October is upon us!

Hi everyone,
I hope you all had a great week end with your family. Thank you to all of you who made it to parent reading night. Those who didn't if you have any questions feel free to drop me a line. I cannot believe that October is upon us! Where did September go? With a new month comes a new theme to learn about in grade one. The month of October is about our family, Halloween and body parts.

I will be sending home a note this week where it is asking you for some pictures of all the members of your family. You will not be getting that back as the students will be cutting them up and gluing them to their family tree. Please pick pictures that are not to small and if possible individual ones of each family member is easier. If you could please put them in a ziplock and label it with your child's name that would be super. you can put the information sheet in there as well.

We are starting to know all the letter sounds of the alphabet and are going to be learning about some of the more common double sounds that they will be seeing more often (like "ou" "on"). I hope the paint chip sight words are working out for you at home. I love that some of you are working on writing them down, it is not necessary but they kids are soo excited to show me and I get as excited as them when they do! Keep up the great work! We are also learning the difference between vowels and consonants. We will  be starting to put letter sounds together to form small words. You can do this at home as well. If you have magnet letters or even white boards. Do not worry if the words make sense its all about recognizing the sounds.

In math we have finished the patterns unit with great success. We are moving onto representing and recognizing number 1-20.The students must be able to recognize the number and say it in French and also the corresponding word that goes with it. For example 15-quinze. They should also be able to count out 15 items. I will be sending home hopefully this week a bag with the numbers and written words up to 20. Play matching games, memory, putting them in order or just practice saying them out of sequence. It is very easy for the students to count 1-20 no problem but they often struggle counting backwards as well out identifying numbers out of order.

We continue to learn about colors in Science class. They students are starting to be able to recognize the written words for each color. They have also been using the dictionary to help them out. I am so proud of them for using that strategy. They will be learning about how one color can be a darker or lighter shade.

We are pretty lucky to have Mme Wilma come in to help teach the music program. We are hoping that she will be with us the entire year. So far she has come once and we are looking forward to seeing her again next week.

Library will always be on day 2 of the 6 day cycle. Please be sure to return your child's book on or before. I will try to always leave a reminder in the agenda.

We also had a fire drill practice last week. the students did great. Feel free to talk with them at home about fire drill procedures and also what should they do if a fire breaks out in your home, how to get out, who to call, where to go....We will also be talking about lock down procedures in the next couple of weeks. Sometimes students get a little scared about this chat, so if you want to have one at home before we do at school feel free. We are going to be having a lock down practice sometime in October.

We have a busy week at school this week. The Terry Fox run is tomorrow afternoon. The assembly is starting at 1:30 then we are heading out to run. Please feel free to join us if you can. It is also school spirit day, so all the grade ones are to wear purple. Please make sure you child is dressed for the weather, we are going out even if it is raining a bit, so they are free to bring umbrella's.
-Picture day is FRIDAY OCTOBER 3, I sent home today the sign up sheet that you are to fill in and send back to school, please do so by Thursday.
-Also if you have not done so already please send in your checks for the CD deposit. Do not forget to date it for June 20th, 2015.
-Special lunch is on Wednesday: Extreme Pita.
-Scholastic orders are in, will be sent home tomorrow.

I think that's all folks! Have a great week!
Keep smiling:)

Welcome to a new School year!

Hi everyone,
I finally remembered my password to the blog! Thanks for your patience. Welcome to a new adventure called grade one! I was so happy to meet all of you last week at the meet and greet. I am very excited for this year and I know working along side all of you will be great. Thank you for all your support so far!
Every week I will post a new message to let you know what will be happening in class, at the school and everything in between. At the beginning of every month I will post what your child will be covering, the theme, math concepts and so on. If you need anything feel free to contact me anytime via email or give the school a call.

The month of September in Mme Laurie Anne's class is all about routine, structure, expected behaviours and setting/following the rules. So far it has been fabulous! This months theme is "A l'ecole avec mes amis" At school with my friends. We have been learning the different letter sounds and names in French. I like to teach the sound first then the name. I also teach them a hand action to go along with the sound. I follow the Jolly Phonics program in both French and English. It helps the students remember the sounds. You can find the English songs online. We have been working on our printing skills as well both upper and lower case. They still need some work, seeing that some continue to have reversals. Please feel free to work on this at home. Some fun things to try are drawing the letters in sugar, flour or fill a ziplock with paint and have them practice on the bag. You can also get a white board at Dollarama and practice with that. Play-doh is also fun!

In math we are reviewing numbers 0-10 in French and learning how to recognize and write the French written number. We have started our math unit which is patterns. Students are learning about what/ how to make a pattern, repetition, prolonging and how to have several different attributes to one pattern. We have started our number printing book as well. I encourage you to count with your child at home as high as they can count and practice writing the numbers out.

Science we have been learning about all the different colors. We will be doing some fun experiments in the next couple of weeks. I was hoping that some brave soul might want to come into class and make play-doh with us? If your up to it please let me know.

Social studies we are learning about being a member of a group. The focus is all about being a good person, learning to get along with different personalities and respecting all cultures.

Things you might want to make note of.....
-We have Lacrosse week in gym. We have two Roughneck players here to teach the kids some skills. Our class will have gym Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday.
-Library will always be on day 2 in the afternoon. If you have not please send your child's book back with them tomorrow so they may return it.
-Choir sign up was today. If your child is interested in singing with the choir they can go see Mme Kitt. You must give them permission, just leave a note in the agenda.
Young Rembrants art class starts Monday 22 after school.
- Gala Basket theme for our class is Happy Hobbies. We have already started to get donations. You may send them into class at anytime. This is the link to sign up: http://www.signupgenius.com/go/10c0d49acae2fa0ff2-happy If you cannot access this you can go to the school website and click the Gal picture and it will direct you where you need to go. I love our theme for this year it is very fitting!
- Thursday is the parent reading information night. I hope to see you all there, if not we can arrange a time to get together and go over the information covered. Please do not forget to come with a cheque date for June 20th, 2015. It will be a deposit on the reading CD that you will get with the reading package, as well as for any puzzle pieces that might become lost.
That's all I got for now! Have a super week everyone!
Laurie Anne