Mrs. Janisse and Mrs. Webber's Blog

This week in UFLI we learned about the ending sound _le. We talked a lot about syllables and reviewed our learning about open and closed syllables. We learned that when we are reading a word with a _le ending, we can figure out whether the vowel is short or long by covering up the ending and noticing if the vowel is open or closed. This is a very tricky phonics concept. Ask your child if they can explain it to you using the words “table” and “puzzle.” We also reviewed the ending patterns of -ed and /y/ spelling the long e or i sound at the end of a word. Our poem for this week was a rap called “Earth Day.” We had a great time rapping along with a background track. Ask your child if they can rap a bit for you. We began writing our own stories this week using the “Someone, somewhere wanted, but so then, finally” story map. We chose our main character and our setting (someone/somewhere) and wrote and illustrated the first page of our book. In Math, we finished our symmetry unit with our s...

Looking ahead This week in UFLI we learned the 2 sounds that y makes at the end of a word. In one syllable words it will make the /i/ sound and in words with 2 or more syllables it will make the /e/ sound.  We read a really fun poem about spring and the weather changing and then wrote our own spring acrostic poems. We also read a story called “A Balloon for Isabel” that follows a really good story structure. We are gearing up to write our own stories following the same format (Someone, Wanted, But, So, Then, Finally). We are excited to start our stories next week.  In Math our student teachers finished up their symmetry lessons by creating some symmetry monsters made by writing our names and doing a symmetry hunt around the classroom. We also learned about a new shape used in indigenous art called an ‘ovoid’ and we practiced this shape by completing an indigenous style eagle.  In science we started a new unit about energy and movement. We learned about direction, speed an...

This week in UFLI we learned about the ending spelling patterns _es and _ed. We learned that when making words plural, _es is needed if the word ends in: /ch/, /sh/, s, x or z. We learned that a verb is an action or “doing” word. If we want to write about something that happened in the past, we add /ed/ to the word. There are three different sounds we could hear at the end of a verb when we are talking, and we learned that we record them all as ‘ed.’ (We could hear /t/ like in sipped, we could hear /d/ like in yelled or we could hear a ‘schwa’ sound and /d/ like in ended). Ask your child to tell you what the schwa sound means. We thought this was very interesting this week. We enjoyed many more fun math lessons this week with our student teachers. We learned about composite shapes (making a bigger shape out of many smaller 2-D and 3-D shapes). We also began learning about symmetry. Here is a link to a fun symmetry song we learned! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JYcDjgH6QFI Monday was ...

Looking ahead We hope everyone had a restful spring break! We are in the home stretch of Grade One with lots of exciting learning ahead! This week in UFLI we learned about the spelling pattern __ge as well as learning about some exceptions to the ‘bossy e’ rule (i.e. some, live, love, have). We brought home a new game to practice __ce and __ge in our UFLI folder to try out this week! Please return these folders every Thursday! We are so excited that our student teachers Ms. Gunson and Ms. Jardie will be teaching us math over the next few weeks! They taught us a really fun song about 3D shapes https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2cg-Uc556-Q&ab_channel=HarryKindergartenMusic We discovered some everyday objects that match these shapes, did some sorting and did a 3D shape hunt around the classroom.  This week we talked about the Grandfather Teaching of Love. We learned that the animal that represents love is the eagle because they show love towards their babies and take very good care ...

Looking Back We are excited to welcome back our student teachers! Ms. Jardie (Mrs. Janisse) and Ms. Gunson (Mrs. Webber) will be with us until the end of April! This week in UFLI we reviewed the long vowel sounds that we have been practicing and learned about the spelling pattern _ce. We learned that when a word ends with ‘ce’ the /s/ sound is made. We added a roll and read game to our UFLI folder to practice this new concept over the break, along with 2 new decodable passages to read. Thank you so much for your support and practicing with your child. Just a reminder to return the orange folders on Thursday so we can add new materials. We arrived on Monday to a very messy classroom! Ask your child to tell you what happened. We wrote about the mess and all the things we noticed had happened to our leprechaun traps that we left out over the weekend.  In Math, we worked on an open-ended subtraction problem about seals. Below is a link to an online game connected to this problem which ...

  Looking Back This week in our UFLI (phonics) lessons, we learned about the spelling patterns e_e and u_e  (we call it the “bossy e”). We learned that these patterns spell the long sound of the vowel, however, u_e is a bit tricky because there are 2 different sounds it could make when a “bossy e” comes along (long “yu” sound like “cube” or the “oo” sound like “tune”). We practiced the high frequency words (heart words) “ one, once” ” and reviewed many of the heart words we have learned over the past few weeks. Today your child has come home with two decodable stories to read to you as well as a Roll and read game and a small Home Practice page. These home practice materials are now in an ORANGE folder! Thank you for returning your child’s folder this week! They have added the new stories and practice pages at the back. Please return the folder EVERY THURSDAY in order for new materials to be added each Friday. See last week’s blog for more detailed information on how to use th...

  Looking Back This week in our UFLI (phonics) lessons, we learned about the spelling patterns i_e and o_e  (we call it the “bossy e”). We learned that just as in a_e (from last week), these patterns spell the long sound of the vowel (i and o). We practiced the high frequency words (heart words) “ by, my ” and reviewed many of the heart words we have learned over the past few weeks. Today your child has come home with two decodable stories to read to you as well as a Roll and read game and a small Home Practice page. These home practice materials are now in an ORANGE folder! Please read the information at the front of the folder! Please return the folder EVERY THURSDAY in order for new materials to be added each Friday. This will make it easier for you to revisit favourite decodable passages as well as review and practice skills when needed. Below is a link to a more detailed description of how to use the home practice page (half sheet) in the home practice folder. https://ufl...