The children have been working hard at school. We truly are becoming a little family. We are working on greeting each other each day. I hope they are greeting you more at home as well. I hope you are seeing some of the activities we are doing on my X (or Twitter) feed @smith_giovanna. I hope it helps create more conversations at home.
Please practice our Weekly Words
We continue to work on our WWs. I heard some of you made them into flashcards! Great idea! Some of these WWs are words they met in Kindergarten. We will study 5 new words each week. Please practice them with your child. Ask them which words are heart words and which are not. Ask them to explain to you what makes a word a heart word. Have them look for sounds they know when reading them. They will be copied into your child's agenda every Monday.
Reading Word lists
I have started sending home some word lists with the children. Take some time to go through these words. These words are so important for all the children. We play phonological awareness games with them every day. The CVC (consonant - vowel - consonant) words or the compound words are both important. All the children can work on segmenting them by sounds (CVC words) or by syllables (compound words). If you feel like your child needs a challenge, have him/her change one letter and use it for the entire list. For example, change the middle sound from /a/ to /o/. Have some fun with them! Nonsense words are a great way to play with letters and words. Reading these words will help all the children become better spellers and they will also help all of them become better writers.
Math
We continue to work on the teen numbers. They are not easy for some children. We will continue to work on recognizing them and to learn how to make them. We will move into making 10. We also are working on counting orally to 100. Please continue to work on practicing Subitizing. Some children can subitize with one die but if there are 2 dice, they want to count both dice. This means they need more practice. Playing board games can help your child practice these skills (For example, snakes and ladders or Candy land).
Passwords on the Front Page of your Child’s Agenda
Students now have access to the Student portal at home. This is optional. To get there, your child needs to login into his/her own google account using the email address that is glued onto the front page of his/her agenda. From there, your child would need to go to the St. Cecilia website (sce.ocsb.ca), then find the Student Portal. Once they see the various apps, they can find some resources that we will try at school (Clearmath (Zorbits), Raz kids and a few others. The passcodes for Raz-kids and Zorbits are also taped on the back of the front cover of the agenda. . The QR code that is on the inside cover is another way for your child to log in.
Math Program - Zorbits / Clearmath / Mathstoria (It has many names)
Zorbit's Math Adventure has landed in our math class! This game-based learning program helps students strengthen their math ability and build a positive attitude towards learning math! Your child will meet fun characters, explore far-off planets, and complete heroic quests. They will be learning and applying math and they can play at home!
Raz Kids
I also included the Raz kids passwords in the agendas. These books are not easy for the children who are learning to read at this point in grade one. We are still focussing on learning the phonemes and sounds. Decodable books are a much better option for emergent readers. Even the level AA and A books in Raz contain words that emergent readers are not ready for just yet. These books encourage children to look at the pictures instead of sounding out the sounds we are learning at school. The collection offers audio books which are a fun alternative for all children. For children who are further along on their reading journey, Raz kids can offer a variety of digital books that they can enjoy. Raz is accessible through the Student Portal.
Dressing in layers
With all these beautiful colours, we are starting to get cooler temperatures in the morning and warm afternoons. Please consider sending your child in layers and label each piece. If she/he is taking off a sweater, it can get lost. Please consider labelling it with your child's name so it will get back to you. We usually check the temperature before we head outside and make a decision if we need the sweater/jacket.
Dates to remember
Thursday, October 9, 2025 - Picture Day
Friday, October 10 - PD DAy - no school
Monday, October 13- Thanksgiving Day - no school
Teacher-Parent Communication
Please continue to write me a note in the agenda or call the school and leave a message for me if you have any questions or concerns. As I mentioned during our meet the teacher night, I prefer to use the agenda as our main form of communication. It helps to keep it all in one place. If you feel we need to discuss an issue, please let me know in the agenda and I will get back to you as soon as I get a chance :) If there are special documents you need to send to me digitally, then of course you can email them to me..
I look forward to another great week of fun and learning with the children at school!
Sincerely,
Giovanna Smith 😊
