Hello April!

 Hello! Hope you enjoyed the sunshine. Soo looking forward to the change! We got out and did a hike through Green Gables. If you haven't yet, give it a whirl, short trails and you get to see the house without the tourist! The homestead trail is also good in Cavendish! 

We will review feelings this week and start into our spring unit. Students will learn new spring vocabulary I will post the words to the google classroom for you to print off and go over.  We will also twin spring with Easter in the coming weeks. 

In French we have been really working on our sight words and French sounds. I will also attach those sounds and songs that go with the sounds to the classroom. Students are very motivated to learn their words and move up. Its great to see them succeed and so engaged in an activity. We are working also on the meaning of those words, seeing that they are great at recognizing the words but don't always remember the meaning. I will be starting guided reading in class during literacy centers. Working with small groups to develop their reading strategies and French comprehension, so this should help more. Once we read a book together I will be sending it home in their reading package to work on during the week. There is a sheet explaining what to do in the duo-tang that will be coming home. Dont worry about not know how to read the words or helping them out. As long as you sit with them and listen that is all the need, your support, your interest and encouragement. Do not make this any longer that 15 minutes and if its not working set it aside and come back to it at another time. If you have any questions feel free to ask away. Here is a link to the song we have been singing in class.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1kq88XtHOEA

In Math, we continue to work on numbers 1-10 in French. Students are getting great at recognizing numbers in a 10 frame. We will start to look at simple addition and focus on how to use a number line. New vocabulary is apres (after), avant ( before) I have been showing them a number and asking what is after the number or before. I also point out that apres is 1 more (1 de plus) avant is 1 less (1 de moins). This is a concept they will learn more about in grade 1. We have been trying to play lots of card games and other counting games in class. Keep working on number formation and mastering those skills as we get higher counting sometimes students will reverse 12 into 21 so catching it now will help. Here is a link that I use from time to time to get ideas. 
https://www.kindergartenworksheetsandgames.com/free-kindergarten-math-games/

I also use this A LOT in the summer months with Winnie to keep us busy. They have some fun ideas and is simple click to print. It also has alot of different subject areas, no French though:(
https://www.123homeschool4me.com/home-school-free-printables/

Enjoy the week! 
LA

Update!

 Well the year was 1776 since I last posted. I hope you have all been keeping well these past months. Time is going fast and with each day we are learning so much in class. The students have started to show more confidence and their fun personalities. Looking forward to the next couple weeks when the weather changes and moods lift! 

In the next couple of weeks we will be really focusing on developing our reading skills, through play, games and lots of practice with our weekly sight words. Please review the paint chip sight words daily if you can and be sure to send them back in each day as we use them in class. Students also have colored sight word list in their reading packs that we read in class. With each colored list they master ( saying the sight words with no support) they get a prize and move up to the next level. This has really motivated them! They also get prizes for reading 6 paint chip cards at a time. They also have to master the words without support. These words are the ones that they will most frequently see in their reading books. 

I have added 4 colored list to the google classroom and recorded myself going over them for you. They can be printed off and put on a ring at home also. Here is the link. Let me know if you have any questions. 

https://classroom.google.com/w/MzIwOTQxMzQ2MzM4/tc/NDcxNjExMzk1NjY0

I hope to send home a nightly reading pack in the next couple of weeks. Once I have them all prepared I will let you know. 

For those wanting to get a head start on reading with your child I sent home Scholastics orders before March break with a couple of reading pack suggestions for their starting level. Here are the links to some of the collections if you wanted to search. My code is RC183490

https://classroomessentials.scholastic.ca/en/-collection-je-lis-mes-mots-outils---s%C3%A9rie-2-/2263515-cec-ca.html

https://classroomessentials.scholastic.ca/en/-collection-je-lis%21-sciences-%3A-animaux---s%C3%A9rie-1-/2555699-cec-ca.html?rrec=true 

https://classroomessentials.scholastic.ca/en/-bo%C3%AEte-%C3%A0-lecture-%3A-animaux-%C3%A9patants-/3571545-cec-ca.html#q=boite%2Ba%2Blecture&prefn1=itemType-cec-ca&prefv1=N&start=1

In Math, we continue to learn about numbers 1-10. We have started to break numbers apart using vocabulary (part, part, whole) You can work on this at home by giving your child a number, having them represent the number with manipulatives then breaking it into two parts. (3 and 5 makes 8) This is getting them ready for addition problems. Another way to help them progress is to work on their number formation. Some students continue to have reversals, extra practice would help them. Working on number recognition through play is a great way to help them. Here is a link that you can skim over and play games using a deck of cards. 
https://kidpillar.com/easy-math-card-games-for-kids/

We have also started working on writing simple sentences using punctuation, proper letter sizing, following a line of print and spacing. Once we get the hang of this we will try to write little stories using repetitive text such as Je vois un oiseau. Je vois une fleur.....For those who are reading can add more details like colors, size, numbers. You can add this to a nightly practice activity using some sight words. 

We have library on Friday March 25th. 
I believe that is all for now. Take care and enjoy the week. 
Laurie Anne :)

Short Week

 Hi everyone,
I hope you all had a fabulous week and a productive week end. The weather has been amazing! I hope it keeps up into the weeks to come. 
Next week is a short week for us seeing that it is only 3 days. It will be a very busy one here at Spring Park. We will celebrate Diversity week starting the week off with wearing orange shirts on Monday to show our support. If your child does not have an orange shirt they are encouraged to wear anything they have that is orange to show their support. On Monday our class will participate in a drum circle happening in the afternoon. Friday we listened to a drum circle on youtube. Through out the week we will read stories and do activities to further our learning. 

Our school wide Terry Fox run will be happening through out the day on Wednesday. Our class cohort will take the last slot of the day before heading home. Please be sure to check the weather for the day and dress them accordingly. The school will be collecting 1$ donation for the Terry Fox foundation. If you wish to donate please send in money on or before Wednesday. Any donation is excepted! Terry Fox always sparks a lot of conversation, feelings and emotions. It would be great if you spoke with your child about him and his journey to get them ready for the special day. 
Here are a couple of links you can watch as a family to get ready for the day. 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4FaYghR63LI Terry Fox and Me
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3BzyHYZgMz8&t=1s - Terry Fox, Anything is possible
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g1HheJV-pNM - Never give up on a dream-Rod Stewart 

Wednesday September 29 is library. The librarian has asked that the books be
returned the day before library. Please return books on Tuesday September 28 if your child has not already returned them. 

Friday your child went home with a yellow song duo tang. They will share their songs with you. We aren't great lol but we are working on it! I will attach a link to the last song in the duo tang to help you out. Please be sure to return Monday as we will continue to practice together. 
https://youtu.be/gBhTOkGr6_c?list=PL2flOGWRc8bh1UbG6G_r0lkpq07qh1UuN

I will be sending home new Jolly phonic practice sheets on Monday (c,e,x,n,l) We will keep these letters for an extra week seeing that we only have 3 days to cover them. The dark blue duo tang can stay home. Please take it out of the blue bag if you have not yet. When checking the agenda also please be sure to sign it daily. This lets me know you are looking at it, just in case a message has been put in there. If you have not paid your school fees yet this is a friendly reminder to please do so. You can pay the office $45.00. 

We will be having two nursing students join us in class over the next couple of weeks to observe the students. A letter went home the other day from the Nursing department, you can find out more there. Please sign this form and return by September 29. Students are asked to bring a Teddy bear for October 7th. I will send a reminder closer to that date. Please do not forget to send your child with forks/spoons. I do not have any in the class to pass out so some have been creative lately trying to eat their lunches and snacks. 

We will be learning all about apples this week. One of our projects will be to make apple sauce in class if time is in our favor. Could you please send in a plastic bowl and spoon in a ziplock bag with your child's name on it for Monday. 

Thats all for now. Hope a great week! 

Reminder:
No school thursday or Friday.
Terry Fox Wednesday- Bring $1 donation
Drum Circle and Orange shirt day Monday- Wear orange.
Library book return tuesday-Library class wednesday. 
School Fees due
Teddy Bear Clinic forms due Wednesday
Return yellow song duo tang Monday. 

Welcome to Maternelle!

 Hello everyone! 
Welcome to the exciting world of Maternelle! It will be a fabulous year of learning together! This is my first year teaching kindergarten however, I have taught grade 1 French immersion for over 10 years. I love this age for so many reasons! I am looking forward to meeting you all and working along side you as we watch your child grow both socially and academically! 

Just in case you wanted to know a little about me. I am from PEI and went through the French Immersion program in Summerside. I taught at Greenfield Elementary for a couple of years before I moved to Calgary. I taught grade two then back to grade one until this past June, when we decided to move our little family home to this beautiful island. Our daughter Winnie loves being here and going to see her grandparents and the beach! You will hear a lot of stories am sure of our adventures! 

Here is a little break down of what we will be learning. This month in class we will focus on routine, following instructions, how to play in large and small groups along with new French vocabulary focusing on school supplies this month. This week in class we are learning letters sounds and names for "m","i","a", and "t". We covered "s" last week. Every Friday we will review the letter sounds. You can help your childs' progression by reviewing with them and going over the Jolly phonics duo tang that will be sent home. We have also been working on pencil grasp and following a line of print. This is something we will continue to work on over the months to come. In class we teach and cover many subjects cross-curricular our main focus is on literacy and numeracy. 

In math, students are learning about patterns. They must know how to make a pattern using different attributes (ab, ab, ab/ aab, aab, aab/ abc,abc,abc.....) We have talked about how a pattern can be different sizes, have different colors, shapes, objects but patterns must repeat 3 times to make it a pattern. In French, patterns are called, les regularites. We will also be counting to 10 in French. Students will be working in math centers also this week, focusing on representing numbers with objects, recreating patterns, and counting.

In Science, we are learning about colors. Students will learn the name of colors in French. So far we have talked about the primary colors (rouge, jaune et bleu). This week they will do some experiments mixing these colors to find out what will happen. (Making secondary colors) 

In health, we will be learning about germs and how to properly wash our hands! In social studies, students will be learning about the meaning of identity, what makes us unique and what talents do we all have.

Students will also have the opportunity to develop their fine motor skills by participating in cutting, hole punch, pin push, tweezer centers this week. 

The students will take home their song duo tang Friday.  They will take it home every Friday and return it on Monday as we will be adding new songs each week.  This week we will focused on two songs and am sure they will love to sing these to you! Here are some links to songs we are singing in class. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NXn5BFye360&t=20s -Bonjour, comment ca va?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-4kNeFGBAcw- Les couleurs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=atNkI6QFZ50 -Bonjour, bonjour!

Students will have their first library day on Tuesday, day 5. They are to return their library book in a extra-large ziplock bag labelled with their name please. 

We are practicing in class Bonjour! Je m'appelle________. Hi! My name is _____. Comment ca va? How are you? Ca va bien. I am good. Ca va comme-ci, comme-ca. I am OK. Ca va mal. I am not good or I feel bad. It can mean many different feelings.  You can practice these at home with your child! 


I think that's all for now. 

Have a great week! Enjoy the sunshine! 
Mme Laurie-Anne

March sunshine!

 Happy March everyone! Looking forward to warmer weather and new possibilities in the weeks to come! I love the longer evening also. I hope you are all well and keeping busy. 

This month in class we are learning about modes of transportation in French. Students will learn to classify these methods of transport based on their ability to roll (roule), fly (vole) or float (flotte). We have been playing games using the French word wall, this is something you can also do at home with their sight words. You can have your child find words that have 1,2,3 or more syllables, find a word with 1,2,3 consonants, find a word that rhymes with.... find a word that has 1,2,3..vowels, find a word that has 2,3,4.... letters, find a word that starts with/ends with...these are just a few examples. This can also be done in both French and English. We will start to focus more on French rhyming words, paying closer attention to punctuation and reading with expression. 

In Math, student have started their geometry unit, learning about 2D and 3D shapes. Students will learn how to group shapes together by similar characteristics. As we work on this unit we will continue to practice skip counting by 2, 5 and 10 up to 100 in French. It would be a benefit if your child continued practicing addition and subtraction facts. Their last unit will be on addition and subtraction up to 20. Here is a website if you wanted to print off some worksheets.
https://www.k5learning.com/free-math-worksheets/first-grade-1/addition

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

https://www.k5learning.com/free-math-worksheets/first-grade-1/number-charts  ** This one is great has skip counting, fill in the blanks.

Our Science unit this month is on building things. Students will learn about different building materials and we will have building different things in class. This is a short unit. Students will build a leprechaun trap at home and present it in class. On the google classroom you will find a link to vocabulary that they can use to present their project. It has to be done in French. They can write it out if they want to. They can use this structure....Voici mon piege de farfadet. Pour construire cet piège j'ai utilisé ......Le farfadet .....(grimper, sauter, tomber, jouer...) They can also use geometry vocabulary by describing the shapes of items used ( La boite est un carré.)  They are encouraged to use all the French vocabulary they know. (size, color, shape) All projects are due Monday march 15th. We will start to present monday. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F9oysYLGXCY Bill Nye- Structures

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=31eBdgnPsCo _Rosie Revere engineer read aloud

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LdKTCtypLlw- How to catch a leprechaun read aloud
 
Social studies, we continue to learn about urban and rural living. Students are also starting to learn about Canada's 10 provinces and 3 territories. We will learn a little about cardinal direction (North, South, East, West). 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QBQ5ZhHlkkY  Provinces and Territories song ( its unique lol)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NR7z9FbUf5k Urban/rural explanation

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WlW7W92YUZI Country mouse-City mouse in French

In English, we are working on writing simple sentences to tell a story or to answer questions being asked. We continue to work on blends and word families as well as different reading strategies such as when two vowels go walking the first one does the talking. We have also learned about bossy e or silent e. We have started to make story predictions, retelling the story with details and reviewing the 5 w's (who, what, when, where, why and how) to help with comprehension. This is something you can work on at home as well when reading bedtime stories or even asking them about their day! 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7fb3Pdt8kxg -When two vowels go walking

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GdmcWQCbqY8 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NBP-AW29YDk -Bossy e


On St. Patrick's day students can wear green or dress up as a leprechaun. We have no school on friday march 19th seeing that it is a PD day for teachers. 
Mme Teresa's grade one class is collecting no perishable food items for St.Vincent de Paul all month. If you have the ability to donate a little something they would be grateful for your help. 
Thank you for filling out the reading package dup tang with book titles and levels. I usually come in on a sunday and exchange them and having them filled out makes exchanging them so much smoother!
 If you find yourself at home depot near the paint sample department ;) feel free to grab our class some paint chips. 
I believe that's all i have for now.
Laurie Anne 

February is upon us, can you feel the love?

 Happy February everyone! This is a short month seeing that we have family day and teacher conference in the next couple of weeks. It was great meeting with you last week during parent teachers. Thank you for your on going support at home and in school. 

This month, the students will be learning about La maison, the house. They will learn the names of the rooms in a house and the items that are found in each room. We will also be learning more about the importance of friendship all month long (l'amitie). This ties in with our health as well as religion unit. Also the month of February brings valentine's day, carnival and the 100 day of school! 

Valentines day this year will be done a little differently. Students have been asked to bring their valentines in on Friday Feb 5th. They do not have to be personalized, if you have already done so that is OK, as long as your child is able to read the name. The valentines will sit over the week end and be delivered the following week. We have 13 girls in our class and 7 boys. The students want to have a little celebration If you wish to send in a valentine treat ( individually packaged for 20 students) on Monday Feb 8th our class will have the celebration in the afternoon. 
Boys- Owen, Carter, Lincoln, Miles, Gerry, Richard, Leo
Girls- Corrie, Claire.B, Yohana, Emma-Lee, Isla, Itohan, Ella, Millie, Dahlia, Samara, Charlotte, Tenley, Claire.M, 

The week of Feb 8- 10 the school will be celebrating Quebec carnaval. There will be activities planned over the 3 days of school. The teachers will be dressing in plaid shirts all week, the students are welcome to join in. 

There will be no school Thursday Feb 11, Friday Feb 12 due to teacher convention. There is also no school on mon Feb 15 because it is family day. 

The 100th day of school this year falls on Wednesday February 24. We will have a day of activities in class. Our class has the choice to dress up as a 100 year old person or wear a t-shirt with 100 items attached. Pinterest has some great ideas if you are stuck. I attached 2 links below. 

    https://www.pinterest.ca/pin/36169603238415111/   t-shirt ideas

https://www.pinterest.ca/pin/36169603238415111/  100 year old costume ideas

I hope the reading packs have been going well. Please remember to fill out the yellow duo-tang with your child's first try at reading the book. You do not need to log it every time they read the book to you.  Please be sure to send the reading pack back on Thursday's. When returning the packs please check to make sure everything is in there. 2 white paper books (2 french, 2 english), yellow duo tang filled out, ziplock bag with 1 oui, oui, oui book, 1 CD, 1 pack of matching game (usually 24 pieces). All these items must be in the pack in order to get new books for the following week. If you have any questions please let me know. 

We continue to work on French phonemes. Your child will start to come home with colored lists focusing on specific French sounds. This week they went home with the sound "on". I also included a games bundle that you can keep at home and play with your child. If you want to make them reusable, put the pages into a page protector or even a Ziploc bag and use a dry erase marker to play.  If you do not speak French and are unsure of how to pronounce the words, please use the virtual classroom and listen to the recordings. 
In French, we are working on singular and plural words as well as identifying if a word is feminine or masculine by looking at the determinant. The students are starting to recognize that if a word has la, ma, sa, ta, une it is feminine and if it has le, ton, mon, son, un it is masculine. We have also been  working on writing sentences in the correct structure. This is something you can practice at home. For example: chat, un, grand, Je, vois, noir. Correct way Je vois un grand chat noir. They practice reading the words over again and start to pick up on how the French sentence structure sounds. 

Math, we are working on numbers 0-100 in French. We will continue this throughout the school year as well as counting by 2, 5 and 10. Here are some links to help practice skip counting in French.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UKkA5MdULcA - Par 2

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0oozeIkCHcI -Par 5

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aqvgZIQ0zJo  Par 10

We have been working on identifying place value with a focus on tens and ones. Here are some helpful links to review- 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KDO6KfvS-Bk unite/dizaine

Once we are finished this unit the students will be learning about geometry and measurement. Here is a link to practice the names of shapes in french, students will be learning about 2D and 3D shapes.
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qI4zdx8vGnw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0XGEdRBzfM8

Science, we continue to learn about the seasons.
Social studies, we are finishing up learning about our rights and responsibilities and will be moving on to learning about the differences and similarities of urban and rural living. We will also learn more about Canada, the provinces and territories it is made up of.
Health, we are learning about what it means to be a good friend as well as how to keep our bodies healthy by eating right, getting enough rest, and staying active. 
English, we have started writing stories and will starting learning more about rhyming words. 

Our class has library this Thursday, please be sure to return their library books if they have not yet. 

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjFUgrwzuqiiTEmCWnXkqwg Has a lot of useful information that applies to the students, he can be a little dry but its full of good stuff. 
Have a great week.

 

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 :)

Count down is on!

Hi everyone,
I hope you are all well and getting into the swing of the Holidays that will be quickly upon us. December is a busy month at school but a fun one. Its one of my favorite times of year!
Students will be learning Christmas vocabulary in French. We have started to look at different parts of a sentence. 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, if you want to work on it at home. Some students continue to need work on following a line of print, letter sizing and correct formation. I believe they simply need to slow down.

In Math students are almost finished on their unit representing number 0-20. We will move onto simple addition and subtraction up to 12. A students will also start to skip count by 2, 5 and 10. Feel free to practice booth at home.

Science and health students are learning about their 5 senses and body parts. In the next couple of week we will focus on taste and smell. I have a couple of fun experiments planned. We will take a closer look at our taste buds and the different areas of our tongue that we taste certain things.

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.

English students continue to review vowel sounds long and short. More work is needed with short vowel sounds. Our class will write a letter to Santa, focusing on using complete sentences.

We continue to work on our Christmas song "Christmas on Planet Earth" By Lennie Gallant. It is coming along well. We do need more practice with the verse. Our Christmas concert is on Dec 18th at St. Michaels church. For the concert we ask that our students dress in their sunday best. For our song we will all be holding tea light candles (that will be provided). We are also the finale. Please let me know if you are able to attend or not.

Our class will also be selling candy canes again this year. This is a tradition for my class. I will be looking for volunteers to sell candy canes before and after the concert. It would be great also if some can sell during the concert. Usually my husband does this, but this year we have Winnie so I am not sure how this will look. If you can volunteer please let me know.
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. Since coming to Calgary, my class has 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 we are still coming up with a plan seeing that the concert is much later than usual  and I am unsure if I can pull the turkeys off. Our class will be collecting spare change from now until the Christmas concert.

We have parent teachers interviews Thursday night and all day Friday. Don't forget to sign up for a time on conference manager. https://holyname.schoolsoft.com/login.jsf  The scholastic book fair will be taking place during this time as well in the learning commons. Also Mattias in grade 5 will be collecting unwrapped toys to donate to the inn from the cold. These can also be dropped off in class if you want or during parent teacher interviews.

On Thursday Dec 5 we will have our first liturgy at 1pm. All is welcome to attend. Our second one will take place Dec 20, not sure of the time yet.

The last week of school before the holidays our class will be dressing up each day to make this LONG week more fun! This is optional, please participate if you wish.
Monday December 16- Christmas elves
Tuesday December 17- Christmas presents
Wednesday December 18- Santa, Mrs. Claus or a reindeer
Thursday December 19- Christmas trees
Friday December 20 - Angels

I was also hoping some parents would come in the last week and share their favorite Christmas stories and traditions with the class. If you are available the last week, let me know if you are interested.

Scholastics are Due Wednesady December 4. Let me know if I am to keep them as presents.

Also if you have any Christmas decorations your willing to part with our class would gladly add it to our collect. I seem to have lost a box when I was on my mat leave!

A lot of info here i think that's all for now.

Happy Halloween

HI everyone,
I hope the month of October has treated you all well. We are coming to an end, which is hard to believe. This month the students continue to learn about Halloween vocabulary. In the next couple of weeks we will be learning about the different parts of the body. This will also tie in with our new science unit on our 5 senses.

Our class will be celebrating Halloween on Tuesday October 29th. Students are allowed to dress up in their Halloween costumes. They are not allowed to wear masks or bring weapons. If their costumes required make-up they are asked to apply it at home. I am not permitted to re-apply. If they do not want to wear their costumes they are welcomed to wear black and orange. We will be having Halloween centers in the afternoon. If you wish to send in a fun, healthy snack for the students please feel free to do so. We will make this apart of our celebration. We have 3 volunteers so far but it would be great to have at least one more to make smaller groups. If you are interested please let me know or Nataly our classroom rep.

Wednesday our school will be celebrating Faith day. We have we have two guest joining us, Michael Chiasson and Joe Melendrez. You are welcome to join us from 9:00-10:30.

We have no school on Thursday October 31 as well as Friday November1. Seeing that teachers have a PD day and our own district Faith day.
Library Tuesday Oct 29th.
All reading packs are to be returned Monday. PLease be sure to also send sight words daily and practice them if you can. Your child will be evaluated on the first 6 weeks of school in both French and English.

In Math, we are  exploring numbers, different ways to represent numbers as well as associating numbers to their written form. Students are required to count from 0-20, 20-0 in French, identify these numbers out of sequence as well as represent them with manipulatives. Students have also been learning how to identify numbers in a ten frame. I give them 3 seconds to tell me the number....they are loving this!

Science, we have just started our 5 senses unit this week. We will work on this cross circularly with our new French vocabulary theme of Les parties du corps. STudents will learn how our senses keep us safe, allow us to experience many things such as good tastes, snuggly stuffies, fabulous music, delicious smells and so on. Students do not always realize that they are using their senses all the time. You can start to point these out to them!

In social studies we have been talking about the community we live in and the places we go in our community. Your child would benefit from having a chat about the community they belong too. A lot did not know where they actually lived. In the next couple of weeks we will look at the servies found in our community (school, police, fire station, hospital)

English, we have been looking at beginning, middle and ending sounds. We continue to need practice on identifying ending sounds. For example "what is the end sound in pick? Students say "ick" rather than "k". This is something simple you can do while driving to help them get better at identifying the final sounds. We will also be starting to look at writing simple sentences.

Welcome to Fall!

Happy Fall !
Sorry for the late post, time seems to be slipping away from me. It was great meeting a lot of you last week at Parent meet and greet. Thank you for taking the time to come and tell me about your child. I hope the last couple of weeks have been good and that your child is coming home with positive stories and sharing a little bit of what they are learning.

The month of September is almost over. I cant get over how fast it went. So far in class your child has been learning the French alphabet sounds. I teach the alphabet out of sequence, teaching the sound first then the letter name. This is also supported by using French Jolly phonic, which is hand jesters for each letter. You will be getting a navy blue duo-tang with each weeks letters, weekly in your child's reading package (this can stay home and sheets be added as you get them). The hand jesters are shown on each printing page. You will also find at the back of each weeks letter pack a sheet with letters, a word to match the letter and an image. These can be cut up and used to play a variety of different games, such as tic-tac-mot, war, memory and so on.
The students have also been learning the French terms for school supplies. We are working a individual booklets that they will take home and read to you once finished. The are also learning how to follow a line of print in the journals, focusing on sky, grass, dirt, ladybug, monkey and giraffe letters. Ask your child to explain these concepts to you, if you need more clarification feel free to drop me a line.

In Math, students have been focusing on patterning using different elements. We have been looking at AB, ABC, AAB, AABB, ABB type patterns. Students have also been working on prolonging patterns, grouping them together in segments and finishing patterns that are partially complete. We have also started to look at numbers 0-20 on a number line. Students are learning how to place numbers out of sequence from smallest to biggest as well as representing the numbers with manipulatives. You could continue to do this at home to help improve their understanding of place value. Students will have a quiz on Friday on what they have learned so far.

Science, students are learning all about colors, their names in French, what happens when you mix certain colors, the difference between opaque and transparent and so much more. We are having fun doing class experiments and have a couple more this coming week. For one of our experiments we are in need of a pair of white socks that will fit your child. If you could send in a pair labeled with your child's name on them for September 30th, it would be greatly appreciated.

In social studies, students are learning about their community and the importance of being apart of a group. They will be learning how to identify different groups in and around their community. You can help them by pointing out different clothing people wear (uniforms, cultural attire, sports jerseys), symbols (maple leaf, Calgary flames) and languages they hear. Students will also be asked to learn more about their family name and its origins.

We will be starting our health unit this week which focuses on proper hand washing techniques and proper hygiene. We will also talking about what it looks like to be a good friend.

English, students are learning the alphabet with the aid of sign language, much like Jolly phonics I find using a hand jester helps students to remember the sounds. It also will tie into our science unit on our five senses in the months to come.

Please be sure to send your child's sight words daily to school. I have started to review these words with each student. They should be sent in every Monday to put their new words on them. If you cannot find them, let me know and I will send home new cards.

I have a small favor, on Mondays could you please move your child's agenda marker (ruler) to the following week. This will save me a lot of time in the morning. Thanks!

Reading packages are being sent home. If you have not done so already, please send in a post dated cheque made out to Holy Name dated June 15,2020. This will be returned if all items have been returned or not lost. Attached in your child's agenda is their learn account. You can find the digital copy of the Oui,oui,oui reading program there.

For the month of October we will be learning about our family. Could you please send in individual pictures of each member of your family. You can send in grandparents also. It would be great to have these by October 2.


Reminders for this week:
Terry Fox Run Friday September 27 at 1:30 pm (rain or shine or SNOW!) The assembly starts at 1:30 all are welcome to attend.

I think that's all for now....Have a great week.
LA

Bye Bye May

Hi everyone,
I am happy to see the weather finally turning! We are on the final countdown it seems. Hard to believe. I am ready for summer but not to see these little darlings go. I will be looking for volunteers to help with classroom clean up the last two weeks of school, if you are available to help that would be lovely, just let me know.

The month of June is a busy one as you all know. In class we will be learning about the needs of plant and animals, the life cycle of plants, caterpillars and ducks. Students will have the chance to observe all these changes first hand. We have also been talking about the importance of bees and what we can do to protect them. Our fruits and veggies project is off to a great start. The kids are always excited to taste new things. Today we had apricots, which was a first for me too!

In French, we have started to write our own stories, we are learning more about syllables, how to spot plural and singular words and rhyming words. We will also be learning how to identify beginning and final sounds, place words in alphabetical order and learn about verbs/adjectives/nouns in both English and in French.
Math, we have started addition/subtraction up to 20 as well as identifying numbers 1-100 in French. Students continue to work on skip counting by 2,5 and 10. We still need a lot more practice on doing this in French as well as counting in French up to 100.

Science, we will explore the different habitat of animals, the life cycle, animal safety, the different classifications of animals, insects and much more.

Social Studies, we continue to chat about the differences of the past and present day. If any of you have pictures of your parents, grandparents wedding photos we would love to see them and compare them to photos taken today (clothing, color, hairstyles). Send yours along as well. We would also be happy to show any old photos you may have that shows how times have changed.

Health, we are learning about our emotions and feelings, how to identify how we feel, strategies to regulate, stay calm or help others when they maybe upset, frustrated or sad. We will also learn about bike safety, what is an emergency and when should we seek help of others. We will also be starting Kids in the know.

English, we continue to work on our story writing skills and using our imagination. We will start to look at nouns, verbs, and adjectives. Our sight words this week are homophones- two words that sounds the same, spelt differently and have different meanings. We will also look at compound words and bossy e.

Scholastics are due Friday May 31. This is our last order of the year. There are some French and English work books that you might find useful for your child to work on over the summer. Especially the French ones, seeing that they are harder to find. There are also 2$ deals on books in most of the order forms.

Butterflied acres is on Friday. Please be sure to dress your child for the weather. Bring sunscreen, hat, rainboots, water bottle, paper bag lunches are a little easier, just in case a lunch box is left behind. We will be leaving first thing in the morning, so please make sure you are here in time. The bus will not wait for anyone. If you are volunteering you still have to come to school with your child for attendance. I also have a package for you that you can pick up. We also need one person to take all the lunches boxes in their car if possible, seeing that the bus has little room.

May Ice cream reading challenge is due also on Friday. Please send those in when you can. I will send them back seeing that June is on the backside. Keep practicing sight words and French sentences if your child still has not had the chance to read with me.

SPCA is coming next Friday for a class visit. They are collecting used towels, flat sheets, blankets, food, toys.

Constable Hartman will be coming in to speak with the class in the month of June.