We had a good visit to the public library on Monday. Thanks so much to the parents, especially those last minute recruits! Both the story (Bark, George) and the puppet show (Too Much Noise) were about farm animals - fitting in very nicely with the learning that we did with Mme Diana over the last month.
Too Much Noise actually reminded me very much of an oral story I told the class recently, called Le Lit de Grand-Mère. This week, we are reviewing the story again, and the class helped me create felt characters and props so that we can tell this story with felt illustrations!
Today, we set up a poster centre focused on saving the worms! This was inspired by some students who found dried up worms on stumps outside. They decided to do something about it! We put up our posters in our yard.
Today we also had a surprise visit from Mme Dominique. The kids were so happy to see her, many almost knocking her off her feet with excitement. It was cute!
We were pleased to find that many of our seeds began growing over the weekend. Many beans, the first thing we planted, are coming up. Several sunflowers from Santa are having a growth spurt, and every day more and more tomato plants are shooting up. We are tracking the growth of our two groups of tomato seeds, so each day, a group counts with me how many seeds have germinated from both groups. On Monday we had 8 from group J and 2 from group K. Now, on Wednesday we counted 15 from J and 28 from K!! Which ones are from Earth and which ones lived in space?
Blue can mean sad, tired, sick, bored or moving slowly. We may need a rest, a snack or a teacher's help.
Green can mean happy, calm, focused, ready to learn. We hope to feel green most of the time!
Yellow can mean frustrated, worried, silly, excited or a little out of control. It's time to slow down, calm our body and try to get back to green.
Red can mean angry, upset, mean, feeling like yelling, or out of control. It's ok to be upset. We need to find a place where we can share these feelings without disturbing others. Find a teacher quick if you're feeling red!
On Tuesday, we completed our May portraits. We are in the home stretch! At this point, I'm meeting with every student individually again to check their French alphabet letters. I'm interested in knowing if they can tell me either the French name or the French sound of each letter when they're out of order. This was one of my biggest goals for the year, and is something that we've worked on every morning for the entire year. As a grade 1 teacher, I did find that if a student was not confident with letter sounds at the beginning of the year, it was hard to catch up in the reading department. Therefore, I will make sure to let you know if it seems like a struggle for your child at this point. It gives you time to practice a little more at home before the end of this year, and over the summer. Rest assured, we are still practicing at school daily!
Thanks for beginning to send me the rock climbing permission forms. It may be easier to wait until you have all 3 items to return and then send it all together. I've received several permission forms without money or waivers. As long as you're aware that there is more stuff needed, I can keep track of the pieces. We are très lucky that this trip has already been subsidized 50%. Do speak to me personally if the $7 cost presents a hardship for your family.
Today, I've sent home a very small white slip to most students. This is a list of checked out books from our school library. If you can work on finding these and return them, that would be very helpful. If you're sure a book has been returned, please simply write a note and return the slip. I will pass this on to Mme Gaudreault. Many thanks.
Musical Hula Hoops
Mots de la Semaine
un tournesol (sunflower)
un haricot (bean)
le ver de terre (earthworm)
le jour
la nuit