Happy Holidays!

Dear Salle 211 families,

Thank you so much for the beautiful cards and generous gifts, it was very thoughtful of you.

During our second, and last, workshop with Jessica Runge yesterday, we performed our 4 Nutcracker-themed dances complete with a narrated story. I have videos that I would like to post together with the story, but unfortunately I couldn't get the videos uploaded before I had to leave yesterday, and I can't do it from home, so you'll have to look forward to that in early January. I hope the kids enjoyed the workshops. If they are interested in dance, Jessica does after school classes and sent each dancer home with some information.

I have also sent home some of our recent artwork, our nutcracker booklet (which we didn't have much time to complete, but could be a fun activity over the holidays) and some French books. I was pleased that almost everyone had a number in mind for how many books they should take home. Happily, but unfortunately, everyone needed so many books that we ran out quite quickly. I let students take home a classroom book in lieu of yellow-level books if they didn't get enough. Please ensure that all books are kept in a safe place and are returned to school on January 4th!! We really need all those yellow books to come back right away so that we can all keep exchanging. Right now, the drawer is empty! Classroom books cost around $10 each so it is sad when they get lost. I am very happy to loan them out, but please make sure they come back! Thanks!!

I wish you and your families a very happy and relaxing holiday. See you in the new year!
Tamara

What we've been up to!

It's been so busy the last couple weeks! Enough with the reminders (there are still a few at the bottom), here's what we've been up to...

In language, we've been working hard on finishing up our letters to our family friend or relative. We used our letter to Santa (who wrote back, by the way) to create a list of criteria for writing a successful letter. We needed to include 5 things: the date, the name of the recipient, some nice words to start off, a question or information about our life and then a nice goodbye. The letters and envelopes are now complete and ready to go. I'm sending the envelopes home unsealed just in case you want to see what your child wrote. Please help your child seal the envelope and put it in a post box. I also included a little explanatory note for the recipient. Hopefully we'll receive some letters back! *A few students are still in need of an address!

In math, we tied up our unit on 2-D shapes with a short experiment about symmetry. Students remembered from SK that if you can fold something in half and it matches, it's symmetrical. In grade 1, we moved up a level and used Miras (like magic mirrors) to test if shapes were symmetrical and to complete shapes that were only half done. Check it out!

I've now had a chance to tell yet another musical story - The Nutcracker! Many students were familiar with the story, or had even seen the ballet. I highly recommend going if you can - the National Ballet has it on right now, and it's great for kids. It would be especially good for our class now that we have read the book, listened to the music and worked on making up our own dances to tell the story. 

There were 6 dances in particular that were featured in our book: first, the fight between the toys that come alive (in the show it's mice) and the Nutcracker; second, the waltz of the snowflakes; third, the dance of the sugar plum fairy (la fée dragée); fourth, the chocolate dance (Spanish dance); fifth, the duet between the grand-duchess and the shepherdess (Pas de deux); and finally, the waltz of the flowers.

In our dance workshop with Jessica, we are not only learning lots of locomotor movements and doing some leading and following, but also, we are working in groups to create our own Nutcracker dances! We have a group of dancing toys, two groups of dancing snowflakes and a group of dancing flowers. Ask your dancer which group they're in and to show you their movement. Each dancer is teaching the rest of their group their creative movement and we will put the dance together that way. 

Dancing Toys

Dancing Snowflakes

 Dancing Flowers

Reminders:

It's pyjama day tomorrow. I'll be bringing my super-stylish adult onesie for the afternoon. In the morning we are walking over to the YMCA for our dance workshop, and I'd rather be wearing clothes. But, hey, as long as we can move freely (and the PJs include pants), I suppose it doesn't much matter whether the kids are in PJs.

PLEASE BE ON TIME FOR SCHOOL!!!!!! We will be leaving ASAP after attendance. If you are later then than 9:10 getting to school, you may end up having to walk your student over the Y after signing in!

I will be reminding students to take all their belongings home, including indoor shoes if they need them. I will also remind them to take as many books as you say they should so that you can keep reading in French over the break. This is SO important! Please relax and rest and don't work too hard - but - please treat your daily reading routine with the same importance as brushing your teeth. Thanks!

More reminders!

Hi all,

Just a few more field trip forms need to come back! Those students came home wearing bright pink bracelets so that they don't forget! Thanks!

HUGE thank you to everyone who already sent back an address for our letter-writing project. We need the rest tomorrow, if you please!

I don't know if it has been broadcast publicly, but Friday morning there will be the annual holiday sing-along in the gym. Parents are usually welcome to join. Unfortunately, we have a conflict with our dance workshop, so, while you are still welcome to go sing your heart out, we will not be there. Domage!

Speaking of Friday's dance workshop, don't forget that it is at the West End Y. We will be walking over there immediately after attendance (as close to 9:00 am as possible). Please be extra on-time for school!

Also, I should mention that it is very important that we keep up our at-home reading routines over the break. It is crazy how quickly we forget what we've learned when we stop practicing. Students are most welcome to take home several books to get you through the 2 weeks. Please tell your reader how many books you would like them to bring home. I'll remind everyone on Friday.

Thanks!

One busy week left!

Hi families!

This is it! Last week before the break. It promises to be a very busy one. Here is a quick overview:

Monday-Friday

- assorted parent-teacher meetings
- please return your report envelope for re-use next time (keep the report!)

Tuesday

- Words of the Week

Wednesday

- Nature Centre permission forms due

- Hearing/Vision clinic @ Dewson for those that registered

- Library

- Show & Tell

Thursday

- Dance workshop in AM @ Dewson (make sure kids are dressed for movement)

Friday

- Dance workshop in AM @ YMCA (still need parents to walk us back and forth!!)

- PJ day (make sure kids can still dance or wear dance clothes in AM and bring PJs for PM)

- Everything goes home (let me know if you need school shoes to come home over the break)

- Please do not send treats to share. It will be a fun day and students will each receive a little gift from me. That will be enough.

In other news...

I mentioned last week that we had started learning about how to write a nice letter. We used our letter to Santa to identify 5 important parts of a letter and we noted these on our success criteria chart. Our next task was to work with a partner to write a letter to a teacher in our school. We sent letters to Mme Robinson, Mme Faraone, Mr. Greene, Mr. Ginestier, Mme Gaudreault, Mme Abbat and Mlle J. We made sure we said something nice before asking a question. Please ask your writer who they and their partner wrote to and what they said. We have had written responses from 3 teachers already, and some others answered our questions in person. How exciting!

This week, though we will be busy, I hope to have each student write their own letter to a family member or friend. The holidays are a fitting time to send greetings to loved ones that we don't often get a chance to see. On Monday, we will think about who we would each like to write to and begin writing our letters. By Wednesday or Thursday, we should be ready for envelopes and we will need addresses. I will send home a little paper for you to fill-in with the address of the person your child has decided to write to. Please make sure these are returned to school by Wednesday so that we can address our envelopes and get our letters mailed before the break. Hopefully we will receive more letters back! Don't you love mail that isn't bills??

Words of the Week

If the ‘on’ sound is ever forgotten, show your student a picture of a candy and it’ll come right back! Then you can say “C’est bon!” (Good stuff!)

This is another sound that doesn’t exist in English. The easiest thing is probably to ask your child to teach it to you. Ask them how to say “no” or “candy” in French. To describe it in English, say the word “on” with your lips closed almost all the way, and don’t close to the ‘n’. You’ll feel it in the back of your throat. This sound can also be written as ‘om’.

bonbon, mon, ton, non, nom

Bonus words: bon, son

Great Concert! Next... Dance!

Salut Salle 211!

Great concert tonight! It was my first time hearing what the kids have been up to in choir, and I was impressed! Bien fait mes amis!

I am happy to share with you that next Thursday and Friday, salle 211 will be working with a visiting artist - visiting dancer to be more specific. Our dance teacher's name is Jessica Runge. I believe this is her first time working at Dewson, so I'm excited to see what she has in store for us. We will have 2 half-day workshops with her. Thursday morning we will be at Dewson, Friday morning we will be at the West End YMCA, in a bit of a better dance space. It's not very far, but I still need at least one parent to walk with us there and back. If you are able either to walk there with us at 9:00 or meet us there and walk us back at 11:30, that would be excellent. You are welcome to stay the entire morning as well and participate with us! Please email me if you can help out.

Words of the Week

Words of the week

E might win as the most complicated letter of the French alphabet. It can make so many different sounds depending on the accent or letters around it. In this case, when followed by ‘s’, it makes a more relaxed sound, as in “best”. Your student has probably already learned these words, but it might be a good time to go back to playing with movable letters to play with different combinations.

les, mes, tes, des, c’est

Bonus words: il est, ses

In math, we have started a very short unit on 2-D geometry. So far, we have done some shape sorting and discovery using Venn diagrams, and we have used shapes to make pictures. 

We will be working on naming the most basic shapes correctly and discovering what attributes a shape has to have in order to earn it's name. Today, our Venn diagram taught us what a square must have in order to be called a square. Ask your mathematician how many rules are involved in a Diagramme de Venn (this confuses a lot of students, even in older grades) and what the rules for our 2 circles were today (see picture).

Today we worked together to write a class letter to Santa. Vika took it with her to mail, so it should get to him on time for Christmas. Ask your writer what we said in our letter. We saved a copy so that we can use it as a reference in the next two weeks as we write our own letters to teachers and friends. Ask your writer about a nice way to begin a letter. Is it polite to begin your letter by asking for something? If you have received any letters or cards recently, take this opportunity to share them with your writer so that they can get some ideas of what people say in their letters to each other!

See you Thursday eve,

Tamara

Boring but important stuff

Dear parents,

Today you received the permission form for our trip to the Nature Centre. Since the trip is just a few days after we return from the break, I thought it best to get all the paper work taken care of ahead of time. Please return the second page, signed, by December 16th. The first page is the information for you to keep. If you are interested in volunteering on this trip, please check the appropriate box on the permission form. I'll get back to you as soon as all forms are in!

Don't forget, this Thursday evening is our choir concert. Details were in my last post! Please let me know if your child is unable to attend.

This Thursday you will be receiving your child's progress report. I realize they are very late this year, thanks for your patience. Better late than never?
The progress report is intended to give you an idea, not only of how your child is doing in the various subject areas (Language, Math etc.), but also, and more importantly, how your child is doing as a learner. It is always true that when we have strong learning skills, it is much easier to make progress in the subject areas. The two go hand in hand, but learning skills lead the way. Therefore, I have taken care to be accurate and specific in my comments in the learning skills area. Please take the time to read over this carefully with your child. It is a good opportunity to check-in about how they think they are doing as a good learner and how they think they can do an even better job.

Since this may be your first progress report, I will also give you a heads up to the marking system. (I will go over all of this with the kids as well on Thursday, so they will be able to interpret their report card.) In the learning skills area, E is for Excellent, which really means that you're doing a great job all the time. G is for Good, which means you're meeting expectations and doing well most or all of the time, but there are small ways in which you could improve even more. S is for Satisfactory, which means that sometimes you're doing just fine, but other times you need to be reminded, so keep working on it. N means that you need a lot of support with that skill, so make this your goal going forward.
On the subject side, there are 3 choices, Progressing Well (as expected with some support), Progressing Very Well, or Progressing With Difficulty. In the next two report cards, these will be replaced with more specific letter grades, and the subject areas will be broken down into strands. I have been very conservative with my "Excellent"s and "Progressing Very Well"s. It's tough to earn these marks because it means you're going above and beyond what was expected. It might mean a student has made a connection to something that was mentioned in passing, but was not explicitly taught, or the student is always successful, not just most of the time. It's great to have a goal, but let's focus more on little, manageable, ways that we can improve, and not so much on grades.

Finally, there are a couple etiquette rules around report cards that will be true for every report this year, and in future grades as well. Here is what I will explain to the children:
1. Do not open your report card envelope until you are with a parent or guardian.
2. Your report card is private. Do not share your marks with friends, this doesn't make either person feel good. (Important!!)

One last thing, in the envelope, I will also include an interview invitation. Please consider setting up a time for a very brief chat with me, particularly if we have not yet met (though all are welcome). I think it's always good to touch base in person, even if there are no particular concerns or questions. I am available on the 14th, 15th or 17th until about 6pm. I can also meet at 8:30 am or some lunch hours. You can get back to me either be sending the invitation back, or by emailing me at anytime (tamara.mitchell2@tdsb.on.ca). Thanks!

Talk to you soon,
Tamara

Loupscaroux

Hi parents,

I know I mentioned that I told the class the Cacahuète story and that we had illustrated it using paint and pastel. Did I mention that I told them another oral story last week called Loupscaroux? They loved it and now, after a couple more times hearing it, could easily tell it to you! Yesterday and today we worked on turning the oral story into a real book. Everyone contributed one page of the story. It's fabulous!

We also did a little drama work today - most of the class narrated, with just a few hints here and there. Three students acted out the character parts. Here's the little girl singing the wolf to sleep:

We have also had time recently to complete a couple holiday crafts. Our class is all decorated!

Tomorrow, students will be uncovering the results of our last science experiment in our seasonal changes unit. We each made predictions about what we thought would happen to our sun and sky papers that we put in the window. Some predictions included, the paper will get hot or cold, the glue will stop sticking and the sun will fall off, or the paper will melt. Tomorrow we are going to take the sun off of the blue paper to see what effect the sun really had. Please ask your scientist what happened! Next up in science, Everyday Structures and Materials.

Sadly, this week we have had to say goodbye to both of our student teachers, Mlle Martinson and Mlle L. We wrote them some lovely cards and gave them flowers. We are sad to see them go, but know that they will definitely visit us again. Now our poor class is stuck with just one teacher all the time. We'll have to work on being patient when we need help!