All in a Monday!

Hello sunshine! What a relief to be able to spend some time outside after so much time indoors last week. Some students were digging in the dirt today and found worms and roots to investigate.
Chase and Arianna found a particularly long root, which we brought in and set up at our science centre. Students were able to look at it through a magnifying glass, and draw their own diagram of it, if they chose.

We also had time to do another investigation that has been on my mind for a while. We used up our bits and pieces of old crayon by placing them in molds and putting them in the oven over lunch. The result is many multicoloured crayons that the kids can use and bring home.
Before the experiment, we talked about what we thought would happen. Some students thought that we would end up with a cookie we could eat. This is not recommended. Some students believed that the crayons would melt and the colours would blend, to create a new colour, like when we put the food colouring in water. Other students believed that the crayons would melt, but we would still see the different colours. This seems to be what happened. Students drew what their filled mold looked like before it went to the oven, and will draw what it looks like when they see it tomorrow. Here they are fresh out of the oven, and cooled:

 

Also today (so much happened today!), we went to the library for another puppet show. This time it was about Anansi the Spider. After the show, we went across the street to the post office, where our mailboys mailed off our packages with the valentines and letters for August and Xavi.

Last week, we set up a new math challenge that we will continue working on this week. In each compartment of each tray is a number. The challenge is to add the matching number of jetons (counters) to each compartment. After we count together and make any necessary adjustments, students can select a sticker for their hard work.

March calendars and Scholastic packages will come home in the next couple days. A reminder that our concert is on March 8th. Students will be asked to meet at 6:00 and the concert begins at 6:15. 

Enjoy this beautiful weather!!

Gym Pics!

Dear families,
I hope you had a fantastic long weekend. We celebrated family day by drawing pictures of our families and writing in our journals about what we like to do together. Before the weekend, we celebrated the lunar new year by making paper lanterns. Mme Dominique also told us a beautiful story about how many families, including hers, celebrate.

It was lovely meeting with many of you last week during interviews. Don't forget that you can email me anytime if you'd like to meet later in the year. Thanks to everyone for discussing the report card with your student, and helping them decide on a good goal. Many students were excited to share it with me, and have chosen a goal that is very fitting for where they are in their learning. If your student chose their goal at school with me, please ask them about it so that you can encourage their efforts. I've written down everyone's goal and we are working on earning 10 stars for doing it!

This is the week of Dewson's gymnastics unit. The kids have been having a great time, see pictures below! We have one more class tomorrow. Don't forget to have shorts and a t-shirt underneath!

In class this week, we have been making the most of the rainy weather by doing some extra special indoor activities. We've written letters to August, we've done some math challenges (building using only the number of cubes on the card), we added words to our word wall and we all contributed to creating a huge map of the Loupscaroux story I told last week. I'll put it up in the hall so that you can check it out next time you're here.

 

Mots de la Semaine

Here are some important people in our families...

ma maman

mon papa

mon frère

ma soeur

le bébé

 

 

 Taking a knee!

Wardrobe Planning

Hello moms & dads...
Despite our VERY (and I mean VERY) best efforts to keep the kids out of the puddles today, many got wet and wanted or needed to change their clothes. Some of us didn't have the items we needed, and borrowed from very kind friends. If your child came home wearing something that was not their own, please ensure that it is returned to school on Tuesday and we will try to get things returned to their rightful owners. It also might be time to replenish the extra clothes supply - especially if things have come home needing washing. I expect there will be many more wet days like this...

I also forgot to mention, though you may have heard from your gymnast, that for the next week, our gym teachers will be running their annual gymnastics unit. The gym will be transformed to include climbing bars and ropes, a balance beam, those bouncy things you jump off and much more. It's a really exciting unit and I'm always jealous that I don't get to participate.
In order to participate fully in all the gymnastics activities, students will need to have some exposed skin to properly and safely grip the equipment. This means shorts and a t-shirt, and we will remove our socks. Long hair should also be tied back. Obviously, we still need kids to be prepared for winter weather, and we also don't want to use half their gym time changing. Therefore, please send students in layers so that they can just remove their long pants and sweater when they arrive at gym. Our gymnastics days will be: Feb. 20, 22, 23. Heads up, we have a gym period on our very next day of school (Tuesday!!). Thanks for your help!

Finally, in some interviews tonight, I've asked if parents are using this blog to keep up with all our classroom events and activities. I know it's not easy to remember to check it all the time. If you are reading this from your phone, you will not see this option. But, if you access the blog from a computer, you will see a field in the top-right where you can enter your email address. After a quick confirmation email, the blog will start emailing you automatically every time I post something new. It's a great feature that I hope you can take advantage of, if you don't already.

Happy Chinese New Year and Happy Family Day!!

Joyeuse St. Valentin!

Our class had fun celebrating Valentine's Day today. We started out learning some new thematic vocabulary in the message (see below) and ended with a special concert by Mirabel's dad - who has also agreed to accompany us at our concert!

In between, we had our much-anticipated card exchange, which was very cute. Yesterday we all decorated paper bag "mailboxes" so that we would have a place to collect our cards.

Over the last week, Mme Dominique has worked with the kids to make some cute heart-shaped books. They contain drawings of their friends and what friendship means to them. Check out our heart tree when you come for your interview!!

In other recent fun, we listened to another oral story recently. In French it's called 'Loupscaroux', but I think many students recognized it from JK and knew it as 'The Gunny Wolf'. It's basically a tale of caution - I'm sure students can retell it to you quite well.
Anyway, immediately after hearing it, the children suggested we act it out! We had several wolves, flowers and petites filles. We also had a mother, and on our second try we also had a couple shopkeepers and a director! The actors did a great job acting their role and helping with the sound effects and little song. Mme Dominique got some pictures for us!

Maman tells the petites filles that they should never go into the forest because there are des loups in there!

But one day, maman has to go run some errands. Au revoir maman!

Les petites filles want to pick some fleurs for their maman, so they go deeper and deeper into the forest. As they pick flowers, they sing a song.

 Les loups appear and ask the petites filles to sing their song again and again. It puts them to sleep.

When les loups are sound asleep, les petites filles run home and promise to never ever go into the forest again!

Some of us also enjoyed playing "Quelle heure est-il Mr. Loup?" outside last week.

Mots de la Semaine

je t'aime (I love you)

l'amour (love)

l'amitié (friendship)

un coeur (heart)

une bague (ring)

Goals & Interviews

Dear parents,
I hope you've had a chance to read over your child's report card and share it with them. Everyone is doing tons of great things, so there is a lot to celebrate.
We all have things we can keep working on. I have put some ideas in the next steps section of each frame. I have asked the kids to think about just one thing that they would like to focus on improving. We'll make this our new personal goal. I'll talk to each child about their new goal in the next couple days and we'll try to reconize their efforts frequently. Thanks for your support!

If you requested an interview, your report envelope will have contained a small slip of yellow paper with your confirmation. I was able to get almost everyone at one of their preferred times. If you are no longer able to meet at the time on your confirmation, please email me and we can reschedule.
I put our classroom as the place to meet, however, with daycare being there on both Thursday evening and Friday morning, I'm not sure that we will in fact be able to use our room. If we need to use an alternative space, I'll put a sign on the door and point you in the right direction.  

You also received, on Monday, a note about our next library outing, on Feb. 26th. Please let me know if you are able to join us. Many thanks!

Science!

Dear families,

As expected, we had a fabulous science workshop Thursday morning. Scientist in School presenters never fail to amaze me with the organization of their programs, their ability to connect with the age range, their materials and their well-planned, hands-on activities.
I hope you have already had a chance to ask your scientist about all the centres they went to, and what they did. Below, I have posted tons of pictures with some info about each centre so you can start a conversation, if you like. Check them out! Thanks again to our volunteer science teachers - you worked hard, to everyone for being on time, and to Scientist Janet, for facilitating this program for us.

Thanks for returning those interview forms so promptly. I will get time confirmations to you early next week. If you do not receive a confirmation from me, it is because I have not received a form back from you, and I'm assuming you do not feel a meeting is necessary at this point. Please remember that we can always chat on the phone or meet in person at any time throughout the rest of the year. Please don't hesitate to contact me.

I do need to take a minute to touch on our borrow-a-book program. From my view, I see the kids enjoying it, and being SO proud to stamp a star in their reading log.
However, it has come to my attention that, for some, the borrow-a-book program has not been the fun, pain-free experience that I had intended it to be. My understanding was that I was jumping on board the existing kindergarten train, and I know that past kg teachers have done daily book exchange. However, let's reduce it to once a week, which is what the current JKs do. From now on I will do mass book exchange on the last day of the school week (usually Fridays).
If you have established and have been enjoying the routine of reading in French on a daily basis, and would like to continue in this way, PLEASE email me and let me know. I am more than happy to facilitate this.

I should also review a few things:
- It's normal for your child to not be reading right now. My personal goal is for our students to know their French letters and sounds by the end of the school year. We're not done working on this.
- This routine is not intended to take up much time. I think my suggestion was 5-10 minutes. If you want to do more, go for it! If you want to do less, do less! If you don't want to do it at all, fine - there's no at-school consequence! You are the at-home teacher, and you know what's best.
- This routine is meant to be enjoyable for both students and parents. Goodness, I don't want to add any stress to your lives - I know how busy evenings are! I'm simply offering a way of building that home-school connection, and providing you with the resources to read with your child in the language of instruction.

If these points were not clear in my pink note, on the blog or in my little curriculum night talk, then I sincerely apologize. This is intended to be a positive initiative that builds responsibility, helps parents be involved, and reinforces the literacy work that we are doing at school. I don't feel like I'd be doing my job if I didn't encourage this, and I do try to get the kids excited about it. However, it is always up to you to manage your at-home time the way you see fit. As always, please feel free to contact me with any questions or concerns.

Alright... I have MANY pictures from our super-fun science workshop...

Centre: Meteorology
We learned about thermometers and how to use them. We watched the temperature change as we put the thermometer in hot water and cold water. We made pretend clouds and made it rain, measuring the rain in a rain gauge. We also learned what it takes to make a rainbow, tried to make an anemometer move with wind, and spun up our own tornados in a cool little toy.

Centre: Paleontology

We made our own casting of a dinosaur, using plaster. We made fossil rubbings, matched up dinosaurs with their skeletons, and dug for dinosaur bones in sand. We also got to look at some real fossils and shark teeth... I think.

Centre: Marine Biology

We made a fish print using a rubber fish and paint. We learned about flounder, how they move and why both eyes are on one side of their head. We looked at and touched lots of shells, and some starfish. We also learned a bit about orcas.

Centre: Chemistry

In test tubes, we mixed brown sugar with water and sand with water. We noticed the difference: sand sat at the bottom, while the sugar dissolved, forming a solution. We mixed baking soda with vinegar and witnessed the chemical reaction. It was super fun wearng lab coats and safety glasses and using measuring spoons and droppers to measure out the different ingredients!

Centre: Astronomy

We learned about constellations, including the big dipper and the little dipper. We got to view some constellations in a special "star tent" and designed our own constellations. We also learned about the North Star and how to find north using a compass.