Dear families,
It has been another busy week filled with workshops and activities. I have shared some highlights below. Here are some details about next week:
On Tuesday we are going to Dufferin Grove Park to celebrate the end of the year.
- We will leave shortly after 10:20 and will meet at that time in the kindergarten yard. Parents that are coming for the am or full day can meet us then.
- If you are coming for the afternoon only, please meet us at the park by the play area. We will walk back to school around 2:15.
- I have heard from several parents who intend to come, but weren't 100% on the times. You are welcome to just show up on the day, but if you already know when you can commit to being with us, it would be helpful to know in advance. Thanks!
- Other classes may do different things, but for Salle 202, we are not doing a potluck. This is a BYOL (bring your own lunch) situation. Please make sure your student has a substantial lunch, snacks and water bottle to keep them going all day.
- Please also ensure that your child is pre-sunscreened and dressed for the weather (hats are recommended).
- As the note explains, children are welcome to bring play equipment, so long as they can carry it on their own.
Tuesday afternoon, report cards will come home. If you'd like to meet with me once more before the end of the year, please let me know soon. I haven't made a secret of how important I think it is for students to be comfortable with the French alphabet before beginning grade 1. If you would like some summer materials to continue the great work you've been doing this year, I am happy to help. I can lend out some of our books, letter place mats or even little manipulatives for working with letters. Please let me know by Tuesday if you'd like me to send home a summer package.
Thank you for all the books you've been returning. Please keep looking around for any lingering school books. Thank you also for your contributions to yesterday's teacher appreciation lunch (I was stressed out over all the delicious food options) and the donations and promised donations to my future classroom. It is very greatly appreciated. We sent home a little gift to all the parents who volunteered with our class this year. I hope I didn't miss anyone. It is always a pleasure to work with such involved and supportive parents.
This week...
Thanks to some stocking donations, interested students were able to make their own cochon, as described in the book "Lili Tire-Bouchon". Ask your student to sing you the song about Lili and her pigs!
We participated in 2 workshops with X movement. I'm told this involved getting excited and then learning strategies for how to calm our bodies back down. Very useful learning.
I had SO much fun misting the kids with the hose!
Thanks to more donations of recycled materials, we finally built our structures using boxes, rolls and cones. We used glue and some helping tape to hold everything together and the builders got very creative. I didn't realize how amazing their creations were until they each presented what they had made, and what they described perfectly matched what they had constructed. I asked them to leave it at school for one more night so that we could write in their journals about what it is that they built. Today they have brought it home.
We wrote letters to our next teacher! Each student worked with me to write a letter to their grade 1 teacher. They wrote their name and age, their favourite colour, something they really like and something they'd like to do in grade 1. Each writer completed their letter independently. They used the morning message to fill in the date, our colour posters to spell their favourite colour, and I wrote their other ideas on the blackboard for them to copy. It's the most writing in one go that we have done all year, and not only did no one struggle, but nobody even complained. We are ready for grade 1.
Elodie's mom came back to share the presentation she created using our radio interviews and drawings that we did back in May. Most of the drawings represent poems that we have learned this year (we brought these home after viewing the presentation on Tuesday). Recently, we have learned a few more poems that are longer and more challenging, but also a lot of fun. Please ask to hear "Kati Katère", "Bonjour, je m'appelle Joe" and "La maison de Jacques".
This is a fantastic presentation and an amazing souvenir from this year. You can view it using the password amies. Merci Kalli et Zack!