You're Invited!

Hi parents,

RSVPs for our end-of-year open house are due tomorrow!!! Please try to get them to me as soon as possible so that I can reply to the parents that are flexible. Some students took home an extra form today - if you have misplaced yours you can always reply via email (the info is all contained in an earlier post). Thanks!

Another fun event is happening this Friday. If you haven't heard, Dewson is hosting a Volunteer Breakfast to thank all the parents that have contributed to school life this year. So many of you have helped out on trips, in class, or even behind the scenes. This breakfast is for YOU! Please come and enjoy. There will be a little thank you card waiting for you.

Friday - 8am - in the gym

Yesterday, hopefully your scientist told you about the results of our seed experiment. Most of our seeds sprouted a little root! Students brought home their little seed babies and they can be planted in your garden and will hopefully produce a few delicious peas! Either way, make sure these get unpacked or they will start to smell funny...

In math, we've finished painting and labelling our 3-D sculptures and have moved on to probability. Probability is a fun way to end the year because it involved a lot of games! Today we learned 5 important terms that we will use throughout the unit. They are:

impossible

certain

probable

improbable

possible

Ask your mathematician to give you an example of each one (e.g., C'est improbable qu'il va neiger aujourd'hui. C'est possible... mais pas probable!)
It's amazing how often we can use these terms in regular conversation if we pay attention to it!

In writing, we have all managed to work through the long list of revisions - everyone had 10 things to check for in their work, and a partner did the same, before I gave all the stories a final once over. Ask your editor what types of things they had to look for and correct in their own work! Now we are working on good copies. This is the easiest part of the story-writing process because it's just copying from one paper to another - we just have to watch out to not repeat or make new mistakes!

Words of the Week... are a bit different!

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 or on another piece of paper and show me their work next week!

Busy bees!

Hello families,

I trust everyone had a beautiful long weekend!

A few reminders first:

1) There are still a few spots open to help with Festival on June 9th. You can sign up here. 

2) Don't forget to RSVP to our open-house by June 1st. I've already received lots! Thanks!

3) Home toys stay at home, school toys stay at school. That is the policy! Please help us out by checking your child's backpack. We want to prevent items getting damaged or lost, and we want to promote active, inclusive play during recess. No toys also speeds up our transitions in the hallway. Trading cards are considered a home toy, but a ball or other outdoor equipment is usually fine. Thanks for your help!

This week we are finishing up our story writing and beginning the process of editing. Each author will receive an editing checklist that they, and a partner, will work through to ensure they have done their best work before I have my turn. I have already read all of the stories (many times), and they are very impressive! Many include dialogue, description and more detail than I had allowed room for! Here are some authors hard at work:

We also completed our May dictée - perhaps our last (we'll see). This will come home shortly.

In science, we have talked a bit about humans and animals, so this week we are focusing more on plants. Today I brought in some dandelions that I dug up, roots and all, so that we could check out all the parts of a plant. I also sacrificed some dying tulip heads so that we could see where pollen lives, up close! If you have tulips at home, encourage your scientist to go check them out - the interior parts are big and you can really see what's what.

Anyway, each scientist did a detailed drawing of a dandelion and labelled all the parts that we had learned. We also began a little experiment using pea seeds. We are just soaking them in a wet paper towel so that we can see what would normally happen underground. Ask your scientist about the results of this experiment in a few days!

In math, we are finishing up our unit on 3-D shapes with a big building project and some work on location. Today we did the building part, and we used all the small, medium and large boxes and other shapes that you've helped me collect throughout the year. My big pile of garbage is gone! I can't wait to sweep in that corner!!
The projects look cool, but we're only half done. Tomorrow we will label each item with the name of its shape. We have also begun learning some French terms to describe location - ask your singer to perform the "Sur, Sous" song for you! We already used these terms to help a partner recreate a block creation without looking, and tomorrow we have another super fun game to practice using these words!

Lots of fun stuff going on, and that doesn't include prepping for our big concert, or the new chapter book we've started reading!

Have a great week!

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

More museum pics!

Thanks for sending these along!

Au musée!

Dear families,

We had a fantastic morning at the ROM today! We travelled very safely and were all very well behaved. Bravo tout le monde!

With the help of our amazing parents, all groups successfully completed their scavenger hunts in the biodiversity area (and it wasn't just a find this and that and check it off type hunt - we had to read panels, look for words in displays and do some thinking). Ask your scientist what endangered animal their group found and what the problem is.

After our "work", we had time to explore other areas of the museum with our groups. Some popular spots were the kid zone, where you can dig for fossils; minerals, where we found a coin worth 1 million dollars; and Egypt, where we learned about mummies from none other than Bella's grandma! I had no idea! I sure hope some of us got to see the dinosaurs... we haven't had much of a chance to talk about it yet!

Sorry the pictures are mostly of my group. Parents, please email me your pictures so I can post them, and thanks again!!

You're Invited!

Happy Monday!

I'm looking forward to our morning at the museum this Wednesday! Please ensure your student wears comfortable shoes for walking and is at school right on time! We will not be bringing anything with us to the museum but we need a normal lunch for when we get back.

In our math unit on 3-D shapes, we have quickly become experts in what makes each shape who it is (for example, a cylindre has two circles at the ends and can roll, a pyramide always has triangle sides, regardless of the shape of its base). We have all starred on a "Qui suis-je?" game show and are now using a Venn diagram to sort shapes based on their characteristics.
Next week, students will be doing a building project using the many boxes I've been collecting over the year. For this, it is helpful if each student can have a fairly large box to use as a base. I haven't been asking for these simply because of a lack of storage space. At this point, if you finish a box of cereal, or order a pizza, we would welcome your large empty box! We need 20 by next week, so forget the pancakes - we are all eating cereal this week!

The students and I are excited to invite you to our end-of-year open house and concert! I sent home paper invitations today - they explain everything. Please ensure you get it and RSVP by June 1st so that we can make sure we have enough chairs!
Here's a copy of what was sent home:

Room 211 Open-House

Dear Room 211 Parents,

This year, Room 211 students have learned many fun rhymes and oral stories. We have done many extensions based on the stories, including creating several plays. Each student is involved in at least one play and we are proud of what we have put together. We have also been learning to play some simple piano songs that we would love to show off before we graduate to grade 2. To this end, the students and I are planning an open-house which will occur on Friday June 24^th. In addition to the show, during your visit, you will be able to go on a guided tour of our classroom to look at some of your child’s recent work and art projects!

We really hope you can join us on June 24^th either in the morning (10:45 – 11:45 am) or afternoon (1:00 - 2:00 pm) for this special open-house, hosted by your very own children. Parents, caregivers and close relatives are welcome. Please RSVP by Wednesday, June 1^st so that we know how many guests to expect at each performance. 

Hope to see you in June!

Mlle Mitchell

tamara.mitchell2@tdsb.on.ca

---------------------------------------------------------------------------#-------------------------------------------

Répondez, s’il vous plaît

Room 211 Student: _____________________

m  Yes! We will attend the morning presentation from 10:45 - 11:45 am. Number of guests:_____ 

m  Yes! We will attend the afternoon presentation from 1:00 - 2:00 pm. Number of guests: _____

m  We can make ourselves available for either presentation.*   Number of guests: _____

m  Unfortunately we are unable to attend.

* You will receive a note with your time immediately after the RSVPs have been counted. Thanks for your flexibility in helping us manage the space we have available!

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

Are you up to date?

Happy Friday parents,

Today we learned an amazing new song that helps us remember how to test whether something is vivant ou non-vivant! Ask your child if they can sing some of it to you!!
Here we are labelling our bodies with some important bits and pieces. 

We are also well on our way to planning our original stories. We brainstormed lots of potential story problems today and will finish our outlines on Monday. Please take a few minutes to talk about your author's ideas with them over the weekend. Help them start thinking about the details, like "What were they doing before this happened?", "What did he say when she did that?", "Why did this happen?", "Who helped solve the problem? How did they solve it?"etc.

I would also like to remind you that if you selected the "pay per term" option at the beginning of the school year, by now, you should have sent in the full amount of $85 that has gone towards field trips and the snack program. The snack program was $20/term, totalling $60. All students have been offered a substantial snack every morning. If you have not yet submitted part of this amount, the school would really appreciate the contribution before the end of the year. You can send this directly to the office or through me. Thanks!

Have a great weekend!
Tamara

Do you know your 3-D shapes?

Dear parents,

We had lots of fun today, though I have no pictures to show for it. :(

In the morning we brainstormed lots of ideas for characters that could be in our stories. We thought of people (e.g., normal people, princes & princesses), animals (e.g., elephants, rabbits), fictional animals (dragons, unicorns), monsters (e.g., trolls), super-heroes and even blobs (les touts)! Each writer decided on the two characters that will star in their stories and started describing them and thinking about how they will look. Ask your writer who their characters are!
We will keep working on our plans the rest of this week, thinking about where our stories take place, what kind of problem comes up in the middle, and how it is resolved at the end. Everyone has homework tonight, and that is to talk to someone about potential story ideas. Thinking of one good idea is usually the hardest part. We will do some group brainstorming here too! Remember, in a story anything can happen! It could be something that could really happen, or not.

Utilisez vos imaginations!

Before lunch, we had a special surprise! Mme Mitchell was in town and brought Sadie over to meet the class! The kids had a chance to pet her, if they wanted to, and Sadie (though very distracted), did manage to sit and dance for them. Sadie's not sure whether children are really people and still finds them a bit frightening. Haha! Maybe she can visit again at Festival!

In the afternoon I assembled lots of objects from home and school that are 3-D shapes, for instance, a soccer ball, traffic cone, storage box, hexagonal pillow, Toblerone package, J-Cloth box, Pringles can and dice! Together, we managed to name them all! Then, each mathematician created their own Qui suis-je game. With a shape in mind, they came up with 3 clues and then hid them behind some little clue doors! We had a chance to play everyone's guessing game. They're great! The kids are dying to quiz YOU as well, but first we're going to let the grade 2s in our hallway play our games. Ask your mathematicians if they remember what their clues are, or if they can make up new hints so that you can play tonight!

A reminder that Scholastic and field trip forms are due by tomorrow and Friday, respectively. Please scroll down for some Festival requests!
Tamara

Festival is coming!

Dear parents,

The annual Dewson Festival is approaching. It will take place Thursday, June 9th (before the PA day).
As always, we need tons of help. The Festival cannot run without many many parent volunteers. Helping is fun, easy, and you will probably be there anyway! To see how you can help, and to sign up, go to: www.SignUpGenius.com/go/30E0444A5A92DA6F85-festival 

In addition, each class is responsible for creating a gift basket for the raffle. Our class is collecting items around a gardening theme. If you are able to donate any items, that would be fantastic. Ideas are seeds, gloves, gardening hat etc.

Thanks for your help!

New Stuff!

This week we are beginning new units in all subjects!

In French, we are going to be working through the writing process to write our own stories. We began today by decomposing some of our favourite stories (e.g., Tipingee, Le lit de grand-mère, Les trois boucs) using a graphic organizer. We had to think about who the characters are, where they live, and the most basic plot elements at the beginning, middle and end. We will use the same graphic organizer later to plan our own original stories. If you like, you can already begin helping your author brainstorm ideas!

In Math we have moved on to geometry. This time, we're focusing on 3-D shapes! So far we have played a guessing game to find the correct name for several shapes and then we worked with our math partners to make posters explaining the characteristics of each. We will continue this week by further investigating the sides of 3-D shapes and then building our own!

In Science we are onto our last unit on the needs and characteristics of living things. There is a ton of overlap here between this and our first unit on seasonal changes and also on the energy unit we just completed. We will build on this and also get ready for our day at the ROM next week. We began by simply classifying various objects as vivant ou non-vivant (living or not). It wasn't as straight forward as you might think since some items are made from things that used to be living, and we're not too sure about plants yet... To be discussed. :)

Before Mlle Bradfield left us, she began one last art project involving texture with us. We began by filling two pages with texture rubbings using lots of interesting every day materials (e.g., keys, mesh, wire fencing, containers, stencils...). Next, we used these pages to cut out the pieces for a collage - we all made animals! Then, we went in and added a few more scenery details with chalk, which shows up nicely on the black paper. Finally, we each wrote a little blurb about what we created. Here we are at work:

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)...

Bonne fête des Mères!

Congrats to our 6 hula hoopers! They all did such a great job, most lasting over 30 minutes! We are waiting for the results Monday, but we think we might have someone in the top 20 overall!

The cheerleaders!

We hope you enjoyed seeing the pastel and watercolour paintings that we did after listening to The Sorceror's Apprentice, these came home yesterday. And, of course, we have a little surprise for our lovely moms and hope that you have a great Mother's Day weekend!

Tamara

Café de Poésie

Hi parents,

Our poetry cafés yesterday and today were fabulous! Each poet did a great job introducing their poem and reading it aloud. I took a picture of each presenter. Here we go...

 And here are the beautiful poems already up on our bulletin board. I'll send home a copy with the completed rubric after I take them down.

We also made sure to take a picture with Mlle Bradfield on her last day. Bonne chance l'année prochaine Mlle!