Independence Day

Here are a few shots of the kiddos at work, independently, during the week before the Fall Break.

They are learning how to listen to directions and then work on the task all by themselves, trusting that they can do it!  This week the reading strategy of looking at the letters in a word and using the sounds of those letters to read the word was being practised.  Some might call it 'sounding out' but in our classroom. we use the stretchy snake to pull the letters apart slowly the first time, a little quicker the second time and then saying the word the third time.  It might sound like this:

llllllll - iiiiiiii - ppppppp

ll-ii-pp

lip

There were small drawings of pictures that had the consonant-vowel-consonant pattern taped up onto the walls in the hallways of the area near our classroom, and in small groups, students went out to practise the Stretchy Snake strategy.  When these papers come home, you may notice that your child was printing the first sound or maybe the first two sounds, that he or she could identify.  This means that your child is successful at that level and may not yet be ready to put three sounds together just yet.  Please see me if you have any concerns.

While the students were outside of the room, some students were working in small groups with me,

and others were 'listening to reading' using my iPads.

Still others were practising spelling the words for this week using the rolling the die game,

and printing the word that was attached to the number that was rolled.

There are many, many 'games' that the students work on, to practise the new learning

that is taking place.

This coming week, November 20 to 25, the students will be practising the last five weeks of spelling words.  The words that they have been working on are considered sight words.

Here are some very interesting statistics about sight words and why so much emphasis is placed on them.  Knowing sight words will set the foundation for reading!

12 sight words make up about 25% of those we read and write.

100 sight words make up about 50% of those we read and write.

About 300 sight words account for 75% of those we read and write.

When we teach sight words strategically, specifically and consistently, we build readers who are confident and fluent!

At this point, the 'pre-primer' Dolch list has been introduced to your child and I believe that means that if your child can read them all, they have got around 40 sight words under their belt.  HOORAY!

Be careful though!

Sight words are just that...words that the child will know by sight....they pop up in their books in every sentence they are reading, so sometimes we call them popcorn words....they keep popping up!

MANY of the sight words are not decodable with early phonics skills.  

For example, sounding out the for a child, t/h/e does not work.

Beginning and struggling readers may not understand how to use the th digraph and the schwa sound to sound out the word the.

To clarify, we sound out other words like CVC words, but we do not sound out sight words.  In addition, students need repetition and practice reading the word in context to help them master the word.  That is why the students are given books with these sight words 'popping up' all the time.

Within a week or two, the students will be introduced to some of the sounds of digraphs and blends and other groups of letters.  They will be learning these sound groups with more movement and song....phonics dance style!

How Rocket Learned to Read

Tad Hill's book "How Rocket Learned to Read" will be our jumping off point for focusing on all aspects of the Daily Five for the next month.  Thank you to a librarian known as Swersty, who shared this wonderful idea with me!

In the story, Rocket's teacher is a little yellow bird.  Here in our classroom, Rocket brought all of his friends to school today and the students are going to be these little puppies' teachers.

Today the students started the puppies' lessons by demonstrating how to spell some words, and then showed them how to read the colour words.

In the story, the little yellow bird put a name tag around Rocket's neck.  Each child was able to choose a name for their student puppy and now all of the puppies have a name tag around their neck!

The purpose of having the students learn different strategies in mathematics is for them to be able to use them easily and efficiently, making the adding, and subtracting of numbers be something that they do not find difficult.  The strategy the students practised today is known as 'doubles plus one.'  If you know your doubles, then a neighbour number can be easy to figure out.

Here's an example:

I know 6 add 6 is 12, so then 6 add 7 will be one more, 13!

In pairs, the students practised this skill with a fun game.

This afternoon, both Grade Two classes listened to a safety presentation offered through the County of Strathcona.  The presentation focused on fire safety, making a plan to be safe in our homes and knowing when to ask an adult to phone 911.  The children have 'talking homework' tonight, to explain the three things that they felt was the most important that Evelyn taught them today.

This bookmark will be coming home.  Please check out this cool idea that the County has set up as a free service to its residents.  When you sign up through www.strathcona.ca/scalerts you will get messages about severe weather, fire and water bans, significant traffic disruptions and other important information through cell phones and/or e-mails.  Check it out!

I really was there!

The two sisters, Gail Boushey and Joan Moser started off their whirlwind two day conference saying that every member of their family wanted to come along and 'help' this time because the venue was in Las Vegas!  Sounds like going to Vegas means you won't work but....

listening to these two gals made the days just fly by!  There were over 600 teachers from almost every state and at least 100 teachers from Canada, most from Alberta!  That was really appreciated as the girls' father had been a farmer near Killam before moving into Washington.  The location, The Tropicana, was lovely, and the company friendly and the learning, sooooooo good!

Yes, this is the Las Vegas version of a Christmas tree...glitzy like everything else!

September? Where did it go?

It really has been a very busy month!  The students have settled into the classroom routines so very well and are showing interest in all the different learning that we are doing!

Sometimes we need to stop and take a look at where we have come from....

...love this 'reflection' idea that I found somewhere on the internet.  The students got the opportunity to think about perspective in this art project!

Daily Five rocks!  The students have reached 20 minutes of stamina for "Read to Self" which they can do anywhere in the classroom.  They have been introduced to "Listen to Reading " (using the iPads), "Working on Writing" and "Word Work" and have built up to 12 to 15 minutes of stamina for each of those activities.  The final part "Listen to Others" will probably be introduced in November, once the rotation system is firmly in place.  It's so cool to hear them complain if we're too busy to get the "Read to Self" into the day!

 The caterpillars have been growing and molting and growing some more.  Sadly, the first batch that we received had a few diseased caterpillars and many didn't make it.  The second batch seems ready to move to the chrysalis (3rd) stage.  Here's a little guy hanging in the tell tale "J" shape...that's his head on the bottom and his backside is firmly attached with a silk button on the top of the lid.

It is taking the students a while to understand that our creatures DO NOT SPIN COCOONS.  That is done by moths.  These creatures molt around the fifth time into this stage (PUPA) and are seen as a chrysalis.  The creature is inside, going through METAMORPHOSIS.  That little fluffy bit at that top is the caterpillar's skin from it's last molt.

It's a really busy week coming up.  Remember:

a) Monday - Oct. 1 - Picture orders are due/Turkey homework is due

b) Tuesday - Oct. 2 - Students dress as a book character for Read In Week

c) Wednesday - Oct. 3 - Mass @ OLPH @ 9:30/early dismissal

d) Friday - Oct. 5 - Professional Development Day - no school for students only

e) Monday - Oct. 8 - Thanksgiving - School is not open for Canadian holiday