November 12-15

Hello Parents/Guardians! 

W.O.W (Words of the Week) Words: 

1. with
2. they
3. but
4. on
5. at

Weekly Highlights

•  Thank you to everyone who participated in the “Big Box of Cards” fundraiser. We were excited to learn that our class won a pizza party for selling the most boxes! I will let you know when we have picked a date for the party.
• In writing this week we talked about writing expectations and what good writing looks like.  Students then completed a piece of writing related to the season of Fall, demonstrating their best work.  Some of the things we expect to see in students writing are:
• Capitalizing the word “I”
• Starting sentences with an uppercase letter
• Stretching out and writing as many sounds as possible to make the words easier for others to read (“elefnt”  for elephant rather than “et”)
• Using finger spaces between words
• Using the word wall and secret stories to spell words correctly
• Ending sentences with punctuation (exclamation mark, question mark, period)
• Beginning to use juicy words (adjectives)
• Being able to read their work to others and that their sentences make sense
• We learned about Remembrance Day this week and how fortunate we are to live in a country that is peaceful.  Our grade 6 buddies worked with us to write a message of peace and make paper origami cranes that were displayed during our Remembrance Day Assembly.
• We read a story about Peace called What does Peace Feel Like by Vladimir Radunsky.  We brainstormed what peace: sounds like, feels like, smells like, tastes like, and looks like.  Each student created a page for our Peace Book.  Here are some of the ideas students came up with:
• Peace feels like reading a book.
• Peace looks like my mommy kissing me.
• Peace smells like fresh baked bread that just came out of the oven.
• Peace tastes like cotton candy with chocolate chips.
•  
• In math this week we focused on the concepts of more and fewer.  We practiced using a variety of tools/strategies to figure out how many more and how many fewer.  Some of the tools/strategies we used were: our fingers, drawing pictures, counting on and counting back, number lines, ten frames, and the 100s chart.  We practiced counting forwards from a variety of numbers to 100 and backwards from 20-0.  We also learned about the teen numbers and that the 1 in the teen numbers is actually 10.  We practiced writing teen numbers remembering to put the 1 first when writing them.  We also practiced counting the teen numbers and remembering to say “teen” and not “tee.”  E.g. “seventeen” not “seventee.”
• Our Artist in Residence, Ryan Willert invited students and staff to contribute to his mural by painting our handprints on the wall.  This beautiful art piece will be revealed on our Giving and Gathering evening later this month (on November 28th at 6:30). Please know that this night will be replacing a Winter concert. During this night we will have a blessing for the mural. Following the reveal we will have a night of giving. There will be stations set up around the school where we will work to help our community. Some stations are:
• Decorating boxes and collecting for the food bank
• Creating SVS kindness rocks
• Creating birthday bags for the food bank
• Creating cards for Meals on Wheels
• Decorating boxes for SVS hampers

Reminders:

Teachers Pet:

The grade 1 students will be taking part in a Teacher’s Pet Program called My World, on Wednesday November 13th.  The cost of this activity is $14.00 and payments should be made online using your mycbe account. You can use the following link to reach the login page: https://sis.cbe.ab.ca/public/

If you have your volunteer security clearance we are still in need of a few volunteers to ensure the success of this activity.  Please email kcutress@hotmail.com to sign up.

Cold Weather:

As the weather is becoming colder it is extremely important that your child is dressed properly for the weather each day. This includes hats, mitts, snow pants, boots and a winter coat. Many students have been showing up underdressed for the cold temperatures. As per the CBE Cold Weather Guidelines students will be outside for recess unless the temperature is below -20℃ (with wind chill).  As we are working towards building independence in all of the students, your child should be able to independently dress themselves.  This includes putting on snow pants, mittens, and zipping up their own zippers.  Please practice these skills at home so that your child can do this quickly at school.  

Communication Books:

Please ensure that you are checking your child’s communication book for messages each day.  Please initial any notes written by the teacher to indicate that you have read the message. 

Volunteering:

If you are interested in volunteering please make sure that you have completed the security clearance.  Please speak with the office or our grade 1 volunteer coordinator Kirsten (kcutress@hotmail.com) if you would like more information about how to complete this.  We are looking for volunteers for:

• Field Trips
• Seasonal walks to Nose HIll
• To help with classroom jobs (cutting, pasting, putting up bulletin boards, etc.)
• Reading with students (The first 15-30 minutes of the day: 9:10-9:40am and the first 15- 30 minutes after lunch: 1:00-1:30pm)

Ask Me About:

1. Practice writing a sentence at home including the expectations discussed above.
2. Practice counting:

1. Forwards from a variety of numbers to 100
2. Backwards from 20-0
2. Write the following teen numbers:

 .               twelve

a.             eighteen

b.             fifteen

c.             thirteen

d.             eleven