Re: School Newsletter

At the beginning of the school year many families signed up to receive school info electronically through the Dewson Blog. The office has informed us that we will not be distributing paper copies of the school newsletter, as it is accessible on the blog (in the 'Favourite Links' list). If you would like a paper copy, they are available in the office. I can grab one and send it home for you if you let me know.

Tamara

Vision & Hearing Clinics

Dear at-home doctors,

Once again, Dewson will be hosting a vision and hearing clinic just before the winter break. Whether you have your child's vision and hearing tested through this clinic, or by taking them for regular check-ups with your family doctors, I think it's a really important thing to do. It's surprising how many problems (e.g., reluctance to read, unsure of letter sounds, seeming to not understand instructions) can be solved simply after a thorough check-up.

If you would like to take advantage of the opportunity here at Dewson, please return the form with payment as soon as you can. Thanks!

December Scholastic is coming home today as well. We should have our orders on time for the holidays, so again, if you would like to place a secret order, please indicate that on your forms or envelope and I'll let you know when it's in.

Tamara

Owl Pellet Dissection

Last week a few students had the messy job of taking apart the owl pellet that we found at High Park, and trying to identify the critter that the owl had eaten based on the bones. Sadly, there was only one bone big enough to identify in the pellet (a leg and foot with claws), but we all had a chance to look at it and make our best guess at what the animal may have been. We looked at some charts, borrowed from the grade 4s, to help us with this. The kids wanted to have a closer look, so here you go:

Ask your child what safety procedures the scientists followed to make sure that this activity was done safely!

Words & Sounds

My apologies, I forgot the words of the week again yesterday. So forgetful!
They are:

dans, froid, enfants, si, de

This week we are working on the sound ç, which makes the 'sssss' sound. The little funny thing under the c is called la cédille, so we call the letter c-cédille. Without the cédille, a c in French can make either a hard or soft sound ('k', or 's'), but we can memorize that with a cédille, it always makes 'sssss'.

Some words that have c-cédille include: garçon, ça, français, balançoire and glaçon (ice cube).

Today we did our November dictée. Look for the rubric tomorrow. The expectations were very similar to last time, just with the addition of the sounds we've learned since then and a few words that we see all the time.

Growing & Shrinking Patterns to Show Off!

Happy Monday!

First of all, I'm very pleased that children have been remembering to exchange their borrow-a-books when they're ready. Thank you for your help from home. The kids have sometimes been choosing these books during their silent reading time and I can see that they've learned some new words. Today they all came to school talking about the cold weather in French - what a joy to hear them speaking French to each other a little bit!

This afternoon, the mathematicians are bringing home some math work from today. As you know, last week we were learning how to build, identify, and label a growing pattern or shrinking pattern. This is a fairly complex concept for grade 1, and something that will help us with skip-counting now, and which the kids will continue to work on in grades 2 and 3. I'm really thrilled at how well they've done with this tricky work.
Today they built and labelled their own growing and/or shrinking patterns. They had materials to build with, were able to work in partners, and they had our examples from last week in front of them for spelling and vocabulary, however they had little help from me. I wanted you to see how your child did on this independent work, and in some cases, I've given them a hint for how they could complete it to bring it to the next level. We discussed how level 3 was to build good patterns that follow a growing or shrinking rule, but to get to level 4, you actually needed to write out the rule the way we practiced last week. If you'd like to complete this with them at home, or challenge your child to make another pattern, please go ahead. There's no need to send the sheet back unless your child would like to show me how he/she has improved his/her work. Bien fait mes amis!
  Commence par 2 et ajoute 3 chaque fois.

In language for the next little while, we are going to be working on writing letters. We already wrote our first class letter to Mme Hardy, and she replied! We have talked about 5 different elements that we have to include to make a complete letter. Ask your child if they remember what they are, in the correct order. Later this week, students will get to try their hand at a letter of their own. Ask them who they plan on writing to first, and why!

Beautiful Artwork!

Salut!

I know I've already shown you this sound, but this week we are looking at the 2 other ways to make the sound "ay". This is by using -ez or -er on the end of a word. This is quite common, particularly -er, as it is the infinitive ending of many verbs (e.g., manger, marcher, parler, sauter, jouer). We also found -ez on the end of the word nez.

In math, we're working on our last types of patterns before our check-up: growing and shrinking patterns. These are difficult patterns to define, because the pattern is in what is added or taken away in the creation of the next term. For example, in the pattern 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, the rule is to start at 2 and add 2 each time. We have been practising identifying and writing the rule for this type of pattern, as well as following a rule to create a growing pattern. This is a much more complicated type of pattern than we worked on in the last 3 weeks, and would indicate that students have really mastered the skills in this unit. We will do a quick check-up on all our patterning skills next week.

Not one to put off my favourite holiday, we have begun decorating our class with some holiday art.

 

Our resident artist, who has created several beautiful murals on our whiteboard, explained to me the challenge of creating white, when the background is also white. Many Area 24 artists took what I learned and applied it to their paintings, filling their entire page, leaving white space where necessary (e.g., to make the snow visible). Our Principal commented on how beautiful the paintings are!

Borrow-a-Book

Hi parents,

I've met with most of you now for our first formal interview. It was great to talk to you and really nice to know that you're still interested in doing a little bit of extra review, where needed, at home. Thanks for being so supportive!

I mentioned to most of you that our borrow-a-book program would begin today. This is what I explained at Curriculum Night, and I have now explained it to the readers. They know it is their job to exchange their books and keep them safe in their pochette, with the tracking log. However, it is your job to monitor their reading, help them here and there, and sign-off on books they have mastered. I have sent home a long page of information on this program, and tips for practising. This can also be found below.

It is also Monday, and that means new words of the week:

mardi, lu, vu, en, il

Aside: The kids knew all these words, except "en". We haven't learned this sound yet, I switched it for a different sound that I thought we needed to learn earlier, but I forgot to also switch it on our words of the week sheet. I taught them how to say it this afternoon. It's kind of like the sound you make when saying "huh?", kind of a nothing sound with the influence of 'n', but you never close on the 'n'. The word can mean in ("Mon anniversaire est en mai.") or can be part of the phrase there are ("Il y en a 7.")

Lastly, don't forget that Thursday is pizza day. If you didn't order this time, please be sure to send a lunch, and everyone will still need snacks and maybe a drink.

Here is the borrow-a-book letter that came home today:

Borrow a book – J’emprunte un livre

In addition to our Words of the Week, our borrow-a-book program, is now ready! 

How it works

Your child now has a small tracking log in their communication pocket containing a list of books. We are beginning with simple books that usually have a pattern to them, making them easier for beginning readers to read and understand. Your child is responsible for bringing home books from this list, which are kept in colour-coded drawers in our class. 

Once you’ve worked on a book at home (see suggestions for reading), please initial beside the title in the tracking log. Then, your child is responsible for bringing the book back and exchanging it for another from the list.

A good guideline is to read 2 books a week, but some children will need more or less time on each book and that’s ok. I will suggest that children exchange their books every Monday and Friday at the end of the day when we prepare our communication pockets. That way, you will have something to read over the week, and something to read over the weekend. However, children may exchange their books at anytime.

Please help your child keep track of the book they have taken. It should stay in their pocket or other very safe place in your home. We have a very limited number of books!

Once your child has worked with every book on this list (indicated by your initials), I will add the next list of slightly harder books and we continue in the same way.

Suggestions for reading

Start by looking at the pictures to make sense of what’s happening. Ask your child to predict what the book is about. This will contribute greatly to your child’s understanding of the text, and that’s very important since the words themselves may be new.

Looking at the pictures can also help us guess a word that we do not recognize.

Refer to the blog to review the sounds we have learned and search for them, or other familiar words (such as the words of the week), in the text.

Have your child point to each word as he/she sounds it out. Cover parts of words to isolate sounds that you know we should know!

After reading, ask questions like What patterns can you see in this book?, What do you like/not like about the book?, Does this remind you of anything you did?, Does it make you think of anything/another book?

Make sure your child has understood what the book was about – this is just as important as being able to say the words correctly!

Make it fun by having your child read to their teddy in bed, or over the phone to grandma.

Record (or video) your child reading it, and then let him/her listen to the recording over and over!

You or your child can make a simple word search using words from the book. Ask your child to read each word that they find.

Play hangman using words from the book.

Read the book using different voices (in a whisper, with a fun accent…)

Read the book to your child and let them correct you (they love this!)

The important thing is to read the book many times so that your child is building their vocabulary and developing confidence as a reader. These are just some ways that you can keep it interesting when you have to read the same book 27 times, but feel free to think of other cool ideas as well!

Reminders

Please keep the tracking log in the communication pocket.

While it is ok to colour a page or two in pencil crayon, please make sure that your children do NOT use markers or pens in the books. Many hours from patient parent volunteers went into copying, folding, stapling and labeling each book and we need to treat them carefully.

Again, please help your child take responsibility for returning their book once they are through with it. We can’t afford to lose them! 

Thank you for your time in progressing your child’s French reading and comprehension skills.

Tamara Mitchell 

Such a great day!

Wow, what an amazing trip! Our TTC rides to High Park and back went very smoothly and our program was fantastic. A big thanks to our parent chaperones for being so helpful and making the trip so easy for me, and to the kids for being super well-behaved all day!

Our program began with a discussion about High Park and the animals that live in it. Then we discussed different adaptations that animals have to deal with the cold winter months ahead. We learned about 4 different ways that animals prepare for winter:
1. Hibernators (e.g., groundhogs)
2. Catnappers (e.g., chipmunks)
3. Migrators (e.g., butterflies)
4. Tough-it-outers! (e.g., foxes)
Ask your scientist what these terms mean and what these animals do. Do they store food for snacking? Grow extra fur? Store extra fat on their body? Fly to warmer climates?

Since many animals need to gather and store extra food at this time of year, we continued by making animal pizzas. Each student needed to gather the favourite foods of their animal to put on their pizza. So, once our dough was ready, we went for a hike to search for those ingredients and look for signs of animals.
On our hike we found mushrooms, berries, acorns, maple keys and seeds. We learned about different types of trees, leaves and the secret river running under the visible river we saw.
We learned about three warming strategies of chickadees and played a game where we pretended to be chickadees and had to use those strategies to keep warm. Ask what those strategies were!
In the group I was with, one scientist found an owl pellet - what an owl coughs up after a meal - incredibly interesting, and we were able to guess what the owl had eaten. We got to keep it and bring it back to school so that we can look at it again!

If you haven't already heard all about our trip, please ask about it this weekend.
Have a great one,
Tamara

 Why is this turtle named Houdini?

Report Card Etiquette

Hello families,

Today you received your student's progress report. I explained the different sections to the children today so that they can begin to understand what their progress report is all about. Side 1 focuses on learning skills - things that we have to do in order to be good learners, such as listening, working together, staying focused and taking responsibility for actions and materials. Side 2 focuses on what we are learning, how we're progressing with our reading, writing, math, and other subjects.
At this point in the year, I think it's really important to focus on the learning skills section. It is very difficult to make progress in subject areas if our learning skills are lacking.
I also explained what the letter grades mean. E is for Excellent, which really means that you're doing a great job all the time. G is for Good, which means you're doing well most or all of the time, but there are small ways in which you could improve even more. S is for Satisfactory, which means that sometimes you're doing just fine, but other times you need to be reminded, so keep working on it. N means that you need a lot of help with that skill, so make this your goal going forward.
My hope is that all children will read their progress report with their parents and decide what area they want to work on. I have given my opinion of next steps in learning skills, language and math, so those are things to consider as part of this discussion. If you would like suggestions for how you can help with those things at home, please bring this up in our interview.
Finally, there are a few etiquette rules around report cards that will be true for every report this year, and in future grades as well. Here is what I explained to the children:
1. Do not open your report card envelope until you are with a parent or guardian.
2. Your report card is private. Do not share your marks with friends, this doesn't make either person feel good.
3. Keep your report, but please return the envelope (signed) so that we can reuse it for the next report.

Also in your envelope you will find your interview confirmation. It's a small piece of paper, so dig to the bottom. I hope that your time works for you, but if not, please let me know ASAP. I have scheduled 20 minute interviews, which should give us plenty of time to talk. I will do my very best to watch the clock so that you can make your next appointments and so that we can get out of the school on time for the caretakers. If we need more time, we can always schedule another appointment. Finally, if you would like to bring your child, please feel free to do so. They are very welcome to join us.

Now then, there are lots of other things going on this week, beginning with yesterday's Remembrance Day activities. Dewson put on a beautiful assembly and all the students were really well behaved. I was impressed. After lunch, we had a very special visit from a World War II veteran, my own grandpa. I hope you've heard about this already, but if not, please ask about all the interesting things we learned about his experience in the Navy. For example, he mentioned that one time their radar seemed to be showing that there was a submarine nearby, so they set off some explosives, but it turned out to be a huge school of fish, so, out they went in their lifeboat and everyone had fresh fish for dinner!
- Why did Mr. Lowens join the Navy, rather than joining the Air Force, or the Army?
- How old was he when he joined?
- What was the most serious thing that happened to Mr. Lowens' ship?
- What was Mr. Lowens' job?
- Were there girls in the Navy?
- How many people were there on Mr. Lowens' ship. How many cooks were there?

For me, this was a special treat, as my grandpa is not very talkative and much of what we heard yesterday was new for me too. Once again, the children were very respectful, asked great questions and were very thankful towards Mr. Lowens, and Mr. Mitchell (his chauffeur).

This week gets even more exciting Thursday with our first field trip. Please look for the reminder note tomorrow evening with info on what to wear and pack. In addition, the book fair is on for the rest of this week. I hear there are some French books available, so have a look when you're here for your interview. Next week we have another pizza day, and the forms that went home today are due Monday (I suggest sending them this week so it's not forgotten over the long weekend).

On to classroom news...
In the craziness of yesterday, I completely forgot to hand out the words of the week. Sorry about that. The kids have them today, and here they are just in case:

est-ce, que, lundi, des, avec

This week we are working on the sound 'é'.
The accent on this 'é' is called un accent aigu (pronounced "ay-gu"), and it changes the sound of the 'e' from what we learned before (bleu) to the English 'ay' sound. Most of the kids knew the sound immediately as soon as they saw a few words that they recognized with that letter in it, but it'll be exciting to start seeing it in their writing, where so far they have usually used the letter 'a' when they needed that sound.

Here are some common words that use it: éléphant, bébé, été, fée, étoile, idée

Lastly, in our patterning unit, we have been working on making and identifying patterns that have 3 pattern rules, for example, colour, shape and size. Here are some pictures of the mathematicians at work:

Next we are going to see how we can turn a picture pattern into a number pattern!

Finally, I have to say Bravo to every single scientist for having their homework complete and at school today. Thank you, parents, for being at-home teachers and ensuring everyone was ready for our discussion today. We shared our ideas, and I've sent them home to ask you about insulation if you didn't already talk about it!

See you later this week,
Tamara

Hello Centres!

Hello at-home-teachers,

Thanks for all the interview forms. I think I've created a schedule that works for everyone. I'm just checking with your other children's teachers, and then I'll send home a confirmation. If you can't make your time, please let me know or call the school office ASAP. Thanks!

Now, in grade 1 there isn't normally any homework beyond working on reading, however, I didn't think you'd mind helping out with a bit of a science "research" project. Yesterday we were talking about how people use clothing to prepare for the four seasons. We did a sorting activity, placing various  clothing items and accessories into hula hoops representing the seasons as a way to discuss how we change the way we dress to suit the weather and the activities we do at different times of year. Another way that people protect themselves from the elements is shelter, our homes. I've asked the scientists to investigate their home to discover features that help keep them warm in the winter and cool in the summer. They already mentioned a few ideas - blankets, the air conditioner and the door. Other things you might hint at are windows, the insulation in the walls, the heater, fans and maybe a fireplace. I have marked the page in everyone's science duotang and the scientists should be able to explain what they need to do. They need to, at least, draw pictures of 3 or 4 things for each box. If you want to go a bit further and look up the French words, they can write them on the lines as well. My favourite online dictionary is linked to this blog, but you don't have to go nuts, we can do the vocab part at school. The main thing is for the kids to do their exploring and get their ideas drawn.

The next time we will need our science duotangs at school is Tuesday. Hopefully this gives everyone enough time to complete the activity. It shouldn't take too much time, and the scientists can bring it back as soon as it's done, but please by Tuesday at the latest so that we can talk about their findings!

Thank you for helping out!

You may remember that in the first day newsletter, I mentioned listening to reading as part of our routine. Well today we started using our listening centre and computer centre for the first time. We now have calendars for these centres, and children will get a turn at each around once a month. When it is their turn, listening to reading at their centre will replace their independent reading time. 

At the computer, I am teaching students how to navigate to the Centre Soleil (under Language Links). There, they select one of 3 animated stories that Carmen reads aloud while the words light up so that they can follow along. They can also work on the vocabulary in the story, and if they have time, do other fun activities in Centre Soleil.

At the listening centre, students listen to a story on CD while they follow along in the book. We listened to one together today, learning how to turn the pages at the cue, and especially how to use and carefully put away the materials. 

The students who had their first turn today did an excellent job using their centres, and the rest of the class did a great job focusing on their own books, without becoming distracted by the computers.

Ask your student about these 2 centres and keep checking to see if they've had their first turn!

Finally, we just finished reading a pretty hilarious book about an owl named Hulul. In each chapter, Hulul has some kind of funny problem, and he usually comes up with an equally crazy solution. I think the kids enjoyed the book as much as I did. Please ask them about Hulul and what kinds of silly problems he had!

Have a great weekend!

Interview Form

Our new words of the week are:

bonjour, amis, aujourd'hui, petit, a

We didn't make flashcards at school, but I told the kids that I hope you will still make them at home, as I think it is a great way to practice. This week, we have words that we see frequently in the morning message, so it shouldn't be a huge stretch to memorize them.

Our newest sound is:

'ou' makes the English 'oo' sound, as in "Boo!" Don't confuse this with the French 'u' vowel, which makes a very tight, nasal sound. This 'ou' is more relaxed and much rounder.

We met lots of words that contain 'ou' today, such as: pou, poule, loup, ours, hibou, trou, iglou

Ask your reader about the poem that had all these words in it!

In addition to the field trip forms and any Scholastic orders (both of which are due Thursday), you should now also have your interview request form to fill in and return. Interviews will take place next week, in the days after you receive the Progress Report (Tuesday).

By now, probably your child has passed this message on to you (I explained this to them in detail in the hopes that you would get this message earlier), but please fill out the back side of the interview request form, not the front. This way you can select specific times that work well for you. I can't make any guarantees, but I'll certainly do my best to accommodate everyone. The sooner you can return the form, the better your chances of getting your first or second choice! On the same form you can let me know what area(s) your child's sibling(s) are in so that I can coordinate your interviews with that teacher. If you can't make it next week, just write me a note and suggest another time. I'd really like to meet with everyone so that we can share the good things we're seeing, and decide what we want to work on moving forward.

While you're at school for your interview, check out the Book Fair in the library! The book fair will run all next week, including Friday morning during interviews. If you feel they are able, children can bring some money to school to purchase something (although I think the books are all English this time). However, probably better to come with them if you can - then you know the book is at the right reading level.

Thanks for all the mail this week! I enjoy school mail!