Reminder - Orange Shirt Day Tomorrow

 Hello everyone,

Just a friendly reminder that Orange Shirt Day is tomorrow. We discussed why we have Orange Shirt Day today, and will continue to do more work around this tomorrow. If you have an orange article of clothing for your child to wear, please have them wear it tomorrow! I will have orange bands for the kids to wear around their wrist if they do not have any orange clothing. 

We will be participating in a smudge ceremony tomorrow morning with a special guest, Preston Huppie. Today, we discussed what a smudge ceremony is and what we will be doing. We also wrote some positive intentions for our school year and put them together in an offering that we will give to Mr. Huppie during the ceremony. Ask us to show you how to smudge this evening! 

There is no school on Thursday, Sept. 30th to observe the Day of Truth and Reconciliation.

- Ms. Byrne 

Sept. 27

Hello everyone! 

    We had a lot of things to talk about this morning. When we walked into our classroom we had less desks because some of our friends have moved to the new class taught by Ms. Diduch. Some of our desks got moved around, and now we have more room to socially distance! Next, we shared some things from our weekend and sang a happy birthday song to Finn, who had a birthday over the weekend. We learned that this week is very special because we will be having Orange Shirt Day on Wednesday. Through our learning about the medicine wheel we have talked about Indigenous people before, but we watched a quick video that helped explain what the word Indigenous means and why they are very important people. We learned that Indigenous means the first people to live on this land. There are many different groups of Indigenous people: Metis, First Nation (which has lots of different groups of it's own), and Inuit. Ms. Byrne reminded us of the Acknowledgement of the Land that we hear sometimes at school. She told us that we do an Acknowledgement of the Land to show respect for the Indigenous people who lived, and still live, on this land. We talked about how Indigenous people lived on this land long before other people came here, and long before this land was even called Canada. Some of us knew already that when other people came to this land, some really bad things happened to Indigenous people. Ms. Byrne told us that this history is a part of why we have Orange Shirt Day - to show respect and support for Indigenous people. We will be talking more about the reason we have Orange Shirt Day tomorrow during our morning meeting (Residential Schools), so we may have some questions and things we want to talk about with you at home as well. 

    We filled in our calendar and some of us got to be helpers at the Smartboard! We moved on to our Star Student time and today we got to learn all about Ava. We wrote 5 facts about Ava and then took a break for our first recess and snack time. After recess, we filled in a page about her for our class book. We practiced drawing her one step at a time so that our pictures could be our best work! 

    After lunch, we had some mindfulness time and then worked on creating patterns using blocks. We each got 3 colours of blocks and brought them to our desks. Ms. Byrne wrote a pattern rule on the whiteboard (ex: AB, ABC, AAB) and we created a pattern to match the rule with our blocks. We had lots of fun creating different patterns! 

    Before our second recess, we took some time to talk about the fourth pillar of care - Care for Place. We talked about how this pillar could be connected to different parts of the medicine wheel, but we are going to use the Spirit section to represent it. We talked about how taking care of our space in the classroom, community, and the world is important and can help us take care of our minds, bodies, and hearts as well. We shared some ideas for ways that we can show Care for Place. We will finish the last section of our medicine wheels tomorrow. 

    When we returned from recess, we took some time to talk about Terry Fox. We learned a little about Terry and watched a video of him from when he started his Marathon of Hope. We talked about how important Terry and his foundation have been in raising money to help find a cure for cancer. Ms. Byrne told us that Terry Fox is a very important person to her, because Ms. Byrne's dad had the same type of cancer as Terry Fox when she was little. Luckily, because of all the new ways we have to help people who have cancer, her dad was able to get better! We each got a big sticker to take home today. Please talk to us about anyone in our family or a friend who may have had cancer. We can write their name on our sticker together and bring it back to school tomorrow to wear on our shirts during the Terry Fox Run. If we don't have anyone in our life who has had cancer, we can write Terry Fox on the sticker instead to show our support. Remember to send the sticker back tomorrow so we can wear it during our run! 

Reminders: 

- Sept. 28 - Terry Fox Run - You can submit any donations here: 

 http://www.terryfox.ca/BeddingtonHeights

- Sept. 29 - Orange Shirt Day 

- Sept. 30 - No School - Day of Truth and Reconcilation 

 Have a great day!

Sept. 20

 Hello everyone,

Yesterday, we had a long morning meeting because there was lots to talk about! We had some things to share from our weekend, and then we talked about the election. Ms. Byrne told us that our school had an important part in the election because people would be coming to our school to vote. We had lots of questions about what people were voting for and why. Ms. Byrne told us that people were voting to decide who would be the next Prime Minister of Canada. Of course, we wanted to know what it means to be Prime Minister! So, we talked about how the PM gets to make lots of big decisions about our country and when grown-ups vote they are working together to decide who gets to make those big decisions. Everybody gets to vote in secret so that everyone can decide for themselves and not feel pressure from anyone else to vote a certain way. We were very interested in the election and how it works, so we may have more questions at home! 

We continued our morning meeting discussion about comfortable and uncomfortable feelings. We revisited our chart and listed some uncomfortable feelings and when we might feel them. Today, we used these feelings and a story called "Kindness is a Kite String" to help us talk about Care for Others, and the "heart" section of our medicine wheels. We brainstormed some ways that we can show care for others and we will work on writing them to create our next medicine wheel section tomorrow. 

Today, we worked on the letter T. We reviewed the sounds we have already learned and practiced the T sound as well. We followed our letter routine of listening to a song about the letter, practicing the sound together, tracing the shape of the letter in the air, and brainstorming words that begin with T. We made a chart with our ideas, then got our printing books to fill in the letter T page. 

Now that we have practiced different patterns and their rules, we each got 2 colours of blocks yesterday to create a pattern. We took pictures of our patterns, then made new ones. After we had each made 3 different patterns using our blocks, we took them apart and created something that was not a pattern to compare. Today, we got to work with 3 colours of blocks. Once we made a pattern, we laid it onto a whiteboard and then used our whiteboard marker to label it! Check out some pictures of our pattern work below:

Not a pattern!

A pattern!

A pattern!

Not a pattern!

In science, we have been talking about our 5 senses. For the last 2 days we have been talking about our sense of sight. We learned about some parts of our eye: our iris, pupil, eyelashes, and eyelid. We learned what each part helps with. We talked about how our pupil can get bigger and smaller, depending on the light. We looked at some optical illusions to talk about how some things can trick our eyes! Today, we talked about how our eyes can see colours and how some people see colours differently than others. We looked at a colour blindness test and talked about how someone who is colourblind might see that test. 

Reminders:

- Thank you for sending in your signed Digital Citizenship forms - we almost have the whole set! If you have not returned yours, please do so ASAP so we can begin using educational apps to support our classroom learning

- Friendly reminder - with the issued state of emergency it has become even more important to adhere to our school safety measures. Please do not enter the compound during school hours if possible. If you need to enter the compound area ensure that you are wearing a mask. Discuss the importance of wearing your mask at school and maintaining distance when possible with your child(ren). Please be sure to send a mask with your child each day - and an extra if possible!

- Thursday, Sept. 23 - Meet the Teacher - virtual information sessions through Teams. 2 sessions - 6-6:45PM and 7-7:45PM. A link will be sent to you, click the link at the start of your chosen session time to access. You will be able to access the session on a phone, tablet, or computer. You can use Teams through your browser and do not need to download an app or program unless you choose to do so. 

- Friday, Sept 24 - No School - PD day

- Tuesday, Sept. 28 - Terry Fox Run

- Wednesday, Sept. 29 - Orange Shirt Day

- Thursday, Sept. 30 - No School - Day of Truth and Reconciliation

Have a great evening!

- Ms. Byrne

Sept. 17

 Hello everyone!

Today we started with a morning meeting to discuss comfortable and uncomfortable feelings. We revisited some books that we read throughout the week that explained some feelings and feeling-words. We talked about what a comfortable feeling might feel like in our brain and body. We listed some comfortable feelings on a chart and decided we would talk more about uncomfortable feelings on Monday and discuss times we might have felt one of these feelings and how we handled it. 

We filled in our calendar and practiced skip counting by 2s. We looked at a 100s chart to see the skip counting pattern in action. 

We worked on the number 3 and then completed the number 3 in our printing books. We looked at some examples of our friends printing books to see what they were doing really well so that we could work to improve our own work. 

We took a break to eat snack and have our P.E. time outside on the compound. 

We returned to class to work on examples and non-examples of patterns. Each of us got a chart to draw a pattern and "not-a-pattern". Once we completed our examples and non-examples we glued the chart into our math books - our very first page!

Next, we read Chicka Chicka Boom Boom and worked on a guided drawing of a palm tree like the one in the story. We are going to be adding the letters of our names to the tree next week to create name art!

Reminders:

- Thank you for sending in your signed Digital Citizenship forms - we almost have the whole set! If you have not returned yours, please do so ASAP so we can begin using educational apps to support our classroom learning

- Friendly reminder - with the issued state of emergency this week it has become even more important to adhere to our school safety measures. Please do not enter the compound during school hours if possible. If you need to enter the compound area ensure that you are wearing a mask. Discuss the importance of wearing your mask at school and maintaining distance when possible with your child(ren). Please be sure to send a mask with your child each day - and an extra if possible!

- Thursday, Sept. 23 - Meet the Teacher - virtual information sessions through Teams. 2 sessions - 6-6:45PM and 7-7:45PM. A link will be sent to you, click the link at the start of your chosen session time to access. You will be able to access the session on a phone, tablet, or computer. You can use Teams through your browser and do not need to download an app or program unless you choose to do so. 

- Friday, Sept 24 - No School - PD day

Have a wonderful weekend!

-Ms. Byrne

Sept. 15

 Hello everyone!

Today we started with a class meeting to talk about what goes into the paper recycling and what goes into the garbage can - some friends were getting the bins mixed up. We also made a class "lost and found" bin for the crayons and other supplies that have escaped from their owner. 

We filled in our calendar and practiced counting to 100 by 1s. We spun a wheel on our smartboard to decide on another way to count to 100 - it landed on counting by 10s. So, we listened to the counting by 10s song and sang along! 

We worked on the letter B in our printing books today. We practiced the sound letter B makes together. We compared it to the sound letter P makes. We practice these letters together because we make the sounds in similar ways (lips together, then apart). We learned to "find" the letter sounds on our bodies (ex: letter P sound comes from air escaping our mouth - we can find it by putting our hands in front of our mouth and feeling the air. Letter B sound comes from our voice - we can feel it by placing our fingers gently on the front of our necks to feel our voice box vibrate with the sound!). Take a look at the pictures below to see some of our printing book work:

It was raining at our first recess time so we decided to have an indoor recess. After our indoor recess, we read a book together called The Little Acorn. It was about the journey of an acorn growing into a tree and how it changes through the seasons. This led us to talking about our very first science topic - the 4 seasons! We talked about which season is coming next and how we can tell that the season is changing right now. We finished up our science discussion a little early, so we used our extra time to review number 2, which we worked on yesterday. We practiced step-by-step how to draw the number 2 together, then worked on it independently on our whiteboards. We improved so much already!

After lunch we took some time to talk about why mindfulness is important. We met a character named Mojo who was feeling very anxious and stressed. We also revisited a book we read yesterday called "Worrysaurus". We talked about how feeling anxious, nervous, stressed, scared, frustrated, etc. are not comfortable feelings for our bodies. Those feelings can make us say and do things that we wouldn't normally do, and sometimes those things we say and do can make other people around us feel uncomfortable feelings as well. Using mindfulness strategies helps our bodies calm down, letting our brain think before we do or say things. This helps everyone do their best each day! Even if we are not feeling strong feelings, it is good to practice mindfulness regularly to teach our body those strategies and to make sure our bodies and brains are ready for their best learning throughout the day.

Ms. Yu came to visit us during math and we practiced some new pattern rules: ABC, AAB, and AABB. We made pages for a pattern book using each rule. We're almost finished making our pattern book! While Ms. Yu was helping us, Ms. Byrne was meeting with some of us one-on-one to do some alphabet testing. This helps her know which letters we already know well, and which ones we need some more practice with. 

We decided to go outside for our playground recess in the afternoon and then came back in to do some guided drawing. We are practicing drawing people for our star student book. Now that we are big kids in grade 1 we want to learn how to draw our friends the way that they look and not as stick people! Today we practiced how to draw a body. Drawing hands and feet are really tricky, but we stuck with it! We will practice some more when we do our next star student page tomorrow. 

We finished our day with P.E. in the gym with Ms. Sterne. 

Reminders:

- New Digital Citizenship forms were given to students who had not returned them yesterday. Please sign and return this form as soon as possible - we use iPads in our classroom during literacy centres (for a "listening to reading" centre using RazKids) and math centres (to practice new skills through Mathletics). Without a signed form, students are not able to use the iPads. 

- Meet the Teacher - Sept. 23rd - will be online. We will be having 2 sessions from 6-6:45 and 7-7:45. These sessions will be informational with an introduction to our grade 1 teaching team, specialist teachers, and admin, an overview of your child's school schedule, curriculum areas, and an opportunity to ask questions. 

- Sept. 29th - Orange Shirt Day - we will also be participating in a Smudge Ceremony as a school on this day. It will be held outside and socially distanced. 

- Sept. 30th - No School - Day of Truth and Reconciliation 

Always feel free to email me (nibyrne@cbe.ab.ca) or comment below with any questions.

Have a great day!

- Ms. Byrne

Sept. 13

 Hello everyone!

We started our day by sharing about our weekend. Then, we came back to the medicine wheel and shared some ideas for how we take care of our bodies (care for self). We brainstormed 5 ideas for a chart and we will each pick a goal to make the next piece of our medicine wheels tomorrow. 

We filled in our calendar for the day, danced along to a "count to 100" song, and practiced a counting by 10s song. We looked at a 100s chart to see the counting by 10s pattern. Mr. Wiens came for music class right as we were finishing up.

We interviewed our first star student today! We asked her lots of questions about her favourite things and listed 5 facts about her. We took a break to eat snack and have our first recess before returning to class and completing our Star Student page. We wrote 1 fact about our star student, wrote her name, and then drew a a picture of her. We're going to make a page for each student in our class. Once we are done we will put them together to make a class book about our friends!

After lunch we had some mindfulness time. Then, we practiced making patterns by cutting and gluing pictures into a pattern template. Today, we each made an AB pattern. Tomorrow, we will use a different pattern rule. We are learning that patterns are a thing that repeats and has a rule that we can follow. They aren't just colours, but can be number, letters, shapes, objects, etc. See if we can find a pattern in our house today!

We had our second recess and came back inside to work on some art that we started on Friday. We are each making a name collage. We each had a big piece of paper with our names on them. We take tiny pieces of coloured paper and glue them onto the letters of our name to create the collage. We are going to put them up in our classroom when they are finished. 

At the end of the day we had our P.E. time on the compound. Friendly reminder for parents, guardians, and others who may be picking up students at the end of the day to please remain on the sidewalk outside the fence. If students see pick-ups coming inside the fence it can be confusing for them as they think it may be home time! It is also a school rule right now because of Covid protocols. 

Reminders:

Please return Digital Citizenship and Demographics/Media Release forms ASAP. I will be sending extra copies of Digital Citizenship forms home tomorrow for those who have not yet returned them! Students are unable to use technology in the school until these forms have been signed and returned. 

Have a great day!

- Ms. Byrne

Sept. 9

 Hello everyone!

We have been continuing to learn about the medicine wheel each day during our morning meeting. For the last 2 days we focused on the "mind" section of the wheel and talked about how it was connected to our Pillars of Care through Care for Learning. We brainstormed ideas of ways we can show care for learning/take care of our minds. This morning, we each chose one of the ideas we came up with and wrote it as a goal for ourselves onto a quarter of a circle. We cut out this shape, glued it to a larger red shape, and then cut that out as well to create a red boarder to match the red section of the medicine wheel. We will continue to do this with each part of the wheel to set a goal in each area for ourselves. 

We filled in our calendar and completed a pattern activity where we had to decide if the picture Ms. Byrne showed us was a pattern or not a pattern. We took turns explaining how we knew it was or was not. This time is called a "math talk" and we use it to practice new math ideas and vocabulary each day. 

We got our very own mini-whiteboards today! We learned how to take care of them, as well as our own whiteboard markers and erasers. We practiced some of our pre-printing shapes on the whiteboards. The whiteboards have lines that match our printing books - so we practiced where to start our shapes and where to end them. It can be hard to fit some shapes inside the lines! Before we knew it, it was time to clean up for lunch!

After lunch we practiced the number 1. We talked about different ways to show 1 and listened to a song that had lots of ideas (ex: 10-frames, dice, dominos, a picture, our fingers, a numeral, a tally mark, etc.). We got our printing books out and practiced making both the numeral and the word "one". Then, we each got a 10-frame to glue into our book and used it to show 1. We got to pick one other way to show 1 before we put our books away. 

We read a story together today called "Sink or Swim" about a cow who wants to learn to swim. He asks different animals to teach him - a duck, a turtle, a frog - but his body is different than theirs and he can't learn to swim in the same way they do. Eventually the cow goes to a swim shop and the owner helps him get everything he needs (flippers, goggles, and a surf board to float on). Soon the cow is able to float on his surf board and use his flippers to swim across the pond. We talked about how, just like the animals in the story, we all learn to do things differently. That means that some times our friends may need a special tool (like a pencil grip or a fidget tool), or extra help from a grown up, to help them practice a new skill. In our classroom, those things are learning tools that a teacher or teacher helper might give to us to help us do our best learning, and not toys to play with. So, we shouldn't feel jealous if we see someone in our class using a special tool to help them. Everybody needs different things to help them! 

This story led us to talk about what kinds of expectations we think our classroom should have this year. We had lots of ideas! We made a poster with reminders that we can re-read together to make sure we are all doing our very best at school. 

We got to have our first P.E. class with Miss Sterne today! Our P.E. time ended right when it was time to go home, so we had to get ourselves ready quickly at the end of the day. 

Throughout this week we have been working to complete our self-portraits. We added 3 pictures about us (favourite things, family, etc.) to complete our projects. Here are some pictures of our finished portraits:

Reminders:

- Please return digital citizenship and demographics forms as soon as possible! I will send extra copies of digital citizenship forms on Monday with those students who haven't returned them yet (forms have been known to go missing on way home!)

Have a great day!

-Ms. Byrne

Sept. 7

Hello everyone!

We started our day with a sharing circle where we talked about what we did during the long weekend. We read our morning message together and then we looked at a picture of a medicine wheel. Some of us recognized the wheel from kindergarten or from learning about it at home. We talked about the 4 colours of the wheel and how they can represent different things. Today, we talked about the wheel representing our mind, body, heart, and spirit. We learned that in order to be our best selves we need to do things to take care of each of part of ourselves. If we forget to take care of a part, then we are missing a piece of the circle and it can make things challenging for us. We will be using the medicine wheel a lot this year!

We filled in our calendar and our days of school. We looked at some of our classmates' printing books and discussed things they did really well during our first try making our printing shapes, and 1 thing we think they could try to do even better next time. Then, Mr. Wiens came to have music class with us! 

After music we read a story called "We Don't Eat Our Classmates". It was a silly book about a T-Rex named Penelope who starts school with a class full of human kids. Ask us what happened in the story! Retelling a story we have read together is a great reading activity for us to practice. It helps us build our comprehension skills!

Next, we had snack and recess before returning to class and taking out our printing books. We reviewed the feedback we had talked about earlier and then set off to work on our second set of pre-printing shapes. This time we were working on diagonal lines ( /, \, X, and a triangle).

After lunch we had some mindfulness time to get our brains ready for math. We each got a blue math folder and a 100s chart. We glued our 100s chart onto our math folder so that we can use it to help us practice counting. We listened to our counting to 100 song and pointed to each number on the 100s chart while we sang along. 

Then, it was time to get back to work on our self-portraits! We reviewed the steps we completed so far, then we added a mask to our picture. We got to decorate our mask however we wanted. We took a break to go outside for our second recess and then finished the inside of our portraits - our smiling faces underneath our mask! We had some time to colour our pictures before we cleaned our classroom and got ready for P.E. 

Our P.E. time is now at the end of the day. P.E. will be held at different places throughout the year. For September, we will have P.E. on the compound 2/3 days, and in the gym with Ms. Sterne the other day. Being on the compound means we get to play compound games. Today, the silly big kids accidentally brought in the equipment early! So we didn't have what we needed to play some games. Ms. Byrne taught us how to play Line Tag, HopScotch, and Snakes and Ladders. We got to choose one of those games, or to play a tag game of our own. By that time it was quite hot and many of us were tired and wanted to rest. Tomorrow the equipment will be out and then we will have lots more games to choose from!

It was a bit tricky to have our P.E. time on the compound right before home time. Lots of us saw our pick-up person early and wanted to say hello. Ms. Byrne asked us to stay inside the compound until she called us together and told us it was home time. If you see one of us coming to the fence, please remind us of this rule! 

Reminders:

Digital Citizenship - On Friday we each received a Digital Citizenship form. We talked about it together in class, but please review it at home with your child before signing. We are usually great at taking care of technology at school, but it is important to remember our rules about only using an app that Ms. Byrne has asked us to use, and keeping our passwords a secret. Once you have reviewed and signed these forms, please return them to school. Until we have our forms returned, we cannot begin using iPads for reading and math activities. 

Forms - Another group of forms were sent home today. Demographic forms need to be reviewed to ensure all the information is correct. If it is correct you can send it back as is. If anything is incorrect, please write the correct information beside it before sending it back. Other forms include student info, and media release for the school and the CBE. Also included was a year-long calendar. Please sign and return all forms as soon as possible. 

Have a great day!

- Ms. Byrne

September 3

 Hello everyone!

We have had a busy first week of school. We completed a sharing circle each morning. Yesterday we shared our favourite animals. Today we shared our favourite thing about the first week of school, as well as something we didn't like so that we could talk about how to fix any problems that came up. 

Each day we filled in our classroom calendar and sang some counting songs to practice counting up to 100. 

Yesterday we also got our printing books. We talked about how we are going to learn how to print each letter correctly, and learn about the sounds each letter makes. It's our first step in learning how to read! For now, we practiced how to use our printing books by trying out something called "pre-printing shapes." Those are shapes that you need to practice in order to print neat and tidy letters. We each got a sticker for our hard work!

We started a self-portrait project of us wearing our masks with our bright smiles hiding underneath! So far, we folded our papers to create the right shape, and drew the top half of our faces. We can't wait to show you our finished portraits!

We've been practicing our quiet reading time each day. We learned that we can look through the pictures to help us learn about the story, we can search for and count how many of a certain letter we can find. This will get us practicing reading readiness skills (e.g. following the direction of print, noticing the difference between letters, words, and sentences, etc.). We also used a noise meter to practice different sound levels in our classroom and when we would use a whisper voice verses a loud speaking voice. Our whisper voices are important during reading time so that we don't distract each other! Ms. Byrne was so impressed with our quiet reading time that she took a class picture of us working hard on our reading:

Today we worked on ordering numbers 1-10 while practicing our cutting and gluing skills. We got a paper with ducks numbered 1-10, but they were all mixed up! We had to cut out the ducks and put them in a row in the correct order. Once Ms. Byrne records how we did with this task we will be able to bring our ducks home to show you!

Have a wonderful long weekend!

- Ms. Byrne

Sept. 1

 Hello everyone and welcome to our class blog!

We had a wonderful first day of grade 1. When we walked into our classroom we all found our desks with our name on them. Our desks had a bin of Playdough on them! So, while we were getting settled, learning where to put our backpacks, putting on our indoor shoes, etc. we got to play with our Playdough at our desk. 

Once we were settled into our new desk we read a morning message together and had a sharing circle. Sharing circles help us get to know each other and talk about things that are happening in our classroom. For our first sharing circle we each told the class our favourite colour. We practiced the sharing circle rules: looking at and listening carefully to the speaker, waiting patiently for our turn, and a hand signal in case we are feeling shy and would like to "pass". When everyone had a chance to share, we filled in our classroom calendar for the day and added a star to our "Days of School" chart. We talked a bit about patience today because we have a big class and Ms. Byrne will need our help to make sure everyone is with the group, gets help when they need it, etc.

Next, we practiced lining up with our teams. Each of us has a coloured circle on our desk that tell us which team we are on: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple. We lined up one team at a time and then headed to our coat room to get our outdoor things and have our first recess! We practiced coming back to the line when we hear Ms. Byrne's harmonica. Once we got back to our class we had snack time and watched a story on the SmartBoard. 

Then, we completed our very first journal entry! We each got our journal book and wrote "My name is _____." We talked about putting spaces between words, holding our pencil properly, and writing on the lines. Once we finished our journal entry we got to draw a picture to go with it. Then it was lunch time.

After lunch we got our book boxes and we each got to choose 10 books from our reading area to store in them! We brought our book boxes to our desk and had some time to look through our books before we headed to the gym. 

In gym we practiced our routine and then played some freeze tag. When we got back to our classroom we had 10 minutes of mindfulness time to calm ur bodies down and get our brains ready for our last few jobs of the day. 

We looked at a 100s chart in math and talked about how we are going to learn all about numbers up to 100 this year! We each got a blank 100s chart and wrote all the numbers we could remember to show Ms. Byrne which ones we need help with. By the time we finish it was time to head outside for our second recess. 

We were all pretty tired by the time we got back to class - grade 1 can be exhausting! Ms. Byrne gave us some time to have an extra snack and we got to draw a picture about our first day of grade 1 before we tidied up and got ready for home. 

Just a few quick reminders from our first day:

- Please remind us to let Ms. Byrne know before we leave at the end of the day! When we see our pick-up, we can raise our hand to let Ms. Byrne know, and then she will say goodbye to us as quickly as she can and send us off. It gets busy on the compound at the end of the day so we want to make sure everyone finds their correct pick-up person. 

- As we mentioned earlier, we have a big class this year and it can be hard to keep track of our things! Please label shoes, coats, etc. when possible. We had a pair of outdoor shoes go missing today - so if your child accidentally brought home a pair of shoes that isn't theirs please send them back tomorrow so they can be returned!

- Students are required to wear masks. Please send your child with at least 1 mask.

Thank you so much for your help today in getting everyone to the correct line-up. We had a great day!

-Ms. Byrne