Picture overload!

Important information first:

Coming up in October we will be starting our Pumpkin theme. Themes are really great in grade one because they help motivate students to do otherwise less enjoyable activities like writing. So, for our pumpkin unit you guessed it-please send a pumpkin with your child to school in the next couple weeks!     I will tell students it can't be bigger than what they can carry comfortably. We will be using pumpkins to estimate in math, write about in language arts, and then carve before Halloween! We will be carving on October 25

Monday, October 7 we are having Scientists in Schools come. Thank you so much to those parents who were able to volunteer!  Please arrive at 8:15 so you can learn about your duties.

There is NO SCHOOL on Friday, October 11 because of a P.D. Day for Teachers.
NO SCHOOL on Monday, October 14 for Thanksgiving. 

Fluoride forms are due on Monday, as well as Picture Order forms.

The last two days have been way too much fun! We are wrapping up our Apple theme with a bang. On Tuesday we tasted lots of apple things: apple slices, apple butter, caramel sauce on apples, apple muffins, apple cereal, apple sauce, and apple juice. We then wrote about how we feel about the things we tasted, whether they are "good apples" or "rotten apples".

After the excitement of apple tasting, we went on our "Cross Country Run". Our class did great and Maddie got 4th place for the girls and Austin got 1st place for the boys! Good job! Everyone ran their hardest and had so much fun.

And they're off!

Coming in to the last hill!

Yesterday we were lucky to have Fireman Stan come in for a visit to teach us about fire safety. He brought us some cool Fire Safety Activity Books too!

And FINALLY we got to make applesauce today! I have been asked everyday for the last 2 weeks when we are making applesauce. We turned our class into a little factory, with some students passing out apples, some cleaning up apple skins, and the rest cutting up the apples into little bits. Thank you to those of you who donated apples!!

We had some left over apples with cinnamon and sugar on them that wouldn't fit into the crockpot so we got to taste test them. Delish!

Scientists in Schools

What a great week! We had the wonderful ladies from Farm Safety come in for a visit on Monday. They taught us how to play safe on farms and all about the "One seat, one rider" rule as well as the "Play safe, stay safe" rule.

We all successfully got logged in to the computers this week! This is always an exciting event in grade one and a few kids asked me in disbelief, "We get our OWN laptop to use??" I think they were pretty happy about it.

On OCTOBER 7, we are having the "Scientists in Schools" from Lethbridge come for a in-class workshop. We need at least 4 parent volunteers and the workshop will start at the beginning of school. Parents will need to come to the school at around 8:15 to set-up and learn what they will be doing for the workshop. Please let me know ASAP if you can come! I would LOVE to have you!

OCTOBER 2 is the Cross-Country run. See the last post or the school bulletin at www.raymondelementary.ca for more details.

The biggest change I have noticed in my students is their ability to sit quietly and focus on their work. I have been playing relaxing music during these "work times" and I love how it changes the whole mood in the classroom! Students are on-task, calm, and focused. Here's a quick video I snuck while students were working on their letter page. Love love love.

Have a fantastic weekend!

-Carly

Home Reading, Terry Fox Run, Cross Country Run

This week students got to take out books from the library. They were sent home in a plastic bag. The bag can stay at home, just have your child bring back their book to school in time for library day which is every MONDAY.

A note about Home Reading:

Great work reading with your children! I am so impressed that students are begging for new books to take home every day! It's like my dream come true. The only problem is that the books students are taking home are going to get too hard too soon because they are blowing through the books I have. So, please keep the home reading books (sent home in the yellow or red folder) for a week each time for now. I will exchange books with students every MONDAY. To make the home reading books last and stay interesting for a whole week, you can do different activities with the books like look for and write down all the words with the -at family in it (cat, mat, rat). You can also practice comprehension skills by asking your child about what they are reading and have them re-tell the story to you. 

I gave out beads (for their brag tag chains-ask your child about it) and treats for students who read for at least  5 days in the last week. This is something that we will be doing every FRIDAY. Please please please don't forget to write in your child's agenda every day for how long they are reading! Students do not get a bead unless their reading is written in their agenda!

The staff and students at Raymond Elementary are participating in the National School Terry

Fox Run. Our school theme is “TOONIES for TERRY”. Students are invited to bring a single

Toonie to the RES OFFICE to donate for cancer research starting -

Monday, Sept. 23rd. Our Terry Fox Run will take place on:

Thursday, September 26th, 2013

At 2:00pm @ RES GYM - PLEASE WEAR RED – Family is welcome!

On Tuesday, October 1, we will be having our annual "Cross Country Run" at the Temple Hill Race Track (west side). Students will be bused to and from the track. Parents and family are welcome to come and watch! The girls will run at approximately 11:30 and the boys will run at about 11:45 (BIG emphasis on approximately!). Please make sure that your child is wearing appropriate footwear (running shoes) that can get dirty. 

This week we have been practicing recognizing color words. This is one activity we did to practice this skill. Students had to go around the room and tape their color word to something of that color. I could tell they loved it from all the giggles as they realized they could tape their words to their friends!

Thanks for checkin' in!

-Carly

Daily 5 and Pictures

The first FULL week of grade one was a giant success!

Thank you to everyone who returned their yellow forms! We are going to get some sight word games and foam dice as our freebie!

I think that we are pretty up-to-date as far as reminders go, so this post is mostly pictures. Please make sure to read back a couple posts (just scroll down) to make sure you haven't missed anything.

Zack doing a great job at Show and Tell

I get to look at these precious faces every day! I love my job. 

We have been practicing "Read to Self" as part of Daily 5 in Language Arts. Daily 5 is a program where students get to choose how they spend their literacy time. Eventually they will be able to choose from "Work on Writing", "Read to Someone", "Listen to Reading", and "Work on Words". The kids love Daily 5 because they get to control how they learn. So this week we did the grand kick off and they did great! Today we read for 4 minutes straight. I know that sounds like nothing, but it's all about baby steps and building our stamina :). 

Have a fantastic weekend! 

-Carly

Picture Day and Free Things!

Picture Day has changed to Tuesday, September 17. Order forms will be going home shortly for you to choose the preferred background.

Also, on Thursday I will be sending home a yellow slip from Highlights with each child. Even if you do not want to order the magazines on the form, PLEASE SEND THE FORM BACK SIGNED ANYWAY!  According to how many student forms we get back, we get free stuff for our classroom! (woohoo!) If you need another copy, just let me know!

We are still in need of apples for approximately the last week in September.

P.S. My phone ran away this week with the pictures from the first week of school :(. I'm so sad and that means no pictures from last week. Sorry! I hope it turns up.

Pizza Day

Every month, our school has a Pizza Day. For $5.00, students get a small pizza (pepperoni, hawaiian, cheese, or veggie), chips and a juice box. The money from pizza day goes straight to classrooms to buy supplies and books for our classroom library! If your child is not getting pizza, just send them with their normal lunch for that day. There is an order form on the school website (www.raymondelementary.ca) or you can do it the easy way and just write your child's order in the agenda and I will get it that way! The best way to do Pizza Day is to pre-pay for the year at the office and that way you don't have to scrounge for $5.00 every month! Any questions, just ask!

Week 1!

We made it through the first week!! Woohoo!

The little grade ones were such troopers this week as they transitioned to full-day school! The first week of school is always a little scary, and although we had a few tears and sleepy children in the afternoon, everyone is doing so great. I am really excited for the upcoming year after meeting my new class! They are so sweet and also hilarious.

This week we have been focusing on the letters a, e, and i. The first part of grade one is essentially a big kindergarten review and we re-learn the alphabet and the sounds of letters. Starting this upcoming week, we will be adding in word families and spelling words to help with spelling and to start reading.

I have not sent home any home-reading materials yet, so please continue to read books that you have at home with your child every night for at least 15 minutes. Please record their reading in their agenda on the right hand side across from where your child writes every day. We will be starting incentives for reading this week so to avoid disappointed children on Friday, please read! :)

Your child will write the spelling words for the week in their agenda in the column on the right-hand side. Reviewing these words at home will help them with their reading and writing.

In the upcoming weeks in September we will be doing our "Apple" unit. We learn all about apples, taste apples, label apples, and do lots of fun things with apples! If you know anyone who has apple trees bursting with extra apples or anyone willing to donate apples, please send them in! We are going to make apple sauce at the end of our unit and this requires A LOT of apples. 

Pictures of this week are on their way!

Have a great weekend! 

-Mrs. Sefcik