Hi everyone!

Just a few little reminders about the upcoming weeks!  Thank you to those who have let me know what your preference is for our Home Reading program! Remember, please continue to write the name of the book that your student read last night (either online or hard copy) as this really makes things clear to our Home Reading parents when checking in and doing switches.  If you find that as time goes on, Raz Kids is NOT for you, or you prefer to try Raz Kids, just let me know via email. 

Are there any families who did not receive a class photo?  If you didn’t get one a few weeks ago, please let me know asap so that I can look into getting more printed!

I was informed that our classroom came in 2^nd place for most donated items to the Lethbridge Food Bank!  How AMAZING are we?!?!  Thank you for being so open to the idea and for helping to teach our students the importance of giving! They sure were excited when they told me about it!

Here’s some exciting news for our class: We are getting an education student from the University of Lethbridge!  The education student is coming to meet the students on Thursday, and then will complete a practicum in our Grade 1 room for 5 weeks. 

We also will have a special presentation about Fire Safety on Thursday, October 24^th, as well as another visit from Melany Duffin, our occupational therapist. Melany has been in our classroom two times already, teaching the students about the Artist’s Grip and the Magic C. The students just love her, and I’m learning a lot from her too!

Don’t forget that this Thursday October 24^th the students are dismissed from school at 11:45 for a PD afternoon, and there is no school on Friday October 25^th for a PD day. 

On Monday, your student will be bringing home a very important note about Student Led Conferences.  In Grade 1, we do Student Led Conferences in lieu of traditional Parent/ Teacher interviews after the 1^st report card is sent home.  Please read the note carefully, and you’ll be asked to return a slip indicating your preference for time for your Student Led Conference.  Thanks in advance for your help with this!

Here is the plan for Halloween Day! 

Our students will be rotating to different centers all morning. They will visit each of the other Grade 1 teachers, and complete different Halloween activities.

At 11:30, we will be going outside for an EARLY recess. Students will be outside from 11:30-11:45, and then they will come back into our OWN classroom from 11:45-12:25.  At this time, they will eat their lunches, get a little bit of down time, and this will also be the time where they can get their costumes ready/ get dressed for the Halloween Parade.

Around 12:30, the Halloween Parade will start! Parents and family members are invited to watch the students parade around the hallways with our costumes. 

After the parade, we will return to our own classrooms for snacks and a video until afternoon recess at 1:55.

After recess, students will spend the rest of the afternoon with Ms. Nevels for a Halloween activity.  It’s going to be a busy but fun day! 

Here are some things to remember:

-            As a school initiative, we’re asking that costumes be simple and easy to assemble.  Please do not send your student with any weapons, masks, or any costumes that are particularly ‘gory’. 

 

-            If you think your student will require a lot of help in getting their costume ready for the parade, you are welcome to come and help your student, or pick them up at our early recess to take them home for lunch.  Lunch recess/ Lunch time will be from 11:30-12:25 on this day.  I will email the parents who volunteered to bring snacks for the party separately as a reminder. 

 

I think that’s it for now! Here are your calendar updates:

Tuesday October 22^nd- Picture Retakes Day
Thursday October 24^th- PD Day in the pm, students dismissed @11:45
Friday October 25^th- PD Day No school
Tuesday October 29^th- Hot Lunch for Grades 1-3
Wednesday October 30^th- Hot Lunch for Grades 4-5
Thursday October 31^st- Halloween Parade/ Activities

Tuesday November 5^th- “Motivational Magic” assembly @ 1pm

Thursday November 7^th- Remembrance Day Assembly @ 10:30
Friday November 8^th- Remembrance Day Break no school
Monday November 11^th- Remembrance Day No School
Friday November 15^th- Report Cards sent home

Hello everyone! Thanks for checking in on the blog!

There is lots of important information about the weeks coming up so please read carefully, and as always, email me with any questions! 

Did you know our class came in 2^nd place for most money raised for Terry Fox?!!? That’s AMAZING!!!  Out of 25 classes in our school, our class managed to raise almost $300.  I was absolutely astounded! It was so neat to listen to the students share stories of how they collected their toonies or who they asked to pledge them.  What wonderful support we have- thank you thank you thank you!!

Language Arts:
Home Reading is starting this week!
The idea behind Home Reading is that every child will get daily practice reading a book at their level, for approx. 15 minutes.  Home Reading will be sent home Monday- Thursday.  No reading will be sent on Fridays, as agendas stay at school on Fridays.  Each day, a parent volunteer is in the classroom and they are switching the home reading books.  It is VERY HELPFUL for the person who is switching books if you write the TITLE OF THE BOOK, along with your signature in the agenda, so we know that your child has read it!  If you miss a day, just write ‘Keep for one more night’ so we know not to send a new book home. 

We are mainly using a program called A-Z. For those families with older students at MMH, you will be familiar with this already.  As we start out the home reading program, your child might take home a book that is too hard or too easy.  If this is the case, you can note this in the agenda, so we can find appropriate levels.  If the book is ‘Just Right’, you can write that too!  It might take a couple of books before we find the level that your child is comfortable with. 

Don’t forget to continue to review Sight Words as well! 

We are also starting our Daily 5 program this week!  If you haven’t checked out what Daily 5 is on the internet yet, you definitely should! Daily 5 is a frame work in which students participate in different literacy centers, and then it’s coupled with a CAFÉ reading strategy program.  CAFÉ teaches students all of the different ways to improve their reading strategies.  Getting the Daily 5 program up and running often takes a bit of time, but it’s so neat to see how much the students love working on their own, and how much responsibility it is for them. 

Math
In Math, we’ve finished up our patterning unit and have continued with different ways to represent a number from 1-20.  In this unit, students work with pictures, numbers, tally marks, rods and cubes, and 10 frames.  We also practice every morning in our Circle Time about ways to count on the 100 chart- forwards, backwards, by 1s and by 2s.  We played the game of “Sparkle”- ask your student if they remember and see if they can teach you the game! 

Science
We are wrapping up our Colours unit, and at the end of the week we will have a mini assessment to see if students remember all about natural vs. manufactured colours, primary and secondary colours, colour mixing and colour properties.  We did a really beautiful art piece where students had to think about their favourite place in nature. Using flower petals and leaves, students had to rub the natural colours out to colour their drawings.  If you’re around our classroom, come by and check out our bulletin boards! 

 

We also painted paper to give it a textured look, and the students made an autumn collage! 

 

In Social Studies, the students have been learning about different groups they belong to, including their family, school, friends, and any other activities. They’ve been showing their work on a Social flap book that they’ll be bringing home this week. 

FEED THE BUG!
Our Feed the Bug campaign will run from October 7^th-11th.  I absolutely LOVE this time of year. Feed the Bug is a drive for the Lethbridge Food Bank. Children are taught about what the food bank is, and about being grateful for the IMPORTANT things that we are lucky enough to have. Rather than toys, we talk about things such as: enough food to keep us healthy, a warm place to sleep and live, families that love us etc. There will be a box placed in our classroom that we will collect food non-perishable food in that children bring from home. Each time the box is full, we will take it down to the foyer. It is so fun to see all the donations in the school pile up! At the end of the campaign the Food Bank will come and we will create an assembly line to load up the food!

As the weather is changing, this week is a good week to start being diligent about indoor/ outdoor shoes. We keep our indoor shoes in our classroom, underneath our desks.  Students are expected to keep this pair at school, and travel to and from school in their outdoor shoes, which we keep on the Grade 1A boot rack.  Please make sure your child has the proper footwear, as we prepare for the cold weather.  It’s helpful if their indoor shoes are gym appropriate (ie. Not sandals and boots). Labelling all of your child’s clothing will help tremendously as we start to find mittens, toques, and scarves hanging around. Thank you for your help with this! 

I am away this week on Friday, October 11^th, but my good friend Mrs. Patti Cherederyk will be subbing in for me.  I hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend with your families!

I think that’s all the information you’ll need for this week!  Here’s your calendar update:

October 7^th-11^th- Feed the Bug Campaign
Thursday October 10^th- New Scholastic order due
Monday October 14^th- Happy Thanksgiving! No School
Tuesday October 15^th- PD Day- No School
Wednesday October 16^th- Last day for Magazine Fundraiser
Tuesday October 22^nd- Picture Retakes Day
Thursday October 24^th- PD Day in the pm, students dismissed @11:45
Friday October 25^th- PD Day No school
Tuesday October 29^th- Hot Lunch for Grades 1-3
Wednesday October 30^th- Hot Lunch for Grades 4-5
Thursday October 31^st- Halloween Parade/ Activities

 

Hi everyone! Thanks for checking in with the blog!  We’ve had a busy and productive week in Grade 1A! 

**** A bit of house keeping- Someone has left a purple, black and pink Hurley zip up sweater in the classroom! We all had a good look at it today and no one could remember if it belonged to them!  If this sounds like something from your child's wardrobe, tell them to come and get it on Monday!! It's super cute, but it just wouldn't fit me!

I’ve had some parents ask how they can be helping their children at home.  Until home reading begins, our biggest job right now is getting the students to memorize their sight words!  This is a place where students can easily fall behind in!  Our job is to get those students so familiar with those words so they can easily recognize them when reading books.   

It is not enough to have them just reading from the agenda! Here are some really simple ways of making sight words fun! 

Each week as we write 5 new words in the agenda, start your own sight word flash card set at home. 

Have the students make the flash cards! You can build sentence starters with them, and take turns finishing the sentences (example:  I like to play_____). 

You can build 2 sets of flash cards and play a game of Memory Match- they LOVE this!!

Have them sort the words in different ways! Words with 3 letters, 2 letters, 4 letters, etc. and then read out the piles.

I promise with this extra practise now, it will make the daily home reading much easier to transition into!  Thanks for your help with this!

Next week we will be talking about Terry Fox and what a tremendous spirit he had.  This is one of my favourite events of the year!  I love teaching the kids about what a hero he was, and how lucky we are that we can participate in such an amazing event!  In addition to students collecting pledges for their walk, our school is putting on a spirit challenge where we are hoping that every student at MMH can bring a ‘Toonie for Terry’.  It was Terry’s dream to have every Canadian donate 1$ to his cause, and we know we can do even better than that!

On Thursday September 26^th, I will be sending home Terry Fox tattoos, and “I am running for…” stickers that they can wear on the walk! I’ll tuck them safely into the plastic sleeve of the agenda so that they don’t get lost over the week, and then students can proudly wear them, along with MMH colours for our walk on Friday September 27^th! 

As a staff, we understand that this time of year can be difficult with the start of school, registration costs for activities, fundraising, etc.  In the spirit of Terry, we will be talking with the students about not just asking for a toonie to donate, but perhaps earning a toonie to donate.  They can offer to do a chore around the house, help a neighbour or grandparent, etc.  Thanks for your support with this!

*Please ensure that on Friday September 27th, your student has good walking shoes and is properly dressed for the weather. 

On Monday September 30th, your student will be bringing home their mini progress report! The intent of this progress report is to give you an idea of your child's progress so far in Grade 1, in relation to grade level expectations at this time.  We hope that you can use this progress report to set goals with your student between now and the first formal reporting period, which is in November.  Keep an eye out for this report coming home on Sept. 30th! 

That’s it for now! Have a wonderful weekend!

-Anna Tsentouros

Hi Everyone!

Welcome to the blog! We’ve had an awesome first couple of weeks of school! Grade 1 is such a huge change from Kindergarten but our class seems to be adjusting well! 

It was great to see so many families out at our Meet the Teacher night!  It’s always neat to see just how excited the students get to have you in our room.  They're already so proud of being in Grade 1 and that’s just awesome!  In our class this year, we have 20 students – 13 girls and 7 boys:

Abigail                 Layla
Berkley                Lizzie
Chloe                   Madison E.
Danica                 Madison P.
Gavin                   Nisarg
Hailey                  Peyton
Hayden                Reilly
Kaiden                 Serenity
Keetly                  Seth
Larsen                  Taryn

Yesterday I sent out our Class Phone list! It’s very possible that I made a typo while inputting all your phone numbers so please let me know if there are any mistakes!

Here’s a brief summary of what we’ve been up to in Grade 1:

In Language Arts we’ve been reviewing our letter sounds and printing.  We’ve also been practising our 5 sight words which are written every week in the agenda.  Each week we will practise these sight words and we ask that you please practise 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.  I mentioned to many of you last night that our home reading program will begin in October.  Thank you to the parents who signed up to exchange home reading!  I will be emailing you closer to the start date. 

In Math, 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’ve begun our Colours unit, and this week we spent some time talking about colours in nature as well as manufactured colours.

This year, we do NOT have any peanut allergies in our own class. There are peanut allergies in other Grade 1 classes so we exercise caution when students have peanut butter sandwiches.  Please remind your student to wash their hands after handling anything with peanuts! 

Thanks to parents who signed up to bring snacks outside our door! When it comes time, you’ll receive a reminder for what you’ve signed up for via email. 

On Friday, September 27^th we are going on our Terry Fox Walk!  We are going to be walking with our Grade 4 book buddies.  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.  If you’d like to join us on our walk please just let me 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! 

I think that’s it for now! Here are some important dates in September and October to mark your calendars with.  Have a great weekend!

-Anna Tsentouros

September

Wednesday September 18^th- Magazine fundraiser assembly @ 8:45
Thursday September 26^th- Terry Fox Assembly @ 11:15
Friday September 27^th- Terry Fox Walk @ 8:45

October

Wednesday October 2^nd- Family Assembly TBA
Wedneday October 9^th- School Council @ 6:30pm
Monday October 14^th- Thanksgiving! No School
Tuesday October 15^th- PD Day – No School
Tuesday October 22^nd- Picture Retake day
Thursday October 24^th- PD Day in Pm only
Friday October 25^th- PD Day no school
Thursday October 31^st- Halloween Parade in the pm

The First Day of School is Coming!!

Hi everyone and welcome to our
Grade 1A classroom blog!

I'm so excited to meet everyone on Tuesday September 3rd!  Here you will find the latest news in our classroom as well as upcoming events/ things to know. I will also update a monthly calendar list so you can keep track of what is going on around MMH for your child's Grade 1 year.

I will email all parents once the blog is updated (usually on Fridays) so that you know to go and check it out for new information. Please make sure you have provided me with an email address that you use often and one where you don’t mind receiving emails from me. Of course, if you prefer a paper copy of handouts/ information/ reminders, I can provide one as well -please just let me know.

I'm pumped for an awesome first day of getting to know the students and to share stories of our summers! I can tell it's going to be an exciting and busy year in Room 15.

Thanks for checking in!

-Anna Tsentouros

Hi Everyone! Thank you for checking in.  We had an awesome field trip last week to the Galt Museum.  Thank you to the parent volunteers who were able to meet us there. Here are some snap shots of our class taking it all in!

It was awesome to see so many families out for our Pancake Breakfast on Tuesday as well! Thank you to those who were able to attend! 

Well, we’re going through our classroom notebooks and we’re slowly organizing things to be sent home. I never know what’s better: a slow, steady stream of random school things sent home throughout the weeks, or having your child’s backpack explode near the end of the year with one massive pile of things!  If you are taking off before June 27^th to begin your summer holiday, please let me know so I can arrange to have your child’s report card sent with them. 

 We have started some local Animal Research projects! Your child picked an animal that is local to our area, and we’re going to be doing some research in the next two weeks about them! I’m always amazed at what the students find and how much information they retain when it comes to this kind of stuff.  Future scientists, perhaps!?

 Speaking of science, for anyone who is interested in the “If You Don’t Use It, You Lose It” presentation our speech pathologist Christie Schipper gave, she has posted it on her blog http://slpopedia.blogspot.ca , along with some Q and As, and some useful resources that you might be interested in.  When I went to her presentation, I immediately went home and told my family members about it.  There’s so much information and its really fascinating stuff!  I highly recommend you follow her blog! 

 On Monday, our students are heading BACK to Kindergarten!  They’ll be hanging out with Mrs. McCrady all morning while I get a new batch of KinderKids!  The purpose of Switch Day is so the Kindergarten students get a feel for what a day is like in Grade 1, and the Grade 1s always love going back to visit their Kindergarten class and teachers.  Should be a fun time! 

 We are still looking for some volunteers for Sports Day! If you or an outgoing family member are able to help run a center, please let me know ASAP! This is honestly a really fun day and the kids just get so excited to spend so much time out doors.  Students will be placed in colour coded teams, and are expected to wear their team colour. We’ll write this information in their agendas closer to the date. 

One of the final units we’ll be doing in Grade 1 is a Camping themed unit! I’m pumped because there’s so much cool stuff you can do out there with camping!  It is tentatively set for Friday, June 21^st! Each student will need to bring:  1 sleeping bag (or blanket), 1 pillow, and 1 flashlight.  We hope to go on a mini ‘hike’ around the school yard, and some other awesome camping activities.  

 Information will also be going home about our Grade 1 Year End Picnic.  This is an awesome day where we walk to Nicholas Sheran Park, and enjoy lunch!  We usually leave MMH around 11, to be at the park for 11:45.  Please bring a blanket and come join us!  The note home will include all the information as well as a chance to sign up to bring food, as we organize this as a ‘pot luck’ picnic.  We stay at the park until about 1, and then head back to MMH. 

 I think that’s it for right now!  Thank you for your time!

-Anna Tsentouros

Don't forget these important dates!!

Monday June 10th- Kindergarten / Grade 1 Switch Day!

Tuesday June 18th- Sports Day

Friday June 21^st- Camp Day!

Monday June 24th- Farewell Assembly

Tuesday June 25th- Grade 1 Year End picnic

Wednesday June 26th- Grade 1 picnic back up date

Thursday June 27th- School Slideshow/ Last Day of school!
*Students are dismissed @ 12 on the 27th!*

I just can't believe we are approaching our last 5 weeks of school! 

Looking at the calendar, the last few weeks have just flown past us! 

Having said that, there's a million things to do BEFORE the end of the year

so I'll just have to put my energies there otherwise things might get a little

teary over here!

 

First off, thank you to the drivers for our Arts Alive field trip! This is

one of my favourite field trips as it's different everytime, and it's so

interesting to hear the students perspective on both the student and

professional art they see at the Gallery. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This week, we have 2 main events happening:

 

On Monday May 27th we have our mini performance of Henny Penny in
the music room at 11:15!  I really can't thank Ms Nevels enough for all of her
time that she puts into our Music program at MMH.  Really, if you have
older children at the school, you've definitly seen one of the bajillion
performances that Ms. Nevels is directing.  It's especially neat for the
Grade 1s to see the older kids perform, as they look forward to their turn
too!

 

We will be heading to the Galt Museum to learn about Lethbridge's past on Tuesday, May 28th.  We will be taking a bus, which will leave MMH at 12:30.  We will return to the school around 2:30.  If there are any parents who would like to join us on the bus, you are more than welcome to! You can also meet us at the Galt Museum even if you only have an hour or so. Please let me know if you are able to attend! 

As June approaches, the days on the calendar start filling up and up. We also get closer to finishing up our last few units.  Here is what we've been up to:  In Language Arts, we've completed our Grade 1 sight word list, and have already started working on Grade 2 words (wahoo!).  We continue with writing lessons, the most recently being "My Seed Story" which the students are SO proud of!  We will hang on to them for a bit here, as the Grade 1s are going to read them to their Grade 5 book buddies. 

 

In Math, we are continuing with our addition and subtraction with

numbers 1-18.  In Science, we have just wrapped up learning about plants

and their needs, and will now start to look at animals and their lifestyles.

Each student will complete a mini research report on an animal that is local

to our area. 

 

Social Studies has been fun lately as we've been learning about each

student and their families! We've also had to rewind our brains a bit, and

think about Lethbridge in the past. We've talked about how things change

and why things change, and the students have had a lot of fun learning

about the 'old days' or 'good ole' days'. 

 

I showed this video to the class today, and needless to say their eyes were

GLUED to the screen! http://www.youtube.com/watch

v=faIFNkdq96U  It's about a young boy named Caine who built an entire

arcade center out of card board boxes.  I wish I had seen this earlier in

the year as it would have been great inspiration for our building things

unit, but even still, it got the students excited for building things. Perhaps

you could add it to your Rainy Day bucket list this summer!

 

Here are the important dates for the next few weeks. I'm sure we'll add

on to this list as we get closer and closer to the end.  Remember to check

out the school website for the MMH Newsletter for school-wide

happenings! 

 

Thanks for reading, and have a wonderful weekend!

-Anna Tsentouros

 

*Please note! Our class will have our own year end celebration, as parents

signed up at the beginning of the year to bring snacks. When a date has

been finalized, those parents will recieve a reminder email. It will be a

'breakfast themed' party, and it's usually sometime in the last week of

school.  Thanks!

 

Tuesday May 28^th- Galt Museum Field Trip (TBA)

Tuesday June 4th- Pancake Breakfast

Monday June 10th- Kindergarten / Grade 1 Switch Day! (AM)

Tuesday June 18th- Sports Day

Monday June 24th- Farewell Assembly

Tuesday June 25th- Grade 1 Year End picnic

Wednesday June 26th-  Grade 1 Year End picnic back up date

Thursday June 27th- Last Day of school!