May 27-31

 May 27 - 31, 2024

We had another busy week of learning in our Grade 1 class.  

Science - Learning from the Land at Fish Creek Park

Learning Intentions:

I can share examples of native plants and animals of Alberta

I can share an understanding of how an environment meets the basic needs of plants and animals

We had the most beautiful morning on Tuesday, to walk and spend time in Fish Creek Park.  The signs of spring were all around us, and we had many rich conversations about plants and animals.  We spent time looking for specific plants that grow in Fish Creek and really noticed the Buffalo Bean that is growing and blooming.  We also explored closer to the water and looked for different things in nature.  We made our way over to the bridge and looked at that different habitat and how it would provide a nice space for frogs.  We had each made a frog before we left, and got to play a bit of a camouflage game and hiding them and then seeing if a friend could find them.  Lots of laughs and memories were had out on the land.  We once again thank our parent volunteers who joined us and helped make this learning experience rich and memorable.

           

Science/Literacy

I can observe and describe similarities and differences between plants and animals

I can use organizational tools to record information 

I can ask questions to identify research topics 

I can record factual information in various ways 

We continue to build our understanding of plants and animals and what makes them unique.  We had rich conversations about plants and worked together to record similarities and differences between grass and cactus.  This generated rich conversations and had us asking some deep questions about cactus if there was water inside that you could drink and if cactus are edible.  

We then recorded our own information about two different plants on our own in our visual journals.  

 

Phonics 

This week we have been learning about the “shwa e” sound. This sound depends on amclosed syllable sound that contains a vowel and then a consonant.  Please review the home practice below to help solidify your child’s understanding of this sound.  

Math

This week we have been developing strategies to partition shapes into halves and create wholes shapes from half of a shape.  Students worked with a variety of shapes and materials to partition a half and also to create a whole shape.  

Learning Intentions:

When a fraction is used to describe a part of a whole, the whole must be known to make sense of the fraction

The following is a summary of the key ideas to support your child’s learning and build background knowledge.

What Are Halves?

•	When you divide something into two parts that have the same size, those parts are halves.
•	Shapes can be divided into halves. For example:
	-	A rectangle can be folded to make halves. A rectangle can be divided in other ways too. Both halves must take up the same amount of space.
	-	A circle can be divided into two halves in many ways. Both halves must take up the same amount of space.
•	These shapes do not show halves because, while there are two parts, the parts are not the same size.
•	Two halves make up a whole. Each half is one-half of the whole.

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Halves of Different Shapes

What a half looks like depends on the whole.

Some halves are round. Some are not.

Some halves are small. Some are big.

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Finding the Whole From the Half

If you know what a half looks like, you can put two of those halves together to make a whole.

For example:

•	This is half of a shape. You could put the halves together in two ways to make rectangles.
•	This is half of a shape. You could put the halves together to make a circle.

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Helping Your Child

Use the words “half” and “halves,” when appropriate, with your child.

Ensure your child understands that halves must be the same size, even if an attribute of the two halves, such as colour, is different.

Help your child see that the size of the half depends on the size of the whole.

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Definitions

halves: two equal parts of something; together they make one whole

one-half: one of two equal parts of a whole

whole: the entire shape or object that is divided into parts

May 20-24

 May 21-24

Even with a short week, we returned from the May Long Weekend ready to learn and get busy!  

Looking ahead to this next week, we would like to take our class on a walking field trip to Fish Creek Park, on Tuesday morning (May 28) from 9:00-11:30 am.  This is a great time of year to explore the land and make connections to our learning in Science as well.  Please ensure your child is properly dressed and has a coat that day.  We are also highly encouraging rubber boots, as we will be stepping off the paved path to take a closer look at plants and animals.  

Literacy 

Learning Intentions

Read simple, fully predictable, and decodable texts independently. 

Understand words and sentences from print texts read independently. 

Share understandings of print texts read independently. 

Self-correct when print text does not make sense. 

We are nearing the end of our expectations for our learning of new phonics letter sounds for Grade 1 and are now turning our attention to mastering the sounds that we have learned throughout the year, but more focused on our second term and the letter combinations.  Your child is still developing these skills and benefits greatly from reading decodable texts at home for a few minutes each night.  Our goal is to be selecting texts that have the numbers 3, 4 or 5 on them.  We understand that some of these texts can be quite lengthy - but even 5 minutes a day can make a difference!  If you need help with ensuring your child has a book at home, please feel free to reach out and we are happy to help with ensuring your child has a book to read!  

This week we reviewed R-controlled vowels as well as the -le sounds at the end of words.  This had us spelling longer words with 2 syllables, but if we slow down, we can sound out and hear all the sounds!  We are so proud of the amazing growth in reading this year!  

Science/Literacy 

Learning Intentions:

Observe and describe similarities and differences between plants and animals.

Understand how an environment meets the basic needs of plants and animals 

Understand how humans take care of plants 

We have been busy digging in more to our learning about plants and animals and their needs.  We have each planted a seed in the “greenhouse” located in the Learning Commons and look forward to watching and taking care of our plants for the next few weeks.  

We also made connections to our writing and literacy as well, by zooming in on a picture.  We found the things and labelled them in red.  We then brainstormed a describing word and wrote those in blue.  After, we then brainstormed an action word for each part of the picture as well, and labelled that in green.  These then helped us write an interesting sentence with all 3 words included.  

           

In our table groups, we then were given a picture of a plant or animal and had to work together to generate describing words for that thing.  We showed great ability to work together and collaborate our ideas. 

   

Math

Learning Intentions 

I can investigate different adding and subtracting strategies

I can add and subtract within 20

I can express addition and subtraction symbolically

I can solve problems involving addition and subtraction

We have continued to build on our skills of addition and subtraction and apply these to solving problems.  One problem this week was being given the menu below and finding different ways to buy 3 things and not spend more than 14 cents.  

We also worked on creating a design with pattern blocks, and different shapes represented a different amount.  We could choose if we wanted to build a design that was worth 15, 20 or 25.  Our math skills have expanded so much and we are really able to communicate and discuss different strategies to use, such as using doubles or counting on or counting back.  These skills are ones that continue to benefit from continued practise and we encourage you to support your child with practising their addition and subtraction at home too!

       

Solving Problems Involving Addition

Students might use any of these strategies to solve problems involving addition:

•	working with concrete models, such as 10-frames, number paths, or counters
•	counting on
•	relating an unknown situation to a known one

For example, if students realize that 5 + 5 is 10, they might solve 6 + 5 by thinking of it as 1 more than 5 + 5.

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Solving Problems Involving Subtraction

Students might use any of these strategies to solve problems involving subtraction:

•	working with concrete models, such as 10-frames, number paths, or counters
•	counting on or counting back
•	relating an unknown situation to a known one

For example, if students realize that 10 – 5 is 5, then they might think of 10 – 6 as 1 less than 10 – 5 because you are taking away 1 more or because the space from 6 to 10 on a number path is 1 less than the space from 5 to 10.

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Solving Problems With Many Steps

Some of the problems students will experience in this topic involve situations that combine addition and subtraction.

For example, if you had 8 counters and then got 4 more and then someone took 5 away, how many counters would you have?

•	You could think about 8 + 4 first, which is 12. Then you could think about 12 – 5, which is 7.
•	But you might realize that you are taking away 1 more than you add, so you would end up in the same place if you simply took 1 away from 8. 8 − 1 is 7.

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Helping Your Child

Take advantage of any opportunities for your child to add or subtract relatively small numbers. For example, if you have 5 apples in the kitchen and you buy 4 more, you could ask your child to figure out how many apples you have altogether.

Because this topic focuses on figuring out answers, you could play games with your child that involve adding and subtracting. For example, this game is for two players:

Each player receives two playing cards that are numbers.

The player with the greater difference scores 1 point.

The game is over when one player has 10 points.

May 13-16

Dear Parents

We are so excited to be welcoming weather.  We connect this to our learning about the season changes as well as our living systems topics in science.

Writing

This week we have been combining our focus on seasonal changes and nonfiction writing to have students begin to think about how we dress and the activities we do change as we are beginning to experience more spring-like weather.  We brainstormed ideas as a class connected to clothing choices and recreational activities that we do this time of year.  Students record their own ideas in their visual journals.  We then used this to guide our writing to write a focused piece of writing connecting to this topic.  

Learning Intentions:

I can create messages that are for a specific purpose

I can combine ideas in an order that makes sense to create sentences.

I can record facts in different ways.

I can identify seasonal Changes that may affect a variety of choices and activities, such as:

• Clothing choices

• Recreational activities

Science

In Science, we began our unit on Living Systems.  We learned about what the rules are for things that are living.  

• They need energy (food, water, sunlight)

• They grow and change

• They reproduce (make more of themselves)

• Respond to the world around them

We also read and learned about plants and animals.  We then went outside and looked for different plants and animals and recorded it in our visual journals.  We visited our Class Tree as well and were excited to notice that is has developed its blossoms.  We look forward to watching its spring changes in the next week.  

Wellness/Literacy 

As a part of our time in Maker on Fridays, we like to take time to reflect on our work, what worked well, what challenges we had, and how we resolved them.  As a connection to our chicks hatching last week, students were asked to build a chicken-coop that would protect the chickens and provide them with all the things they would need to survive.  Although a building task, Maker provides students the opportunity to work together in a collaborative way.  

Learning Intentions:

• Building relationships with people, regardless of skill or ability

• Personal characteristics can describe an individual’s strengths and abilities.

• Personal characteristics can be unique or shared among individuals and groups.