Last week of February

Hi all.  I hope everyone is staying warm during this cool down period.  Hard to believe that this is our lest week of February already.  Can you believe, including this week, there are only 17 weeks of school left?

Language Arts

Spelling:

This week we have our 4th review spelling test.  It will cover the following 20 words;

some, did, many, time, there, how, say, each, then, other, we, put, find, want, house, up, out, will, down, school

Writing:

We will be continuing with our persuasive letter to our parents about wanting to get a T. Rex.  It is a fun focused piece of persuasive writing where the kids can come up with crazy ideas for the T. Rex to do for their parents.  One example that the students have come up with so far is that "the T. Rex. can pick up all the smelly dog poo in the yard so you do not have to mom"!  They are coming up with some very convincing reasons to get their parents to buy them a T. Rex.

Word Work:

With it being a review week in spelling, there will not be a word family.  We will continue to do our making words activity.  This activity is progressing very well.  Even though the process is the same each week, they are becoming more and more independent each time, using their prior knowledge of previous lessons to build the words in the current lesson.  They are building their vocabulary and becoming more confident with their letter sounds through this activity.

Math

This week in math we will be finishing up our unit on Addition to 12, as well as our Monday math unit, Measurement.  We will be doing self assessment checklists that show "What Can I Do"?  Look for these in their agendas in the coming weeks.  As soon as we are finished our unit tests, we will be moving onto subtraction from 12.

Science

We are finishing yet another unit in Science.  Our 5 senses unit will be wrapping up very soon.  The students have become very knowledgeable in their 5 senses and can tell what parts of their body they use for each sense.We will also be discussing the Winter Season and how we use our senses to tell us that it is winter outside.

Health

In health we have started our Health and Wellness unit.  We will be looking at healthy eating and healthy activity.  We have started looking at Canada's food guide and the 4 food groups, (Fruits & Vegetables, Grains, Milk & Alternatives, Meat & Alternatives) and ideas of how much we should be eating from each food group every day.  

Odds and Ends

I will be away on Tuesday for professional development. This Friday, all swim forms are due back.  As well of Friday, we have a wear PJ day as well as a pancake breakfast served up for all the students.

I hope everyone has a wonderful week.

Some 100 day pics and creations.

Wednesday was our 100th day of school  The students of 1A came up with some very creative ways to display the number 100.

100 Elastics (necklace)

100 Beads (necklace)

100 Feathers (Flowers)

100 Stars (Star Mural)

100 Froot Loops (Olympic Rings)

100 coffee stir sticks (pot holders)

100 beads (necklace)

100 Froot Loops (Butterfly)

100 Stickers (The number 100)

100 Pennies

100 piece puzzle

100 stickers

100 lego pieces (The number 100)

100 jewels (shark under water)

100 Day!!!

Good  day everybody.  I hope everyone had a wonderful Family Day long weekend.  I sure did with some much needed R&R with my family.  This week we will be celebrating 100 day.  I hope everyone had a chance to come up with a 100 creation.

Language Arts

Spelling:

This weeks spelling words are as follows;

up   out   will   down   school

Writing:

This week we will begin our persuasive writing unit.  Persuasive comes in the form pf a convincing argument for something.  It tells your opinion and tries to make people feel the same as you about the topic.  It gives facts and examples to support your opinion.  On Thursday we will begin talking about persuading our parents to buy a T-Rex for us.  

Math:

Over the course of this week and next, we will be wrapping up our unit on addition to 12.  I encourage parents at home to periodically ask their children addition questions that add to no more than 12. 

Science:

We are finishing up our unit on senses this week. We have 2 senses left to talk about.  Smell and hearing.  We will be talking about good/bad smells, and we will talk about different kinds of sound (loud/soft, high/low), as well as what we use for these senses.

I hope everyone has a wonderful week this week.  It's hard to believe tomorrow is our 100th day!

Valentines Day this week!!!

Good afternoon parents.  Welcome back after another short week.  We have a couple of busy weeks ahead of us.  A letter went home today regarding Valentines Day this Friday.  There will be a sweet treat for all the students during lunch as well as hot lunch for those of you who ordered.  There will be another letter coming home Wednesday regarding our 100th day celebration that will happen next Wednesday, Feb 19th.

Language Arts

Spelling:

Our spelling words for this week are as follows:

we   find   put   want   house

Writing:

In honor of the Winter Olympics, for writing, we will be doing some Olympic themed writing activities over the next couple of weeks.  We will do some informative pieces, as well as some imaginative work as well.  We are still focused on making sure we have beginning capitals as well as ending periods.


Math

In math we are continuing our Monday math, Measurement.  Our focus today is comparing two items based on area.  For example, (the piece of paper has a smaller area than the desk).  We continue to focus on ensuring we are comparing the two objects to each other, stating both in our comparison.  The other measurements we have discussed and will be discussing are length (longer/shorter), height (taller/shorter), volume (what container could hold more), and size (bigger/smaller).  We will continue as well with addition to 12 over the remainder of February.

Science

We are continuing our 5 senses unit.  We have finished talking about sight and the eye, as well as taste and the tongue, and will be moving on to touch the rest of this week.

Health

We finished up our unit on bullying and we have just begun our unit on healthy eating and healthy activity.  The 4 food groups and recommended servings is the first thing we are discussion and will spend a couple of health classes on this.

Odds and Ends

Again, because the Winter Olympics are on, we will be following our Canadian athletes and cheering them on as best we can, looking at results of events.  The students are really excited to see things as they happen.  I have the results of the Men's moguls event streaming on our smart board at lunch today, and when the students saw that we finished with a Gold and a Silver medal they were so excited.  It is great to see the pride and excitement even at this age.

Also a reminder that next Monday, February 17, is Family Day and there is no school.  Another long weekend.

I hope you all have a wonderful week!

Mr. Aasen

Short Week

Hello Everybody.  A friendly reminder that we have no school this Thursday or Friday.   We are still business as usual for the 3 day week.  

Language Arts

Spelling:

This week we will not have a spelling test.  Instead I will give the students 2 weeks worth of words (as next week is a short week as well).  The students will not return their spelling duotangs until next Wednesday (Feb 5th).  We will have a spelling test next Wednesday that will cover the 10 new words they received today.  Please continue to practice the spelling words with your children as this practice will get them very familiar with the words, which are their sight words (word wall words).  The 10 words they received today are as follows:

some   did   many   time   there   how   say   each   then   other

Writing

For writing tasks this week, we will continue to focus on writing sentences.  We will introduce the idea of reading over our own sentences and making our own corrections (looking for capital letters at the beginning of our sentences and periods at the end, as well as adding detail).  

Math

We will continue with the concepts of measurement and addition to 12

Science

 We have begun our 5 senses unit.  Our focus this week will be on sight as well as taste.

I hope all of the students enjoy their super long weekend and all that the rest of January has to offer.  We will see you in February.

Another Week!

Hard to believe we only have 2 weeks left in January.  Here is an update for the week of January 20th.

Language Arts

Spelling:

This week we will be having our spelling review test of the last 20 words (the last 4 weeks of new words).  The words are as follows:

can, man, love, good, yellow, big, are, home, said, green, of, all, call, your, very, on, him, went, from, made

Writing:

This week we are putting an emphasis on writing informative sentences.  Our focus is on making sure we have detail in our writing, while remembering our capital letter and period.  

Word Work:

We are continuing twice a week, making words, as well as our word family for this week is "est"

Math

This week in math, on Monday we will continue with measurement.  We extended our opening lesson dealing with comparing lengths (longer, shorter, same length).  We will continue with addition to 12 the rest of the week, including doubles (4+4, 6+6).

Science

We finished up our needs of animals unit and will begin the "My Five Senses" unit.

Social Studies

We will be finishing up our geography unit, talking about landmarks in our community.  For example, we will be discussing landmarks that we see in Leduc (and Edmonton) that identify the community.

I hope everyone has a wonderful week ahead.

Happy New Year!

Hello All.

It's hard to believe that the Christmas holidays are already over and a week of school has already past.  I hope everyone had some wonderful family time over the break.

Language Arts

Spelling: 
The spelling words for the week of Jan 13 are as follows

    on     him     went     from     made

Word Work: 
This week our word family was the "all" family.  We also started a program called making words.  At least twice a week, we will be manipulating 5 to 6 letters in a "game-like/puzzle-solving" activity.  The students enjoy manipulating the letters and are intrigued that changing just one letter in the word or changing the order of the letters can create a totally different word. They also like trying to figure out the secret word that uses all the letters in the particular lesson.

Writing:
We are continuing our inform and explain writing prompts.  This weeks prompt was "How to make hot chocolate".

Math

In math this week, we continued working with addition to 12. Our main focus was counting on using a number line.  For example, 5+2.  Find 5 on the number line and count on 2 more.  What number do you get to?
Also, encourage your children to log onto mathletics.ca at home and spend some time every day doing some math problems.  Their log in information is in the front of their agendas.  I have access to all the information and know exactly how they do on each activity.

Science

We are still finishing up our needs of animals unit.  Once finished we will begin the My Senses unit.

Social

In social we began talking about urban and rural communities and what we would see, hear, and smell in these two types of communities.


I hope you have all had a great first week as we have.

Mr. Aasen