Jump Rope for Heart

Dear parents,

As you know, I am organizing Dewson's Jump Rope for Heart event this year, but I can't do it alone! In addition to teachers supporting their classes, I will need several parents who can help run skipping centres. Please don't feel pressured - I am happy to open this up to other parents in the school, however, you have all been so enthusiastic when it comes to volunteering, I thought I would begin by asking you.

We would need you Friday June 12th from 9:00am - 3:00pm (rain date is Monday the 15th). This is the day after Dewson Festival, so please consider that before committing to what will probably be another rather exhausting day! You will be outside and active for most of that time, so like the kids, you'll want to come prepared with sunscreen, a hat and a water bottle. In exchange for your time and energy, I think I can make sure that there are some light refreshments for you during lunch.
If you are only available for a half day, you can still volunteer. The more the merrier!

If the 12th is no good for you, but you would like to help, I could also use a couple parents the morning of June 4th. This is when the pledge envelopes are due, and we'll need to add up the money raised quickly before the Heart & Stroke representative arrives to collect everything.

Please let me know if you are able/willing to help in any way. Thanks in advance!
Tamara

Computer buddies

Hi parents,

Did I tell you? Hopefully you've heard that our grade 6 reading buddies have now become our computer buddies! With their help, we have learned how to keep our laptops awake, get to the Internet, type in the address of our class blog and click on an activity to do. We have been exploring the site "Il était deux fois" (under Language Links). It's a really neat site, and fits in with our work on story writing. With our reading buddies, we have to turn the sound off, but it is MUCH more fun with sound on. Please ask your computer wizard to show you how to use this site at home!

Also, May dictée is coming home today.

Change-up to Words of the Week

Hi there,

Thanks for the boxes, props for the plays, RSVPs and homework. The are still a few students who have not returned their homework (the green paper). They know who they are! Please ask your student if they need to finish their at-home research about their place in the community. We need this info for our write-ups!

I'm also still waiting for RSVPs from 6 families. Don't worry! They're not due until Friday. If you can't find the form, all the info can be found on the blog (you'll have to go back a few weeks) and you can just email me how many people would like to attend either in the morning or afternoon. Thanks.

We started our construction activity this afternoon. We are using all the large boxes as bases for building a castle, or other creation. Thanks to your donations throughout the year, we have lots of paper towel rolls, tiny boxes and Toblerone boxes to use. When it's all put together, we will label each box with it's mathematical name. Ask your mathematician how they know the difference between a prisme and a pyramide, and what other solid shapes they can identify!

Sentence Starters of the Week

For the final month of grade 1, we are going to focus on some basic grammar rules and verbs. This week we are going to solidify our knowledge of “j’ai” and “je suis”. We already had these words in previous dictées, so the spelling should be a review. We are now trying to use these words correctly in sentences. It helps to start orally - we usually can tell if something sounds right when we hear it.

Your student’s job is to come up with 4 more sentences for each sentence starter. Have your student write them in their cahier and show me their work by Monday!

Group performance of a couple of our songs.

Hula Hoop Contest

Congratulations to our two participants in the Hula Hoop Contest, and thanks to everyone else for coming out and supporting them with your baseball claps! (You'll have to ask about the 3 different claps we have.)

Today, the social skills rubric for May is coming home. We worked in groups to make some important props for our plays and during this activity we focused on staying with our group, listening to others' ideas and solving problems nicely by talking. Everyone did a super job, and the props look great! 

Don't forget to check with your child and the To-Do list at the left of this page for all the STUFF we're collecting right now. Thanks!

Things to do...

So, in addition to the community homework which is due Monday, we are collecting a few other things for immediate use at school.

We went through the list of all the props we need for our plays and almost every student has offered to bring in one or more items from home. We would like these items to come to school ASAP so that we can practice with them. We will be keeping everything at school until our concert on June 19th. If you cannot part with the object your actor wants to bring in, please just tell them no, and we will find a replacement. Also, ensure that your items are well labelled so that we can make sure they all go back to the right homes. Thanks!

For math, we now need that cereal box I was talking about a while ago. Other boxes would work as well but it's best if they are big and not too fat (pizza boxes would be good). This is going to be the base for a 3-D geometry project.

This afternoon, we began looking at 3-dimensional figures and shared our observations. For example, on a cylinder, we noticed two circles at the ends. On a cube, we noticed lots of squares. After analysing 5 different figures, each group created a poster with all the information we know about one shape. They also, without my asking, found lots of other objects in the class that shared their shape. This unit will be quite quick, but lots of fun!

One additional reminder that tomorrow morning is the hula hoop contest. We have two students entered in the contest and will be going out to support them. Hats and sunscreen would be good!

Have a great weekend,
Tamara

Homework

Hi parents,

Thanks for the birthday wishes!

We had a successful neighbourhood walk this afternoon and every student found and took a picture of the place in the community that they selected yesterday. As I mentioned in yesterday's post, each student is working on a little inquiry project based on this place. Today, everyone has a small green paper in their pochette for their at-home research. They are going to ask you why you think their location is important in our community. Please help them by giving them two reasons that they can write down in French. They will use this in order to complete their final project. We will be completing this project in the next week or so. Please ensure that all research sheets are back at school by Monday at the latest. This should only take around 10 minutes of your time. Thanks for your help!

Inquiry Project

As I mentioned, we are working on an inquiry project to do with our unit on communities. We have already done a lot of talking about what a community is and what is in one. We know that a community includes places for people to live, work, learn and play as well as people and places that help keep us safe. We have started looking at and reading maps and we have designed our own communities. Each student is now going to focus on one place in our community and dig a little deeper into what purpose it serves. Your researcher will be bringing home some questions to ask you to help with their project. They will also be looking for their place during our neighbourhood walk and taking a picture of it so that they can create a store-front picture to put on the College Street map we are building.
Ask your researcher what place in the community they are in charge of finding on our walk tomorrow!

Please ensure your researcher comes to school dressed for the weather. This includes sunscreen (already applied please), comfortable shoes for walking, a hat and a water bottle.

Words of the Week

Our final sound review for the year!

We have learned that many times, the final consonant on French words is silent, and normally this would be true in the word “allons”. However, when the final consonant is an s, and the next word begins with a vowel, we usually make a liaison. In other words, we use the s to connect the two words - it’s easier to say that way. This occurs here, in the phrase “allons-y” (=let’s go).

allons-y, crayon, continue, rond, un pont, foncé, long, onze, monde, ballon

Bonus words: ils font, ils vont

Elle est arrivée!

Salut mes amis,
Sadie est arrivée à la maison! Elle est toute petite et n'a pas fait un seul son depuis que je l'ai rencontré. Voici une photo:

À demain!
Mlle Mitchell

Symphony day!

Everyone looked lovely for our trip to Roy Thomson Hall this morning. It was really a great program featuring music from all over North and South America, and the French wasn't too difficult for the kids to understand. Yesterday we pre-listened to a few selections and we worked on finding the beat and dancing to it. We got out some instruments and kept the beat along with the song. Today, many students listened for the rhythm during the performance and danced along in their seats. We also brought masks we had made and wore them during one selection to celebrate a Brazilian Carnival. We also did a quick study of À la Claire Fontaine, and we sang along when it was time.

Ask your student what his/her favourite part was!

Remember, it's the long weekend - see you Tuesday!

More exciting things!

Dear families,

This week I am sending home notes about two more exciting events that are in the works.

For our current social studies unit on communities, we are planning a walk in our neighbourhood. This will take place next Wednesday, May 20th in the afternoon. As I have walking permission forms signed for every student, there is no additional form to fill out for this outing. If you have any concerns about your child joining us for this walk, please contact me.
During our walk, each student will be looking for a specific place in our neighbourhood (maybe a specific store, restaurant or park) and will be taking a picture of it. They will use this to help complete their portion of a class inquiry project. I'll explain a bit more at another time.

We are also extremely excited to announce that our class is preparing a concert and you are invited! We thought it would be really fun to share our plays with you before the end of the year, and also maybe show you what we've accomplished on the piano. Our concert will take place on Friday June 19th and we will present once in the morning and once in the afternoon so that we can accommodate all of you. An invitation with more details came home today. Please RSVP by May 29th so that we know how many guests to expect at each performance. Oh boy, we have a lot to do between now and the end of June!

This Friday is our trip to the symphony. Thanks to all the parents who volunteered to come with us. An incredible 75% of parents offered their help, and I was sorry to have to say no thanks to so many. If taking your children to see the TSO perform is of interest to you, please note that the TSO offers Young People's Concerts throughout their season. This is the last one for 2014-15, but keep checking their website for the 15-16 season. These concerts usually take place on Saturday afternoons and are designed for children aged 5-12 years. I don't remember very much from those years of my life, but I do have a very clear memory of being taken to Roy Thomson Hall and sitting close to the front when I must have been around grade 1 age. I remember I wore a green dress with pink roses on it and spent most of the time looking at my feet. It must have made an impression though, I ended up at music school! I hope the children enjoy this experience, and if so, I hope they are able to go again in the future!

We will leave around 9:30am Friday morning to make sure we are not rushed. Students will be leaving everything at school, including water bottles. We will have a snack before we leave and lunch as soon as we return. As I mentioned in the letter, it would be appropriate for us to dress nicely since this is a bit of a fancy venue. Putting on a nice outfit will likely help students to understand that this is a special experience and that their behaviour matters. I expect we will be some of the youngest students in attendance, but our plan is to show everyone else up with our preparedness and concert etiquette.

Monday you also received 2 notes about fundraising initiatives that are going on at Dewson. There have been a lot of different initiatives and causes that we have tried to support this year and we are lucky that we are able to learn about these causes and help others who are less fortunate. The experience of being charitable and understanding others' circumstances is valuable for the children, however we never want you to feel overwhelmed by the financial side of this. Please only give what you feel comfortable giving. There is no pressure on individual students to raise a specific amount of money. The Jump Rope for heart envelope is due June 4th, a week ahead of the event itself, which is June 12th. I am running this event this year and will put out another post shortly to invite you to be my number one helpers on this busy day!

Words of the Week

In our previous look at ‘ou’, we learned that “ou” means or. With an accent grave, it sounds the same, but the meaning changes. Now it means where or refers to a place.

“Je cours” (= I’m running) and “court” (masculine version of short) sound the same (both end with a silent letter). “Court” can also be part of the verb To Run, e.g., “Il court”.

où, nous, vous, la boue, la poule, août, 
le goûter, je cours, court, tout
Bonus words: fourchette, douze

Bonne Fête des Mères!

Happy Mother's Day to all of our lovely mamans! We hope you love the flower and the pot we decorated for you! We also wrote you a card, and you can be sure it was done with zero help from me (I was helping with the flowers).

This week we worked on measuring capacity by counting how many small cups of water it took to fill different containers. We also learned that food packages have markings on them that tell us the mass or capacity of the container and that this can help us when shopping to get the right amount of the ingredients we need.

In language, we have now moved on to the rough copy stage of our fairy tale writing. We are building our success criteria for how to write a detailed story - we know we need to put in more than what we included in our plan. On the first day that we started working on this all the writers were very focused and got quite a bit of writing done. I was very very impressed at how independent they were. Many were able to write their entire introduction, following the success criteria we outlined, without any encouragement or translation help and other others just needed a word here and there. So rewarding to see how far we've come!

For anyone who was not able to check out the art show Thursday evening, here is what our display looked like - just inside the front doors of the school. Looks great!

Maybe a future teacher??

Balloon Cars

Hi families,

We had 5 entries from Area 24 in the balloon car competition today. All of the cars looked fantastic. Clearly a lot of effort was put into this challenge! Congratulations to all!

 (Sorry I missed getting pictures of the other two... I didn't realize they had already started.)

In case you haven't heard, this Thursday evening, Dewson is holding an Art Show. Artwork from every single class will be on display in the gym and possibly the library and front hall of the school. I hear there will also be live music. I have submitted our Klee faces that we did earlier this year. I can't miss my own choir rehearsal again this Thursday, but I really encourage you to drop in if you can. Last time we had an art show, it was really beautifully done and it's impressive to see what Dewson students have created!

Don't forget that your field trip form & payment is due this Friday. Thanks to everyone who already sent it in.

Words of the Week

In our review of the ‘é’ sound, we have more examples of masculine and feminine. Many adjectives, including those that end in é, become feminine with the addition of a plain e. If you’re talking about a girl, the e in brackets is for you. If you’re talking about a boy, leave if off. Remember, it doesn’t matter what you are, it’s who (or what) you’re talking about that counts.

épaules, vélo, égal, été, cinéma, fée, je décore, j’écris, fâché(e), fatigué(e) 

Bonus sentence: Je suis allé(e)...

May Field Trip

Happy May!

Thanks for coming out to last night's concert. I am very proud of the whole class and hope you enjoyed our performance. If you haven't yet heard the story of "Café de la Paix", do ask your singer. It's a lovely story and they are very good at explaining it. We still have many fun things planned in the last two months of school and I am looking forward to getting into a new song!

The first fun thing, coming up quickly, is a trip to Roy Thomson Hall to hear the Toronto Symphony perform. This is quite a treat and not something I would do with any grade 1 class, but our class is so musical and so attentive during assemblies, I know I don't need to worry.
The trip is Friday May 15th in the morning. I've said 10:00am - 1:00pm on the form, but I think we may leave closer to 9:30 just to be safe. Please read over the details and return the signed form and payment by next Friday, May 8th. We will need 4 parents to accompany us. If you are interested/available, please indicate this on the permission form as well.

Yesterday we had our 8th theme day of this school year. It was all about cats and dogs in honour of Nikko (cats) and Clark (dogs). We began by filling in a cute comic strip to show what the cat and dog were thinking.

For science, we talked about animals and what they eat. We also took up our plant experiment. Three weeks later, it appears we have proven that plants need the sun to survive. Water is not enough. Poor guy. We hope he comes back to life if we keep him with his buddy in the window.

In math, we did a group challenge. We had 5 questions about my cats and dogs and groups worked together using various strategies for adding and counting. 

 In the afternoon we went outside to play a dog v. cat tag game and at the end of the day we read two funny books, one about a book that eats a dog, and one about a cat that probably isn't a cat after all. Ask your listeners about these books! They were quite passionate, especially about the cat not being a cat.

Have a great weekend!

PS - For anyone wishing to enter the balloon car competition, don't forget to bring your creation to school MONDAY along with $1 to enter the contest.