We had a great time during a special Jump Rope for Life assembly last Tuesday. Jump Rope for Heart fundraising packages went home this week and are due back on February 20th.
I'm hopeful that your child's interest in skipping may be sparked during the month of February, as they will be skipping for the next couple of weeks during their Physical Education class.
Friday, January 31, 2020
February 5th Field Trip
Our class will be joining the grade one classes on a field trip to the Jack Singer Concert Hall for a performance by the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra on Wednesday, February 5th. The performance is called, "The Hockey Sweater". If you have not yet already done so, please return the field trip form that was sent home with your child on Monday, January 27th as soon as possible. The cost of this field trip will be $21.00 and payments could be made on PowerSchool, or you could send cash or a cheque.
As we will be leaving school promptly at 9:00 am it is important that your child arrives on time for school. It is also pertinent that your child eats a substantial breakfast as we will not be having snack time prior to boarding the bus or during the field trip. Backpacks will be left at school.
As we will be leaving school promptly at 9:00 am it is important that your child arrives on time for school. It is also pertinent that your child eats a substantial breakfast as we will not be having snack time prior to boarding the bus or during the field trip. Backpacks will be left at school.
Thursday, January 9, 2020
Vowel Discrepancy Game
As students have been making continuous progress in delineating the beginning and ending sounds of words, they have been participating in a variety of short vowel activities.
Using the following pictures and actions, we have learned about two of the sounds that the vowels make. The pictures are a great visual while we are participating in reading and writing activities and the actions that go with each picture has been an effective non-verbal cue during reading and writing activities.
Superhero Aa says his letter name. He says, "A".
When we make this sound, we flex our muscles just like the picture.
Little Aa likes to be healthy. He eats a lot of apples and says "ahhh". When we make this sound, we open our mouths and pretend to eat an apple.
Superhero Ee says her letter name. She says, "E".
When we make this sound, we flex our muscles just like the picture.
Little Ee is the sound that our Grandma makes when she cannot hear what we are saying. When we talk softly to our Grandma, she puts her hand beside her ear and says, "Ehh".
When we make this sound, we cup the back of our ear.
Superhero Ii says his letter name. He says, "I".
When we make this sound, we flex our muscles just like the picture.
Little Ii likes to exercise. He bends from side to side and says, "i".
When we make this sound, we hold our pointer fingers on either side of our mouth and bend from side to side.
Superhero Oo says his letter name. He says, "O".
When we make this sound, we flex our muscles just like the picture.
Little Oo does not feel very well. He goes to the doctor and the doctor tells him to open his mouth. Lowercase O opens his mouth and says, "aw" (say it once).
When we make this sound, we open our mouth in the shape of the letter Oo and then stick our finger in our mouths and say "aw".
Superhero Uu says her letter name. She says, "U".
When we make this sound, we flex our muscles just like the picture.
Little Uu does not listen in class. She is always talking when the teacher is talking. When the teacher asks her a question and she says, "uhh".
We scratch our head with one finger while we say "uhh".
TODAY'S SHORT VOWEL ACTIVITY:
The students were enthusiastic during our short vowel intensive activity this morning. It will be a fun and easy learning activity to do at home focusing on sound discrimination. I wrote three words with the same beginning and ending sounds. The medial letter were different vowels. I then requested the student to locate and circle one of the words.
1. The first time that I say the word, I just verbalize the word as I would if I were reading it (student repeats the word). The student then locates the word and circles it.
2. If the student is having difficulty locating the correct word, I repeat the word while emphasizing the vowel sound (student repeats the word emphasizing the vowel sound). The student then locates the word and circles it.
3. If the student requires further assistance, I would say the word emphasizing the vowel sound and direct the student to look at the vowel pictures for a, e, i, o and u (student repeats the word emphasizing the vowel). The student then locates the word and circles it.
4. If the student requires further assistance, I repeat the word emphasizing the vowel sound while pointing to the correct letter sound picture. The student then locates the word and circles it.
EXAMPLE:
Using the following pictures and actions, we have learned about two of the sounds that the vowels make. The pictures are a great visual while we are participating in reading and writing activities and the actions that go with each picture has been an effective non-verbal cue during reading and writing activities.
Superhero Aa says his letter name. He says, "A".
When we make this sound, we flex our muscles just like the picture.
Little Aa likes to be healthy. He eats a lot of apples and says "ahhh". When we make this sound, we open our mouths and pretend to eat an apple.
Superhero Ee says her letter name. She says, "E".
When we make this sound, we flex our muscles just like the picture.
Little Ee is the sound that our Grandma makes when she cannot hear what we are saying. When we talk softly to our Grandma, she puts her hand beside her ear and says, "Ehh".
When we make this sound, we cup the back of our ear.
Superhero Ii says his letter name. He says, "I".
When we make this sound, we flex our muscles just like the picture.
Little Ii likes to exercise. He bends from side to side and says, "i".
When we make this sound, we hold our pointer fingers on either side of our mouth and bend from side to side.
Superhero Oo says his letter name. He says, "O".
When we make this sound, we flex our muscles just like the picture.
Little Oo does not feel very well. He goes to the doctor and the doctor tells him to open his mouth. Lowercase O opens his mouth and says, "aw" (say it once).
When we make this sound, we open our mouth in the shape of the letter Oo and then stick our finger in our mouths and say "aw".
Superhero Uu says her letter name. She says, "U". When we make this sound, we flex our muscles just like the picture.
Little Uu does not listen in class. She is always talking when the teacher is talking. When the teacher asks her a question and she says, "uhh".
We scratch our head with one finger while we say "uhh".
TODAY'S SHORT VOWEL ACTIVITY:
The students were enthusiastic during our short vowel intensive activity this morning. It will be a fun and easy learning activity to do at home focusing on sound discrimination. I wrote three words with the same beginning and ending sounds. The medial letter were different vowels. I then requested the student to locate and circle one of the words.
1. The first time that I say the word, I just verbalize the word as I would if I were reading it (student repeats the word). The student then locates the word and circles it.
2. If the student is having difficulty locating the correct word, I repeat the word while emphasizing the vowel sound (student repeats the word emphasizing the vowel sound). The student then locates the word and circles it.
3. If the student requires further assistance, I would say the word emphasizing the vowel sound and direct the student to look at the vowel pictures for a, e, i, o and u (student repeats the word emphasizing the vowel). The student then locates the word and circles it.
4. If the student requires further assistance, I repeat the word emphasizing the vowel sound while pointing to the correct letter sound picture. The student then locates the word and circles it.
EXAMPLE:
Wednesday, January 8, 2020
Work...Work...Work
Happy New Year! The best part of being back after the break is having eight enthusiastic students return to school ready to work after spending 17 days at home. I expected that I would have to review class expectations and routines, but it was unnecessary this year. We are off to a great start!
LITERACY
Writer's Workshop
Students will be participating in a Writer's Workshop lesson twice a week. Students either decide on their own topic or a general topic is provided. Students are expected to first draw a picture of what they will be writing about. We have been focusing on using lines, circles, squares, rectangles, and triangles when drawing our picture. Dependent on ability levels, students have to write between 1 to 3 sentences on their topic. They have been encouraged to use our core word poster and to write down the letters that they hear after saying the word slowly.
Printing Practice
We have begun Handwriting Without Tears this week. Students have been working consistently using a tripod grasp. Pencil grips have also been introduced. Some of the students are being provided with the opportunity to utilize various types of pencil grip to determine which one will be most appropriate. The students have been persevering through these lessons as with the focus being on forming letters appropriately and in the space provided, students are required to erase and try again ... a lot.
Core Words
The core word that we have been focusing on this week is the word "make".
I am hopeful that with daily review, each student in our class will be able to read each core word that we have reviewed this year. Students are also encouraged to practice reading the core words with a partner when they have completed their learning activities.
Core words that we have learned: want, that, help, it, what, go, I, like, more, you, in, make.
Sight Words
We have also been learning to read the following sight words: friend, mom, dad, the, play. These are words that we could use while we are writing during our Writer's Workshop lessons.
Morning Work
Tuesday morning is our literacy morning. Our morning assignments are individualized and students are working on beginning and ending sounds, reading/writing consonant, vowel, consonant words, unscrambling words to create sentences and also activities focusing on reading comprehension skills. There were three very excited boys on Tuesday who were very excited to be able to complete an assignment in a duotang.
Mathematics
During every math class we:
1. Practice counting to 100.
2. Number recognition fluency. Reading numbers quickly.
2. Practice counting by 10s.
3. Participate in missing number activities. For example, 18 ___ 20
4. We are all learning to sign numbers up to 20.
Subitizing skills are focused during one math class each week. Today after participating in a large group subitizing lesson, the students took turns leading their small group in subitizing fingers on one hand.
We are also continuing to work on adding numbers with sums up to 10. We are presently working on activities focusing on addition facts with the sums up to 5.
Physical Education
On Monday, we have begun joining the two, second-grade classes for physical education class as a whole class at the end of the school day. We will be participating in gymnastics for the remainder of the month. Please take a look at Mrs. Millar's blog for some more information about what the students are doing during their physical education classes.
https://millerphysed.blogspot.com/p/learning.html
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
-
I would like to thank all of the families that were able to attend our dress rehearsal and evening performance. It was great to meet all of ... -
We will be learning about the different ways that germs get into our bodies this week. This is the video that we are watching at school. ht...
-
As we continue to progress in student work stamina and the group dynamics within the classroom, student expectations are gradua...