NEWSLETTERs
Weekly Newsletter
Hello parents and guardians,
Just another reminder to ensure your child has warm clothes for school every day. Often it is windy at school and this time of year they need mitts, hats, splash pants, and boots.
Thank you all for coming to parent-teacher interviews. I honestly haven’t had parent-teacher interviews that I have enjoyed so much. It was so wonderful to get to chat with you all and meet you in person. I have such a sweet group of children this year and I can see why!
Thanks for sending in donations! I added them to the Christmas Family donations and we will continue to talk to the students about where the money is going.
Mrs. Zinc, our music teacher is going to have a Christmas concert with our grade ones. They will be performing for those students who are in Phys. Ed at the time. I am going to get it on video and upload it on Class Dojo. It will be on December 8 but if there happens to be a storm before then it will be the next day. She asks if possible the students wear a white shirt. If they have a plain one that would be wonderful but anything white will work!
Important Dates:
December 4-Crazy Hair Day
December 8-Christmas Concert
December 10-Free Milk Day!
December 11-Pajama Day
December 18-Last day before our December break
Thanks, Allana Toole
Hello parents and guardians,
Just another reminder to ensure your child has warm clothes for school every day. Often it is windy at school and this time of year they need mitts, hats, splash pants, and boots.
It was great getting to meet you all last week! It is nice to meet the faces of the people who are most important to your children! They always have lots of stories from home so it’s nice to put a face to “mom and dad’.
I sent home a letter about a holiday fundraiser we are having. Let me know if you didn’t receive it.
Important Dates:
November 26-Bring your favorite book to school day
November 27-No School (Professional Development)
December 4-Crazy Hair Day
December 11-Pajama Day
Thanks, Allana Toole
Hello parents and guardians,
I am happy to have a longer week!
In math, we are working on skip counting by 2’s, 5’s, and 10’s. We have been working very hard using base ten blocks which are the little blocks many would remember in elementary using “tens and ones”. An example of this is if we had a number 32 we would need three long rods which represent ten each and then 2 little cubes which are our ones. They seem to be getting a really good grasp at what numbers really mean to build them using these blocks as well as ten frames.
Just another reminder to ensure your child has warm clothes for school every day. Often it is windy at school and this time of year they need mitts, hats, splash pants, and boots.
I am looking forward to meeting with you all this week! If you didn’t get a chance to sign up for parent teacher interviews, you can send an email and I can schedule you in.
Reminder that Wednesday is PJ day in our school! What a great profession I have that I get to wear cozy jammies to work!
Important Dates:
November 17-Reports go home to students
November 20-No School (Parent teacher interviews)
November 27-No School (Professional Development)
Thanks, Allana Toole
Hello parents and guardians,
We have a few short weeks coming up! Next week is only a two day week at school.
We are starting a new unit in math this week which is exploring numbers to 100 (with skip counting), we will be working with hundreds charts, counting backwards and forwards to 100 starting at any given starting point.
Just another reminder to ensure your child has warm clothes for school every day. Often it is windy at school and this time of year they need mitts, hats, splash pants, and boots.
Our words this week are: we, your, can, when, said. We are also exploring the short O sound like the sound that is at the beginning of octopus.
Important Dates:
November 11-No School (Remembrance Day)
November 12/13-No School (Professional Development)
November 17-Reports go home to students
November 20-No School (Parent teacher interviews)
November 27-No School (Professional Development)
Thanks, Allana Toole
Week of November 2-6
Hello parents and guardians,
I can’t believe we are officially into November and we have been back in routine for two months.
This week in writing we talked about watermelon moments versus tiny seed moments. Watermelon moments would be talking about your whole weekend in a piece of writing versus a tiny seed moment would be going to the pool. We are using some different examples to help them out. They are becoming more independent everyday with their writing.
Words have been updated on their word ring. Please practice these with their nightly reading. I did a little assessment with them last week and I was impressed with how many they know.
*If there are any changes to busing throughout the day, please make sure you call the office and let them know. I may not see it in an email throughout the day or I could be out that day not checking my school email. Thank you for this.
Your grade 1 children are working so hard every day and you would be so proud of the work they are doing!
Important Dates:
November 11-No School (Remembrance Day)
November 12/13-No School (Professional Development)
November 17-Reports go home to students
November 20-No School (Parent teacher interviews)
November 27-No School (Professional Development)
Thanks, Allana Toole
Week of October 26-30
Hello parents and guardians,
Another week is gone again! They seem to be going quickly. November is going to be a busy month and I will attach the dates below. I am not sure yet what parent teacher interviews are going to look like yet but I will include the dates as something to look out for.
Our Small Moments unit in writing is going so well. They are working hard at coming up with a small moment. An example might be on the weekend an activity they did and telling great details about that one thing. One little boy wrote a story about a goal he scored in soccer. Instead of talking about the whole weekend (just as an example) they are talking about small moments that have happened.
In math, we have started skip counting by 2’s all the way to 20 and skip counting by 10’s to 100. This week we have been “breaking apart numbers”. A few examples of this is we are looking at the “teen” numbers and saying 17 is ten and seven more. Another way we are breaking apart numbers is taking numbers like 9 and putting dots into two columns to see all the ways we can break nine up (4, 5), (1,8), (3,6).
I have sent home IXL account information. This is great practice in math and language arts. In no way is this mandatory homework. Many students were asking me to send it home. You can put it on your phone or tablet as an app which makes it easy to access.
After this week, I am going to start having my weekly updates on my ClassDojo and my Website. I will still put their words on the word ring. Any updates that come up through the week I will post in ClassDojo.
Important Dates:
November 11-No School (Remembrance Day)
November 12/13-No School (Professional Development)
November 17-Reports go home to students
November 20-No School (Parent teacher interviews)
November 27-No School (Professional Development)
Thanks, Allana Toole
Weekly Newsletter-Oct 13-16
Hello parents and guardians,
You may have noticed that your child came home with library books Wednesday (3 books). These books they are allowed to keep at home. The library is getting rid of some books to make way for some new and interesting reads!
Student homework seems to be going well. I have attached some new words for this week. The new words are as, with, I, his, they. They can keep practicing other words on their word rings as well. Just a reminder to keep the duo tang and the word ring in their homework bag and return the book every day.
We are launching our official Writers Workshop this week! Mrs. Crawford (our schools literacy coach) is coming in and launching the unit on Wednesday. We got our feet wet with Writers Workshop and they seem to enjoy the time. We are going to be writing about small moments. I will give more information as we continue into the unit.
In math, we have started skip counting by 2’s all the way to 20 and skip counting by 10’s to 100. We haven’t started skip counting by 5’s yet. I want them to get more familiar with the 100’s chart before we start. We have also been doing a lot of counting and seeing what comes before and after numbers. They play many math games to become familiar with these concepts.
I have set everyone up with their IXL accounts which is a Math website that you need a subscription for. In the next few weeks once they get familiar with the website I will send home log in information for them. If they want to play at home on the computer or phone they are more than welcome to.
Important Dates:
Thanksgiving: October 12-No School
Thanks, Allana Toole
Weekly Newsletter- Oct 5-9
Hello parents and guardians,
The students completed their first full week of homework with their reading and word rings. Just as a reminder, please return their books and homework bag every day as they read those books at quiet reading time. The word rings should also stay in their homework bags so I can put on new words each week. Please copy down the book your child read for homework in their duo tang each night.
New words: are, for, he, on, was. Please take time to practice these words as well as the words from last week.
We are going to continue with working on counting and we even started skip counting by 2’s to 20. They are doing a lot of counting games during math time using counters and dice.
In writing, they are working on building up their independence and using the word wall. They are also working on using finger spaces, having their pictures match the words, and using periods at the end of their sentence. I am urging them to tell a story using their fingers to add more details to their writing.
They participate in quiet reading time every day. They are building up their stamina and are able to read for longer periods of times. This is the time they are practicing their homework books as well. At this time, I am doing reading with a small group of students.
Important Dates:
Thanksgiving: October 12-No School
Thanks, Allana Toole
Weekly Newsletter-September 28-2
Hello parents and guardians,
Next week, the students will take part in the Terry Fox run. This year they will be doing it in their P.E. class. It is the 40th anniversary so the students will be doing “40” of something in P.E. If you can send a small donation in, I can pass it along to the office next week.
The Public Schools Branch is sending home a package of Black Line Masters that your child will use at home in the event that we are doing remote learning at some point this year. Please tuck them away in case that time comes.
New words: that, is, you, it, in. Please take time to practice these words as well as the words from last week.
Important Dates:
School Pictures: September 29
Thanksgiving: October 12-No School
Thanks, Allana Toole
Weekly Newsletter September 21-25
Hello parents and guardians,
It is my understanding that my Google Site didn’t work last week. I went in and invited the parents emails I have on SAS to share it. The invitation might have went into junk mail. Until I have it figured out I will send home an update in their homework books as well. Let me know if it’s not working for you through your email invite.
We are going to start homework the week of September 21. For homework in grade one they will take home a book every night to read as well as their words of the week. I am in the process of doing running records which lets me know what level they are reading at. The data we have from last year is a bit different due to being off for so long. Until I finish these assessments I am going to send home their words they can practice on their word rings. These are important words that will help them in their reading. Please take time every night to read these 5 words and to even try practice spelling them out. The five words this upcoming week of Sept. 21-25 are: a, of, to, and, the. In their homework bag they will have a duo tang and you can put the book they read (when they start this part of their homework).
There is a school fundraiser happening for ordering school clothing, masks, and other items. The link is: https://westroyalty.staygolden.ca/
There will be no orders or cash accepted after September 25.
Just a reminder we have staggered dismissal times. Our class is dismissed at 2:20 and you can meet me by the kindergarten bus doors if you are picking up your child at that time. I have been half teasing the children about having homework, practicing putting in their lunchbox and homework bag in their school bag at the end of the day but it wouldn’t be a bad idea to try it a few times at home. For some students this is a major struggle at the end of the day.
We continue to work on routines in the classroom and they are catching on quickly. In math, we are working at subitizing, which is recognizing different dot patterns quickly to help with their counting. They have also been working on numbers to 100 and getting familiar with the 100’s chart. We are counting forward and backwards from any starting point.
In language arts, we have been reading daily. We are getting our toes wet with writing and really stressing the importance of sounding out words they don’t know and putting down the sounds they hear. We are being brave with our words! They are also recognizing word wall words to spell in their writing.
Thanks, Allana Toole