Category: 1B

Posted in 1B, General Studies, Grade 1 Reading

And The Winner Is… – Munsch Madness Update

Posted on by kzuorro

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.

reading

Posted in 1B, General Studies, Homework

May Homework!

Posted on by kzuorro

Happy May! A new month means a new homework choice board. Students were sent home today with the choice board and a collection of activities and sheets that can be done throughout the month. Just a reminder that students are not expected to finish ALL of the homework activities in one day/one week and that this is something for them to work on throughout the month.

A few differences this month are that I have started to send books home. When the students are done with these books they are encouraged to bring them back to school so I can switch them and give them new reading material.

Our new goal for BINGOs is 50 as a class!

 

Posted in 1B, Jewish Studies, Ruach

A Model Seder to Remember

Posted on by jbennett31

Kitah Alef’s Model Seder took place this past Monday. It was a memorable day: many children said it was their favourite day of the school year. Moreh Saar and Morah Ada were so proud of the children. They read and sang so beautifully. We hope the children sing beautifully as they celebrate together with family at the Seder tonight.

 

Wishing everyone a Chag Pesach Sameach!

The Grade One Team

 

 

 

We found the afikomen!

 

Posted in 1B, General Studies

Innovation Day!

Posted on by kzuorro

This year for Innovation Day, the grade 1s were inspired by the story “Make Way for Animals” by Meeg Pincus. Students were so excited and interested in learning about different bridges, underpasses, and creations that help animals to safely cross the road so we thought why not create our own inventions!

 

The challenge: design and build a structure to help animals safely cross the road. Students were challenged with having their inventions stand by themselves and hold 100g. Students got busy planning, designing, cutting cardboard, and gluing. Many of their designs changed throughout the process, but in the end they all created amazing structures!

 

Innovation day came quickly and the students were so excited to show off their projects to teachers, parents, and other OJCS students. We even got to tour the school and learn about the different projects other students did as well. It was so fun to explore the projects around the school!

Posted in 1B, Jewish Studies, Ruach

Cheekiness, Chutzpah and whatever is between.

Posted on by sbaram

Hey there Grade 1,

It’s almost Pesach and I figured a bit of showing off our conversational skills is in order.

As a part of my methodology I find it extremely important to anchor the learning in real life, as language is a “use it or lose it” skill. That’s why I decided to connect Hebrew studies with Israeli culture. As you might know, the students surely realized it by now, Israelis are loving, passionate and welcoming, however they are also loud and full of Chutzpah!!

Taking this into consideration I decided to teach the kids several different ways to ask and answer people “how are you doing?”, some are formal, some are good old fashion cheeky!! Please feel free to listen to them answer about their day and ask me how I’m doing. It was a calculated risk, but boy am I bad at math, the kids can definitely talk, but now I got a classroom full of cheeky Israeli sounding kids.

Have a great Pesach vacation,

Saar

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

March Madness!

Posted on by kzuorro

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 1A, 1B, Jewish Studies, Jewish Studies Reading, Ruach

Where did my flag go?!

Posted on by sbaram

Hello everyone, it’s another interesting week here in the first grade.

As a part of our morning routine, we take notes about the weather, debating whether it’s rainy, sunny, cloudy, etc. outside… One of the different weather conditions we talk about is windy (רוח). Unfortunately, 2 weeks ago, a big storm tore away the flag from one of the businesses situated across the 417, leaving us completely lost when it comes to determining the level of wind outside.

That is why the first grade decided to spring into action and use their hard earned vocabulary into use. We sat down and wrote a stern, yet firm, letter to the Customs and Immigration Union (look it up, this is the real deal), asking them to bring their flag back. We also took the liberty of drawing some nice depictions of how the loss of the flag makes us feel, and these are some of the results:

 

Now we just have to hope that if they don’t bring the flag back for their own national pride, at the least they’ll do it for the children!

I hope that there will be updates to follow,

Saar.

Posted in 1A, 1B, Homework, Jewish Studies

Economics 101

Posted on by sbaram

Dear grade 1 parents,

As I’m getting used to the hardships of winter (clearing the snow from my car, every, single, morning, is a new one for me), I had the pleasure of sitting in my car for 15 minutes straight waiting for my fingers to thaw. During that time I came across a meme that really reflects my way of thinking about how school should be.

 

 

It reminded me that while my “I believe” is heavily influenced by this idea, I still need to communicate that to my surrounding. So here it goes:

Since I encountered this phenomena many, many times in the various jobs I had, I believe in the power of incentivizing and fear the impact of dicentivizing. Therefore, I try my best to include the former, not the latter, in my teaching.

That is why I added a new, 100% optional, incentive to do the homework, a game. The game reinforces only some of the words in the homework, offering sound and translations to several words. Please only play the game if the kids have done their readings and still have some time and energy to play the game.

I hope this makes the homework experience more enjoyable,

Saar.

Posted in 1B, French

French Update

Posted on by emouchou

Salut les parents!

What an exciting month December has been!!! We are all looking forward to observing different celebrations and spending quality time with our loved ones. In class, we started our theme, Winter. The students got familiar with the new vocabulary through games, poems, songs, and writing activities. We keep working on our letters and sounds, and I must admit that I am happy with their recordings. The more they read and practice, the better they become. After the holidays, they will also do a comprehension activity linked to each story. This will help them understand the story and remember the vocabulary. In addition, we did some math activities in french learning, plus, égale, and practicing the numbers. We also watched a show about the planets, and the kids drew Space with the names of the different planets. Finally, we explored all the vocabulary associated with the celebration of Hanukkah, and they did a word search, mazes, and decoding sentences, bingo games.

 

They sang beautifully in french during the school event. And as if that was not enough, I decided to expose them to Greek mythology so I read to them the story of Dedalus and Icarus the famous engineers who constructed the wings to escape from the prison in Crete, but unfortunately, the latter did not follow the father`s advice and flew very close to the sun so his wings melted and he fell in the sea and died. They were so excited! so along with the drama teacher we made the wings, and the kids decorated them with feathers. They flew only in the classroom. Thank goodness!
I wish you all happy and restful holidays!

 

Posted in 1A, 1B, Jewish Studies

We tried so hard, and got so far….

Posted on by sbaram

In the end, it was all that really mattered!

Grade 1 has been working so hard on their Hebrew skills for almost four whole months now, last Monday they got to put  those skills to use in real life. We had our second meeting with a group of Israeli children who got to practice their English, while we practiced our Hebrew. We spoke about how old we are, what are our favourite sports and colours, what we like to eat and drink, it was a blast.

It was an amazing experience for the kids, who got to see how quickly they could use the Hebrew they know to express themselves in a coherent manner. Lastly, it was an amazing time for us Hebrew teachers, we got to see the fruits of our labor grow right in front of us. Trust me when I say, I’m one happy gardener…

From everyone in the grade 1 team.