Performing arts in Salle 211

Dear parents,
Last Friday we did two cool things. We made a first attempt at rehearsing and performing all our plays for each other, and we started our piano lessons!

As I've mentioned, each student is helping to act-out one or two of the oral stories I've shared so far this year. Hopefully your actor has already told you what their role is. Friday morning, each group practiced independently to create the beginnings of their play. They did an amazing job coming up with what they had to say and deciding how it should be staged. We'll continue to work on adding more dialogue and other elements, but I'm so pleased with how the groups did with very little input from me!

A scene from Cacahuète when papa looks inside le renard's mouth.

Hopefully you've also heard that we are beginning to learn how to play the piano. Thanks to Mme Robinson, our class is very lucky to be the only class that has a piano (well, keyboard), in the whole school. I plan to teach all students how to play some simple 5-note songs. For those students that already take lessons, this will not be a challenge, and they are prepared for that. We know they can help the rest of us and occasionally inspire us with their own pieces.
In our first lesson, we learned the names for the fingers on our right hands (1, 2, 3, 4, 5 - I know, so revolutionary) and where they will be positioned on the keyboard (thumb goes on middle C). We also learned about proper posture, back straight, feet on the floor, arm relaxed. We are starting with a 5-note scale 1-2-3-4-5-4-3-2-1. The pianists all had a chance to practice on the real keyboard, and 19 other chances to practice on the "air piano". They assured me they would practice their scale 5 more times over the weekend, even if only on their air piano. Can't wait to keep going!

Today was also a special day at Dewson and in our class because we celebrated Black History Month. We had an assembly featuring many special performances and videos in the morning, and this afternoon we began working on an African dance called "Gahu". The Gahu dance originated in Nigeria. It is a celebratory social dance that uses instruments and a song in addition to the dance. Today we learned the basic song and dance movement, and we will work a bit more on adding other special elements to it in the next 2 weeks. I had intended to work on Gahu throughout the month of February, but Café de la Paix needed our attention.
Our story today was about an African-Canadian named Viola Desmond who spent a night in jail for refusing to sit in the balcony at a movie theatre. She had paid for her ticket like everyone else and wanted to sit in the front, but in 1946, segregation was still a problem. Our class was very sensitive to this issue today and kept commenting as I read the story, "But she did pay!", "That's not very nice!". We reflected a bit on what Canada might be like today if people like Viola had not fought back against what they knew to be unfair. Please ask your student to tell you the whole story.

Words of the Week

Last week we learned of 4 more ways to make the French ‘es’ sound. This week we have another 2 ways. ‘ai’ and ‘ais’ make the very same sound. Included in this list are some I (Je) statements. Encourage your child to write 5 sentences beginning with each one. E.g., 1. J’aime le lait. 2. J’aime les chiens.

j’aime, lait, l’air, je vais, je fais, 

je sais, maison, mais

Bonus words: il fait, partenaire

If I don't mention it, this Thursday is our last skating outing so we will once again need all the helmets and skates.

Have a good week,
Tamara

Story retells

Dear parents,

I'm sending home a cute little French rubric home today. Last week and this week we worked in teams to retell two of our oral stories, Casquettes à vendre and Tipingee. Students drew what was going on in their part of the story and wrote speech or thought bubbles to have the characters tell the story from their point of view. Everyone knew what a level 3 or 4 effort might look like and they worked really well!
After a chance to practice, both teams presented their stories, each person telling their part.

Please celebrate this job well done and scroll down for a peek at yesterday's performance!

ArtsFest

Yay!! I'm SO pleased with how everything went this morning. The kids were absolutely wonderful - they sounded great, looked great, listened respectfully... Thanks for your help behind the scenes.

I didn't manage to get the whole song on video. If you have a video, or pictures from this morning, I would love to see them. You can email them to me, or send them on a memory stick which I will return same day. Thanks a lot! Here's what I got...

Again, I couldn't be happier with how it went. I'm very proud of all three classes!

This afternoon we put your recyclables to good use. Mlle Bradfield asked students to consider the environment and try to brainstorm ways to reduce the amount of garbage here in our classroom. Of course, one of the ways that many students thought of was to use our garbage and recycling to make things for art or during free time. They presented their recycled sculptures and brought them home today.

Don't forget - tomorrow is our last gymnastics day - shorts and t-shirts!!

Not to brag, but...

Mr. Ginestier, our gym teacher, told me today as I picked up the kids that they are such a nice, cooperative class! This isn't the first time he's complemented our class.

I passed this on to the gymnasts right away and thought you might be equally proud!

Reminders for this week!

Dear parents,

This is another busy week for us. Here are some reminders:

Tuesday: Gymnastics (shorts & t-shirt)

- bring in your recycling!

Wednesday: ArtsFest performance (navy & white with red accent) - please be on time for school!

- bring your $1 for popcorn if you want
- bring in your recycling!

Thursday: Gymnastics (shorts & t-shirt)

Mlle Bradfield's science lesson on Wednesday afternoon requires recycled materials. If you have egg cartons, boxes, paper towel rolls, newspaper - anything that you would otherwise be recycling - please send them to school tomorrow or Wednesday (please make sure items are clean).

We had our dress rehearsal this afternoon with our fabulous accompanist. Our performance will be great - I will try to post a video here! Please remind your singer about concert etiquette on Tuesday evening (no talking during the concert, eyes on Mlle while singing, don't forget to smile!).

Next week we are going to RELAX!

Words of the Week

That crazy E again! We’ve learned about the accent aigu (é), now we have all the others.

è = E-accent grave

ê = E-accent circonflexe

ë = E-tréma

Any of these accents help the e make exactly the same sound as the French ‘es’ sound. Think of “les” or, in English, “best”. “-et” makes the same sound when it’s at the end of a word.

When it comes to all these accents, it can be tricky to remember which one goes which way. I like to act them out. I see the accent aigu as a plane taking off, or a salute. The accent grave looks like a plane landing. The accent circonflexe is like a little hat! Encourage your child to show you which accent the word needs by acting it out with their body!

mère, père, tête, juillet, la chèvre, 

après, violet, forêt

Bonus words: chère, frère

Story Boards & Gymnastics

Dear parents,

Thanks again to the many parents and grand-parents who helped out with skating yesterday. I think we are getting to be better skaters every time! We have one more skating trip in two weeks.

Yesterday we also had our first gymnastics period - it looked like tons of fun!

Today we reviewed two of the oral stories I have told (the kids know them very well and do a lot of the telling for me now) and then worked in big groups to create story boards. The groups worked well together to figure out which part of the story each person should be responsible for. Instead of writing what happens in their part of the story from the narrator's perspective, as we have done a couple times already, the writers are using speech and thought bubbles to help the characters tell the story. The writers were very focused on this work this morning for a good 30 minutes. Can't wait to finish these next week!

I also taught our class - those who didn't already know - how to play Sudoku. It is one of the math games available for when students are done their work, free time, or math centre time. We completed a beginner puzzle today and then many students tried some on their own. You can access some 4x4 Sudoku games online here!

A reminder that next week we are performing at ArtsFest on Wednesday! The dress is navy (or black) & white with a red accent. Suggestions were on the note attached to the permission form. Let me know if you have any questions!

Have a great weekend,
Tamara

BIG day tomorrow!

Hi families,

Tomorrow is a fun-filled, busy day for us. We have skating in the morning and gymnastics in the afternoon, plus a rehearsal for our upcoming performance!

Please ensure that your student comes dressed in his/her layers for gymnastics and remembers his/her skates & helmet.

I am waiting on quite a number of permission forms for the trip to ArtsFest. I'm sending extra forms and kids are wearing reminder bracelets home tonight. Please get these back to me ASAP and let me know if you have any questions about dress. The performance is next week!!!!

We have been working really hard this week to finish up projects we've been on for a while, our instructions for how to decorate a gingerbread man and the poems we are writing out from memory.
Here are a few pages from our book of rimes & poems...

To celebrate being done our instructions, we, of course, had to practice following them and actually decorate a gingerbread man. Students know that they need your permission to eat it, as it is a fairly large cookie! It is coming home in a cute little bag.
To prepare for this fun activity, we did a math challenge to practice dividing candies equally between friends. We figured out that we could deal the candies out, kind of like playing cards, to make sure everyone had the same number of everything.

When it came time to use real candies, the decorators took the time to divide everything in a fair way before beginning. It was nice to see them giving things away rather than collecting as much as humanly possible.

Words of the Week

This week we are back to the sound, ‘é’. In November, I mentioned that there were other ways to make this sound. They are ‘-er’ and ‘-ez’, but only when they fall at the end of a word, not within (even at the end there are plenty of exceptions). This week you may want to play a sneaky game of -er v. -re. It is not uncommon, at this stage, to confuse the order of letters that form a sound, but ‘er’ and ‘re’ are two completely different sounds. Challenge your writer to find the mistakes in the words you’ve written (end some words with ‘re’ instead of ‘er’)!

déjeuner, février, chez, aller, manger, 

vous avez, visiter

Bonus words: vous allez, jouer

Gymnastics Begins!

Hi parents,

Every year, our fantastic gym teachers run an amazing gymnastics unit. For two weeks our gym is transformed into a veritable gymnastics studio and students get to use climbers, ropes, the balance beam and tons of other equipment that I have only ever dreamt of using myself. I'm not sure if the students experienced this in Kindergarten, so here is what you need to know.
The program will run for the next 2 weeks (Feb. 16-26). During this time our students will eat lunch in Area 25 as the gym will remain set up for the duration.
On our regular gym days, students need to come dressed to use the equipment safely. Students need bare legs, arms and feet in order to properly grip the climbing equipment. Shorts (above the knee) and a t-shirt are perfect. Students will also remove socks and shoes while in the gym. Long hair needs to be tied back and glasses need to be either removed or secured. We ask that students wear their gym outfit under their normal clothing so that they can change quickly once they get to gym, and throw their clothes back on after. Students will not be allowed to go to the washroom to change. Please note that, for safety reasons, students who are not dressed properly will not be able to participate in many of the activities.

Here are our gymnastics dates: Tues. Feb. 16, Thurs. Feb. 18, Tues. Feb. 23, Thurs. Feb. 25
PLEASE NOTE: The very next school day after this long weekend is a gymnastics day! Let's see if we can be, probably, the only class where nobody forgets!

Here is our class exchanging valentines cards - it was really sweet. We also drew names and wrote a special message to someone in our class, but we'll never know who our secret Valentine was!

Many of you have already seen our diagrams at your interview, but here they are on display, as well as some of the instructions for how to decorate a gingerbread man, which we will finish early next week!

Also, I probably should mention (in case you didn't see the news last night) that yesterday we attended a special assembly during which we were introduced to the family that our school sponsored. They arrived from Syria 10 days ago and the little boy, who is the same age as our kids, is starting school today! They are very thankful to you.

Happy long Valentines and Family day weekend!

ArtsFest

Dear parents,

A permission form is coming home today for our upcoming trip to ArtsFest on February 24th, where we will be performing "Café de la Paix". We have been working on this song for the last month and it is coming along very well.
This is a very simple trip since all three classes will be hopping on a school bus together. We just need a couple parents to help us out. If you would like to join us at Perth to watch the show, please speak to me. Permission forms are due back by the 17th.
Please read the attached note carefully for information about the dress for the performance. We are going for an overall navy and white look with a red accent (think Paris). Suggestions are included on the note! If you don't have a small red accent, just send me a note and we can make a cute little flower at school. Thanks for your help!

We have now been through every math strand once and will go back to each one and add a greater challenge level. First up is number sense. In the fall, we focused on counting strategies and beginning addition. Now we're going to work more on addition and subtraction. We began with a review of some math centres that we did once or twice in the fall. They are simply fun games that get us doing some math in a fun way. Feel free to steal these ideas or create your own games for practising some basic addition/subtraction facts at home!

Each partner adds two cards. Pac-man eats the bigger number!

Bingo!

Dominos - our way is to connect like numbers.

Roll the squishy dice and add the numbers - BUT - write your addition sentence using words!

Each popsicle stick contains an answer and a new question. There's only one way to connect them and use all the sticks!

We had another science-filled Wednesday with Mlle Bradfield. This time we made predictions and then tested different materials to see if they would sink or float. The interesting one is the clementine - ask your scientist why the clementine floats with the skin on, but sinks with the skin off! Later, we used what we learned about materials that float to build a boat! The scientists presented their boats and explained their design choices. We tested them in a bin of water and they all floated! 

Don't forget that any Scholastic orders for February are due tomorrow, and if students made valentines for their classmates, they should bring them tomorrow. Here's our most recent art project - we used cool colours inside our hands and warm colours in the rest of our circles. Cute, right?

Also, be sure to check out the showcase display in the front entrance of our school. It contains the sculptures we made with Mme Ally and they are so beautiful!

Words of the Week

The sound ‘in’ is very tricky. I remember sitting around the table with my exchange family trying to match exactly what they said so that I might have a nice French accent!

Your expert French speaker needs no assistance speaking this sound, they know it well. The best way I’ve found to describe it is to start saying the word “kangaroo” but pause on the “an” part. This is approximately the right sound. Note: The last 2 words in the list have a pesky e in between the i and n. We already learned what sound e+n makes, but in this case, they make the ‘in’ sound. We still hear the regular i sound as well. I’m sure you’ve heard the phrase, Très bien!

lapin, la fin, train, vingt, bain, rien*, bien*
Bonus words: cinq, dinde