Bravo mes amis!!

I am soo proud of everyone that got together to help our class purchase 54 turkeys....that's right 54! The students were pretty excited to be able to help 54 families in need this time of year. We also had the chance today to make some cards for seniors. I emailed you all the link about the couple from home, if you get a chance look at it. It warms your heart to see how people can still get together make things happen.
Tomorrow is our last day of school for 2013! Please note that we have only a half day and the students will be dismissed at noon. If I do not get a chance to see you all. Know that I am wishing you all the most fabulous holiday filled with love,laughter and great memories. I wish you all the best in 2014 and look forward to the many new adventures and memories that the year will bring.

I will leave you with some great advice from Buddy the elf.....
Remember to try to stick to the four main food groups: candy, candy canes, candy corns and syrup.
Then try saying this to your kids:
First we'll make snow angels for 2 hours, then we'll go ice skating, then we'll eat a whole roll of Tollhouse cookie dough as fast as we can, and then we'll snuggle.   Let me know how they respond to that one!
and finally know that the best way to spread Christmas cheer, is singing loud for all to hear. So be sure to sing nice and loud!

Merry Christmas!!

Mike arriving with the back of his truck filled with 54 turkeys!!

Handing out the turkeys..who would have thought they would be very slippery!

 

A selection of the Christmas cards we made for seniors.

Bring on the Holidays!

Hi everyone,
I hope that you are all having a great week so far and have most if not all of your Christmas shopping done.
This week is our last week before the holidays. The students are excited as well as their teacher. This week in class we will be reading Christmas stories, learning Christmas vocabulary and working on some holiday crafts.
In math students are learning about equal groups and remainders. They are also going to learn about estimating and how it is OK not to know the number exactly when making a guess. They continue to work on addition in their red math duo tang as well.
We will be working on our Christmas cards for Seniors this week which falls into our social studies unity of community. We will also be donating turkeys to the food bank in the next couple of days. We raised a lot of money during the Christmas concert, the number I am not 100% sure of yet because I am still counting and rolling change. Once I know Ill pass it along as well as for the amount of turkeys purchased.
We also received a package from Santa on Monday. I wrote him a letter the week before based on a suggestion of a student in our class. He said that I should so that they students remember to be good in the next couple of weeks, because they were all excited for Christmas. I did as he asked and we were lucky to get one of Santa's head doll making elves named Lulu. They students are extremely pumped to have her in class and are all ears when i am explain important instruction. Too bad they didn't have a year long elf!

We will be having a class party on Thursday. If you would like to send in a nice treat that we can all share that would be lovely. Please note that we have nut allergies as well as an egg allergy. Healthy treats are always welcomed. In the afternoon we will be joining Mme Marie-Christine's class as well as Mme Janice's class in the gym for a movie and some games. I have ordered the students presents from scholastic, however they have not arrived yet :( I am hoping by Friday at least they will be here.

On Friday we only have half a day and students will be dismissed at noon. We will have our Christian action in the morning and the last advent liturgy at 11am. Parents are welcomed to join for both.

If I do not get to see all of before Friday I wish you the very best Christmas filled with love, laughter and great memories. Cheers to a new year and the many new adventures it will bring. May your home be filled with family and friends. Be safe, stay warm and smile often. I am off to PEI to spend time with my dad and to soak up the slower pace of life.
All the best and chat soon.
Mme Laurie Anne

The count down is on!

Hello everyone Happy Monday,
This week we have our Christmas concert, which is Thursday December 12. There will be two times one in the afternoon and one in the evening. Please be sure to practice with your child at home our song, Noel, c'est l'amour. It would be great if you could have your child dress nicely dark bottoms white tops or something festive. We will be having a practice with the whole school tomorrow. For the evening performance students are to come straight to class once you arrive. It would  be great if you could have them all there no later than 6:15.
We will be starting to use the nickles that some of you donated to learn how to count by 5. Please feel free to send more in, we do not have that many as of right now. We have also started story problems in math where students have to figure out different additions for a given number. For example Kate has 16 objects in her school bag, some are books and some are snacks. How many books can she have and how many snacks can she have. Students will have to figure out all the additions of 16. You can practice this at home. Please also continue practicing counting 1-50 or higher some of them are able to count to 100. Also count by 2,5,10. We have also looked at before and after (avant et après) You could ask your child what is the number before 43 or after 43.
In art we continue to work with pastels and will be using the jars for a craft. Please send in your jars if you have not done so yet. We are still missing 7. I would like them for Wednesday.
In English we will learn all about adjectives by reading How the Grinch stole Christmas. The students will have to describe the Grinch. We will talk about how sometimes characters change at the end of the book and we will note how the Grinch changed for the better.
We are learning jingle bells on the xylophones in music....small work in progress. If any of you have easy piano books I could borrow with Christmas songs please let me know.  I would like to do more than one song with them.
That's all for now, Enjoy the week
Laurie Anne

Snow, snow,snow and more snow!

Hello all,
I think winter has finally hit ! That being said please make sure to dress your child for the weather conditions. If you would like to send extra mitts and socks in a plastic zip lock bag with your child's name on it I can keep them here in class for when they need them. They could also just keep them in their back packs.
December is upon us and with that a new theme. Can you guess what we are going to learn about? That's right everything to do with Christmas. We are going to write letters to Santa, make Christmas cards for Seniors (more about that later), sing lots of Christmas songs and chat about Christmas traditions.
In math we have started to look at addition and subtraction from 1-20. We are mainly focusing on the addition part at the moment but I encourage you all to practice subtraction because that is the one that tends to take a little longer to catch on.
I would like to ask you all to send in a glass mason jar  or jam jars in the next couple of days. I would like to do a craft with them, so if you could do so before next week that would be great!
We will be working on Christmas cards over the next couple of week and some small crafts to deliver to seniors who might not otherwise get something this time a year. I like to think of it as adopting some new grandparents. I have done this in the past and the students enjoy doing it. One year I even had a student and her mother and sister come join me at a local manor in my home town. The seniors loved seeing her and she brightened their day by showing off her dance moves. We got to personally hand deliver the cards. I will check to see if I can do the same thing here and if any of you would like to join me just let me know.

I have another Christmas project that I tend to do each year with the students. At home we have the CBC Turkey Drive, which collects turkeys to donate to those in need during the holiday seasons. Each year with my grade one class we collect pennies and sell candy canes at the Christmas concerts. As a class we count and roll the pennies, which is great for math class. (counting one to one, making groups of 10, counting by 10.)With all the money collected ,we meaning me and my father, head out and buy a bunch of turkeys. My dad usually picked them up, brought them to school where I had the salvation army pick them up. I made sure that the students personally hand deliever the turkeys. this way they get to see what their hard work has accomplished and they get the sense of giving back. i usually start near the end of November to collect pennies. unfortunately we no longer have pennies so i was thinking maybe collecting nickles. Would you all be willing to support our class to take on this project? If so it would be great if we could start as soon as possible. I will chat with the students about it on Thursday or Friday once I hear back from all of you. I would also need some volunteers to help sell the candy canes at both of the showings of the Christmas concert. I hope to hear your thoughts on this project.
Our Christmas concert is next week.....EEEKKK we need some serious practice. I sent home the song yesterday for you to go over at home. I will include the link as well to help them practice the song and the rhythm. They day and night of I ask you to dress your child in white.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H0J1yO7Kd14&oq=noel%20ces&gs_l=youtube..0.5j0l2j0i10l7.1169775.1172582.0.1174027.8.8.0.0.0.0.115.564.7j1.8.0.eytns%2Cpt%3D-30%2Cn%3D2%2Cui%3Dlr.1.0.0...1ac.1.11.youtube.hsJrJs40ol4

Here is one with just the music and the words. Kareokee style.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KWEmnFYMVQU

I did finally get the xylophones. We practiced a little today but I am not all that sure they will make an appearance at the Christmas concert...we shall see.

I hope the reading is going well at home. Let me know if you would like any more books sent home. it was great to see you all at parent teachers. Anytime you need anything let me know.
Thats all for now....be safe and remember to hug those you love!
Laurie Anne

Reminders:
Advant Liturgie Dec 6 at 2pm- All welcomed
Special lunch- lemon grass Dec 6
Library Friday

Sorry!

Hi everyone,
I did not realize that the last couple of times I have done a post it has not shown up. So sorry about that. I am not all that sure why or where it went to be honest.

The month of November is coming to an end this week. Student continue to learn about fruits and vegetables as well as parts of the body. Last week we started to work on prepositions and will continue to work on them in class. We are also learning about characteristics of books. All books have a cover, title page, some have table of contents, dedication page and so on. Books she be read from front to back (you'd be surprised on those who start from the back to the front) We are paying attention to punctuation this week and will chat about reading with expression.

In math students have been learning about autant, plus, moins and how to identify whether a group of objects are the same, more or less. This week we are learning to represent numbers two different ways to make the whole sum. For example students are asked to represent the number 14 in a two part frame. On one side students could put 7 blocks and the other side they will put another 7 blocks to represent the number 14. Some students will start to notice that they are learning addition problems for the number 14. Feel free to work on this at home with your child. As some of you mentioned, your child already knows how to add. That's great news and I encourage you to push them with different math problems. They are asked to know how to add vertically, horizontal and also with missing components to the problem. (2+4=_, 6+_=9, 10= _+5) I hope to move onto the next unit soon, which is adding and subtracting up to 12. Please continue to count with your child up to 50. If you want to help them get ahead you can start to skip count with them by 2,5 and 10.

In social studies, we are learning about our rights and responsibilities as a member of the community.

Art we are going to be working on some holiday crafts that involve coloring with oil pastels and using tissue paper and just maybe some sparkles.

Music class we have finished working on beats and the students had a chance to use music sticks to create their own unique beats. Some where great and so complex I even struggled to repeat them! For the next couple of weeks we will be focusing on practicing and mastering our song for the Christmas concert. I would love to send it home, so that they may practice there and share it with you. I did order hand bells, in hopes that they would arrive so we could do something with them for the concert, but they have yet to arrive:(

In science Mme Marie- Christine is working on our 5 sens and body parts. Students are getting the chance to do some fun experiments in there. They got to taste popcorn the other day. The smell floated all through out the school and made everyone hungry for the treat.

English, we continue to work on the letter people. I have been playing the Joly phonics song a lot lately with all the sounds the letters make in the alphabet. I find it is really helping those who are having trouble retaining the sounds certain letters make. They also love the catchy tunes and hand actions that go with each letter. I will include the link if you are curious or want to listen to it at home. We are really working hard at decoding words and putting all the sounds together to form words. If you could work on this at home with your child it would really benefit them.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Djz82FBYiug- Jolly Phonics song.


That's all for this week. We have a short week. Dont forget we have parent teacher interviews Thursday and Friday. I hope to see you all there and have a chance to chat about your child's progress. I would also like to thank you all for supporting the fruits and veggies projects. They look forward to it everyday and its great to see them try new things. For example one student told me he didn't like Kiwi at all. I along with his group encouraged him to just lick it, put it on his tongue to try. By the time I passed out all the kiwis, he was asking me for seconds because he realized that he liked them!!! Love it!

Ps  dont forget that reading packages are due every Monday! I am also including a bunch of games for you all to work on at home as well as letters upper case and lower case to practice spelling sight words or no sense words. The stuff on cardstock can stay home for you. The color games must be returned to school. I am also going to send home their in class reading bag. Please make sure this is returned everyday for silent reading!!
Things to remember this week...
Wednesday November 27  is student faith day all day long. Students are asked to bring $1-$2 to donate for the Philippines. By doing so they are allowed to wear their favourite hat all day long!
Thursday November 28- Parent teacher interviews
Friday November 29- Parent teacher interviews- No school for students
Wednesday November 27- Library books due
That's all for now. Have a super week everyone.
Laurie Anne

Happy Halloween!!!

Happy Halloween to you all. I hope that you are all safe tonight and have a great time out and about trick or treating. I am glad the weather is a lot better than last year! Thank you for all of you who sent in some great treats! It was really appreciated.
I cannot believe we have another month gone. For the month of November in class your child will be learning about fruits and vegetable's as well as parts of the body. Our class project is the sampling of the fruits and veggies for the whole month. We will chat about the importance of eating healthy, how it makes us feel and how to make better choices when picking out a snack. In french we are starting to learn blended sounds. Please be sure to practice these at home. They will be seeing them all the time in their reading. We will also finish up our family trees and the students will be presenting them to the class. I will be looking for them to use the sentence structures we learned in class. We will be starting guided reading next week. I am hoping that it goes well and we can start sending different books home. So please review those sight words with your child because they are going to be seeing them over and over again once they start reading.
In math we continue to look at numbers 1-10 and the different ways to represent them. We continue to count to 50 and will continue to work with 10 frames.
Social studies we are learning about layouts (maps) of the school and our classroom. Students will have to sketch the layout of their classroom. We are also learning about the differences between provinces and country. We are trying to remember all the names of the provinces and territories in Canada. Feel free to go over these with your child.
Religion students continue to learn about how to be a better friend. They still need to work on the prayer Our Father.
Report Cards are coming up quickly! if you have any questions or concerns please feel free to contact me to chat. We do not have any school on Friday November 8-Its a PD day for teachers.
Enjoy your night be safe!
Laurie Anne

Happy Gala Week end!

Hi everyone!
|I hope you all had a great week and are looking forward to going to the gala tomorrow night. I am soo hoping that our school raises a ton of money for literacy. I have been asked to speak about the importance of literacy materials in the classroom. Lets hope I do not get too jittery speaking to the crowd. I cannot believe that November is starting at the end of next week. With November comes report card time! I will be doing some in class testing through the week next week and next. I do not call the tests they are more so quiz's in my room. I will be checking to see their sight word recognition in both French and English as well as for the alphabet, the letter names and sounds.
We still did not get the chance to work on our family tree projects. I am hoping to start those next week. We did finish out Halloween pumpkin booklets and are working on finishing up our haunted houses.
During story time we are learning about books, why they have a cover, title page, who is the author and illustrator, where to find their names on the cover. We are really focusing on making story predictions before and during the text. I also love getting their opinion on how they would resolve the problem or conflict in the book. When we are finished we review what we read and I try to ask them the 5 W's-who, what, when,where,why. Feel free to try this at home, its great to hear their answers and it helps them with story comprehension. you could also work on sequencing and talk about the events that took place in the book and have them retell you the story in order.
For the month of November we will be learning  about fruits and vegetables in french, parts of the body and domestic animals. Every year I like to do a class project that involves the students getting the chance to taste different fruits and vegetables. This requires your support. I send out a sheet with your child's name on it with a certain fruit/vegetable on a certain date, you are asked to send in enough for 19 students, already cut up. Your child will have the chance to try and then we will write in our fruit and veggies book about whether we liked what we tried or not. This book is sent home once we are finished and can help you out when trying to make healthier snack choices. I will send the information home next week in more detail. If you have any questions let me know.

Halloweeeeennnn is approaching and fast! EEeeek! We will be having a Halloween party in class but also will be joining the other three grade one classes for centres. Mme Marie- Christine has taking the lead in preparing this activity and I do believe she will need volunteers. If you are interested please email me. If you also wish to send in a nut free treat with your child that would be great, healhy snacks are more than welcomed. (cheese tray, fruit/veggies...) If you have any fun ideas for Halloween centres please also let me know.

Reminders of the week
Reading program exchanged on Monday, please send them in.
All Terry Fox pledge forms are due on Monday.
Anti-bullying contracts are still due for those who have yet to pass them in.
Christian action assemble is Thursday at 9:30
Library is on Tuesday
Mad science -Tuesday and Wednesday
Halloween Party Thursday
Friday no school- Faith Day for teachers

I hope to see you all at the Gala tomorrow night if not have a super week end.
Laurie Anne

Count down to the Gala...

Happy Friday to everyone!
Next week in French will will be starting our family trees so please be sure to send in pictures of your family members. I will send home a note on Monday as a reminder but also with a spot for you t correctly spell the family members name. I forgot to do that the first time. We will also be starting our haunted house booklet. We are going to start learning combined letter sounds in French starting with "qu" sounds like "k" this week. Students also continue to learn about vowels and consonants as well as masculin and feminin. As I introduce a new sound students learn how to properly print it, we need a lot of work on how to follow a line of print, staying in between the lines and how to properly space between letters and words. Feel free to work on this at home.

I am hoping to start guided reading next week,it will take some time to teach the students how this works. I base some of my literacy blocks on the daily five. If any of you are interested in it you can learn more about it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HrBnziWjbQQ. I also bought The cafe when I was in Oregon so that will be my next read, which is by the same authors of the daily five.

In math we continue to work with numbers and learning that we can represent numbers in different ways. Les mots (written word- deux, trois), grille de 10 (10 frames ), les dessins (drawing), les objets (using manipulative's) and les chiffres ( the numbers themselves 2,5,7). Please help your child along by practicing counting 1-20 as well as 20-1 in French. If you can count to 50 please do so. Some ideas to improve their number recognition is to pick out a number out of order and ask your child what it is, if you have 100 chart randomly isolate numbers and ask the what it is or to represent it with macaroni or other objets.

In religion your child is learning "Our Father" they do need practice this and know it by heart so please do so at home. It will be continued for their report card as well as the sign of the cross. This coming week we have morning prayer, where we read over the PA for the whole school. I did have some volunteers so a big thank you to Carter (Monday), Annika(Tuesday), Lucas (Wednesday) Hillary (Thursday). We still need one for Friday. I will send home their prayers that they are reading to practice on Monday.

We have library on Monday so please send those books back in. We are also missing some bully contracts so if you have them send those back in as well. All the reading programs were exchanged today (I hope) so they do not have to be sent in on Monday for an exchange. Mad science starts next week during noon hour and the students who signed up for Young Rembrants have it on Monday after school.Special lunch is on Friday. The harvest moon gala is on Saturday. I hope to see most of you  there, if you still wish to come there is still time to purchase tickets. That's all for now. Have a super week end, be safe and remember to smile!
Laurie Anne :)

Welcome back from a rested week end!

Hi everyone,
Welcome back from a long week end. i hope that you all had a great Thanksgiving and got to spend time with your family. Oregon was great, it made me miss the east coast with all the fall colors, the sand and the mist of the ocean.
This is a little later in the week then I normally post...sorry.
So this is a short week with no school Monday and our field trip on Wednesday. I hope the kids enjoyed themselves. This week we have started to learn Halloween vocabulary which they are loving. We started to work on a simple Halloween story with repative text that the students will take home and practice reading once they are finished. Next week we will be working on creating a haunted house and students will require to pick what Halloween character they want to put in it. This is also a repeative text but the students will be required to work on this more independently then the one we did this week. We are almost through learning the sounds of each letter in the alphabet and their names. Our next step will be combined sounds such as ch, oi and so on. In french we are also learning about members of our family, free to ask your child at home what mom, dad, brother, aunt, oncle or even grand parents are, they should be able to tell you in french. We are also looking at the difference between masculin and feminin words. This is a hard concept to learn in French and it is something they will not master anytime soon. A suggestion for you to work on at home is to put on flash cards the determinant such as un, une, mon, ma, le and la. On another set of flash cards you can put family members such as maman, papa, frere, soeur, grand-maman, grand-papa, onle, tante, cousin, cousine. Have student match up the proper determinant with the word. Here is a list below to help you if you are not sure. Those highlighted in blue are masculin and purple is feminin.
un,le,mon papa
une,la, ma maman
une,la, ma cousine
un,le,mon cousin
un,le,mon frere
une,la, ma soeur
un, l', mon oncle
une, la, ma tante
une,la, ma grand-maman  ( we can also say une grand-mere)
un,le,mon grand-papa        (we can also say un grand- pere) 

Math we continue to count to 50 and are learning how to recognize numbers from 1-10 in the 10s frame. I will be sending home a math game with the number 1-10 on them in written form, numbers and in the 10 frame you can play a match game with your child. They are suppose to be able to recognize numbers 1-10 in a 10 frame in about 3 seconds. They are also learning that there is several different ways to represent numbers-written/mots (deux), en chiffre/number form (8) and by either a 10 frame or using objects.

I will exchange the reading programs tomorrow for all of you.  I did ask my sub to d so however I don't think she did everyone. I will leave all the matching games so far in there for you to practice at home. There should be one on colors, school supplies, and two different Halloween ones. If you do not have enough puzzle pieces just let me know and Ill change them out for a new set. SO to clarify Monday will always be our book exchange. However with the exception of next week, seeing that I am exchanging them tomorrow for you all, we will start the following week. Also please let me know if you would like more books to practice at home. I will try and get us some in both languages. On the blue papers you only have to fill out your child's first attempt at reading the book sent home. I will also try and send one home for their duo-tangs for the french, but for that one I would ask that you record the word they are struggling with and I will help them at school when they arrive.

I am hoping to start my guided reading lessons next week. This is where I will work with groups one on one and teach them different reading strategies, work on word work and so on. the others students in the class at this time will be working in literacy centres independently. Guided reading lessons usually last for 30 mins. It is a process to teach the correct behaviour when working in centers so I will keep you posted on our success. This will also be when you start to see new books in their reading bags in French.

FYI: Tomorrow we will have a practise lock down. I went over it in class on my expectations and how we should be in class during this activity. We also talked about what to do if we are not in the classroom and are unable to get back to class in time before the doors are locked. They all seemed ready and no one was scared, which was great. I will let you know how it goes tomorrow.

Ok thats all for now.
Laurie Anne

Happy early Thanksgiving!

Hi Everyone,
This week in class we are learning about the different members of our family. I sent home a letter requesting photos of your family members yesterday, if you could send those pictures in by October 16th it would be greatly appreciated. Please send them in a ziplock bag labelled with your childs name on it. You could also put the name of the family members on the back so we know how to properly spell their name once we start our class project. We continue to learn the different letters of the alphabet, their names and the sounds that they make. I am teaching them hand gesters in french that goes along with the jolly phonics program. Feel free to ask your child to demonstrate some actions. Please go over the alphabet with your child. In the up coming weeks I will quiz them on the sounds that each letter makes and the name. The letters will also be a mix of upper and lower class so please review both with yout child. In French we continue to sing songs and go over short stories in class. This week we are learning "Merci" which is for Thanksgiving and Quel temps fait-il?. The students really seem to enjoy singing.
In math we finished up patterns and are now learning about numbers 1-20 in french and how to represent those numbers with objects. Students will learn how to use a 10 frame and are required to set up numbers in rows of 5.

How to represent numbers 1-10.

When representing 11-20 you double the 10 frame.

 

 

I will be sending home a math game that you can play and practice with your child that has the number, the number in written form and it represented in the 10 frame. We continue to count orally up to 50 as well in class.
In social studies we are learning how to recongize different groups by the language they speak, symboles and clothing they wear. We are also going to learn the differences between a country and province. Students will learn about the the provinces of canada and their flags.

In religion the students are learning about how to be a good friend and the meaning of giving thanks. They are asked to practice the prayer "Our Father" at home and will have an oral quiz later on in the week. The prayer can be found in their reading program duo-tang.

In art we will be working on Thanksgiving day crafts.
In science they continue to learn about colors and how to mix different colors to make others.
In english they continue to learn about the English sounds letters make in the alphabet and the difference between consonants and vowels.The words of the week in english are: play, do, it, see, me , a. Please go over these with your child at home.

 

I hope your first night with the reading program went well. I included two matching games that you can play with your child. One is on colors and the other is school supplies. You can also have your child practice putting the words in alphabtical order. (This is a new concept that we did not go over yet in class), having them group the words together according to the number of letters in each word or have them practice saying complete sentences with those words.

The scholastic orders are put in thank you for sending them in. Retake pictures are coming up next week. We do not have school on Monday. Friday October 11 we will have our thanksgiving liturgy so feel free to drop by and join us. Friday is the last day for items for the Gala baskets. I am told now that you can send in any item that would go with the theme, it does not have to be on the list. Some of you still need to send in the Anti-bulling forms as well as permission forms for the field trip. We are still needing some volunteers for next weeks field trip, so please contact me if you are free.
I think that is all! Enjoy your week everyone and I wish you all the most fabulous Thanksgiving with your friends and family.May it be filled with laughter and great memories.
Keep smiling:)
Laurie Anne



Reminders....among other things

Hi everyone,
Just wanted to give you a few reminders and somethings that I forgot to mention in my last post.

Pictures are due October 4th, 2013, please have orders in by then. We have no school on Friday because of PD, I am sure you could drop them off to the office if you forget to send them in by Friday.

An email was sent out looking for volunteers for our upcoming field trip on October 16th to Calgary Corn maze. If you wish to volunteer please let me know either by email or a note in the agenda. We are asking those volunteers to transport their child to and from school.

If you are not getting any emails from me or the parent class reps, please email me with your email address and I will add you to the email list.

If you have not sent in the anti-bully contract, please do so by next week. Mme Kitts has asked for them.It would be great if you could also go over it again with your child, we are having some problems with our grade one boys and playing to rough with one another. (wrestling, pushing, dog piles...)

Terry Fox donations will e excepted up until the end of October. Our school is trying to raise more than last year, so there is still time to get those donations in. Thank you to everyone who has already sent them in.

Gala donations are still being excepted. All donations are due October 11, 2013. The class that fills their basket with the most donation will be rewarded with a pizza party that is being donated. We are doing great. We have still some items that could be filled so please sign up if you are able to do so. Thank you to all who have done so already. The galas theme is literacy which excites me! The money that will be raised will go to the school for purchasing books and other resources to build literacy.

On the note of literacy i thought you might like to know that if your child is into reading Costco has a bunch of great deals on box sets! Costco in Sunridge had box sets by Roald Dahl (James and the giant peach, Charlie and the chocolate factory), Bettrix Potter (Petter Rabbit) , Laura Numeroff (If you give a mouse a cookie) Jane Oconnor ( fancy Nancy) and much more. They were all under $20.00, which is amazing!

Scolastic orders will be due on Monday October 7th. Please send them in for then or before. If you forget that's OK to I will still send them in, its just that you get more reward if its all in at the same time.

Please practice our father with your child and the sign of the cross. You can also check out Marie-Christines eboard for games and the stories of the week. Once I figure out how to add them to my blog I will let you know.

Next Friday October 11th is our thanksgiving liturgy start  at 10h45, all are welcome to join us in this celebration.

As you might have noticed I added a voki to the blog so that you can hear the words of the week. Thanks for the suggestion Erin!

Reading programs will go home on monday, thank you all for your patience. I am also hoping to round up some other books to send home for your child to practice reading. Please be sure to send in the book everyday. The CD you can keep at home until the end of the year. If you have not done so yet please send in a cheque dated June 20, 2014 for $15.00 for the deposit on the reading CD. If any of the books are not returned you might be asked to replace them, seeing that we are low on appropriate reading resources for your child, hence the gala fundraiser!!

I think that is all folks! Enjoy the rest of the week. Happy fall!
Laurie Anne :)

September has come and gone!

Wow I can not believe that we are entering the month of October already. I suppose the weather tells us so, seeing that the mornings are getting colder and the leaves has quickly turned yellow.
With a new month comes a new theme. We will be finishing up learning about colors and school supplies and will turn our focus on fall, family, seasons, months of the year, parts of the body and who can forget Halloween! I hope to do a fun project with the students where they are to bring pictures of their family. Look for a note to come in the next couple of weeks to send in some pictures. Please note that these pictures will be cut, so do not send in anything that you do not want back how you sent it in.
In French, we will start to learn about fall and the changes that come with this new season. We continue to learn new sounds and are reviewing the sounds that we have already learned. I hope that you are able to practice at home. In the past some parents have put on flash cards all the words of the week and when their child is able to recognize the word they are reward with a sticker on the flash card. We will finish up out booklet Dans mon pupitre-in my desk. I will be looking to see if the students are able to follow a line of print, finish sentences with a period and have proper spacing between words.
In math we are coming to the end of our patterns unit. I will quiz the students in the next couple of days on what they have learned. We will start to look at numbers 1-20. Students in Grade one are required to be able to write the numbers 1-10 in written form, count backwards, count by 2, 5 and 10. It is great practice to count every night, have your child write the numbers down as high as they can go. They will also learn how to recongize numbers 1-10 in a 10 frame. We are also counting the 100 days of school in class and are on day 18 as of Friday. Every day we add to the ones place and then once we get a group of 10, we move it to the tens place. I like to do some simple additions during this activity.
In art we will be making some holiday crafts for fall and thanksgiving. If any of you have a great fall project that you would like to come in and teach, please let me know.

I couple of things I need to mention, that I forgot to do so last week. The reading program will start soon, you are required to send in a cheque for $15.00 dated for June 20th, 2014. This cheque is required as a deposit on the reading CD that will be sent home with the reading program. If it is lost your cheque will be cashed to replace the lost CD. If it is returned, your cheque will be returned. If you could send in a cheque for that amount before Wednesday the 2 of October that would be great.
The milk programs starts this week. We have no school on Friday due to PD day. Also just a reminder that there are still items left for our class donation basket. Tickets are still available for purchase if you did not get a chance to do so yet. All donations and ticket purchases are due on or before October 11.

We will also be going on a field trip on October 16th to Calgary corn maze. We are asking for volunteers to come join us. We will leave school at 9 am and be returning for 2pm. Parents who volunteer are asked to drive their child to and from school for this outing. An email will be sent out by out class rep in the next couple of days with more detail. Permission slips will be sent home this week. Please sign and send in. Scholastics are due October 7th. A reminder that we have library on Tuesday, so send those books in.

I think that's all for now...I think. Enjoy the week end!
Laurie Anne
PS The students really enjoyed themselves at the Terry Fox run. Thanks for your support!

"Dreams are made possible if you try"
Terry Fox

Happy Friday!

Hi everyone,
I hope you all had a great week and are ready for the week end. Next week we will continue to work on classroom behaviour and expectations.We still need a little practice on how to properly listen, raise our hand when we wish to speak and not to talk or interrupt others when they are speaking. The students have now been assigned weekly tasks in the classroom and are very excited to lend a helping hand. These classroom jobs will be changed each week. This coming week we are going to be learning about Terry Fox and his dream to run across Canada and raise money for cancer research. We did read a little about him today, so I imagine that they probably came home with some questions. They had a lot of great questions and were curious to learn more. We will be partaking in the annual school run Friday the 27th. Students will attend an assembly at 1h00 and once that finishes they will head outside to the field to run or walk as many laps as they can until we head back into school. You are more than welcome to come join us and show your support.

In French we will continue to practice our colors, we are working on being able to recognize them in written form. The students are also learning the days of the week and seem to be having a great time learning the song lundi matin. Here's the like if you want to check it out. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=noo1_wUGsIU. Feel free to practice at home with your child. They also seem to like this one as well. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QF9lUh5XPxo&safety_mode=true&persist_safety_mode=1&safe=active My apologies now if they get stuck in your head! We will be starting to work on our booklets "Dans mon pupitre" (In my desk) Students will follow the writen sentence structure Dans mon pupitre il y a... and must fill in with the different school supplies that are found in their desk. You could practice asking them at home what they might have in their desk or in their school bag, to work on their french vocabulary.


In math students are learning about what/ how to make a pattern, repetition and how to have several different attributes to one pattern. Some of the key words that they should know are regularite (pattern), repete (repeat),encore (again), prolongue (prolong). We continue to work on printing our number 1-10 and recognize the written form in words. Please work on printing these numbers with your child so that they are forming them in the correct direction.

I will be sending home scholastics order forms in the next couple of  weeks, once I get them. If this is new to you it is a booklet that you can order books from. There is both English and French selections. Please do not feel obligated to order from it. They do have monthly promotions that sometimes benefits our class. I will send scholastics out at the beginning of every month and have them due back in by the middle. It would be great if you could send a check in rather than money.

I also wanted to let you know our classroom theme for the Gala is Chocolate Dreams. If you go on the school web page under Harvest moon gala you will see all the themes for each classroom and sign up to donate an item for the basket that will be auctioned off. I must say having chocolate dreams as my classroom theme is very fitting but also dangerous if I get a craving! Here is the link: http://www.cssd.ab.ca/holyname/harvest-moon-gala-auction/. Thanks to you all who have already donated.

I had a chat with a parent today about reading French at home and her concerns about finding appropriate and fun French books. I suggested that she look into ordering a French magazine that comes every month. Then I realized I should share that information with all of you. I have ordered in the past from QSP-which is a magazine campaign fundraisors for schools. I did this because I didn't know where else to find appropriate French magazines. If you are interested let me know and I can send you the pin to get access and you can look at the different titles like pomme d'api, Youpi, les explorateurs and popi. http://www.qsp.ca/ca/Index.aspx

All milk orders and food orders were due on Friday, if you still wish to order please send them in Monday! We have library on Monday so don't forget to send in the books.
Ok I think that's all for now, Have a great week end.
Laurie Anne

Heres to making new friends!

Thank you to all of you who came in to meet me. It was great getting to meet you all. I know we will have a great year working along side each other.

This week we will continue to work on routine and structure in class. We will continue to build our vocabulary by learning about school supplies, colors, days of the week and the alphabet. The student will continue to practice learning the names and sounds that each letter makes in the alphabet. They are also learning how to print and distinguishing both lower and upper case letters. Please practice the alphabet at home as well as printing both upper and lower case letters. In french upper case is called majuscule and lower case is miniscule. I will send home a sheet with how the letters should sound in French. We have started to write in our French journals. The students are copying simply sentences about school supplies and colors. We are focusing on using proper spacing, starting the sentence with a capital and finishing with a period. We are having some fun learning French songs, so you might hear them singing at home.

In math we have started our patterns unit, which they seem to really enjoy. We are also learning to count and represent numbers up to 10. It would be great practice if you counted at home with your child as high as they can as well as printing their numbers in the correct direction.

In science the students are learning about colors and how to make new colors by mixing others. We did start our health unit about good hygiene and the importance taking care of your body. We covered hand washing techniques last week and had some good discussion on why its important to wash our hands. In English we are learning about consonants and the sounds that they make. This week sight words in English are I, am, like, can, my and go. To practice their sight words in either French or English you could play a game of memory, tic-tac-word or hangman. In religion the students are learning about the importance of friendship and what makes a good friend.

Information that you might want know:
Gym class is on days 1,2,3 and 4
Library is on day 2 ( I will try and remember to put a note in the agenda reminding you)
Activite en communaute is on day 5
Period X is on day 6

Our school runs on a 6 day cycle, you can find the days on the calendar provided in the monthly news letter.

This weeks reminders:
Sept 17- picture day- our class is at 9h30
Sept 18- Mass at Holy Name church- We will be walking there, if you want to join feel free.
Sept 20- Sandwich Day- All Sandwiches will be donated to those in need

Enjoy your week
Laurie Anne :)

PS

I also forgot to ask for a parent volunteer to be our classroom rep. This person would be responsible for helping find volunteers for field trips, in class activities among other important things. I do have one already however would like two seeing that my one volunteer travels quite a bit for work. If you are interested please let me know as soon as possible.

On another note we will keep the same sight words this week as well as sounds for some extra practice. Our English sight words are I, am, like, can, my,go.
Have a great week.
LA

Welcome to Grade one!

Bonjour everyone! Welcome back to a new school year and a new adventure for you and your child in grade one! We survived the first week and had the week end to rest up and start over again. I hope that your child is adjusting well to the new routine. I know some of them must have seemed a little tired when they got home, seeing that they are not use to a full day of school. You will notice them adjusting a little better in the coming months. It is important that they get their rest, because it can be tiring learning a new language.

I am excited to meet you all at the parent teacher meetings coming up this week. You probably have a lot of questions to ask about this year but also of who I am. I'll give you a little run down now. I am new to Calgary. I have been here on and off for the past 4 years. I am from Prince Edward Island which is the east coast of Canada. The island is small and everyone that passes you greets you with a friendly smile and a hello. (Calgary is still getting use to me doing this here!) Last year I took a leave of absence from my full time teaching position at Greenfield Elementary where I taught grade one French Immersion, to give the west a try. I was lucky to come across the catholic school board at an education fair. It was meant to be I think. The recruiter was shaking a tin of mints when I was about to leave. I heard the mints and thought hmmm I could use some free mints and went over. That action brought me to Holy Name where I had the chance of teaching a fabulous grade two class for the rest of the year and has brought me back to Calgary for another year. Grade one is my thing, I love it. Everyday is different, the kids make me laugh,smile,cry and everything in between. I am really big on literacy and teaching the students not only the curriculum but about the importance of respect, friendships, life and compassion. I see my classroom as a small community where everyone works together, we are a team and our actions being in this small community effect everyone in some way. My classroom has an open door policy, I love parents to come in and help out and do activities with the students. So feel free to volunteer anytime! I also believe that your child's success in French Immersion not only happens at school but at home as well,regardless if you can speak French or not. By simply listening to your child read each night in French or doing extra work with them, all plays an important role in their success. I am here to work with you as well. I am the product of attending a French Immersion school and had parents who didn't speak French. They did listen to me every night reading and watched me do my home work and by simply being there, just in case helped me succeed.
If you have any question ever please feel free to email or call me at school. I am always happy to help!

**Your child will take home their agenda every night. In there will be notes about whats going on at school or what was sent home. I use it mainly as a communication tool between school and home. Also it will have your child's sight words for the week. I ask that you review these with your child daily, practice sounding them out, writing them. You can always play fun games with them like memory, hang man or war. You will also always find on the blog their sight words, sounds of the week and French sentence structures or expressions for the week. Practice these as well. The sight words are especially important because they are the frequent French words that your child will see once they start to read. I know your nights can be busy and packed full of extra activities, but even practicing them on the drive to and from will help your child!

I hope to see most of you this week, if not have a great one and we will catch up soon.
Enjoy the week!
Laurie Anne :)

How great was Anne!

Well our little adventure today was very successful! A huge thank you to all the parent volunteers who came out and made this possible! I hope that you all enjoyed yourselves and that the rain didnt get you all too wet! Have a super weekend everyone! :)
Laurie Anne....with an e

Very short post today! Many of you have been asking when we have gym so you can send your child prepared for gymnastics. We have gym days 1,3,5 and 6 always at 9h45. So this week we have gym tuesday and thursday. We have no school on friday nor monday. I hope that you all have a super may long weekend! If you have any super ideas for us I am all ears!
Have a great week

Hello Sunshine!

Three cheers for the sun making a warm appearance this week end and today! I so hope its here to stay and will follow me to PEI this week. I am heading home on Wednesday and will be back Sunday afternoon sometime. I am just heading home for a visit and this was the cheapest time to go. Mme Claudette will be in for me for all three days.
We are finishing up learning about farm animals, their proper names, their homes and will be exploring the plant cycle and the many different insects that are out and about this time of year. The students will get a chance to see how plants grow and watch the germination process. They will note any changes as they see them on a graphing scale and compare their seed to their classmates.
We will be working on les verbes "etre" and "avoir" this week and the proper use of them. We will continue to look at les pronoms and les phrases masculin et feminine. The class finally received their letters from their pen pals, which they were super excited about getting. We are now working on writing them back and will type our good copies on the computers. I hope to send them right away so that we get in at least one more letter before schools out for summer!
Math, math, math we are still working on subtraction of double digit problems and will be learning how to solve word problems. I found a great subtraction poem today (in English) that I showed the class. I think its great and catchy!

I found this on pinterest!

In English we are still learning to write different types of poems. So far in class we have looked at Haiku's, Cinquain and acrostics. We are collectively writing acrostic poems for each student in the class. The end result is a book of acrostic poems that your child can take home. Its great to see the respect and compassion that the students have for each other.

Ok that's about all I have right now. Just keep up the reading at home in French and practice some addition and subtraction problems at home. Get out there and enjoy the sunshine!
Mme LA

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kids request

Hi everyone,
Some of the students have requested that I post some links to sites we have watched in class. We have been following Chris Hatfield this past week. He has some pretty interesting post on life in space and the students are loving it. We have also been practicing the song that he and lead singer from Barenaked ladies have written together.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AvAnfi8WpVE&safety_mode=true&persist_safety_mode=1&safe=active

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=chris+hadfield+brushing+teeth&oq=chris+hadfield+&gs_l=youtube.1.4.35i39j0l9.71088.73156.0.77852.8.8.0.0.0.0.800.1456.3j4j6-1.8.0...0.0...1ac.1.11.youtube.1MXrnIe6_Ng&safety_mode=true&persist_safety_mode=1&safe=active

We have also had the chance to explore Roald Dahls writting hut. The students loved exploring it and reading about the weird things he kept.

http://www.roalddahl.com/

http://www.roalddahlmuseum.org/discoverdahl/exploring/default.aspx

We are also learning about poetry and I found a poem by a 7 year old from Britain. The students loved the fact that she recited the poem with a snake around her shoulders.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e86hSRwkVoA&safety_mode=true&persist_safety_mode=1&safe=active

We also checked out 2 canadian girls who are very talented.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_aJHJdCHAo&safety_mode=true&persist_safety_mode=1&safe=active

I think this is all they have asked me to add. I hope that you have fun exploring!

SNOW!!.....Oops

I was wondering where all my post have been going! Then today I noticed that I had been writing them on an old blog I started years ago.Oops! So here are my last two post, sorry for the delay.

Hi everyone. I hope you are all staying warm today seeing that it’s snowing! It was great to see some of you at Spring Fling! What a great event. The students sure enjoyed it and it was great to see the community of this school come together!
I cannot believe that April is almost over and we only have two months left of school. This week we are learning about the different types of farm animals, male, female and their babies. The students will learn the proper names of each animal, where they live, the sounds they make and the products they produce. In the following week we will be moving onto insects, the cycle of life and how plants grow. Thanks for sending in the egg cartoons, scrap paper and CD cases. We will be using all theses for projects in the next couple of weeks.

We have started subtraction in class which seems to be going great so far! Fingers crossed that it continues when we start to learn different strategies. Science is coming along and students have learned how to read a thermometer. We did an experiment last week and they were super surprised to see the thermometer rise and fall depending on the temperature of the water. In social studies we will be starting Le travaille (work) from the different areas that we are studying. In English we are having a great time learning about the different types of poems, so far we have learned about Haiku's and started acrostic poems today in French about rain (PLUIE) We have started to play with plasticine or as some say modelling clay last week. The students watched a video on Barbara Reid and the techniques that she uses when creating her illustrations. They also made snakes and will have the chance to make a cat and a spring time seen. In art this week students also had the chance to use water paints to create a rainy day seen, which goes with their acrostic poem PLUIE.

Thank you too all the volunteers for Anne of Green Gables. Hard to believe we are heading there in a months’ time. So to confirm we will be going to the play on Thursday May 30. We have to be at the theatre for 11 am and the play starts at 11:30. It should last 2.5 hours with a question period after. I do not think we will be able to stay for this seeing that we have to be back at school for about 2:50. We will see though, I still have to do a couple of runs on the train myself to get the timing right and so on. We will bring our lunch and snacks with us to eat in the plaza right by the theatre. I was also thinking that if we arrive there with enough time, we might go explore the children’s floor of the library right by the station. Just a thought, we shall see how it all goes.
That’s about it for now. I hope you all enjoy the rest of the week and lets hope that this weather changes soon.
Laurie Anne

April flurries bring May flowers?

Well I am not sure about you all but I am getting tired of this snow business! I hope the warm weather comes sometime soon.

This week we are looking at words with silent letters at the end, in french we call them les lettres  muettes or les lettres fantomes. I have noticed that some students tend to pronounce the lettres and then get confused with the meaning. For example we do not pronounce the "p" in trop. Most of our sight words this week all have les lettres muettes. In French we are also starting to look at comic books. This week we will compare and note all  the differences between comic books, fiction and non-fiction books. The student will have the chance to write their own comic books in the next couple of weeks. Earth is coming up so we will be brainstorming some ideas on how or what we can do to help our our environment.

In music the students were very excited to start to learn about "STOMP". We had a great introduction and they learned about vibration, amplification, frequency, and volume.

 We are having some success in math as of today. I think I actually saw some light bulbs come on! Great moment! I encourage you to keep working with your child at home on this. Also if you are able to give them a good introduction to double digit subtraction at home it would be very beneficial for them when we will start to learn about it in the next coming week. I also wanted to ask you all if you could help your child with their double and double plus one math facts. I think that some do not have these master yet which is what can be holding them up.

We continue to work on adjectives in English and the students will start to learn about poetry, seeing that April is poetry month. This week we will look at the different styles of poetry and read a couple of poems by Shel Silverstein and Jack Prelutsky. The students will practice their rhyming skills and learn that not all poems have to rhyme.

In science we will be playing with thermometers and getting our hands wet for some of our experiments. This week students will learn the different parts of a thermometer and we will be putting them to the test in bowls of water. We will also be using our hands to measure temperature as well.

 I am hoping to get to the art room sometime this week and work on a spring scene (If it ever comes). The students will be working with water color pencils, which can be super fun.

We keep getting post cards from around the world, a huge thank you for helping us out with this project. That is all for now. I hope things are going good at home, let me know if you need anything from me or just want some ideas on what you can do with your child at home. I am always happy to help you all out in anyway I can.

Chat soon

Laurie Anne

 

 

 

PS - Good Deal Alert!

I got a ton of great french books at a used books store that is going out of business down in mission. All their french books are $1.00 and all the other books in the store are 50 percent off. There is a good selection of children's chapter books left too. For you parents also wanting to learn french or help out at home with words, there are tons of good dictionaries left along with a couple of work books.  I read a book to the kids today that I got there and they asked where I got it. In the end I told them the story, so they have asked me to let you all know. The store is called books on 4th, (2100 4th str SW) its tucked away in the corner by the meat shop and a video store,. ( There are some real island directions for you all lol) If you head down and have the kids with you, you should also check out the pet store and the pot bellied pig that lives there. I hope if you have time you can check it out, there are suppose to close April 30th if they do not sell out by then. I might head back there today and pick up a few more books.

Welcome Back!

Hi everyone,
I hope you all had a fabulous break and are well rested. I had a great time in Vancouver taking in the greenery and ocean air! How I miss the ocean and its humidity!
In the next couple of days we are going to finish up a few odds and ends that I didn't get a chance to do before break seeing that I was out sick for most of the last week. Once we finish we will be starting a new theme which has a focus on spring, our environment and both farm and zoo animals. The students will learn new vocabulary, how plants grow, the importance of recycling and keep our earth healthy.
In art we will be taking a look at Barbara Reid and her clay illustrations. Students will learn some of her techniques and will be able to play with modelling clay. For one of their projects they will need an empty CD case. If you could send that in with your child's name written on the back of it that would be great. I would like to have them before the 19th of April if possible. Thanks in advance!
In English we will be learning about the different forms of poetry. We will be reading poems by Shel Silverstein, Jack Pretlusky, Roald Dahl just to name a few. These authors have great websites, so feel free to go exploring with your child in your free time. We will continue to read Anne of Green Gables in class as well.
*Just a note on going to see the Anne play. I have booked it however I had the date wrong. We will be heading down to Calgary Theatre on Thursday May 30 for 11:30. I hope this does not cause any problems for anyone. If you could also let me know who all wanted to join us again that would be great. Those who are volunteering can send in their $25.00 for the ticket and I will put it towards our field trip.*
In french I am hoping to do a book study on comic books. We will look at the different styles, compare them to the books we are use to reading. They will also be able to create their own comic book.
In music we will be listening to different songs from around the world and take a look at the musical instruments used in STOMP and how they are different from others we have seen. I am still looking for some lovely volunteers to come in and play for the class if there are any takers.
In math we are learning different strategies to add double digit numbers. They are starting to get the hang of it!
In science we are still working on hot and cold and will learn about the different parts of a thermometer. In social studies we are finishing up our unit of traditions and will be starting our unit on work.
That is all for now! I hope you all had a great break.
Laurie Anne :)

Great to see you all!

Hi everyone,
I hope you all had a fabulous weekend and had some luck of the Irish on St. Patricks day. It was great to see all of you at interviews! Feel free to contact me anytime!
This week in grade two we are looking at the sounds -ion,-tion,-sion. Our phrase de la semaine are Ca parait bon (that looks good) and desole (I am sorry). We will finish working on our writing assignment on how to build a leprechaun trap.  We continue to learn about the different methods of transportation. The students will be required to invent their own method of travel. They may use anything they want in order to create this project. We will brainstorm in class this week for some ideas and they will be require to build their invention at home. Please be sure to send them in for March 26 at the latest.Students will be required to describe their invention and will be graded on creativity as well as orally. (Correct sentence structures, words) I will explain to them tomorrow about this project but feel free to share with them tonight.

In math we continue to work on addition of double digits. Please feel free to work on this at home with your child!!

In science we continue to learn about what the differences of hot and cold are. The students will learn about the use of a thermometer and how to read it. In social studies this week we will take a look at the different cultures that make up our community as well as some of the festivals that take place in Meteghan, Iqaluit, and Saskatoon.

For music we are going to make Easter maraca's.
If anyone would love to come in this week or next to do an Easter activity or craft with the class please let me know. If you are interested in reading Easter stories as well, we would love to have you.

In English we have finished up reading Matilda. The students were soo happy and wanted to read another Roald Dahl book right away! We will be taking a closer look at Roald Dahl and the students will require to do a small write up about the interesting facts they have read about him. They will have the chance to explore his reading hut and listen to an interview. We will also be starting to read Anne of Green Gables. My hopes is to take the class to see the play being put on by Theatre Calgary in May. I am still working on a few details and getting in touch with the theatre company to reserve seats.  We will require at least 4 parent volunteers for this outing, however we do not have enough money in the budget to cover the volunteers tickets to the play which is at a cost of $25.00. If this interests you and you are OK with paying the fee we would love to have you. Even if you are interested in coming with us feel free, the tickets are regularly in the 60-70$ range. Let me know by the end of this week though so I can book us seats.

I am excited for Spring break and for April I have some great ideas planned for the class! Ithink that is all for now. Have a great week with your family!
Laurie Anne

Happy Monday

Hi Folks,
I hope that you all had a great week end!
This week in class we are working on the sounds (ph-f) and (th-t) the students are also working on practising there french sentence structure. This weeks sentences are As- tu fait ____? (Did you do your ___?) and Je dois ____. ( I have to do _____.) We are continuing to look at modes of transportation. We did receive two post cards so far. One from Belgium and the other from Jamaica. It was great both cards had a ton of interesting facts on it. We also looked at where both places are on the map and how we might get there.
In health we continue to try different fruits and vegetables. The students so far seem to be really enjoying themselves. I brought in avocado, papaya and peperocinni pickled peppers. To my surprise the students loved all of them, especially the hot peppers. We are also taking a closer look at where these fruits and vegetables grown, whether its on a plant, in the ground or on a tree and whether it is considered a fruit or vegetable.
In social studies this week we are learning about the different festivals and games between all three cultures.
Math we continue to work on addition of double digit numbers. We are having some trouble with this in class so feel free to go over it with your child at home.
In music we will be taking a closer look at the different instruments in various families and in art we will continue to work on our portraits. This time focusing on our side profile.
We have started a new science unit of hot and cold. The students will learn how to use a thermometer and the reasons why we use them.
In English we continue to read Matilda. I am hoping to finish up this week. They are also learning about adjectives, verbs and adverbs.
Don't forget to sign up for parent teacher interviews which are being held this week. I look forward to speaking with you. That's all for now. Take care enjoy your week.
Mme Laurie Anne

Hello March

Happy March to one and all. I cannot believe that we are into march already and it will be over before we know it. This week we are starting our healthy eating project for health. The students had the chance yesterday to taste papaya's and tomorrow they will try avocado's and some pickled perrocconi peppers. They wanted to try hot peppers but I didn't think that would go over all that well, so this is my compromise. We shall see how it goes. We will also be taking a closer look at their lunches and noting any fruits and vegetables that might have. So don't forget to add some healthy treats in there.
We will be starting our hot and cold unit in science and are continuing to compare the different traditions between Acadians, Inuits and Ukrainians. I was hoping to have had the chance to make rapure last week but did not get around to it. The students were a little concerned about my cooking skills seeing that I admitted that I relie on Mike for most of the cooking at home. One student even asked if Mike could come in and make it with them lol! I said I would try so I am still working on him to come in. I will keep you posted.
In religion the students continue to learn about the meaning of lent. We have also been taking a look at a couple amazing people from around the world who are giving a better quality of life to those they love. If you have not already had the chance to check out the sports illustrated kids award for 2012, it is a must! It about two brothers Cayden and Connor. One of the brothers has cerebral palsy and they compete in triathlons together. It reminds me a lot of the story of Rick and Dick Hoyt, which is very similar. If you have the chance watch both stories. It makes me realize how lucky we are and that love is unconditional!
The students have won once again their 100 points and this time have decided on a potluck. They are wanting to have it Friday but there is special lunch. What are your thoughts on having it Thursday? It might be too short of notice for some of you. If so just let me know and we can move it to next week. I will send home a note tomorrow with a sign up sheet.
The students will also be having the chance to see the grade 6 class perform on Thursday. It is requested that all students bring in a non-perishable food item to help support the local food bank. I think that's all for now. Just a friendly reminder to send your child with their mittens and tuques.

Sorry!

So sorry I forgot to post last night. I have been trying to get my report cards done. This week we are starting our new theme of  my messages, methods of transportation and vacations. Students will learn the different ways to travel by air, land and sea. We will also be expecting postcards in the next couple of weeks which we will use to explore the different traditions, languages and culture from around the world.We are also taking a closer look at verbs and how to properly use them in our sentences.
In math we have finished up our unit on measurement and are now exploring additions/subtraction of numbers to 100. We will also continue to practice counting by 2,5 and 10 seeing that we still have not mastered some of these.
Last week we had an in class field trip from teachers pet. They taught us all about magnetism. A big thank you to my last minute volunteers!! I appreciate how fast you all jumped into action to help out Thanks again! We will be chatting about what we learnt during our field trip and will have a quiz this week.  We will be moving on to hot and cold.
We are jumping right back into social studies (finally) This week we will be learning about the Acadian traditions. We will learn how to follow a cooking recipe as well as how to do procedure writing by writing out the rapure recipe. Students will have the chance to taste rapure a traditional acadian dish. ( I will be the cook...hopefully all will go well, wish us luck)
We are having a lot of fun in art! Students are learning about Vincent Van Gogh. We are taking a look at the portraits he created and the details that he puts into his paintings. They will also learn some of his techniques and apply them to their final project of a self portrait with a detailed back ground. You will notice that I requested small mirrors in their agenda. This is for their art project.
I have received a few Cd's back, thank you but i am still waiting for the others to be returned before I can send the new ones home for the next half of the reading program. Please remember to send them in. Thanks.
That's all for this week. Enjoy the week and chat soon.
Laurie Anne

Ps

I forgot to mention that the convention was great I had the chance to listen to a lot of great speakers, Gerry Dee being one of them. If you have a couple of minutes to listen to Sir Ken Robinson talk about creativity in the class room it will get you thinking. He can be seen on TED talks. Great site ! Just wanted to share that with you all. Night

Back to school!

I hope that you all had a chance to get out over the week end and spend some time with your family! Mike and I headed to Victoria for the week end! It reminds me soo much of home and my skin and hair were soo happy to get that ocean air.

I am glad to be back and more so on a routine. As you will notice our sight words have not changed this week seeing that we did not get much of a chance to work with them last week. I have a push on to finish up our health unit which is feelings. We will also be finishing up our measurement unit in math this week. Students will have their final review in the next couple of days and the test will be Friday. once we are finished of the measurement unit we will be taking a closer look at adding and subtracting numbers up to 100. Feel free to get a head start and teach your child some strategies now.
In science we will be studying magnetism. We are really lucky to have Teacher's pet coming in on Friday to teach all about them and how they work. We will continue to work on this up until mid march.
I must admit I have been pretty slack with social studies these past couple of weeks with everything going on. We will get right back at it this week by continuing to learn about the three cultures and designing our own flag for our class.

Next months theme in french is Mes messages et le voyages. Our letters to our pen pals tie in nicely with this unit but I also wanted to tie it in with the social studies unit. I have already requested from all my friends around the world to send postcards to the class with a couple of details of that particular area they are sending it from. I am asking you all to do the same. If you have friends or family around the world ask them to send our class a postcard with the name of the place, the language they speak,the culture, the food they eat, art, music, a tradition, or a cool fact. I have also encouraged my friends to pass the message along to those they know. When we receive the postcards we will find it on the map, chat about the method of transportation that we might use to get there, the different languages spoken around the world and so on. So please start now the postcards may be sent to
Ecole Holy Name
La classe de Mme Laurie Anne
3011-35 St. SW
Calgary, Alberta
T3E 2Y7

In health we will be finishing up our feelings and moving onto nutrition and exercises. We all know that children can be picky eaters! They never want to try new fruits or vegetables. For the last two years I have done a special activity in class with my students that they loved and the parents loved too. In the past I have assigned a fruit and vegetable to each student for the month of march. Each day a new student brings in the items on their list enough for the number of students in the class. The rule is that the students must try everything thing brought in even if they "think" or "know " they do not like it. Once we have the treat we write in a book whether they liked it or not and why. (great practice on french sentence structures) Once we finish the month of tasting the different items the book is sent home for the parents to look at. Most of the parents I have had said that they were surprised at what their child liked and would never have thought of buying it for them to eat. We also keep a tally for the whole month who has healthy food choices in their lunch and if they had been active the night before.  I was wondering if you all would be on board to make it happen? You will get your calendar with the date and items already set out for you along with a reminder the night before in the agenda. If you do not wish to participate please let know. I also would need to know if your child has any allergies to certain fruits and vegetables before we start. I will send a sheet home to see if your interest is there in the next week.

Could you please send in the CD that goes with the reading program. I will send home the new ones once I have everyone's. how is reading coming along anyway at home? Do you see improvements? Are you reading with your child either in English or French? I am curious to hear your feed back so feel free to drop me a line. That's all for this week. Have a great one, keep smiling:)

Joyeux Saint-Valentin!

Happy Valentin's day to you all.

We have a short and busy week this week. We are celebrating La carnaval de Quebec today and tomorrow. The children had the chance to be active members of a French play put on by Les Bucherons. We also crowned our king and queen for the two day event. Fiona and Nathan were chosen by their classmates for all their hard work in speaking French as the duke and duchess for our class. As i am sure you have already heard that there was some confusion with the crowning ceremony this afternoon. The rules were explained that if your teachers name was picked out of a hat three times then those students would win. Our class heard Mme Laurie Anne called three times and we thought we had won, however when Mr. Itika checked to make sure he had all three ballots there, he could only find two and decided to continue the draw until another class had won. The students were very upset about this and we did talk about it in class. We decided to make Fiona and Nathan their own crowns because we feel that they deserve it for even being chosen for the duke and duchess. I have spoken with Mr. Iticka and it has been decided that they will be the King and Queen of the first floor. We were all very disappointed with what had happened but came together as a class and resolved the problem ourselves. I am very proud of how my class handled themselves and the situation!
Tomorrow is another day filled with activities. We will be going outside for the afternoon so be sure to check the weather and dress your child appropriately. Wednesday we will be celebrating Valentin's so please be sure to send your child in with their cards as well with any treats if you are doing so. We will be doing this at the end of the day, feel free to join us if you have some free time.
I had also mentioned to the students the other that there are some great French apps for your ipads. You can listen to French stories as well as French cartoons. Its a great way to build on their French oral skills as well as literacy skills. I just search french children's apps and found a couple. I will try and write them down and send them home for you if you are interested.
You might have noticed that I did not send home any letters yet in regards to your child's progress so far as mentioned. I have been having computer trouble. I had been using Mme Victoria's user name to log on to the computer and they have decided to switch the user name over to me. However everything I have saved is under her, so I am waiting for someone else who is more computer savy to come and help me! That's about it for now.
We are off to our Teacher conventions Thursday and Friday so there will be no school those days and lets not forget Monday is family day! There are tons of great activities going on around the city I hope that you get out and take advantage of some of them.
Happy Valentine's Day to you all may you be surrounded by those you love!
Mme Laurie Anne

Hello February!

Hi everyone,
I hope you all enjoyed the great weather we had this week end. I hope that February will bring us many more great days. Our vitue of the month is Love/Amour. The students will learn about St. Valentine's day, the importance of friendship, how to be a good friend as well as rooms in the house and articles of clothing. The students will be learning about verbs both in english and French as well as prepositions. The students are also writing and illustrating thier own books during their free writing block.  I am very happy with the creative ideas they are coming up with so far.

In English we continue to read Matilda by Roald Dahl. The students are working on their comprehension skills as they are required to answer questions after each section. The students are also working on what is a noun, verb and will later be introduced to adjectives with the help of Dahls detailed descriptions of his characters. They are really enjoying the book so far.

We will be starting magnetism in science in the next couple of days. In social studies we continue to learn about the people from around Canada. We will start to look at their traditions.In health we are continuing to look at feelings and how they effect us as well as how to respond to certain feelings.  In music we will be singing songs to go along with valentines day and we will be learning about  keyboards, percussion, woodwinds,strings and brass.

the students did reach their goal of 100 points! Bravo mes amis! They have decided to have show and tell in class. I would like to have it on February 7. Please make sure to send your child with something to present.

I am trying to finish up my pre report card letters to you all about your child's progress so far. I hope to have them finished by the end of this week, so please look for them in your child's agenda. Also just a friendly reminder that we DO NOT have school on Thursday February 14 and Friday February 15 due to teacher conventions. That being the case I would like to have our Valentine's day celebration on Wednesday the 13. Please feel free to send in healthy treats with your child.

I believe that's all for now enjoy the rest of your week.
Laurie Anne

Hello sunshine!

Hi everyone! I hope you all had a great week end and got out to enjoy the great weather. I never realized that my last post did not show up, so sorry about that!

This weeks sound  is "ille" the students are also reviewing "f". Their sentences of the week are "Il met/Elle met (He puts on/ She puts on) as well as "Est-ce-que je peux aller pour un boire de l'eau?" We will be starting a new theme this week to go with the month of February. The students will be learning about the importance of friendship (l'amitie), valentines day and the rooms of the house.

We will also be learning about groundhogs day, what it means when the groundhog sees his shadows. I will tie this in with an art activity where the students will learn about shadows and they will recreate their own shadows on paper.
In health we continue to talk about feelings, how they effect our bodies. Last week the students really enjoyed themselves with one of the activities I had planned. We listened to different types of music and the students had to say how they felt when they listened to the songs being played. They also colored what they thought the feeling would look like.
In math we are still working on measurement and practicing counting 1-100. We still continue to need work on counting by 2 and 5. Feel free to practice this at home.
We are starting our new science unit which is on magnetism. We are hoping to get teachers pet in to teach the students all they know on magnets.
In music we will be looking at the different types of instruments that people play. Later on in the month the students will be asked to make their own instruments to share with the class. I was also wondering if any of you parents might be oh so musical and play an instrument and willing to come into class and share your talent? If soo please let me know.

Report cards will be coming up quickly ! I would like to try and send home a note to each of you to let you know where your child stands at the moment as well as some notes on what you can work at on home to help them along.Please look for that in the agenda in the next weeks to come.  That's about it for now. Hope you all have a great week! Chat soon!