English Reading Homework
Your child will be bringing home a book to read tonight. The children are so excited!The book bag should be in their note tote. Your child should read the book and then record the title on the reading sheet (great printing practice). Please return the book tomorrow so your child can get a new book.
Happy Reading!
If for some reason the note tote does not find its way home tonight you can read a story online with this link
Hello OJCS parents and welcome to Grade 1!
Can you believe another school year is upon us?If you don’t already know me, my name is Madame Efi Mouchou. This is my 2nd year at OJCS. I look forward to forming relationships and teaching your kiddos. It has been a pleasure working with your children, and I have seen so much growth and learning already in the short amount of time we have had together. Last week we spent time getting to know each other and establishing the classroom rules. We played games revising the letters of the alphabet, and practicing the calendar, we did some writing activities and we read lots of books.This week’s focus was on the french greetings, and saying our name in French. I look forward to meeting you all at back-to-school night on the 19th when you will have the chance to see your kids’recordings.
If you have any questions or concerns, please reach out to me through email or a phone call.
Collaboration is a learning skill that all grade one students work on throughout the year. Working and communicating with different partners and small groups takes lots of patience.
Teachers help students navigate any problems or conflicts as they arise. They arrange for students to work with different classmates throughout the year to practice communicating and collaborating.
In Social Studies, students started creating maps with a partner. Each group created a community map and presented it to the class.
The class had so much fun creating their communities that we decided to work all together to create one community. Each student chose a specific community helper to research. They also needed to make the community building each helper worked at. The ER doctor built a hospital, while the principal and teacher made a school and playground together.
| Student | Zev | Delilah | Rachel | Levi | Ilay | Aliyah & Maia | Miles | Nate | Emma |
| Community Helper | Vet | Vet | Postmaster | Farmer | Chef & Restaurant Owner | Teacher & Principal | Policeman | Firefighter | ER Doctor |
| Community Building | Animal Hospital | Animal Shelter | Post Office | Barn&Farm | Restaurant | School & Playground | Police Station | Fire Station | Hospital |
The students researched and wrote about their community helper’s role and responsibilities. They presented their findings to the class. They designed and created community buildings. Together they decided on symbols for the map key and worked on mapping the 3D community.
The collaboration I have seen over the last few weeks has been terrific. The children have been so supportive and encouraging with each other. Best of all, the children had so much fun.
Memories of our year in 1A
It was a wonderful year in 1A! The Grade One team loved teaching these amazing students.
Here is a link to the Summer Learning Resource page
From Ms. Karissa
Salut,salut les amis!
Here is the blog with many fun activities and games for the students to do over the summer.I highly encourage them to spend some time when they feel like it as it will help them revise everything they have learnt this year.
A journey to Ithaca never ends………..
My dear parents and students,
Our educational journey is almost coming to a close for this school year, with lots of positive moments and maybe a few challenging ones, at times. Speaking for myself, one of the greatest moments was when I joined the OJCS school, meeting such beautiful people and appreciating the Jews values and heritage that are celebrated. Being a diplomat’s wife, I am certainly used to developing an appreciation for different cultures and traditions and making lifelong friendships, but teaching in a school with a trilingual curriculum is unique. Shifting from “Good morning” to “Bonjour” and “Shalom” daily, opens a door to a whole new world not only for our kiddos but for us, the teachers as well. I don’t want to start listing the advantages of such education because; I am sure you all know them very well, and you can see the results everyday. However, I would like to stress that as we all try to achieve our goals, it is important not to lose sight of the journey. Ithaca, in Homer’s Odyssey, symbolizes this idea of a destination as a long and winding journey, where the supreme aim is to find fulfillment, such as changing careers, getting a new job, passing an exam, coping with a serious health problem, moving to another country, or school, going through the loss of a parent, and so forth. Constantine Cavafy (one of the most renowned Greek poets) wrote the poem “Ithaca” in 1911, inspired by Odysseus’ journey home after the end of the Trojan War. Cavafy describes Odysseus seeing amazing things, without caring for the destination as he is, advised: “Do not hurry your trip in any way.” That’s what we should all pray for dear friends and students, a long trip full of adventures, difficulties that grow us, and numerous learning opportunities so that when we reach our destination, we will be rich in maturity, knowledge, and wisdom. No matter the hardships, never give up!
Now I would like you all to listen to the poem recited by the amazing Sean Connery and set to the music of Vangelis Papathanassiou.
Sean Connery reads ITHAKA | Powerful Life Poem by C.P.Cavafy
This week we got to visit one of our favourite spots in the school…the Makerspace! Mr. Ray challenged us to make a scribble bot.He told us that we would need to use our engineering skills to make a moving robot. He told us the materials for building would be three markers, a plastic cup, a motor, a battery pack, and lots of tape. First we made a plan of what we wanted to build.
Then it was time to start building. We got all of the materials together and followed the steps carefully. It took a lot of patience to attach all of the parts. We had to tape our markers inside the cup, making sure everything was stable. There was a lot of trial and error with attaching the battery pack wires to the motor. Mr. Ray helped us problem-solve and get our scribble bots ready to scribble.
The school is buzzing right now! There has been so much activity lately at the school, and students are shining. Kids enjoyed spending a morning with their grandparents doing fun activities in all three languages, and they proudly showed them their work. For Mother’s Day, they made beautiful cards with wishes in French, and we read how people celebrate this special day in other countries. They keep practicing their reading and writing skills through reading buddies and playing games so that they can review all the new vocabulary, such as spring, the parts of the body, and animals. We are currently learning about animal habitats like the sea, the jungle, the farm, and the type of food they eat, and of course, as the weather steadily improves, we spend some time outdoors. As the end of the school year is getting closer, I insist on reading with the children daily so they can finish Grade 1 positively and successfully.
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1A had fun reading The Three Little Pigs recently. After reading the story, I challenged the class to build three solid houses that the big bad wolf couldn’t blow down. The requirements were that each group needed to make a straw house, a stick house, and a brick house. The students got excited and started to build. The Big Bad Wolf/Mrs. Bennett came calling.
I huffed and puffed, used a hair dryer, and made wind with a plastic top. As much as I huffed and puffed, I could not blow the houses down. All the structures were stable and standing: the children were so happy.
The class wanted to write a new version of the Three Little Pigs. Listen to the children read their story of The Three Little Pigs.
Listen to the stories we wrote and recorded. We hope you enjoy them.
We had so much fun in the Makerspace last week. Mr. Ray challenged us to make a Scribble bot. He told us that we would need to use our engineering skills to make a moving robot. He told us the materials for building would be three markers, a plastic cup, a motor, a battery pack, and lots of tape. First we made a plan of what we wanted to build.
The next step was to start building. It took lots of patience to attach all of the parts. We had to tape our markers inside the cup, making sure everything was stable. There was a lot of trial and error with attaching the battery pack wires to the motor. Mr. Ray helped us problem-solve and get our scribble bots ready to scribble.
The scribble bots started to move and scribble. It was so exciting to watch them move and scribble on the paper. Take a look at them in action below.
There was a special surprise in the library today. Melanie came to enthrall us with her performance of Opera Mouse.
Today we had a chat about the importance of sharing fears/concerns/disappointments/thoughts with someone you trust. We spoke about how our body feels when we keep it to ourselves and about the relief we get once we share with the person of our choice (one that can help with the next steps). As the students shared some examples of situations that they overcame this way, or are in the process of overcoming, the topic of fear of monsters at night came up and again, they shared what some of them did to help the fear.
At this point I remembered we had a great book in Hebrew (that some knew in English) that speaks of this – פחדרון בארון (Pachadron Ba’aron), so we all gathered on the carpet to read and then discuss. It was a wonderful demonstration of proficiency teaching at work – as it was not planned and related directly to a topic that was on the students’ minds… so they were completely focused and in listening mode… It was perfect for their level of Hebrew (Tiny bit above, but with pictures that made it clear).
Thanks to Ms Emilia, we actually have a photo of that moment to share with you… We were so focused we did not even notice her taking this picture:
After two months, 1B has finally crowned a winner for Munsch Madness. After reading 16 different Robert Munsch (some of the books 4 different times) we finally decided on an overall winner.
So, the book that 1B chose as their favourite Robert Munsch book is….
“I Have To Go”
After reading all of the books, and crowning a winner, the students then wrote letters to Robert Munsch. The students had wonderful questions and such nice things to ask/share with him about their experiences reading their books.
1B are now HUGE Robert Munsch fans and have been finding Robert Munsch books that weren’t included in Munsch Madness to read with their friends and as a class. We had so much fun reading the books and narrowing down our favourite one.
