A September Recap

Two samples of student work based on our
 classroom discussions.

     Since September 4th, we have been studying the classroom in a variety of ways.  We have co-constructed classroom rules and expectations and we have discussed what we already know about Grade 1 and what questions we have about it.  We even asked some Grade 2 students what they could tell us about what it was like in Grade 1. (It is interesting that, at least a few of them said that, although Grade 1 was more work, it was also more fun than kindergarten!)  We did a Venn diagram comparing and contrasting Kindergarten and Grade 1 (asking: how are they different?  How are they similar?).  We have also been singing lots of songs, as well as reading lots of books related to l'école.  All of this is being taught with the aim of building oral language skills related to school, as well as develop good thinking and questioning skills.  One of our questions as a class was:  is grade 1 the same in other parts of the world?  Today, in order to begin to delve into answering this question, we read and learned about what school is like in Afghanistan.  Tomorrow, we will read about a school in Australia. 

     Below you will find our first word study poster.  Each student has chosen their own word to add to it.  We will be learning to read and write by using, exploring and classifying the words found here.  Your child should have brought home seven of the 28 words to read tonight for home reading. 

Since September, we have also been practising writing numerals and reviewing the quantities 0-10.  We will begin patterning this month. 

That's all for now!  If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to contact me.