Snow!

Dear Salle 101 families,
Finally some snow! We loved getting out the toboggans for a couple days, and getting to do some playing and building in the snow. Many children have been making baby snowmen and other creations, and I am looking forward to giving more toboggan rides when it isn't so wet. We haven't had too many wet clothing issues yet, but we have found that the fabric gloves don't really cut for playing in the snow. If you own waterproof gloves/mittens, those are best, otherwise we may need a few pairs of the fabric ones to get through the day. I do have some which I am also happy to lend out so that nobody has to put soggy mittens back on! Also, please check to make sure your student has indoor shoes at school each day. Ideally, they would leave them in their cubbies overnight. Thanks!
I've explained to our class, as have other teachers, that at Dewson we do not throw snow at each other. We know snowball fights can be fun and safe with fewer participants or a better kid-adult ratio, but at school we just have to have fun in other ways. If you could reinforce this from your end, that would be helpful. I think the kids are pretty clear on it.

We love experiments, and we love snow, so we spent some time brainstorming questions we have about snow and ice, that we might be able to answer with an experiment. Some of our questions are:
- Why does snow melt in the sun?
- Why do icicles form a pyramid-like shape?
- Why does snow stick to the grass?
- What happens when you bring snow inside?
- Does snow + water = ice?
- Where does snow go after it melts?

Stay tuned as we come up with clever ways to experiment with snow and ice in order to answer our own questions!!

Earlier this week, Mme Mitchell (my mom) visited our class and helped us start some cool snowflake art. We traced some snowflake templates with glue and sprinkled the glue with salt. The next day, we started painting the salt with watercolours.

This afternoon, we went to the library and listened to some funny books with a bit of a making mistakes theme, including, "This book is red" and "Did you take the B from my _ook?". 

This week, we began doing some simple subtraction, using number cubes and counters to create and solve some simple questions. We also have some math trays that are fun to use and present a challenge!

Before leaving, Mlle Sofia created for us, some beautiful little alphabet booklets. Each letter has a page and we are going to fill in a word we know that begins with each letter. We will try to do a word a day, but many students were excited to get started and added several words right away. Ask your writer which words they've added to their alphabet book!

Mme Diamond is still with us on Wednesdays for a couple more months, and she is planning activities for us each week. This week, she helped adjust our letter centre a bit, so that it can be a quiet calming zone with some mats, cushions and library books about northern places. We are calling this "le Pôle Nord", and students are welcome and encouraged to go rest at the North Pole if they are feeling upset, unwell or just need a break. Already a few students have used the North Pole effectively.

Some snowy words of the week!

La neige

La glace

Un flocon de neige

Un bonhomme de neige

Weekend Update

Hello Salle 101 families,
Everyone is back to school and we're all caught up! Students brought home their first green activity bag for 2019 last Monday, please remind them to bring it back after the long weekend. Merci!

Our newest poem - a long one - is the French translation of The old woman who swallowed a fly. It begins "Il était une vieille dame qui a avalé une mouche." Ask your student if they can continue the poem, or if they can tell you the order of the animals that she swallows. We made pastel and watercolour pictures of this poem. Here we are at work, and our finished product on the bulletin board.

This week, we completed our illustrations of the Loupscaroux story. This afternoon, students helped me retell the story while unrolling the illustrations one by one. Ask your artist which part of the story they drew!

This week, we set up some math centres to review patterns, shapes and counting. At my centre, we began adding by representing two numbers with counters, and then throwing in a + sign and counting everything up. Each student made their own flashcard of their addition question, and hid the answer on the back. We had fun testing them out this afternoon.

At centre time, students have continued to make flowers and extraordinary cakes out of play dough, and have used them in various parties and celebrations.

Several students are becoming quite interested in Chess. I am not the right teacher for this game, so if your students are interested, I do recommend the after school program that you received a flyer from!

We are still enjoying being outside each day, despite the cold. Thanks for sending all the accessories. I do make sure that the kids wear everything you send when we will be outside for extended periods.
I'm crossing my fingers that we get a pile of snow this weekend so that we can get out the toboggans and have lots of fun with snow. Some of us were already trying to look close up at some larger snowflakes, and we noticed they do have 6 points!

We were extremely sad to say good bye to Mlle Sofia this morning. It was her last morning with us after 4 months of having her daily support. To celebrate, she brought in juice and we decorated cookies during morning snack. We know Sofia will come back and visit when she has time.

Enjoy your long weekend!

Parent Rep

Dear parents,
It has come to my attention that we currently only have one parent rep for our class. It would be nice to have two. This role includes attending parent council meetings (there is one tomorrow - Thursday - evening), passing on information to other parents, and helping to organize some school events, as needed. I'm told by our Principal that, aside from meetings, he has only assigned one task so far, so I don't think it requires much time.
If you are interested in bring a rep for room 101 for the duration of the school year, please let me know and I will pass on your name to the office.
Many thanks!

Scholastic

Dear parents,
Scholastic orders for January are due tomorrow. I realize I have been terrible at recommending selections from the French catalogues. Here are a few good ones from this month:
- #22F5 "Les petits malheurs de David" - We've read a David story, and they are simple, funny and well-liked by this age group!
- #27F5 "Comptez les bonhommes" - A cute little winter math game to support learning French number names and symbols.
- #31F5 "Thelma la licorne" - Unicorns are a big deal right now. Whenever we sing "Sur le Pont D'Avignon", you better believe there's a unicorn on that bridge! Oh, and this comes with a stuffed unicorn.

Happy Reading!

Bonne Année!

Happy New Year!

I hope you all enjoyed some time off and are looking forward to 2019! We were completely spoiled by le Père Noël who left us lots of new drawing materials (which we had asked for), as well as lots of new toys for our classroom. We have enjoyed playing with them already!

It was a shockingly quiet week with many students still away, but we tried to take advantage of our class size by doing some activities that are easier with a small group. For instance, we played a version of Twister, using our learning carpet, where we had to touch various letters, numbers, pictures and colours all at the same time! We also learned some skipping games with Mme Diamond, and learned to make some play dough roses (later used in a wedding ceremony). We are looking forward to having all our friends back soon!

We also reviewed an oral story we had heard (Loupscaroux), acted it out, and then started draw it, each student working on just one part of the story. This will be a really cool retell when complete!

Above, the loups are falling asleep as the petites filles sing to them.

A note about our upcoming library outing was sent home on Thursday - please let me know if you can come. I also sent home the Scholastic packages for January. Any orders are due on the 17th (this did not make it on to your calendar).

We will begin our activity bag routine again on Monday. The activities are new, but the routine is the same. Bags are returned the following Monday whether or not you tried the activity (but I hope you do!). I showed the kids the new science experiment that I am testing today, and I think they are really excited to do it themselves.
A couple bags include little books to read, but whereas last term, you read the books to your student, this time, I hope the students will begin reading to YOU! This week we have been discussing some things we can do to help ourselves begin reading. The books I'm sending will be perfect for practising these strategies:
1. Look at the pictures. Do you know any of the things you see in French?
2. Look at the first letter of the word, what sound does it make? Maybe that will help you think of the word.
3. Before reading, look at each page. What do you notice? Do any words repeat?

Most books I send will have a word pattern. After you read the first page, I think you will be surprised that your student can read much of the rest of the book using this strategy.
We have practised all of these strategies in our reading group meetings this week, so I know your students will be prepared to show off their skills.
I hope you enjoy the new activities!

Here are some winter clothes words to review:

Un Manteau

Le Pantalon de neige

Les Mitaines

Un Chapeau

Les Bottes