First Grade Update

We have been very busy in our classroom lately.  Here is an update on what we have been working on in the last few weeks.

Language Arts:  Every day we write in our "quiet books" or journals.  We are working on including finger spaces, using our words from our personal word books, adding more descriptions to our sentences, and starting to write simple stories.  In our word work, we have focused on the "an" family, short vowels, and building our sight words.  Here are some links to check out:

 An Family Game

Short Vowels Game

Sight Words

Math:  In math, we finished our mini-unit on equality and inequality.  We are now working solving addition questions to twelve using a number of strategies such as adding with our fingers, using manipulatives, using a number line, creating a cube train, and drawing a picture.  We are beginning to explore adding numbers using mental math strategies such as counting on.  Check out the math pages for some cool links to practice addition questions.

Science:  We have been investigating the three primary colours.   When mixed in different combinations, they create the secondary colours.  Have your child go to the science page.  They can show you what they have learned through some fantastic science links.  Today, we began to explore the colours of the rainbow and what makes a rainbow.

Health:  We have started our S4 project with the Calgary Police Service.  Officer Strand of the CPS has visited our classroom and helped us with one of our science lessons.  We enjoyed having her in our classroom and the extra set of hands!  We are learning how to identify our emotions and to identify certain "fire crackers" or things that really get under our skin and can cause us to become really upset and potentially loose control.    For example, we brainstormed a list of some fire crackers.  Our list included people budging in line, calling us names, hurting us, tattling on us when we didn't do anything, saying bad words, stealing our things, not letting us play with them, ect.      We are now starting to work on a list of strategies to help us to calm down and not get to the point where we become out of control and make poor decisions.