Happy Halloween!

Where did the month of October go?? I cannot believe we are in the last week of October and starting November already. I find the time usually zips by from now to Christmas. In the month of November we will start to fund raise for the annual Turkey drive, you will learn more about that later, we will start to practice our Christmas song for the concert which is usually the first week of December, I will have to confirm that date. Evaluations will continue for the first part of the month and then reports cards will be making their way home at the end of the month. ** If you want to better prepare your child for evaluations they will be tested on alphabet letter sounds/names in both French and English, weekly sight words in both French/English up until now, associating numbers 0-20 to objects and written form (1= un, 19 = dix-neuf), identifying numbers 0-20 out of sequence as well as counting forwards/backwards up to 20. In English, three letter words, they are required to write and identify them in a sentence.**
On Tuesday October 31st students are allowed to come to school dressed in their costumes. I encourage you to dress up if you are dropping them off or picking them up. They love showing their friends there cool parents costumes. Please send your child in their costumes ready to go. If their costumes requires face paint that must be applied at home. I am not permitted to touch up their make-up. They are not allowed to wear masks or bring any weapons of any sort. We will have a Halloween celebration in the afternoon. If you wish to send in a health treat to share with the class you are welcome to do so. We will also be having lunch together this day thanks to some great parent volunteers who will be providing soup, rolls and I believe a desert. If your child is a picky eater I suggest that you send something in just in case they are not fans of the soup. It would be great if you could send in a plastic bowl along with a spoon to help reduce waste. I will have extras on hand, just in case you forget.

In the afternoon we are lucky to have parent volunteers coming into class to run Halloween centers from 1-2:30. The students loved carving pumpkins on Friday and I am sure they will love the centers as well.

There is no school on Wednesday November 1st seeing that staff will have their annual Faith day. We do have school Thursday November 2 and Friday November 3. I will not be here from November 2-8th. I will be attending ACPI which is a French Immersion conference. I lucked out because this year the conference is held in Charlottetown, PEI. Yay! I get to go home and learn. I also decided to extend my trip there for a couple of days seeing that I will not be able to fly home for Christmas this year! First one EVER! I have Mme Amy and Mme Johanne in for me to cover those days.

For the month of November we the students will be learning a lot of new things and will continue to build on their knowledge they have learned so far since September. Our theme this coming month will focus on fruits and vegetables, continue to learn about body parts and our 5 senses. These all tie in nicely and work well across the curriculum.
Students will also be starting to put sounds together to form little words in both French and English. We will play with letter tiles in class and work on blending these letters together. This is something you can also start to do at home with the Jolly Phonics cards that have been sent home weekly. This is great practice and will help your child on their reading journey.

To best learn the names of fruits and veggies our class requires a little help from yourselves. This class project is always a huge success for both the parents and the students. It does however involve your corporation and support. I am hoping for another successful year of getting students to try new things with a little positive peer pressure! I have assigned each student a fruit/vegetable to bring into class on a particular day for the month of November and the first couple days of December. The deal is that the students all must try what is brought in, unless an allergy. It has to touch their tongue and get on their taste buds! If they want to spit it out they are free to do so, at least they tried it. They then will write in a book whether they liked what they have tried or not. Once they have finished trying everything on the list, the books are sent home for you to look over. It is an easy way to see what your child likes, so that making snacks/ lunches can be a little easier. It also saves you from trying out pomegranates for example to see if they like them or not and saving you some moola. The list will be sent home this week. Feel free to add anything to the list or if you cannot find what you have been give to replace it with something else that is not on the list. Calgary has a lot more options out there than PEI did so I look forward to seeing what you might suggest or bring in. I will take care of the first couple of days. If you are unable to participate that's ok too, just let me know  in advance so I can make arrangements to get what is needed for that day. To make our life in grade one easier, we would love it if you sent in the items cut up and prepared for 23 students. Don't worry about napkins I got that covered. Thanks in advance for your support. I hope you will hear some positive stories about our tastings! I should also mention during this we use our 5 senses which is apart of our science unit. The students especially love when we bit in the fruits or veggies and the sounds they make.

Math is still identifying numbers 0-20 and we will be starting to look at simple addition and subtraction up 12 to start. If you have time students always struggle with the concept of subtraction. they would benefit by going over this with you at home. Words that you can use to help are moins (less) enleve (take away) soustraire/ soustractions (subtract/ subtraction). I will also be sending home an association game that you can play with your child. They are required to associate the numbers to the written word up to 20. Please practice when you have time.

Science, we are learning about our five senses, (la vue (sight), le toucher (touch), le gout (taste) l'odorat (smell), l'ouie (hearing). Each week we will learn about a sense and build on that as the weeks pace. We will learn about Helen Keller as well as a boy who uses echolocation to get around.

 In Social Studies, students have been learning how to identify different groups, whether by the clothing they were (uniforms), symbols (maple leaf) language they speak, music and so on. They are encouraged to pay attention to different symbols they see, languages they hear when they are out and about. We will also look at National symbols.

 In English, we have started to put sounds together to form new words or nonsense words with a focus on three letter words. We are also paying closer attention to rhyming words we hear in stories. We are also looking at the beginning, middle and ending sounds of words. Students have also been learning about books, the title, title page, publishers, authors, illustrators and why some books have write ups on the back cover.

This week and next info to note:
I will be sending home Scholastics book orders for this month. If there are any Christmas gifts just let me know and I will put them aside.
No school on Wednesday Nov 1st- Faith day for teachers
Choir is Thursday at noon.
Library is Friday Nov 3rd
Pictures orders due and retakes are Nov 3rd
Gala November 4th.  I hope you all have a great time and get some great deals.
Remembrance day assembly is Nov 10th at 10:30am. All are welcomed.

A note from our lovely reading package volunteers: It would be very helpful if you could take out items that could stay at home such as reading CD, Jolly Phonics duo-tang and flashcards...

I think that is all...a lot of info to process. Happy Halloween everyone. be safe on Tuesday night with your little ones.
Laurie Anne