Popcorn Word Lists

Hi Parents,

Here are all the Popcorn Words that we have been practicing so far. If you could continue to practice reading and writing them with your child it would really

help to support them with their reading and writing activities.

List #1

 a                                   can                                like

see                                 in                                  it

at                                  me                                 I

to                                  and                                look

he                                 the                                is

List #2

 into                                on                                  our

are                                 ran                                 she

so                                  all                                 this

too                                 was                                who

did                                 am                                 that

List #3

 big                                 come                              down

for                                 go                                  here

little                              my                                 not

play                               red                                 run

up                                  we                                 you

  

List #4 

ate                                 what                               want

with                               get                                 now

who                                well                               good

went                               but                                no

out                                 do                                  saw  

List #5

away                              funny                              make

said                                yellow                      blue

help                               not                                 three

yes                                 find                                jump

one                                two                                will

List #6

 any                         from                 as                   has          

just                         when                after                going

put                         walk                 then                 of

stop                        could                an                   her

let                          open                 them                talk

**Our new list will be coming home this week

List #7

black                              white                             by

new                                please                            brown

eat                                  old                                  ride

had                                 must                               there

they                               under                              came

be                                    do                                   out

pretty                             say                                 soon

Hi Parents

It sure has been a  busy exciting month.  We were involved in many building activities.   We built the 3 houses of the

3 little pigs – the straw house, the stick house and a recycled (brick) house. We built bridges using different materials and

we build two towers as well.

As architects and engineers we learned so many things such as:

- spaghetti is not a very strong material

- a triangle is a strong building shape

- a house needs a strong foundation, walls that are the same size and a roof

*Thank you so very much for sending in a variety of materials for us to explore with, we had so much fun.

We will be using our knowledge to build a community soon and would appreciate it if you could send any empty boxes

that you may have from crackers, Kraft dinner, cereal, etc.

We have begun our science study of the needs of plants and animals.  We had a wonderful trip to the zoo and have started

to research an animal that we are interested in. Thank you very much to the parents who were able to join us at the zoo.

We have also begun our scientific experiment with plants and are very excited to see how close we are with our predictions.

We planted bean seeds but we chose to try different environment for our seeds:

- soil, water, and sunlight

-soil, water and no light

-water and sunlight

- water and no sunlight

-sunlight, no water or soil

In math we are continuing to play a variety of addition and subtraction games to build our skills.  

We are really enjoying our in-line skating ! ☺

Did you know there are only 29 days left of grade one?

Reminders

No school Friday May 17 and Monday May 20

5 senses and Building

Hi Parents!

This week was an exciting week of learning.  We have been focused on our 5 senses and how each one of them support each other to help us experience the world!

We have done smell tests and tried to guess smells without being able to see the items!  We were able to have one of our visually impaired students share their world with us and explain how we experiences his day when he learns.  We also got to do taste testing!!! 

Our sense are so important and we've certainly realized that each one helps the other one out and when one is missing the others take charge to help you out!!!

Later this week we started using the wonderful materials you all shared with us!!  We made plans and created structures with different items!  We look forward to continue building and experimenting.

Reminders

Monday April 15 is spring picture day. 

There is no school Thursday and Friday this week and Monday next week!!  Parent teacher interviews are Wednesday evening and Thursday morning.  They will be student led with a window of time available to talk with your child's teacher.

Spring break times

Hi Parents!!! 

Well it's better late than never, sorry for the late post!!

Our week before break was exciting!  Mr. Scout came to our room and taught us how to make Bannock.  We watched him mix the ingredients and we all got an opportunity to knead and make our own bannock piece.    When he fried them in oil, we were able to go watch and see how the bread changed! 

When it was done, we enjoyed some peppermint tea and our bannock.  We all tried our meals and loved experiencing something new!!

We started the season of Spring before we left!!  We had a great conversation about all the things we want to do now that the weather is changing!  As well as all the changes we will begin to see in nature!

We have really been working on our writing and set some new goals.  We wrote about what we would like to do on break and then spoke with the teachers about what things we could do to improve our writing and what things we wanted help with.

Things are going to get really busy when we get back from break!

Reminders:


Please let us know about where your family is from!  We sent a sheet home before break and want to know where all our families might have come from.  We have a big world map that we will pin our places too.

We will also start building our communities.  Please bring items that are needed in the email that was sent home!

Hope you are all enjoying your break!!  Sorry the post is late!

Artifacts, Art and Storytelling

Hi Parents!!

What a fun and exciting week we had.

Thank you to all of those that have brought artifacts from the past to share. We have explored old cameras and learned how film was used and how we just "couldn't see the picture" until it was developed.   We saw typewriters, phones - (did you know you used to have to turn a dial to make a phone call?) irons and even an Apple 2 computer!!!

As we continue to explore the past, we created a beautiful art project using plasticine!  We got to choose what kind of landscape we wanted to create.   They turned out beautifully!!

We were honoured to have Mr. Scout in our class this week to tell us the story of Napi and The Rock.  We learned how stories are passed on from generation to generation.  Ask me to tell you the story about how the rock in Okotoks got there!

We learned a reading strategy for when two vowels are together in a word.  "When two vowels go a walking, the first one does the talking and says its name."  Words such as  'soap', 'eat', 'ear', 'rain' ......
This strategy helps use to read these words properly because sounding each vowel out won't work!  Help me use it at home!

List #5 of my popcorn words came home last week!  Please help me practice them! 

We continue to work on subtraction in math and have been using various strategies to help support our learning.  Counting backwards, using fingers, manipulatives just to name a few.  Our math centres have helped reinforce our learning and helped us to use our strategies!

REMINDERS

We are swimming next week!  Please make sure your child has a towel, bathing suit and other items they need.  We will not have time to shower and shampoo hair so please do not send any of those items.  Your child will need to be independent in dressing themselves and be responsible for their items.  We will have some parent volunteers to support.

Fort Calgary and living in the past!

Hi Parents!

What a great week last week!!  Our trip to Fort Calgary was amazing!

We learned about how people dressed, the peoples that were Indigenous to Calgary and how the settlers and NWMP made there home here as well.  We were able to touch artifacts from the early 1900's.   What toys kids played with, what household items looked like as well as what the NWMPolice used to keep people safe.  We also learned about Sod Houses that the settlers made looked like and why they used Sod for their roofs.  As well as how the Indigenous lived in teepees and moved to follow the Buffalo.

Ask me who took care of the teepee and what did I build using team work!

In math we started working on Subtraction.  We are learning different strategies to help us understand how to make a number smaller.  We can count backwards, use counters and sometimes our fingers work too!  Subtraction can be a tricky concept, so we will continue to practice and develop ways that work for all of us to understand it!!

We have been developing our writing and working on capitals, lowercase and starting to use punctuation.  We realize that using finger spaces  really make it easier to read our work and most of us are using them consistently.    Over the next while we will be making sure that our popcorn words are spelled correctly by using our word wall and editing our work.  We are also working on explaining the 'WHY' when making a statement such as 'I like to play __________  because_____'
Help me at home by practicing printing my popcorn words as well as reading them!


Reminders

Swimming is the week of March 11-14.

Literacy night is March 7!

February is here!

Hi Parents!

First of all, my apologies for missing the last blogs!!!! 

The new year is in full swing!!  We have a lot of things happening in February and March.  Many forms have gone home, please ensure that you send them all back in ASAP if you haven't already!

Over the last week we have been working on how to describe a character in a story.   What features do they have, what do they look like and how to they act and feel inside.  We read the Paper Bag Princess and worked on describing the Princess and the Dragon in our writing journal as well as Moira from the book Moira's birthday.   We are getting much better at understanding how we need many ideas to describe a character and put that to work, by beginning to create our own!  We have started the planning stages and made sure we add all the features we need to so that our words match our drawings!  Next week we will put all our ideas together to write about our created character!

Tech day was a huge success!  We got to use our dash and dot robots as well as code with the ipads.  We had fun working with Ms Redwoods class.

In gym we started hockey!!  We have learned how to use sticks safely and pass the puck to a partner.  Friday we got to play small games!  It was a lot of fun.

We had a great time celebrating CHINESE NEW YEAR!!  It is the year of the PIG!  We made Dragon masks, talked about the Zodiac, had rice and made Chinese lanterns.

Much of January and February we have focused on WINTER.  Reading lots of good books,  coming up with ideas about "I know it's winter when" and writing them down.  This week we started a winter tree project using paper. 

Reminders

Fort Calgary is Feb 20!!

100's day and Valentines exchange will be on Feb 13

Please hand in forms for Swimming and Fort Calgary ASAP

Swimming is March 11-14

STAY WARM!!!!