We would like to extend a big WELCOME to all of our students. We look forward to meeting and working with you and your child in the upcoming school year. Grade one is such an exciting year!
Students will be bringing an agenda back and forth each day. There will be a note each Monday in the agenda to tell you about special events, and the topics being studied each week. Please sign the note each week, and also watch for other notices, etc. that will be sent home in the agenda.
We will be incorporating the Smart Learning strategies throughout all the grade one subject areas. Students are encouraged to make connections, think about their learning, ask questions and share their learning.
We will begin the grade one year with a review of the letter names and sounds. Each day we will focus on a letter of the alphabet. We will soon be starting the Animated Literacy program by Jim Stone, a ‘Guided Reading’ program, our Independent Reading program and Words Their Way, which are some parts of my Language Arts program. The Home Reading program will begin next week.
The Math program will begin with the students reviewing/ learning to recognize and form the numbers to 10. We will be doing ‘free exploration’ of various math manipulatives. I will be using a combination of different math programs: The Power of 10, Nelson Mathematic, Math Works, Math to the Max, The Western Canadian Protocol and other teacher resources.
Our first units in Science will be studying ‘The Senses’, ‘Colour’ and ‘Seasonal Changes’. In Health, we will learn about: playground, street and School bus safety.
In Social Studies, we will begin our school year focusing on ‘My World: Home, School and Community,’ and The Seven Habits for Being Green. Our inquiry question to start off this school year will be ‘How are we the same/different?’
The class has Physical Education every day. Students do not change for Phys. Ed. However, they do need to have running shoes to wear (they can be the same shoes worn inside the class). Your child needs ‘outside shoes’ to wear to school and to wear outside at recess. Please make sure your child can do up their shoes independently.
There will be a library class each week where the children will choose books to bring home. Students will be given a special library bag for keeping their books in. This is a good place to keep their books when they are at home, so that these books do not inadvertently become mixed up with their home reading books, or misplaced. When my own children were in Grade One, we hung their library bag over the doorknob in their room. Whatever system you choose, library books are to be returned to school by the library day following when the book was signed out.
Students should bring in their school supplies for the whole year and they will be stored for future use. Supplies are kept separate and unused supplies will be sent home at the end of the school year. Thank you to those of you who labeled your child’s supplies. We are sure it will help your child keep track of his or her own things.
Please let us know about any concerns you have regarding your child’s health or school adjustments. Grade one is a year of big changes for children, so please contact us if there are concerns and we can deal with them together. Lochearn is a nut safe school. Please let me know about any food allergies as we do have small snacks at school to go with our special theme days, and at parties, and we do not want to put any child in danger. Most children are tired at first, which is to be expected with the full days of school every day. Getting extra sleep at night may help your child adjust to the full, busy days of grade one.
The ‘before school routine’ in grade one is a bit different than for kindergarten students. Grade one students are expected to wait outside in the mornings and then line up when the bell rings. They may bring in their backpacks inside and put them on the boot rack. If students need help for any reason before school, there is a teacher outside on supervision from 8:30 until the bell rings at 8:54 so please do not send your child to school prior to 8:30. They may also use the Locky door. I will be explaining this grade one routine to the class.
You are invited to attend Lochearn’s Meet and Greet Night, September 19th from 5:30 – 7:00. More details about this event will be coming soon. Please plan to attend, as this will be a great opportunity for you to ask questions, meet the other parents as well as learn about the learning expectations for your grade one student. It is so much fun and the learning curve is steep!!!
We have a balanced school day at Lochearn School. There are two breaks: 10:43 – 11:19 and 1:07 – 1:44. (The eating times are; 11: 04 - 11:19 and 1:29 – 1:44)
We are so excited about a new school year and look forward to working with and getting to know all the students (and parents) that are our classes. Grade one is AWESOME!
Your Partners in Education,
Grade One Team
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