Ms. Vanderwel's Room

We had another busy and engaging week in our Grade 1/2 classroom! In literacy, students explored the hard and soft /g/ sounds . They learned an important spelling pattern: when the letter g is followed by e, i, or y , it often makes the soft /g/ sound. Students practiced identifying these sounds by sorting pictures and playing interactive listening games to strengthen their understanding in a fun, hands-on way. Students also continued developing their How-To writing skills. We focused on the importance of: Planning steps before writing Using transition words such as first, next, then, and last Adding clear illustrations to match their instructions In math, we launched our new unit on patterns . Students began by discussing what a pattern is —and what it is not . They explored patterns in a variety of ways by creating them with actions, manipulatives, and even their own bodies (for example, tall/short sequences). Students also started learning how to label patterns usi...

  🌟 Classroom Update: A Week of Exploration and Discovery! 🌟 We had another exciting and busy week in our Grade 1/2 classroom! Students were engaged in a variety of hands-on activities across all subject areas. Here’s a look at what we’ve been learning: 📚 Literacy (Reading & Phonics) This week, students reviewed the long vowel silent e spelling pattern. They practiced reading stories that included these words and worked on recognizing how the silent “e” changes the vowel sound. We also introduced word ladders for the first time! Students enjoyed the challenge of changing one letter at a time to create new words. ✏️ Writing In writing, we began learning about procedural writing (also known as “How-To” writing). Students explored what procedural writing is, looked at examples, and discussed why clear, step-by-step instructions are important. They then began writing their own instructions for activities they know how to do—there were lots of creative and thoughtful idea...