Remembrance Day

I always felt it was important to recognize Remembrance Day in my grade one classroom, even though it was not a part of the curriculum. I am glad that recently there has been a greater effort to observe Remembrance Day. Teachers need to remember that they are responsible to model good citizenship for their students.

Observing Remembrance day with grade one students is a sensitive issue. I wanted to emphasize the idea of remembering the contributions of many people over the years, and the responsibility of each individual to work for peace. For grade one students, they could do this in their school and community.

In 2004, Heather Robertson published "A Poppy is to Remember". (It was even printed in Canada!) It is a beautiful picture book for primary grades, and it includes the poem, "In Flanders Fields" by Dr. John McCrae, as well as the story of the poppy and Remembrance Day in Canada. I read it to my class every year as an introduction to Remembrance Day.

I designed a worksheet for the students to colour and write what I felt were the important concepts they were to remember. This sheet was included in their poetry duotang after completion.

Click to enlarge and print.

September in Grade One

Another year at school has begun and most of the students in grade one are very excited to be back at school.

The most important thing to teach in grade one is routine, routine, routine! Remember that two months ago, these students were in kindergarten.

In fact, introducing students to the grade one curriculum needs to be secondary to routine. Do not panic and think that you will not cover the curriculum if you don't start immediately! Students who understand the classroom routines will feel secure and learn more efficiently.

I usually leave social studies and science until the third week of September. I spend the first two weeks concentrating on reading stories, learning rhymes, simple numeration, and most important of all, beginning a writing program.

The students have a journal of course, but I like to begin right away teaching them to organize a notebook and to copy a sentence from chart paper. The first page has two sentences:

My name is______.

I am a girl. (or boy)

The notebook has the same format as their journal, and they are expected to illustrate what they have written.

This notebook is a very important part of the students' writing program because they learn to organize, copy, and they are using words that are part of their experience.