Pumpkin, Pumpkin - song on YouTube

I came across this lovely rendition of one of our 'story-bit' stories on YouTube! Your child may enjoy this as a "Listen to Reading/Singing" activity at home.

Our latest COMPREHENSION strategy - INFER and support with evidence

We have been learning about the reading strategy "infer and support with evidence". We have been using the hilarious books by David Shannon, No, David, David Gets in Trouble, and David Goes to School to learn how to infer.

I love the explanation that Susan Zimmerman and Chryse Hutchins provide in their book, 7 Keys to Comprehension (I highly recommend this book!):
Inferring involves forming a best guess about what the "evidence" (words, sentences, and [pictures]) means; speculating about what's to come; and then drawing conclusions about what was read to deepen the meaning of the literal words on the page. (97)

Each day we have examined a phrase from one of David Shannon's books and "APE-d our answer".
A - answer (we write what we inferred)
P - proof (we provide our evidence from the text and pictures)
E - experience (we write about our own experiences/schema about the inferred situation)

Have a look at one of our charts:

Word Safari Game

If you have a computer-savvy child who would like to try a new game to practice word wall words, here is one to try. I had my 'reluctant' word worker son, Noah, try it on the weekend. He enjoyed it and asked to play it again, so it's worth a try.

Unfortunately, the words are presented in upper case letters only. The font is a little unusual, too.  However, it is important for the children to get used to seeing different fonts.

Have fun playing The Word Safari Game!

November News

Thanks to all the families that helped put together their child’s timeline. I don’t send home many projects as I like to the see the children’s work completed at school. However, this particular project needed parental support and assistance so “THANK YOU”! Your continued support for your child’s learning makes an incredible difference.  Please continue to practice high frequency “lightning” words with your child on a regular basis.  Reading every evening for 20 minutes has a dramatic effect on your child’s development as a reader – it benefits him/her in so many ways from attitudinal to vocabulary development and comprehension – it is one of the most effective things you can do for your child!

We are in the ‘home stretch’ of our first ‘Critical Learning Pathway’ in which we focused on Demonstrating Understanding.  At the beginning of this unit, I did a diagnostic assessment which revealed that the Grade One students really needed to work on this area of reading comprehension. Most of the students scored a Level 1 or were not placed at a level on the rubric when initially assessed. I will be sending home their final summative assessment task and your child’s results to you when it is completed. Please continue to support your child’s efforts to retell fictional stories and non-fictional information throughout the school year. The ‘story-bit’ bag will continue to be filled and sent home on a regular basis.

I will continue to update our classroom blog, so please keep checking in. I try to show photos of what we are doing in Mathematics, as most of what we do is “hands-on” using a variety of manipulatives. I will also try to post ‘exemplars’ from our pathway culminating task, when they are available. Our ‘anchor chart’ is currently posted.

Congratulations to the recipients of our October awards in Grade One.

Sierra – Achievement

Savanna – Effort

Olivia - Cooperation

Cold Weather Reminders

The cold weather is coming!  We have two 20-minute sessions outside each day, so it essential that your child come prepared with warm, winter boots, snow pants, a hat, and mittens.  On snowy days, it is a good idea to have a second set of mittens packed. 

Dates to Note

November 11

We will be having a Remembrance Day assembly in our gymnasium at 10:00.  Families are welcome to join us.

November 19

This day is an Early Release Day Classes are cancelled for students in the afternoon.  This time has been set aside for parent-teacher interviews.

Special Notes /

Questions from Parents

Pizza tickets are sold as a sheet of tickets for $20. You can send money anytime to purchase these in the school office.

Mrs. Worrall’s class makes and sells fresh muffins for 50 cents every Monday during the first nutrition break. If your child wishes to purchase one, please send money on Mondays only.

Miss Darling has also asked me to pass along to parents a request for the children to wear short sleeves on gym days. She also said that if children wish to change into ‘gym clothes’ they may do so as well.

Thank You to Our Volunteers

I would like to thank our Educational Assistant, Mrs. Morton, Grace’s mom, Olivia’s mom, and Levi’s mom for accompanying the class to the Great Pumpkin Patch.  We had a great time learning about the growth cycle of the pumpkin plant from Farmer Anne and Mrs. Scarecrow.

I would also like to thank Mrs. Grimo who continues to donate her time every Thursday morning to listen to the children read their Take Home reading selections. We appreciate all her help in making this program successful!

Mrs. Palmer and Baby Logan also visited us this past month to kick off our “Learning with Logan” program. This program is similar to the Roots of Empathy program that is delivered in some DSBN schools and throughout Canada.

I would like to meet and talk with everyone once the progress report is sent home. I hope you will keep in mind that this report reflects only the first 8 weeks of Grade One. Your child will receive his/her first comprehensive report card that is reflective of a full term of learning at the beginning of February.

Have a wonderful November!