Celebrating Family Literacy Day!

Family Literacy Day is celebrated annually in Canada on January 27 and encourages families to read and learn together each day.

While we may not be able to welcome every family into our classrooms to celebrate, we found a meaningful way to connect home and school. Students selected a favourite book from home, wrapped it, and brought it in to share with their classmates. Each day, we unwrapped a surprise book and enjoyed reading it together as a class.

The excitement each morning was infectious! This simple activity has been an exciting and engaging way to celebrate our shared love of reading and the important role families play in nurturing literacy.

Happy Family Literacy Day!

Making Connections: Deepening our Comprehension

Reading becomes so much more meaningful when we are able to personally connect with the text! This past few days we have been focusing on making a personal connection with what we are reading. This means the children have been challenged to connect the story to their own life, own experiences, and own feelings. 

We enjoyed reading several books appropriate for the Halloween season! The boys and girls made meaningful text-to-self connections using these texts!

In Creepy Carrots, we met Jasper Rabbit, who loves carrots, until they turn on him and become scary! We connected with the story by sharing our favourite food to snack on!

Next we enjoyed the story "Where's My Mummy?" Where is little mummy's mama? Little mummy felt scared without mama! Here are our personal connections sharing what we do when we're scared:

When I'm scared ... (a) I jump! (b) I go to mom and dad
(c) I hide. (d) I scream!

Crankenstein features an ordinary kid who can become very cranky! What makes us cranky? Look at our cranky faces!

The Littlest Pumpkin is about a teeny tiny pumpkin that nobody picks from the pumpkin patch.  The students will be challenged to think of a time they felt disappointed! 

Continue to reinforce those personal connections as your child reads. Connecting to the text is an excellent way to increase and develop your child's comprehension!

Where's My Mummy activity and craftivity from Deanna Jump's unit. 
The Littlest Pumpkin activity and craftivity from Cara Carroll. 
Crankenstein activity from Falling Into First. 
Creepy Carrots inspired by Anita Bremmer. 
Connections poster from the Comprehension Strategy Poster collection made by A Year of Many Firsts.  

Making Connections When We Read

Reading becomes so much more meaningful when we are able to personally connect with the text! This past few days we have been focusing on making a personal connection with what we are reading. This means the children have been challenged to connect the story to their own life, own experiences, and own feelings. 

We enjoyed reading several books appropriate for the Halloween season! The boys and girls made meaningful text-to-self connections using these texts!

In Creepy Carrots, we met Jasper Rabbit, who loves carrots, until they turn on him and become scary! We connected with the story by sharing our favourite food to snack on!

Next we enjoyed the story "Where's My Mummy?"! Where is little mummy's mama? Little mummy felt scared without mama! Here are our personal connections of a time we felt scared:

The Littlest Pumpkin is about a teeny tiny pumpkin that nobody picks from the pumpkin patch.  The boys and girls thought of a time they felt disappointed, and also made matching mini-pumpkins!

Crankenstein features an ordinary kid who can become very cranky! What makes us cranky?

We tried to pose with our crankiest faces, but it turned into giggles!

Watch for these activities to come home next week and continue to reinforce those personal connections as your child reads. Connecting to the text is an excellent way to increase and develop your child's comprehension!


Where's My Mummy activity and craftivity from Deanna Jump's unit. 
The Littlest Pumpkin activity and craftivity from Cara Carroll. 
Crankenstein activity from Falling Into First. 
Creepy Carrots inspired by Anita Bremmer. 
Connections poster from the Comprehension Strategy Poster collection made by A Year of Many Firsts.  

Mystery Readers: Making Reading Exciting!

To develop a love reading is a huge goal in Grade 1. If the children are excited to read at this young age, it is very likely that they will continue to read and be avid readers throughout their lives. 

One way we have been getting really "pumped" about reading is by welcoming in Mystery Readers. By some stroke of luck, we had two last week ... and have more scheduled!

First, the children read three clues about the Mystery Reader. Then, the Mystery Reader is welcomed in to share a story!

For our first Mystery Reader, we welcomed in a grandma! We worked as a team to read her 3 clues and then settled in to enjoy her story. What a fantastic way to begin our Mystery Reader fun! 

We had another reader join us, too! She has a daughter in Grade 1 ... and also a granddaughter!?! Those clues really challenged us, but we loved figuring out that tricky puzzle and meeting Mrs. Beliveau's mom! She brought a fantastic Halloween book!

If you are interested in coming in as a Mystery Reader, or have a family member who is, please get in touch. You don't have to be a grandma (but we sure do love them!). We will find a convenient time and you are welcome to select a book or one can be provided. It really is a simple way of making reading exciting!

Reading & Rhyming!

Rhyme Bag

We are working hard in class to develop the necessary skills for reading, and rhyming is an important part of the reading process. Rhyming allows children to play with words and makes language fun and engaging. It encourages children to listen to language and notice its sounds. Rhyming also helps children discover word families (e.g. pot, hot, and spot are in the -ot family). Rhyming is such a rich language activity! 

We have a Rhyme Bag that students are taking turns bringing home. Only items that rhyme can be placed inside! This student had fun with us by only showing us her first item, a bat! We all enjoyed guessing what else might be inside (as well as what probably wouldn’t be inside). Look at the rhyming items that filled her bag!

bat, cat & hat

When your child brings the Rhyme Bag home, feel free to not only choose items to place inside, but illustrations, words, or images printed from your computer. All items will be returned. Happy rhyming!

Reading

Each morning the boys and girls are paired up and share their Home Reading books with each other! Then they exchange their book for one at the same level and quietly read the new book. I am able to read individually with 4 to 6 students in this short time, allowing progress to be assessed, feedback to be given, and book levels to be adjusted. What phenomenal readers we are becoming!

For the next few weeks, the books that come home will be basic pattern books. My goal is to build confidence, make the experience of reading enjoyable, and develop reading behaviours! 

Here are a few strategies to support your child as he or she reads:

• Finger-track: Ask your child to follow the words with their finger. Today we used googly-eyed reading buddies to remind us to track!

• Look at the Pictures: The pictures are loaded with information that our beginning readers rely upon. Please never cover the pictures. For example, we can see flowers painted on Froggy's picture!

• Check the First Letter: When stuck on a tricky word, ask your child to say the sound of the first letter. For example, in the picture below, when we check the first letter and see an "h", we know the word cannot be "chicken". Must be "hen"!

We have keen readers and rhymers in our class! 

Can you keep up with us?

This has been a spectacular week! As always, no two days are ever alike and never is a day boring! Check out our week ... can you keep up with us?

Our week began with another awesome visit from the Bookmobile for our Book Buzz program! A team of ladies from the Strathcona County Library have been coming to share stories and songs, and then help us fill our backpacks with books! 

This week is Para-Sport week! The students had a wonderful opportunity to be exposed to various para-sports, as well as different disability awareness activities. First up? Meeting the Edmonton Steel Wheel rugby team! These amazing individuals shared their personal journeys, demonstrated how they play, and wowed us with their incredible strength!

We had a rare opportunity to try out some wheelchairs. We discovered that they are a challenge and require lots of strength and stamina. We even attempted going in and out the front doors! Many realized that it is no small feat to make it over the metal bump and out the door by the time the automatic doors close! We certainly deepened our respect for those who use wheelchairs. 

We are in the Easter season and have been exploring the mystery of the Trinity; the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. While they are three, we believe in one true God. We compared the complexity of the Trinity to an apple:

We have returned to addition and subtraction, this time up to 20! We are practising our "doubles" and have enjoyed playing hands-on games with each other! 

A knock at our door brought in a special reader from Robin Hood!  We had a ball listening to some silly stories, all the while deepening our respect and understanding of individuals with disabilities.

Inspired by our week at Zoo School, each child has been challenged to learn more about an animal of their choosing! Using San Diego Zoo Kids, students are researching their own animals. 

Students share a Chromebook with a classmate,
allowing partners to troubleshoot, decode challenging text,
and collaborate! 

Students have been working hard drawing and labelling their animal as well as writing three facts. 

We had a blast working with words! We squirted a generous dollop of shaving cream on the desks and got spelling in the cream ... awesome!

We love words and reading, and decided to do a hunt for our word wall words in some ads and flyers! Great challenge!

We ended the week with our Arbor Day event! We learned to count tree rings to find out a tree's age. 

We worked together to build fairy houses in the woods out of natural materials, like leaves and twigs.

Turns out not all forest fires are bad! We learned how fire can help a forest and how we can be fire safe!

We were astounded by the acrobatic arborists, who demonstrated how they trim and care for trees!

We got sweaty at "nature-cize"!

Each student received a lodge-pole pine sapling, Alberta's provincial tree! They will be delivered to the school on Monday. 

Our trip finished off with a toe tappin' song along with Peter Puffin!

This week rocked, we're exhausted, and we can't wait to see what Monday brings!

Reading is a BLAST

To develop a love reading is a huge goal in Grade 1. If the children are excited to read at this young age, it is very likely that they will continue to read and be avid readers throughout their lives. 

One way we have been getting really "pumped" about reading is by welcoming in Mystery Readers. By some stroke of luck, we have had two this week ... and have three more scheduled!

First, the children read three clues about the Mystery Reader. Then, the Mystery Reader is welcomed in to share a story!

Earlier this week, a former student who has a younger brother in our class excitedly shared a story with us! We worked as a team to read her 3 clues and then settled in to enjoy her book!

Here are the three clues for the Mystery Reader we welcomed yesterday:

It was an enthusiastic mom who came to read a few favourites to us! 

If you are interested in coming in as a Mystery Reader, please get in touch. We will find a convenient time and you are welcome to select a book or one can be provided. It really is a simple way of making reading exciting!

Back in October we took part in the Strathcona County Library's Read Aloud Challenge by reading Brown Bear. WE MADE THE HIGHLIGHT REEL! Happen to know those cuties who are holding the "We love to read" sign? 

Could you spot our whole school reading aloud in the gym? 

We have had so much fun reading together! Stay tuned for more crazy ways we make reading a blast!

Reading to our Chicks

This weekend was FILLED with chick drama! The Beliveau family was in several times monitoring the chicks and eggs. So far, we've hatched 11 chicks, and our egg angel has taken 9 of them home to her free-range farm. Two remain in our room, happily enjoying lots of company in their warm, cozy box. 

Chicks are a captive audience, and we jumped at the chance to read them our self-illustrated booklet "5 Little Chicks"! 

These booklets are beautifully illustrated, using torn paper to make cute little chicks! Look for this booklet in your child's Kanga today, and enjoy hearing your child read it!

Below is a recording of the students reading:

listen to ‘5 little chicks bk’ on audioBoom

March Madness!

Did you know March is Read Aloud month? 

Today we had a guest from the Strathcona County Library come and kick off March by reading a few books and sharing information about the read aloud contest sponsored by the County (log your minutes here). 

But, like any other day in Grade One, the fun didn't stop there! March Madness began today! Whaaaaaat?!?

March Madness has the primary kids going bananas for books, not basketball! We have a 16-book tournament ahead of us:

Here is a close up of the books playing off:

We asked Mrs. Haston's Grade 2 class to share in the fun, and today we read our first two books of the tournament! Mrs. Beliveau read The Pout Pout Fish and Mrs. Haston read Memoirs of a Hamster. 

Overwhelmingly, the winner was Memoirs of a Hamster! 

Mrs. Beliveau posting today's results ... and thoroughly confusing
several students with the tournament draw!

Be sure to ask your child about the books we are reading, which was his or her favourite, and why. March Madness playoffs will continue tomorrow!


March Madness idea inspired by Playdough to Plato.