Ms. Vanderwel's Room

Hello again! Here is a sneak peek at our work this week! --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- In Language Art, students continued to learn about and review various letter sounds. This week we covered /r/ and /a/. We also looked at the r-controlled sounds-- /ar/, /or/, /er/, /ir/ and /ur/.  We also began to talk about 'Heart Words'.   These are words that, because of their unusual spellings, are not as easily decodable as most words. For example, words like 'the', 'to' and 'said'. We look at the parts we know and then have to memorize the parts that we don't. In the word 'said' the first and last sounds follow the normal pattern, but the 'ai' is different so we have to remember that it makes the short 'e' sound. We place a heart above or beside these words to help us remember that it has an unusual sound in it.                                ...

Hello Everyone! It was another busy week in Gr. 1 & 2. Take a look!  This week in Language Arts we continued to review and introduce new letter sounds. We also began using our Sound Wall to display the letter sounds we have covered so far. This week we added the /p/ and /l/ sounds and the digraphs /ch/, /sh/ and /th/. We continue to build words using letter cards and then blending them to read the words. Students are now up to almost 30 minutes of sustained silent reading (aka Reading Stamina). Wow! Impressive! In math we talked about the core of a pattern. The pattern core includes all the terms before it begins to repeat. Students identified and circled the core of many different patterns.  Students in Gr. 2 also looked at number patterns in the hundred chart. They used counters to cover various numbers on the chart and then looked to see what sort of pattern was formed. For example, they covered all the even numbers, then all the odd numbers, then numbers ending in 5 an...

Happy Friday, Everyone! I had a wonderful time meeting and connecting with parents and students on Thursday night. Thank you all for coming out! See below for a sneek peek at our work this week : )                ---------------------------------------------- This week in Language Arts we continued to work on building our Reading Stamina. We are now up to reading for 15 minutes without breaking stamina. We also worked on reviewing/learning some new letter sounds. We focused on the /s/ and /i/ sounds. Students listened for the target sound in stories and built words using the various letter sounds we have covered so far.  In writing, we watched a video on Terry Fox and then brainstormed what we learned about his life. Students then had the option of writing a poem using the first letters in his name. This type of poem is called an acrostic poem. Or they could simple write a short paragraph about his life and what he did. Students continue to l...

Hello Parents & Students! Welcome to our Classroom Blog! Each week I will be posting information about the learning and activities that students are engaged in as well as photos of what we have been doing. I will also list important dates and information for upcoming events in the school.  We have been busy these first few weeks getting to know each other, establishing relationships with each other and building our classroom community. Check out the photos below to see what we have been up to : )  ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- TERRY FOX RUN Ethel M. Johnson school is participating in the Terry Fox Run on Tuesday, September 20th. Students will run with their designated colour groups that they will learn about on Monday. One of the goals of observing the life of Terry Fox and participating in this Canada-wide event is to raise money for the Terry Fox Foundation. The run demonstrates generosity and determination of th...