Happy Monday

Hi everyone,
I hope you all had a great long week end. Our PD session on Friday was good. I attended two sessions one on the impact of additional language learning by Dr. Mary O'Brian and the other on how to encourage our students to speak French in the classroom. I hope to put some of the strategies to use in the classroom this week.

This is our last week of January which means trying to finish up different units. I feel though that we will be continuing them into the first weeks of February. With a new month usually comes a new theme. The month of February in French we focus on Friendships. Students will learn how to be a good friend, not all friends look and act the same and so on. We will also learn about the different rooms in our home and the items you find in each room. The students will pay closer attention to masculine and feminine words and continue to work on writing a complete sentence. We will also look at what makes a sentence and how to make it interesting. Often times students think that two syllable words are two different words. This is something you can work at home, say aloud a sentence and have your child tell you how many words they heard in the sentence. They can use their fingers or objects to represent the words. You could even have them write it out.

Thank you for sending in the paint chip sight words weekly. I am getting caught up at asking them their sight words. They are very eager to read them and practice! If you haven't sent them in please do so tomorrow so that your child may practice with their reading buddies.

In your reading package you will find a matching game on body parts. This is a bonus, you do not have to do this with your child but it is encouraged. It will also help them with their quiz that they will have in the next week or so. Please be sure to count all the pieces before sending them back to school. They will be exchanged every 2 weeks and correspond to themes and vocabulary covered in class.

Math, students continue to work on addition up to 12. This week we will be learning about doubles and doubles plus 1. We will play some dice games to practice our addition skills and then I will send it home to play. We will also be starting to learn about subtraction (soustraction). Students will need to know the following key words to help them determine if the written problem is addition or subtraction. (moins-minus, enleve-take away, reste-left, maintenant-now)

In Science, we are finishing up our unit on our senses. Students will be taking home a paper bag with instructions stapled to it. This is due on Feb 4th. All items will be returned once we had the chance to use them. Students will also be having a quiz to test what they have learned. They are required to associate the 5 senses to images. (l'odorat-smell, l'ouie- hearing, le gout- taste, la vue- sight, le toucher-touch).

In English, we will be writing in our journals and learning to take more risks when spelling out words. Students are learning how to break words apart by letter sounds, syllables or chunking them by beginning, middle and end sounds. Students are still having trouble with their English vowel sounds. If you could review this at home they would benefit from the extra practice. Especially vowels -u, -i, -e.

Social studies students are going to be working in groups and reconstructing roads that they find in the city and roads that are found in the country.

Our class has three more days on in line skating. Please send in your childs helmet if you have forgotten. They have enjoyed their first lesson and are excited to go back and try it again.

We have two tuques in our class that no one seems to know who they belong to, before I put them in lost and found I thought Id ask the parents....one is a gray knit and the other is a blue merino wool one. It they are yours just let me know.

Scholastic orders are due this Friday. I called and made sure you can pay online under my name now so let me know if its not there.

Heads up to an upcoming event!!!!
Feb 13 is the 100 day of school. Our class will have a day of celebration. Each year students have the option to wear a 100 day t-shirt with 100 items on it or they can dress up as if they were 100 years old. You can get some great ideas on pinterest. I am also looking for volunteers to come and run centers in the classroom. In the past parents have come with their own ideas for centers, such as creating a 100 day monster using 100 different things, building towers with 100 cups (which i have), one parent baked a class size cookie with 100 chocolate chips on it. If you are brave, eager and willing we would love to have you share in this fun with us. Feel free to contact me with your ideas. I also can provide any craft items, just let me know in advance. Ideally 5 volunteers would be great to allow small, manageable groups.

Our class also needs three more volunteers for Feb 8th teachers pet in class field trip. Please let me or Margret know if you are able to come.

I think that's all....my brain has stopped working so its time to head home.

Have a great rest of the week!
Laurie Anne