Posted in 1B, General Studies, Grade 1 Reading, Uncategorised

March Madness!

Happy March!!

We have decided to make March a month all about reading! To kick it off we are introducing “March Munsch Madness” in grade 1. We have 16 Robert Munsch books that are all in the running and as a group we are going to decide what we think is our favourite Robert Munsch book. Check out our Munsch Madness bracket to see what story ends up winning!

Homework this month will look a little different. Instead of a homework BINGO board, there will be a reading challenge BINGO board. Students are still working to get 4 in a row for a BINGO but this time all of the activities involve reading!

Finally, next week is RUACH WEEK! Here is the schedule of events happening next week.

 

Posted in General Studies, Homework

February Homework Board

Happy February! Last month 1B had a goal of 35 bingos (which meant 140 homework activities) as a class and they ended with a grand total of 55 bingos (220 homework activities!)!! We counted the first 35 and then saved the extra 20 to go towards our February goal. Stay tuned to hear about the fun activity the students earned from January!

Our new goal for February is 50 BINGOs. The students are SO excited to get a start on the homework and I can’t wait to find out how many BINGOs are earned! I have attached the new February homework BINGO here but everything has been sent home in their note totes. Students are able to bring the papers back at the end of the month. The homework boards are due back on March 3rd 2023.

 

Posted in General Studies

General Studies Update

Happy New Year 1B Families! It was so exciting coming back to school yesterday and seeing all of the smiling faces and I can’t wait for the rest of the year.

Just a few reminders:

-Note totes and the blue homework tote should be returned to school everyday. We check note totes on a daily basis and are constantly adding things to them or taking things out.

-All students need indoor shoes at school. Students are not able to participate in gym class with their winter boots or in socks so it is important that they have a pair of shoes at school that can be worn inside.

Here is a copy of our monthly newsletter as well as the January homework choice board. All of the worksheet activities have been sent home manually and are in the blue homework tote.

1B Monthly News Newsletter

Copy of Copy of Copy of Homework BINGO by j.bennett

In exciting news, 1B has hit their goal of having 25 bingos which means they have earned their reward! After a close vote, the students have voted on having a movie and stuffed animal morning on Friday to go with pyjama day. Students are allowed to bring one of their stuffed animals to school that day to cuddle up with during our movie! I am so proud of them for all of their hard work!!

 

Bitmoji Image

Posted in General Studies, Social Studies

Our Communities!

This month in social studies we have been busy learning about communities and the important people and places that we have in our community. The students in 1B were so eager to share about all of the different places that they wanted to create their own map of a community. They got right to work brainstorming the important places they wanted to include, and then adding some of the important people to their communities and maps.

Once they were done, they became film makers! They took charge and recorded their own videos explaining the important places and people that they thought of. I was so proud of their hard work and I wanted to share their videos with you.

In Leni and Reagan’s community you will find a fire station, a school, a police station, a vet, and a hospital.

Callie, Adlai and Dahlia wanted to include a variety of important places in their community. They included a school (OJCS to be exact), a hospital, a grocery store, a vet, houses, a police station, and a fire station.

If you were to visit Seth and Lev’s community you would find a school, houses, a hospital, a park, a dentist, and a doctors office!

In the final 1B community, Levi, Noah and Hallie included many police, doctors and nurses. There you will find a police station, a grocery store, a work place, a doctors office, a school, a fire station, and a vet!

What important places and people would you include in your community?

bye

Posted in General Studies, Homework

December Homework!

It’s that time we’ve all been waiting for…a new homework choice board! The students did an amazing job last month with the homework board. If your child still has not brought in their homework board with activities checked off please send it back to school as we are counting how many “BINGOs” we got as a class!

I have learned from last month and tried to make this month easier. I have sent all of the homework activites home in a plastic “Homework Folder” for each student. This is for everyone who wanted the sheets printed off last time. To submit these sheets students are welcome to bring the papers back to me, upload a picture to Classkick (using the link on the bingo board), or emailing me a picture of them!

Please let me know if something doesn’t make sense or any comments/concerns!

Happy December! bye

December Homework Board by k.zuorro

Posted in General Studies

Save the Date(s)!

Happy Thursday Grade 1B Families,

We have two exciting things coming up on the OJCS calendar and we want to make sure that you have your calendars marked!

The Scholastic Book Fair

This is a great way to support the OJCS library while also purchasing books for your library at home! We will be visiting as a class on Thursday, December 8th. However, throughout the week, parents can pop into the book fair before and after school; it opens at 8:30AM and closes at 4:00PM. The book fair will also be open on Thursday night (Dec. 8) during P/T Conferences from 6:00PM-7:30PM and Friday (Dec. 9) during P/T Conferences from 8:30AM-12:00PM. Feel like shopping from home? Use the Virtual Book Fair Link! I will be sending home a flyer today that you can browse with your child in preparation for the Book Fair! We have already started putting together our class wishlist!

Family Chanukah Celebration

On Tuesday, December 20th at 6:30pm, we will gather as a school community to celebrate Chanukah IN PERSON for the first time in years! Come join us for an evening of performances and a sweet Chanukah treat.

Mark your calendars!

bye

 

Posted in 1B, General Studies

We Remember

We were very busy in Grade 1 last week learning and commemorating Remembrance Day. We started off reading the story “Proud as a Peacock, Brave as a Lion” by Jane Barclay and then we learned about the different branches in the Canadian military: the Air Force, the Marines, the Navy, and the Army.

We had a TON of questions about being in the military (what life looks like, what the job is all about, and what some of the job requirements are) as well as what it means to be a veteran. So on Wednesday we had two very special guests come in: Troy and June! Troy and June are two Canadian Air Force veterans (and to make it extra special they are also Ms. Karissa’s parents). They told us all about why they chose to join the military as well as why they chose the Air Force. They told us about some of their travels that they had to do while they were in the military, and answered all of our questions about military life (like the vehicles they got to be in, what they ate, and what their daily life was like). It was so much fun seeing the students so engaged and asking so many amazing and thoughtful questions. Selfishly, it was also so much fun for me having my parents as guests in the classroom!

After learning all about life in the military and everything our veterans have done for us, we decided to write thank you letters to Canadian military veterans. We were so proud of our work that we even decided to put them on display in the hallway to show everyone at school how thankful we are for our veterans and all serving members of the military.

Finally, on November 11th, we got to go in front of the ENTIRE school and recite a poem in French about poppies as well as sing our song “Light a Candle for Peace” that we have been practicing so hard (for a few weeks because Ms. Karissa MAY have gotten the days mixed up and thought November 11th was a week earlier than it actually was). This song was so special because not only did we sing about lighting a candle for peace all around the world, but we also learned the song in sign language.

We couldn’t end the week without making a wreath full of poppies. We wanted to make our wreath extra special to show all of our gratitude for military members and veterans so we took our time to make these beautiful poppies. All in all, we had a great week learning about and remembering the fallen soldiers and thanking all veterans and actively serving military members.

From all of us in 1B, we thank you!

Posted in General Studies

Scholastic Book Club!

Hi Grade 1 Parents,

I am excited to share that we are re-launching the Scholastic Book Club! What is this Scholastic Book Club? Glad you asked! The book club is an EASY way to order books for your child to read at home AND each time you place an order, our whole class benefits! When you use our class code (RC587908) we earn rewards to purchase new books for our classroom library! Personally, I have my eyes on quite a few books to expand our classroom library!

So how do you join?

You might have a vague pre-covid memory of Scholastic flyers going home with your child each month… well now, there’s no need to check your child’s backpack for a flyer and no need to send money into school for book orders.
Scholastic has gone virtual!

Start by visiting this website: https://www.scholastic.ca/readingclub

Then you just need to follow these few simple steps:

New books and flyers are added each month! Please feel free to share our class code with any grandparents or relatives who are thinking of purchasing books for your child! I hope you take advantage of this awesome program and help us earn class rewards. As always, if you have any questions, please reach out!

reading

Posted in General Studies

Science Experiments

1B has had the amazing opportunity to take our science lesson down to the Maker-space every Monday morning. The maker-space is a fun space in our school where we get to explore, complete fun Science experiments and STEM activities.

In Science, we have been learning about seasonal changes. We just finished learning about what happens in fall and today we continued on in the cycle of seasons and moved on to winter. We decided to do a fun experiment where we looked to see how we could make ice melt faster. We tested it out by adding nothing, sugar, and salt to ice and then we waited patiently to see what happened.

Before conducting the experiment, the students made some hypotheses on what they thought would work to melt the ice the fastest.

Noah, Reagan, and Seth all thought that the sugar would help the ice melt the fastest as it seemed to be the smallest ice cube when we first put everything into the beakers.

Leni, Callie, Dahlia, Lev, and Hallie all believed that the salt would help the ice melt the fastest as it seemed to them that it was already working and already melting the ice. We also pointed out that during the winter, we have salt trucks on the road to help melt the ice.

Finally, Levi and Adlai both thought that they would all melt the ice cubes the exact same because none of them would be placed in the freezer.

So we put our ice cubes into the different beakers and kept checking them throughout the morning. We found that salt and sugar both worked to melt the ice faster than just leaving the ice by itself, however in the end, the salt was the clear winner!

Posted in 1A, 1B, General Studies

General Studies Homework!

I am SHOCKED at how excited the grade 1’s were today when they heard homework would be starting!

For general studies homework, we decided to go with a bingo board for each month. The bingo board has a variety of different activities that all target different concepts or topics that we are learning about in class. Students have all been sent home with a login card with their password and username for both Raz-Kids and IXL. For the choice board, students are challenged to complete at least ONE activity per week and they will keep this homework choice board for the month. Students are encouraged to make a “BINGO” line by the end of the month with their homework. The goal is one activity a week but students are welcome to do as many activities as possible. If you have any questions about the choice board please email your child’s general studies teacher and we would be happy to help! I know a few parents have asked to have some hard copy versions of the homework (for example, having a reading book rather than using the raz kids program) that can be arranged as well or anything can be printed from ClassKick or from the bingo board itself.

November Homework Board

RAZ-KIDS: in Grade 1 we are using Raz-Kids to help with reading at home and at school. It is a fantastic program that can be individualized for each student according to their individual learning needs and learning goals. I have created a quick video just showing how to use Raz-Kids at home to help ease any confusion.

 

IXL: IXL is the online math platform that we use at the school. This is also individualized for the students and the grades. The activities that are on IXL are the same activities and concepts that we learn in class so it helps to reinforce learning. I created a video to help explain how to use IXL at home as well.

 

I hope this helps answer any questions around the general studies homework. If you have any additional questions or concerns please let us know!