It's time for a big update. Hope you're ready!
I have to say, I'm very happy with our class' progress so far. In September, it's important to get the routines right so that we build a good foundation for the year. The whole class is getting used to lining up in the hall when we come and go, cleaning up quickly, pushing in chairs and almost everyone has their pochette every day. Today we made it to 10 solid minutes of focused silent reading, and our class helpers have now rotated and everyone is learning what their new job is.
This week, students were greeted with new desk places and learning spots on the carpet. Previously, they had been sitting where they liked, so long as they were able to listen. Now that I know them (and they know each other) a bit better, I have attempted to mix them up a bit and place people at desks, and in carpet rows, where they can do their best listening and learning. They are probably not beside their best friend, but hopefully beside a new friend, and someone that they can work well with. No place is ever forever, they change as the need arises. Ask your listener who they sit beside and how they sit to show they are really listening!
I'd like to give you a little peek into what we are working on in each subject area at the moment, in the hopes that you can talk about it, and maybe do a little practise at home. But first - a few reminders and upcoming dates!
1. If you would like to order any books from the Scholastic catalogues distributed the first day of school, please return the orders by TOMORROW (Thursday). Thursday is also library, so please make sure your child has his/her books ready to return or renew.
2. Once again, if your child is able to leave running shoes at school for gym, please let them know that they can do so. We have a bin to keep them in.
3. Picture day is coming up October 1st. I don't think we have gym that day, so feel free to dress up!
4. Curriculum night is Thursday, October 3rd. This is a really neat night where you get to see our classroom and lots of your child's work. You're welcome to bring your student with you and they can be your tour guide. In addition, I will have some up-to-date info on our schedule and other details. Please plan on coming if you can!
5. It might be a good idea to check in with your child about the amount of food they are bringing to school. I think a few kids have been wishing they had something left at afternoon recess. Also, our lunch supervision team has asked if we can all try to be as litterless as possible to help with the smoothness of our dual-track lunch. Thanks! (By the way, thanks for all the snack money - the lunch lady collecting was very impressed with our class!)
Language
In French, we have begun working on the vowel sounds, beginning with 'a' and 'e'. We are pretty good at reading one-syllable words containing these vowels, so when we read the morning message, I let the kids handle any words that have those sounds. We do little activities like finding words with the letter, writing them on post-its and then sounding out all the words together, looking at flashcards that combine one consonant with the vowel (e.g., "ba", "da", "la", "ja", "ma" etc.) and circling, or using a pointing tool to hunt for the letter in the message or little poems. You can do similar activities at home in the French library books your child brings home. Ask your reader to find a word with the sound (or letter) 'a' or 'e' in it, and then help them sound it out.
We have been introduced to many of our workbooks and how we will be using them. We have a printing book where we are practising our neat letter formation - you can have a look during curriculum night. We have personal dictionaries where children print and draw a picture for high frequency words. We will add words about once a week, and I have explained that children are free to get their dictionary anytime that they would like to spell a word that they have put in there. We also have a journal where we will start writing sentences based on sentence starters and a choice of endings, and eventually try inventing our own French sentences when we are a little more experienced. We did our first entry today and learned all about writing the date at the top and how to use the pink and blue lines to write neatly. Can't wait for you to check this out!
In addition to their personal dictionaries, we have a poster for each sound that we will study this year, and a word wall where children can look to help themselves spell words (in addition to all the posters around the room). The kids will be helping me add words to the word wall as we work our way through the vowel sounds and a lot of the words are on magnets so that the kids can actually take the word to their desk when they need it. That said, what I really want is for each child to begin feeling like a writer, so correct spelling will really take a back seat as we learn our sounds and do our best to use them.
Math
This month we have been focusing on counting skills. We will be working on our French counting regularly throughout the year, but at the moment, we are mostly working on 0-20. We started with lots of counting games, for example, counting different objects in our classroom, passing a bean bag around while counting, playing number bingo and showing off our forwards and backwards and even eyes-closed counting! I want to make sure that we are able to match a number to it's name (e.g., 3 = trois) and that we know how much each number represents. These are good skills to practise at home. You can ask your child to count groups of anything (blocks, spoons, shoes) and tell you how many there are in French as well as write the number to practise making that connection (there are some tricky numbers in the teens).
This week, we have continued counting using coins. We looked carefully at the pictures on all our Canadian coins so that we would be able to identify them and what they're worth. We have begun trying to create different amounts using the various coins, and in some cases, different ways of making the same amount. If you have a jar of coins at home, that's an AMAZING teaching opportunity! Whip it out and ask your child to count out 7 cents, 19 cents, 25 cents, or 10 cents four different ways! (Sometimes what I do is put prices on little toys and ask students to pretend to buy something by making the correct change - they really like that!)
Next week we will complete this unit by working a bit on "de plus" and "de moins" (more than and less than) problems. We will be counting up or down from numbers up to ~10 as an introduction to addition and subtraction, which we will come back to later in the year.
Social Studies
As you know, we have been talking about roles and responsibilities this month. Typically our Social Studies units consist of a lot of read-alouds followed by class discussions, and drawings to show understanding or a personal connection. We have already talked about our roles at school and at home, and we have begun to discuss our roles and responsibilities in the community. We will continue to talk about how our roles change over time as our families change, and we grow up. Clearly, this is an easy unit to connect with at home, as we all have a role and responsibilities within our family and I'm sure you talk about this type of thing all the time anyway.
In October we will switch over to Science and talk about the days, months and changing seasons.
Art
Our first major art project involves mixing colours. It is coming along nicely and should be ready for the bulletin board this week. We do lots of drawing and colouring in every subject, and since Saturday is the International Day of Peace, we've decorated and written a message on some lovely doves that should hopefully come home Friday.
OK, that's all my subjects. I do have a little info on music though, and that is that we are invited to join primary choir which begins in 2 weeks. It is during the school day (not recess), and will culminate in a lovely performance - more on that later. You may wish to chat with your singer about whether or not they plan on signing up, and what it means to commit to a group.
Alrighty. Hope that wasn't too long, and I hope I gave you a couple ideas for things you can try at home!
Have a great rest of the week,
Tamara
