Easter Egg Hunt Preparations!

The Grade 1/2 Busy Bees have started preparing for the school Easter Egg Hunt. We are raising money for the Ronald McDonald House! We have made our posters to advertise and put up around the school and written our announcements to have each group read over the next while at school. We started making the treat bags for all the participants today and started decorating the giant banner! Donations are starting to come in to help reach our goal! We are so excited for our special event next week!  

PJ Day!

Today we had a great day with our pjs on and our stuffie to cuddle with today! 

Optimism - Finding the Good!

This past week, we have been learning all about optimism as our character trait of the month. We have read books, poems and watched videos all about this concept to help us understand what this big idea means. We brainstormed all the ideas we have been learning about and have posted in our classroom:

We have read these books:

And some great songs and videos we watched about optimism are:

We are working hard on focusing on making the choice to find the good. It is easy to pick out the bad and dwell on it, but we are training our brains to find the silver lining more. Help us practice and we can show you our new skills!

Phonics Lesson 80 ur, ir /er/ & Phonics Lesson 81 w+or /er/ & Review of /er/: Mar 23-27 (Reading Practice Book)

Phonics Lessons - Mar 23-27

This week's focus has been continuing to review r-controlled vowels. When we put the /r/ sound after a vowel, it completely changes the way the vowel sounds. It makes what we call an ‘r-controlled’ vowel but does have to include the vowel or some words would be missing a vowel and therefore, not a real word! We have started with ar /ar/ and or, ore /or/ before March Break and this week, we have been looking at different spelling combinations that make the /er/ sound as er, ir, ur and when w is right before or to make the or say /er/.  

Students are confusing the /er/ sound with the /r/ sound. These are two different sounds and are tricky to differentiate. To make the /er/ sound, your mouth is open slightly, teeth are apart and your lips are pushed outward slightly. Your tongue is in the middle of your mouth, touching your top teeth. The /r/ sound is a super tricky sound to make. To make the /r/ sound, your tongue is up and pulled back. Your tongue is wide in your mouth and strong. We will continue to work on this together. 

Lesson 80: ur, ir /er/

Two other ways to make the /er/ sound is with the spelling patterns ir and ur. With the ir spelling, the /er/ sound can come in the middle of a word, such as girl and bird. It can also come at the end of the word such as sir and stir. 

With the ur spelling, the /er/ sound can come at the beginning of the word such as urge and urn, in the middle of a word, such as turn and hurt but also it can also come at the end of the word such as fur and blur. 

In this week's text called A Turtle Can Surf, students are looking for all the words that have the /er/ sound using the spelling patterns of ir, ur in the words to highlight (the whole word that has that spelling pattern). Be careful for spelling patterns that are included in the story that are re and not making the /er/ sound. Students are also asked to illustrate the story to demonstrate their understanding of the text.

Lesson 81: w+or /er/ & Review of /er/

This week we were introduced to w+or which makes the or say /er/ like in world and work. 

In this week's text called, The Worst Pet Ever, students are looking for all the words that have the /er/ sound based on the er spelling patterns to highlight (the whole word that has that spelling pattern). Be careful for spelling patterns that are included in the story that are re and not making the /er/ sound. Students are also asked to illustrate the story to demonstrate their understanding of the text.

The /er/ sound has many spelling patterns (& more to come) and how confusing is that!? So when we read these words, we need to know that er, ir, ur, (w+)or all make the /er/ sound for when we are decoding. However, when we are spelling, this is when it gets tricky! How do we know which one to use!? We have shared this general chart with the students this week but in Grade 1/2, we are going to be generally happy with using one of them and learning as we go! 

Heart (Irregular) Words of the Week

Heart words are words that do not decode or follow the spelling rules that we have been learning. We have to know them by 'heart'. However, once we learn more spelling rules, they may be only temporary heart words and the rules will come along later! In the meantime, we have been focusing on reviewing and learning the words below with focused in class practice. These will eventually (if not already) be on spelling word lists or word rings. 

This week we are reviewing:

• pretty
• nothing
• other
• another

This week's new words:

• mother
• brother

Fluency Grids
With each lesson, there is a fluency grid with the lesson focus that is intended to help students recognize the phonics rule and assist in reading it with accuracy and automaticity. At home, challenge your young reader to read the word (aim is to decode/read each word within 3 seconds) and then recall it each time they see it within the grid of mixed up, repeated words. A couple minutes of practice is all they need. This acts as a warm up before reading the text that also applies the same skill while building on all the previous skills as well. Each week we are building on the previous week to become more fluent readers so we can focus on what the text is sharing rather than spending all the time decoding the words.

Homework Reminders
Students have been working on the story or stories in their Reading Practice book this week that will come home each weekend. At school, they work with a partner to complete their fluency grid, read with someone their story and highlight the focus words. Following, they are illustrating a picture for the text to show their understanding. 

At home, students are to finish the above tasks and read to an expert the week's lesson(s). After completing, parents are to initial at the indicated spot at the top. 

This week, we are have completed two lessons so there will be two stories to complete in their white Reading Practice booklet after the clip. Please see the information letter in the front of the book for more, detailed information about this weekend practice book coming home. Please return on Monday (or Tuesday if there is a no school day on Monday).

Happy reading!

March & April Scholastic Book Orders

 

Scholastic's Digital Flyers are now available for March & April! Click on the image above to take you to each digital flyer. As you click on items, it will load the online shopping link to be able to add items to your cart instantly. Remember at checkout to apply the Grade 1/2 Busy Bee Class Code RC192592 to add rewards to our class resource account. Due dates for these book orders will be Wednesday, April 9 for ship to classroom options.

A paper copy of the flyer is available and will come home once they arrive at the school in March. We share on the blog as well in case that paper copy gets lost or extended family would like to place an order. All ordering is completed online and sent directly to your home or to the school (free to ship to school). 

If your order contains a gift, please let me know and we can arrange how to get it to you to keep it a surprise. 

If you require any help, please let me know. Happy to help get books into little people's hands in any way possible to find a love of reading. 

Happy reading!! 

Phonics Lesson 79 ar & or, ore Review & Phonics Lesson 80 er: Mar 9-13 (Reading Practice Book)

Phonics Lessons - Mar 9-13

Lesson 79: ar /ar/ & or, ore /or/ Review

The /r/ sound is a tricky sound. When we put the /r/ sound after a vowel, it completely changes the way the vowel sounds. It makes what we call an ‘r-controlled’ vowel. 

ar /ar/ - The r-controlled vowel ar usually represents the /ar/ sound. This can come in the middle of a word, such as the words bark and part. This can sometimes come at the end of the word, such as car and star. It can also sometimes come at the beginning of a word, such as the words art and arm. 

or, ore /or/ - Another r-controlled vowel sound is /or/. This sound is usually represented using the letters or and ore. The or spelling can come in the middle of a word, such as fork or corn. It can sometimes come at the beginning of the word such as orb. It can also come at the end of a word, such as for. However, when we hear /or/ at the end of a word it usually is spelled with a silent e like in the words more or store. 

In this week's text called Trip to the Market, students are looking for all the words that have the /ar/ or the /or/ sound in the words to highlight, followed up illustrating a picture of the story. Students are also asked to illustrate the story to demonstrate their understanding of the text.

Lesson 80: er /er/

This is another r controlled vowel. This sound is usually represented using the letters er and is the most common spelling if the /er/ sound. The er spelling can come in the middle of a word, such as verb or fern. It can also come at the end of the word such as sister, her. 

In this week's text called, My Sister's Fern, students are looking for all the words that have the /er/ sound based on the er spelling patterns to highlight (the whole word that has that spelling pattern). Be careful for spelling patterns that are included in the story that are re and not making the /er/ sound. Students are also asked to illustrate the story to demonstrate their understanding of the text.

Heart (Irregular) Words of the Week

Heart words are words that do not decode or follow the spelling rules that we have been learning. We have to know them by 'heart'. However, once we learn more spelling rules, they may be only temporary heart words and the rules will come along later! In the meantime, we have been focusing on reviewing and learning the words below with focused in class practice. These will eventually (if not already) be on spelling word lists or word rings. 

This week we are reviewing:

• people
• pretty
• nothing

This week's new words:

• other
• another

Fluency Grids
With each lesson, there is a fluency grid with the lesson focus that is intended to help students recognize the phonics rule and assist in reading it with accuracy and automaticity. At home, challenge your young reader to read the word (aim is to decode/read each word within 3 seconds) and then recall it each time they see it within the grid of mixed up, repeated words. A couple minutes of practice is all they need. This acts as a warm up before reading the text that also applies the same skill while building on all the previous skills as well. Each week we are building on the previous week to become more fluent readers so we can focus on what the text is sharing rather than spending all the time decoding the words.

Homework Reminders
Students have been working on the story or stories in their Reading Practice book this week that will come home each weekend. At school, they work with a partner to complete their fluency grid, read with someone their story and highlight the focus words. Following, they are illustrating a picture for the text to show their understanding. 

At home, students are to finish the above tasks and read to an expert the week's lesson(s). After completing, parents are to initial at the indicated spot at the top. 

This week, we are have completed two lessons so there will be two stories to complete in their white Reading Practice booklet after the clip. Please see the information letter in the front of the book for more, detailed information about this weekend practice book coming home. Please return on Monday (or Tuesday if there is a no school day on Monday).

Happy reading!

Humane Society Presentation

Today, we had the pleasure of having a presentation from The Humane Society of Stratford. The topic was all about how animals communicate so we know about animal safety. We were learning about:

• When dogs or cats lift up their leg or paw, it could mean that their legs are hurt. (Liam)
• When cats have their backs up, that means they are scared. (Jack)
• When cats are calm, they purr. (Madelyn)
• When dogs bow, that means they want to play. (Raiden)
• When dogs mouths are open and they are panting, it could mean they are hot. (Olivia F)
• When you can see dogs teeth, that means they are mad. (Tom D)
• When cats are scared, they put their tail behind their legs. (Ella)
• When cats are mad, they stick their fur up. (Bellamy)

We want to be safe around pets but also around wildlife and farm animals. We want to thank our presenter for sharing some good info with us. We also got to make some puppy treat bags for our friends that are at the Humane Society. We hope they enjoy their treats!!