Phonics Anyone??

This is actually one of my favourite parts of each day. We learn our new letter or spelling and then practise by writing words using our new letters. Then I write a few sentences on the board for them to read.
For example:

Hmmm. That seems like.. all of their hands are up. Could it be? I have made a mistake? In my spelling?? They sure seem to think so. And that's their favourite part of the activity -- fixing all of Miss J's mistakes. It's a great way to practise our phonics rules. I think you'd be surprised at how much they know!

Oops....with is spelled with a th and not ff...

Oops...forgot the period!

Oops...the plural after sh is with an es!

Oh yes. Kitten does have two t's

Yes, I suppose that the 'e' is necessary. A cute little kitten is probably better than A cut little kitten...



Long vowels are still a little tricky. We've been circling the letters that make the long vowel sound to remind us when we're reading.

And that 'e' on the end of words. It's a useful little thing! We've been putting arrows from the 'e' to the long vowel that the 'e' is helping to make the long vowel sound. But our favourite part of that is yelling (along with that 'e') "Hey U say U!" (or whatever long vowel we're working on)

How Great Our Joy! Hopefully:)

Urgh. Having trouble linking this video the usual way. So I'm going to try something a little different. Try clicking on this. Because after all the usual joys of downloading on dialup I'd really like this to work!!

Hopefully you'll see them singing what's probably their most enthusiastic of the Christmas carols we've been practising for our visit to the nursing home on Friday. Now that could be because they've already know this one from when we did the Messiah last year...

Star of the Week!! December 4 - 8

Ta da! It's Monday! You get that star of your own. You pin it on your shirt. Your teacher hopes that it doesn't result in any holes in your shirt. And then you get the pointer!

You get to share lots with your classmates. When else are they literally hanging on your every word?

Getting to do what Miss J loves to do. Being a wee bit silly and making them laugh :)

Singing! I know what too. They're singing "How Great Our Joy" and they're on one of the joy, joy, joys in the chorus!

Oh Miss J, put away that camera!


FRIDAY!!!

Want to know what we said?? We think she's kind and friendly. And good at soccer. And...well, we can't give it all away.

Miss J is proud to announce William Nicholas!

Nope, it's not an addition to the class, but to my family. It's little Liam. Isn't he the cutest little thing?? :) I'm an even greater auntie than before!

It's the end of Term 1. Already!

I'm sure you know that we've almost all finished our first page of Snuggle Up and Read. (You may not have known there will be a bunch of pages of Snuggle Up and Read!) Here they are holding up their first prize. A mechanical pencil. Yes, it's terribly thrilling -- no more trips to the pencil sharpener! Of course, once they realize that this means no more socializing at the pencil sharpener I'm sure they'll revert back to their normal pencils.

Playing around the world again. Mais, en francais!

C'est un haricot vert!

Je pense que c'est une peche! It's a little hard to see :) Wow, they were very good with their fruits et legumes. And you should hear them rrrroll their rrrrrrrr's! Une poirrrrrre!

The teacher's view. (See I get the answer just in case I get stuck)

Here we are playing/singing (that's for you DTG!) a language arts game. We sing a song (ask 'em, I'm sure they'll oblige with the song) and at the end drop a word for a person to read. When they've read it they get to carry the basket around the circle.

It's a good way to practise the new sound spellings we've learned and review the older ones.

Star of the Week!! Nov. 27 - Dec. 1

Woo hoo! It's the first day of Star of the Week! Showing your poster..

...telling about your pictures...

...answering a multitude of questions.
Ok, it's really the first day of being the star of the show. Answering so many questions in class it makes everyone else jealous. Being first at everything. Choosing all the books we'll read...You know. The STAR!!

Hidden picture pages are fun!

But so are K-nex! Especially when you can make things like spiders.

How much money is this?
We're working on counting money in math class and this is a game the kids can use to practise their counting.

Friday, last day of Star of the Week. We're checking the poster and finding out that we think he's a pretty funny fella. For more proof of this check out the next picture...

...see? Monday.
And they were all in stitches.
Laughin' their heads off.
Yep, welcome to Grade One!

Christmas approacheth!

It's ever helpful Miss J trying to make your Christmas shopping easier. Oh what to get Oma and Opa, Grandma and Grandpa for Christmas? Our school CD of course! No home is complete without one! [including yours, do you have one yet? :) ] Our classroom often rings with the joyful sound of first graders singing lustily along with the CD!


And...it's almost here!
Update!! It is here! Playing on my tv right now and in my car a few hours previously. And it's fab! :)
Coming very soon to a school near you, the students of CCS in the Easter and Christmas Messiah. We were fortunate enough to watch a sneak peek in choir on Wednesday. They were certainly excited to see themselves on the small screen! And what fun to listen to them all spontaneously burst into the Hallelujah Chorus along with the DVD!

The package includes a CD of the Easter and Christmas Messiah and two DVDs. One DVD contains the Easter and Christmas performances and the other DVD is the play and special features and a few hundred still photos.


You can contact the school to order Messiah for Young Voices or purchase The Music Within.