September Update

Happy New Year! Well, new school year anyway ;) It has been wonderful getting to know your little ones these first few days. I think some might be heading to bed early from the tired looks I see at 3:30!

September will be a busy month for school with all we want to accomplish academically and as developing global citizens. The Terry Fox Run is scheduled for Thursday, September 15th, and the Walkathon on Friday, September 30th. School Pictures will be Wednesday, September 21st.

The first month of school is always about getting to know the children and having them develop trust and confidence in their teacher. We remember important school wide routines and expectations as well as classroom specific routines and expectations. The subject specific concepts we will begin working with during the month are listed below:

Language Arts

The children will be developing their reading stamina over this month and likely into October. This first week we have focused on finding a book they want to read and/or look at, and a space in the room where they are comfortable (....and not talking with friends). We will also begin working through some reading reflection activities, in preparation of the Home Reading Program that will begin in October.

The children have started writing, first thing, every morning. They communicate how they are feeling that day, and write about something relevant to last evening, the current school day, or today after school. We then meet and share as a group (developing trust and respectful interactions). The week of the 12th we will begin developing strategies to discover and develop writing ideas. September is an important time to build the confidence for apprehensive writers, which plays a critical role in their motivation and success through the year.

Math

This month will incorporate reviewing their understanding of numbers (sequence, skip counting, greater/less than, etc) and begin introducing strategies for addition/subtraction using these understandings. Our initial steps this first week have included adding two numbers (2-digit with 2-digit and 2-digit with 1-digit) using "Trains of 10" and singles or units.

This month we will also begin looking at patterns - repeating, growing, and shrinking patterns; pattern attributes (the characteristic that is changing, i.e. size, colour, shape, direction, or a combination of these); number patterns (aka skip counting); and naturally occurring patterns in nature and our daily lives.

Science

We will begin an exploration of Matter & Materials towards the end of this month. Our initial explorations will be with solids and liquids - determining the difference in properties and states, and attributes such as materials, absorption, mix-ability, and why these characteristics are important within real-world contexts.

Social Studies

Our focus this month will be our classroom community - what that means, how does it work, why is it important? From there we branch into other communities the children are a part of - following the same investigative questions, and then into the Winnipeg community.

Technology

We will hopefully be using Raz Kids (available to the children via an ipad app as well as internet site on the computer) funded through Walkathon proceeds. It will be ready for use by the end of the month.

The children all worked in the Math Town app (Apple) this past Friday. It is good for practice in general, as well as making connections between math concepts. As we begin to register and use more apps and sites at school I will add them to the list on the right of the blog page.