Hi everyone happy Monday!
I hope everyone is feeling well rested after the week end! We are on the last week of school before Christmas holidays I cannot believe how fast it has come and gone. We sold our candy of grahams at lunch today, selling out the whole 260 I bought. We are all very excited about the amount we have raised so far, we have about 146.00$. I will be going tomorrow after school to exchange the change and hunt down a deal on turkeys. If you know of any sales let me know!
I will not be here Thursday or Friday. I had already booked my flight to PEI in July. So we will have our Holiday party on Wednesday. If you wish to send in any healthy snacks they would be more than welcomed. Also the students have won their first 30 points and have chosen what they would like to do with them. For this time they had requested a Christmas movie with popcorn. So we will watch that this week. They had great suggestions for what they could use their points for.....to make cookies, extra recess, free time in the gym, a day filled with science, to experiment with modelling clay and so on.
We have started working in our centres today's which have a focus on Christmas vocabulary and sentence structures. We will start guided reading in January. They have started reading from their reading bags with appropriate levelled books.They seem to be really enjoying this. Our sound for the week is "OU" (hibou, mouton) Feel free to think of other words that you might know that have the sound "OU" in them. Our sentence of the week is "Qu'est ce que tu cherche?" (What are you looking for?) "Je cherche....." ( I am looking for......) Feel free to practise this at home!
In math we are working on the 100 frame, counting to 100, by2,5 and 10. We will also finish up addition up to 18.
I think that's it for now. If I do not have a chance to chat with you before break. Merry Christmas and Happy New Years.
Be safe and Merry
Laurie Anne
Monday, December 17, 2012
Monday, December 10, 2012
Yay for pennies!
Hi folks,
First of all I just wanted to say that it was great meeting you all at parent teachers I hope that you feel the same! I am excited to begin working alongside of you with your child. We have had a great first week with story book theatre. We have started to practice our lines and put our scene together somewhat. We will continue to work on this throughout the week until the concert Thursday. Your child will be sent home with their lines today, please feel free to practice these with your child. Please note that you should send your child on Thursday for both performances dressed in black or if you do not have black dark navy clothing would be best. Also if your child is a townsman please send in a tuque for them to wear.
We will be discussing Christmas traditions this week so please share with your child your traditions that you had as a child and any that you may have started with them or continue to do. We will be also exploring Christmas traditions all over the world as well as the meaning of peace.
A huge thank you to Nathan for bringing in some pennies, keep them coming! We will be using them to count one to one, by 2,5 and groups of 10.You may continue to bring them in until the 18th of December which will give our class enough time to role them.
We are looking at french Christmas vocabulary this week and practicing our g (dur-hard) and g (doux-soft) sounds. Feel free to brainstorm with your child any words you might know with these sounds. Our mission was to find more soft sounding g, seeing that we could not think of that many. Our sentences for the week are "A qui ce______?" (Who does this ______ belong to?) and "Pourqui fais tu cela?" (Why are you doing that?)
That is all for now. I hope that everyone had a great week end and see you Thursday at the concert!
Mme Laurie Anne
First of all I just wanted to say that it was great meeting you all at parent teachers I hope that you feel the same! I am excited to begin working alongside of you with your child. We have had a great first week with story book theatre. We have started to practice our lines and put our scene together somewhat. We will continue to work on this throughout the week until the concert Thursday. Your child will be sent home with their lines today, please feel free to practice these with your child. Please note that you should send your child on Thursday for both performances dressed in black or if you do not have black dark navy clothing would be best. Also if your child is a townsman please send in a tuque for them to wear.
We will be discussing Christmas traditions this week so please share with your child your traditions that you had as a child and any that you may have started with them or continue to do. We will be also exploring Christmas traditions all over the world as well as the meaning of peace.
A huge thank you to Nathan for bringing in some pennies, keep them coming! We will be using them to count one to one, by 2,5 and groups of 10.You may continue to bring them in until the 18th of December which will give our class enough time to role them.
We are looking at french Christmas vocabulary this week and practicing our g (dur-hard) and g (doux-soft) sounds. Feel free to brainstorm with your child any words you might know with these sounds. Our mission was to find more soft sounding g, seeing that we could not think of that many. Our sentences for the week are "A qui ce______?" (Who does this ______ belong to?) and "Pourqui fais tu cela?" (Why are you doing that?)
That is all for now. I hope that everyone had a great week end and see you Thursday at the concert!
Mme Laurie Anne
Tuesday, December 4, 2012
A warm welcome!
I am so excited to start teaching at Holy Name. I had such a warm welcome these last few days and am so lucky to have a great class! They are all so kind and helpful.
For the next two weeks we have story book theatre here at the school. In our class we are lucky to have the very talented Selena Wong. She has taught for over five years, is a vocal coach, actress and is now one of teachers with Story book theatre. She is also performing in The elves and the shoe maker at stage west. We are very happy to have her with us and look forward to all her ideas and creativity to make this concert the best ever.
We have kept some of our daily routines through out the day to keep the students engaged and on task. I am sending a letter home today with them with a small introduction of myself and how I run my classroom. I am sure it will take sometime for all of us to adjust to these changes but am sure once we iron everything out we will have a great time.
Some of the ideas I have for the classroom are literacy centres, which allow the children to work on their french oral skills as well as anything we might have covered in class. There will be different centres that will be rotated everyday to allow everyone a chance. I keep these same centres for two weeks and then change them to go along with any themes that we might be covering. During this time I will be taking a group of students to work on their reading strategies, decoding, comprehension,story predictions and so on. I will also give the students a bag filled with appropriate levelled books that will be kept in class to read during silent reading time.They will keep these books for a week and then change them moving up as they are ready. I strongly encourage that you read with your child at home in french. There are tons of libraries with great resources and appropriate levelled books for your child. I can always go with you a couple of times and help you pick out books if you want, just let me know in advance.
I also have a reward system that has work great for me in the past. Like i have mentioned in the letter i sent home today, I view my class as a community and most communities work together to have success. The students get points for working together, being helpful to others inside and outside the classroom, for solving problems and so on. As a group we sit down and go over some of the things they might want to win with their points.(Hot chocolate, guest reader, free time) We have started at only 30 points, but it will be increased to 50 then 100. They also lose points as well.
With any French immersion classroom its hard to keep the students from speaking English, its especially hard when you know your teacher speaks English! I have used Je parle en francais charts which are on the students desks.By having the charts on their desk its a reminder to them to speak french. When they speak French and I have heard them make an effort to do so I will give them a sticker for their chart. However if I hear them speak English I remove a sticker. I would really like for us to get to the point where the only time we speak English is during English class.
We are also making our decorations for our scene in the Christmas concert. If you could please send in a glass mason jar that would be wonderful. Selena has also requested that the students bring in a winter hat and scarf that can be left in class as part of their costume. We will also be discussing Christmas traditions in class so feel free to talk about any traditions you had with your family as a child and what you do today. my Christmas tradition when i was young was to go to the woods with my father and find the perfect tree. Then we would decorate it listening to Alvin and the Chipmunks Christmas record.I bet some of you had that record! If I could find it now on CD am pretty sure I would keep that tradition alive today! I cant wait to hear some of yours!
That's all for now. Feel free to contact me anytime to ask questions or if you have any concerns. I hope to meet you all at parent teacher interviews! Until then enjoy the rest of your week, keep smiling!
Mme Laurie Anne
For the next two weeks we have story book theatre here at the school. In our class we are lucky to have the very talented Selena Wong. She has taught for over five years, is a vocal coach, actress and is now one of teachers with Story book theatre. She is also performing in The elves and the shoe maker at stage west. We are very happy to have her with us and look forward to all her ideas and creativity to make this concert the best ever.
We have kept some of our daily routines through out the day to keep the students engaged and on task. I am sending a letter home today with them with a small introduction of myself and how I run my classroom. I am sure it will take sometime for all of us to adjust to these changes but am sure once we iron everything out we will have a great time.
Some of the ideas I have for the classroom are literacy centres, which allow the children to work on their french oral skills as well as anything we might have covered in class. There will be different centres that will be rotated everyday to allow everyone a chance. I keep these same centres for two weeks and then change them to go along with any themes that we might be covering. During this time I will be taking a group of students to work on their reading strategies, decoding, comprehension,story predictions and so on. I will also give the students a bag filled with appropriate levelled books that will be kept in class to read during silent reading time.They will keep these books for a week and then change them moving up as they are ready. I strongly encourage that you read with your child at home in french. There are tons of libraries with great resources and appropriate levelled books for your child. I can always go with you a couple of times and help you pick out books if you want, just let me know in advance.
I also have a reward system that has work great for me in the past. Like i have mentioned in the letter i sent home today, I view my class as a community and most communities work together to have success. The students get points for working together, being helpful to others inside and outside the classroom, for solving problems and so on. As a group we sit down and go over some of the things they might want to win with their points.(Hot chocolate, guest reader, free time) We have started at only 30 points, but it will be increased to 50 then 100. They also lose points as well.
With any French immersion classroom its hard to keep the students from speaking English, its especially hard when you know your teacher speaks English! I have used Je parle en francais charts which are on the students desks.By having the charts on their desk its a reminder to them to speak french. When they speak French and I have heard them make an effort to do so I will give them a sticker for their chart. However if I hear them speak English I remove a sticker. I would really like for us to get to the point where the only time we speak English is during English class.
We are also making our decorations for our scene in the Christmas concert. If you could please send in a glass mason jar that would be wonderful. Selena has also requested that the students bring in a winter hat and scarf that can be left in class as part of their costume. We will also be discussing Christmas traditions in class so feel free to talk about any traditions you had with your family as a child and what you do today. my Christmas tradition when i was young was to go to the woods with my father and find the perfect tree. Then we would decorate it listening to Alvin and the Chipmunks Christmas record.I bet some of you had that record! If I could find it now on CD am pretty sure I would keep that tradition alive today! I cant wait to hear some of yours!
That's all for now. Feel free to contact me anytime to ask questions or if you have any concerns. I hope to meet you all at parent teacher interviews! Until then enjoy the rest of your week, keep smiling!
Mme Laurie Anne
Tuesday, May 29, 2012
The countdown has officially started!!
HI Everyone,
We have officially started the countdown to the end of school! Hard to believe that we have 20 days! How the year has flown by. As you already know we have started the alphabet countdown and its going great. The students are excited to participate each day and its also a great revision of their sounds. They also have started a dictionary where they write new words under the letter of the day.
This coming month will be very busy filled with field trips, concerts and tiding up. Please keep a close eye in your child's agenda for any notes that might come home regarding any of these events.
We will be wrapping up learning about the life cycle of plants, frogs and butterflies and will be moving onto learning about different insects, our environment, water and of course summer. We have also been learning about our 5 sens and doing some in class experiments. We have also looked at the differences of living and non-living things.
In math we have finished our measurement unit and now will focus the reminder of the year on numbers 1-100, addition and subtraction up to 20. These units include story problems (oral and written), counting by 2,5,10, place value, doubles, doubles plus one. Please continue to work on these at home.
We will be visintg a couple of farms this Friday to go along with out farm theme. Please dress your child appropriately. We will also not be back in time for subs so please pack a lunch for your child if you usually get subs. Also rubber boats would be a great idea seeing that we will be going in and out of barns as well as walking around the barn yard.
We will be adventuring to Shinning waters as a school on June 20th. We will need parent volunteers for this so if you are interested please let me know. Ideally I would like to divide the children in groups of 3 or 4 to one parent. It worked great last year and allowed me to circulate and see each group.
Our finally concert of is scheduled for June 14. The showings will go the same as the Christmas concert, one in the morning and one in the afternoon.
I hope that the new homework is going well ! It is still very important that your child reads every night so please continue to do so.
We have officially started the countdown to the end of school! Hard to believe that we have 20 days! How the year has flown by. As you already know we have started the alphabet countdown and its going great. The students are excited to participate each day and its also a great revision of their sounds. They also have started a dictionary where they write new words under the letter of the day.
This coming month will be very busy filled with field trips, concerts and tiding up. Please keep a close eye in your child's agenda for any notes that might come home regarding any of these events.
We will be wrapping up learning about the life cycle of plants, frogs and butterflies and will be moving onto learning about different insects, our environment, water and of course summer. We have also been learning about our 5 sens and doing some in class experiments. We have also looked at the differences of living and non-living things.
In math we have finished our measurement unit and now will focus the reminder of the year on numbers 1-100, addition and subtraction up to 20. These units include story problems (oral and written), counting by 2,5,10, place value, doubles, doubles plus one. Please continue to work on these at home.
We will be visintg a couple of farms this Friday to go along with out farm theme. Please dress your child appropriately. We will also not be back in time for subs so please pack a lunch for your child if you usually get subs. Also rubber boats would be a great idea seeing that we will be going in and out of barns as well as walking around the barn yard.
We will be adventuring to Shinning waters as a school on June 20th. We will need parent volunteers for this so if you are interested please let me know. Ideally I would like to divide the children in groups of 3 or 4 to one parent. It worked great last year and allowed me to circulate and see each group.
Our finally concert of is scheduled for June 14. The showings will go the same as the Christmas concert, one in the morning and one in the afternoon.
I hope that the new homework is going well ! It is still very important that your child reads every night so please continue to do so.
Monday, May 7, 2012
Happy Sunshine
Hi everyone!
We had a great month learning about life on the farm. Students learned the names of most farm animals and their young. They learned where they lived and what types of food they ate. We are still planning on going to visit a farm, however it will have to be the 1st of June seeing that we missed the bus deadline. I will keep you posted on that.
This month your child will be learning about the environment,and the creatures that surround us. We will be discussing what we can do to make a difference, what is needed to maintain a healthy environment and so on. Your child will also be learning about the life cycle of butterflies and frogs. I have been out hunting for eggs, but have had no luck so far. If any of you know of a good spot to go to get frog eggs let me know. They will also be learning about plants and flowers and have the chance to watch them grow in class.
I am sure most of you have heard about Barbara Reid these last few weeks. For those of you who are not familiar with her, she is a plasticine artist who does illustrations for children's book. The class had many questions on how she made her drawings for the books and were able to watch a video of her creating a picture for a book. They loved learning about all the different techniques that she uses to create her pictures and were excited to put what they learned into practise!.That's where the CD cases came into play. Your child created a picture in the CD case of what they liked to do in the spring. The case acts as a picture frame, so you will be able to keep it for some time. They are eager to create more Plasticine pictures! I would like to do one more with them, a self portrait of how they see themselves. I would like to put these pictures on a hard canvas. If you could send in $1.00 this will help me cover some of the cost to purchase the materials needed for this project. For those of you who might want to check out the video of Barbara Reid you can you tube it, there are others that your child might want to watch of her creating drawings!
We are learning all about measurement for the next couple of weeks and then will go right back into numbers 1-100, counting backwards, counting by 2,5,10 and addition and subtraction. If you want to continue to work on these at home please feel free to do so.
We will also be exploring our five senses in class and how they are continually working to help us everyday.
I realize that the weather is getting nicer outside and homework might be becoming a challenge. That being said I have decided to give you all a break! All that I ask of you is to read at least 10 mins a night, work on sight words, and continue to practise math facts, counting backwards, by 2,5, 10 and so on. I will have the students keep their pink song book in their sac blue to read from when they wish. If you wish to have the normal homework sent home please let me know and we can make arrangements. I will send also send home the read duo tang where you can fill in the title of the books that your child read and a place to write how they did. Feel free to let me know if they struggled with any words or note any of your concerns.
When reading with your child please ask them questions about their books, like who,what, when, where, how and why. Have them retell the story and make connections to their life.
We have also been working really hard on our own books in class. I cant wait to share them with you later on.
I think that's all for now, I hope all is well. I will leave you with something that I read awhile ago. I sometimes have to remind myself that a simple word of encouragement can make the world of difference!
"Encouragement is the best drug in the world, it somehow makes you stand taller and feel braver."
Jann Arden
We had a great month learning about life on the farm. Students learned the names of most farm animals and their young. They learned where they lived and what types of food they ate. We are still planning on going to visit a farm, however it will have to be the 1st of June seeing that we missed the bus deadline. I will keep you posted on that.
This month your child will be learning about the environment,and the creatures that surround us. We will be discussing what we can do to make a difference, what is needed to maintain a healthy environment and so on. Your child will also be learning about the life cycle of butterflies and frogs. I have been out hunting for eggs, but have had no luck so far. If any of you know of a good spot to go to get frog eggs let me know. They will also be learning about plants and flowers and have the chance to watch them grow in class.
I am sure most of you have heard about Barbara Reid these last few weeks. For those of you who are not familiar with her, she is a plasticine artist who does illustrations for children's book. The class had many questions on how she made her drawings for the books and were able to watch a video of her creating a picture for a book. They loved learning about all the different techniques that she uses to create her pictures and were excited to put what they learned into practise!.That's where the CD cases came into play. Your child created a picture in the CD case of what they liked to do in the spring. The case acts as a picture frame, so you will be able to keep it for some time. They are eager to create more Plasticine pictures! I would like to do one more with them, a self portrait of how they see themselves. I would like to put these pictures on a hard canvas. If you could send in $1.00 this will help me cover some of the cost to purchase the materials needed for this project. For those of you who might want to check out the video of Barbara Reid you can you tube it, there are others that your child might want to watch of her creating drawings!
We are learning all about measurement for the next couple of weeks and then will go right back into numbers 1-100, counting backwards, counting by 2,5,10 and addition and subtraction. If you want to continue to work on these at home please feel free to do so.
We will also be exploring our five senses in class and how they are continually working to help us everyday.
I realize that the weather is getting nicer outside and homework might be becoming a challenge. That being said I have decided to give you all a break! All that I ask of you is to read at least 10 mins a night, work on sight words, and continue to practise math facts, counting backwards, by 2,5, 10 and so on. I will have the students keep their pink song book in their sac blue to read from when they wish. If you wish to have the normal homework sent home please let me know and we can make arrangements. I will send also send home the read duo tang where you can fill in the title of the books that your child read and a place to write how they did. Feel free to let me know if they struggled with any words or note any of your concerns.
When reading with your child please ask them questions about their books, like who,what, when, where, how and why. Have them retell the story and make connections to their life.
We have also been working really hard on our own books in class. I cant wait to share them with you later on.
I think that's all for now, I hope all is well. I will leave you with something that I read awhile ago. I sometimes have to remind myself that a simple word of encouragement can make the world of difference!
"Encouragement is the best drug in the world, it somehow makes you stand taller and feel braver."
Jann Arden
Wednesday, April 4, 2012
Happy Easter Everyone!!
Hi everyone. I hope you all had a great March Break and had time to relax or go on an adventure! Everything is going well here at school, everyone is happy to be back and so am I.
We have finished our travel unit but are still getting postcards from around the world. Our farthest postcard to date is from New Zealand!! We also go a nice little package from a teacher in Turkey. All the students got book marks and stickers that represent their flag. They were very excited to get such a great gift, however some of them did not want to touch the book marks after I read what it was from ha ha!
Thank you for helping your child with their transportation projects they look great and they had a good time showing them off to the class. I would also like to thank Brenda, Julie and Nicole for coming in and teaching the students about different places around the world. Your treats were delicious!! We all thank you!
This months theme is "On the farm". I love this theme, seeing that when I was young my father had what we called a funny farm. He had simple bought a horse for riding and in the end we had pretty much every other farm animal. It was a great experience and taught me a lot about responsibility and compassion for animals. We will be visiting a farm if I can arrange it and learning about all the different farm animals on the farm.
I
n math we are still learning about shapes and all the different characteristics they have. We will then move onto measurement.They are still working on word problems every morning when they come in. They have to determine weather they are subtraction or addition and its going very well.
We continue to work on sounds in class. I would also like to go over all the sound that we have learned since the beginning of the year if you could practise these at home it would be a big help. We have also learned about singular and plural and will continue to work on phonics.
We will be learning about Barbara Reid this coming month. She is an author and Illustrator of children's books. She is unique because her pictures are done with modelling clay. We will be doing an activity in class with clay. I do ask of you to send in a empty CD case if you have one.
Iam not sure when the pictures will be taken I will let you know once I find out.Thanks for all the toilet paper rolls and egg cartons!
Happy Easter everyone I hope the Easter bunny finds you all.
Laurie Anne :)
We have finished our travel unit but are still getting postcards from around the world. Our farthest postcard to date is from New Zealand!! We also go a nice little package from a teacher in Turkey. All the students got book marks and stickers that represent their flag. They were very excited to get such a great gift, however some of them did not want to touch the book marks after I read what it was from ha ha!
Thank you for helping your child with their transportation projects they look great and they had a good time showing them off to the class. I would also like to thank Brenda, Julie and Nicole for coming in and teaching the students about different places around the world. Your treats were delicious!! We all thank you!
This months theme is "On the farm". I love this theme, seeing that when I was young my father had what we called a funny farm. He had simple bought a horse for riding and in the end we had pretty much every other farm animal. It was a great experience and taught me a lot about responsibility and compassion for animals. We will be visiting a farm if I can arrange it and learning about all the different farm animals on the farm.
I
n math we are still learning about shapes and all the different characteristics they have. We will then move onto measurement.They are still working on word problems every morning when they come in. They have to determine weather they are subtraction or addition and its going very well.
We continue to work on sounds in class. I would also like to go over all the sound that we have learned since the beginning of the year if you could practise these at home it would be a big help. We have also learned about singular and plural and will continue to work on phonics.
We will be learning about Barbara Reid this coming month. She is an author and Illustrator of children's books. She is unique because her pictures are done with modelling clay. We will be doing an activity in class with clay. I do ask of you to send in a empty CD case if you have one.
Iam not sure when the pictures will be taken I will let you know once I find out.Thanks for all the toilet paper rolls and egg cartons!
Happy Easter everyone I hope the Easter bunny finds you all.
Laurie Anne :)
Saturday, February 25, 2012
Long over due update!!!
Hi everyone hope all is going well and that you are avoiding the winter blues. This is going to be a long post I feel in order to catch up with everything that has happened since my last post.Sorry in advance!
February is coming to an end and with that it is the end of yet another theme. This past months theme was Staying warm in my house. Students learn about the different rooms in the house and items that could be found in the house. They were pair up and giving a room to paint last week, some of them are very interesting! Its great to see some of their creativity come out!
We had a great valentines day party, thanks to all of you who sent something in! We also celebrated the 100th day of school ! Some of the students thought with the 100th day of school that meant that they would then go to grade two the following day!
Everyone is starting to speak in full sentences and are asking how to translate words from English to French.They have also started to add the (er= ay) to the ends of English words, which I find so cute. I have limited my English in class and peak it only when absolutely needed. Come March I will no longer speak English in class, unless necessary. I continue to encourage them to speak French in class, they will only get better with practise and they are all very capable in doing so, sometimes they just need that extra push or encouragement of those around them.
In math we are covering additions and subtractions up to 12. We have also covered doubles and doubles plus one. We continue to count by 100 and will be starting to count by 2. Feel free to give your child a head start on this, seeing that some will find it challenging. We have gone over story problems, how to solve them and answer them in complete sentences. We have also looked at how we can determine whether the problem will be subtraction or addition based on the wording. Each morning the students come into class there is a story problem on the board for them to solve. This not only enforces what they are learning in math but also literacy as well. We will continue to work on this through out the year. Feel free to practise at home with your child. I will be sending flash cards home as well.For the month of march we will be taking a break from addition and subtraction and moving on to shapes and measurements.
We continue to review all the different french sounds. Each week we have a different sound and make a list of all the words we know with that particular sound. They also have a sentence of the week, which allows them to practise the correct sentence structure. We have been focusing a lot on word work this past month. Some of the things we have gone over is syllables, the different sounds in a word whether its at the beginning, middle or ending of the word, the sounds of letters at the beginning and end of a word and punctuation.
As a school we are focusing on phonological awareness and with the help of our speech language pathologist we had the opportunity to test all the students from kindergarten to grade 2.I will be happy to share the results of your child at Parent teacher.
*** March is travel month and methods of travel. We have already received a couple of postcards and are excited to see more coming in. Our class puppet Dimoitou is away on an adventure. I had friends that were going away to Africa for vacation so I decided to send him along. They have been great so far sending facts about where they are and pictures of him. He has been on a safari so far and has had the chance to see lions, water buffalo, elephants, and so on. Once they get back they will be able to share more of their pictures with us. I was thinking of trying something different this year but would require the help of some of you. I got the idea from one of the students actually. Awhile ago I ask what they wanted to learn about, they had great ideas which I have put in place for the reminder of the year. One boy said he wanted to learn about the different places from around the world like their language, the people and most of all what they eat there. That got me to thinking..... we can do that.....we just have to pick 1 place to focus on each week of the month of march. I thought we could learn all about a particular place show photos, and on Friday eat a dish from there. I have been to Italy and have photos so I thought I would start with that. Here comes the part where I need some of you. Maybe you have travelled somewheres different and have stories and photos to share and could whip up a dish. Let me know your thoughts on this.I will do the first week of March where we will explore Italy.
That's all soo sorry for the long post! Have a great week end!
A few reminders.....
Parent teacher interviews will be March 8th &9th. Report cards will be sent home March 7th. If any of you have any concerns and would like to meet before report cards and parent teacher please feel free to contact me.
Please send in extra socks and mitts. I have already gone through the emergency stash that you already sent in.
March is nutrition month, I encourage you to pack healthy lunches.
February is coming to an end and with that it is the end of yet another theme. This past months theme was Staying warm in my house. Students learn about the different rooms in the house and items that could be found in the house. They were pair up and giving a room to paint last week, some of them are very interesting! Its great to see some of their creativity come out!
We had a great valentines day party, thanks to all of you who sent something in! We also celebrated the 100th day of school ! Some of the students thought with the 100th day of school that meant that they would then go to grade two the following day!
Everyone is starting to speak in full sentences and are asking how to translate words from English to French.They have also started to add the (er= ay) to the ends of English words, which I find so cute. I have limited my English in class and peak it only when absolutely needed. Come March I will no longer speak English in class, unless necessary. I continue to encourage them to speak French in class, they will only get better with practise and they are all very capable in doing so, sometimes they just need that extra push or encouragement of those around them.
In math we are covering additions and subtractions up to 12. We have also covered doubles and doubles plus one. We continue to count by 100 and will be starting to count by 2. Feel free to give your child a head start on this, seeing that some will find it challenging. We have gone over story problems, how to solve them and answer them in complete sentences. We have also looked at how we can determine whether the problem will be subtraction or addition based on the wording. Each morning the students come into class there is a story problem on the board for them to solve. This not only enforces what they are learning in math but also literacy as well. We will continue to work on this through out the year. Feel free to practise at home with your child. I will be sending flash cards home as well.For the month of march we will be taking a break from addition and subtraction and moving on to shapes and measurements.
We continue to review all the different french sounds. Each week we have a different sound and make a list of all the words we know with that particular sound. They also have a sentence of the week, which allows them to practise the correct sentence structure. We have been focusing a lot on word work this past month. Some of the things we have gone over is syllables, the different sounds in a word whether its at the beginning, middle or ending of the word, the sounds of letters at the beginning and end of a word and punctuation.
As a school we are focusing on phonological awareness and with the help of our speech language pathologist we had the opportunity to test all the students from kindergarten to grade 2.I will be happy to share the results of your child at Parent teacher.
*** March is travel month and methods of travel. We have already received a couple of postcards and are excited to see more coming in. Our class puppet Dimoitou is away on an adventure. I had friends that were going away to Africa for vacation so I decided to send him along. They have been great so far sending facts about where they are and pictures of him. He has been on a safari so far and has had the chance to see lions, water buffalo, elephants, and so on. Once they get back they will be able to share more of their pictures with us. I was thinking of trying something different this year but would require the help of some of you. I got the idea from one of the students actually. Awhile ago I ask what they wanted to learn about, they had great ideas which I have put in place for the reminder of the year. One boy said he wanted to learn about the different places from around the world like their language, the people and most of all what they eat there. That got me to thinking..... we can do that.....we just have to pick 1 place to focus on each week of the month of march. I thought we could learn all about a particular place show photos, and on Friday eat a dish from there. I have been to Italy and have photos so I thought I would start with that. Here comes the part where I need some of you. Maybe you have travelled somewheres different and have stories and photos to share and could whip up a dish. Let me know your thoughts on this.I will do the first week of March where we will explore Italy.
That's all soo sorry for the long post! Have a great week end!
A few reminders.....
Parent teacher interviews will be March 8th &9th. Report cards will be sent home March 7th. If any of you have any concerns and would like to meet before report cards and parent teacher please feel free to contact me.
Please send in extra socks and mitts. I have already gone through the emergency stash that you already sent in.
March is nutrition month, I encourage you to pack healthy lunches.
Tuesday, January 24, 2012
Happy school days!
Hi folks sorry for the over due post!
I cant believe how fast the month of January is going by and not one snow day!
We are still learning about winter and the different activities that you can do during this season. I was hoping that we would have had some snow by now, so that we could go snowshoeing! Lets hope March might bring us a little dusting.
I hope that the reading is going well at home. I have noticed a difference in their fluidity. It is really important that you read with your child every night! As well as to practise the sight words. We will be going back to our regular homework schedule as well as reading in February.
We have started our addition unit in math with numbers up to 12. Feel free to practise these at home as well as doubles up to 10. ( 9+9=18, 8+8= 16) If you are really eager you can give them a head start on doubles plus 1. ( 8+8= 16 so 8+9= 17) We also continue to count to 100 and by 5 and 10.
In class we have started to write our own books. Students are giving 4 blank sheets of paper and can write any story they want. They are having a great time doing this and some have complete their first book and are starting their second or third. They are to come up with their own story ideas and are using their dictionaries asd well as the word wall if unsure of how to spell a word. Some students are even sounding out their words!!
Next week is winter carnival in Quebec. I would like to celebrate this in class. We have different activities planned for each day to go along with the carnival. I was hoping to have a winter activity planned for Friday Feb 3 and have the parents attend, but as it looks now we wont have any snow. I will keep you posted.
Friday is Literacy awareness day. Our super intendent will be here to read stories to the students. in the afternoon the whole school will be participating in literacy centres. They will be visiting three different centres each with a different focus on literacy.
A reminder that we have no school on Feb 1.
I will be sending home a list of the students names for valentines day. Also if you would like to send in a treat with your child it is more than welcomed.
That's all for now. Have a great rest of the week
Mme LA
I cant believe how fast the month of January is going by and not one snow day!
We are still learning about winter and the different activities that you can do during this season. I was hoping that we would have had some snow by now, so that we could go snowshoeing! Lets hope March might bring us a little dusting.
I hope that the reading is going well at home. I have noticed a difference in their fluidity. It is really important that you read with your child every night! As well as to practise the sight words. We will be going back to our regular homework schedule as well as reading in February.
We have started our addition unit in math with numbers up to 12. Feel free to practise these at home as well as doubles up to 10. ( 9+9=18, 8+8= 16) If you are really eager you can give them a head start on doubles plus 1. ( 8+8= 16 so 8+9= 17) We also continue to count to 100 and by 5 and 10.
In class we have started to write our own books. Students are giving 4 blank sheets of paper and can write any story they want. They are having a great time doing this and some have complete their first book and are starting their second or third. They are to come up with their own story ideas and are using their dictionaries asd well as the word wall if unsure of how to spell a word. Some students are even sounding out their words!!
Next week is winter carnival in Quebec. I would like to celebrate this in class. We have different activities planned for each day to go along with the carnival. I was hoping to have a winter activity planned for Friday Feb 3 and have the parents attend, but as it looks now we wont have any snow. I will keep you posted.
Friday is Literacy awareness day. Our super intendent will be here to read stories to the students. in the afternoon the whole school will be participating in literacy centres. They will be visiting three different centres each with a different focus on literacy.
A reminder that we have no school on Feb 1.
I will be sending home a list of the students names for valentines day. Also if you would like to send in a treat with your child it is more than welcomed.
That's all for now. Have a great rest of the week
Mme LA
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