Jan. 23- Jan. 27

Leader: Kayln
day 5. Mon. Jan. 23- physed
day 1. Tues. Jan. 24- library, reading with a parent
day 2. Wed. Jan. 25- health, reading with a parent
day 3. Thus. Jan. 26- FIELD TRIP (Harbourfront Centre)
day 4. Fri. Jan. 27- computers, music



News/Reminders:
- Due to the wet and muddy playground, please send slush pants/extra pants with your child. We had a lot of muddy pants last week. Please make sure your child has outdoor and indoor shoes.

- Thank you for all the beautiful photos and items from the holiday break. The students did a wonderful job presenting their special items and sharing their stories.

- Our field trip to Harbourfront is on Thursday. We will be leaving the school around 9 a.m. so please ensure that your child comes to school at bell time. We will be taking a school bus and arriving back around 3:00 p.m. All grade one classes will be attending the trip.
What to bring?
 - lunch and a water bottle
- empty shoe box with their name on it
- appropriate footwear for hip hop dancing

- There will be another day available for parents interested in reading one-on-one with the students. Reading takes place from 9:30 until 9:55 right outside of the classroom (day 1 and day 2 of the cycle). Samantha, our grade parent will adding more slots on signupgenius so please feel free to sign up. You do not need to bring any books from home. The children absolutely love reading with our parent volunteers. Thank you so much for your time and willingness to read with the children.

- Please return your child's red poetry book and green work book to school every week. On Fridays, I place a worksheet for your child to complete if they wish. This is not homework and is not mandatory.

- Please continue to read with your child every night. We have been busy practising various reading strategies in class. Although "sounding out" might be the first strategy that comes to mind, please encourage your child to use other strategies when they are stuck on a word. Some words can be quite tricky and sounding them out unfortunately does not work. After you have finished reading with your child, please ask them comprehension questions. It is important for your child to make meaning of the text. Monitor your child's ability to retell what they have read. Are they using details or characters' names from the book? Are they making connections?
You may ask your child the following questions:

- Tell me about the story. What happened at the beginning, in the middle and at the end.
- What did this story make you think of and why?
- What was your favourite part of the book and why?

All about our week:

Literacy Centres- All activities are available to the students, however they are grouped based on their abilities and the skills that they need to work on. So far, students have been working on different groups of sight words, printing and practising spelling. While working in small groups, it is amazing to observe the children as they problem solve, help each other, solve conflicts and clean up as a team.


Math- We have been learning to use different strategies when we are adding or subtracting. The children have been explaining their thinking and sharing their strategies with each other. Some children are counting up using their fingers, others are beginning to use their double facts knowledge to solve problems.


Science- We have been discussing ways to conserve energy at home and school.
Here is a video that we watched at school. The children really enjoyed it.
How to save energy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ycdke8MTSCI


In order to prepare for our Inquiry Fair in April, the children and I discussed the following topics:
- What does it mean to be curious?
- Why do we ask questions? Why is is important to ask questions?
- How can we find out answers to our questions?



I showed this photo to the students and simply told them to look at it. They came up a lot of interesting questions and wonderings. The children began with what they saw and then moved onto what they thought and wondered. This is a classroom in Vietnam.
Here are examples of their thinking:
- "I see a teacher teaching"
- "I see bars on the window"
- "I see that the door is open so they can leave"
- "I see kids"

- "I think this is jail for kids"
- "I think it looks scary"
- "I think the kids are learning"

- "I wonder why there aren't a lot of kids there"
- "I wonder why the teacher has a stick"
- "I wonder why there are bars on the window"
- "I wonder why it looks so dark"

The children have been making forts during free time so I decided to help them out a little. Doesn't that look cozy? I would love to read a book in there.