As you know, quiz day is tomorrow on Friday, as usual! Please review spelling list and Math facts each evening to prepare for the weekly check.  Lots of fun today on the 100th day of school. Ask your child about it. Check out some more of the pictures of your  little ones. Enjoy! Mrs. Donovan      

Good Afternoon Parents, Hope all is going well in the new year. We are hard at work with only three more weeks until March Break and I simply cannot  believe how the time has flown! Let's talk about reading for a moment. When you listen to your child read, please insist that they read with adequate speed, lots of expression and attendon to the puncutation. I tell the students to do a "voice drop" at the period and a "voice up" at the exclamation point. If there is a question mark at the end of the sentence, draw attention to that and encourage your child to put that questioning voice in place. Pay attention to correct phrasing. Is your child pausing for a moment at the commas. Talk about what your child is reading. In our class, Please have your child read as much as possible. This is a skill where "Practice does make Perfect" but only if the child is reading text at their instructional level and receiving parental monitoring. If you have a concern about the books that your child is bringing, please send me a note in the agenda or give me a call.   We have been working on the trait of Organization in Writing where the focus is to have bold beginning, a mighty middle and an excellent ending. Ask them to sing you the little song about that! Next week we are going to do a bit more work on connecting words in stories (and, so, but etc.) and sequencing words that keep stories in logial order ( first, next, then, later, after that, finally etc.). Then we are moving into the trait of Word Choice where the focus will be on using the best words possible to convey the intended message. Mrs. Sturgeon and I are beginning a Writer's Share Time where some of my students will read to both classes and some of her students will then read to both classes. This past week, three students from our class read to all and the children really enjoyed having a broader audience. We are going to make this a weekly event. Ask your child about the stories that are being read.   The bases eing focused on in Spelling work in the next weeks will be "aw" as in saw, thaw, draw, "ew" as in new, threw, drew and both "oo" sequences as in moon and foot. Words sent home for spelling practice will reinforce this as well as the review words that have not yet been masstered by all.   In Math, we are working on mastery of addition and subtraction facts to 12 at this point. In class, we drill daily on +1, +2,+3, -1,-2,-3, the doubles and using the doubles to solve other facts. We are using ten rods and units to model numbers from i to 100 and continuing our counting patterns, that is, by ones, by twos, by fives and by tens from any number as in 18, 28, 38, 48, You can help out at home. Use dimes and pennies in place of ten rods and units. The children are accustomed to this as we do this in Number Corner daily. Automatic recall of facts is important and we will have a short facts quiz every Friday. You will be able to monitor your child's progress this way.   Check out the pictures from our Christmas Movie Day. It was so much fun and the children were really well behaved. I hope to make it an annual event! Hope they weren't too antsy after the cotton candy. Thank you so much parents for driving your child to and from our home. On Monday, Valentine's Day, students are going to wear red or\and pink and of course, they will be passing out their valentines in the afternoon. More fun, fun, fun! I'll take some pictures and post them so you can have a peek.   Have a great weekend and please do not hesitate to contact me if you have a question or concern.   Bye for now, Mrs. Donovan  

Hi Parents We had a fun afternoon and I thought you might like to see what your little one was doing. They sang some Christmas songs with Miss Frenette in Music class after lunch and then we donned our Santa hats, put some soft Christmas music on and started our Santa craft which will take a few days to complete. Today we just got the hat and head done!! Santa is a very big fellow after all!! Have a look. Aren't we a jolly bunch??                                                   

Good Afternoon Parents Thank you to all parents who have sent in food for the food drive. If you have not sent anything and would like to do so, there is still time. We have had a very busy week the last few days with the Caught You Caring Campaign, Anti Bullying Week and the awesome visit from the Oceans Wild display. We all learned so much and all the information ties in quite well with "Living Things", which we are focusing on in You and Your World. Ask your child to explain about the characteristics of living things, that is, how they are distinguished from non living things. They seem to understand the difference very well. We are going to start working on the trait of "Organization" in Writing Workshop next week while still stressing the importance of Ideas or Content. Sometime next week, I'm going to send home a piece of your child's latest writng for you to look at and sign. Also, look for a Math quiz on concepts that we have been working on as some sheets will be coming your way. Signature is required on this as well. In Math, we are going to narrow our focus to addition and subtraction during the coming weeks so your child will have Math facts to practise regularly. Automatic recall is necessary so we will be working on these for the remainder of the year. Hope you enjoyed reading "Carumba" with your child. TD donates a book to each grade one child in Canada each year. The students loved it!          Have a great weekend everyone! Mrs. Donovan and Ms. McKenzie

Good Afternoon Parents, Hopefully things are going well with your first grader at home. We had a great response to the penny drive. Thanks to all who contributed to this fundraiser. Tomorrow is Hat Day, in case your child has forgotten. And speaking of clothing, please ensure that your child is dressed warmly as it is getting quite chilly now. All homework is due back on Friday as usual and next week, we will be having a review of all spelling words covered to date, so there will not be any new words assigned. We have started practising some French songs as part of the Grade one curriculum includes exposure to aspects of French culture. Ask your child about this. In Writing Workshop, we are talking about stories requiring a beginning (the SEED of an  idea), a middle (when the seed turns into a SPROUT) and an ending ( when the story has developed into a FLOWER). Talk to your child about their stories and what thet might write about in Writing Workshop. We are stressing the first word of a sentence needing a capital letter, inserting a stop mark where your voice naturally stops when reading, and stretching tricky words out to record all sounds that are heard. We will have a chance to look at your child's writing at Parent Teacher. Please call if you would like to speak to me about any concerns.   Note; Some parents were wondering about book orders. One will be forthcoming in the near future.  

Good Afternoon Parents, Today your child will be bringing home the Flouride consent form which you will have to complete and return to school with your child. I would appreciate it if you could do that as soon as possible so that will be taken care of. Also, tomorrow is Hat Day so if your little one would like to participate, the cost is $1.00. In the morning, we will be having our first Spelling quiz as well as a short quiz on initial consonants worked on so far. Your child will bring his/her Quiz scribbler home on Monday, for you to sign, with the weekly homework in the Ziploc bag. By the way, a few students returned homework bags earlier in the week but they should be kept at home until Friday as I would like the students to read every night. On Monday, we will be participating in the Terry Fox run on the 30th anniversary of the run. Details are in the yellow newsletter that was sent home today. Tomorrow, that is, Friday, your child will bring home the sneaker cutout to decorate and dedicate to a friend/familly member. When they return these on Monday morning, I will see that thet are posted in the lobby of the school. The students are settling into the grade one routines and hopefully, things are going well at home as well. If you have any questions/concerns, please call me either at school or at home. I'll be happy to talk to you at any time, so please do not hesitate to contact me. I will try to keep you up to date with any info that you need. Just check my page regularly now that I am back from my leave. Talk to you soon, Mrs. Donovan