Nov. 15

 Hello everyone!

We got another new friend added to our class today! We started our morning by welcoming him and helping to show him some of our classroom routines. 

We had a morning meeting where we shared about our long weekend, and talked about our new reading focus - questioning. We talked about what a question is and is not. We will be learning about asking questions while reading for the next 5 weeks and practicing how to do that while listening to stories and poems that Ms. Byrne reads to us. 

Next, we filled in our calendar. We worked on the letter Z today. We talked about how we make the S and Z sounds in the same way, except our voice is off when we say /s/ and our voice is on when we say /z/. We completed our usual letter routine and filled in our printing book page about Z. Many of us have started adding sentences to our printing books as well! 

We had our first recess break, it was very wet outside! Please make sure we are wearing appropriate clothes and shoes for the weather. If our socks get wet during recess it can be a pretty uncomfortable day! If you need any support with getting weather-appropriate clothing for your child, please don't hesitate to email me at: nibyrne@cbe.ab.ca and we will try our best to support you. 

When we got back inside Ms. Byrne taught us how to play letter sound bingo. We each get a playing card with letters, and Ms. Byrne holds up a picture. We have to figure out what letter the object in the picture starts with, and then find that letter on our card. We had lots of fun playing our practice round today! Once we learn the game, we will get to play it in a small group together to practice our sounds. 

After lunch we had mindfulness and then reviewed our letter sounds. 

We got out our place value blocks for math. We practiced making 2-digit numbers using our 10s and 1s blocks. Then, we practiced changing the number by taking away or adding blocks (ex: We made 87, then we took away a 10s block to turn it into 77). We also used our 10s blocks to count by 10s to 100!

After our second recess, we spent some time talking about family. We talked about what family means to us and read a book about a little boy named Miguel and his family. Ms. Byrne showed us that there were lots of similar books that were all about different kids and their families. We talked about how everyone's family might be different. Some families are close together, and others live far apart. We sat with a partner to tell them a little about our family and hear about theirs. First, we talked about who we think of when we think of our family. We shared our ideas and made a list of family words. Then, we talked to our partner about something that our family likes to do together and shared our favourite family activities with the class. 

Before we knew it, it was time to head to the gym to see Ms. Sterne. 

Reminders:

Thursday, Nov. 18 - Booking opens for Parent-Teacher Conferences. These will be held online through Microsoft Teams. You should have received an email through SchoolMessenger with more information on how to book an appointment. Conferences will take place on Nov. 25 (evening) and Nov. 26 (morning). 

Have a great day!

-Ms. Byrne