Mrs. Janisse and Mrs. Webber's Blog

We arrived to a big surprise on Monday morning! Two ducklings had hatched over the weekend and were peeping and peering out of the incubator ready to come out and play with us. A third little duck was beginning to hatch and we were able to watch it pop out of its shell on Monday as we were beginning our school day. On Tuesday, another duckling pipped (poked a hole in its shell) and by Wednesday morning it had hatched as well. We were so excited to name our ducklings and welcome them to our classrooms. Ask your child to tell you what their names are (Lemon, Chocolate Chip, Cocoa and Marshmallow).  Looking Back This week in UFLI we continued to talk about vowel teams. We learned that the long e sound can be spelled using 3 different vowel teams, ‘ee,’ ‘ea,’ and ‘ey.’ We discovered it is really tricky to know when to choose ‘ee’ or ‘ea’ and that ‘ey’ usually makes the long e sound at the end of a word. We did lots of practice in order to become more familiar with which words have ‘ee’...

Looking Back We had a short but busy week here in Grade 1! We had so much fun at the zoo on Wednesday! The weather held off for the most part and we had a great day learning about the arctic and explore the other animals.  This week in UFLI we began to talk about vowel teams. We learned that ‘ai’ and ‘ay’ both make the long /a/ sound. When we hear the long /a/ sound at the end of a word it’s ‘ay’. We discovered that it is really tricky to know when to use ‘ai’ or bossy e and we just need to practice so we become more familiar with the words we are spelling. There is only 1 reading passage in our UFLI folder this week as it was a short but busy week! We continued to research polar bears and learned all about what polar bears eat. Ask your child what they learned! We also candled our eggs for the last time before we had to lock down the incubator. We are on hatch watch starting on Monday! We are so excited to see how many ducklings we will get.  In math we continued to learn abo...

Looking back This week in UFLI we continued our learning about r-controlled vowel sounds. We learned about ‘ir’ and ‘ur’ and how they both make the /er/ sound (and also ‘or’ if there is a ‘w’ in front of it). We also reviewed and practiced all the previous r controlled vowels we have learned. The roll and read game this week is a great way to practice all the r-controlled vowels.  We continued to work on our stories that have a problem and a solution. This week we wrote 2 ways our character tried to solve the problem but neither one worked. Next week we are hoping to finish them up!  In science we candled our eggs and had a good close look of what was happening inside. We even saw some movement in one of the eggs! We also started a polar bear research book to get ready for our learning at the zoo. We used a video and a book to learn about what polar bears look like. Did you know that a polar bear’s paw can be as big as a dinner plate!! In math we did a word problem asking how ...

Looking Back This week in UFLI we continued our learning about r-controlled vowel sounds. We reviewed and practiced the sounds /ar/, /or/, and /ore/. We also learned the /er/ sound. We learned that it can come in the middle or at the end of a word. We practiced reading and writing words such as herd, other, fern, sister. Please see your child’s orange UFLI folder for a game to practice these phonics skills and 2 short reading passages to read together. We learned a song about the past and began our learning in Social Studies about our community in the past. We looked at several pictures of things that we have now compared to what they used for the same function in the past. This sparked some very interesting questions and conversations. Keep your eyes open next week for a little project we would like your child to do to further enhance our learning about the past.  Thank you to all who have sent in a baby picture of your child for our “Guess Who?” game that we are hoping to do next...

This week in UFLI we learned about the r-controlled vowel sounds /ar/ and /or/. We learned that when the /r/ sound is after a vowel, it can change the way the vowel sounds. We learned that the r-controlled vowel sounds /ar/ and /or/ can show up in different places in the word (beginning, middle, end). We practiced reading and writing words such as part, park, start, corn, sort, storm.  We learned a fun rhyming poem called “Eggs” this week. We have BIG news to tell you about the incubator that is now in our classrooms! Ask your child to tell you what kind of eggs are in the incubator (duck), how many there are (8), and how many days they will be in the incubator before they begin hatching (about 28). This week, we “candled” the eggs on Day 2 and Day 4 of their incubation. Below are two pictures to show you what they look like so far. We were very excited to see a change in the eggs in just 2 days!                We have combined our math learn...