Grade 1 Class
Feb. 3, 2012
Hello, and welcome to the Grade One web page!
During "Meet the Teacher" night in September, I always talk about bedtimes for children in grade one. As I was not able to attend the "Meet the Teacher" night this year, I wanted to quickly address the issue. I have been teaching this grade for over 20 years (eeks! doesn't seem possible!) and I have a lot of experience with children this age, as well as three children of my own. It is very important that children in grade one go to bed at 7:00, or 7:30 at the latest. When they get a good night sleep (12 hours at this age) they are happier, they perform better in school academically and their general behaviour is better. They can cope more effectively when academic or social situations feel stressful to them, and they get sick far less often. If you are interested, there is a great book on this subject called "Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child" by Marc Weissbluth, MD. His research even states that children who go to bed earlier have a higher IQ. Of course, there are nights when there is a special event occurring, and it is impossible to get the children to bed on time. This is understandable, it happens to all of us. But in order to support your child (and their teacher!) to have the best day possible academically and behaviourly, they need to go to bed at 7:00.
I am sending home with your child a "Journey to Learning" passport, along with the handout regarding the passport that I received from the Public Library. If you complete with your child just one activity from each section and return the passport to me, the class can win a pizza lunch. Please participate in this program with your child, the activites look great - and wouldn't you like a day off from making lunches? :)
Next week is Catholic Education week - look in the Tuesday note for all the upcoming fun events! The first thing to remember is that the whole school is going skating together next Monday afternoon - so please don't forget to send in your child's skates. Also, please note there is no school on Wednesday, Feb. 8th as our staff is having a professional development day.
We are collecting empty kleenex boxes for an art project until Feb. 14th. Please send in any from home that you may have.
Here are the names of all the children in our class for those who are preparing Valentine cards. Please make sure that if you do decide that your child will be giving out cards, that they give a card to every child in the class so no one feels left out.
Grade One 2011/2012:
Aidan
Aimee K.
Aimee M.
Amelia
Blaire
Byron
Caitlyn
Carly
Charlie
Corbin
Darah
Drew
Elise
Ella
Forrest
Izzy
Lachlan
Luca
Luke
Marcus
Nathan
Niamh
Nicholas
Rikki
Solomon
Tess
Zoe
The sight words for this week are: was,are, well, went, too. Your child will be tested on their recall of these words every Monday.
Aidan is "Scientist of the Day" this week, and he will be presenting his experiment "Testing for Starch" on Friday, Feb. 3rd. This experiment will demonstrate whether a food item contains starch or not. The following week Forrest will present "Cap In The Centre" on Thursday, Feb. 9th. This experiment will demonstrate surface tension.
Please make sure your child's reading log and book are kept in a zip lock bag. I provided one at the beginning of the year, if your child has lost it or the bag is broken, please replace it. The books for the home reading program are expensive to replace, and if they are kept in a ziplock bag they are less likely to get damaged (spills, wet snow, ect.) Thanks!
I am looking to have some more people come into the class to listen to children read. If you have some free time in your week, or a grandparent, relative, neighbour, ect., please let me know! About 45 minutes a week is all it takes! You will need to have a criminal record check done to work with children in our school. Please contact the office and they will asist you with all you need to know to be a volunteer. Thanks so much!
Some of the students are reading at the blue level in our Home Reading Program. Blue is the most difficult level. If your child is reading blue books, please know that I don't expect them to finish the whole book in a day (unless it is a short book). Many blue books are quite long, and will take several days to read. In order for your child to earn treats at the same rate as everyone else in the class, simply have them read for 15 - 20 minutes and fill in their reading long. Under the opinion section they can write "I read pages 1 - 15". The next day under their opinion they can continue writing the pages that they read. This way they can still bring in their log everyday and earn treats at the same rate as before.
You can contact me:
- in the grade one classroom before or after school
- by telephone 250-847-9414 before or after school
- e mail me at swellington@st.josephsschool.ca
Shannon Wellington