Hello
Parents and Students,
Jake
was our incredible Star of the Week. His favourite colours are blue and red. His favourite food to eat is a cheese burger
with ketchup. Jake lives with his mom,
dad, and 2 older sisters. He enjoys spending time with his 2 older sisters, and
built a snowman with his sister, Kate, and named it “Frosty the Snowman!” Jake
went to Mexico when he was a baby with his family. He plays on the Bobcats hockey team, which
his dad coaches, and he enjoys his track and field club which involves running,
jumping, and throwing. His favourite
series is Captain Underpants and he is excited to learn to ride his blue
bike this coming spring without training wheels!
For Math we began Unit 3;
Addition/Subtraction to 12 for the Grade 1s and Unit 3; Addition/Subtraction to
18 for the Grade 2s. We hinted
to the children to ask for flashcards for
Christmas or for a birthday, as it is EXTREMELY IMPORTANT for them to know
their facts to 12 (Grade 1) and facts to 18 (Grade 2) automatically by the end
of the year, in preparation for next year’s grade.
The
students have been working with manipulatives such as: counters, cubes, toys,
and food. The students have been
practicing creating addition and
subtraction stories. For
example, Ms. Holtby has 5 red Smarties and Sophia gives her 3 more blue
Smarties (5+3=8). Another example; Ms.
Selimos has 8 Smarties in total, but wants to give the red ones away. How many blue Smarties will be left?
(8-5=3).
The
students have been encouraged to use various strategies in order to create and
solve math stories. Try creating a number story with your
child. Ask them to show you four
different equations. The 4 different equations are called NUMBER FAMILIES
(2 addition equations, 2 subtraction equations). For example: 4+3=7, 3+4=7, 7-3=4, 7-4=3 VOCABULARY:
The numbers you add together are called the ‘addends’ and the answer is
the ‘sum’ for addition, and the answer is the
‘difference’ for subtraction.
Math
challenge: Give your child the
following numbers: 5, 7, and 12. Is your child able to draw and to write the 4
number equations (Number Family)?
Please
take some time to explore the following AWESOME resource for math games;
on-line and printable, and all other subject areas:
For science this week, we
continued our new unit about Farming. Our class
learned about the importance of farms and what farms provide for us. We talked
about Saskatchewan grown crops, worldly grown crops, as well as livestock
farming. Check out the video on a Saskatchewan harvest, made by the
‘Saskatchewanderer’ in 2016. '
Our class is continuing on with
their farm animal inquiry poster projects. Each
student chose from either sheep, horses,
poultry, cattle, and pigs to research for inquiry. The students began by
researching in books to find information for their poster projects. With the
information they learned, they have been collecting facts, using jot notes.
This is the beginning stage of our inquiry process. Next week, they will use
the iPads to research, as well. The next
step will be to create sentences from their jot notes.
This
week’s writing traits lessons focused on DETAILS
and supporting your TOPIC with
details. We talked about details with
non-fiction information, as we read farm books based on our animal of study
(horses, pigs, poultry, cattle, and sheep). Next week, after finishing our
research and jot notes, students will create farm animal sentences, and then paragraphs,
and then provide details. One of
the writing traits lessons this week involved labeling a school bus with details and another activity was about providing
details about themselves.
Ms. Holtby began a NEW PWIM (Picture
Word Inductive Model) POSTER last week. The poster features a couple of farm
scenes. See photo and read the words
with your child. Wednesday’s feature
lesson was ALPHABETICAL ORDER. Choose 5
to 10 PWIM words with your child, write them out, and help your child to put
them in alphabetical
order.
Our phonics letter of the week was
Jj. Jake thinks it’s an
awesome letter. ;) We
brainstormed words beginning with Jj, explored rhymes and solved mystery
sentences. They children were able to
successfully figure out the sentences with “j” words and brainstormed many
words with “j”.
During French, the boys and girls are having a lot
of fun learning the farm animal vocabulary and
the sounds the animals make. As it is a short week with 3-Way Conferences on
Friday, we will introduce a new song next week.
We will act it out and sing the
song “Les animaux de la ferme”.
Read/sing the song with your child:
The
students LOVE French class and all the interactive activities and games. Here
is another farm video to read/sing with your child:
AGRIBITION is around the corner: Please send a healthy lunch (sandwiches, fruits, veggies, snacks) for your child
with a bottle of water for the Agribition trip. Please make sure your child is wearing BOOTS, as we will be in
the barns. Dress in layers. No ski
pants, as we will be doing a lot of walking and will get warm. Do NOT send the AGENDAS to school in the
backpacks.
This
afternoon we visited our awesome Grant Road Book Fair. Be sure to check it out with your child
before or after your interviews. Looking
forward to seeing you and your children at the 3-Way Conferences!
Ms. Selimos, Ms. Holtby, Ms. Daniels
