June 7, 2019 Animals! Students have been working hard on gather information about an animal they chose to become an expert on! Students learned about animal predators, habitat and adaptations. They got to create a project of their choice to share with the class about what they learned! You may hear or see them practice this weekend to prepare for the presentations on Monday! We have also started listening to the read aloud "Charlotte's Web." In the upcoming weeks, your child will be sharing their learning with you! We continue to working on addition and subtraction skills. Students need to know how to add and subtract numbers up to twenty by the end of grade one! We will continue this learning in the upcoming weeks. Upcoming Events: June 12th: Science in Schools in-class field trip called "All About Senses" June 18th: Leighton Arts Center in-class field trip "Creating Wire Sculptures" June 21st: Sports Day (stay tuned for further information in upcoming week) Bundle up and stay warm this weekend!
May 31, 2019 Empathy and Current Events! With the smoke blowing in from the North, we had a great talk about empathy and the impact the wildfires have on the residents of High Level and for us here in Calgary! The students came up with a great idea to make cards to send to the front line responders, people impacted by the evacuation and to the city leaders. We will send these cards out early next week!
We continue to work on our animal research project! We are becoming very familiar with non fiction text features and how to use them to guide our research. Ask about our animal and some special features!
In Math, we continue to practice our math facts and strategies to help us add and subtract to and from 20! Keep working on them at home as well!
Have a safe weekend!
May 24th, 2019 This week, we had lots of guest speakers! We had the City of Calgary: The Traveling Seed Show come in and help us learn more about how seeds move and grow. We also had an author visit by Marty Chan! Students learned about what it would be like to be a professional author! We continued to explore addition and subtraction word problems in math. In Science, we starting learning about how to conduct research! We are learning about local animals and how they interact with local plant life. Next week, we will continue learning research strategies. We will also learn about non-fiction text features in literacy. Have a wonderful weekend!
May 17, 2019 What a wet rainy week! but... boy has the scenery around gotten GREEN!
PLANTS, PLANTS, PLANTS! We are now gardening experts! We know what plants need in order to grow and thrive, we know plant parts and their function AND we even know what the life cycle of plants are! We planted a bean seed with just paper towels and water in a jar and left it on our window sill... in just under two weeks we've got roots, a nice hardy stem and some nice looking leaves! Try it at home!
We had our very first "real" test this week on Living/Non-Living things and Plants! We all did exceptionally well! High Fives all around!
Stay dry this weekend! The countdown is on to the end of the year, but our learning is just getting deeper and deeper!
May 10, 2019 Happy Mother's Day weekend! (Yes, moms, take the whole weekend to celebrate!)
This week, students wrapped up their oral storytelling! They demonstrated how to make storytelling interesting and exciting! In math, we are moving into learning more about addition and subtraction word problems. Look out in the next couple of weeks for some of this work to come home! In science, we explored plants! We've learned about the needs of plants, the parts of plants and plant life cycles!
Next week, we have a guest speaker joining us Monday morning. She is from a company called Full Circle Adventures and will be guiding us through a community walk where we will learn about local plants and animals. This walk will be happening rain or shine so please dress for the weather! We will also be starting a study of non-fiction reading and writing as we learn about animals. Coming Up: May 13th: Community Walk with Full Circle Adventures. Rain or Shine! May 17th: PD day May 20th: Holiday, no school
May 3, 2019 Another amazing week of learning in our classroom!
Literacy: We have been perfecting our Oral Story Telling skills! Spend some time this weekend listening to your child's story of how an animal is the way that it is!
Math: Using our toolkit of strategies, we continue to work on adding and subtracting to and from the number 20. We have moved onto solving and creating our own word problems! Have your child write you some and see if you can solve it!
Science: Where is Spring?! We tried so hard this week to find signs of Spring, but instead it seems like Winter wants to stay. We started a bean experiment... will a bean plant grow from seed to plant using just paper towels and water? Keep checking back to see it's progress! If Spring comes around this weekend, go out and find some signs!
Please remember to remind your child to return their Home Reading each WEDNESDAY!
Coming up: Family Math Night --> Thursday, May 9 . 6:30pm PD Day (no school) --> Friday, May 17 Victoria Day (no school)--> Monday, May 20
Have a fantastic weekend!
April 30th!! Just a reminder that CLASS PHOTOS are TOMORROW!!
April 26th, 2019 Another exciting and busy week for learning for Grade One! This week, we celebrated Earth Day! This was a great kick off to our new Science study of the needs of plants and animals! Students learned about sorting and classifying living and non-living things. Next week, students will study and explore more about the needs of plants and how to care for the plants around our homes and communities. In literacy, students are learning about how to create their own oral story. They learned about fables and folktales in the style of "How the _____ got its ____". Next week, students will develop their own original story and will perform it in front of the class! In math, students continue to learn strategies for addition and subtraction up to twenty. The mental math strategies we have learned so far are doubles, doubles plus one, fact families and making ten. We have explored other addition and subtraction strategies such as using ten frames, drawing pictures, using mainpulatives and using a number line. Next week, we will begin to explore strategies for solving addition and subtraction word problems. FYI: Movie Night is May 2nd at 6:30 pm! Also, please remind your child that our Flex Entry time in the morning is meant for students who need some extra time or some calming time before school begins. Students who need this time can come in and read a book or meditate at their desk. It is not a time for students to come in and be chatty with their friends. Please discuss the importance of this option with your child. Thank you for your support!
April 20, 2019 Happy Easter! Last week was filled with anticipation, practice and pride! Our class presented about our family heritage through story-telling, sketching, art, sculpting and presenting! Our museum walk was a great success!
In Math, we continue to work on using a variety of strategies to help us navigate numbers, manipulate them and use them to solve addition and subtraction problems to and from 20!
In Literacy, we have been looking at "pourquoi" stories and oral story telling. We have used different ways to re-tell a story.
We hope you had a great Easter Weekend with friends and family!
April 12, 2019 We've had such a fun and engaging week with lots of fun activities to reinforce our learning in the classroom!
In Math, we continue to look at addition and subtraction strategies! At home, ask your child about Doubles, Doubles + 1, power of ZERO, friends of 10.... we've got lots of strategies up our sleeves to help us with solving math equations!
In Language Arts we have been working on Oral Stories using Town Mouse and Country Mouse! We have been working on re-telling the story by adding details and making sure our story is in order!
Our Student-Teacher Ms. Souraya will be here with us until April 18! She has done so many amazing things with us!
Litterless lunches! Thanks to everyone who has been sending snacks and lunches in reusable containers! You are helping with teaching our children the importance of taking care of the environment!
April 5th, 2019 Welcome back! We have had an exciting and busy week of learning! We went on our first field trip to the Calgary Tower on Wednesday. Students learned to identify and locate various landmarks around our city. Students reinforced their learning about rural and urban communities and how this applies to Calgary's past and present.
In Math, we learned about fact families, introducing the concept of subtraction. We will continue to learn and practice strategies for addition and subtraction in the upcoming weeks!
Today, Elder Shirley Hill was back to work with us. She told us about how important stories and lessons are passed traditionally in Blackfoot culture through oral storytelling. We had a chance to explore artifacts that told us about her family history.
Next week, we will begin to explore our own family histories. Students will have an opportunity to share their own family history through oral storytelling practices.
FYI: Monday is green shirt day in honour of the Humboldt Broncos. A sheet was sent home today that asked your child to explore their family history. Please assist them with this task. THANK YOU for your ongoing support for our litterless lunches! Our playground and classroom have been much cleaner!
Update: Starting April 1, 2019 we will be starting a school wide initiative around LITTER-LESS LUNCHES!!! We would like to encourage all families to pack their lunches using reusable containers for snacks, main meals (sandwiches...), water bottles for beverages...etc... we are trying to cut down the amount of litter we create here at the school. Can you help us out!?
March 21, 2019 Hooray! Spring is here! Well, by date! March 20 we celebrated the first day of spring... now we can only hope that the weather will cooperate so that all the signs of spring can begin to BLOOM!
In Science we have finished our Building unit. Through testing materials and adhesives and fasteners, to planning, carrying out and modifications the students have created their own buildings to suit their figurines. What an amazing inquiry project full of questions, answers and many ah-ha moments! We also had a chance to just PLAY with our creations! How fun!
Enjoy Spring Break! Spend time reading, writing and having fun! We will be going on our fieldtrip to the Calgary Tower on April 3! We can't wait!
We look forward to seeing everyone at Student-Led Conferences!
March 10, 2019 It's been a busy couple of weeks! It finally looks like the weather is starting to warm up! Please send waterproof outdoor clothing with your child as well as an extra pair of socks! :)
Students have been exploring strategies for addition in math. They have been learning strategies such as adding doubles and making ten. We will continue to develop addition strategies in the next few weeks!
Students have been busy building in science! Students are well into creating their community for the character they each brought in! We have been focusing on intentionality in our building with knowing the purpose of each parts of their structures.
We have also been writing stories about the characters that we have been building for. Students have been learning about self editing strategies such as reading their writing aloud and checking for periods at the end of sentences.
Next week, we are continuing to write our stories, complete the building of our communities and working on addition strategies! It's going to be another fun and busy week!
FYI: Student led conferences are coming up! Sign up for a time either Thursday, March 21st between 2:00pm-8:00pm or Friday, March 22nd between 8:00am-12:00pm. We have an upcoming field trip to the Calgary Tower on Wednesday, April 3rd. We are looking for 4 parent volunteers to assist us during the day. Please check your email for the sign up! Enjoy the sunshine!
February 22, 2019 This Week: We celebrated our 100th day of school this week! Students had lots of fun while engaged in many hands-on math tasks. We reinforced the idea of counting by 1's and 10's to 100, recognizing numbers to 100, 2D shapes and more!
Thank you for helping your child select a character and sharing it this week! The characters will stay at school for the next month as students engage in building tasks related to their character. The idea of empathy will play a large part in this project as they attempt to put themselves in their characters shoes and design building projects keeping their characters at the forefront of their minds.
Speaking of building, thanks for all of the supplies that you have donated to our classroom! We sorted all our materials this week and students are very excited to begin using them next week!
We are continuing our work with word families. Two word families are introduced at the beginning of the week and students explore those word families all week. On Fridays, they write a "test" to see how much they've learned. Thank you for helping your child explore these word families at home and returning the sheets by Friday.
Please continue reading with your child at home and sending home reading books on Wednesdays to be exchanged. Reading with your child is one of the most important things you can do at home! Next Week: New word families -ap and -am Pink Shirt Day is on Wednesday. Please send your child in a pink shirt to support this event and anti-bullying.
February 13, 2019
A short short week! We've been looking at 2D and 3D shapes, building materials and structures, -ug and -un words, and building friendships through compassion!
Reminders: 1. No school until Tuesday, Feb. 19 2. Dress up as a super hero for the 100th day of school on Tuesday, Feb 19 3. Bring in a small figurine from home to build a community for it. It will be kept at school for the next month. 4. Bring in building materials! 5. No home reading exchange this week. Sorry!
Have a fantastic long weekend! See you on Tuesday all you SUPER HEROS!
February 7, 2019 reminders: 1. Gymnastics assembly Friday, February 8 at 1010am. Performers from our class are Liam, Rebecca, Charlie, Kimaya, and Mathis!
2. Valentines. If your child is planning on giving out valentine cards, please make sure each child in our class is included. Here is the list of names: Abichail, Alexander, Caleb, Charlie, Cohen, Davie, Ife, Jack, Jaxon, Jussimar, Kammy,, Kimaya, Liam, Mackenzie, Mathis, Maxwell, Quintus, Rebecca, Samera, Tanvir, Xavier, Anthany, Khalil, Ms. Bakker, Ms. Li, Mrs. Washington, Mrs. Keller, Mrs. A
3. Next week is a short week. School Mon - Wed. No school Thurs - Mon
January 31, 2019 Short week this week! Please note that there is NO school for students and staff Friday, February 1 as it it a lieu day for Remembrance Day.
Our special visitor this week was Elder Shirley from the Blackfoot Nation. She shared about her culture and taught the Grade One's some history, dancing and Blackfoot language.
In Literacy, we have been working on different kinds of poems, words and meaning of words. Make sure you ask your child about the word onomatopoeia!
Remember to book off the evening of February 7 for LITERACY NIGHT at School! See the invitation card in your child's agenda
Have a great long weekend!
January 25, 2019
What a chilly week! Thank you for sending winter gear with your child!
PROFESSIONS! JOBS! CAREERS! Thank you to all the parents that have donated their time and resources and coming into our school to tell us about their jobs! What a great way to see first hand with all your gear, equipment and cool artifacts!
Family Trip! On your next car ride somewhere, play a little "I Spy" game with your child to find new landmarks in your community, in the city of Calgary and on the highway if you are going on a road trip! We have been working on identifying landmarks and talking about what makes them special and stand out!
Winter Walk What a beautiful day Thursday turned out to be! Along with Mrs. Alm's class we went for a nice little walk around our community looking at the signs of Winter and checking out some landmarks in Hawkwood! We sure had some fun running/rolling down the big hill behind the school.
In Math we continue to explore measurement and how ordering objects by size matters and how we can use that information to organize things. Has your child used non standard items as a tool to take measurements of items at home?
January 18th, 2019
We kicked off our week of learning by going on a community walk to the Crowfoot Library! Student were able to see many of the landmarks, buildings and green spaces along our way! We learned about what are community needs to have to keep it's community members safe and started a discussion on what services our community provides. Students continued to learn about words through our book study of the Word Collector! This week the focus was on the silent letter e and alliteration! We continue to explore measurement using non-standard units. Have your child practice measuring objects and spaces around the house! THANK YOU for sharing with your child about the jobs that you do! They were very excited to share in front of the class!
COMING UP... An advanced thank you to those of you who are able to come and speak to the grade ones about your jobs this upcoming week! February 7th is Literacy Night! From 6:30-8:00pm, join us in learning more about how you can support your child's learning in a fun, hands-on way!
January 11, 2019
Happy New Year everyone! We hope that all our families had a wonderful Christmas break.
We have so many fun, engaging and challenging projects planned for the next couple weeks! Keep asking your child about their day.
In Math this week we are looking at standard and non standard measuring tools! Did you know it is about 101 steps to the LC from our class (depending on whose SHOE you are using!) and about 200 steps from door 6 to door 3! We have been exploring why we use standard measurement instead of random items! Have your child measure things around the house using standard and non standard measuring tools.
The weather in Calgary continues to be unpredictably predictable! Cold one day and warm the next. Please ensure that your child arrives to school with a nice warm jacket, mittens/gloves, a hat/scarf! It's always easier to take off layers than to put on layers they don't have. Thanks for your support. A great way to foster independence is to have your child get all their winter gear on by themselves at home!
A great book to check out from the library or purchase is "The Word Collector" by Peter H. Reynolds. We have been using this book as a hook on the importance of words. Did you know?!?! Ms. Li met Peter H. Reynolds in Chicago a few years ago at a Reading Conference!??! She even had two of his books signed! So cool!
December 21, 2018 This week students spent time learning about and practicing the virtue of generosity. Students explored the meaning of spreading "christmas cheer" through the book "How the Grinch Stole Christmas." DONATIONS, DONATIONS, DONATIONS!!! One way students showed their generosity is by collecting donations for the Children's Cottage. We collected an astounding amount of donations (hundreds of items) including everything from toys, to clothing, to food and diapers! Every student in our class was able to wrap a gift so that children who may be spending their holidays at the Children's Cottage would have a gift to unwrap! Ms. Li delivered all of the donations to the Children's Cottage yesterday! Thank you so much for your support!
FYI: Regular classes will resume on Tuesday, January 8th! Have a wonderful holiday season!
December 7th, 2018 A short week for students but filled with exciting learning opportunities! We kicked off our week with Deck the Halls! This was an opportunity to work with our buddy class (Grade 5) to create some wonderful art! In literacy, students explored the sounds ch, sh, th and wh. This can be quite tricky to identify in unfamiliar words and is a concept we will review throughout the year!
We continued skip counting by 2s! We will wrap up skip counting in the next week before the winter break! In Social Studies, we learned all about interviews! Students learned what an interview is, how to conduct one and practiced interviewing each other. This is in preparation for interviewing a few people who work at our school about what jobs they do, why they do them and how we can help them. The focus is on building empathy in our school community! Stay tuned next week for information about how the interviews went!
November 30th, 2018 Thank you all for attending Student Led Conferences last week! The students were very excited to share their learning!
This week, students explored the sounds sh and ch in literacy. We continued to work on our writing skills by setting goals for our written work. Ask your child about their goal! Zero the Hero made another appearance in our class today as we celebrated the 60th day of school! We also explored skip counting by 2s and 5s! We learned about our roles and responsibilities in our family and school communities. Ask your child about one of their responsibilities at home and school!
Next week, we welcome December with our annual Deck the Halls celebration! This is where we spend time decorating the school with festive art to celebrate the season! We will continue to work on skip counting! The Lively Letters we will be exploring are w, h, and wh!
Our Biscotti Kid this coming week is Davie! Congratulations! FYI: Just a reminder that students are encouraged to wear a Christmas sweater or red/green on Monday! Also, there is NO SCHOOL for students on Thursday, Dec. 6th and Friday, Dec. 7th.
November 16, 2018 oooo... what a chilly Friday! Stay warm this weekend!
We have had an incredibly exciting week looking into our past, present and future; creating beautiful art and working together as a team to earn some time for games.
Our class had the pleasure of inviting Kerry from ArtFelt Studio to our class to show us the art of felting. We learned that turning raw wool into felt requires four things: wool, water, heat and agitation! We used our muscles, imaginations and a lot of water to create some stunning Me Trees! Please come see them during Parent Teacher conferences next week! There's a teaser picture below!
As the weather in Calgary continues to surprise us, please ensure that your child comes to school dressed appropriately. It is ALWAYS easier to take off layers than to find layers when we don't have them!
Next week is a short week. Regular school hours Monday - Wednesday. Thursday is early dismissal at 120pm. Parent Teacher conferences begin that afternoon from 2pm - 8pm, and continue Friday from 8am - 1pm. Please make sure you sign up for a time slot to come speak to us about your child's progress. Also, please bring your child along to these conferences as there will be a student-led component. Your child has many wonderful things to share with you.
Our Biscotti Kid for next week is Jack. Thank you for showing whole body listening and good work ethic! We can't wait to hear all about you!
November 9, 2018 This week we looked at communities and where we belong in one. We read and listened to different versions of this classic story and compared them. We made some puppets and worked in groups to re-tell the story and loved putting on a puppet show!
We want to congratulate Rebecca on being our Biscotti Kid this past week! She has demonstrated kindess and whole body listening and is such a great example to follow! Our new Biscotti Kid for next week is Mathis! We can't wait to hear all about him!
In Class Felting: We are still in DIRE need of parents coming in to help us with our felting project next Thursday! Can you help us out? It's in the afternoon! Starting at 115 until the end of the day!! Please check your schedules and let us know!
November 2, 2018 PUMPKINS, PUMPKINS, PUMPKINS! We had a lot of fun investigating pumpkins this week! We used our math skills for measuring, comparing and counting seeds! We explored the weight and buoyancy of each pumpkin. We also artistically expressed our creativity by designing and decorating each pumpkin!
This coming week we will be starting Guided Reading where students work with a teacher or EA in small groups to practice their reading skills intensively. We will continue to explore numbers up to 20 in Math! In Social Studies, we will be learning more about our family communities and celebrating the diversity in our class!
FYI: Please return home reading by Tuesday. The past week, lots of students forgot to return it (understandably) because of the excitement of Halloween!! Students will now be assigned to one day each week (Monday-Thursday) to go to the library for book exchange. They wrote their new library day in their agendas today.
In Class Felting: We are still in need of 3 more volunteers in class the afternoon of November 15th. Please sign up on the Sign Up Genius account if you are willing and able!
Have a wonderful weekend!
October 26, 2018 So many fun learning moments this week! In Literacy we are continuing to learn our letters focusing on the letters l, r, z and s. We used the letters in the word HALLOWEEN to make smaller words! Moving the letters around on our desks was an eye opening activity!
In Numeracy we are beginning to look at numbers in depth. Their place, their value and where they fit in the world of Math.
The word on the street is COLOUR or Science! We have been looking at creating and matching colours!
In Social Studies we are talking about ME! Our families and our communities. Something to talk about at home are: some traditions we have, members of our families, importance of our names...
Home Reading has started! Enjoy the book sent home as often as you can. Read it with someone, read it independently, read it quietly, read it with a loud voice!
Have a great weekend! Enjoy the weather while it lasts!
October 12th, 2018 What an exciting short week! We shared about our family Thanksgiving traditions with each other. We learned that most of us eat Turkey and many of us do not like cranberry sauce, but we all love pie!
We continue to explore patterns and sorting objects using different rules. A great way to practice this at home is helping with chores! Help sort socks! Utensils! Put clothes into a pattern! Look for patterns in nature, around the house and when out and about!
Today we celebrated our school's amazing Terry Fox Run accomplishments! Mrs. Woo-Leung dyed Mr. Lang's hair copper, but it looks more redish-pink and Mr. J shaved his head and beard! Way to go Hawkwood!
We will start our Home Reading program on Monday! Enjoy the nice fall weather while it lasts!
September 30th, 2018 Last week, we continued learning about patterns in nature. We went on two walks down to the ravine and explored patterns in nature! We continue to learn more about colours and how to compare different shades of colour. On Friday, we completed our Terry Fox Run. Our class ran a total of 94 laps and raised over 200 dollars! What an amazing feat!
This upcoming week, we will be reading Stone Soup and discussing why we celebrate Thanksgiving. We will also make our very own version of Stone Soup! We will continue to work on our writing in our personal journals. In math, we are exploring multi-part patterns.
FYI: On Monday, students will be sent home paper and are asked to find one item in their fridge that they could contribute to our Stone Soup. They are supposed to draw and label that item on the paper provided and return the paper no later than Thursday! Please do not send the actual food item!
September 14th, 2018
What a wonderful week of learning! This week, we discovered more about patterns using a variety of shapes and objects. We began writing in our personal journals. In Science, we began to explore and experiment with colour.
Next week, we will learn about Lively Letters and how to strengthen our reading skills. We will meet a new superhero! His name is Zero the Hero! Make sure to ask your child about him!
FYI: We have been reviewing emergency protocols in preparation for a practice lockdown and fire drill in the upcoming weeks.
Meet the Teacher: Don't forget to come and meet us from 6:30pm-8:30pm on Thursday, September 20th!
Welcome to Grade One!
We are excited to begin a new school year with you! It has been wonderful meeting our new friends and classmates in the first week!