Ms. Vanderwel's Room

Well, it has been a long countdown to Spring Break, but it is finally here! The students have continued to work hard and learn lots as we prepare for a well-deserved break! ----------------------------------------------------------- This week in Language Arts the students continued to explore the elements of stories, in particular, characters. They learned that characters can be people, animals and sometimes even inanimate objects can be brought to life. Students learned to create a character sketch based on what a character looks like (outside) and how they act, talk and think (inside). They discussed the characteristics or traits of characters from different books we have read. Then they brainstormed traits for leprechauns and created an acrostic poem using the traits they came up with. This will help students as they prepare to write their own stories and develop their own characters. This week we read books by Jan Brett for our Author Study. Jan Brett is known for her highly detail...

Happy Friday! Spring is in the air! We had a lovely week in Grade 1 and are excited to welcome spring as the weather warms up : ) Here's a look at our very busy week!      -------------------------------------------- In Language Arts, Ms. Fraser has been teaching the kids all about the parts and the elements of stories. They have learned that all stories have a beginning, middle, and end. Each part contains different elements such as: character, setting, problem, events and solution. They listened to a variety of stories and worked on identifying the main characters and supporting characters.  This week's Author Study author was, Julia Donaldson. She is known for her lively and imaginative stories about many made-up creatures like the Gruffalo, Stick Man, Zog and many others. Her stories use rhyme, repetition and rich vocabulary to transport children into a funny and whimsical world of make-believe! In math we began a new unit on problem solving. The students are lea...

In reading we have been learning about the "Bossy R" or "Growling Dog" sounds-- otherwise known as r-controlled sounds. These are long vowel patterns that are written as /ar/, /er/ and /or/. We say they are r-controlled because you can't really hear the vowel sound. Students practiced making words with these sounds and sorting words into groups based on the sound they heard. Students have finished writing their Small Moment stories about a time they played in the snow. They are putting the finishing touches on their drawings and using our Success Criteria to determine if they have done their best work. This week during Author Study we read books by Dr. Seuss. His birthday was on Mar. 2 so I thought it was a nice fit. These are also wonderful books for early readers. They reinforce the concept of rhyme and contain many high frequency words that students need to know. The students listened for rhyming words and also listened for the /or/, /ar/, and /er/ sounds in ...