Fabulous Friday

The grade one students in Ms. Petrie and Mrs. Lai's class have spent the past two days building leprechaun traps.  After the learners created their designs, they then went "shopping "for their building materials.

After collecting our supplies, the students worked very hard to build their traps.  The learners were all very engaged and focused on their building project.  Everyone demonstrated excellent team work skills.

Here are our few examples of our finished traps. Please enjoy some pictures of our learning.

The learners did such a fantastic job on their special building project.  In April, we will continue to explore building things in more detail with our buddies from next door.

Have a great weekend!

Warm Regards,
Mrs. Lai

Leprechaun Trap: Engineering Challenge Project

We read a wonderful story this morning called How To Trap A Leprechaun.  The learners are excited to design and create their own traps to catch a Leprechaun.  So we thought this would be a great engineering project to work on with our friends from next door.  Mrs. Petrie's class will be working with our class on this special project.  The students are encouraged to use what they know about building and their knowledge of Leprechauns to try and create a trap that will help us catch one.  We are hoping to catch that pesky Leprechaun this year!  

For homework, we are asking the learners to bring in items to school starting tomorrow that could be used in their Leprechaun traps.  Below are a few suggestions:  

• empty cardboard box
• St. Patrick's Day garland
• St. Patrick's Day embellishments
• Rainbow paper
• gold coins 

Thanks you so much your help and support.  

Warm  Regards,

Mrs. Lai

Austin's Butterfly

On Friday, we read Austin's Butterfly together as a class. It is a true story, about a boy in grade one and Austin's class were studying butterflies. Austin's job was to create a  scientific drawing of a  butterfly called the tiger swallowtail, for his class project.

Austin's first draft was ok, but didn't look like an accurate representation of the tiger swallowtail butterfly. We looked at all of Austin's drafts, and how each time Austin received feedback he then created a new draft of his butterfly.  The learners and I were inspired and very impressed with the final product, it was awesome!

We discovered  that sometimes learners need to attempt things multiple times to improve our work.  We  also talked about the importance of not yet, and if we're open to receiving feedback we can make our work even better.

Below our some pictures of Austins'work.

After reading Austin's Butterfly, we focused on a new word for many of the learners.  We practiced using the word persevere together as a class.

At home, please ask your child if they remember what the word persevere means.  Please encourage your child that sometimes we need to persevere to learn a new skill or master a new task.  I think this is a word we will also be reviewing together in class this week, as we will need to persevere in gym class this week as we learn how to in-line skate.

I hope you and your family are enjoying this beautiful weekend!  Don't forget to Spring Forward!

Warm Regards,
Mrs. Lai

Terrific Tuesday

We had a terrific day of learning in our classroom today.  We started the day by reading to ourselves.  The learners in the morning are practicing reading their guided reading books in the morning.  The extra practice reading their guided reading books is helping to develop their fluency and expression. While the learners are reading independently, I am able to read one on one with a few readers each day.  The grade one learners are really becoming much stronger readers and their endurance is growing !!!  At the start of the school year, they were able to read to self for about 5- 10 min. Today the grade one learners read for about 20 min to themselves.  So exciting to see them growing and becoming learners who LOVE to read :)  

We have been focusing a lot on learning our blends to help us become better readers and writers.  Some of the blends we have been focusing on in class are : 

• SH words - shoe, sheep, shop, shark
• CH words - cheese, chin, chop, chic
• WH words - whisker, whale, wheat, whistle
• TH words - think, thirteen, thief, thumb

Below are some of our favorite songs we have been learning to help us identify the sound for each blend.  Please take some time to play these songs for your child at home.  Help them practice the blend sounds at home.  

http://www.lyrics2learn.com | Enjoy this catchy phonics song for kids that is all about the "sh" sound!

http://www.lyrics2learn.com | Enjoy this catchy phonics song for kids that is all about the "ch" sound!

http://www.lyrics2learn.com | Enjoy this catchy phonics song for kids that is all about the "wh" sound!

http://www.lyrics2learn.com | Enjoy this catchy phonics song for kids that is all about the "th" sound!

To extend your child's learning at home, you may also find it helpful to share books and poems that contain a number of words with the targeted blend.  For example,  Sheep in a Shop (by Margot Apple) is a great connection with the /sh/ sound.  The Three Billy Goats Gruff have many words with r-blends, such as gruff, trip, trap, and troll.  

This afternoon, the learners enjoyed going to the library to sign out a new book.  We were also, really excited to have a guest speaker in the school.  Michael Mitchell, a Canadian singer and singer writer, came to teach us some great songs about Canadian history.  

Just a gentle reminder, to please sign and return the Alien-In-Line skating form to school.  Our class will be participating in this special activity next week.  

Have a great night!  

Warm Regards,

Mrs. Lai

Building Things

Dear Parents/Guardians,

 

We are going to be starting our science unit on Building Things in the next few weeks. It is a really fun unit, but it requires lots of materials. Therefore, we are requesting your help!

 

If you have any of the following items that are empty and clean, please send them with your child to school.

 

·      Kleenex boxes

·      Cereal boxes

·      Yogurt cups

·      Shoe boxes

·      Toilet paper tubes

·      Paper towel tubes

 

  If you have any decorative supplies at your house that you are not using, we would also love them! Some ideas include:

·      Box of straws

·      Box of popsicle sticks

·      Pipe cleaners

·      Paper plates

·      Paper or plastic cups

·      String/Twine

·      Ribbon

·      Scotch tape or duct tape

·      Other decorative materials

* Please note, you will not get the items back again. Please do NOT go and buy any items from the store:)

Thank you for your help!

The Grade 1 Team

Acorn Card Information

Dear Families of Ken Taylor,

During our Flex Friday program, your child created some beautiful art work.  Please take some time this weekend to look over their art work and the order form.

If you choose to participate in this fundraiser for our school, you have the ability to purchase greeting cards, calendars and more with your child's personal art work.  Participating in this fundraiser is optional. However, they do make lovely personal gifts and greeting cards.  Which could make great presents for grandparents on Mother's Day or Father's day.

Anyway,  if you choose to support this school fundraiser please return the art work, order form and payment to the school by Monday March 6.

Thank you so much for your help and support.

Warm Regards,
Mrs. Lai