Hi everyone and welcome to our Grade blog!
We’ve
had an awesome first week of school! Grade 1 is such a huge change from
Kindergarten but our classes seems to be adjusting well! Here you will find the
latest news in our classroom as well as upcoming events/ things to know. There
will also be an updated monthly calendar list so you can keep track of what is
going on around MMH for your child's Grade 1 year.
Please
make sure you have provided your teacher with an email address that you use
often and one where you don’t mind receiving emails. Of course, if you prefer a
paper copy of handouts/ information/ reminders, teachers can provide one as
well -please just let your teacher know.
Here’s
a brief summary of what we will be
working on:
InLanguage
Arts we will be reviewing our letter sounds and printing. We will also
start practicing our sight words, which will be written every week in the
agenda. Each week we will practice these sight words and we ask that you please
practice them at home! It is important that the students are able to READ (not
spell- but if they can spell them woohoo!) these words without trying to sound
them out. Our home reading program will begin in October. Thank you to the
parents who signed up to exchange home reading! Teachers will contact the
parents who have offered to help with home reading exchange closer to the start
date.
InMath,
we began with printing numbers 1-10 as a review, as well as testing out
different ways to represent them. Our first two units in math are about numbers
1-10 and patterning. In Science we will start our Colours unit, and
discussions about the season fall.
Morning Routine:
If your child arrives at
school prior to the bell, please direct them to the playground. There is
supervision there and it is a much safer place than the front of the school.
The Grade One doors open each morning at 8:15am, when our first “warning bell”
will sound. Another bell will go at 8:20am. Any student arriving after the
8:20am bell needs to enter through the office doors and ask for a late slip on
the way by. This helps so much to ensure accurate attendance is taken. Thank
you for your help with this!
Lunchtime:
We
have had a good start to settling into the routine of eating lunch at school.
Students are getting faster at handling their lunch kit from their backpack.
Parents, you can help us out here! We ask that you involve your student when
packing their lunch, so that they're aware of what's in their lunch kit. It's
helpful when they know what they should be eating as their morning snack
(10-10:15), lunch (12-12:24) and then as an afternoon snack (1:55-2:05). Don't
forget to pack any utensils that they need! Some students are able to open up
their containers on their own which is VERY helpful for us! Thank you for your
support here!
There
are peanut allergies in some Grade 1
classes so we exercise caution when students have peanut butter sandwiches,
etc. Please remind your student to wash their hands after handling anything
with peanuts!
Thanks
to parents who signed up to bring snacks outside the classroom doors! When it
comes time, you’ll receive a reminder for what you’ve signed up for via email.
Each
class is also looking for a School
Council Representative. School Council meets once a month (on a Wednesday)
and your job would be to act as a liason between the school council and our
classroom. The School Council also works on different committees and helps out
with school wide events and fundraising. It’s a great way to get out and meet
other parents in the school as well! If this sounds something you’re interested
in, please let your teacher know! The first meeting is set for Wednesday
September 10th @ 6pm.
Field Trips:
OnFriday,
September 26th we are going on our Terry Fox Walk! We are
leaving MMH just after announcements, and will walk over to Nicholas Sheran
Lake. We go around the lake once where we meet up with the other Westside
Schools, and then we head back to MMH. The Grade One teachers are looking for 2
parents per class to join. If you’d like to join us on our walk please just let
your teacher know via email. We ask that younger siblings don’t come for this,
as usually the walk is pretty exhausting for our Grade 1s. If you don’t want to
walk, you are more than welcome to grab a spot at the lake and cheer us on when
we pass! Students are welcome to wear our school colours (Blue and Gold) for
this morning.
On
October 7th, our Grade 1 classes will be walking to the Crossings
Branch Library for a tour! Here are the times that each class is going:
Mrs.
Payne and Mrs. Fallwell’s class:
Leave
MMH @ 9:45
Return
to MMH @ 11:45
Mrs.
Johnston and Miss Tsentouros’ class:
Leave
MMH @ 12:45
Return
to MMH @ 2:45
Each
class is looking for 2 parents to help. If you are able to help walk with your
child’s class, please email your teacher and let her know.
Although
this is a long time away, our Grade 1 group will be going Skating at the
Nicholas Sheran Rink on Wednesday December 17th from 1:15-2:30. Each
child will need a skating helmet and their own pair of skates! We’re hoping
this early notice will give parents enough time to borrow equipment. Closer to
the date, we’ll also ask if parents have any extra skates that we can share
with those without.
Thank
you for checking out our first blog post!
Here
are some important dates to mark your calendars with:
September
Wednesday
September 10th- School Council Meeting @ 6pm
Thursday
September 11th- Meet the Teacher Night @ 6
Monday
September 22nd- Blue and Gold Assembly @ 8:30
Friday
September 26th- Terry Fox Walk @ 8:45
October
Tuesday
October 7th- Crossings Branch Field Trip
Wednesday
October 8th- Firefighter presentation
Monday
October 13th- Thanksgiving! No School
Tuesday
October 14th- PL Day – No School
Wednesday
October 15th- 22nd- Feed the Bug campaign
Tuesday
October 21st - Picture Retake day
Thursday
October 23rd- PD Day in PM only
Friday
October 24th- PD Day no school
Friday
October 31st- Happy Halloween!
