Countdown is on!

 Count down is on until Christmas Holidays! The last week of school is sure to be a fast one but full of fun and excitement as well. As mentioned before we love to dress up the last week of school and students are encouraged to participate. Here is the schedule for the week. This is optional, please participate if you wish.
Monday December 14- Christmas elves
Tuesday December 15- Christmas presents
Wednesday December 16- Santa, Mrs. Claus or a reindeer
Thursday December 17- Christmas trees or Angels
Friday December 18 - NO SCHOOL

Our liturgy is on Thursday Dec 17th,I believe at 9 am. A link will be sent out if you wish to join. 
I usually have parents come in the last week of school to read the kids their favorite Christmas story. This year we cannot do this but I was thinking that we could try to do this over zoom. Would any of you be interested in doing this? If so let me know and we can arrange a time that works for us all. 
We missed library last week so it we will exchange our books this week. If you haven't sent in the books please do so before Thursday. 

We will have our Christmas celebration on Thursday afternoon. Feel free to send in a individually packaged treat to share with the class. 

Christmas Holidays start December 18- Jan 4. The first week back we will be learning from home. I will send home everything they need on Thursday for the week of online learning. If your child will not be here on that day please let me know in advance so that I can send home what they need. Closer to Jan 4th I will email you the schedule for our zoom meets and anything else you may need to know. 
Please be sure to sign into google classroom, if you have yet to do so. Also you have access to Je lis, Lalilo as well at all times if you are looking for extra French during the break. 

Candy cane sales now available online. Each year since I started teaching, I have sold candy oh grams and collected spare change with my class to raise money for those less fortunate. When in PEI, our class donated their money to the CBC turkey drive which was through the salvation army. They even got to sing on the local radio station, which was always a big hit. Since coming to Calgary, my class has continued the tradition and donated turkeys to the Calgary food bank and for the last 4 years have donated hundreds of turkeys to the Calgary drop in center given over 1000 people a Christmas dinner. In the past with some of the funds we also put together stocking with toothbrushes, shaving cream, shampoo and so on for those in need. We have bought transit passes as well seeing that most homeless are jailed because of these infractions. This year due to covid we wont be able to do the traditional turkey drive. Students usually get to load the truck for the organization that we donate to with the turkeys we buy. That wont stop us though from collecting money and donating to an organization in need. This year the funds collected will be donated to The Mustard seed. Sales are open online and will be closed Monday to allow us time to fill orders. We thank you for all your support. 

In Social studies, we are finishing up the last bit of our community and will start our unit on rights and responsibilities. These concepts are often difficult for students to understand. The more conversation we have about them the better. We will continue this in January when we get back. 

Math, we have started addition and subtraction up to 12. Students have started to learn how to find all the number facts to a number. (6- 0+6, 1+5, 2+4,3+3, 4+2, 5+1, 6+0) They are also starting to recognize that 0+6 is the opposite of 6+0 but the sum is still the same. Over the break it would be great practice to print them off some work sheets with simple addition up to 12. It would benefit them also if the problems were set up both horizontally and vertically. ( 4+4=8  or 4 )
                                                                                                       + 4
                                                                                                          8

Here is a table you can practice at home. Below table there is a link to a math website you can look at. 

https://www.k5learning.com/free-math-worksheets/first-grade-1/addition

In English, we continue to work on recognizing long and short vowel sounds. In the new year we will start to learn about word families and blends. To help your child with reading comprehension start to ask them the 5w's after reading them a story. Who? What? When? Where? Why? and we add in how?
Review sight words and if possible start having them write simple sentences with them. I will send home their explode the code black duo-tang as well as phonic fun to work on over the break. Most students are almost finished explode the code and ideally should be near page  45  in Phonics fun. 

In French, we will finish our Christmas unit and students will be starting to learn about clothing and winter activities in French. In their package there will be activities to work on and new vocabulary to practice.

I think that is all i have until the new year. I wont see most of you so Merry Christmas to you all. My wish for you all this season is that your homes are filled with laughter, love and new memories. Be safe and take the time to recharge and be present. It will be different for us all! Sending you all happiness, positivity and love. 
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. 2021 will bring new beginnings and many new adventures! 
Laurie- Anne :)

Hello December!

 Happy December! Looking forward to all the fun and excitement this month brings! In class, the students are learning French Christmas vocabulary. We have started writing our booklets on what you can find in Santa's sac and have been playing lots of games that build our French vocabulary. We are learning what makes a sentence and starting to pay closer attention to the words we hear in a sentence. Often, kids mistake words that have more than one syllable as being two words. You can play word games with your child at home to help them recognize parts of a sentence by saying a sentence, then repeat it by leaving off the last word. Have your child tell you the word that is missing, keep doing this until they have to repeat the whole sentence back to you. ( I like to eat chocolate, I like to eat, I like to, I like , I) If they are able to write out the sentence this is also good practice. When writing and reading sentences in class we have been focusing on upper case letters to start our sentences and finishing with a period. We have discussed that names and celebrations are also capitalized. We have also been playing with mixed up sentences and working together to put the words in the correct order. This is great practice for the kids, seeing that they are reading words over and over again aloud and starting to train their ears to the correct French sentence structures. This can be done at home with sentences from your child's books. Some students continue to need work on following a line of print, letter sizing and correct letter formation. I believe they simply need to slow down and review their work. 

We will be taking the next couple of weeks to finish up units and review what we have learned so far. I hope to start some reading evaluations before January so please continue to practice their sight words, colored reading lists. If you have lost the sheets you can find them on google classroom. 

In Math, I will start simple addition/subtraction up to 12. This unit will continue after Christmas. Students will start to count by 2, 5 and 10 in French. Students should be able to count by 2 up to 50, count by 5 up to 100 and to count by 10 up to 100 in French. It would be great practice if you could start this at home to give them a head start. We continue to work on using base 10 blocks to represent numbers and have made progress identifying which numbers are bigger, which number represents the tens place and ones place. 

Our science unit is coming to an end. In the next couple of weeks we will finish our sight section and explore optical illusions and learn about Helen Keller. 

In English, we have started our Christmas around the world unit. The students are having so much fun learning about Christmas traditions around the world. So far we have visited New York City, Mexico and today we went to France. We will visit Italy, Sweden, Germany, China, Canada, Australia and England. With each trip they learn about the traditions, special food or treats they get on Christmas as well as how to say Merry Christmas in the language spoken there. We will discuss the differences and similarities of our own holiday traditions. 

I was in the library one day looking for a book and came across a class set of knitting needles. I took them and walked back to class with the excellent idea of teaching our grade ones to knit a scarf. My plan was to knit one for someone in need. They have other ideas, but if we are good we will attempt to make 2! Could you please send in a ball of yarn, ideally light to medium weight size 4 or 5 will work the best. Wish me luck!

At our staff meeting they discussed online learning from Jan 4th- 8th. Please let me know if you may not have access to a device for that week or internet and we can make a plan for you and your child. All students are expected to attend and attendance will be taken. We will be having classes over zoom and smaller group sessions will take place. Once we learn more I will let you know. 

Please continue to practice our Christmas song when you can at home. We will be filming it soon to put together for the Christmas concert. The last week of school we usually dress up each day as something different. Not sure what order we will go in yet but I thought I would give you a heads up if your child wants to participate and you can prepare, Santa /Mrs. Claus or reindeer, Christmas trees, Christmas presents,  Christmas elves. We do not have school on Friday Dec 18. We will have our Christmas celebration on Thursday Dec 17. I will give more details closer to the date. 

That's all I can think of at the moment. I hope you are all well and healthy. Stay safe. Have a great week end! 

November news

 Hi everyone hope you are all well. Welcome to the month of November in grade 1. This month the students will continue to learn about parts of the body as we tie it in with our Science unit on 5 senses as well as our health unit. We will also take a closer look at verbs and prepositions. We have started to blend consonants and vowels together to form little words and nonsense words. Students have done a great job learning the alphabet and their sounds and are still working on identifying vowels. We are also learning more about syllables. We have been counting how many syllables we hear in words as well as where to break/cut words apart. Our next step will be to find little words in bigger words (maison=mai or son) 

In Math, students continue to work on counting forwards and backwards to 20 in French. We have started to identify numbers out of sequence up to 20. They must be able to write the number as well as identify it on a number line. For example Mme says 17, students must be able to write it, depict it as well as point it out on a number line. In class we have been using our blocks to represent numbers up to 20. Students do need more work on understanding the concept more or less as well as being able to understand the base ten number concept. (10 tens (dizaine) place and 1 ones(unite) place. 

We have been having fun in science doing many experiments and learning all about our 5 senses. We have had great chats about how our senses keep us safe. We have our taste left to review, i have not figured out how to do the experiments or if ill try because its all about us tasting different things like lemon, limes, sugar, salt....which cannot be individually packaged, sigh :( We may just have to use our imaginations.

Social studies we continue to learn about the groups we belong to and the benefits that being a member to certain groups. 

Do not forget to sign up for parent teachers which are on the evening of Nov 16 and all day Nov 17. It will be a video conference this time. If you prefer a phone call I am happy to do that as well. Just let me know and we can arrange it. 

Library tomorrow Nov 10
All food donations due tomorrow nov 10 for St.Vincent de Paul. 
Remembrance day liturgy nov 10 at 11am online- Students have been asked to wear a uniform if they belong to a group in honor of all those who wear one. (sparks, cubs...)
No School Wednesday nov 11

Happy October!

 October is already upon us, can you believe it! With a  new month comes a new theme. This months the students will be learning fall, family and Halloween vocabulary. 

This week in class we are learning about the different members of our family. Students will be learning about the different determinates for masculin and feminin (la-une, le-un) I will send home a letter requesting photos of your family members this week. If you could send those pictures in by October 14th it would be greatly appreciated. Please send them in a ziplock bag labelled with your childs name on it. Please 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. Individual pictures of each member are needed, 4x6 or a little bigger work best. Please do not send any pictures you wish to get back. We will be cutting them. If possible please include grandparents. 

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. Students are required to count forwards and backwards up to 20 in French. They are great at counting 1-10 right now however need work on counting higher. We also need to work on correct number formation, a lot of us are reversing the numbers, with practice this will come. 

When representing numbers higher than 10, students will use two ten frames. 

In social studies, we are learning what it means to be apart of a community, group or club. They are also learning how to recognize different groups by the language they speak, symbols and clothing. 

Science, we are wrapping up the colors unit and moving onto our five senses. Chat below to help practice. FREE AP (that you can also download at home) called Apprendre les 5 sens-Mini TFO​. When teaching this unit I also tie it in with teaching the students about body parts. If you want to get a head start i have attached a poster with body parts as a reference. When teaching these words I also point out to the students the determinate and whether it is masculine or feminine  (la-une=feminine, le-un= masculine)

https://www.tfo.org/fr/univers/louis-josee-et-lexie/100457876/apprendre-les-5-sens-mini-tfo

https://www.tfo.org/fr/univers/louis-josee-et-lexie/100457876/apprendre-les-5-sens-mini-tfo
 

English, we are looking at the differences between consonants and vowels. We are also starting to blend sounds together to form 3 letter words. CVC. We continue to review long and short vowel sounds. 

https://www.themeasuredmom.com/teach-cvc-words-with-15-free-games/https://www.themeasuredmom.com/teach-cvc-words-with-15-free-games/

We will have a Terry Fox presentation Tuesday afternoon to prep us for the Terry Fox run which will be happening on Wednesday all day. Our class will start everyone off at 9 am. We will run or walk around the school for 20 mins. Students are asked to bring a toonie for Terry on Wednesday. The school will also take other donations of course and if you wish to write a cheque they ask to make it out to Holy Name School. 

Picture day is Thursday October 8th. Our class will have their pictures taken at 9:20 in the morning, which is great because they will still be clean and well put together before recess! Please make sure they can fix their hair if they have clips due to covid I am not allowed to help. 

Our class along with Mme Teresa's class will be putting on the thanksgiving liturgy. A link will be sent home this week for you to attend, it will be at 10:50 am. We have two readers in our class, Dahlia and Carter! I am proud of them for taking on this challenge! 

There will be no school on Monday October 12. I hope you have a fabulous thanksgiving day celebration and that your are all surrounded by family, laughter and love. 

What's happening in September.

Hi everyone,
I hope you all had a fabulous week-end and got out to enjoy the sun and warmth! It was great chatting to you all last week. Thanks for making time to speak to me and tell me a little bit more about your child. 
This is our first full week of school! We will all be tired come Thursday I would say lol.  

We have library on Thursday this week (september 24) please be sure to remind your child to pack and bring back their library book. The canteen is now open if you wish to order simple simon pies or if your child wants to get a snack from there they can. 

In French, we have been going over the French alphabet. I teach the alphabet out of sequence which helps them become more aware of the actual letters and their sounds. To help with letter recognition and sound recognition I use Jolly Phonics hand jesters. These can be found on google classroom under jolly phonics for parents. There you can find the sheets that correspond to each letter for the week, learn the action yourselves and listen to the songs that go with it. This will help back up what your child is learning at school. You can print off the practice sheets. If you do not have a printer the Calgary library allows you to print for free with your library card. I believe you get 50 sheets a month? Library cards are also FREE!

The students have also been learning French vocabulary for school items and will be working on making a little book this week about the items they can find in their desks. Once finished they will take it home to practice reading learned words. They can stay at home. 

We continue to work on printing and following a line of print. I use sky, grass, dirt to represent the lines and monkey, giraffe and lady bug letters for sizing. I will attach a picture below to give you an idea what we are talking about. All upper case letters are considered giraffe letters, they touch the sky go through the grass and touch the dirt. Lower case giraffe letters are b, d, f, h, k, l, and t) Lady bug letters are between the grass and the dirt, they are a,c,e, i, m,n o, r, s, u,v,w and z) monkey letters hang low into the dirt they are g, j, p, q, and y) When correcting the kids printing I usually refer to flyers and sinkers. Flyers go above the sky line, like they are jumping off the page and sinkers drop down below the dirt like a hook going into the ocean. We use this when writing in both french and English. 

In math, we are looking at patterns. They students are learning how to represent, copy, prolong and change existing patterns. We have been working on identifying the heart or sections of patterns. They are doing great. I encourage them to try to challenge themselves by making different styles of patterns. They tend to stick with AB, AB, AB (red, blue,red,blue...) using only 2 objects. You can practice this at home. We continue to work on printing our numbers correctly and in the right direction. I have noticed several students are reversing their numbers. Extra practice will help with this. 

Science, we are learning all about colors. This weeks focus is on primary colors and what happens when we mix them together. Students will be required to identify what happens when you mix the primary colors together. (red+blue=purple, red+yellow=orange, blue+yellow=green) they will have to be able to read the french words for these colors on an upcoming quiz (in a couple of weeks) 
Rouge-red
blue-bleu
jaune-yellow
vert- green
purple-violet

Religion we have been talking about our names and the creation story. We will continue to share why we were named our names. Students will also learn about the different types of family we have in our lives. 

English, students are learning letter sounds with the help of sign language. I sent home a paper for them to practice the letter sounds. This week we are focusing on the vowel sound i. Vowels have long and short sounds. Below are two links to help with vowel i sounds. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_gJVJvOA3Q

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZRXi7Hwfziw

We are also learning about beginning sounds of words and how to listen for them when attempting to spell new words or read a word. 

That is all for now. Thanks for sending in the seat sacks once you get them! Once I have everyone's I will start to pass out literacy and math centers along with reading packs for in class reading. The students have come home with their new words on their pant chip rings today. If your child did not have their ring today, you can find their new words in their courier bag. 
September scholastic orders are due friday september 24. Please submit your online orders. 
Enjoy the week everyone! Sending you all positive warm vibes for the week! 
LA
Ps sorry this is the wrong way! 

Welcome to the team!

Hi Everyone,
Bienvenue en premiere annee! Welcome to grade one and this new adventure! I am so happy to have your child in my class. We are off to a great start despite all the changes. They are understanding and patient! Everyone seems eager to learn and have fun! We are still getting to know each other and are working on developing class routine and rules. We have 19 students on our team this year. 

I have had the pleasure of teaching some of your children before and working alongside of you, so you know how I roll. I hope to keep that flow going even in this strange time! For those of you who do not know me here is a little snippet of who will be teaching your child this year. I have been at Holy Name now for many years...8 maybe more!  I am proudly from PEI and go home every chance I get. Before moving to Calgary I taught on the island for two years at the same school I went to as a child. I have a 2.5 year old daughter named Winnie and my husband is Mike, also from PEI, which I am sure you will meet or hear about. I absolutely love teaching this age group! Everyday is a new adventure and the progress you see over the course of the year is amazing. I like to think of us as a team and we need to support each other. If you ever need anything or have any questions do not hesitate to contact me. You can do so through email or by calling the school. 

At the beginning of each month I try to give you the run down on what your child will be learning that month in most subjects. On the blog you will find weekly sight words in both English and French, sounds of the week, French sentences and expressions we are working on. These will be posted weekly. You can also find them on google classroom. Please take the time to review with your child. There is also a list of French websites you can explore with your child and play games. http://ici.radio-canada.ca/jeunesse/jeregarde/ is a great website to watch French cartoons, to help your child develop listening skills in French. They also have games to play. https://www.tfo.org/en/videos/minitfo is good too. You can also find suggested sites on google classroom. 

I hope that your child is adjusting well to the new routine. I know some of them must seem a little tired when they got home, seeing that they are not use to a full day of school and well haven't been in school since March. I too am completely beat and have been in bed most nights at 8:30! 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.

Have a great week! 
LA

Reminders:
Please fill out and return demographic forms: Due Friday September 11
Send in 3 dollarama courier bags: Due Monday September 14
Seat sacks: Due anytime
Parent teacher meet and greet September 17.

Happy March!

Hi everyone,
I hope all is well. I am looking forward to longer days and warmer weather! Thanks for all your help with the traps, they look great! We will present some this week and the rest will be next week.
This month in class students will be learning about different methods of transportation in French. This ties in great with our Science of building things and well as our new Math unit on geometry and measurement. We will focus on transportation that rolls, floats and fly's.

Seeing that the month of March is all about travel and how to get around, every year our class asks friends and family from around the world to mail us a postcard with some fun facts of where they are from. Some things they can included on the postcard is the language spoken, the climate, animals, food, population or anything they feel is neat to share. In the past we have received packages with an Australian flag, maps of the country another time we got stickers and a travel brochure. They kids love learning different parts of the world and how we are all connected. Once we receive the postcards we look the place up in the map and globe, discuss how we would travel there and compare their country, province or so on with our own. This is where we need your help to send out a note to your friends and family far and wide to send us postcards. They can send it to the following address.
La classe de Mme Laurie Anne
Holy Name School
3011 35 street SW
Calgary Alberta
T3E 2Y6

In Math, we continue to work on numbers 0-100 in French as well as skip counting by 2,5 and 10. We will also start our geometry and measurement unit. Students will learn the differences of 2D and 3D shapes and how to classify them based on characteristics. Some keys words they will learn are empiler (stack), rouler (role) and glisser (slide). It would be a great help if you could practice counting in French 0-100 and skip counting by 2,5 and 10. If you wish to continue working on addition and subtraction problems, your child can work on writing story problems.

Science, we will continue to learn about the four seasons as well as building things. In our seasons unit students have been learning about hibernations and migration. We have also been learning about what happens to animals and plants during each season and the changes they go through.

In social studies, we have started to explore the differences and similarities between country (rural/ champagne) and city (urbain/ville) living. We will also be learning about all the provinces and territories in Canada as well as cardinal direction.

In English, students have started to learn word families and blends. We have been working on writing sentences with best try spelling. We have started to look at the different parts of a story (beginning, middle and end) Students have also been working on their comprehension skills by making story predictions, retelling the story in detail and answering the 5 w's (who, what, when, where, why and how). We will begin writing our own short stories with a focus on including beginning, middle and end.

Youth singers have started this week. I have sent home the lyrics to their song to practice. They will present on Friday at 2:00 in the gym. You are welcome to attend. I would get there early to get a good view.

St. Patricks day is next week, students are welcome to dress in green or as a leprechaun if they wish.

Next week we have parent teacher however this time around they are student lead. This means that you and 3 other students along with their child will be in the room with you. The students will take you around to centers and show you what they are learning or what they have learned already. I will be in the room, however I will not be able to chat about your child progress, seeing that there will be others in the room. If you have concerns feel free to meet me at another date and time. Interviews are the evening of Wednesday March 18th and all day Thursday March 19th. There is no school on Friday March 20th, teachers have PD.

This is all I can think of at the moment. I hope all is well.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year everyone! Wishing you all a healthy, adventurous 2020 filled with endless love, laughter and new memories. Thank you all for the Christmas wishes and gifts. I hope the break was relaxing and you all had the chance to enjoy each other.
We are in full swing and right back to normal life here in grade one. This month the students are learning all about clothing and winter activities. We will tie it in with our science unit as well which is seasonal changes. With different seasons comes different clothing, different activities. In French, students are also learning more about nouns, verbs, adverbs and adjectives. We are learning how to identify feminine, masculine, singular and plural words. Students have been working on writing a more complex sentence by adding details, such as color or plural words.

We have finished up our Science unit on our 5 senses and are learning about seasonal changes. Students will learn the reason for the seasons, by looking at migration, hibernation, how animals prepare, what do plants do and so on.

In Social studies, we continue to learn about our rights and responsibilities at school, home, in our groups and around our community. We will also start to learn more about the city we live in and the differences between urban and rural living.

Math, we continue to work on addition up to 12 and will start subtraction this week. Students should continue to work on skip counting by 2, 5 and 10 as well as identifying numbers our of sequence up to 100. In the coming weeks we will take a break from addition/subtraction to work on measurement. I encourage you to continue working on addition/subtraction problems at home. 

Health, we are learning about how to stay healthy by exercising, eating healthy foods and staying hydrated. Students will explore the Canadian food guide. We are also learning how to be a good friend and learning how to identify emotions and feelings in a positive manner.

I have created a sign up genius looking for volunteers to come in and read with small groups of students in either French or English. You can sign up for one day or many. So far I have included January, February and March. If you are interested you can copy the link below and sign up. 

https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10c0c4aa5a923a0fe3-weekly

February scholastic orders will be coming home, hopefully this week. Please have your orders in by Monday Feb 3. The Club de lecture has Mes dictee 1re annee for 10.50, not sure what it would be like but it might be good to grab as extra French practice at home if you are looking for anything. 

The 100th day of school is on February 20th! I cant believe that we are there already! We will have a day of celebration. Students are can dress up as 100 year olds or wear a shirt with 100 items attached to it. In years past we have had parent volunteers come in and do centers based on 100 day activities. Pinterest has a lot of fun options.  Students are also allowed to bring in a healthy treat to celebrate the day. Look for the email coming soon from our parent rep!

We have started guided reading and literacy centers. They are going well and we are slowly getting the hang of it. We have also started a reading incentive in class. Students start out with sight words grouped in colors. There are 9 colors in total. Once students finish their list, the get a prize and move onto the next challenge which is sentences using all the words they just mastered. Once they finish these sentences they will move onto sentences using French phoneme like oi, ou, on and so on.
This has been a real hit and I cant seem to keep up with the demand to read their words to me! I love it!

This week I will be starting reading evaluations to see where your child is at for their French reading. This usually takes a couple of weeks. Please be sure to practice their sight words and to continue reading daily. 

In line skating starts next week, students are asked to bring their helmets to school. Our class goes Monday morning, first thing, Tuesday 11am, Wednesday 10:15am, Thursday 12:45 pm and Friday 2:15.

Our class will be helping Mme Teresa's class with their valentine project in the next couple of weeks. Once I know more details I will pass them along.

I think this is all for now. I hope you all have a fabulous week.

Laurie Anne :)