Due to interviews and the book fair next week there are two important changes to our routine.
1. We will not have library next week. Normally we would have exchanged our books on Monday, but since the library will be set up for the book fair, this will not be possible. Please let your reader know that they can keep their current book for another week. We will arrange a time to go see the book fair, but we will not exchange our books until the next day 4.
2. Our next art workshop with Donnely will be Wednesday November 12th, as Friday is a PA day.
Thank you for returning the interview forms and for letting me know when you have some flexibility. It helps a lot! If you have not returned your form, please email or return the form Monday and I will do my best to accommodate your choices - the schedule is pretty full!
In our art workshop today, we used the primary colours to mix secondary and tertiary colours. Ask your artist how they made 3 different shades of each secondary colour!
Next, we reviewed what we learned about sketching and used pastel to sketch either an animal or a bouquet of flowers.
Finally, we used watercolour paints to paint right over our pastel sketches. The paint does not stick to the pastel (the technique is called "resist"), but it fills in all the gaps and creates a neat effect.
In the afternoon, every mathematician made their own clock with a moving minute and hour hand. They've brought them home so that they can continue to practice showing the time to the hour and half hour. We've pretty much mastered the hour now, but the half hour is still a bit tricky. We also talked about why it is important to learn to tell the time (for example, we need to keep track of time so that we're on time for important things like school and appointments). We made a list, complete with clocks, of events that we do every day at the same time, like starting school, eating lunch and finishing school. You can encourage your time-keeper to show you, using their clock, the time when you eat dinner, their bed time or just call out random times for them to make!
Now then, I'm sure you remember hearing about the Borrow-a-Book system at Curriculum Night. Today, all students are bringing home their first book along with their tracking log and a note with the instructions, ideas for practice and some simple requests for using the books.
I've explained everything to the readers, so they should know what to do, and they understand that they are responsible for returning and exchanging their books when they need to. I'll try to remind everyone as well, but since everyone will be reading at a different pace, it's up to the kids to get a new book when they complete the last one. A good time to do this is at the end of the day when we're packing our pochettes and bags.
When reading at home, try to find a time when your reader can really concentrate. I'm sure many families have bedtime story routines - keep that as a time for cuddles and pick a different time for working on reading. It's also very helpful to insist that your reader point to every word as he/she reads so that we start to make the connection between sound and symbol.
Please remember that YOU are the teacher when reading these books with your child. YOU decide when your child has really mastered it (can read every word without struggling). This may mean reading it once, or 15 times. Nobody should feel upset if it takes them a few tries to master a book, the important thing is that we improve our reading over time. There are ideas on the note that can help keep things interesting if you need to read a book over and over again. We have 6 levels of books in our class, beginning with Jaune (where we're all starting today) and I don't expect that anyone will get through all of them. Whatever we accomplish is just fine by me. It's not a race and there is no prize for mastering books the fastest. I loved that Soren said, "and remember, it doesn't matter what level you get to". Exactly.
The other thing of note is that, of course, we need to keep our materials in good condition. Students know they can colour on the books using pencil crayon if they wish, but please no marker or pen. Using the pictures is an important reading strategy, so we need to be able to see them clearly. In order to not lose any books, or our tracking logs, I've instructed students to please keep everything in their pochettes when not in use.
Thanks for your incredible support managing this system at home. It doesn't need to be time consuming, just a few minutes at a time is fine. Trust that these minutes are contributing greatly to your child's progress as a reader! The kids are excited to get started too!
Below is the full note that came home today. Have a great time with the first book!
Tamara
Borrow a book – J’emprunte un livre
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
ü
Please
keep the tracking log in the communication pocket.
ü
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.
ü
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.