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 :)