In these first weeks of school, we'll be doing what I like to call 'Learning to Learn', where we settle in to new routines and begin to build our class community through various activities, like reading together, playing together, spending time outdoors, meeting as a class to chat and listening to each other. It's through this variety and repetition that we'll establish our core classroom routines and expectations. It's so important to become aquainted with our classroom and each other in this new grade one context. I'm enjoying getting to know each of these kids and how they learn best so I can support them this year.
As part of our first unit of inquiry called Who We Are, we'll be exploring our rights and responsibilities as members of our grade one class and thinking about all the ways our choices and behaviour can impact others. It's through these discussions that we'll build our Essential Agreements and start the year off with a clear set of expectations for everyone. We structure our agreement with the headings: Respect Ourselves, Respect Others and Respect our Environment with lots of discussion about examples for each section. It's with these agreed upon expectations that we can find the all-important balance between fun and focus as we start our learning journey together in grade one.
Here's an overview of our Who We Are unit (early September to mid October):
Central Idea: Self-awareness impacts our learning and our relationships with others.
Key Concepts we're focusing on: Perspective, Responsibility, Causation
Approaches to Learning (Transdisciplinary Skills) we're focusing on: Self-Management Skills, Social Skills and Thinking Skills.
Learner Profile traits we're focusing on: Reflective and Inquirer
Subject Connections: Social Studies, Language Arts, Health
In math we'll be reviewing our KG learning about patterns in math and building on those skills with various manipulatives in our classroom (pattern blocks, cubes, links, dice, etc.) and we'll develop our skills with identifying and continuing number patterns. Next, we'll begin our focus on number sense. We'll by thinking about how we talk about numbers (greater than/less than, even/odd, single-digit/double-digit, etc.) and develop our skill and understanding with related learning (number sense games, open-ended math talks, etc.). Later in September, you'll start to see related activities come home as homework games or worksheets.
In language arts, we'll be introducing and practicing skills we'll need during our Daily 5 Centre time (reading independently, reading with someone, listening to reading, writing, word work and small group time with me). We're working to further develop our independent reading stamina every day. We'll be practicing our skills in various ways and some of that will come home in the form of word work games or activities to reinforce what we're learning day to day.