Senior Reading Buddies at Mt. Edwards Seniors Home
January 2012
The grade ones “hit the ground running” through the paces of becoming great readers in early September. They have all been busy studying an action phonics program, where they use all their senses, specifically kinesthetic actions, song and rhyme to learn the various sounds of our language.
They are also using a well-balanced whole word based program (among other skills), to learn reading, spelling and writing strategies. With all these great skill building lessons and strategies, the students have been excelling at their reading and writing skills.
On a biweekly basis they love to share their accomplishments with the seniors at our neighbourhood full-care seniors’ home. On our visit, our grade ones partner up with a senior and read to them, sharing their developing skills, singing some songs and enjoying some juice to complete their meeting.
We just recently celebrated George’s birthday! He is our classroom pet. He is a stuffed monkey that travels with each grade one to their home at night. The grade ones take care of him each evening and on the weekends and include him on all the family fun and adventures. George’s caregiver always journals their time together and takes photos too. He is a great friend to many and is a super adventure seeker as he has been all over the city skating, swimming, hiking, shopping and so much more with his grade one buddy and their family!
Grade Ones learning collaboratively with response clickers and a SMART board. "Its just like playing a video game," said a little grade one learner!
This month in science the grade one students have begun studies of the Solar System. At the end of the month we will be visiting the Centre of the Universe to accent their studies. We have also been very engaged using our classroom SMART board as a portal to Mars and the international Space Station! We are having so much fun learning collaboratively together!
Coming soon in March, the grade one students will become paleontologists and begin studying Dinosaurs.
Grade one is always a busy and active learning environment. Stay tuned for more adventures with our class!
Yours,
Mrs. T. Blue
Grade One Teacher
PE and Reading Specialist
Assistant Head, Junior School