Get ready for Art!

Don't forget to be on time for our art workshop tomorrow. It begins promptly at 9:00. Wear an old shirt just in case we get messy!

Construction time!

Here are some pictures from our construction period today. We made shapes using various materials (plastic straws, paper straws, wooden popsicle sticks, pipe-cleaners) and then attached them using clay or glue to make 3-D structures. They were quite delicate, and most did not make it home in one piece, however they can easily be reassembled, and you have the following photos to refer to for the original design! In this activity, students combined their knowledge of shapes with what they have learned about different materials and how to make a strong structure. Thank you to our visiting maman for helping so many of us with our structures!

Art Workshop #1

Hello parents,

We had our first art workshop on Thursday morning. Everybody made it to school in time to start the first activity. Let's see if we can be even MORE on time this upcoming Thursday!

As it turns out, we will be making a few different projects, not one big one as I first thought. Our first project is a city collage. The paper we are using to make the very striking collages is interesting in itself because we experimented with graphite and did some graphite and crayon rubbings using tons of everyday materials, and are cutting our pieces out of this. It's really neat how Donnely introduces us to so many techniques and materials in just one session and they come together to make a really cool piece. Here are some photos of the workshop.

For tomorrow

Ask your child what we need to do in order to be prepared for our art workshop tomorrow!

We have already cleared off our desks and passed out the name tags. Your children should tell you that they need to be ON TIME for school in the morning, and that they should wear something that can get dirty (i.e., not a white shirt). Thanks! This will be happening for the next 6 Thursdays, so mark your calendars!

Also, in my previous post I forgot to list this week's words:

vendredi, au, vous allez, ce, la classe, pas, non

In class, we have started looking for the sound 'on', as in "non" (above). Listen carefully to the difference between 'an' or 'en' (as in "dans") and the rounder, closed 'on' sound in "non". It's very subtle, but I think everyone saw and heard the difference when we tried this in class. Learning what sounds look like is coming in very handy when we sound out words in our writing - something we are doing more and more - so keep practising!!

As I mentioned, we went to see two short shows in Mme Morgenstern's class today. One was called Le renard et la petite poule, about a little chicken that keeps tricking the fox trying to catch her. The other was called Bonne nuit Gabou about a girl who can't fall asleep and keeps bothering her mother with the words, "Maman, je ne peux pas dormir!" and never ending requests. Please ask your child to tell you about these shows!

I was very impressed with our audience behaviour this afternoon, both during the show, and when walking past the other areas on the way. Bravo tout le monde!

Geometry meets Art

Hello parents,

Thank you for all your help with the Special Moments homework. We haven't had a chance to sound out our captions yet, but we will get to that soon and I can't wait to display this special work.

Last week we finished our Broken Hearts. We used grey and white oil pastels over top of our base colours to create shadows. Ask your artist how they knew where to colour. I have had several comments from other teachers on how beautiful the hearts are, and how great the level of work is for grade one! Yay!

This Thursday is our first work shop with artist Donnely Smallwood. Over the course of the next 6 weeks, we will be learning about lots of great techniques and materials and, I think, putting several different pieces together to form a sculpture. I'll keep you up to date with what we're making. Please do your very best to be on time for school this, and every, Thursday. I understand that mornings are crazy, but our workshops are from 9:00 am - 10:45 am, and I don't want students to miss valuable instructions and demonstrations with our expert. 

In math, as you know we've been working on identifying 2-dimensional shapes. We have created a chart with the basic shapes that I expect every student to know (circle, square, triangle and rectangle) and can refer to this to check number of sides and how to spell the French name. However, in making our matching game cards, and in working with pattern blocks, many children have been starting to remember the names for shapes with 5, 6, and 8 sides, and even some other 4-sided shapes, such as diamonds. You can help your child review these shapes at home by playing the matching game, or building shapes out of toothpicks. Here are a few pictures of when we played the matching game in class!

This week, we have been using shapes to build pictures. For example, today we all made flowers out of pattern blocks, traced them and coloured them in. They are gorgeous! We have also done the opposite, used large shapes to fill in puzzles ranging from simple (every shape completely outlined) to quite complex (no interior lines). Tomorrow's challenge will be to colour in a design that I've made based on a colour-shape legend (kind of like a paint-by-numbers). In order to do this, students will need to recognise the 4 basic shapes that I mentioned, and will need to find shapes within other shapes. I think they'll like the activity. Later this year, we will continue with geometry and look at 3-D shapes, but for now, I think we're almost done and we will move on soon to Measurement.

In science, we have been doing our Lego experiments every day, each one adding to our knowledge of what makes a structure strong and stable. Children have really been drawing on their personal experiences to suggest improvements to our structures, or suggest where they have seen examples of these concepts in real life. A few days ago we did the experiment pictured below. We built two walls, one with bricks stacked directly on top of one another, and the other with the bricks overlapping. We discovered that the bricks that overlapped each other were much stronger and didn't fall over right away when we rolled a ball at them. Then we noticed that the walls in our own school are built that way!

Here are some of our strong walls!

Then... I discovered THIS in the subway station...

Hmmm... I haven't shown the scientists yet, so go ahead and ask them what they think!

In French, we are starting to get to the end of our "How to eat a gingerbread man" instructions. For those students who are already finished, I have been encouraging them to check their work to see if there are any words they can correct. I think it is well understood that I love that the writers try their best to sound out, and make mistakes. I don't want to discourage this at all. But at the same time, I want students to know that there are resources they can use to make their writing even better. Students have already suggested looking in our self-made dictionaries and at the sound wall. Fantastic ideas! I've also suggested a couple posters that we have in the classroom. Keeping up with the words of the week will also give students a great jumping off point for sounding out.
You may wish to take a minute to talk about the writing process, and how you proof-read letters, emails, reports and memos that you write. It's important to me that children value this step and take the time to do it carefully. I have overheard a couple discoveries ("Ohhh, there's a silent E on tête!"). Love it!

Hopefully this gives you lots to talk about!
Tamara

(Oh, and tomorrow we're going to see a show put on by Mme Morgenstern's class. Ask about that too!)