Farewell!!

Dear Students and Families,

I am so sad to be writing this final blog post for the 2019/2020 school year.  I know this year of grade 1 and grade 2 was not what any of us envisioned and to say that I've missed all of the kids these last three and half months is a huge understatement.

However, I want to say how proud I am of all of you, students and parents alike.  We have come together as a classroom community to overcome sadness and immense challenges as we transitioned from the physical classroom to a virtual world with our ongoing crisis learning. 

You've had to learn new technical skills and you've had to figure out how to keep going without your classmates and other support members from our learning community.  It has been hard.  I know that.  And I wish that it wasn't and that we could have finished the year together in person. 

I wish all of you going on to new classrooms the best of success and those of you who are staying for one more year - I'm so happy to welcome you back in September.

So, to end, I want to say a big "thank you!"  Thank you for a year of memories.  Thank you for a year of learning.  Thank you for all of the help and support you've so freely given this year.  And thank you for all the hard work and dedication that all of you have put into making this year the best that it could be.

Enjoy your summer.  Take time to relax (I might add that reading a good book can be very relaxing) and I'll see you (hopefully) in the fall!

Love,
Ms. Paradis

Mathletics Tutorial

Hello Families!

Here's the tutorial for logging onto Mathletics.

Go to the website:  Mathletics

Once you get to the login screen, students can put in their id and password to sign in.  We do not sign in this way in class so students will likely need some help getting started this way.

In class, we have been using QR codes to log in which can be accessed by clicking the blue button that says "click here to activate camera.  If you would like the QR code for your child, send me an email and I will get an electronic copy to you.  You will just need to hold the code up in the red box and the website will log you in.

This is the landing screen when you first login.  Across the top there are four tabs, "Learn", "Explore", "Play", and "Review."  Student most often will use the "Learn" and "Play" tabs.  The avatar builder on the right side of the screen is also popular with kids.

Under the "Learn" tab you will see a variety of topics.  These are the different skills areas where different learning tasks are located.  Each topic will bring out a popdown menu that shows the different tasks.  

Occasionally, only the "Learn" tab will be available for students to click on and the rest will be faded.  This is because they have been assigned work and must complete assigned work before going to other sections.  

The assigned tasks will appear on the main screen and will disappear as they are completed.  At this point, all assigned tasks are tasks that were assigned before the class cancellation on March 16th.  

Some activities will be drag and drop and some will require students to enter a numerical answer.  This can be done on the keyboard or by opening up the number pad option on the screen.  Students can also hear the question read aloud to them by clicking the green speaker symbol.

Once students have answered the question they will need to click "submit".  Students will know they are right or wrong because of the checkmarks and xs .  They will need to click "next" to move onto the next question.  Each assigned task typically has 10 questions.  You can track progress on the left hand side.

The "Play" tab will take students to an online competition space where they can practice number facts in race against other students (classroom, school, and the world) or the computer.  This is a closed space and only user names and school are displayed.

The "Explore" button allows students to look different videos, games, and an online dictionary.

Raz Kids Login Tutorial

Hello Families!

I hope everyone is doing well!  I've had a few questions about logging into Raz Kids so I thought I'd post a tutorial.

Go to the website    raz-kids.com         

You must enter in the Teacher Username that was provided to you.  All students at Ramsay School are in one of the following three classes:

littleschool12

littleschool123

littleschool1234

Once you've put in the teacher username, push the green "GO" button.  This will take you to the class page - because our school only has three licenses there are only three teacher names on the classes.  My name is not on the class list - the class page will have another teacher's name at the top.  Everyone in our class will be listed under Jill MacLeod, Drew Jackson, or Sabine Harris (red arrow).  

If for some reason you can't find your child's name in the class, try switching the teacher to one of the other user names (purple arrow).

 I have changed everyone in our class' user names to have Rm5 at the start before their name in an effort to make it easier to find (green circle).  Click on your child's name and it will take them to the password screen.

All grade one students have a picture password.  We have been using Raz Kids in the classroom and everyone should be able to login on their own - I haven't really had to help kids login for quite some time.    Grade two students have a short word for their password - again, they have all been logging on independently for most of the year.

 Once your child has logged in, they will land on a screen that looks like this: 

Purple Arrows -  are where you can find leveled reading books that match where your child is.  The one little building is not there for all students.

Red Arrow  - shows "assignments" or readings and activities that I have requested students do.  At this time we are not updating "assignments" and any assignments that are there are ones that were in place before classes were cancelled on March 16th. 

Green Arrow - where students can go to edit their avatar or build their ship.

Yellow Arrow - where students can find messages directed to them.  These are generated by the program or by myself.




I will be working on a Mathletics tutorial and hope to have that up soon.  Take care everyone!

Tuesday, March 3rd

Hello Families,

Here's just an update of what's happening in the classroom . . .

Math

Grade 1 - Students have been working on developing a conceptual understanding of addition and subtraction. This means that students are really working understanding and thinking about how math works.  When I add one, what does that mean?  Making these connections and making them early will help students to develop the procedural fluency that many of us associate with our own experiences in learning math.

Grade 2 - Students have been working on understanding word problems and understanding the language of math.  Altogether, total, difference, how many are left, etc.   Students have also been developing their skills in explaining their thinking and showing the evidence to support their answers (show your work!).  

Literacy

We have been working together in small groups to develop our decoding and comprehension skills.  As a class we have continued to work on recognizing our sight words and been building our skills in using phonics to help us read with fluency.

In writing, we have really started to focus on writing stories with all of the important elements - characters, setting, beginning, events, and a conclusion.  Not all of our stories are climbing stories with a problem to solve, often the children enjoy walking stories where they can communicate an experience.  A great example of a walking story is, "Owl Moon" by Jane Yolen.

Science

We have been learning about hot and cold.  We have been using thermometers to take temperature and have really enjoyed thinking about how we can make the red line move.   

Social Studies

We have been exploring the concept of community and what makes up a community.  We have worked on people, places, and activities.  We are shifting our focus a bit and beginning to focus in on Ramsay and what makes it a great community.  We would love to go out on a few community walks to do a little more exploring - please let me know if you are able to join us and have police clearance.

Red Word List

RED Words – List 3c

Here is the fifth set of RED word.  These words are SIGHT words.  They don’t follow spelling or syllable patterns and are not decodable using phonics.  Students need to learn how to read and write them through memorization. 

Just a reminder we are working on recognizing them while reading (spelling will come later). 

If you like, you can cut apart the list and use them like flash cards.  I would also recommend that you have your child help point out these words to you while you are reading to them or when they come across it in the ‘real world’.

caught	bought
walk	could
anyone	would
great	son
water	should

100 DAYS!!!!

Today was our 100th day of school!

We. . .

• Read 100 words (tallies)
• Found 100 rhymes
• Wrote about what we've been told 100 times
• Painted 100 different colors
• Counted 100 items (ten frames)
• Made 100 bead number line
• Counted out 100 drops of water
• Completed a 100 piece building challenge
• Did a 100 warm up for gym
• Played 100s Chart in gym
• Sang 100 notes in music
• Counted to 100 during calendar

Phew, we are tired!!!  But we're not done yet . . .

100 Days Homework Part 2

Each student was given a lollipop.  It is their job to find out how many 'licks' it takes to finish.  All students are going home with a recording sheet to count how many it takes.  This very important homework is due next Monday, February the 24th.

Thank you for all of your support in sending in the 100 items with your child!

Here are a few pictures from our day . . .

February 16 - Day 99

Hello Families!

Today we worked incredibly hard finishing up our animation projects with QAS.  You should have seen how excited everyone was to see their films projected onto the "big screen".  We can't wait to show you all of our work at the Celebration of Learning in April!

Just a reminder that tomorrow is the 100th day of school and 100 collections will be due tomorrow.

A few pics from today . . .