This Blog will no longer be used as our classroom site. I have simplified my class postings and am now only using email and the SeeSaw App for newsletters, pictures and evidence of learning.
Thank you for your subscriptions.
Happy Learning!
theresa.williamson@crps.ca
Jun. 1st, 2019
Dear Parents,
Only 4 more weeks of Grade One! Where has the time gone? Wow! Your children have grown so much. I am so proud of all their learning!
Academics :We continue to improve our skills as readers, writers, and mathematicians. I will be doing final assessment pieces and finishing off projects with students over the next few weeks. Report cards will be available on the 28th via Powerschool.
Dates to Remember!
*Please remember that Snacks, Milk and Pizza are completed for the year.
June 5th- Last Library Day (All books in please)
June 7th – Town Walk Field Trip (Be prepared for the weather)
– Book Orders Due (So I can get them back to you before the end of the year):)
June 12th – Le Chocolatier and Benchlands Hike (Afternoon)
June 14th – Summer Games (Half Day for students)
June 20th – Harvie Heights Field Trip
June 28th – Last day of 2018/19 School Year. Grade 3 Farewell. Half Day.
Summer Holidays Begin!
I’m sure I will be able to get to talk with you all during this last month, on field trips, etc, but if not, thank you for all of your support and hard work with your children this year. I am so proud of all the things they have accomplished. They are well on their way to be great members of our community. I look forward to seeing them around town this summer and around the school in the fall.
Happy Summer!
Love 🙂 Mrs. W.
May 1st, 2019
Welcome Winter? Ah, weather in the Rocky Mountains!
Your children are excitable and tired these days. Please attempt to get them to sleep as much as they can even, with the daylight increasing. It is harder to get my own daughters to bed on time but we all need to try to do so. Children are much less agreeable when they are tired (myself included).
We start May with finishing off our study of plants and focusing again more on animals. We will also be talking about our community and the past.
Literacy
Our reading continues to become more challenging. We are working in small groups at our levels and moving up when we are ready to do so. Most students are fluent with all of their sight words for grade one and some still need to work on them. We have been looking closely at letter blends (fl,gr,sk, sm, etc…) and ends of words within our phonics skills and reading lessons.
With writing, we continue to focus on creating descriptive sentences, using punctuation, word wall words, hunks and chunks to write the sounds we know and printing neatly. We will be creating an animal report with writing and an oral presentation before the end of the year.
Numeracy
We have finished with shapes as you have seen by our videos posted on SeeSaw. We are continuing to work on Basic Addition and Subtraction Facts and will be moving into a short unit on Measurement near the end of the month.
Dates to remember;
Apr. 29 – May 3 is Numeracy Week at ERS. We have a math problem to solve each morning and some fun activities during the week.
Wed. May 1st – Hats on For Mental Health! – Wear a hat
Thurs. May 2nd – Library Day
Fri. May 3rd – Half Day for Students – You are invited to come to class and play some math games from 10:30-11am in our classroom.
Book Orders Due
May 6- 10 is Mental Health Week
We will be having a FOOD DRIVE! Please have your child bring in a non-perishable food item for the Food Bank.
Wed. May 8th – 2:15pm Mental Heath Week Assembly
Thurs. May 9th – Library Day
Wed. May 15th – “Ugly Bugly” Presentation by Kananaskis Country. 9-10am in the Gym
Thurs. May 16th – Nick from Wildsmart is coming back to do a follow up presentation on Animals in the Spring.
Fri. May 17th – No School (All day Professional Development for Teachers)
Monday, May 2oth – Victoria Day – No school
Wed. May 22nd – Morning Field Trip to the Vet Clinic. Volunteers Please! A permission slip will be sent home soon.
Thurs. May 23rd – Library Day
Wed. May 29th – Picnic Dance Party!
Thurs. May 30th – Library Day
June Dates to Look forward to – Jun. 7th Town Walk , Jun. 14th – Summer Games, Jun. 19 or 20 (not confirmed yet) Picnic at Harvie Heights, Jun.28th – Last Day of Grade One, Half Day! Summer Begins.
🙂 Mrs. Williamson
April Newsletter!
Spring has finally arrived in the Rockies and with it unpredictable weather. Please continue to make sure your child is prepared for the weather each day as we will be attempting to head outside more over the next three months. As we head into better weather more after school play dates and outside activities may be arranged – As always, please let me know if your child is not taking the bus, going home with other parents, or heading to after school care (anything out of the usual routine).
** Also we have noticed a several toys and stuffies showing up a school these days. Please remember to remind your child that toys should stay at home. We prefer not to have tears because a special toy gets lost (which happens – especially when they are small). Thank you for your support with this. If your child has a long bus ride or childcare after-school we do understand the need for some entertainment but these toys should stay in their backpack for the school day.
Learning 🙂
We continue to focus on reading more challenging books, learning more snap words as well as”Hunks and Chunks” and using them in our writing. I will continue to share their learning on SeeSaw.
With numeracy, we will continue to focus on addition and subtraction facts and strategies. We have been recently learning about double facts. We finished our shape unit by recording a video about what they know about shapes (2D and 3D).
We are learning more about Plants in Science as we grow chives, dill, lettuce and kale. We hope to make a salad soon! Our citzen’s of the week are doing a great job of sharing about their families through their posters and items to share.
Please continue to sign up as parent volunteers. An extra hand is always needed – even it is just for an hour – and your children love to see you in class.
Dates to Remember – Only 2 weeks of school in April. Wow!
April 3rd – Beach Day (School Wide reward from our bucketfilling) Wear Beach attire.
April 4th – Library Day
April 5th – Half Day for students – Last Day before Spring Break
April 6 – 21st – Spring Break! Enjoy 🙂
April 22-26 – Earth Week – School Wide. We will doing many Earth Friendly activities this week.
April 29th – Library Day
Mrs. W 🙂
Mar. 1st, 2019
March has come in like a Lion! So cold! Thank you for sending in warm clothing, mitts, hats, etc… especially with names on them (so much easier to remember who belongs to what). The year keeps flying by. Your children are growing up so fast. This month we will be exploring reading bigger words, continuing to write compliments, as well as finishing that snowflake story we began last month, shapes – 2D and 3D and sorting each, more addition and subtraction facts, snowshoeing, signs of Spring (hopefully!) and learning about our community in the past.
I look forward to seeing you all again at student/parent conferences on March 20th and 21st. A request for times sheet will be emailed this week and a paper copy will be sent home on Monday next week if you have not replied to the email.
Library continues to be every Thursday. 🙂 Please remember to send books back to school.
Dates to Remember 🙂
March 7th – Outdoor Learning (Snowshoeing) 10:30-12:00 – Library Day
March 8th – Half Day for Students – Book Orders Due
March 13th – Spring Concert 1:30pm and 6:30pm
**Students should arrive at school at 6:15 and come to our classroom – They will also be picked up from the class at the end of the performance.
March 14th – Outdoor Learning (Snowshoeing) 10:30-12:00 – Library Day
March 20th – Goal Setting Meetings in the evening – 4pm- 7pm
March 21st – Library Day and Goal Setting Meetings in the evening – 5pm- 8pm
March 22nd – No School for students (Some Goal Setting Meetings this morning)
March 28th – Library Day
Terri Williamson
Grade One Teacher
Elizabeth Rummel School
February 2nd, 2019
**If you have any questions about your child’s report card or you need a hard copy please let me know. Also, I will continue to update your child’s See Saw with new activities and learning as the year progresses. Please contact me for a time to meet if I requested to meet with you in the report card comment section.**
Your children are really showing us if the skills we have been teaching, experiencing and learning over the last 5 months are being internalised. Each child is developing at their own speed and level. All students are using some or all of their “Super Powers” to help them read increasing more difficult books. Go Super Readers!
******It is always a plus to have an extra pair of hands in the class – so, if you happen to have some time to come in and volunteer – We would greatly appreciate the help. Please sign up on the calendar outside the class, email me, or comment on See Saw and we will put your name on the calendar.
Academics
During February we will continue to learn about our “Hunks and Chunks” – Groups of letters that make sounds. We have five new “snap words” which we add to our Word Wall each week. These are expected to be read and spelt correctly in our writing. We have just started our story about a snowflake and it’s adventures. We continue to work on a Skating journal also – this is our last week.
In Math, we continue to explore numbers in numbers with addition and subtraction facts and word problems. We are focusing on strategies (ie. counting on and counting, back doubles, making ten, etc….) and different ways to solve a problem.
Our 100th day of school is on Friday. A separate note will be sent home with details as to what the children should bring.
This month we are starting our “Citizen’s of the Week”. Some weeks we will have two citizen’s and others we will have one (We don’t have enough weeks of school left to do everyone for a whole week – Oh boy!) Your child will bring home a laminated note and a poster board which you will work on together and they will present to our class. They will also receive a compliment book from the other students once their week is finished. Both will be a nice keepsake of Grade one.
*Just a reminder to please write me a note or email if after school plans are different for your child and if you will be picking them up rather than them going on the bus. Thank you!
Dates to Remember – ****Please remember to check the Calendar on the side bar for the most up-to-date information!
Monday, Feb. 4th – Alberta Opera 1:30pm in the Gym
Thursday, Feb. 7th – Library Day
Friday, Feb 8th – 100th Day of School Activities – Half Day for Students
Thursday, Feb 14th – Library Day and Valentine’s Day
We will be celebrating Valentine’s Day and the children are encouraged to wear red or white. They will be exchanging valentines. Please have them print the names of their classmates themselves on each of the valentines. Class list is below. I will also be sending home one. Please ensure that cards are sent to all of the children in the class; it’s a lot more fun for everyone this way. We love to see homemade cards!
****We also would also like one fruit and one veggie plate – Please let me know if you could provide either.
Classlist – Aedre, Ava, Connor, Cimmaron, Carter T., Carter P., Dahlia, Gabe, Graham, Halton, John, Karin, Maxwell, Oisin, Pierce, Rosalee, Sapphire, Solomon, Sophia, Sawyer, Tyrran, Tori, and Talia. Other staff they might want to include are – Ms. B., Mrs. Morley (Music Teacher), Pascal (Librarian), Mrs. Shellian (Reading Support Teacher), Ms. Kate (Right From the Start), Grace and MJ in the office, Arelys and Jason our custodians and of course Mr. Whitishyn! 🙂
Monday, February 18th – Friday, February 22nd :
Family Day/February Break. No School.
I will be at Teachers’ Convention on the Thursday and Friday 🙂 There are some great sessions this year – I hope to share some of the learning with your lovely children 🙂
Thank you, again, for your continued support!
Mrs. W. 🙂
January 5th, 2019
Dear Parents
Happy 2019! I hope your holidays were joyful and filled your “buckets” with many happy memories. Thank you for the lovely gifts and cards I received. I truly feel appreciated.
Academics
January will be a month filled with stories of snow, animals in the winter and how we care about ourselves and our community. To begin we will be focusing on several wonderful books including A Perfect Day, When It Starts to Snow, The Biggest, Best Snowman and The Biggest Snowman Ever.
We will continue to work on our “snap words”, our reading “Super powers” and understanding what we read by retelling, predicting, connecting and asking questions. We will be writing about the New Year, Winter activities (with some poetry about what we can and can’t do in Winter) and creating a fiction story about a day in the life of snowflake. We will also be writing about our experiences skating (Which starts on January 15th!).
In Math, we continue to review concepts covered with our calendar and daily math (patterns, sorting, identifying and understanding numbers 1-20 and counting by 5s and 10s). We will be working more on combining and separating numbers (addition and subtraction) this term. Knowing our basic facts is an important goal in grade one.
Social Skills
We continue to work on using kind words and actions with others, taking turns, sharing and recognising feelings in ourselves and others. I will be continuing with Kimochi lessons and Ms. Kate will continue some biweekly lessons with the students about the key concepts in this program as well (green and red thoughts, managing your impulses, gratitude, mindfulness, etc…). If you would like to know more about this program please check out the link on the right hand side bar of this blog.
Baby Chase will be visiting again on Jan.21st. We look forward to seeing how he has grown! We have been focusing on how he shows us different emotions and what we can do to help.
Dates to Remember – All Posted on the Google Calendar
Jan. 10th: Library Day
Jan. 11th: Half Day for students
Jan. 15th: Skating – Afternoon
Jan. 17th: Library Day
Jan. 18th: Book Orders Due.
Jan. 21st: Baby Chase Visit – 11am
Jan. 22nd: Skating – Afternoon
Jan. 24th: Library Day
Jan. 28th- Feb 1st: Our School is Celebrating Literacy Week.
Jan. 29th: Skating – Afternoon
Jan. 31st: We are planning a “Snuggle and Read day”. The students can wear their pajamas to class and we will read lots of stories and play some literacy games. The children are welcome to bring a book from home. They may wish to bring a SMALL “stuffy” or blanket. We will also be participating in a school wide assembly on this day – time to be announced.
***Report Cards are open on Parent Portal today! Please make sure you take a look at your child’s progress. If you have any questions or comments please let me know. *****
*Library continues to be on Thursdays.
P.S. Be sure to keep checking this blog for Newsletters and SeeSaw for weekly pictures and student work.
Sincerely,
Mrs. Williamson
theresa.williamson@crps.ca
Dec. 2nd, 2018
December is here and the snow and cold has arrived. Thank you for sending snow pants, mitts and hats so we can go outside as much as we are able to. I continue to appreciate names in all of these items. The lost and found continues to grow so please take a look if you are missing items.
Academics
Your children continue to be busy learning about our reading “Super Powers!” – Pointer Power, Reread Power, Snap Word Power and Partner Power! I continue to introduce new snap words each week. I have almost completed the second testing round for these words – I will send a copy home this week so you can see your child’s progress. Thank you for continuing to read at home every night. Please let me know if the books are changing enough, too many, too few, or any other questions.
We are writing a great piece on Christmas and will read it like our Recess Writing on SeeSaw.
In Math, we continue to focus on numbers, patterns, beginning addition and sorting.
In Social Studies, our “Showing We Care” Bag has begun and we have had some great examples of things we do to show we care for ourselves, our family, our school and community.
In Science, we are finishing off our Bear unit by building a Triarama of a Bear habitat. We will make sure we have all the things a bear needs.
Important Notices
We will be starting skating in January. Please return the note I sent home last week and let me know if you are available to come and help tie up and untie skates (We will need quite a bit of help with this).
**If you have any games, puzzles, toys, books that you would like to donate to our school (as you clean things before or after Christmas) we would greatly appreciate them.
December Dates to Remember (Please remember to check our Google Calendar also)
December 6th – Library Day!
December 13th – Library Day!
December 12th – Grade 2 and 3 Concert – 1:30pm and 6:30pm (Your grade one children are not in this one but we will watch in the afternoon – We do the Spring Concert!)
December 14th – Half Day – PD in afternoon
December 17th – Caroling in the Gym – 2:15pm (You are all welcome to join us during any of the caroling times)
December 18th – Caroling in the Gym – 9:15am
December 19th – Caroling in the Gym – 1:15pm (Special performance at this one!)
December 20th – Caroling in the Gym – 11:15am
December 21st – Caroling in the Gym – 10:40am
– First Day of Winter!
– Half Day!
January 7th – Classes Resume
If I don’t see you before the break, please have a wonderful holiday and enjoy your time with family and friends. I will be heading off to Vancouver Island to visit my family for the first time since my girls were born (16 years ago!).
Sincerely,
Terri Williamson
November 1st, 2018
Halloween has come and gone. Remembrance Day and Christmas are just around the corner. I have sent out a schedule for you to put in times for Goal Setting. This will take place on Nov. 14, 15, and 16th. Please remember that Report Cards will not be coming home until January and there will be no scheduled interview times at that point. If you would like to talk with me after report cards I am always available for an after school or morning meeting.
As the weather gets colder your children should be coming to school prepared to go outside with mittens, hats, and snow pants. Thank you to all of you who have been coming in and helping out in class! We are still in need of parent volunteers, though! I only have a few signed up for this month. Please remember that coming in helps you keep connected with your children, it REALLY helps us with the regular flow of the classroom, and it is nice to see you all once and a while. Please email me, send a note or drop by to sign up (calendar is outside the classroom door).
Academics
We continue to Read to Self everyday as well as reading with partners, word work – “snap” words, phonics skills – word families and vowel sounds, writing – finishing of our “Recess Writing” project with Mrs. Shellian and printing practice as well as reading and acting out stories.
In Math, we continue to focus on the numbers 1-20. Counting forwards and backwards, by 10s and 5s to 100, beginning addition, and counting on skills. We continue to use visual images (dominoes and dot groups) to quickly recognize groups up to 10. We will be starting to do some patterning and sorting this next month.
Our “Belonging Bag” along with the “Student of the Day” are our Social Studies component. We have talked about belong to a family, school and community and how we are connected.
In Science, our unit on colour mixing, shades, tints and how we use colour in our life is coming to a close. We are happy to have Solomon’s mom (Chrissy) coming in to talk to us about how she uses colour in her job (artist!). We continue to visit our “Special Spot” in the butterfly garden every second Friday to see how things change over the seasons using our senses – We are keeping track of this in our Scientific Journal and with pictures. We will be starting on a unit about “Bears” this month. Nick from Wildsmart will be presenting to us on Nov. 29th in the morning. We will also be using the Bear EduKit from Wildsmart to learn about bears.
Dates to Remember
Nov. 1st – Library Day
Nov. 8th – Library Day, Remembrance Day Assembly and Book Orders Due
Nov. 9th – No School – In Lieu of Goal Setting Meetings
Nov. 12th – No School – Remembrance Day weekend
Nov. 14th – Goal Setting Meetings 4pm-7pm
Nov. 15th – Library Day, Goal Setting Meetings 5pm-8pm (I started earlier on my schedule to make more spaces)
Nov. 16th – No School For students – Goal Setting Meetings in the morning, PLN in the afternoon
Nov. 22nd– Library Day
Nov. 29th – Wildsmart Presentation in the Morning, Library Day
Library continues to be every Thursday.
I really appreciate your comments and suggestions.
Thank you for your continuing support with reading and word cards!
🙂 Mrs. Williamson
October 1st, 2018
Wow! Is it October already? Your children are starting to get familiar with our routines and rules. Unpacking their backpacks in the morning is getting quicker – most of them remember to take their book bags out and go to their desks to doodle, read, or chat with others. Shoes and jackets are getting put on faster (We still have a few students who have tie up shoes and are having troubles) and put in the right spots in the boot room. We are working on being smooth movers and staying in a line in the hallways. Personal body space is always an area to work on. Winter weather will soon be upon us so snowsuits and boots are next. Oh, boy!
We have talked a great deal about being a “bucketfiller” by sharing, helping others, “bee”ing polite, and listening. Two sayings from our Kimochi time have been – It’s okay to be mad but it is not okay to be mean and A friendly face makes a friendly place.
Thank you all so much for the support you are giving by checking your child’s Book Bag each day, talking with me via email, phone calls and in person, and most importantly coming in to volunteer (even if it is just for an hour).
We will be starting off October with one of my favourite authors, Peter Reynolds – Ish, The Dot, Sky Color are some of his books. During our Library time on Thursdays we have been figuring out where to find our favourite authors.
We will be beginning October with learning about 5 “SNAP” words (or quickly recognized sight words) every week. Look forward to various word books coming home with these words highlighted. We will also be focusing on first letter sounds, especially tricky ones like “n”, “g”, and “c”.
In Numeracy, we are counting and recognizing numbers 1-20 through group activities as well as mini books and puzzles.
We will be meeting together next month (Nov. 14-15th) to discuss your child and some goals for the beginning of the school year.
I will be sending home a note about your preferred time for this meeting near the end of the month.
PLEASE NOTE THE FOLLOWING DATES:
Wed. Oct 3rd – Individual Photos
Fri. Oct. 5th – Half Day for Students
Mon. Oct. 8th – Happy Thanksgiving! No School
Thurs. Oct. 11th – Fire Safety Presentation (Sparky!)
Fri. Oct.19th – Half Day for Students
Tues. Oct 30th – Picture Retakes
Wed. Oct. 31st – Halloween – Parade and Celebration in the Afternoon.
*I will need one Fruit Plate and one Veggie Plate for our Halloween Snacks – If you would be able to volunteer one of these please write me a note or email.
Thank you, again, to all the parents and grandparents who have come in to lend a hand during the busy month of September. I greatly appreciate and welcome your support.
Regards,
Terri Williamson
Grade One Teacher
Elizabeth Rummel School
theresa.williamson@crps.ca