Hello
Parents/Guardians!
W.O.W (Words of the Week)
Words:
- where
- he
- she
- was
- that
Weekly Highlights:
- Thanks to the generosity of the
Hamptons Co-op, the students were able to do a variety of hands-on
activities related to pumpkins this week, such as:
- Observing
the outside of the pumpkin and deciding whether their pumpkin was small,
medium or large. Most of our pumpkins were large! They also counted the number of ribs
(lines) on their pumpkin.
- Using
clues from the story we read called “How Many Seeds in a Pumpkin?” by
Margaret McNamara, to predict which pumpkin would have the most seeds
and estimate how many seeds they thought their pumpkin would
have.
- Gutting
the pumpkin and separating the seeds from the fibrous strands.
- Counting
the seeds by putting them into groups of 10.
- Creating
a Jack-o-Lantern design as a group. This design was then carved
into their pumpkins by our wonderful volunteers. Thank you
volunteers!
- This week in math we learned how
to build a number in a 5 frame and a 10 frame, and then used these to
compare how many more/less than 5 or 10 the number is. For example,
students would build 7 and then complete the statement 7 is ___ more than
5 and 7 is ____ less than 10. We
used counting on our fingers to also help us figure out how many more than
5 a number is (how many more fingers we have up) and how many less than 10
a number is (how many fingers we have down). For example, 7: We have
5 fingers on one hand up and 2 more, 7 is 2 more than 5. When comparing how many less than 10 the
number 7 is, we look at how many fingers are down, 3, so 7 is 3 less than
10. We also worked on using
counting on to figure out how many more.
If the top row of the 10 frame is full we automatically know that
it is 5 and we can count on to figure out how many there are. If we
hold up 8 fingers we automatically know that one hand is 5 and we can
count on to figure out how many, “5, 6, 7, 8.”
- In literacy we continued to
practice our secret stories. We learned that Mommy e makes letters c
and g say their soft sound when she is sitting next to them (E.g. nice,
face, cage). We also spent some time practicing some phonological
awareness skills. The students had a lot of fun with this! See below for some examples of what you
can do at home:
- identifying
beginning and end sounds of words. Give them a word and ask them to
repeat the word and tell you the first sound (e.g. fish, ffff)
- Breaking
words apart. Give them a compound word and have them break it apart.
(e.g. backpack= back, pack)
- Putting
words together. Give them two words and have them tell you what the
compound word is. (e.g. back + pack = backpack)and putting them back
together, and changing parts of words to make new words.
- Segmenting
words. Tell them a word and have them tell you all the sounds that
they hear in the word (e.g. cat- c, a, t, house- h, ou, s))
- We read the book The Little Old
Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything by Linda Williams. In the story the
little old lady is being followed by a variety of clothes and she keeps
telling them she is not afraid of them. When she gets home she hears a
knock at her door. We then had to predict who/what was knocking at her
door. Once all students had made their prediction we then finished the
story and found out that all these clothes were really pieces to a
scarecrow. The students then built their own scarecrow and also
completed a story sequencing activity.
- After carving our pumpkins, we
took them to the gym for Pumpkinella! On Thursday we walked through the
gym to see all the spooky pumpkins lit up! Thank you to all of the
families that also brought in Jack-o-Lanterns!
- On Halloween, we started our
afternoon with a Halloween costume parade with our Grade 6 buddies.
We toured through the Kindergarten and Grade 5 classrooms. We then participated in a variety of
activities with all of the grade 1 classrooms. The activities
students chose from were colouring and drawing, building, watching a
movie, and exploring the ipads.
Reminders:
Pumpkin
Seeds
We will be
sampling roasted pumpkin seeds on Monday, November 4th. They have been roasted
in olive oil and salt. If you do not want your child to participate please
email your child’s teacher.
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)
Teachers Pet:
The grade 1 students will
be taking part in a Teacher’s Pet Program called My World, on Nov. 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/
Pack In/Pack Out:
Starting this year, we have
been attempting to reduce our SVS ecological footprint by moving towards a
“Pack In and Pack Out” philosophy. Once a student has eaten their lunch
or snack, the packaging of that item will be put back into their lunch kit and
returned home for recycling. In continuing to support this positive
change, please provide a locking baggie for items such as apple cores, yogurt
tubes, etc. The baggie will be returned
home with the student each day for composting at home and then should be put
back into the lunch kit for the next day. Help us make a difference!
Artist in Residence:
Ryan Willert has been
working at our school painting a mural in our Gathering Space. The
following link is a quick video of his artistic process. https://youtu.be/MF9vXDn_MDk
We are only half way done
and we are really looking forward to unveiling the whole mural at the end of
November.
Ryan has also been teaching
students about the 4 teachings of the buffalo;
- Take Responsibility
- Say Sorry
- Forgive yourself
- Forgive others
Ask Me About:
- Practice some of the activities
listed above in our literacy paragraph above.
- Have your child sound out and
write a variety of words. These could be words related to things
that they like to do, toys they like to play with, or shows they like to
watch. Encourage them to get at least the beginning and end sounds
of the word.
- Do pumpkins float or sink? How big
can pumpkins get? (big enough to become a boat! See videos of pumpkin
races) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_753VbwWpA
