April Showers bring May flowers? Let’s hope so!

Thank you for sending your children prepared for the weather. The forecast looks like we can look forward to warmer temperatures next week so we can get outside and begin some outdoor learning lessons!

Student Led Conferences

Thank you to everyone who returned your yellow slip requesting your conference time.

Please see the groupings listed below. You will notice that we will have a large group at the 2:00 to 2:30 slot. If you would like to join one of the later groups instead of the 2pm group please feel free to do so.

Your child will be sharing their portfolio and other learning documents with you. They will guide you through a list.

2:00 – 2:30: Jessie, Hailey M., Keidi, Michaela, Justin, Milania, Henry

2:30 – 3:00: Miranda, Rihaan, Lucas, Zoe

3:00 – 3:30: Selihom

3:30 – 4:00: Anni, Helena

4:00 – 4:30: Psalms

4:30 – 5:00: Eloise

Looking forward to seeing you on Wednesday! Please remember that we will have a Scholastic Book Fair in the library for you to visit before/after your student led conference time.

Whale Study

We have been learning about whales in our classroom. When you visit you will see some of the activities that we have been working on.

Did you know that a blue whale is 22 kids long? We measured the length of a blue whale by lying down in our hallway!

Burnaby Art Gallery Workshop: Forest for the Trees

Julia, from the Burnaby Art Gallery, visited our classroom and shared various artists’ representations of trees. We then participated in an art activity where we created a tree silhouette against the sky.

Earth Day

We have been learning about ways that we can take care of the Earth (including reducing, reusing, and recycling) as we lead up to Earth Day on April 22.

Reminder: School is closed for students on Monday April 24 for a Pro-D Day.

Have a lovely weekend!

Let’s look at our week:

Bhangra

Today we had our first dance lesson. We will have 3 more lessons and then have a school wide performance next Friday afternoon. They did such a great job!

Literacy Week Activities

This week we particiapted in some literacy activities including “swapping teachers” to read us stories, cozy reading with stuffies, wearing “words” and the book swap. Keep up the amazing reading!

Summer Session

Summer session in Burnaby provides learning opportunities for students during the first 3 weeks of July. Many of the courses are completely free for Burnaby students. For those of you wanting to register your child for Summer Session in July, registration begins on April 11. Check out the SD41 homepage for links to more information.

Money in Math

We are learning about different coins and learning how to add small amounts of money. I encourage you to work with your child counting nickels (by 5’s), and dimes (by 10’s) to add a small sum of coins.

A reminder that school is closed on Friday April 7 and Monday April 10.  Wishing you a peaceful long weekend! Happy Easter to those of you who celebrate!

Welcome back to school after Spring Break!

With this week’s warm temperatures we were able have fun playing outdoors and notice the changes in nature.

Mammal Study

We have started to learn about animal classification and learn more about “mammals” in particular. This will lead us into a deeper study of “whales” later in April.

Artist of the month: Monet

We learned about Monet and explored the concepts of warm/cool colours by looking at his art.

Check out these beautiful watercolour paintings inspired by Monet.

Literacy Week

Starting on April 3 we will be celebrating Literacy at Brantford.

Students are welcome to donate any books that they no longer want at home to our Book Swap on Monday. They will then get to choose new books to take home. Donations accepted on Monday!

Wednesday – students are welcome to wear clothing with “words” on them

Thursday – Pj’s and stuffie day for cozy reading

Bhangra Dance Lessons

Next Thursday, we will begin a series of dance lessons in the style of Bhangra leading up to Vaisakhi celebration on April 13.

Good-bye to Adyan

Our newest classmate, Adyan, has moved to Vancouver.  We enjoyed his friendship and company in the classroom even though he was only here for a short time. We wish him all the best at his new school!

Dates to remember:

Friday April 7- School closed for Good Friday

Monday April 10 – School closed for Easter Monday

Monday April 24 – School closed for students, Pro-D Day

Have a lovely weekend!

Happy Spring Break!

Gymnastics

During the month of March, we are lucky to have the gymnastics equipment during our gym periods. The students have worked on using their strength and balance to maneuver the equipment.

Potato Planting

Our seed potatoes are planted and ready to grow. We cannot wait to see what happens during Spring Break!

Graphing

We learned how to organize information into bar graphs and venn diagrams.

Sorting animals based on their habitat

Comparing objects: Does it roll, stack or do both?

Literacy Week / Book Swap

During the week of April 3 to 6 we will be celebrating “literacy week”. One of the events during this week will be a “Book Swap”. Over Spring Break, please have a look for books that your family is willing to donate to the book swap. The books will be displayed and students can then choose “new” books to take home when they have donated books that they no longer read at home.

Report Card Envelopes

Please sign and return report card envelopes as soon as you can after Spring Break. You can keep all the papers inside. I only require the envelope for next term’s report card.

Spring Break Memory

When school re-opens on Monday March 27, we will be sharing a “memory” from Spring Break. Please help your child come up with ideas that they can use as a “memory”. Examples could include playing at a playground with a special friends, getting a new toy, going to a special place like the aquarium or Science World, visiting a beach, going to a movie, visiting a relative, or eating at a restaurant.

Dates to remember:

Monday March 27 – school re-opens after the break

Wednesday March 29 – Class Photos

Friday April 7 – School Closed for Good Friday

Monday April 10 – School Closed for Easter Monday

Monday April 24 – School CLsoed for students – Pro-D Day

Wednesday April 26 – Early dismissal at 1:55, Student Led Conferences 2 – 5pm

I hope you all have a lovely Spring Break with your families!

Hello families!

In Math, this week we have been focusing on place value and greater than/less than. We have been using the analogy of the “chomping alligator” because the alligator’s open mouth always wants to eat more (similar to the greater than symbol <).

Screen Time

I understand that students are using screens more at home than in years past but a lot of the language from video games and apps is making it’s way into the classsroom.  I have heard a lot of language from tiktok which is not an age appropriate app for Gr. 1 students to be familiar with.

For more age appropriate apps, I recommend using their RAZ Kids app so they can build on their skills. Perhaps you can find other math or reading apps that can be more interactive to reinforce concepts instead of apps like tiktok.

Home Reading

Thank you for reading with your children at home. We are seeing great progress in reading levels! Keep it up!

Hot lunch ordering

Just a reminder from the PAC that hot lunch ordering is now open for the Spring term on Munch a lunch if you would like to order for your child.

Have a lovely weekend!

Valentine’s Day and 100th Day of School

Through these special days this week, we have been able to particiapte in meaningful and fun learning experiences.

On Valentine’s Day, the students sorted their valentine cards into their friends’ mailboxes and everyone worked on weaving their mailboxes-they turned out very well!

We have arrived at 100 days of school today! There was a lot of excitement and many opportunities for math throughout the day.  Making 100th day hats (10 groups of 10 stickers), sorting collections of 100 things, and our skip counting song kept us busy today.

Reminders:

No school on Monday Feb. 17

Pink shirt day on Wed. Feb. 22

Assembly on Thursday Feb. 23

Pro – D on Friday Feb. 24.

Have a lovely long weekend spending some time together for Family Day!

February is a busy month!

I hope that you have had a chance to read the letter that I sent home last week on the reverse of the February calendar. Key points from that letter include:

–Tuesday February 14 – Valentine’s Day – students are welcome to give Valentine cards to their classmates. We will distribute the cards in the morning and open them later in the afternoon. I encourage all students to write the names of their friends independently. Treats/goodies are not necessary to hand out to classmates. There will also be a PAC Bake Sale so students can bring $1 or $2 to buy a snack that day.

–Friday February 17 – 100th Day of School – students are welcome to bring a collection on 100 small items in a bag on Friday. We will be glueing these items so please do not send items that you want returned. Suggested items include: stickers, cheerios, pasta, paperclips, buttons, etc.

-Monday – February 20 – Family Day – School closed

-Wednesday February 22 – Students are welcome to wear pink for Pink Shirt Day

-Friday February 24 – School Closed for students. District pro d day. I will be at Burnaby Mountain Secondary attending a “Mind-up” workshop to further my learning around social/emotional learning.

What have we been working on in class?

We have been learning about the artist “Kandinsky” while focusing on colour and line.

Place value in math. We have been building numbers using 10s and 1s.

Weaving heart mailboxes for our Valentine cards.

Writing stories about our stuffies during “story workshop” today.

Where do we live? Students have brought home this booklet to complete this weekend. Please encourage your child to learn their address as very few children were able to complete the page for their address.

Home reading books

Please read and re-read the home reading books. Then return the books every Monday. I allocate time every Monday to exchange the books.

Have a beautiful weekend!

Our Community and Buildings 

Many of our weekly activities focused on our community around Brantford School. We focused on “structures” and buildings that we need as a part of our community.

Many thanks to the PAC for funding an inclass workshop provided by the Burnaby Art Gallery. The focus was “Structures and Buildings.” After learning about different types of architecture that are evident throughout Burnaby, we compared older and newer buildings. We then created our own structures using a variety of materials. Your child brought this structure home on Wednesday.

Have a look at the students working on their structures:

Dates to remember:

Tuesday February 14 – Valentine’s Day (I will send more info about Valentine cards next week)

Monday February 20 – Family Day – School Closed

Wednesday February 22 – Pink Shirt Day – We will perform at the assembly.

Friday February 24 – Pro-D Day – school closed for students.

***Please return Home Reading Book Bags on Monday.

Reading, making stories, and Lunar New Year!

The students’ reading skills are developing with every week that passes.  Thank you for reading with your child at home. I am definitely seeing the results. More reading and repetition increases fluency.

One of the most profound statistics in support of reading with children at home is from a 2019 study from Ohio State University. “Kids who are read even one book a day will hear about 290,000 more words by age 5 than those who don’t regularly read books with a parent or caregiver.” Imagine the vocabulary and letter knowledge a child that is read to has by the time they arrive at Gr. 1! Please continue to read and have conversations with your children.

Independent reading

Here we are working on “independent reading”. They are encouraged to “read the pictures” and “read the words you know”. These are their book boxes. They change their books every week.

Rolling and Ramps

I was lucky to borrow these cool ramps and wooden balls from our District LEarning Library. The kids are having so much fun creating ramps and courses for the balls.

Story Workshop

In story workshop, the students create a “story” with loose parts (small objects that can be used for open ended purposes). They are then encouraged to document their story through words and pictures.

Gung Hay Fat Choy to all the families who will be celebrating Lunar and Chinese New Year this weekend.

We learned a lot through stories and videos this week. Check out our cool dragon dancing down the hallway!

Gung Hay Fat Choy!

Skating and a bus ride!

I am VERY proud of the students for showing determination and perseverance while skating today! They were patient (waiting in a long line to get rentals), enthusiatic, and encouraging to their peers! I missed getting a photo of everyone on their skates but here are some photos for you to enjoy!

I am sure they will sleep well tonight!

Report Cards

Report cards went home yesterday. Please keep all the papers from inside the envelope then return the envelope to school so we can reuse it for Term 2 Report Cards.  Please reach out to me if you would like to meet to discuss their progress further.

Home reading bags – return on Monday please!

Extra clothing to keep at school – please ensure that any extra clothes that go home make their way back to school so we always have a set of dry clothing available.

Have a wonderful weekend!