Thank you all very much for meeting with us this week and for being so supportive and receptive to our feedback. It is always so lovely to work with families that are invested in their childrens' education and want to help out however they can. It makes our job easier and so much more enjoyable.
As many of you saw during our quick chat, each student had a chance this week to self-evaluate how they believe they are doing on many of the important learning skills mentioned in the report. We were impressed with how self-aware and honest the kids were. We are encouraging our students to pay even more attention to those skills by giving them stars on our chart when we catch them doing those good things. It has been very motivating these last two days!
I was also thrilled, Thursday morning, when I asked the class if anyone had done what I'd asked and set a goal with their parents after reading their report. Not only did many hands shoot up, but the goals they shared with me were very fitting, and manageable for each individual. You had clearly discussed what I wrote and supported your child in making a very wise decision, and it's showing at school. Many students have already started doing their goal (e.g., participating more, using words to solve problems, or organizing their cubby independently). I've spoken to each child and written down their goal for myself so that I can remind and encourage them. I know you will be reminding them and asking them about it, and I thank you in advance. What a difference your encouragement makes!
Amazing news!! We WON the book fair draw!! Actually, Nora won (félicitations!), but I was able to choose 2 lovely books for our class, so it feels like we all won. How exciting!
This week, I told our class another oral story (no book, no pictures). It's about a girl named Tipingee, who, together with her friends, manages to outwit her mean aunt who's treating her like a servant (think: Cinderella). Ask your storyteller if they can tell you more about Tipingee and her friends, and how Tipingee gets out of a tricky situation...
Once again, I gave students the challenge of representing the story somehow, during their centre time. Many students took on the challenge, and I saw many different representations, including building Tipingee's house, a lego boat with Tipingee's family in it, and many drawings of different parts of the story. These varied representations are a great window into how the kids were imagining the story as they listened, and give me an idea of just how much of the French story they understood.
This week, we also got our sand table going. Our intention had been to use all your beautiful moon sand in our outdoor space, but now that it's mitten weather, that's not so practical. Here's the first group enjoying the soft feel of the moon sand in our class.
(This reminds me, we are anticipating moon sand next week from Huxley and Max.)
Outside, we've been playing tag games, a little of "Promenons-nous", I spy, we've been sharing stories, and occasionally I am treated to a special show.
Some of our students earned stars for using word to solve a problem kindly when two different groups were trying to share the big blocks to build a fort and a castle.
In alphabet news, we have made it up to the letter h now in letters that we have spent time focusing on. We have read their stories in our book about le village des sons and we look for them every morning in the message. We spent extra time on e because not only are vowels so important to learning to read, but it is one of the few letters that is different in French than in English. In English, of course, the letter e sounds like 'eee' (as in "see"). In French, however, that sound and name belong to the letter i, who we will meet soon. In French e's name and it's sound are much less bright and more round - think "could". Some words you may already know that use this sound are je, bleu and feu. E is probably the most confusing letter of the French alphabet, because it's sound can be affected by many different accents or neighbouring letters. For now, we're just learning its main sound, and that there are exceptions. As we approach the end of the year, and in grade 1, students will learn more specific grammar rules.
Two other differences in French are that j and g have traded names (so we see g, but we say "jay"), and the letter h is usually silent. In the story, Mademoiselle h is a very shy lady, who hides under her h-shaped chair whenever there is a knock on the door. Words that begin with h in French don't have a breathy sound at the beginning, it's basically just there for show. So, for example, "hibou" (owl) would just sound like "ibou".
Words of the Week
This week, I thought I'd put some of the frequently used words in our classroom. These are often featured in instructions, for example when we're coming inside in the morning, and when it's time to have snack.
le tapis
la table
une chaise
dehors
le sac à dos