Enjoy the break,
Larissa
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This week we have finished up various assessments and projects in the lead up to Spring Break. We also spent a lot of time outside in the beautiful spring sunshine. On Monday we did observational writing in journals on the campus. On Tuesday and Wednesday we were on campus again to take class photos and a whole school photo. In Math students designed their own data surveys and went around the class asking their friends their survey questions which they then presented as picture graphs, tally marks and bar graphs. In Science students worked on finishing their junk art and then presented their pieces in pairs to the class. Students really had a lot of fun working on this hands on collaborative project together. In Social Studies children made posters for their family traditions presentation next term. Everyone worked hard on drafting and publishing an expository writing piece to explain their celebration and then used drawings and photos to make a poster. These posters will be up outside our classroom so please take a look when you come in for PTC's after Spring Break. On Thursday Grade 3 invited us to view the dioramas of different ecosystems they had been working on. The students asked many questions about what they saw and about the construction process. Thank you Mr. Morris for this great opportunity for our first graders to learn from their older peers. On the last day of term we went to Shoto Park with G1A and G3 and had a Easter Egg hunt, lunch and a play in the park before coming back and cleaning the classroom. Report cards went home on Friday along with a little Spring Break homework.
Enjoy the break, Larissa
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Friday's Field Trip to Miraikan was a lot of fun. Children could experience the amazing life of animals that they will be studying in Term 3. Spelling - Our spelling words this week focused on long O words using "oa" and "ow". Students learnt that "ow" is usually found at the end of words and "oa" is usually found in the middle of words. We also looked at f/ph and n/kn sounds. Reading - This week we did reading assessments to check where children are in relation to end of term benchmarks. We encourage you to set a Spring Break reading routine so children can maintain current levels. I will be adjusting some Raz Kids levels to be in line with these recent assessments. Writing - Children worked on publishing their expository writing pieces. Learning to use time order words is important for organising writing in sequential order. Science In Science this week children had fun planning and building with a partner to make something from trash they brought in as part of a lesson on reducing, recycling and reusing. Social Studies We discussed family traditions and students decided on which they would like to share with the class. Students wrote their own questions to interview their parents about their family traditions/celebrations. Mystery Reader Our Mystery Reader this week was Amina's dad who read 3 Jack Ezra Keats stories from a beautifully illustrated collection of Keats' works. He read Peter's Chair, The Snowy Day and A Letter To Amy. DATES TO REMEMBER
ELA Spelling - Our weekly words and grammar focused on making plural nouns by adding s. We also discussed other ways of making plural nouns such as -es, ies and changing the word, ie foot - feet. Reading - we continued to look at characters this week. Students looked at how characters changed throughout books and made connections of how the feelings of characters of different books were the same. We learned that when characters learn a lesson in stories their behaviour and feelings usually change. Students enjoyed four of Kevin Henkes' stories and could identify when the characters in each book felt miserable and excited. Writing - We moved onto a new style of writing this week - Expository Writing. Students learned how to gather and order ideas to tell how-to do or make something. Students drafted their first expository how-to paragraph telling their friends how to do or make something. In Math we finished our unit on Weight with a unit test. We went over the test afterwards to make sure everyone understood where they experienced difficulty. Towards the end of the week we moved on to look at picture and bar graphs. Students had fun using dot markers to collect data. Students came up with a few questions they wanted to collect data for. "What colour T-shirt are you wearing for PE?" "How do you come to school?" We compared two and more than two choices and found we use more when comparing two things and the most when comparing more than two choices. SCIENCE Last week we focused on rocks and this week we moved to observing the properties of soil and how much water three samples could hold. Students again this year have really enjoyed the natural resources unit - rocks and soil hold such fascination for first grade students. We also discussed ways to conserve resources by reducing, reusing and recycling them. We have sent an email home asking for small reusable items for the children to build/make something with. Social Studies Students discussed culture and family customs and how we share them with people in the community. We wondered about the customs of the students that we wrote to at Mulberry school. As a little home school projects students will think of a family custom/tradition/holiday and prepare an informative poster about their topic to share with the class. Next week students will be bringing home an interview sheet to gather information from parents about the holiday or custom that they would like to share with the class. Spring is here! We had some beautiful days outside this week. Have a great weekend,
Larissa We had another busy and exciting week this week. ELA Spelling - words this week focused on the "y as long i" sound. We also reviewed the other ways to make long i in words such as igh, ie. Reading - We continued to talk about characters and looked at how they are feeling throughout the story and how we can identify those feelings and relate them to ourselves. Everyday many children recited poems for the class. I'm so proud of the enthusiasm of the children to participate. Writing - Students finished their animal acrostic poems and worked on acrostic poems using their own names. In Maths we continued with weighing things using similar objects/units and a balance scales. Students know that heavy things go down on the scale and light things go up. When the balance is level they know the two objects are equal in weight. Vocabulary used: heavy/light, as heavy as, heavier/lighter than and the heaviest/lightest. Social Studies As part of our new topic in Social Studies students all wrote letters to students in an American primary school. We are looking at how people are the same and different around the world and hope to learn new things from the pen pals in Mulberry Elementary School in Ohio. Children also drew things that they liked to celebrate with their family. We will be asking children to present a poster in the coming weeks to share a family tradition with the class. More details will follow shortly. Science We looked at how soils differ by properties of colour, and texture and reviewed what we know about the water on Earth. Field Trip On Wednesday we took a field trip to the local planetarium. For some children this was their first planetarium experience. We learnt about constellations, the stars we could see if there were less city lights and even "took a trip" to Canada where we could see the Northern Lights and compare the position of the stars compared to Tokyo. Mystery Reader Our Mystery Reader this week was Alexis' mother, Miwa. She read a traditional Japanese story, The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter. Thank you very much to Miwa for coming to read to our class. Poetry Slam On Friday our Poetry Week finished with our school wide Poetry Slam. Our representatives to join the slam were Gaius, Cocona and Harlow. While judges were deliberating some other G1b students also stood up in front of the audience and recited their poems. Well done to everyone for writing, learning and reciting Acrostic poems. A link to the performance videos will be found on the school news page on Weebly. Have a great weekend,
Larissa ELA Spelling - words this week focused on more long e words (ee, ea). We reviewed all the different ways to make e sound in words. Reading - We continued to look at the characters in the books we read by asking ourselves how the character is similar/different from ourselves. Students worked with reading buddies to track how a characters feelings changed throughout a story. Writing - In the lead up to next week's poetry Slam students worked on their second acrostic animal poem following a similar process to the writing process. They chose which one they would like to do for the poetry Slam and will bring that poem home on Friday to practice over the weekend ready for recital in class on Thursday 8th, March. Grammar - We read Punctuation Celebration and learnt that in addition to dates and letters we use commas when writing a series of things instead of repeating and several times. WORLD BOOK DAY On Thursday students dressed up as their favourite book characters. They brought their books to class and presented their costume choice and book to their friends. MYSTERY READER We were treated to two Mystery Readers this week with Misha and Harlow's mums , Colleen and Stephanie. Misha's mum read Little Donkey Learns to Share, a timely story that followed on from our Notes of Kindness. Harlow's mum read the book People, a lead into our next Social Studies unit on Traditions We Share. Thank you both for sharing great stories with us. MATH We worked on the Mid Year Test over three days as a summary of all the learning we have done since the beginning of the year. The students generally did well. Areas that we will continue to work on in maths are addition, subtraction and making equations that are equal to each other. Please continue to practice addition to 10 and doubles facts at home. We practiced with Rocket Math on Friday. SCIENCE We began our inquiry into Earth's Resources and focused this week on rocks and soil. Students all brought in rocks and fossils to share with the class in a group circle time. Then they took their rocks back to their tables and discussed with their groups how they could classify the rocks into different groups. Students observed the similarities and differences between the rocks they had collected. Some friends were keen to add to the supply of rocks and so they collected and washed some rocks from the park. Have a great weekend,
Larissa |
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