November Reading Room

This month we are exploring fiction and non fiction books relating to Remembrance Day, courage, kindness and bullying awareness. Here are some read aloud books that we will be exploring in class and some additional books for students to enjoy about the topics. Click on a book to listen/watch the story! 

Happy reading!

Halloween Fun in Grade 1!

We have really enjoyed all of our Halloween activities the past couple of weeks!

We have been reading some non-fiction texts about Halloween and have some interesting history lessons about how Halloween started! Ask your kiddo about what they learned in these books!

• We learned that a Jack a long time ago, didn't make it to heaven so to help him find his way he carved a turnip and put coal inside to light his way. Now we have Jack o' Lanterns. 

• Halloween is celebrated on October 31 each year in Canada. (Mrs. Herbert)

• When you go trick-or-treating, kids in costumes trick people at the door because they won’t give them candy. (Oliver)

• On Halloween you move to other people's houses to get candy. (Hudson)

• On Halloween people dress up in Canada. (Maggie)

• In Mexico, people do not celebrate Halloween, but celebrate Day of the Dead. (Rose)

• The biggest pumpkin was 1,300 llbs. (Cohen)

• Pails and buckets are used on Halloween to collect candy. (Callen)

• You can wear whatever costume you want. (Shauna)

• A long time ago, people wore witch costumes and ghost costumes to protect themselves. (Jillian)

For DPA (Daily Physical Activity) this week, we enjoyed some Halloween dancing. Here is a little clip of our students dancing away to for our Halloween Dance Party! 

We did our October Estimate Jar today too! We have so much fun estimating, counting and seeing who our Estimate Jar winner is! Today, we practiced counting by 5's of our Halloween treats! We had a three way tie, with Logan, Colton and Aidan as our winners with only one number off our real total. Halloween marshmallows were shared with everyone since our friends had lots! These might have been enjoyed at lunch breaks today so you may not see them come home! 

We had some Halloween themed centers this week as well to enjoy as we finished up our other important work...the students don't know these were still learning centers...shhh...don't tell!!

We finished up our day with our empathy video about Spookley the Square Pumpkin!

Not to mention the treats we received today! Wow! Thank you for all the amazing things sent in from families that we got to enjoy today (& bring home!) Enjoy this special day full of Halloween fun! See you all on Monday after the time change!! 

November Newsletter & Calendar

November Newsletter

Two months into the school year already! This is another detailed but really comprehensive newsletter with some reminders for the Busy Bee classroom! Please take some time to read when you get a chance (as we know families are extremely busy) and access if there are any questions that should arise along the way.

November Calendar

This is our November calendar! Although we can send home a paper copy, this blog has the most up to date information! We have a couple exciting events we are coordinating and will keep you posted there. Check out the blog calendar regularly for upcoming dates and information or the Homework & Reminders page.

For those families that requested a paper copy, it will be sent home today (October 30) in your child's mailbag. 

Phonics Lesson 53: More Digraphs Review wh, ph, ng, nk: Oct 26-30 (Reading Practice Book)

Note: please leave the clip on the previous completed pages and focus on the last two pages in the book. Mrs. Herbert will move the clip as pages are completed. Thanks!

Phonics Lessons: Digraph Review wh /w/, ph /f/, ng /ŋ/, nk /ŋ/

We have learned that when we put letters together, they can make one sound. This is called a consonant digraph because it is two letters that come together to make one sound. 

wh /w/

The consonant digraph wh spells /w/ like at the beginning of the word whistle. This is the same sound as the consonant w. The digraph wh can only come at the beginning of the word, such as when and whip. This is tricky as there is no hard and fast rule for when we use w and when we use wh! This is a tricky one!!   

ph /f/

The consonant digraph ph spells /f/ like at the beginning of the word phone. This is the same sound as the consonant f. Ph can come at the beginning of a word or an end of a word.

ng /ŋ/

This makes a nasally n sound when followed by a g, like in the word ring. The letters ng together only come at the end of a base word. 

nk /ŋ/

This letter combination also makes that funny nasally n sound when followed by a k like in the word think. The letters nk for the sound /ŋ/ only come at the end of a word.

In this week's text called, The Ship Dock, students are looking for words that have one of our consonant digraphs for the week (wh, ph, ng, nk). They are looking to highlight (the whole word that has that spelling pattern). Be careful for spelling patterns that are included in the story that include those letters that aren't part of this spelling pattern. Students are also looking 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.

This week we are reviewing (introduced last year):

• they
• their
• were
• talk
• walk

We are introducing as more review words also introduced last year:

• could
• would
• should
• or
• for
• there
• where

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 in their Reading Practice book 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 one lesson so there will be one story to complete in their white Reading Practice booklet. 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!

Pumpkin Carving Fun!

We were so very lucky to have so many pumpkin donations this year for the whole school. Thank you so very much to Switzers' Pumpkins, Govers Family Farm & Pumpkin Patch, Masse Pumpkins and St. Marys Canadian Tire who all donated pumpkins to our school! We want them to know how much we appreciate their generousity to make events such as this happen!  

We had a lot of fun carving them with our learning buddies! We hope they are enjoyed this week as part of our Pumpkin Walk and make it home safe and sound to enjoy for Halloween! We hope your pumpkins are the special added touch for decorating for Halloween! 

Also a big special thanks to our Grade 5/6 learning buddies for helping us out and to our adult helpers  (Ms. Carlberg, Ms. Hyatt, Ms.Brecklemans, Ms. Ivanouski and Ms. Elgie) that came in to help us with the carving and all the clean up! We couldn't have done it without you! 

We also want to take some time to say a HUGE thank you to our parent volunteers on School Council, led by Mrs. Leppington and Mrs. Smith, that coordinated the very special Pumpkin Walk for our school community. What a great way to put all our students' amazing work on display and bring the school community together in a special evening! There are so many folks that made donations to this wonderful event with and so many fabulous prizes to celebrate! Please see the list coming out in the November school newsletter that recognizes all of those fabulous people and local businesses. We want to honour them and show our support to them in return!  

Here are a few pictures from our activities:

Dancing Bees!

We took our bees outside today for some dancing in our beautiful fall, Friday afternoon weather! We are learning about dance steps, rhythm and movement! And a perfect song 'Better When I'm Dancing' by Meghan Trainor! Watch for more of our dance moves coming soon as we start our weekly dance lessons! Next week will be Halloween themed!  

 

 

Art in Nature Outdoor Learning Workshop

This week is Take Me Outside Week! 

Thursday, we welcomed Julie from the ABCA (Ausable Bayfield Conservation Authority) in Exeter. She has never been to South Perth and absolutely adored our amazing school yard for all the learning she could lead us in! We certainly lucked out with a beautiful fall day to enjoy our outdoor learning activities. We were exploring different concepts in art and finding fall tints and shades in nature, learning about symmetry in nature and the biggie, using nature to create the perfect 3D art! Check out our art we created on our Seesaw digital portfolios! We had some amazing master pieces that will come home as soon as they are dried!  

We want to thank the School Council's fundraising efforts to make these workshops possible for no cost to families. We definitely loved our visit and can't wait to see what else we can take outside for outdoor learning activities! Not all learning is done inside the school!