An Overview, Our Schedule and Connecting.

Hi! After collecting the blog surveys, there were some who requested a copy of our schedule during the week and how best you can support us at home. Depending on the month or the week, we may have special days or activities (like the Drumming residency), but this is what our usual week looks like to give you an overview of what we are learning in our day. As most of you know, daily reading (listening to us read, and/or reading to us) is one of the greatest gifts you can give, so that would be number one. We all live busy lives, so having some books in the car, to read while you are driving to and from activities is a great way to sneak in more reading as well as audio books to listen to while we are getting dinner ready or getting ready for bed. Doodling is another great way to strengthen our fine motor skills for writing. Drawing circles forwards and backwards, slanted lines both ways, "X's" and squares cover all the different letters we print.

First, here is a quick overview of what we are learning during our days.

In Language Arts, grade ones are now working on word families, at, an, ap...so looking for these in our stories and creating new words is a great way to add to our learning at school. Grade twos are working on long and short vowels and rules that go along with those. Making lists of words you find around home and adding the "rebel words" that don't follow the rules are fun too. Creating silly sentences together helps us all play with language which helps us figure out which sounds go together. Listening and reading poems and looking for patterns in words are all fun ways to support learning.

In Math, we are learning all about patterns around us, with music, actions, shapes, colors and beads; repeating (ABabABabABab) and growing (A,Ab,Ab1,Ab12). This will lead us to look at what patterns we can find in numbers.

Animals all around us is what we are learning about in Science. Their habitats, food, predators, prey etc. After our group completes, "Who Am I" posters, we will get to choose our own animal to research.

All about me, our family and our community is the what we are learning in Social Studies. Sharing about our favorite things and our family help us learn how others are the same and different than us. Thank you for all of your support at home sharing with us about our world.

Mondays - this is our Journal day where we write about our weekend using a Topic sentence, 3-5 details and then a closing sentence in the morning. Telling stories with great description words will help make our stories more interesting and exciting.

Tuesdays - Library in the morning at 10-10:30am and Mathletics in the afternoon 2:30-3pm (a reminder that we work through patterns, and numbers during this time, but at home we are free to enjoy "live mathletics" challenge or creating "our virtual person."

Wednesdays/Thursdays - Music in the afternoons 1:45-2:30pm

Fresh Air Fridays - except for special assemblies, we are usually outside exploring for the morning and have inside recess.

We start the morning with Guided reading groups and centres and usually are working on Language Arts and Math after recess until lunch. After lunch, we have quiet reading time and then work together on Science or Social studies. During the last 30 minutes of the day, we are doing our jobs, helping with blog, sharing, and Mrs. Armour tries to finish the day with a story - right now we are reading through Old Man Coyote by Thornton W. Burgess.

I know this is a bit lengthy, feel free to print it out so you have it to refer to. Hopefully this helps fill in some gaps that you were wondering about. Please always feel free to send me an email with questions or concerns so this is a two way conversation.

Yours together in learning,
Heather Armour
hjarmour@cbe.ab.ca