Nurse Deanna

I can't believe tomorrow is February 1st already !?!  Time has been flying by the past few weeks in Grade One.  We have been very busy learning together.

Yesterday we were excited for our school nurse, Ms. Deanna, to come into our classroom and teach us how to stay healthy.  Ms. Deanna read the children a book called William Won't You Wash Your Hands? In the story, William told his parents he didn't have time to wash his hands because he is too busy.  His parents also realized that William didn't wash his hands because he did't know how to wash them properly.

After the story, Ms. Deanna put some special cream (Glo Germ) on their hands. The learners then went to the sink and washed their hands.  We encouraged the children to sing their ABC song while washing their hands, as this is how long we should take to wash our hands well.  

Once all the children were back in the classroom, we turned out the lights and used a flashlight to examine our hands more carefully.  We could see some spots on their hands.  The spots that illuminate under the flashlight showed us where actual germs would hide.

We discovered that it is very important to wash your hands to get rid of germs.  It is important to wash our hands before eating and always after going to the bathroom.  We also learned that clean hands will help us stay healthy.  

Here are some important reminders for February : 

• February 2 - 8:30a.m. -School Assembly - Grade 3 students will be sharing 
• February 2 - p.m.  - School Movie Night, doors open at 6:15p.m.  Movie starts at 7pm!
• February 14 - Valentine's Day - We will be having a small party, no treats,  but we will be exchanging Valentine's Cards.  A class list will be coming home soon so that you can help your child spell their classmates names on the cards.  
• February 15 & 16 - Teacher's Convention - No School 
• February 19 - Family Day - No School 
• February 28 - Pink T-Shirt Day 

Thank you so much for your help and support.  

Warm Regards,

Mrs. Lai

Building a House

A big thank you, to all of the families who were able to come in last week for Student-Led Conferences.  The learners loved showing you around our classroom and sharing their work with you.

We were also pretty excited last week to have a special guest speaker come into our classroom.Alex Adolph (P. Eng)  is a structural engineer , and she came into teach us how engineers build houses. Alex shared some pictures with us, of projects she has been involved in.  We talked about different materials that can be used to build a house.

The learners then got an opportunity to work in a team and build a house.  Their challenge was to create a house where the roof is strong enough to support the weight of heavy snow.  The learners had fun testing the houses out together and made some excellent observations.  Please enjoy some pictures of our learning.

Warm Regards,
Mrs. Lai

Literacy Centers & Family Literacy Day

We have been focusing on the sounds that ch, sh and th make in class.  To help the learners master the ch sound, we have been learning a new word wall this week to give us more opportunity to practice reading ch words.  Please see some pictures of our learning below.  Ask your child "what sound does ch make?  "Please have your child point out the ch words in our word wall.  You can also ask your child to read the word wall story to you at home.  The more the learners practice, the more it will also help the learners with their confidence and fluency.

I would love to have some parent volunteers to help us with our literacy centers.  We have literacy centers in our classroom Monday - Thursday 8:30 - 10:00a.m.  If you have your police clearance check complete and you have completed your volunteer check for the office please drop me a line if you are interested in volunteering in the classroom.

Family Literacy Day
On January 26, 2018 celebrate Family Literacy Day with the Calgary Public Library by joining the province-wide Read for 15 Challenge.  Encourage everyone in your family to read for 15 minutes. Report your readings online (https://calgarylibrary.ca/read-for-15/) or by tagging@calgarylibrary and #Readfor15yyc on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram for a chance to win new books and a Book Truck visit.  Help Calgary claim the title of Alberta's most readerly community.

Thank you so much for your help and support.

Warm Regards,
Mrs. Lai

Flex Friday & Fun Lunch

On Flex Friday, all the teachers created a special mini lesson about a topic they are passionate about to a group of learners.  The students in my group, were learning about a style of art called pointillism.  We examined some pointillism art  and created some pointillism art of our own.

 In each Flex Friday group, there were students from every grade level.  It was pretty awesome to see the grade three and grade four students helping out the younger students in each class.  Excellent opportunity for our older learners to practice leadership skills and caring for the younger students in our school.  It was excellent community building time at K.T. School.

Please ask your child what Flex Friday class they attended?  Some classes were building with Lego, some learners focused on STEM challenges, and we even had a class learning Mandarin.

The next time we have Flex Friday, your child will be regrouped with the same students, but they will visit a different teacher in our school.  Throughout the school year, you child will experience a variety of learning activities and get to make some new friends as well.

The learners were also very excited about Fun Lunch.

It was a pretty fabulous Friday.

Have a great weekend!

Warm Regards,
Mrs. Lai

Terrific Tuesday

What a busy day we had today!  This morning we read The Mitten by Jan Brett.  After reading the story and discussing it together, each learner created their own mitten (out of a brown paper bag) and animal puppets for each of the animals in the story.  The learners each used their puppets to retell the Mitten story.  Parents, please use the story strip attached to their mitten to help your child retell the story at home.

The learners also enjoyed going to the library this morning and signing out a new library book.

In math, your child is learning about addition and subtraction to 12.  The learning goals for this unit are to:

• learn more about the meaning of numbers
• recognize that  addition involves joining groups and that subtraction involves taking one group away from another
• use counters and other real-life materials to help solve simple number problems
• practice using addition and subtraction to write and solve number problems
• describe the thinking involved in solving simple number problems
• use mental math strategies to add and subtract

You can help support your child' math understanding by sharing some simple number problems at home. For example, 6 stuffed animals are playing in the bedroom.  5 more come to  play.  How many stuffed animals are playing?  How do you know?  

In gym the learners having been working on skipping.  It takes a lot of practice and coordination to skip rope.  We have discovered that skipping is an excellent workout. 

Have a great night!  Please remember to return your child's home reading book to school tomorrow.  

Thank you for your help and support.  

Warm Regards,

Mrs. Lai