Sharing circle

At the end of the day we come together as a group and form a sharing circle. It is a time to reflect on our day and inspire others. The children are invited to pass around the talking stick and share something from the day that made them happy or something they are proud of.  Today we heard some wonderful things ..

Remington: I am proud of this class for working. 

Renee: I am proud that I tuned into an interesting word"nibbled". 

Annalynn: I am proud that I did the monkey bars 

Parker: I am proud that I challenged myself to print the whole page. 

Avery: I am proud that I read a whole book.

Grace: I am proud that I got to baby sit a fuzzy because I am a role model 

Sebastian: I am proud that I read a book that I didn't think I could read. I read the whole thing! 

Terry Fox Run

Today we all participated in a Terry Fox run to show how greatfull we are that the world had a hero like Terry and to inspire others to keep his spirit of selflessness and giving alive. 

Math is fun!

We are learning a whole bunch of new math games that will help us strengthen our understanding of numbers.  Today we learned a game called Aces.  We practiced recognizing dot patterns on dice, counting on from the bigger number and reading the digits on the cards.  I will send the instructions home so you can play too! 

Our First Fire Drill

Today we practiced our first fire drill as grade ones.  We got outside safely and waited in our safety spot in the back of the school.   We remembered to exit the school QUICK and QUIET.  Good job! 

Our sharing circle ...

Yesterday our sharing circle was an inspiration and an affirmation. I love grade one.

We did some reflecting on what we feel about being together in room 14. 

Here is what they said...

It's a nice place to learn-Grace

It is awesome-Sebastian

We have a nice teacher-Annalynn

I met new friends-Isabella

I discovered amazing things in math today-Brodie

I am learning to read more-Xander

I love room 14 because we get smarter in here-Daisy

I feel calm and the day goes smooth-Jace

Wow.  

Did I say I love this place????? 

Math

We have been investigating numbers. We are practicing counting everyday.  You could practice at home too.  We have learned a poem to help us remember how to correctly form the digits. And we have begun to read the number words to ten.  We can make sets of numbers and count to make sure the number that we say as we touch the number of objects in the set. We discovered that it was easier to line up the object that we are counting so that we don't get mixed up. We also sorted and compared sets with the words more, less, equal. 

The Daily 5

We are really getting right into grade one learning! Soon you will begin to hear about a program called  Daily 5. It is a Language Arts program designed for the students strengthen their reading, writing and spelling skills.  There are 5 components: read to self, read to someone, word, work, work on writing and listen to reading.  During Daily 5 the students are encouraged to gain independence at reading and writing while the teacher works with small groups or individuals. I have been using this program for a number of years now, as have many other teachers in the school. It is very successful and helps the children in grade one see themselves as readers and writers.  The first part of the program is all about doing things independently and practicing the "right way" so that the student use their time to grow academically and so that they give their classmates equal opportunity to accomplish great things in reading and writing.  

Today we started the first of the five choices: Read to Self.  We had already talked about 3 ways to read a book, how to pick good fit books, and where to sit. Today we talked about the WHY. Do we need to read to ourselves.  And then...,, we tried it out!!! It was awesome to see them in action!!! 

Stay tuned for the next choice! 

Scissors glue and a lot of fun too!

We listened to a story called Curious George goes to School by H.A. Rey.  The main character George is very curious and that curiosity causes trouble and he makes a mess wherever he goes. We found out though that even though he makes mistakes at the end of his stories he always saves the day. After reading we discussed the beginning middle and end of the story and how there is a pattern to his adventures. We retold the story using pictures for the three main parts of the story. We have been busy learning and/or shining up our scissor skills, so we all tried very hard to do our best on the follow up activity. We carefully cut on the lines, learned to use a glue stick very carefully and coloured to make the pictures just like in the book. We were very proud of our grade one work!

We made our mark!

All we had to do was try!  And look what we accomplished!!  Our Dots!

Librarians at work

We visited the school library today. We got to meet Mrs Wood and hear about her family. She read us a story and we learned how to check out a book.  This year we get to take out good fit books from any where in the whole library! After library we returned to our classroom and became class librarians.  We sorted and categorized the class library books. We worked together to decide where the books should go and how they should be labelled. Then we spent time choosing a few we were interested in and we got to read them.  

Dot day!

September 15 is international dot day.  It was inspired by the Peter Renolds story The Dot.  This story is about a little girl who thinks she "can't" but with the help of an encouraging teacher learns that if she tries she can be proud of what she can do ..."you gotta make your mark...all you gotta do it try!"  That's our motto in room 14. 

Our First Assembly

We gathered in the gym this morning to meet and greet some new teachers and some new friends. We sang our school song and we reviewed the most important rule at Stevenson school : RESPECT!

It is going to be a great year! 

Our first day was a huge success!

We had a wonderful first day in room 14. We decided together that we wanted our year together to be excellent and so we came up with a class promise that will make this year be the best it can be! We had a lot if fun. We played a bit, danced a bit and  a sang a bit too. We read stories,  coloured, counted, marked patterned learned reading strategies and we all were proud. We had a sharing circle at the end of the day where we shared what we were proud of today. What an amazing beginning to our journey....