Grade One News

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 10^th @ 6pm.

Field Trips:

OnFriday, September 26^th 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 7^th, 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 17^th 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 10^th- School Council Meeting @ 6pm

Thursday September 11^th- Meet the Teacher Night @ 6

Monday September 22^nd- Blue and Gold Assembly @ 8:30

Friday September 26^th- Terry Fox Walk @ 8:45

October

Tuesday October 7^th- Crossings Branch Field Trip

Wednesday October 8^th- Firefighter presentation

Monday October 13^th- Thanksgiving! No School

Tuesday October 14^th- PL Day – No School

Wednesday October 15th- 22nd- Feed the Bug campaign

Tuesday October 21^st - Picture Retake day

Thursday October 23rd- PD Day in PM only

Friday October 24^th- PD Day no school

Friday October 31^st- Happy Halloween!