Monday September 30, 2013

Good morning everyone,

I hope you all had a restful and fun weekend and that you enjoyed the pictures on the blog. =)

Monday Homework: Phonics
Phonics page 39-40
Students are asked to say the name of each picture and print it nicely on the line. On page 40 they need to circle the name of each picture.

Please note that we will not have a spelling test next week as it is exam week. Students should spend time reviewing all of the words that we have learned so far this year. I have compiled a list below.

give

our

under

name

very

through

just

form

sentence

great

think

say

help

low

line

differ

turn

return

cause

much

mean

before

move

right

boy

old

too

same

tell

cup

does

set

three

want

air

well

also

play

small

end

Also,  spelling tests have been marked and returned. Please do corrections and return them tomorrow with a parent's signature.

See everyone tomorrow morning!

Exam notes

Please note that MINOR subject exams will take place during regularly scheduled periods starting tomorrow Monday September 30, 2013 through to Friday October 4, 2013.

MAJOR subject exams will take place the following week on Wednesday October 9 and Friday October 11. Both of these days will be half days where students are dismissed at noon. Note that lunch will not be served on either of these days. Thursday October 10 is a holiday and there will be no school on that day. 

Please find the first quarter exam schedule for all major subjects below.

Exam Schedule         SY 2013-2014                                           Grade One

Date	Period	Subject and Proctor
Wednesday	1st Period	Language and Spelling (Ms. Fisher)
	2nd Period	Study Period (Ms. Fisher)
	B R E A K	B R E A K
	3rd Period	Reading (Ms. Fisher)
	4th Period	Phonics  (Ms. Fisher)

Date	Period	Subject and Proctor
Friday	1st Period	Science (Ms. Fisher)
	2nd Period	Study Period (Ms. Fisher)
	BREAK	BREAK
	3rd Period	Social Studies (Ms. Fisher)
	4th Period	Math (Ms. Fisher)

Happy Friday

• Important Reminder:

Christian Living Exam will take place Tuesday October 8 during the regular class period. Please review Chapters 1-5 of your textbook.

• Thank you for all the cards and gifts and sweet words for Teacher's Day! I have the best students ever!
• We had a fun afternoon eating pizza and watching a movie. Happy Teacher's Day to all!
• A very HAPPY BIRTHDAY to our little Andrew who will be celebrating his birthday this weekend! I hope you have a great time. We will all look forward to hearing about it on Monday.

Homework: Social Studies

Horizons About My World page 8

Students are asked to draw the items in the appropriate category.

Addition Lesson in Math Class 09/26/13

Here are some photos from yesterday afternoons Math class. We have started to learn about addition and yesterday we explored adding two parts together to make a whole using workmats and colored chips. Enjoy =)

Art Displays and Reviews

 Good morning everyone,

Some of you may have noticed the beautiful art work displayed on the boards at the entrance to our school. Some of these pieces are from our very own grade 1 students. Grade 3, 4, and 5 students chose pieces that they particularly liked to write reviews on. Please find these below. Congratulations to Alpha, Jeffery, Shannon and Miya!

Alpha's art work was chosen to be reviewed by two students in older grades.

  Shannon's art work was also displayed and reviewed.

Michael and Marcus wrote about what they liked about Jeffrey's art piece.

Cat in grade 5 chose Miya's artwork to write about.

Thursday September 26, 2013

Hi everyone,

• Just a quick reminder that grade one students must come to school wearing their proper uniforms on Thursday. They should bring their P.E. uniforms to change into before class or they are welcome to wear them underneath their regular school uniforms. Thank you!
•  
•  I have noticed that there have been a growing number of ants in and around the classroom so I have asked that the classroom be sprayed tonight. Hopefully this should help clear things up quickly. 
•  
• This week the grade one students led the school at Monday's assembly reciting the school songs, the morning prayer, and the pledge. Each day since, a few of them have been doing the morning prayer and the pledge over the morning announcements, and then the Angelus just before lunch. They have been practicing hard and are very proud of themselves. Moreover, they have been very supportive of each other and offering big congratulations after each student's announcement debut. Way to go grade 1's!
• Please note that in celebration of Teacher's Day students at DISK will not attend electives tomorrow, Friday September 27th, 2013. In lieu, we will have a class vote to decide whether we will go outside to play or watch a movie in class during that period. 

This morning in Reading class we talked more about the main idea in a piece of writing and the details that support it. We practiced reading sentences and picking out the one that did not belong. The students did a good job!

We played a fun learning game in Science class today where students threw a soft sticky ball at the whiteboard and had to read the word it landed on and then point to its matching concept. For example, if they threw the ball at the word "observe" they had to point to the magnifying glass and explain that it is used to look at things and make them bigger to see them better.I would then ask them a question to further test their knowledge. For example, look outside and observe the weather and tell me what you see. We had a good time and it definitely helped to solidify the concepts.

Homework: Math
Math Practice Book page 8 (Practice 2.1)
We have started learning about addition in Math class. New vocabulary we are using is, part, and whole. When we put two parts together we get a whole.

Important notice:

Minor subject exams (Chinese, art, music, health, computer, and Christian living) will take place next week, during the already scheduled class period.

Please note that the 1st Quarter Exam for Christian Music will be held on Wednesday October 2, 2013. Miss Liu asks all students to please review the following:

1. Songs for August Mass
pg. 1 number 1
pg. 2 number 6-7

pg.4 number 12
pg.6 number 16

2. Songs for September Mass
pg.9 number 23
pg. number 15
pg.12 number 31
pg.12 number 32
pg.13 number 33

Memorize the song "God`s Love Is"
Patroness of Music, St.Cecilia

• I have sent home Scholastic Book Club order forms. Please take a look and return them by tomorrow, Thursday September 26, 2013. I apologize for the short nice, I only received the  flyer and order form this afternoon.
• There is no homework this evening

See everyone tomorrow!

Please find the first quarter exam schedule for all major subjects below.

Exam Schedule         SY 2013-2014                                           Grade One

Date	Period	Subject and Proctor
Wednesday	1st Period	Language and Spelling (Ms. Fisher)
	2nd Period	Study Period (Ms. Fisher)
	B R E A K	B R E A K
	3rd Period	Reading (Ms. Fisher)
	4th Period	Phonics  (Ms. Fisher)

Date	Period	Subject and Proctor
Friday	1st Period	Science (Ms. Fisher)
	2nd Period	Study Period (Ms. Fisher)
	BREAK	BREAK
	3rd Period	Social Studies (Ms. Fisher)
	4th Period	Math (Ms. Fisher)

Tuesday September 24, 2013

Hello everyone,

What a great day we had! We organized sentences to write about space journeys during reading class, learned to recognize that nouns are people, places, and things, and did a unit review in math class. During science while we were having fun with a sticky ball and practicing our new scientific concepts of predict, compare, observe, and measure Miya's mother surprised our class with cakes and drinks for everyone to celebrate my birthday. We spent the last part of the afternoon having a bit of a party and everyone enjoyed themselves until I spilt the leftover cake all over myself while cleaning up! =)
Thank you so much to all the kids for being so sweet and making me feel special and a big thank you to Miya and her mother for their incredible kindness.

 Grace took a few photos of the students singing Happy Birthday! Sorry it's zoomed out so far.

New spelling list:

put

home

read

hand

port

report

its

because 

Homework: Language

English Workbook Plus page 10-13 

These are all review pages to reinforce question and telling sentences.

See everyone tomorrow!

Monday September 23, 2013

I hope everyone enjoyed their holiday! I was happy to see the kids today, I missed them. I am also happy to report that they were very enthusiastic and well behaved today so we enjoyed some moon cake together in the afternoon. 

Everyone finished their reading work in class so today's homework will be social studies. 

Horizons page 8 

We have been comparing schools from long ago and present day. Students are asked to write Now or Then for the tools in the pictures. Please write nicely.  

Also, spelling tests have been sent home for corrections and signatures. Please return them tomorrow. 

Wednesday September 18, 2013

Happy Moon Festival!

Thank you so much to everyone for the delicious cakes and treats! You are so kind =) I will have a full tummy over the long weekend. 

I had wanted to have a small Moon Festival celebration at the end of the day today as well as read out all the kind posts on our Kindness Wall and award a certificate to the student with the most good deeds. Unfortunately, due to several behaviour issues, this was not possible. I hope we can resume good listening and respectful behaviour on Monday. I hope everyone has a safe, restful, and happy holiday. 

Homework:

1. Phonics: Students who were unable to finish their Phonics work this morning will be asked to finish over the weekend. The pages are 32-34 from their blue Phonics book.

2. Math: We have been spending a lot of time learning how to solve word problems. I realize how daunting and difficult this is for the students when reading is still challenging for them. I have told them to use three steps to help them.
            1. Look for words that you know. (including math words, such as greater, less, fewer etc)
            2. Draw a picture or use a number line
            3. Check your answer

I would like them to try doing numbers 1-2 on page 28 of their Math textbook. We have done pages 25-27 together as practice over the past few days. I just want to see that they are using some of the strategies they have learnt. We will go over it all together again on Monday.

3. Spelling Test: As usual we will have a spelling test on Monday. The students usually write out their words once a day Monday-Friday. Since this is a shorter week than usual they are missing two days of practice so please have them study their words at home over the weekend.

Tuesday September 17,2013

Hi everyone,

English tests were marked and returned to students today. They are to fix their mistakes and have a parent sign their test before returning them tomorrow.

Homework Phonics

Page 30-31

Circle the word that answers each question and print it on the line.                                                         Circle the name of each picture. Print only the vowel in each word. 

Monday September 16, 2013

Hi everyone,

Hope you enjoyed the weekend.

Just a couple things to note:

1. The students were absolutely fantastic during Mass rehearsal this morning, I was very proud of them. Way to go Grade 1's!

2. Tomorrow we will have Mass so everyone must come to school in their proper uniform.

3. We will have our first English test tomorrow.

4. Spelling tests have been marked and returned to students. Any word that was written incorrectly needs to be copied three times. Parents must sign the test and return tomorrow.

5. This is a short week for the Moon Festival so students will have Thursday and Friday off of school.

6. New spelling words:

three

want

air

well

also

play

small

end

7. Homework: Reading

Journeys Practice Book page 7-8

Students are asked to circle the word with long u that names the picture.

On page 8 they are asked to write four details to tell more about the Moon's surface. They may use their Journeys textbook to help them. Please write nicely and neatly. You may write outside of the bubble if you need more room.

Hope you enjoyed the Science presentation photos. We had a lot of fun!

Science Senses Presentations Part 2

Using our sense of touch on the tea leaves.

Grace likes them!

Jeffery isn't sure if he likes it or not..