May 1, 2013
Grade One


HAPPY SPRING!!! The snow is almost gone, the students are glad to shed their winter gear and with 39 school days left you will all be enjoying summer holidays. YES, I did say 39 days left. It's hard to believe our time together has flown by so fast.

Mrs. Shyian has completed her internship and will hopefully have her own classroom soon. We certainly wish her luck in her future endeavours. We all enjoyed her daily lessons, her knowledge and her funny stories. We thank her for all she has taught us in these past four months.

We have welcomed another addition to our classroom. I'm sure your child has mentioned it already. Our new young gal is a sweetheart. She is kind, helpful, very friendly and has plenty of friends already.

Math
We have started our new math unit on geometry today. We will also continue adding and subtracting to 20. We will work on mental math and problem solving skills. Math is so much fun! This is my first group of students that ask if we can do more math! Yaaaay! We certainly need to keep them interested and enjoying math at this young age.

Science
Our last science unit will be taught over the last two months. Our unit is Characteristics of living and non-living Things. We started it today and the students already seemed interested. Grade one science is so exciting!


Social Studies
Our last social studies unit is on mapping. This unit will span over May and June. It's a big unit and requires some homework. Thank you in advance for helping your child map out their bedroom and for part two they will be mapping their home. More info will follow through the agenda.

Religion
We continue to journey through the Easter season. On May 16, 10:00 am at Resurrection Church our grade one's along with our buddies will take part in the mass. You're welcome to attend if you have time.

Health
Our unit for May is a Safety unit. In this unit we will cover many safety issues such as computer safety, fire safety, when to use 911, home alone safety, dog/animal safety and how to answer a phone as well as other safety concerns. It's a very useful and important unit for the students to know.

Language Arts
We have completed our home reading program. We have read levels A, B, C, and D. Unfortunately we only have those levels in our buckets. The students were finding the books way too easy and were asking for harder books. If you want your child to read their level books please feel free to talk to Mrs. Scott and she can see that your child takes the appropriate level books home. You may also go to the RPL  and take out levelled books as well. We have a reading time set aside after lunch for A. R.. Your child reads levelled books silently and then has the opportunity to write an A. R.. test. We also continue to work on daily guided reading and do many activities throughout the day that involve reading skills.

Today we have started bell work. When the students enter the classroom from outside recesses they have an activity book they are required to work in so that we are not losing quality instructional time. They focus on their job and this also is less cause for behavioural issues that sometimes arise. I am always in the classroom to greet the students unless I'm on outdoor supervision. So far this year I haven't had any issues to deal with in our room.

We will continue to work through literacy stations. The students have been working on creating simple sentences at many stations. Our May focus is writing stations and high frequency word recognition. We will do this in a variety of fun and exciting ways.

We will continue to work on daily phonics, writing skills, daily journal, long and short vowels, and daily reading. It's a lot of fun and the students seem to enjoy the many ways we keep it interesting.


Tidbit
Grade one is my passion and I enjoy everyday that I teach it. I get so excited when they read their first word, when they read their first sentence and then an entire book. I love the sparkle in their eyes and I love watching their eagerness to want to learn everything that I have to offer. Thank you for entrusting me with the gift that God has blessed you with. My favourite quote is:

"I call my students, "my kids" because in our year together, they aren't just kids on my class list. They become a part of my heart!"

Happy Mother's Day. God bless and enjoy your day. You deserve the best for all you do for your kids and your family. For without you they wouldn't know happiness.

Mrs. Luce