWARD and BACKWARD.  Examples as follows:  Count backward by 10s from 90 to 30.  ANSWER:  90, 80, 70, 60, 50, 40, 30.     Count backward by 5s from 60 to 35.  Count forward by 2s from 82 to 94. Print off a 100 chart from a math website and play counting games with your child.  See math photos for ideas.  Is your child able to count forward by 5s starting at 35 and ending at 85?  Is your child able to count backwards by 10s starting at 90 and ending at 30? Is your child able to start at 1 and count by 2s? Work on even and odd numbers with your child as well.  Even numbers end in 0, 2, 4, 6, 8.   Odd numbers end in 1, 3, 5, 7, 9.  Next week, coins will be introduced (pennies, nickels, dimes, quarters) and skip counting using money.

Ms. Holtby has enjoyed teaching her first health unit on the Zones of Regulation. She started the unit off by introducing the 4 zones; Green Zone – Focused and Ready to Learn, Blue Zone feeling tired, sad or sick, Yellow Zone; feeling worried, scared or silly, Red Zone; feeling angry and out of control. She used clips from the movie ‘Inside Out’ to illustrate how different emotions look. She then had students engage in drama, acting out emotions without using words to show students that they can tell how someone is feeling based on how they are acting. As a class, they discussed what kind of strategies you could use to ‘self-regulate’. Throughout the unit, they practiced different strategies such as breathing exercises, brain breaks and animal walks. At the end of the unit each student created a “Zones Tool Kit” that has their zones booklet that illustrates each zone and a strategy. In it, you will find a stress ball, clapper, zones bracelets, fuzzy fidgets, feathers, sparkly shaker and a dinosaur fidget. Students can use these tool kits to ‘self-regulate’ throughout the school year! The students completed a zones sorting activity to illustrate what they learned throughout this unit and they did great!

We began our Life Science Unit this month, with the Gr. 1 and 2 focus of animal growth and change as follows:

LT1.1
Differentiate between living things according to observable characteristics, including appearance and behaviour. [CP, SI]
     i) Differentiate among animals according to their observable characteristics.

AN2.1

Analyze the growth and development of familiar animals, including birds, fish, insects, reptiles, amphibians, and mammals, during their life cycles. [CP, SI]

AN2.2

Compare the growth and development of humans with that of familiar animals. [CP, SI]

AN2.3

Assess the interdependence of humans and animals in natural and constructed environments. [CP, DM]

We will discuss life cycles, importance of balance (sun, plants, water), vertebrate classification, warm blooded (endotherm) vs. cold blooded and more.

Check out the Vertebrates song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3mP-2WpmCkA

ATTENTION GRADE 1 PARENTS:  Next Tuesday, your child will be given LIST 2 of the SIGHT WORDS; see his/her HOMEWORK NOTEBOOK.  Cut them out and use them daily as flashcards.  We tested our Gr. 1s this week and many still need to master the 20 words in LIST 1. We have been testing each child.  Please review Lists 1 and 2 EVERY DAY as part of your child’s home reading.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE!  Enjoy the long weekend!

Ms. Selimos, Ms. Holtby and Ms. Daniels

Sept 24 2018 week with Ms. Selimos Terry Fox, Orange Shirt Day and more

Hello Parents and Students,

It was an absolute PLEASURE to meet so many of you at the OPEN HOUSE on Thursday evening!  We hope you enjoyed viewing our turkey display case. Turkeys will go home next week in time for Thanksgiving.  For those of you who were UNABLE to attend Open House, please look in your child’s agenda next MONDAY FOR YOUR CHILD’S STAR OF THE WEEK DATE OF PRESENTATION.

We had a lot of fun on Monday singing Happy Birthday to our lovely Ms. Holtby.  The children enjoyed black forest cake in the afternoon, after a hard day of work in Grades 1/2.

We continued to work on understanding repeating patterns in math (Math outcome P2.1) at the beginning of the week.  Is your child able to repeat a pattern element?  Is your child able to represent a repeated pattern?  Is he/she able to extend a pattern and compare a repeated pattern?  Finally, is he/she able to repeat a pattern? Mid-week, Grade 2s worked on the new term; increasing patterns and extending them.  This was a more challenging concept for some of the children, which we will continue to review and reinforce.  See photos from this week’s emails to guide you along.

On Tuesday, we began a ‘phonics strip’ activity where we scrambled the letters (l, p, a, t, n) to create two, three, four, and five letter words.

For French we created ‘shields’ about ourselves, sharing our favourite colours, ages, and family information.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2hXa8dbK3o   Vowel bat song… check it out!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dhj9SqrIZqI    French numbers to 20

We had an incredible, green zone walk to the George Bothwell Library on Wednesday afternoon, where we carefully crossed busy Albert Street and safely made it to the Southland Mall.  There, we sang a Greek ‘hello’ song to Ms. Selimos’ dad who was in the food court.  His heart melted.  Next, we went to the George Bothwell library where librarian, Jane Grigg read books to us. She put on a few puppet shows and even showed us two movies.  She played the ukulele, as we sang with her.  Her instruments were very cool and we each played an instrument and danced to books and songs.  We watched the video; That’s Not My Hat.  Ms. Selimos even surprised us with a treat; a Safeway cookie, from the bakery, before we walked back to school.  On Thursday, we wrote sentences in our journals about our experience.  

On Thursday, Grade 2s “wrapped up” UNIT 1 of Math Makes Sense and patterning.  The math word of the week was “Increasing Patterns”.  A few of the boys and girls had difficulty with “extending of patterns,” so we reviewed the concept.  We also had fun acting out one of the lessons.  QUESTION:  How many drumsticks would 10 drummers have?  See photos.  We skip counted by twos, looking at the patterns and numbers involved.  The children became drummers and then transferred their understanding by drawing it on paper, showing the pattern of twos in different ways. Next, Grade 2s will begin a new math unit on NUMBERS TO 100.

The first few lessons will be challenging for some of the Gr. 2 students.  In this unit the children will be expected to be able to SKIP COUNT by 1s, 2s, 5s and 10s FORWARD and BACKWARD.  Examples as follows:  Count backward by 10s from 90 to 30.  ANSWER:  90, 80, 70, 60, 50, 40, 30.     Count backward by 5s from 60 to 35.  Count forward by 2s from 82 to 94. Print off a 100 chart from my math website and play counting games with your child.  See math photos for ideas.  Is your child able to count forward by 5s starting at 35 and ending at 85?  Is your child able to count backwards by 10s starting at 90 and ending at 30? Is your child able to start at 1 and count by 2s? Work on even and odd numbers with your child as well.  Even numbers end in 0, 2, 4, 6, 8.   Odd numbers end in 1, 3, 5, 7, 9.  In the following weeks, coins will be introduced (pennies, nickels, dimes, quarters) and skip counting using money.

This week the Grade 1s began a new math unit on NUMBERS TO 2O with Ms. Holtby.  Grade Ones need to be able to read the number words and to create sets to 20. Is your child able to read the word ‘two’ or the word ‘five’? Work on this vocabulary with them. Also, watch for reversals of numerals, which is normal at this Grade 1 stage, but do correct them.  Grade 1 parents, this coming week’s homework page will numbers and words.

Your child wrote his/her second spelling test on Monday.  They did great!  We WILL get “picky” in Grade Two re:  using lower case letters when writing the test.  Capitals will be reinforced when referring to people, places, or things.  Ex:  Cat needs to be written as “cat”.  Thank you parents for signing the spelling test notebooks and returning them the next day.

PWIM = Picture Word Inductive Model. The PWIM poster this month is of a classroom. This week’s PWIM lesson focused on creating our PWIM words and next week we will play some PWIM sorting games based on this concept.

Thursday entailed an afternoon of language arts/social studies dedicated to Canadian hero, Terry Fox.  We explored Wikipedia on the data projector/computer and discussed Terry Fox.  We listened to a song Elton John has dedicated to him and watched some real life videos of his life.  The children worked on a simple worksheet about Terry, which they will share with you in their Term I report card portfolio.  At the end of the day on Thursday, we went on a school wide walk around the Grant Road bowl and neighborhood to remember Terry Fox.  Share the following links with your child:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YUAEQeh_98k   song 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terry_Fox  encyclopedia

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZF8k8hpyp_A   video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xjgTlCTluPA    beautiful documentary

Thank you for your monetary donations all week.

Mr. Jeff Cappo visited our classroom for 15 minutes on Monday morning.  He is the Cultural Liaison for Aboriginal Education for our Regina Public School Board.  He attended a Residential School as a child and shared about his experience. Residential schools existed from 1874 to 1999.  On Friday morning at 7:30 a.m., staff were invited to participate in a Peace Pipe ceremony at Grant Road School and at 9:30 a.m. our Grant Road students and staff will participate in a Flag Raising ceremony later this a.m.

Please watch the following powerful video/book with your child at home and discuss:   When I Was Eight, a picture book about residential schools. The children are familiar with this book as it was read to them by Ms. Holtby in our Social Studies class.

When I Was Eight children’s story: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LSBrkJn3NeI

Through the story Amik Loves School, the Grade 1 and 2s became aware of the history and impact of residential schools in Canada.  We had a class discussion about residential schools and did some drama activities based on Amik, the main character.  We also read, Kookum’s Red Shoes by P. Eyvindson. The children then brainstormed about things that they would not want taken away from them.  Children had an opportunity to come up and share their ideas using the data projector. 

 So great to see so many children wearing orange on Friday, the 28^th for Orange Shirt Day;  throughout many regions of the country in recognition of the harm done to generations of children by the Indian Residential Schools and as an affirmation of our commitment to ensure that every child matters. As we continue on our reconciliation journey, it is important to participate and develop awareness of the history and impact of residential schools in Canada.  The orange shirt is symbolic of every residential school student’s loss of identity and self-worth and becomes a symbol of defiance against that undermining of children’s self-esteem, and of our commitment to anti-racism and anti-bullying in general.  Ms. Holtby did a writing activity with the children this week. They created their own t-shirts with things that are important to them. They discussed how the children who were taken away from their families felt, and something they learned about Indian Residential Schools. Protocol of the ‘First Nations talking circle’ consists of acknowledging the Treaty 4 territory, to sit on Mother Earth if possible, to pass the talking stick in a clockwise direction, to listen respectfully to the person holding the talking stick (speaker), and to value his/her opinion and to speak from the heart.

Next week, I will share GRANT ROAD pictures from later this Friday morning with the ENTIRE SCHOOL during the Treaty Four Flag raising.

Have a wonderful weekend everyone!

Ms. Selimos, Ms. Holtby, Ms. Daniels

September 17th, 2018 week with Ms. Selimos and Ms. Holtby

Greetings Parents and Students,

On Monday we began the PHONICS LETTER OF THE WEEK (Bb).  Brainstorm “b” words with your child and try reading the sentences from the photos.

We began our HOME READING program this week.  Parents, please, please, please send the borrowed book(s) back to school the following day, whether you have had time to read it or not.  I will control the Grade 1 HOME READING books for a while.  Grade 1 parents, work on the 20 LIST words in the ‘Homework Book’.  I will assign a new task each Monday, so please send the Homework book to school on Mondays or Tuesdays, if Monday is a holiday.

Reading Logs will be collected next Thursday, September 27^th.  Reading Minute expectations will be halved, as we distributed the Home Reading mid-month.

The math word at the end of the week was ATTRIBUTE.  Ask your child to explain different attributes of patterning (colour, shape, size, direction, position).  We explored attributes this week using pattern blocks (triangles, squares). The children created patterns using 2 attributes AT ONCE.  Example:  size and color . . . little orange square, big red triangle, little red triangle. . . The children had to explain their pattern rule for each pattern as they extended it. 

On Tuesday afternoon we created our paper mache turkeys.  Thank you to Malika’s and Kade’s moms for helping us with this special project.  On Thursday we created nametags for the turkeys and painted them. Next Tuesday we will decorate our paper mache turkeys with our new Grade 4 Learning Buddies. Remember to send feathers to school! This art project will be on display for everyone to enjoy, in front of the school’s main display case at OPEN HOUSE/ BBQ NIGHT.  They will be sent home in time for Thanksgiving long weekend.

On Wednesday morning we welcomed our wonderful, amazing, new Grade 2 student to our classroom; Emma.  We now have 10 Grade 2s and 14 Grade 1s.

For Zones of Regulation this week, Ms. Holtby has been deepening the discussion of how we feel in each zone to how our facial expressions may look. At Open House be sure to check out our ‘My Zones Toolbox’ booklet that will be clipped to our bulletin board outside our classroom. Most recently, the students have been learning the differences between a ‘Big Deal’ and a ‘Little Deal’ when handling everyday problems. Below is a video link that was shared with the class. Watch and discuss with your child about Big Deals and Little Deals, and how we should act towards a Big or Little problem:     https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W3ifIowPdtQ

Please refer to the photo and worksheet in your child’s agenda called:  Who Am I?  In Grades 1 and 2, it is expected that your child knows his/her birthday, phone number and address, orally in conversation in Grade 1, and in Grade 2; orally in conversation and in written situations.  Practice this at home with your child.  More than 60 % of the Grade 1s and 2s did not know their phone numbers and/or addresses. We will retest them throughout the school year.

Academically, we will be administering ORR; Oral Reading Records (Reading Testing for Gr. 1) and Fountas and Pinnell; F&P (Reading Testing for Gr. 2) with your children over the next few weeks to see what his/her present reading level is.  Both tests are based on fluency, word attack skills and comprehension. 

For French on Monday we went outside and played “Quel heure est-il Monsieur Loup?” using clocks to review the time to the nearest hour.  The children loved playing this game and being chased by the wolf.  We reviewed the days of the week in French doing some action songs and sang our silly alphabet song. We read some fall poetry in French and sang some songs.  We also create cell phones and will work on learning our phone numbers in English and French.

Your child wrote his/her first spelling test on Monday.  They did great!  We WILL get “picky” in Grade Two re:  using lower case letters when writing the test.  Capitals will be reinforced when referring to people, places, or things.  Ex:  Bat needs to be written as “bat”.  Thank you parents for signing the spelling test notebooks and returning them the next day.

We wrapped up UNIT 1 of Math Makes Sense and patterning with the Grade 1s on Thursday and early next week with the Grade 2s.  The math word of the week was “Increasing Patterns”.  Please have your child create repeating patterns, showing you the core, at home.  See photos from this week’s emails to guide you along. UNIT 2 of Math Makes Sense for Grade 1 is COUNTING TO 20 which Ms. Holtby will be teaching.

Please encourage your child to wear orange clothing, if possible on Friday, the 28^th. September 28^th has been recognized as Orange Shirt Day throughout many regions of the country in recognition of the harm done to generations of children by the Indian Residential Schools and as an affirmation of our commitment to ensure that every child matters. As we continue on our reconciliation journey, it is important to participate and develop awareness of the history and impact of residential schools in Canada.  The orange shirt is symbolic of every residential school student’s loss of identity and self-worth and becomes a symbol of defiance against that undermining of children’s self-esteem, and of our commitment to anti-racism and anti-bullying in general.

Go Pats Go; game opener on Saturday vs P.A.! 

Go Riders Go vs Toronto on Sunday!

HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND EVERYONE!

Ms. Selimos, Ms. Holtby and Ms. Daniels

   

Hello Parents and Students of Grade 1/2,

It has been a wonderful few weeks of learning.  We presently have 24 boys and girls in the classroom; 14 Gr. 1s and 10 Gr. 2s.  We welcome Ms. Dallas Holtby (University of Regina Intern), Mrs. Jen Yim (Arts Ed.teacher) and Megan McKay (Literacy Support teacher and Phys. Ed.) to the Grant Road School community.

Please pay for the school agenda ($4.00) on-line if you have not already done so. 

We hope you enjoy the weekly photos attached and emails of your children. 

One of the first books we read to the children was My New Teacher and Me!, by Al Yankovic. The theme was that IT IS OKAY TO BE UNIQUE, SPECIAL. 

One of our first health activities last week with Ms. Holtby was based on “Zones of Regulation” books: The Way I Feel by Janan Cain, When I Am Sad, and Class Clown by Robert Munsch.  We read these books and discussed our understanding of “BELONGING” which is one of our 4 Circle of Courage Goals.  Whether we are new to the school, new to the classroom, new as a teacher, etc. it feels good to belong and to be in the Green Zone.  

 This past Tuesday morning, we worked through Lesson 1 of Spelling.  The pattern of focus was “b” words for the Group A students and ar for the Group B students.  See your child’s agenda and please practice the spelling words with your child for Tuesday, September 18^th.

For Social Studies/Health, Ms. Holtby began her first health unit on the Zones of Regulation that teaches students to self-regulate and control their emotions. In this unit, the students are learning the emotions that come with each of the four zones: Blue (sad, sick, tired), Green (good-to-go, happy, focused), Yellow (excited, worried, anxious), and Red (angry, terrified, out of control). If you are interested about the Zones of Regulation, visit the website do read up on its use for inside and outside the classroom.

http://www.zonesofregulation.com/index.html

Play the following game with your child. Pause at each question to discuss what the character is feeling. Is the character in Green, Yellow, Red or Blue zone? Ms. Holtby is busy creating individual ZONES TOOL BOXES  with each child. In them you will see fidgets and ‘pictures’ helping them to become ‘green’.

How Are They Feeling Now?’ game/video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XbYY5QT8XWs 

As a class, we also had fun making our cool locker nametags, based on the movie, The Incredibles.  MORNING ROUTINE:  Each morning your child is to place his/her agenda on his desk with his/her ‘daily home reading’. Home Reading will begin next week. We sing O Canada we recite the ‘Treaty Prayer’.

  Ms. McKay is our Literacy Support teacher.  Listen to the following “Hello song” in Cree.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nPKEjlCQq_U

Check out counting in Cree numbers at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zi2wmz_SxzI Ask your child about the Northern lights (ewawatik in Cree). 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=izYiDDt6d8s   Northern lights video

Here is the link to the Ewawatik song: http://www.ourveryownsongs.ca/lyricshtml/ewawatik.php  

We also did a brainstorming activity with the children where they discussed CLASSROOM RULES which you will see posted by our windows when you visit us at the Open House/BBQ.

We began our printing booklets, reviewing lower case and UPPER CASE letters Aa, Bb, Cc, Dd, etc. 

Next week, we will begin the PHONICS LETTER OF THE WEEK (Bb).  Brainstorm “b” words with your child and try reading the sentences from the photo.

Mathematically, we learned about patterns this week.  A pattern repeats 3 or more times and the term “core” was introduced. Using snap cubes, the children created patterns and then translated them to letters, numbers, colours, shapes, etc.

The math word at the end of the week was ATTRIBUTE.  Ask your child to explain different attributes of patterning (colour, shape, size, direction, position).  We explored attributes this week using pattern blocks (triangles, squares). The children created patterns using 2 attributes AT ONCE.  Example:  size and color . . . little orange square, big red triangle, little red triangle. . . The children had to explain their pattern rule for each pattern as they extended it.  See the shoes/sandal and hats page from Friday’s Gr. 2 lesson, as well.

On Tuesday afternoon, we met our Grade 4/5 Learning Buddies (Teacher: Mrs. Hammett/Miss Heron with Ed. Assistant, Mrs. Foster).  We had an amazing time getting to know each other.  We did a fun, interactive reading activity which involved balloons.  Ask your child about the “popping” session and what was inside of the popped balloons.  It was incredible to receive so many videos and pictures of the ‘balloon activity homework’ from your homes.  Thank you to those who participated.

The children enjoyed their first week of Core French lessons with Mme. Selimos.  Ask your child to share about the “Bonjour Song” and “Alphabet Song”. We reviewed colors and counting from 1 to 20.   We played a traffic light action game and reviewed our numbers to twenty playing LOTO (Bingo numbers from 1 to 20) and Number Twister and Concentration. Some weather words and greetings were also introduced.

Here is an alphabet site:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_LYy3P2okyw

  Here is a number site for numbers to 10: 

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lsc3qLMaCu8

 Here is a site for numbers to 20:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UsEz58BblMY

Each child worked on a  writing activity about summer vacation with an illustration.  I modeled a paragraph on the data projector about my holidays.  The focus was:  creating sentences, using capitals and punctuation.  I was not assessing for spelling for this lesson. Grade 1 goal:  to be able to write a paragraph consisting of 5 or more meaningful sentences by the end of the year. Most Grade 1s were able to create one sentence with inventive spelling at this time.

 Grade 2 goal:  to be able to write a paragraph consisting of 6 or more meaningful sentences.  The children had the opportunity to use the data projector to orally present their paragraphs, proudly.  We will begin Writing Traits lessons soon.

http://www.abcya.com/word_search_jr.htm    A great site for plugging in your weekly spelling words and playing a few games with them.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fR-BLFZyAWs  Vowel song

Raz_kids READING SITE will be up and running soon.  Log in with username: grantroad4.

When you come to the OPEN HOUSE, FAMILY BBQ on Sept. 27^th, your child, will be able to show you his/her work, to date, on the Writing Wall.  

NOTE:  We will be DECORATING our paper mache turkeys on Tues. Sept. 25th. Begin gathering fabric scraps, buttons, feathers, etc. at home to decorate paper mache turkeys.  Dollar Store is a good place to purchase a bag of feathers.  You may begin sending supplies the week of Tues. Sept. 18^th.

Hugs,

Ms. Selimos, Ms. Holtby and Ms. Daniels J