Fire!

Here are a few pictures of our Fire Station trip!

You've got to see this!

The kids have been doing some dancing with Mme Janvier, and yesterday, they performed for me. It was absolutely the most amazing thing ever. I hope this video works for everyone!

Props needed!

Dear parents,

You have probably heard from your actors that we will be putting on a few short plays when you visit 2 weeks from now. A few children have offered to bring in some props that we need, and which they assure me they would be allowed to borrow from home. Any prop they bring in will be kept in our classroom until the day of the performance, so if you need it between now and then, please don't allow them to take it! What we need most is a variety of plastic vegetables - this is most likely what your child will be looking for, but there are 1 or 2 other things that specific people have offered to contribute.

We will also need some costumes. I have asked all the actors to bring in whatever costumes they have at home (from previous Halloweens etc.) that would work for any of our characters. We'll see what we have Monday, and anyone who doesn't have a costume will simply wear the right colour on the day of the performance, and we'll add a few details. There is no need to make or buy a special costume, though some children have ideas that they might ask for your help with. That's entirely up to you - I don't want it to be any extra work for the moms and dads!

If you could just do me the favour of asking your child if there's anything he/she is supposed to bring to school on Monday (costume or prop related) to jog their memory, that would be very helpful. Thanks!

The kids are all getting to be quite good at naming 3-D shapes - sometimes without even seeing it, but simply with a description of it's characteristics!
For example: I have two ends that are circular and I can roll. Who am I? (Je suis un cylindre.)
J'ai 4 côtés triangulaires et une base en forme de carré. J'ai un sommet en haut. Qui suis-je? (Je suis une pyramide à base carré.)
Today we identified and labelled 5 different shapes that we used in our recycled sculptures. Great work!

In French news, all our rough copies of our stories are done, and next week we will tackle the last step of the writing process: good copies! Every student will, or has, met with me to make some (we won't attempt to fix everything) corrections in our rough drafts and will copy it out in their neatest ever printing, and add some illustrations. We aim to have these ready to show you when you visit!

Avoir

Hope you all had a lovely weekend!

This week, we are practicing the verb avoir it its entirety. It’s helpful to speak and write different sentences that begin with the various forms of avoir. Don’t feel like you should only use my ideas!

The 10 reading words for the week beginning May 20^th are:

J’ai les yeux bleus.	On a mangé le déjeuner.
Tu as mon crayon!	Nous avons fini notre travail.
Il a mal à la gorge.	Vous avez bien écouté.
Elle a une corde à sauter.	Ils ont lu 2 livres ensemble.
David a un chien.	Elles ont les cheveux longs.

Scroll down for my previous post containing conversation ideas for this week!

Things to talk about...

Dear Area 24 kids & families,

If you're looking for some school stuff to talk about this weekend, here are a few ideas:

1) Discuss fire safety as a family. What should you do if there's a fire in the house? Where are the 2 best exits? Where is your meeting spot once outside?

2) If you are heading to the zoo or a museum, check out the map! Can you orient yourself on a map and find the right direction to walk to get where you want to go? We will be doing some mapping in class next week...

3) Talk about your stories. Most of us are just about at the end. How should the story end? Who solves the problem and how? What questions will the reader want answered?

4) Can you find some of the 3-D shapes we've talked about at home or outside? (For example, traffic cones, pillows, toys, balls, containers.) Can you remember their French names?

5) Review Avoir. Today we tried to recite the verb (the blue parts) quickly, and even with our eyes closed! We also wrote sentences using the verb avoir as sentence starters. Here are some examples, but you can end the sentence however you like. (The verb is underlined.) These will be our words of the week next week...

J'ai les cheveux bruns.

Tu as mon crayon!

Elle a une corde à sauter.

Nous avons fini notre travail!

Vous avez bien écouté.

Ils ont lu 2 livres ensemble.

Have a happy weekend,

Tamara

Trip = A Success!

We had a very exciting trip today to the Fire Station. The class was very well behaved both during the tour and on the way there and back. Thanks to our wonderful parents for your help!

I'm sure your children will be eager to tell you all about what they saw, heard, touched and learned. Please ask about it tonight and look for pictures soon!

Students were gifted a workbook and temporary tattoo from the Fire Fighters. They also have a pizza form which is due TOMORROW! Look for this tonight!

Have a fantastic long weekend,

Tamara

Dear parents,

There will be no words of the week this week since I'm home sick and wasn't able to leave them for the teacher. However, this week we will look at the rest of the verb 'avoir' (which we have focused on in the last few weeks of words) and do some practising in class. Please continue to review the words from the last week (J'ai, tu as, il a, elle a). 

Last week, students made good progress on their stories by starting to write their rough drafts. We discussed using the ideas that we put in our plan, but adding more detail to make it longer and more interesting. I've been blown away at the ideas and independent writing skills that I've been seeing. One of the hardest things about writing a story is sometimes expanding or stretching out ideas to make it a good read. See if you can get your writer to tell you about their beginning, middle (problem) and end (solution) of their story and ask questions that will help them think about details that a reader would want to know more about. For instance:

- what does that character look like?

- where do they live?

- how did they get from being enemies to being friends?

- how did the characters solve the problem?

- what happened after they solved the problem?

Here are some of the characters from our stories! 

With Mme Janvier, the class has started a dance unit, and I couldn't resist snapping a picture last week!

In Math this week we are starting our rather quick unit on 3-D figures. This is what we have been saving all those boxes for! We will be introduced to the difference between a pyramid and a prism, and we will learn to identify those and other 3-D shapes by their French name. We will use these shapes to do some building, so be sure to ask about this later in the week! If you have this type of old-school wooden building block, they are great for reviewing the names of 3-D figures (e.g., cube, cylindre, prisme a base triangulaire).

I've also found other cool examples of these shapes around my house (e.g., packages, stools, cushions). Take a look around with your geometry goggles on!

Finally, we will be doing a lot of reading about fire stations in preparation for our field trip which is coming up Thursday. Students don't need anything special, and volunteers should arrive at 12:45 so that we can leave around 1:00. Thanks!

Tamara

Please let me know!

Thank you for all the returns!

I am still missing several RSVPs for the June 6th open-house. I need to have these before I can respond to families that are letting me decide for them. I reminded all the kids again today, so please ask them if they need to return this. If you can't find the letter, a little note or email will do just fine. If you could get this to me by tomorrow (Friday) that would be most appreciated! Here is the information once again:

Area 24 Open-House

Dear Area 24 Parents,

Area 24 was fortunate to adopt a piano earlier this year. For several months now, Area 24 students have been learning to play, and in a short time, we have progressed from playing a simple 5-note scale, to reading music to learn simple, fun, songs. Students will soon be graduating and leaving Area 24’s piano behind. Before that happens, I thought it would be great for all students to have the opportunity to show you what they have accomplished on the piano. To this end, the students and I have been planning an open-house which will occur on

Thursday June 6th. In addition to piano performances, during your visit, you will be able to go on a guided tour of our classroom to look at some of your child’s recent work and art projects, as well as a few other surprises! We really hope you can join us on June 6th either in the morning or afternoon for this special open-house, hosted by your very own children. Parents, caregivers and close relatives are welcome. Please RSVP by Friday, May 9th so that we know how many guests to expect at each performance.

Hope to see you in May!

Mlle Mitchell

tamara.mitchell2@tdsb.on.ca

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Répondez, s’il vous plaît

Area 24 Student: _____________________

☐

Yes! We will attend the morning presentation from 9:40 - 10:40 am. Number of guests: _____

☐Yes! We will attend the afternoon presentation from 1:20 - 2:20 pm. Number of guests: _____

☐Yes! We can make ourselves available to come to either presentation.* Number of guests: _____

☐ Unfortunately we are unable to attend.*You will receive a note with your time as soon as RSVPs have been counted.

Les Mots de la Semaine

Happy Monday!

This week, we are reviewing a few “j’ai” and “tu as” expressions, and comparing them to “il/elle a” expressions. Il a is the verb avoir in the 3^rd person singular (“he has”). Children sometimes find it hard to understand that we use this structure whenever we’re talking about someone – not just when we say “il” or “elle”. This is why I have included several different options for how to use “a”. You can substitute with all of your family’s names during your practise!

The 10 reading words for the week beginning May 6^th are:

J’ai fini.	Je n’ai pas fini.
Tu as six ans.	Tu n’as pas six ans.
Il a mal à la tête.	La fille a un chapeau bleu.
Elle a les cheveux longs.	Le garçon a une bicyclette.
Tamara a un chat.	On a mangé le goûter.

We played a little game where I would say a sentence either to someone (e.g., "Tu as les cheveux bruns.") or about someone (e.g., "Malcolm a les cheveux courts.") and students would decide whether the 'a' had an 's' on it or not. We discovered that usually when we use proper names, we are talking about  someone, so we don't need the 's'.

We will soon finish up with our math focus on adding and subtracting. We could continue practising these skills forever, but we still have a few other units to finish up this year. I will continue to sneak in adding and subtracting questions whenever I can in all areas of our work, and hopefully you can keep reviewing at home as well. Today, using blocks to visualize subtraction questions was very helpful. I also made a colour-by-numbers activity for the kids, but I took out the numbers and replaced them with addition and subtraction questions that needed to be answered before the colour could be discovered. If you have time to make these, they're super fun to do, and it helps us with math at the same time! I googled "colour by numbers" to get started. Also see my list of math practise ideas from a previous post.

Don't forget - your RSVP, permission form, and Scholastic orders are all due Thursday at the latest!
Tamara

Sunscreen & hats please!

Hello parents,

We spent a great afternoon outside today rehearsing for our upcoming open-house (see post below). We were careful to spend time out of the sun, but we need to be prepared to be in the sun as well. Recently in science we discussed the harmful effects of the sun. Even on a cloudy day we noticed that our UV beads changed colour. In this lovely weather, I expect that we will try to do some of our work outside. Please ensure that your student comes to school pre-lathered with sunscreen. If you'd like them to keep an extra bottle in their bag (which they can apply independently) that's fine too. Hats are also very important for recess and other time spent outdoors!

Thanks!

You're invited!

Students have 3 important letters for you today. May Scholastic, a field trip form, and an invitation - all due back by next Thursday May 9th.

Our field trip will take place May 16th and will be to a Fire Station. We will need volunteers, so please check the appropriate box if you're interested in coming.

The invitation is to our classroom open house which will take place on Thursday June 6th. Mark your calendars! There is a morning and afternoon option so you can decide which time works better for you. I just realized that the print on the sheet is a bit difficult to make out. The times are:
Morning: 9:40 - 10:40
Afternoon: 1:20 - 2:20
If you would like to come, but are available for either time, please select the 3rd box and I'll write to you (on May 10th) to let you know which presentation needs more of an audience. Thanks!

There is more information on what the open house will entail in my letter, so I won't repeat myself, but we're very excited about it, and hope that each child can have someone at one of the performances. (Nannies & grandparents are welcome, especially if mom and dad are unavailable.)
I will also be looking for someone with the means to video the performances (1 in the morning and 1 in the afternoon). If you are able to do this for me, you can email me or jot a note on your RSVP. Thanks so much!

See you soon,
Tamara