Oct. 29th 2018 week with Selimos HAPPY HALLOWEEN

Hello Parents and Students,

Happy November!  Remember to send your child with a warm jacket, boots, mittens, a hat, and socks.  It is getting cooler out there!

Ms. Dallas Holtby, our incredible University of Regina intern, will begin her full time teaching block in our classroom on Tuesday, November 6th. She has been enjoying every moment of working with your children since the beginning of the 2018 school year. She has enjoyed teaching the Science/Social Studies/Health curriculum and has been picking up components of English Language Arts and Math. She is excited to be teaching full time in all subject areas for the remainder of the month. She has an amazing Agribition trip scheduled on November 21st and we are looking forward to sharing more with you at the November 16th 3 Way Conferences, where we will celebrate your child’s successes this first term.

Phonics letter of the week was Gg.  Brainstorm some soft and hard Gg words with your child.  We created 22 of our own as a team.  Grades 1/2 particularly enjoyed the sentences.    

The children were so excited to receive Pizza Hut coupons as a reward for their October Reading Log minutes (Goal:  250 minutes or higher to receive).

It is International Bat’s Week. We welcomed Professor / Dr. Mark Brigham, from the University of Regina, Biology Department, on Wednesday p.m. Our “Batman” LOVES studying bats and visited South Africa this past summer to study them.   There are 8 kinds of bats in SK and 5 that live in Regina all year long; little brown, big brown, migratory (silver haired bat, eastern bat, hoary). There are 1300 different species of bats. The hoary bat is the biggest bat in our province. The ones that stay in Regina hibernate and roost in abandoned buildings.   The threats to bats in Saskatchewan are winter vines and a disease called “white nose syndrome”. He may come back in the next few weeks with a live bat.

We enjoyed our Halloween celebrations on Wednesday afternoon. Play the Monster Shuffle song with your child:  FUN DANCE FOR A PARTY:  Monster Shuffle song:  

  www.youtube.com/watch?v=XgFxo-IkCNQ . 

We sang songs and enjoyed healthy treats.  Many thanks for the yummy calcium foods and treats parents sent!

Now that our bat unit and vertebrate unit is complete, your child is going to become a farm animal expert. Ask your child what animal he/she might like to be researching.  At home, encourage reading to find extra facts about their farm animals!  Each student will be assigned an animal family in a week; horses, pigs, sheep, cattle, or poultry. This unit is great preparation for our Agribition visit on November 21^st. Thank you to the adult volunteers joining us on this trip.

Remembrance Day:  We introduced the significance of Remembrance Day.  We will discuss the meaning of the poppy and why we wear it.  French Remembrance Day vocabulary:  poppy = coquelicot, soldier = soldat, cross = croix, wreath = couronne. 

Check out the following video:  Remembrance Day Bell calendar commercial; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E7ESRBMk36E  

Teaching Peace song we will sing at RCMP next week:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tYtFDQLazX8 

The Grade 1s continue to work on estimating objects to 20 and then counting for exact answers.  The Grade 1s showed their answers as 10s and leftovers.  The Grade 1s will take their completed UNIT 2 – REPRESENTING NUMBERS TO 20 booklets next Wednesday to share with you.  Grade 1 parents, please go over the unit with your child, celebrate their learning, sign and return to school.

For math, the Grade 2s will complete Unit 2 on Wednesday; Numbers to 100.  I CAN STATEMENTS:  The students can represent numbers using hundred charts, coins, ten frames, and rods and cube units (tens, and ones).  Ask your child to show you a number on a hundred chart, or ask him/her to make you 30 cents with coins! Your child can also sort numbers from greatest to least!  Find the completed unit in your child's agenda.  Please sign and return in their agenda next week. 

Have a great weekend everyone! Go Pats Go! 

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

  

  

     

  

October 22 2018 week with Ms. Selimos

Hello Parents and Guardians,

On Monday, we studied different kinds of bats (long nosed, horse-shoe, tube-nosed, hog-nosed, sword-nosed, & leaf-nosed) and predicted their names before researching about them on the internet as a class.  We studied bats’ noses through videos, books and then completed a worksheet.  Check out these GREAT bat videos with your child: 

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hr-Y2Tt8gFE     

    Echolocation song

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iPhA82ccg9E

   Bat anatomy video

We played another sorting game using our PWIM (Picture Word Inductive Model) words on Monday.  This time, the sorting rule was words with the letter “l” anywhere in the word.

We were excited to have Veterinarian, Dr. Sally Scleland, join us on Mon. p.m. to teach us about Dog Bite Prevention Safety.  The children practiced “STANDING LIKE A TREE” if a dog approaches them.  They practiced “TUCKING IN” like a rock, if they are already on the ground. Signs a dog is NOT happy:  tail up, white of eyes showing, mouth is closed, drooling.  Have your child share the ABCs of petting a dog:  A = ask owner permission, B= be sniffed and C= cootchie coo.  Check out some of the journal writing samples from the children. Also, be sure to view websites:  www.doggonesafe.com and http://doggonesafe.com/holiday_tips

In our printing books on Tuesday, we wrote a Halloween chant.  Have your child sing:  Sometimes I like to walk in the dark . . .  See attached photo.

On Tuesday, the students were introduced to the animal class - BIRDS! As a group, we brainstormed everything we thought we knew about birds; recording right and wrong answers. We then watched a video to find out if our answers were correct. After the video, we corrected and added to our brainstorm of ideas! The students then did a cut and paste activity to illustrate characteristics of birds. On Wednesday, we played a Jeopardy game including all the vertebrates we have covered so far; mammals, amphibians, reptiles and birds! This was a very fun and engaging way to get the students to share their knowledge. We also had the opportunity to practice our math skills in adding up all our points! Team Lizards and Team Crocodile both did a great job in answering and working as a team.  However, Team Lizards won the game with a bonus question! Way to go Lizards!

 

Reptiles:     https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6CQHewteFo8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rh9SITaAF8Y

Bird Song:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cl4MvIZ5I_s

For Writing Traits our focus was TOPICS and choosing good topics to write about that would interest an audience.   

Mathematically, this week rods, units and coins were reinforced with the Grade 2s. The new math vocabulary term was:  unequal or “not the same as”. Is your child able to show 43 cents four different ways?  Is your child able to create 20 cents using exactly 3 coins?  Is your child able to create 45 cents using exactly 5 coins? Solutions:  4 dimes, 1 nickel OR 1 quarter, 4 nickels.  Please try questions like these at home.

 This week, the Grade 1s worked on different ways to make numbers to 20, showing what comes before and estimating objects to 20 and then counting for exact answers.  .  The Grade 1s will take their completed UNIT 2 – REPRESENTING NUMBERS TO 20 booklets home soon to share with you.  Grade 1 parents, please go over the unit with your child, celebrate their learning, sign, finish incomplete pages with your child if you like, and return to school.

French fun on Wednesday and Thursday consisted of creating Halloween puppets and performing short dialogues.  Next week we will use the puppet theatre to perform.  The children are excited for this activity.  They are very motivated to perform.

Our fabulous, fantastic, fun, Phonics letter of the week was:  Ff. The children created over 20 words as a class.  Try reading the sentences from the photos with your child and brainstorming a few “Ff” words.

On Thursday afternoon, we spent an hour with our Gr. 4 Learning Buddies, reading and then participating in a ‘yoga session’ with their teacher, Miss Heron.  It was a very relaxing, Green Zone way to end our day.

FUTURE PROJECTS:  Please save ONE 2 liter container (ex: milk or juice carton) for a fun project in December. DO NOT SEND TO SCHOOL until December, as we have no room to store them.

If you have magazines to recycle, kindly send them to school ANY TIME, as we are getting ready for a writing activity for November (farm study/Agribition).

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

  

    

October 15th, 2018 week with Ms. Selimos Going Batty and More

Hello Parents and Guardians,

Saria was our incredible Star of the Week.  Her favourite colour is hot pink and she likes to eat macaroni and cheese.  She is going to be a big sister soon.  She has a dog, a ferret, and a snake named Snow. She enjoys taking baton dancing lessons.  She has even driven a motor boat. 

On Monday we read a silly, spooky story called The Ghost of the One Black Eye to support our reading and writing.  After reading this story, we acted out parts of it, using some of our class finger puppets.  The focus with the puppets was to introduce DIALOGUE and QUOTATION MARKS.  I refer to the quotation marks as “sixes and nines”.  Have your child show you what this means at home.  Write some fun sentences with your child using dialogue and see if he/she can place the quotation marks in the right spots.  When you are reading with your child, look for dialogue in the stories and discuss.  We also read a story called Wait ‘til Martin Comes and explored dialogue.

On Monday morning we studied the parts of a bat; bat anatomy.  Ask your child to tell you how many fingers a bat has.  What is the wing membrane made of?  Do bats have thumbs? We worked on a visual arts/writing project this week to support our clay bat study. On Tuesday, we created clay bats.  On Wednesday, each child created a paragraph about his/her bat (hoary bat, silver haired bat, little brown bat, big brown bat, silver haired bat, eastern long eared bat, eastern red bat, etc.). 

On Monday and Wednesday, the students learned about amphibians. We introduced amphibians with a non-fiction book called “Reptiles and Amphibians,” as well as an Amphibian song to engage student interest (see link below). As a class, we created a word web of characteristics from the resources we used. They are cold blooded.  Most females lay eggs. They can breathe through their smooth skin.  They live part of life in water and part on land.  Most go through metamorphosis (i.e. tadpole to frog). On Wednesday, students created jot notes from our non-fiction book and interactive song. We used our jot notes to write 3-5 facts about amphibians.

   Explore the following links:

 Amphibian song/ Pollywog:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6XfSvDJge_4

Amphibian:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TuZKgXxYrmY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XI8GPsf6TAc  educational video

Amphibians – Animal Atlas - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eyYb3h_pU1o

On Tuesday, you received your child’s school photos in his/her agenda.  Orders are due on by Wed. Oct. 24^th.  

On Wednesday, Aysha’s mom (Cheynna) read some Inuit stories to us in the library.  Thank you very much!  We enjoyed listening to you read to us.

It was wonderful to see so many of you at George Bothwell Library on Wednesday evening for Grant Road Literacy Evening. It is a fantastic place to borrow books for free and other material for free!

For math, Ordinal numbers were reviewed again (first = 1^st, second = 2^nd, ninth = 9^th).  Your child should be able to read ordinal numbers numerically and as a word in Grade 2.  Please continue to reinforce pennies, nickels and dimes with your children.  Are you able to show 6 cents a few ways?  1 nickel and 1 penny OR 6 pennies.   Is your child able to show 35 cents at least 3 different ways?  1 quarter and 1 dime OR 7 nickels OR 3 dimes and 1 nickel, etc. Grade 1 focus was numerals 11 to 20 and created sets and being able to recognize one more or one less of the original number.

 Mid-week we moved on to estimating objects (making good guesses) with both grades, and then solved for the exact amount.  See photos with orange ten frames and buttons activities.  At home, try using macaroni or cheerios.  Have your child take a handful from a container and place on the kitchen table.  Make your own estimate as a parent.  About HOW MANY do you think you see?  Have your child estimate how many there are and then count the exact number. Who was closest?  You or your child? How many tens and ones in your answer?  Example:  If the number is 68, then there are 6 groups of tens and 8 ones.

For Writing Traits our focus was TOPICS and choosing good topics to write about that would interest an audience.  Ms. Holtby did a Power Point presentation to show good topics. 

FUTURE PROJECTS:  Please save ONE 2 litre container (ex: milk or juice carton) for a fun project in December. DO NOT SEND TO SCHOOL until December, as we have no room to store them.

If you have magazines to recycle, kindly send them to school ANY TIME, as we are getting ready for a writing activity for November (farm study/Agribition).

Have a wonderful autumn weekend!  Enjoy this unbelievable weather and GO PATS GO!

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

    

  

  

  

  

  

   

October 9th, 2018 week with Ms. Selimos

Hello Parents and Guardians,

We hope everyone enjoyed the long weekend!  Grade 1 parents, please look at LIST 2 (20 new sight words) in your child’s homework book, for your child to master.  Cut up the words into flashcards and PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE.  Continue to review LIST 1 (20 sight words from Sept.)

We welcomed a new Grade 1 student to our classroom this week; Skyrah.

Dyson was our amazing Star of the Week.  Dyson enjoys spending time with his mom, dad, big brother; Colby, and his grandparents.  He loves to eat mac and cheese and his favourite colour is green.  He LOVES to play hockey and enjoys going to the Pats games. He enjoys spending time at the farm too.  He likes dressing up for Halloween.  He even went to an NBA game (Golden State Warriors vs Phoenix Suns) this past year.

Parents, did you enjoy the TURKEY FORTUNE GAMES with your children, which they made with their Gr. 4 Learning Buddies on Thursday?  The children learned some interesting TURKEY TRIVIA FACTS and are eager to share them with you.

Mammals and birds focus:  Ms. Holtby’s science focus was mammals and amphibians this week.  Please watch the information mammal video:

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hGonwMTPV6g&t=13s 

Have your child sing and read these fun songs about mammals:  https://vimeo.com/54038870

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T0RCzj9mYYw

Have your child explain characteristics of mammals.  They are warm blooded vertebrates.  Their babies are born alive and drink milk.  They have hair or fur.  On Wednesday, your child did an inquiry about a mammal of his/her choice with sentences and an illustration in his/her journal.

On Tuesday in your child’s agenda you found:  FRUIT BAT’S BAD RAP. It is a drama/science/language arts reading activity for you to work on with your child.  We will perform it for University of Regina Biology Professor, Dr. Mark Brigham, when he comes to teach us about bats, on Halloween day. We will practice every day in class, as well.

Great bat video to check out with your child:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9y4r-VI_qY

Mathematically, our Grade 1 math focus this week was drawing their own flashcards on ten frames. The Grade 1s became familiar with DOT CARDS and each made their own personal set to practice at school and at home. As well, they used 2-part place mats to represent numbers from 10 to 20 as a combination of 2 sets.  Ex:  Count 16 cheerios at home.  Ask your child to put 10 to one side; then count the remaining cheerios:  “16 is 10 and 6.”

Mid-week, the Grade 2s began to learn about Canadian coins; pennies, nickels, dimes, quarters and skip counting using money. 

Here’s an AMAZING website for money practice: 

http://www.abcya.com/money_bingo.htm

The kids LOVED playing this game with me at lunchtime on Thursday!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qRI1C7oJmhI   Canada money song

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VnZlAOSEmYQ   Canada in my Pocket money song

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fdmtmr8G7A8  The Canadian Money Song

Money includes recognizing the symbols on each coin and counting money.  We will be using the Math Makes Sense “story books” to reinforce each coin and do some “shopping” activities.  We charted information about each coin and did math stations using pennies, nickels and dimes.  Pull out some coins at home and have your child count by 1s, 5s and 10s using money.  Do they recognize the value of each coin? As well, ordinal numbers were discussed (first = 1^st, second = 2^nd, ninth = 9^th).  Your child should be able to read ordinal numbers numerically and as a word in Grade 2.

As well, counting forwards and backwards by 1s, 2s, 5s and 10s continues to be reinforced.  Print off a 100 chart from my math website and play counting games with your child.  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. 

Our focus this week and next week for French is Halloween vocabulary.  Visit the site: www.youtube.com/watch?v=sYfmQ5eAQlg  and listen to C’est l’Halloween.  We have played French Halloween 7-up using props.  We read a few chants/rhymes, sang songs and made haunted houses (les maisons hantées).

ARE YOU AND YOUR CHILD TRACKING YOUR READING LOG MINUTES?  Our Gr. 1/2 class is participating in the PIZZA HUT monthly reading program.  When your child hands in his/her READING LOG at the end of each month, with the 250 required minutes, he/she will receive a coupon each time for a FREE INDIVIDUAL PIZZA. 

                                                          

Friendly reminder:  Mark your calendars to attend the George Bothwell Library (Southland Mall) GRANT ROAD LITERACY EVENING for K to 4 students from 6 to 7 p.m. on WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 17^TH.  We hope to see you there with your children.  Bring your library cards too.

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

"Practice subtraction as the season 'falls' in! Find more fun worksheets at Education.com."