NOVEMBER 2011

GRADE 1/2 HAPPENINGS

An Outstanding October
October was a great month in the grade one and two classroom. The students are well on their way to being independent during Daily Five time. This is a half hour period of time in which students work on reading and writing skills independently while the teacher spends time with small groups of students doing Guided Reading. Guided Reading will ofcially kick off during the rst week of November!
At the end of October, our school hosted its annual Education Week. This week was full of activities: school wide bingo, the Scholastic book fair, rainbow dress up day and the multicultural potluck night. Our class was also treated to a visit from Swift Current Bronco player, Austin Smith. Austin read two books to our class and spent some time answering our questions about the Broncos.
Halloween was fantastic, we had all sorts of creatures and characters in our classroom! We kicked off the afternoon with a costume parade through the older classrooms and then spent the rest of the afternoon watching the movie, Spooky Buddies in Mrs. Hansens room. Special thanks to all those that sent treats for our class!

What is Guided Reading Anyway?

Guided Reading is a program that we use at Central School to ensure that all students receive individual reading instruction that meets their individual needs. In October, all students were given reading assessments which help us to determine where they are at in terms of their reading skills. We then group students according to similar abilities and provide reading instruction geared towards that groups needs. Each day, students receive half an hour of Guided Reading instruction. Not every group gets to read with the DATES TO REMEMBER teacher every day, but they do receive at least one meeting with the teacher per week and sometimes more. During these meeting times, we make predictions NOVEMBER 10-BOOK ORDERS DUE about a book, focus on specic reading strategies like punctuation cues or DAY: NOVEMBER 11- REMEMBRANCE uency, and make connections to the book we are reading. Each student also NO SCHOOL spends some time reading one on one with the teacher so that I can get an idea for how their reading is progressing. So what are the other groups doing while NOVEMBER 15- REPORT CARDS GO HOME one group is reading with the teacher? They are participating in something we call the Daily Five. The grade one and two students and I spent all of September CHER NOVEMBER 17, 24- PARENT TEA and October practicing the Daily Five so that students can do it independently. S INTERVIEW During Daily Five, students are assigned to one of ve centers (Guided Reading NOVEMBER 18-STAND UP TO being one of them). These centers are things like Word Work where students BULLYING DAY practice their spelling words using stamps, plasticine and magnetic letters. There is also Listen to Reading, where students can listen to a book on CD which helps NOVEMBER 21-NO SCHOOL (DAY IN LIEU) to improve uency, Read to Self where students read books that they have chosen their self quietly, and Work on Writing where students can write about NOVEMBER 28, 29- CHINOOK OOL any topic of their choosing and once it has been edited, can publish it using all TEACHERS CONVENTION: NO SCH types of fun paper. Both Guided Reading and Daily Five help to provide a balanced literacy program in our classroom.

What Have We Been Up To?

Math- Both grade one and two have been learning about number sense. Grade ones have been focusing on reading, writing and recognizing numbers to 20 while grade two students have been focusing on doing the same with numbers to 100. Reading- During shared reads and read alouds, students will be focusing on the strategy of retelling. Retelling is a great aid in comprehension as it helps to ensure that you understand what you have just read. Students will practice retelling by using story maps to sequence story events. Writing-In writing, we are beginning written literature responses. Students will listen to a read aloud and then respond to the book in their writing journals. We have also been working on writing from a journal prompt. Students are given a prompt and are encouraged to use what they have learned about writing to write about the journal prompt. Science- We are just beginning our rst science units. Grade one students will be learning about our ve senses and how both animals and humans use their senses to interact with the environment as well as aids for people who have lost one of their senses. Grade two students will be learning about the properties of liquids and solids. We will be investigating what makes liquids different from solids as well as the interactions between liquids and solids. Gym- In phys. ed, we will be moving on to manipulative skills. The rst skill we will study is kicking. Students will be introduced to sports that use kicking and will begin to practice ball handling skills. Art- In art, students will study the use of texture in artwork. We will work with a variety of mediums (paint, pencil, crayon, plasticine) to show how texture can enhance a piece of artwork.

Did you know??

Home Reading- With the start of Guided Reading, students will be bringing home books that are meant to meet them where they are at. Students can also read any books they might have at home in their own libraries. Make sure to record the amount of time read each day in their Homework duotang so they can earn a prize from me! Spelling- Each week students receive 5 new grade level words and 5 review words to practice at school and at home. These words are recorded on Mondays in their Homework duotangs and it is expected that students rewrite and practice their words at least once at home. Some ideas for practicing spelling at home are: -cutting letters out of magazine and gluing to paper -window writers -www.puzzle-maker.com (lets you make your own crosswords and word searches) -nger painting -hangman -spelling bingo -www.spellingcity.com (enter your word list and play games while learning the words) Winter is Coming! With the start of winter comes many lost touques and mitts. Please make sure to label all of your childs outdoor clothing so we can return it to them if it should get lost. If your child does loose something, we have a lost and found box downstairs by the boot room where they can check for it. Indoor Shoes-With the fresh snow on the ground, we have many muddy shoes entering our classroom. Please make sure your child has a pair of labelled indoor shoes to leave at school. Absences- If you need to take your child out of school for any amount of time (doctor appointment, early lunch, dentist, etc) please make sure to stop in and let the ofce know. This is important incase we have a re drill so that all students are accounted for.