Here’s on overview of our learning goals for November:
November is always a quick month as we head into Remembrance Day, the PEI Teachers’ Convention, and Parent-Teacher Conferences! We have lots of learning to pack into a short amount of time.
Reading: We will continue to master the reading strategies taught so far this year, as well as work in literacy centres to practice our sight/trick/heart words and Fundations skills. We will be working in small groups geared towards group skills during guided reading as well. Assessments aimed at evaluating decoding skills, sight/trick/heart word recognition and transferring these skills into reading have begun to prepare for learning reports.
Writing: This month we will begin our Small Moments unit of study. In this unit, students will tell true stories from their own lives. We will practice generating an idea, planning our writing sequentially, bringing our characters to life, and editing and revising.
Math: We will continue to solidify our understanding of the teen numbers 11-19 and representing numbers to 20 in a variety of ways. We will continue practicing subitizing (recognizing numbers at a glance). We will work on counting skills: counting forwards and backwards within 20, we will learn skip counting by 2’s from 0-20, and practice counting a set (one at a time, moving items/crossing off, last # said is how many in all). We will work on identifying the number that is 1 more/2 more, 1 less/2 less. We will also discuss equality and inequality when comparing numbers.
Fundations Units 4 and 5:
Unit 4: We will teach the bonus letter rule for letters -ff, -ss, and -ll. At the end of a one syllable word with a short vowel that ends in f, s, or l, you double that letter. We will also teach the glued sound -all.
Unit 5: We will introduce the glued sounds -am (-am, ham, am) and -an (-an, fan, an).
Sight words:
Week 1 - do, all
Week 2 - they, one
Week 3 - said, are
Week 4 - from, have, does
October 2025
Here’s an overview of our learning goals for October:
We have a fun and busy October planned in grade one! We have two field trips planned which will be fun and educational. As we get closer to Thanksgiving, we will discuss what we are thankful for and discuss gratitude and appreciation (this is something we've been practicing since the first week of school with our "gratitude circle" and "thankful song"). At the end of October, there is Halloween! So nice that it lands on a Friday this year! We know this is a fun time for the kids and we will keep you posted with the school’s plan in regards to dressing up and our plans for celebrating in the grade one hallway!
Please note that there is no school Friday, October 10th (PD day), and Monday, October 13th (Thanksgiving).
Reading: We will continue to build our reading stamina and build reading strategies to support decoding new words.
The strategies we will focus on are:
Pointing Porcupine (point under the first letter of each word as we read)
Tapping Turtle and Blending Bear (use our fingers to tap the individual sounds in consonant/vowel/consonant words and blend them together to read the word). We will be encouraging and practicing reading CVC words quickly, as opposed to tapping, once the kids are ready. Reading these words will build automaticity, which in turn increases reading fluency.
Read it Rabbit (re-read the sentence after they decode new words so their voice sounds smooth and fluent, just like talking).
We will continue to emphasize quick recall of Trick Words/Sight Words/Heart Words (we will continue practicing our weekly sight words in a variety of ways in our literacy centers and morning messages). The sight words all have a "heart part" in which the letters have an irregular sound that we have to know by ‘heart’. We will be working in small groups geared towards group skills during guided reading as well.
Writing: This month, we will continue to develop independent work skills. We will encourage the students to sound out words on their own to spell new words. We will make some class books together with Fall as a theme and practice/review writing sentences. We will also complete “All About Me” books where they will share things about themselves (family, friends, etc).
Math: We will be working on the teen numbers 11-19 and representing these numbers in a variety of ways, counting forwards and backwards within 20, subitizing (recognizing numbers to 10 at a glance), and practice counting skills (counting a set by one at a time, moving items/crossing off, last number said is how many in all; as well as using the count on strategy to count sets/when subitizing).
Fundations Units 2, 3 and 4:
Unit 2: We will teach/review how to tap and blend consonant/vowel/consonant (CVC) words to read and spell. For example: sat (s-a-t)
Unit 3: We will teach the digraph sounds (letters that ‘stick together’ to form one sound (wh, ch, sh, th and ck). Even though they are two letters, they form one sound.
Unit 4 :We will teach the ff, ll, ss bonus letter rule. At the end of a one-syllable word, if the word has a short vowel sound and is immediately followed by an f, l, or s, at the end, then you double that consonant. Examples: miss, hill, puff. However; if the letter a is followed by double l , it does not have the expected short vowel sound. We will teach all as a glued sound. We mark words with the glued sound all by drawing a box around all. Example: ball, mall, fall
Sight words:
Week 1 - come, here, his, of
Week 2 - see, little, play, was
Week 3 - as/has, we/he/she/be/me
Week 4 - or/for, down, want, out
Week 5 - you, your, there, where
Here’s on overview of our learning goals for September:
September is a big month in grade one! We will spend a lot of time getting to know each other, building relationships, learning expectations and rules, and reviewing academic skills learned in kindergarten. There are a lot of differences between kindergarten and grade one. We will be sure to include a lot of opportunities to play and learn in a variety of ways!
Reading: We will be exploring books, reviewing words, building stamina for reading and establishing readers’ workshop routines. Later this month, we will begin guided reading and strategy groups as well.
Writing: This month, we will work to establish Writer’s Workshop and independent work skills. We will make some class books together and practice/review writing sentences.
Math: We will be reviewing numbers 1-10, counting forwards and backwards, subitizing (recognizing numbers at a glance), and representing these numbers in a variety of ways.
Fundations Unit 1: This unit is a review of letter sounds (vowels and consonants) and letter formation.
Sight words:
Every week, we will focus on several new "trick words" that students need to know "by heart". These words have a unique spelling pattern that makes it difficult for students to decode them. The following words will be our focus this month:
Week 1 - like, I, the, a
Week 2 - go, to, went, can
Week 3 - my, is, look, and