More exciting things!

Dear families,

This week I am sending home notes about two more exciting events that are in the works.

For our current social studies unit on communities, we are planning a walk in our neighbourhood. This will take place next Wednesday, May 20th in the afternoon. As I have walking permission forms signed for every student, there is no additional form to fill out for this outing. If you have any concerns about your child joining us for this walk, please contact me.
During our walk, each student will be looking for a specific place in our neighbourhood (maybe a specific store, restaurant or park) and will be taking a picture of it. They will use this to help complete their portion of a class inquiry project. I'll explain a bit more at another time.

We are also extremely excited to announce that our class is preparing a concert and you are invited! We thought it would be really fun to share our plays with you before the end of the year, and also maybe show you what we've accomplished on the piano. Our concert will take place on Friday June 19th and we will present once in the morning and once in the afternoon so that we can accommodate all of you. An invitation with more details came home today. Please RSVP by May 29th so that we know how many guests to expect at each performance. Oh boy, we have a lot to do between now and the end of June!

This Friday is our trip to the symphony. Thanks to all the parents who volunteered to come with us. An incredible 75% of parents offered their help, and I was sorry to have to say no thanks to so many. If taking your children to see the TSO perform is of interest to you, please note that the TSO offers Young People's Concerts throughout their season. This is the last one for 2014-15, but keep checking their website for the 15-16 season. These concerts usually take place on Saturday afternoons and are designed for children aged 5-12 years. I don't remember very much from those years of my life, but I do have a very clear memory of being taken to Roy Thomson Hall and sitting close to the front when I must have been around grade 1 age. I remember I wore a green dress with pink roses on it and spent most of the time looking at my feet. It must have made an impression though, I ended up at music school! I hope the children enjoy this experience, and if so, I hope they are able to go again in the future!

We will leave around 9:30am Friday morning to make sure we are not rushed. Students will be leaving everything at school, including water bottles. We will have a snack before we leave and lunch as soon as we return. As I mentioned in the letter, it would be appropriate for us to dress nicely since this is a bit of a fancy venue. Putting on a nice outfit will likely help students to understand that this is a special experience and that their behaviour matters. I expect we will be some of the youngest students in attendance, but our plan is to show everyone else up with our preparedness and concert etiquette.

Monday you also received 2 notes about fundraising initiatives that are going on at Dewson. There have been a lot of different initiatives and causes that we have tried to support this year and we are lucky that we are able to learn about these causes and help others who are less fortunate. The experience of being charitable and understanding others' circumstances is valuable for the children, however we never want you to feel overwhelmed by the financial side of this. Please only give what you feel comfortable giving. There is no pressure on individual students to raise a specific amount of money. The Jump Rope for heart envelope is due June 4th, a week ahead of the event itself, which is June 12th. I am running this event this year and will put out another post shortly to invite you to be my number one helpers on this busy day!

Words of the Week

In our previous look at ‘ou’, we learned that “ou” means or. With an accent grave, it sounds the same, but the meaning changes. Now it means where or refers to a place.

“Je cours” (= I’m running) and “court” (masculine version of short) sound the same (both end with a silent letter). “Court” can also be part of the verb To Run, e.g., “Il court”.

où, nous, vous, la boue, la poule, août, 
le goûter, je cours, court, tout
Bonus words: fourchette, douze