Please note that there will be NO SCHOOL on Saturday, February 4th, 2012, in observance of Prophet Mohamed's Birthday. Classes will resume Sunday, February 5th, 2012.
Also, please note that the specials calendar for February is now available located on the left side bar of the blog.
Monday, January 30, 2012
Me on the Map
Today your child will be bringing home a world map in their green homework folder. In social studies, we have been learning different types of maps - city maps, country maps, and world maps. We learned that we are all living in the city of Muscat, which is located inside the country of Oman, and Oman is one of the countries that is part of the whole Middle East region.
In the next few days, please help your child to complete this little mapping assignment by coloring the countries you have visited yellow, and the countries you have lived in red. Feel free to discuss the cities they have been and what countries they are in - it will lead to great conversations and stories! For extension, you may also want to chat with your child about other places they want to visit in the future!
Please return the map by Sunday, February 5th, as we will share the maps in class and see were all our worldly travelers have been! Have fun with the assignment!
In the next few days, please help your child to complete this little mapping assignment by coloring the countries you have visited yellow, and the countries you have lived in red. Feel free to discuss the cities they have been and what countries they are in - it will lead to great conversations and stories! For extension, you may also want to chat with your child about other places they want to visit in the future!
Please return the map by Sunday, February 5th, as we will share the maps in class and see were all our worldly travelers have been! Have fun with the assignment!
Wednesday, January 25, 2012
No School Saturday, January 28
Please note that there's no school for children on Saturday, January 28th due to TAISM staff in-service meeting. We will see you back on Sunday! = )
Celebrate....
Our writers have published again! Since after the holiday, our students have been working hard retelling and writing "small moment" stories in Writer's Workshop. Last week, our writers got to the final stage of the writing process, editing and revising their stories to make it more interesting to read, and easier to follow. They went back, reread their stories and thought about parts or words that didn't sound right, look right, or make sense to them and fixed the errors. Many of them also learned to revise their stories by writing a different beginning, adding dialogues, actions, feelings, and many other details to capture our readers' interest.
Today, we celebrated our publications by reading and sharing our new stories to each other. We also looked back at the very first story that we published in November and reflected on the changes and improvements they have made, and other writing strategies they could use for next time. Many of them have made really positive and honest observations.
"In my old story I had a lot of wrong spelling. In this story, I had fixed them and now it is easier to read and I can read it smoother and faster." - Nila
"My old story had less details. Now I have more." - Salem
"In my last story, I had a boring beginning, now I started my story with an action." - Gabriela
"My last story had little dialogue, now I have many!" - Shereef
Please congratulate your child tonight for making a huge progress in their writing, and noticing their strengths and improvements in their published story. YAY WRITERS!!!
Today, we celebrated our publications by reading and sharing our new stories to each other. We also looked back at the very first story that we published in November and reflected on the changes and improvements they have made, and other writing strategies they could use for next time. Many of them have made really positive and honest observations.
"In my old story I had a lot of wrong spelling. In this story, I had fixed them and now it is easier to read and I can read it smoother and faster." - Nila
"My old story had less details. Now I have more." - Salem
"In my last story, I had a boring beginning, now I started my story with an action." - Gabriela
"My last story had little dialogue, now I have many!" - Shereef
Please congratulate your child tonight for making a huge progress in their writing, and noticing their strengths and improvements in their published story. YAY WRITERS!!!
Kasper - Star of the Week
Tuesday, January 24, 2012
What Shape Am I?
Today our mathematicians played a new math game called, "What Shape Am I?" In partners, children took turns being the "caller" and drawing a shape card from a paper bag and without showing it to his/her partner. Then, by looking at the shape, the caller had to name the different attributes of that shape, while the partner used the clues given to make a reasonable guess. For example, "I have 4 straight sides... I have 2 short sides and 2 long sides... I have 4 vertices... What am I?"
The kids really had fun with this game. Try playing this game with your child this weekend and see how many shapes they know.
The kids really had fun with this game. Try playing this game with your child this weekend and see how many shapes they know.
Terry Fox Run
It's the time of the year again... it is TERRY FOX RUN! Yesterday, Mr. Everett, along with the 5th grade ambassadors presented at the assembly to promote TAISM's Terry Fox Run 2012. Terry Fox was a Canadian, diagnosed with bone cancer in his knee and had to amputate his leg and get an artificial leg. Full of aspiration and determination, Terry Fox, at age 18, decided to run across Canada to raise money for cancer research. Despite the challenge he had to face in running across the country with an artificial leg, Fox never gave up. Fox fought his battle with cancer until the very end and left a true legacy. He inspired many of us that everything is possible if you put your mind to it.
Our Terry Fox Run is going to be Wednesday, February 8th at 2:30pm. By now, you should have received a pink T-shirt order form. If you haven't yet, please return the form and money by tomorrow, Wednesday, January 25th. All proceeds go to cancer research to children in Oman.
Our Terry Fox Run is going to be Wednesday, February 8th at 2:30pm. By now, you should have received a pink T-shirt order form. If you haven't yet, please return the form and money by tomorrow, Wednesday, January 25th. All proceeds go to cancer research to children in Oman.
Lost and Found!
Wednesday, January 18, 2012
Harrison, our Star of the Week
I.T. ROCKS!
Our children had their first iPad experience in I.T. class this week. They were all so excited when Mr. Hoffman, our I.T. teacher pulled the iPad cart into our classroom. As he projected the iPad main scree onto the smartboard, all kids were amazed and listened intently to learn about the different apps and how to operate the gadget. Students explored various drawing/doodling and coloring apps independently, and shared their drawing and coloring to their friends after.
A lot of kids mentioned that they have iPads at home. We have many cool apps that are installed in our school's iPads. Here's a list that I recommended that's appropriate for 1st Grade in supporting literacy, math, and fine motor skills.
Fry Words (lists of high-frequency words)
Sound Sorting Beginning Sounds (Lakeshore)
Tic Tac Toe Phonics (Lakeshore)
Doodle Buddy, Drawing Free, Kids Doodle (for free space doodling and letter writing)
Letter of the Day Interactive (to practice letter writing)
Grade 1 Math (math facts/games)
Fast Facts (addition facts and build automaticity)
Ask your child what they think about iPad and learning.
A lot of kids mentioned that they have iPads at home. We have many cool apps that are installed in our school's iPads. Here's a list that I recommended that's appropriate for 1st Grade in supporting literacy, math, and fine motor skills.
Fry Words (lists of high-frequency words)
Sound Sorting Beginning Sounds (Lakeshore)
Tic Tac Toe Phonics (Lakeshore)
Doodle Buddy, Drawing Free, Kids Doodle (for free space doodling and letter writing)
Letter of the Day Interactive (to practice letter writing)
Grade 1 Math (math facts/games)
Fast Facts (addition facts and build automaticity)
Tuesday, January 17, 2012
This week in Reading, Writing and Word Work
We have had our first Reading Buddies session with our 4th Graders in 2012. We were so thrilled to see and read with them again. The big boys and girls took on the leadership role in guiding and coaching our little readers in solving tricky words or parts while they read to them. What an amazing session!
This week in Readers' Workshop, I have been assessing each student on their reading level. I am happy to say that all of them have MOVED UP levels after the holidays. This is great news. Please continue to read with your child nightly at home or encourage your child to read to a sibling.
You will notice that your child is going to bring home more challenging books this week and in the next coming weeks. Now that we are reading harder texts, children would encounter more unfamiliar words that are difficult to decode. Some strategies we have been working on are: sounding it out while sweeping finger across the word, recognizing part(s) of the word (like blends, digraphs, word families), recognizing a word within a word (compound word, i.e. playground), and reading ahead and skipping the tricky word and using context and picture cues to figure it out.
Next week, we will begin guided reading again. Therefore your child will be bringing home 3 books- 2 books from our classroom library, and 1 guided reading book.
In writing, our personal narrative writers have been working on their holiday stories and writing like MAD (in a good way). They have had great enthusiasm recounting events and trips that happened during the winter holidays. Our writers now have a plethora of holiday stories in their writing folder. Yesterday, our writers went through their stories, one by one, and picked the one story that they wished to publish. We talked about how good writers reread the story they want to publish and think of ways and things they could do to make their story sound even BETTER and more INTERESTING. We read aloud a story by Donald Crews, Shortcut, and studied the many smart things Crews did in his story. We noticed that Donald Crews likes to zoom in a small moment and stretch out a tiny part and put in a lot of details. We also noticed that Crews likes to use actions as a story starter. Another cool tool that Crews uses is onomatopoeia (sounds like whoooo.... for trains). Today, our writers helped me edit and revise my story by suggesting me where I can add a sound, an action, and a dialogue. Later, they tried it in their own stories. I can't wait to read their published stories!
In word work, we have been studying spelling patterns, namely words that have a CVC pattern: consonant-vowel-consonant, (example: cat, or snap). After careful observations and studying many words with the CVC pattern, we noticed that in many cases, the vowel of these words are short. Whereas in CVCe pattern: consonant-vowel-consonant with an "e" at the end, the vowel of these words are long (example, cape, late). We also found a few "odd balls" that follows these patterns, but don't follow the "rule". For instance, the word "come" is CVCe, but the /o/ is a short vowel. This week, give your child some example with these two patterns and tell them to jot and spell it out for you.
This week in Readers' Workshop, I have been assessing each student on their reading level. I am happy to say that all of them have MOVED UP levels after the holidays. This is great news. Please continue to read with your child nightly at home or encourage your child to read to a sibling.
You will notice that your child is going to bring home more challenging books this week and in the next coming weeks. Now that we are reading harder texts, children would encounter more unfamiliar words that are difficult to decode. Some strategies we have been working on are: sounding it out while sweeping finger across the word, recognizing part(s) of the word (like blends, digraphs, word families), recognizing a word within a word (compound word, i.e. playground), and reading ahead and skipping the tricky word and using context and picture cues to figure it out.
Next week, we will begin guided reading again. Therefore your child will be bringing home 3 books- 2 books from our classroom library, and 1 guided reading book.
In writing, our personal narrative writers have been working on their holiday stories and writing like MAD (in a good way). They have had great enthusiasm recounting events and trips that happened during the winter holidays. Our writers now have a plethora of holiday stories in their writing folder. Yesterday, our writers went through their stories, one by one, and picked the one story that they wished to publish. We talked about how good writers reread the story they want to publish and think of ways and things they could do to make their story sound even BETTER and more INTERESTING. We read aloud a story by Donald Crews, Shortcut, and studied the many smart things Crews did in his story. We noticed that Donald Crews likes to zoom in a small moment and stretch out a tiny part and put in a lot of details. We also noticed that Crews likes to use actions as a story starter. Another cool tool that Crews uses is onomatopoeia (sounds like whoooo.... for trains). Today, our writers helped me edit and revise my story by suggesting me where I can add a sound, an action, and a dialogue. Later, they tried it in their own stories. I can't wait to read their published stories!
In word work, we have been studying spelling patterns, namely words that have a CVC pattern: consonant-vowel-consonant, (example: cat, or snap). After careful observations and studying many words with the CVC pattern, we noticed that in many cases, the vowel of these words are short. Whereas in CVCe pattern: consonant-vowel-consonant with an "e" at the end, the vowel of these words are long (example, cape, late). We also found a few "odd balls" that follows these patterns, but don't follow the "rule". For instance, the word "come" is CVCe, but the /o/ is a short vowel. This week, give your child some example with these two patterns and tell them to jot and spell it out for you.
Monday, January 16, 2012
All About Shapes
This week in math, we have launched a new unit - Shapes. We read aloud a story, When a Line Bends, a Shape Begins by Rhonda Gowler Greene and learned that shapes are everywhere around us. Some shapes are made of curvy lines, like an oval or circle. Some shapes have straight lines, like rectangles and triangle. Today we did a shape sorting activity by looking at different shapes (rectangle, square, circle, crescent, star, hexagon, octagon, trapezoid, ovals ...) and sorted them in categories. We learned a new term, "attributes" (the characteristics of an object/person/living thing).
Here's what they found out:
"A triangle has 3 corners" - Adessa
"A square has 4 sides that are the same." - Mahmoud
"A rectangle has 2 short sides and 2 long sides." - Yaseen
We are going to continue studying 2-dimensional shapes this week, and next week we will be looking closely at 3-dimensional shapes.
A unit letter has just sent home today with your child. Please refer to it for unit details and activities.
Here's what they found out:
"A triangle has 3 corners" - Adessa
"A square has 4 sides that are the same." - Mahmoud
"A rectangle has 2 short sides and 2 long sides." - Yaseen
We are going to continue studying 2-dimensional shapes this week, and next week we will be looking closely at 3-dimensional shapes.
A unit letter has just sent home today with your child. Please refer to it for unit details and activities.
Jana - Star of the Week
Wednesday, January 11, 2012
Math Games
This week in math, our mathematicians continued to build their fluency and automacticity in adding and subtracting. They learned a new math game called Bunny Hop. Partners take turn to draw a card from the stack that gives direction of which way (forward or backward)and how many steps to take on a hundreds chart. Based on the direction given (ex. Start at 100. Hop back 5 spaces. Hope ahead 1 space. Where are you?), players have to move their counters on the hundreds chart accordingly to land on the right number. If the player lands on the correct number, the player keeps his/her card. Partners continue the game until all the cards are drawn. Player with the most cards wins.
This game helps children to count-on or count-down from any numbers and skip count by 10's using the hundreds chart, which is another math manipulative that we encourage students to use to help them add and subtract. Other manipulatives we use are: unifix cubes, counters, and base-ten blocks. If you want to practice adding and subtracting with your child using a hundreds chart, go to http://www.abcya.com/interactive_100_number_chart.htm.
This game helps children to count-on or count-down from any numbers and skip count by 10's using the hundreds chart, which is another math manipulative that we encourage students to use to help them add and subtract. Other manipulatives we use are: unifix cubes, counters, and base-ten blocks. If you want to practice adding and subtracting with your child using a hundreds chart, go to http://www.abcya.com/interactive_100_number_chart.htm.
Ring Pull Project
Tara Aziz, an 11th Grade TAISM student needs your help!! She is currently implementing a project called, "The Ring Pull Project"; collecting ring pulls from soda cans in helping disabled people with limb lost/amputation to get artificial arms and legs. She needs as much ring pulls as possible so that she can send them to a special organization that collects these ring pulls, and uses and create artificial limbs. This is an ongoing effort. Please start collecting those ring pulls and send them with your child to school whenever you can. Thank you for your support!
Monday, January 9, 2012
Welcome Back
Happy New Year and welcome back! I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday with family and friends. The students were very excited to be back in school.
Please take a look at our January Specials Calendar if you haven't yet. It is located on the left menu bar.
If you have any questions or concern, please don't hesitate to contact me.
Please take a look at our January Specials Calendar if you haven't yet. It is located on the left menu bar.
If you have any questions or concern, please don't hesitate to contact me.
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