Hello readers!

Thank you for checking into our Grade One Blog! The Grade 1s sure have been enjoying  the beautiful weather we’ve had!  It definitely sparks some interesting conversation as we discuss the season of Winter in Science Class! 

We’re trucking along with our busy Grade One curriculum, and we’ve also added a few things to our February Calendar so be sure to update yours at home!

We’ve finished up our learning about the 5 senses, and are preparing for our new unit called Building Things.  One of the great things about this unit is that Mr. Brayne, the manager of Home Hardware (on the west side) puts on a fabulous field trip for us!  Here’s some background info for you:  Mr. Brayne has been doing this for over 13 years!  He started when his daughter was in Mrs. Payne’s Grade 1 class at MMH. Since then, he continues to offers up his staff and store to teach Grade 1 students about building things, materials, and how he runs his store.  What’s even more amazing is that Mr. Brayne now does this for all Grade 1 west side schools!  It’s an amazing way to tie in the sense of “Community” to our little learners. 

Here is our Home Hardware Field Trip schedule:

Monday, February 23^rd:

Mrs. Payne’s Class- 9:00-10:00
Mrs. Fallwell’s Class- 10:15-11:15
Mrs. Johnston’s Class- 1:00-2:00
Miss Tsentouros’ Class- 2:00-3:00

This field trip requires parent drivers, as well as supervisors.  Please contact your Grade 1 teacher if you are able to help. Due to the nature of this field trip, please do not bring younger siblings as we are confined by numbers.  Remember that drivers must fill out both a driver and volunteer form in the office!

The Grade 1 classes have two more weeks left with Mrs. Savage.  So far, we’ve talked about reading body language in response to feelings, where in our bodies we can feel hurt or stress, and ways to deal with stress.  Ask your Grade 1 student about “Milkshake Breathing”, “Pizza Massages”, and “Worry Stones”. 

A reminder that Friday January 30^th is a PL Day for students.  The MMH teachers will be learning about the 10 cross curricular competencies, that are part of the Inspiring Education document from Alberta Education.  You will be hearing much more about these 10 competencies in the future, as this is part of the new Alberta Curriculum Redesign.  For more information about Inspiring Education, check out this link:

http://inspiring.education.alberta.ca/what-is-inspiring-education/

Here is a visual of the 10 competencies that the teachers will be working with on Friday:

http://erlc.ca/resources/resources/cross_curricular_competencies_overview/documents/competencies-poster_11x17.pdf 

 Two new events are happening during the first week of February!  Winter Walk Day is on Wednesday February 4^th.  As a school, we’re going to embark on a walk around the path of the school! We hope the weather cooperates with us, but please make sure your child is dressed appropriately.  We’ll start our walk at 2:05. 

On Friday February 6^th, we have a guest author visiting the school!  Tyler Enfield, author of the book Wursh will be speaking to our students from 10:30-11:30, and there is more information about his books being sent home. 

A reminder that we will be wearing RED on February 12^th, and having our Valentine’s Day activities on this day as well!  Your Grade 1 teachers will be sending out a list of students names for valentines exchanges, and will remind the parents who have signed up for snacks/ treats.    

We’re celebrating Valentine’s Day a little early, because on Friday February 13^th we will have our big 100^th day celebration in the gym with the Grade 2s!  If you are able to help volunteer for a center, please let your child’s teacher know.   

That’s it for now! Thanks for reading! 

Here are some days to mark your calendars with:

February

 Tuesday February 3^rd – After school skating at Nic Sheran rink 330 to 430

Wednesday February 4^th-  Winter Walk @ 2:05
Friday February 6^th- Guest Author at MMH @ 10:30
Tuesday February 10th – After school skating at Nic Sheran rink 330 to 430
Wednesday February 11^th- School council mtg @ 6:30
Thursday February 12^th- Spirit Assembly @ 830 wear red
Thursday February 12^th- Classroom Valentine’s Parties
Friday February 13^th- Grade 1/ 2 100^th Day Celebrations
Family Day break is from February 16^th -20^th: No School
Monday February 23^rd- Home Hardware field trip

Happy New Year and Welcome Back!

Well here we are back at school after a restful break! The Grade 1s spent some time this week making New Year’s Resolutions, and welcoming 2015!  There’s been some “Christmas Magic” happening in the classrooms which is amazing! Christmas magic is when students have a Christmas break, and when they come back, there seems to be some magic in the air…all of a sudden, some students are reading more fluently, printing more neatly, and cutting more carefully! It’s a wonderful thing!

With the cold weather settling in, please ensure that your child has the proper outdoor wear for recesses.  Our school district’s policy is that students do not go outside if the weather is below (or feels like) -20 degrees Celsius.  While this past week, we did have a number of indoor recesses, there were some that were warm enough for students to be outside and many students were without mittens.  With all the extra layers that are coming to school, PLEASE make sure your items are labelled! 

Along with that is a reminder from our caretaking staff- we ask that all guests at our school are not walking in the hallways with their outdoor shoes.  Outdoor footwear needs to be carried through the hallways, as wet floors become a serious safety issue.  Thank you for your help with this!   

Here are some updates on where we are at for curriculum:

In Science, we will spend some time wrapping up our units on the 5 Senses.  Students learn how the senses work to send send messages to our brains, as well as keeping us safe.  We also learn about some animal senses and how they are different from human senses.  In Social Studies, we will begin to look at our community, and ourselves in relation to maps. 

In Math, we are becoming familiar with some addition and subtraction strategies. Strategies include using tally marks, counters, number lines, counting on, counting back, as well as mental math such as doubles facts and making ten.  Keep an eye out for things that come home so that students can practice these strategies.  Our goal for right now is to become proficient at adding numbers from 0 to 12.

In Language Arts, we will continue working on finding “good fit books” at our reading levels, as well as writing.  Between now and our next reporting period (March), students will be doing lots of independent reading and writing.  Keeping up with home reading and sight word memorization is the biggest key for success here, especially after such a long break!

The Grade 1s are excited to welcome Mrs. Kristine Savage to our classrooms for the next 5 weeks.  Mrs. Savage is part of our Making Connections program through the counselling office.  She will work for 1 hour per week in each of the Grade 1 classes, taking the students through different activities regarding how to make friends, the language we can use with our peers around us, and being aware of our feelings and how they can affect others.  Her lessons are super engaging and meaningful, and we are excited to have her join us!

Starting Tuesdays in February, there will be After School Skating at Nicholas Sheran rink from 3:30 to 4:30.  This is free for MMH families, and skaters are required to wear helmets on the rink, and be supervised by their parents.  We hope to see some of our families out there! 

Here are some days to mark your calendars with:

January

Wednesday January 14^th- Spirit Assembly @ 12:30 wear blue and gold!
Wednesday January 14^th- School Council mtg @ 6:30
January 27^th – Hot Lunch Grades 1-3 (keep an eye out on the form coming home)
Friday January 30^th- PL Day no school

February

Tuesday February 3^rd – After school skating at Nic Sheran rink 330 to 430
Tuesday February 10th – After school skating at Nic Sheran rink 330 to 430
Wednesday February 11^th- School council mtg @ 6:30
Thursday February 12^th- Spirit Assembly @ 830 wear red
Thursday February 12^th- Classroom Valentine’s Parties
Friday February 13^th- Grade 1/ 2 100^th Day Celebrations

Family Day break is from February 16^th -20^th: No School

 

December Sneak Peek!

　
Hi Everyone!
Here is a quick sneak peek into December events and special dates to remember! The three big events are the Bear Switch Day where all the grade one teachers take turns doing special bear related activities with each others students! The kids get to meet all the grade one teachers while completing math and literacy projects.
The second big event is skating on December 17^th at Nicholas Sheran from 1:15-2:30. Please let us know if you are available to drive and/or supervise. Kids need to wear a hockey helmet if they have one and if you have extra helmets or skates we always appreciate having extras on hand. There are some helmets at the arena as well. Students and adults are required to wear helmets before going out onto the ice for safety reasons.

The third big event is our annual Christmas Gala held at the school on the evening of December 11^th. It is a night of music, crafts, and treats. Hope you can all come out and join the festivities! Specific times TBA.

Dates To Remember!

December 1: 10:45 Earth Rangers Presentation

December 6: Bear Switch Day/Lockdown practise day in pm/ letter will be coming home
December 9: Hot Lunch Day

December 11: Christmas Gala evening-more info coming soon

 December 17: Skating @ Nicholas Sheran Ice Arena 1:15-2:30
Please email if you can drive/supervise J
December 15-19: Christmas carols in the gym at 8:30am all this week


December 19: Dress Like Christmas assembly at 8:30am in the gym

December 19: Last day of classes for 2014 & class party!

January 5: First day back!

Rock Your Mocs Day Monday Nov. 17th!

Hi everyone!
Just a quick reminder that Monday Nov. 17^th is Rock Your Mocs day at MMH! This means that if you have a comfy pair of moccasins please wear them to school to support our FMNI community! If you do not have a pair, don’t worry, the kids will have a chance to make a paper version and wear those instead!
　
PS-Remember that Tuesday NOV. 18^TH you get to wear your jammies to school and bring your teddy bear! There will be a spirit assembly in the gym at 8:30.

November News!

Hi everyone!
Thank you so much to everyone who helped organize the Halloween Parties and for providing treats, creating amazing costumes, and joining us for pictures and parading! What a fun day!

Also a huge thank you to everyone who contributed to our Feed The Bug campaign. It was a huge success and our school was able to feed many families in need! The grade one students were very excited to be helping people in our community and learning how to be good citizens!

This upcoming week we will be talking about Remembrance Day and the significance of this holiday. There will be a special assembly in the gym at 10:30 and if your child participates in sparks or cubs, they are invited to wear their uniform and be part of the colour guard during the assembly. There will be announcements made this week about practise days for these children, please email your teacher if your child has a uniform and would like to participate. We would also really appreciate if you could chat with your child about this special day, and what things they might think of during the minute of silence, and remind them that we do not clap after performances on this day.

Our school will soon be starting the Sock It To 'Em program which will run from Nov. 3- Dec. 12! This is where students can bring in new socks to donate for those in need during the winter season. There will be an enormous stocking hanging in the office, and our Caretaking team will collect socks to hang them from the stocking.
Your child’s classroom teacher will soon be starting a themed unit on “Bears”. This theme will encompass all areas of the curriculum including Language Arts, Science, Math, Art, and even P.E.!

Parent Teacher Interviews

This year you will be asked to sign up for a time slot using conference manager unless you are in Mrs. Johnston’s class. She will be booking appointments and sending home additional information soon. Otherwise, the process for booking interviews is as follows:

Step 1 – You can Pre-Register at https://mikemountain.schoolsoft.ca DO NOT
include “www” in the url) You can set up a Parent Account by following the link above. Click the REGISTER NOW button and complete the registration form. Your login credentials (email and password) will remain in the system to make it easy to access the Conference Manager in the future. Please note that in order to enhance functionality and security, the Conference Manager requires you to use Internet Explorer 7 (or above), Firefox 3 (or above) or Safari 4 (or above). If you are using an older browser, the Conference Manager will automatically prompt you to update your browser and provide you with a link. This is a one-time process and only takes a couple of minutes.
In order to ensure that your email program does not block emails sent from the Conference Manager, we suggest adding appointments@schoolsoft.ca to your address book.

Step 2 – Conference Manager Opens to Parents – Thursday November 13 at 8:00 A.M.

You can access the Parent Login Page using the link in the Confirmation Email. If you do not receive a Confirmation Email, you can login by going directly to https://mikemoutain.schoolsoft.ca.
Step 3 – Book your Parent/Teacher interviews

Select the teachers with whom you want to book interviews. You will see each teacher’s schedule. After booking your appointments you can print off your schedule. You will also receive an email containing the teacher name, time and location of the conference. You can log into the system at any time to view your bookings, print, cancel or re-schedule appointments. You have the option of submitting comments or questions to the teacher as part of the booking process.

Important Dates For Interviews:

Anytime – Pre-Registration begins
Thursday November 13 – Start scheduling your interviews at 8:00 A.M.
Wednesday, November 19 – Conference Manager closes at 12 noon
Wednesday and Thursday, November 19&20 —Kindergarten only— all day interviews
Thursday, November 20– Parent/Teacher Interviews Grades 1 to 5, afternoon/evening
Friday November 21 — Parent/Teacher Interviews for Grade 1 to 5, in the morning
If you do not have Internet access, you are welcome to contact the office and we will schedule your conferences on your behalf. If you have any questions or need assistance, please feel free to con-tact the school at 403.381.2211.

Other Important Dates For November:

November 3, 17, 24 : Mind Masters program 9:00am-10am
November 3, 17, 24: Book Mobile after school with Mrs. Baker
November 3-Dec 12: Sock It To’Em Campaign
November 7: Remembrance Day Assembly @ 10:30am
November 10: No School: Fall Break!
November 11: No School: Remembrance Day
November 12: School Council Meeting @ 6:30pm
November 13: Conference Manager Opens
November 14: Report Cards come home
November 18: Hot Lunch Day & Pajama Day & Bring Your Teddy Bear!
November 19: Conference Manager closes
November 20: Book Fair in the Library & regular classes in am with students dismissed at 11:45/Parent teacher conferences afternoon/eveningNovember 21: No School for students/ Book Fair closes at 11:30/ Parent teacher conferences

WHEW! That was one long post! Congratulations if you made it to the end!

Report Cards Are Coming!

Report cards will be coming home on Friday November 14th. There are some big changes you will notice between a Kindergarten report card and a Grade One report card. If you haven’t seen a Grade 1 report card, they are divided into sections. The first being Personal Growth, and then into separate subject areas. The grading scheme is different than kindergarten, and is as follows:

For Personal Growth & Effort:

V- Very Good

A- Acceptable

N- Needs improvement

For Subject Areas:

4 Excellent achievement of grade level expectations

3  Meeting grade level expectations

2 Approaching grade level expectations

1 Not meeting grade level expectations

You’ll notice that the two major areas on the report card are Language Arts and Math strands. Please keep in mind that the expectations in these subject areas change throughout the year- for example the reading level goal for June is much higher than the reading level goal in November. In Science and Social, we focus on different units throughout all reporting periods.  You will also notice the term N/A on  report cards which simply means not assessed at this time.  This is because we are still too early in the year to assess some skills.

 It’s quite the step up from half day to full day school, and each and every day we focus on things like  how to be part of our classroom "team" and  work together! All kids are learning how to be friends that support one another and solve problems.  We are helping them develop into responsible students who can make good choices for themselves in years to come.  Thanks for all you do at home to reinforce these skills!

Hi everyone!

Thanks for checking the blog on this beautiful Autumn day!  Our school calendar is starting to fill up so please make sure that if you have any questions about what’s going on, just ask your Grade 1 Teacher!

Here’s the news for the next few weeks:

The Grade 1 team is looking for donations of a few pairs of pants!  If you have any stretchy/ elastic waist sweat pants that your child doesn’t wear anymore, we would be happy to take them off your hands! This is in case students have accidents at school, and they need a change of clothes. 

We have been doing sight word check ins and wow!  They are really coming along!  Keep up the great work with practicing at home! Many students have shared how they have flashcards at home, and are playing memory or match games which is AWESOME!  We will continue to add new sight words per week, and will practice with them in class.  Thank you for your help with this!

A reminder that next week the students will be dismissed at 11:45 on Thursday, October 23^rd, and that there is no school on Friday October 24^th.  Please make sure you have arrangements for your students, especially on the Thursday as it’s an irregular dismissal time!

The Grade 1 Book Mobile club is meeting on Mondays right after school.  In the past, some students have kept their library card in a freezer sized Ziplock bag, and then they can use that bag for their book mobile books as well.  Please email Nicole.baker@lethsd.ab.ca if you have any questions about this club!

It has been so impressive seeing the boxes and boxes of food being donated to the Lethbridge Food Bank for our Feed the Bug Campaign!  The discussions that we’ve been having in class are so valuable, and it’s wonderful to see so many students being involved in such an important service project.  We are overwhelmed with the support we have received from families in donations-  Thank you thank you! Let’s keep Feeding The Bug up until the 22^nd of October! We will have a spirit assembly in the courtyard at 12:30 on that day, and all the students are invited to wear Blue and Gold for this day.

Well, the most exciting day of the October calendar is coming up- Halloween! Students have been counting down for a long time, and we will be starting to prepare them with some Halloween activities in class.  On Friday, October 31^st, students are invited to wear their costumes for our School Parade, which will begin around 8:45am.  Parents are invited to line the halls if they wish to come and watch as we parade around the school. 

As this day often brings lots of excitement (and in order for it to run smoothly), please have your student already wearing their costume when they get to school, as teachers won’t have time before the parade to help everyone.  As per usual school policy, we ask that any weapons or full-faced masks not be worn to school. If your child’s costume is particularly gory or scary, we ask that they not wear it to school.  If you signed up at the beginning of the year to bring snacks for Halloween, your classroom teacher will be contacting you. 

I think that’s it for now! Have a wonderful weekend

Your Grade 1 Teachers

Here  are some dates to mark your calendars with:

Tuesday October 21^st- Picture Retake Day and Grade 1-3 Hot lunch

Wednesday October 22^nd- Grades 4-5 Hot Lunch and Spirit Assembly @ 12:30, wear blue and gold!

Thursday October 23^rd- Students dismissed at 11:45

Friday October 24^th- PL Day

Friday October 31^st- Halloween celebrations

Monday November 10^th- Remembrance Day Break, no school

Tuesday November 11^th- Remembrance Day

Friday November 14^th- Report Cards sent home

Thursday November 20^th and 21^st- Parent/ Teacher interviews