Happy May,

It looks as though we are finally getting some consistently

warm weather, and I am certainly ready for it! I hope everyone

enjoyed the long weekend doing something that brings you joy.

We have had a busy month already! Our Education Week

celebrations were exciting and the sunshine has allowed us to

participate in some fun learning activities.

This month, we have really been working on our writing.

Grade 1 students are focusing on writing complete simple

sentences. They are using their letter and sound knowledge

to try and write words independently. I am always reminding

the students to try and write a word on their own first,

and then we can fix the spelling after. It is a big step to be

able put something down on their paper by themselves,

regardless of whether is it right or wrong!

Grade 2 students are encouraged to expand on their ideas

and add explanation and description in their writing.

They are trying to use more complex sentences in their

writing and they are encouraged to correctly write their

word wall words consistently.

Grade 3 students have been working on descriptive paragraphs.

They have learned all about topic sentences and closing

sentences, and have really practiced using adjectives to

describe. I am really proud of all of the students and their

amazing efforts to produce quality written work.

They have all come a long way!

Another large focus for this month has been narrative stories.

While using a Shape Go Map, students have practiced identifying

the elements that make up a story. (Characters, Setting,

Problem and Solution) They are also using their sequencing

skills to put the major events of the story in order. This is

essential for students to fully comprehend a story. At home,

you can ask your children to retell you any story you read.

You can ask, “What happens first in the story? Where does

the story take place? What is the big problem of the book?

How does the main character solve that?”  

Practice makes perfect!

In the coming weeks we will really focus on oral language

skills including rhyming, blending sounds to create new

words, deleting sounds from a word and identifying the

sound that was deleted. Our units of higher level words

will also continue (synonyms, antonyms, hyperboles

and multiple meaning words).

For the remaining weeks of the school year, we WILL

NOT be learning any new word wall words. Instead, in

class, we will focus on using these words in our writing

and in our speech. For homework, I will be placing a

writing prompt in their book each week. Students can

work on this writing prompt independently or with you.

If you child is still at the emergent stages of writing,

you can ask them to say their answers and you can

write down what they say. Please continue to read

daily with your children at home.

I will be away next week, from May 27-May 31 to care

for a family member. Mrs. McLean will be in with the

class all week. She has been a guest teacher in our

class many times throughout the year and she knows

the students, routines and expectations quite well.

Please feel free to contact her next week should

there be any questions. I will also be available via

email should you need to speak with me! sarah.faloon@ocsb.ca

Thank you again for your support and cooperation.

I am really excited to see what the rest of this school

year brings. I know the students are looking forward to

the upcoming summer months, as am I, but the transition

is always bittersweet for me. I will be trying to soak up

as much of my Grade 3s as possible before they leave

me for Grade 4. Looking back on the past year brings

me so much joy and happiness.

Wishing everyone a wonderful May!

S. Faloon

Primary Language Class

St. John the Apostle

Hello everyone!

I hope you are enjoying a nice week.
We have been pretty busy these past few weeks. We are gearing up for Catholic Education Week and there are many things going on. Please check out the schedule by following this link:

SJA Catholic Education Week


Here is some of the exciting learning that has been going on in our class! 

We have been comparing and contrasting different objects. This past week, we looked at how an octopus and a spider were alike and how they were different.  At home, talk to your children about how things are similar and different (How is a tree like a flower? What is unique about each plant?)

We will also talking A LOT about stories. Stories follow patterns. They have a setting and characters; they have events that make up the beginning, middle and end of the story; there is a problem and a resolution within the story. We will be using a few different strategies to learn more about how these elements go together to create stories. While learning how to retell a story, I am hoping we can extend this knowledge to writing their own stories! We are looking at retelling the story with picture support and also by filling in blank words. Once we have practiced a few times, we are going to tell the story in own words! The students are really enjoying the story and seem confident in their knowledge of events!

The Grade 3 students have been working on a special Earth Day Presentation. I am hoping they can present these projects to the class soon!

Through daily writing, the students have been learning about adding adjectives and descriptors to sentences, both orally and in writing. We are looking to take this knowledge and transfer it to more in depth writing. The expectation for the older students is to write a descriptive paragraph. The younger students are looking at writing complete, interesting sentences. Everyone has been using the tools within the class to help them achieve their goal.

The students each planted a seed and we have been anxiously waiting to see what will grow. Unfortunately, many of the seeds did not sprout. So, after some conversations about why that may have happened, we have decided to try again to see if we can get a different outcome. Stay tuned!

Wishing everyone a happy May. I am always amazed at how fast the year flies by! There will be more posts in the coming weeks as there is always so much happening at the end of the year. I hope everyone is enjoying the warm weather and sunshine!

Blog Post: April 1 2019

Happy April everyone!!!

With the March Break and the winter weather behind us, HOPEFULLY, we are
celebrating Spring  in big ways here at St. John the Apostle! There are many fun and
interesting days and activities coming our way! 

The second term is underway and the students have been hard at work. 
We are working on new vocabulary words from different stories, listening
comprehension skills, writing, different parts of speech, phonological awareness,
decoding strategies, and punctuation.

We will begin our study of narratives very soon. We will be looking at the different
parts of a story with specific focus on the 5 W’s (who, what where, when and why).
You can reinforce this skill at home by reading with your children and asking them
any one of these questions while reading. (Who is in this story? Why do you think
they decided to do that? What is happening now?
What do you think will happen next?)

The students have continued to work really hard on their writing. A new daily
practice has allowed the students to practice their writing skills at every level.

Each day, the students come into the classroom to a picture on the Smart Board.
The Grade 1 students are working on sounding out the words and writing it down.
They are working on sounding out CVC words (consonant, vowel, consonant.
For example: cat, hot, jet).
The Grade 2 students are focusing on writing “perfect” sentences using their Writers
Eye and the Grade 3 students are required to write a description of the picture.
I have seen a lot of growth in the students skills and confidence in their writing
through this activity!

We have also been learning about the structure of a paragraph, focusing on how to
start and end a paragraph. We discovered that a topic sentence introduces a paragraph
and lets the reader know what the text will be about, and that a closing sentence sums
up the paragraph and tells the reader that the text is finished.

This term, we will expand our writing with descriptive writing.
Our goal for this style of writing is for the reader to be able to make a picture
in their mind of the text. The students will learn to use their five senses and
descriptive adjectives to write about people, places, things and events.
This will be a fun and long writing unit!

A good and helpful strategy for the older students to edit their work is for them to
read their written work out loud to see if they can hear the errors. As we write,
we want to get our ideas out on paper as quickly as we can so we don’t forget
anything! This strategy provides a good opportunity to check to make sure it is in a
logical order, has the proper punctuation and includes everything
they had hoped!  I am really proud of how each student has made gains in their writing! 

You may have noticed your child talking about a program we have been exploring
called Google Read and Write. We have been learning about this amazing tool
that will help us with our reading and writing tasks. The Grade 3 students have
been working on using the "read" function on the program which will highlight and
read a text out loud! This is a fantastic way to eliminate frustration when text becomes
too difficult. The idea is that the students are familiar and comfortable with this program
in Grade 3 so that they can be better self-advocates in their learning in the junior grades.
The students in Grade 1 and 2 have been exposed to the program in whole group activities.
The focus for these students is more on logging into the computer and
locating the programs. They will continue to use these programs in the coming years
so that they feel comfortable and confident in using them throughout their learning. 

Throughout the year, the students have been learning about different strategies
that will assist in their reading decoding and comprehension. Last term, we
practiced making predictions and visualization. This term, we will focus on inferring.
The basic idea of inferring is to figure out the things that the author does not
outright say in a text. 

We will continue our focus on Lent and how our actions and words can bring us
closer to Jesus during this solemn season.We have new vocabulary words that
reflect the Season of Lent, Easter
and Spring.

Remember to check Twitter to see what fun activities we are doing!

A few reminders:

Please dress students appropriately for the weather for the day.
It can be a challenging time of year as the weather fluctuates so much!
The students should be dressed warmly and ready to be outside.

With all of the ice melting and puddles around, sending in an extra pair of clothes,
socks and mittens is a great idea!

Please inform STS if your child will not be requiring transportation.
If your child is sick, staying at their home school or bring picked up early,

please call STS so that they can inform the drivers. The phone number is 613-723-9677.

Thank you for your cooperation. 

Our Lenten Projects continue. We continue to collect cans for the Knights of Columbus
and coins for the OK Clean Water Project. Please feel free to send in contributions any time.

Happy Monday!

We are starting a fun week here at SJA! This week is Valentine’s Day

and we are going to celebrate our friendship and kindness in our P.J.'s.

Students are invited to bring their "stuffies" for the day. We will be

playing some fun games and we may even enjoy a little treat! 

I have seng home a list of the first names of all of the students in the

class. If you and your child decide to send in cards or treats, feel free

to use this list. Another option is to just have your child write their

name on the card. Also, please do not feel obligated to send anything.

I know it can be difficult with your child being part of two classes. We

will have plenty of kindness and treats to make it a great day here!

Here are some of the activities we will be doing this week to celebrate

our friendships this week!

We have read a story, There Was An Old Lady who Swallowed a

Rose. We will be using this Valentines themed book to reinforce

rhyming and sequencing. It follows the same pattern as many of the

other "Old Lady" books we have read this year. 

We will also look at a story about the Valentine adventures of Amelia

Bedelia. We will use this book as a springboard for activities about

figurative language, following directions, vocabulary studies and

looking at the components of narrative stories.

We will be using Valentine's Task Cards to help us infer information.

"My Valentine is for an animal that is long and thin. This animal

slithers. This animal might stick out its tongue"!

To practice our reading and speaking skills, the students will

participate in a fun heart game involving reading, telling stories and

active participation tasks! 

These activities will be going on all week! Check out our Twitter

account @MrsFaloonPLC to see some of the pictures of our exciting

days!

Just a reminder that your child's Term 1 report card and IEP will be

coming home soon. These reports are completed as a collaboration

between myself and the homeschool. They are sent home from your

child's homeschool. 

If you would like to discuss your child's progress at all, either on the

phone or in person, I am happy to talk with you. I will send home an

interview request form at the end of the week. 

Some schools will be including the Term 2 IEP's in with the reports

from Term 1. This means you will be receiving the grades and

evaluations of their progress on their expectations from Term 1 as

well as the new IEP goals that your child will be working toward in

Term 2. Some schools will be sending the Term 2 expectations home

at a later date. 

Regardless of when you will be receiving the Term 2 document, I am

happy to go over it with you as well. There is a lot of information in

those documents and your voice as the parents is important. Your

input on the IEP is encouraged! 

Thanks for reading! As always, let me know if you have any questions

or concerns.

Have a great week ☺

My apologies! This was written and sitting as a draft since the beginning of January. Apparently I never published it. I am sorry!!!

Hello and Happy Winter!

What a weekend that was! So much snow! I hope that everyone

was able to stay warm and have a little fun in all that snow.

Well, we are right back into the swing of things. After just a few weeks,

Christmas seems like a distant memory! I hope everyone had an enjoyable

and restful Christmas break. I have noticed the children have returned

refreshed and ready to go.

In Our Class

As the New Year has just begun, we have taken some time to discuss

resolutions.  We discussed about how people use the turning of the New Year

to set a goal for themselves, to try and improve on something.  Some great

examples were learning to play an instrument, reading more and practicing a

sport.

Throughout the past two weeks, each student set a few goals for him/herself.

 The idea is to discover how each student will shine!!! We really want to focus

on looking at steps they need to take to meet their goals. Ask your child about

what they are looking to improve on.

We are currently reading the story, The Mitten. It is a lovely story written by

Jan Brett. We are using this winter text to discuss sequencing, comprehension,

vocabulary and elements of a story. The students have done a great job looking

at the characters, the setting, the events of the story, and how the story begins

and ends. We will also link this book to some fun writing!

As this week is fairly busy already and we have many learning activities

planned throughout the week, we will  continue to practice our word wall

words from last week. We did not give them enough time last week, and I feel

like one more week would be beneficial in learning to read and spell these

words. If your child has mastered their weekly words, please feel free to review

previous words as well. We have spent some time reviewing many of the word

wall words that we have learned throughout the year. We will have new words

to focus on next week.

Report Cards and IEPs

Shortly, (mid-February) you will be receiving the Term One report card. Don’t

forget to look for the Language development and Self-Advocacy comments

that are directly on the IEP.

Next Year

If I have not yet already,  will soon be speaking to each family about plans for

next year. I will leave it to parents to discuss our decision with their children at

home, as parents tend to discuss this at different times. Some children will

however be talking about this issue at school, so don’t be surprised if the

children come to you with questions. As the paperwork comes home, please

sign and send it back as soon as possible. Thanks!

More Learning!

Many people have asked about different apps for iPads and tablets for the

students to work on at home. Here are some that I think are useful tools.

Some are free and are to be purchased, although they usually have a free

version!

• ABC Pocket Phonics
• Farm Phonics
• Phonics Genius
• Starfall
• ABC Ya Games
• Raz Kids (same login as on the computer)
• Sentence Maker
• Sentence Constructor
• Draw, then WRITE
• Say that thing
• Pixwords
• Word Match
• Please ask me if there is something specific you would like help looking for! I am always happy to search for new apps and try them out!

Just a reminder that winter weather is cold and wet!  Please make sure that

they children are dressed appropriately.

This will be a busy month, so stay tuned for more information!

Again, I wish you all a Happy New Year!  

Stay warm and dry!!

Sarah Faloon