Welcome Back!

We are getting into the swing of things. 
We had a great Terry Fox Run.  It was a really hot day and the kids did very well walking the 2km. 
We saw Mrs. Walkins get a pie in the face and a bucket of water dumped over top! Why? Due to generous top up by a parent, we made over $1000 for the Terry Fox Foundation!  Way to go Fairview!  We enjoyed the oranges that were cut up and distributed by the PAC.  #stayhydrated!

Welcome to 2017!

The students were busy in the month of December and hopefully, everyone is rested and healthy as we begin a new year!  Our focus this month will be on our community and the concept of 'courage'.
We want to encourage students to approach learning and, well, life in general from a mindset of courage.  So we will begin to explore the idea in our class through books and projects.  I am excited to learn and grow alongside the children!

Wacky Water Day!

For the only day that week, the sun came out for our Wacky,Wonderful Water Day! The kids played a water relay, explored at water stations and ended with a fun water balloon toss!  It was a hoot!

Conference sign up

https://anita-neufeld.youcanbook.me/

Owls In The Library

We kicked off our study of owls with a visit to the Library to see the 'owl lady' from the Orphaned Wildlife Society (O.W.L.S). She did an amazing talk on raptors in our area,

showed us many hands on items and brought two live birds to show us. It was very interesting and the students learned many new facts about owls.  We will participate in a number of owl themed activities this month including another visit from an owl expert and owl stations.

Ryder"s Big Win!

Our very own Ryder won a New Years Day fishing derby over the holidays! This is a pretty big deal for someone his age!  Great work,  Ryder!

At the Applebarn

We had a great trip to the Applebarn!  The bus was fun and we liked seeing the bunnies, picking our pumpkins and going on the slide!  The weather held and we had a beautiful day!  A big thank-you to all the parents who helped out!

New Books!

A big thank you to Julia,  who brought us SO many new books for our classroom!  We love books!

Criss-cross....Applesauce!

We made all our apples into applesauce and it was delicious!  A big thank you to Colette's mom for helping us!

Terry Fox Run

The Terry Fox Run is coming up!
We will be starting with a video and warm up in the gym after Lunch.  Then, we will be walking together as a class the school route.  As this is their first time on the route,  the students will be wearing school pinnies and staying together in a line as we walk the route (which I believe is one km).  After we will meet back at the primary playground for oranges.  I would appreciate any parent volunteers who can walk with us on this day!  Thanks!

There are still many children who do not have their walking field trip form filled out on the portal,  please do this as soon as possible.

New year, new friends!

We are proud to be grade ones! 

Gwen and Lulu

Story time for the guineas!

Fireworks in the Brain

This week, we talked about the way our brain learns new things.  We looked at pictures of our brain with its synapses firing.  I explained how all learning makes pathways in our brain.  If we are at the beginning of learning, we have very small, thin pathways.  When we have really learned something well, the pathways are bigger, stronger and faster.  We also talked about how it is easier for us to learn if  we use both sides of our brain (thinking and feeling) and if we make connections to our own lives, and as well, by practice, practice, practice!  Children's brains are wired to make new pathways.

A Brand New Year!

January has flown by!  Despite all the illnesses, the children have gotten back into the swing of school quickly and we have had a great time learning about gymnastics, 3-D shapes, winter and "the king of 'ing'"!
As well,  we have been working very hard on our self regulation goal of "paying attention, even when it's hard".  We have been observing Minerva the Amaryllis as she grows and is just about to flower.

Minerva the Amaryllis

Crazy Hair Day

Castles

We made castles using some commonly found 3-D shapes, and lots of masking tape!  This was a fun activity! 

Skating

I was very proud of how well the children did at skating this week!  Everyone gave it a try, and those who could not even stand up at the beginning made great progress by the end!

Sight words, short vowels and phonemic awareness....

CVC Words (consonant
vowel consonant) words
are great for developing
phonemic awareness

Just an update on our progress in language arts this month.  We have been working very hard on learning the sight words on the first list.  As a class, now the words displayed each week will be from List 2.  All the words from list one have come home on the back of the poems.  Please continue to review these words especially if your child is still working on list one.  This week, the poem has the 5 words that are giving us the most trouble for extra practice.  I will also be assessing reading this week and switching the groups around as need be.  Sight words are based on the Dolche list of words that appear most commonly in books.  The goal is to develop 'instant recognition' of these words.  The children are making great progress.  Many words are not sight words.  When children encounter these words in books,  we encourage them to use a variety of strategies to figure unfamiliar words out.  The most common thing we say to children is to 'sound it out'. (others include: using the pictures and context of the story for clues)  English is tricky.  Sounding out in reading requires a strong grasp of letter sounds (especially the vowels) and what is known as phonemic awareness.  That is the ability to blend the sounds mentally and connect them to a word they know.  Right now we are focusing on short vowel sounds and phonemic awareness in our literacy work.

 Journals is a very powerful tool to developing phonemic awareness.  Sounding out a word requires a great deal of phonemic awareness, much more than if students copy a word from a teacher in order for the spelling to be 'right'.  That is why I encourage the students to sound out as much as they can.  This makes for interesting journal entries!  But as the year progress, so does their spelling and writing.  As well,  not worrying too much about spelling frees the children up to write more interesting, meaningful stories.  Today,  we read the story "Ish" by Peter Reynolds to help us not to worry about having perfect spelling and drawing!

Pattern Day!

The children participated with enthusiasm in Pattern Day!  I loved their pattern clothing, face paint, shoes and jewelry!  We enjoyed making fruit kabobs into patterns and eating the delicious jello made by Mason's mom.  (Layered in a pattern, of course!)  My favorite moment was when the boys playing at the train-set were spontaneously making the cars into a pattern!  I laughed when overhearing the comment a few seconds later...."but I don't know why our teacher gets SO excited about patterns?!"  Ok. So I may have gone a bit overboard, but patterns really are EVERYWHERE!  :)

We Like Our Red Clothes!

As part of our colors unit, our second whole language book we have been learning to read is based on the song "Mary Wore Her Red Dress"  The children had a chance to choose something red and be in the song, and have been having fun dressing up, recognizing color words and practicing our basic reading skills,  tracking as we read, self correcting and developing some basic sight words.  One of our literacy centers was 'building sentances' around this poem.  Our first poem in our Poetry Book will be one that contains lots of color words.  Please practice these words with your child.  Here are a few of our red fashionistas.....

She wore her red purse, red mittens and red scarf.

He wore his red apron.

She wore her red shoes, red skirt, red purse! 

We are back!

I am excited to finally see the inside of my classroom after a 4 month absence!  The children have been adjusting to a variety of schedules, teachers and friends!  I have been very proud of their hard work and flexibility during this 'settling in' time!  It's time to get learning!

Journey Of Possibilities Conference – July 4-5

Forgive me for being overly philosophical for a bit, I’m trying to make some sense of the flurry of information I received at this conference!  I promise I won’t continue on this way!

Although geared primarily towards Preschool and Kindergarten teachers, this conference offered many observations for teachers (and parents) to think about.  Our Wednesday evening with Lilian Katz centered mainly around looking at various projects that the children in Emilio Reggia school have been involved in.  The explanation of the project approach and the power of the graphic language (looking at something and then representing it) was inspiring.  It does make you wonder…. “How do I put this into practice in my classroom?”  And then, immediately…“Is it even possible?”  It was a tad overwhelming!

However, less overwhelming was the call to focus on developing ‘dispositional goals’ in our children.  Simply put, we can grow the disposition in children to inquire, to learn, to notice and to investigate.  As adults we can try to make life-long learning a part of the way our children approach the world.  Simple lessons like teaching them to let the teacher know where they are in their learning and asking questions like: “I get this part, but….” or “Could you show me this again?” as well as giving the children information such as: “Anytime you want to do ‘x’ it’s a good idea to do ‘y”’ can shift focus from the teacher imparting knowledge to the mutual search for a deeper understanding.  “Children need to know what it feels like to understand something in depth or they will not develop the disposition to search for understanding.”

Of course, these are not new concepts to anyone who is a parent or a teacher.  We all have experienced those joyful moments when it all seems to ‘come together’ or the ‘lightbulb goes on’.   (And I never agree with the random purging of anything good just because it is no longer fashionable)  I guess the goal is to keep on trying new things, to embrace the complexity that is learning (at any age) and “to focus on what is is in front of me and do it with all my might!”