Friday October 21, 2016

Today we wrote in our journals about our week. We focused on using finger spaces between our words and using appropriate upper case and lower case letters in our writing. We had gym and played toss the chicken practicing our underhand and overhand throwing. We also had a visit from our Grade 3 reading buddies.

Ask me about… Who presented in Circle of Courage?  How did he show Mastery? Generosity? Independence? Belonging?

Literacy groups:

This week in Mrs. Daniels’ literacy group we are continuing to work on our reading strategies in small groups reading with the teacher or volunteer. This week students are demonstrating success using picture clues to decode new words and are recognizing sight words in their reading.  Students had the opportunity to participate in several activities this week. 

Going on a word hunt: looking for and tallying sight words in leveled readers.

Making words: manipulating consonant and vowels to form small words.

Rainbow roll and write: writing our word families og, ot, and op in rainbow colours.

Searching for words: reviewing last week’s word families (at, an, am, ad) and recognizing them with a friend in a sea of letters.

Reading to someone: reading and listening to reading with a partner.

In Ms. Barley's literacy group we continued using "Chunky Monkey" to break-down words we don't know. We discovered that we can break down "Important" into Im-por-tant, instead of sounding out each individual letter. Practice using this strategy at home! We introduced a new rule called the Silent 'e' and how that 'e' can make the other vowel say it's name, like in the word "same". We will continue looking at this rule next week.

The Literacy Centres we explored were:

1. Making & Breaking words

2. Building Sentences by cutting words out of magazines

3. Roll & Write words on our word wall

4. Playing Sight Word games such as "popcorn"

5. Reading through the exploration of I Spy and Search books

6. Guided Reading at the teacher centre - This week we explored Non-Fiction texts

Ask your child to explain the centres in further details!

This week in Ms. Plaxin’s literacy group, we all worked at our own level.  Some students continued to identify the names and sounds of the letters.   Some were working on matching  upper case letters to lower case letters.  Many students ended the week by working on their beginning sounds of words and the creation of 3 and 4 letter words.    Many students felt the great feeling of success and accomplishment this week.   They experienced the feeling, that their efforts to keep on task, actually, helped them progress through to their center, tasks and activities.  We have added two new activities for next week.  One is based on vowel sounds and the other is the creation of words with duple blocks.  Please feel free to discuss with your child, the accomplishments they had this week.

This week in Ms. MacDonald and Ms. Percival's literacy group, we worked on end sounds that have a short a such as "an, at, ag, ad, and ap." We also reviewed our letter names and sounds. We have been continuing to use stretchy the snake to sound out new words! Please continue to work on my letters and words that are coming home today. 

Reminders: 

- Information went home today regarding literacy night and the Hallowe’en dance. (Blue and Orange forms) 

The ROS Fundraising society would like to thank all families who have already submitted orders for the DFS Fundraiser currently in progress.  Please note, due to a number of issues we have extended the fundraiser due date to MONDAY, OCTOBER 24TH at 9:00AM (1PM for afternoon kindergarten students).  Any late orders may incur extra shipping fees, and will therefore not be accepted without prior arrangements directly with the Fundraising Society. 

Please remember to share with friends and family who can order online once you have registered your child, and they can choose to have orders delivered to their home or the school.  The link you will share with them will look like this...  https://orderentry.fundtrackersql.com/shopdfscanada/Home/ShopNow?SellerId=XXXXX with your child's seller ID in place of the XXXXX.  When you register your child for online orders according to the instructions in your fundraising package, please note that the Student ID requested is the 7 digit ID Number on their Order form, NOT their CBE number!

There are lots of great prize incentives with DFS, so be sure to choose the prizes you are eligible for when you order!  If you have any questions or concerns, please email me us at ROSFundraisingSociety@gmail.com. 

Dates to remember:

Monday October 24 – Fundraising due back

Thursday October 27 – Literacy Night

Friday October 28 – Hallowe’en Dance

Monday October 31 – Pumpkinella

Home reading book bags: Please enjoy reading these books with your child. We encourage students to point to the words as they read to track their reading, use picture clues, or beginning letter sounds to decode unknown words.

***These books will be exchanged on Tuesday’s and Thursday’s every week. Please return the book bag in your child’s folder for new books.  If you have a note about the level, please place it in the folder, not in the book bag as the volunteers are exchanging the books and we may not see it.

Circle of Courage:

Each week one student per class will bring home a sheet of paper describing the circle of courage. We ask that on Friday of your child’s week that he or she brings in something that shows one of the following sections of the circle: Independence, Mastery, Belonging, and Generosity.  See below for what the letter will look like. 

Circle of Courage Spotlight 

Congratulations, your child has been chosen to be our Circle of Courage student. Your child will have the opportunity to share more about themselves and how they show the four quadrants of the Circle of Courage to help build a caring classroom. Your child will present on Friday OCTOBER 29th  Jawad and Rose.

Once our Circle of Courage student is announced the student will have a week until their presentation date to collect the following items to share with the class. 

Independence  

·         An artifact your child is proud of and demonstrates independence. i.e. piece of art, writing, project, or video of dance  

Mastery 

·         An artifact that demonstrates a skill or activity your child has mastered. i.e. medals, awards, and certificates  

Belonging 

·         Photograph (no more than 3) that shows belonging, i.e. Family photo, playing with others, family vacation, sports team, class photo. 

Generosity 

·         Family Letter: Family members will be responsible for writing a letter to the class telling us how special your child is to you. Send the letter in a sealed envelope to the school with your child on the presentation date your child is sharing. I will read the letter to the class during our circle meetings. The content of the letter is up to you, but you may wish to choose from one of the following ideas: Describe special or funny stories about your child for the class to hear, tell us some interesting facts (no more then 3) we may not know about your child, send silly or special pictures with a letter describing the picture, or write a short story with your child as the main character. You may also send a video for the class to watch if you choose. 

After your child has had the opportunity to share, his or her classmates will recognize your child as our Circle of Courage student of the day by writing about how they see your child demonstrating one of the four quadrants on the Circle of Courage. We appreciate your participation in our Circle of Courage Spotlight and look forward to getting to know your child better and build a caring classroom community!