GradE 1 St. michaels University School

1. GradE1St. michaels University School Alison Galloway, Lynn Porteous and Brooke Kray

2. Ready for another school year?

3. Objective: Overview of philosophy, curriculum and classroom routines

4. Importance of process over product “Things won are done, joy’s soul lies in the doing” -Shakespeare

5. Getting to know each other…

6. Attaining Flow • Psychologist MihalyCsikszentmihalyi coined the term “flow” for the idea of total immersion in a task that is challenging yet closely matched to one’s abilities. Also called ‘being in the zone’.

7. Ways To Encourage Flow • Longer units of study- time to deepen understanding and pursue passions • Student input into direction of study • Teacher as learning guide rather than gatekeeper of knowledge • Time for play and exploration

8. Key Skills for the 21st Century • inquiry • creativity • problem solving

9. Key Skills for the 21st Century • self-reliance • critical thinking • innovation

10. Key Skills for the 21st Century • Teamwork and collaboration • Cross cultural understanding • Technological literacy

11. Enjoyment of life-long learning

12. Language Arts • Printing practice – Handwriting Without Tears • Phonics- Explode the Code • Journal writing- invented spelling ok. • Encourage your child to sound out words • Weekly Sight Words • D.E.A.R time daily • Story time daily • Choral reading- poetry • Guided reading with teacher in small groups • Literacy stations • SmartLearning – in depth study of a book

13. Home Reading • All children are benchmarked • Instructional level 90-95% accuracy • Running records count omissions, additions, leaving off endings, incorrect pronunciation, as errors and we also look for strong comprehension and fluency • Levelling of books is not an exact science- if your child brings home a book that is too easy or difficult it is still valuable to have a discussion about the book • Not a race to Z! • By June aim is to have students reading at level J • We are working on predicting, inferring, questioning, changing endings and evaluating

15. Mathematics • Mixture of hands on and written work • Knowledge is co-constructed • Must be relevant • Daily calendar, count # days in school even/odd #s • Children discover numbers and patterns in their environment • See overview for topics covered • Home support- practice counting by 2’s, 5’s and 10’s • open a bank account • Demonstrate real life applications

16. SORTING Making learning visible

17. Graphing

18. Themes for the year • Big themes over the terms- multidisciplinary and co-constructed with children. • Term 1 – West Coast Explorations • Term 2- Stories from around the world • Term 3 Bug research project • See package for details

19. Ways to support learning at home • Provide a distraction free area for homework. Use a timer to help focus • Build independence at home eg. getting dressed, helping make lunch, taking care of a pet • Ask open ended questions with no correct answer. Encourage your child to give multiple, creative responses. • Verbally describe when you are using real life math or reading skills. • Play board games with multiple dice. • Yatzee, Snakes and ladders, • Establish a night time reading routine. • Model a love of books. • Contact us if you or your child have any concerns or questions. We are a team 

20. Housekeeping Items • Library day- Every even day, but children can return books to basket any day • No toys at school please • Please label all clothes!! • Check agendas nightly. We stamp books every morning so you can write usa note in the agenda or email your child’s teacher. • NO NUTS ALLOWED! (only nutty people  )

21. Any questions?