Worms

We had loads of fun this week learning about living and nonliving things in Science! Students had to put their science faces on to determine the differences between a gummy worm and a real worm. Their reactions to the real worm were priceless. I had kids squealing, many that wouldn't touch it, and some that looked sick. Of course, they put their smiley faces on for the pictures.

We had the Bike Rodeo this last week and it was a blast! Students learned all about bike safety and the importance of wearing helmets. They showed off their biking skills in the course and luckily no one ran me over at the "cross walk"!

For our reading skills, we have continued our practice with r-controlled vowels (er, ir, ur, ar) and students are now able to point out those words in their reading. Coming up we will be talking about the last r-controlled vowel, "or".

We have been doing activities in class to go along with "The Lemonade War". If you are not reading this book at home, PLEASE PLEASE start! It's not too late! Not only do we talk about it at school, but it is such a great opportunity to spend that quality time with your kids.

We will be doing "Brag Tags" on Monday instead of today (Friday), so make sure to write down your child's reading in their agenda from last week so they can get a bead for their chain and a treat.

Book Orders are due on Thursday, April 3. I know it says the due date is April 4, but there is no school for students on April 4. 

Wednesday, April 2 is "Wear Pink Day".

Here are a few pictures from this week. The last pictures are of Trysten's play that he and some friends performed for the class. He has been working so hard on his reading and got to show off his skills! Thank you Mrs. Shimbashi!

Student-Led Conferences and Sight Words!

We had such a busy and exciting week this week!

The big event was of course Student-led Conferences on Wednesday and I was so happy to see most of you able to attend with your children They were so excited to celebrate their hard work with you.

I noticed a few common questions from parents. One of the biggest concerns was regarding spelling and correcting spelling in your child's work. For grade one, students are expected to spell the Sight Words correctly (words that go home in your child's agenda). All other words are supposed to be spelled phonetically. That means that if you sound out the word, you should be able to tell what they are trying to spell. For example, if they want to spell bird, they could spell it brd. The main reason that we don't stress over spelling in grade one is so that they can build their confidence and love for writing without too many setbacks. So, the main things we are working on with writing are sentences that start with capitals, periods at the end, finger spaces, no other capitals where they don't belong, sentences that make sense, and sight words spelled correctly.

Here are the sight words we have covered so far (note: this is only until April, not the end of the year!)

Grade One Sight Words 

a	at	am	an	again	and	ate	all
but	book	can	come	came	did	do	day
find	funny	friend	get	go	good	he	had
her	have	here	how	it	is	I	in
live	like	my	make	me	must	made	name
not	new	nice	no	out	or	of	our
pretty	play	ran	run	ride	saw	she	stop
see	say	some	soon	said	this	to	that
too	try	then	up	under	very	will	we
where	want	well	was	with	your	yes	you
call	thing	help	any	every	be	for	his
next	please	so	they	would	could	are	eat
if	has	now	on	should	the	went	as
look

Wednesday will be ELECTRONIC TURN OFF day. Students are encouraged to use NO ELECTRONICS for the entire day! We will be refraining from using any electronics at school this day as well. Rather than being plugged in, students are supposed to read a good book instead (.ahem..such as The Lemonade War....)

The Bike Rodeo will be on Thursday, March 27 at 10:00 at the ice rink. Students can ride their bikes to school (if they have a properly fitting bike helmet). The Bike Rodeo is where students learn about Bike Safety and practice some skills on their bikes. It is best if they can bring their own bike, but if they cannot, there are some bikes at the ice rink they can borrow for the day. 

Here are some pictures from Student-led Conferences! I loved seeing all of you who could make it. I have amazing kids in my class this year and I certainly know where they get it from ! Thank you for being so kind and supportive.