Yay! I just got a magical phone call saying we got a deal!
It's so good to be back on here! We've been very busy in Room 211. Here's what we've been up to since you last heard from me.
French:
- We have worked on the vowels a, e, i, y and o. We are also learning about 2 additional ways to make 'o' sound. These are a + u and e + a + u. Point these combos out whenever you see them in words or books and ask your reader what they make!
- Each student has had an alphabet check-up with me, just so that I can see which letters we need to review. More recently, each has student has had another reading check-up where we sounded out some words that contain our sounds, and read a simple pattern book.
- We are working hard on our neat printing - forming each letter correctly within the pink and blue lines.
- We had our first and second dictées - you received the rubrics with an explanation of the task, and many students told me what their goal for improvement is for our next one coming end of November.
- We have practiced each of our literacy centres as a group and started using those centres during reading time about once a week. The centres are lire avec un partenaire (read with a partner), centre d'écoute (listen to reading), centre de dictée (word work), centre d'écriture (work on writing) and there is a teacher centre where I work with a group. Ask your reader how each centre works and what kinds of games we do when they are working with me. (see pics below)
- With Mlle Martinson, we began a narrative writing project which emphasizes the importance of illustrations. We are making sure our illustrations tell the story and then adding words later. Mlle Martinson is designing and teaching this unit - I think it's a neat project! Ask your illustrator what story their pictures are telling!
- Dewson is starting to use a program called "From 3 to 3" (age 3 to grade 3). This is a program that emphasizes oral language through the use of rhymes, songs and oral stories. All kindergarten and grade 1 classes have begun using the program this year. We have already learned several rhymes and in a short time, we have become such experts that the kids often lead them, rather than me. Ask your French speaker to teach you (with all the actions, of course) "La terre", "Voici une tasse" and "La lune"!
Lire avec un partenaire
Centre d'écoute
Des jeux de dictée
Letter recognition games (with Mlle L)
Presentations of the books made at centre d'écriture
Math:
- We did a lot of counting - by 1, 2, 5 and 10. We've gone up to 60 now, and we have some tricks for remembering the dizaines (tens). Ask your counter the trick for remembering the names for 30, 40, 50 and 60.
- We worked with money - identifying all of our coins and adding up amounts up to just over 20 cents.
- We worked with our math partner to solve some interesting questions, for example, how many ears do 11 cats have altogether? We named some of our helpful problem-solving strategies after the people that came up with them!
- Each student has had a counting interview with me just to see how things are going.
- In measurement, we began reviewing the months of the year and days of the week. We learned some song to help with this - ask your planner to share them with you! Each student has their own personal calendar in which we are writing important dates. These will come home soon and I really hope you and your planner can find a meaningful way to keep using them!
- Every student's height has been recorded so that we can see how much we grow over the course of this year.
- We started learning how to play many some of the math games that are available during free time and are used as centres occasionally... for example,
Bingo (with Mlle Martinson)
Dominos
Here we are sorting money - we all ended up sorting by picture or value
Science:
- We have been talking about seasonal changes including what we see, hear, smell and feel outside during each season, what we wear in each season, what activities we do in each season and what kinds of food we enjoy in each season.
- We worked in groups to build seasonal dioramas. We had to make sure the seasons were presented in order and that our team worked well to get the job done and solve problems nicely. They look amazing! Each scientist presented their season to the class in French and self-evaluated their teamwork.
- We have discussed in more detail how humans cope with the changing seasons, especially as we head into winter temperatures. Talk to your scientist about how your house keeps you cool in the summer and warm in the winter.
-We also discussed how animals deal with winter. There are 4 basic choices: stay here and tough-it-out, migrate, hibernate, or sleep but wake up now and then to eat. Ask your scientist about the different things animals do in winter, what animals do what, and how animals prepare their bodies for the winter!
Art:
- We used pastel to mix the primary colours into secondary colours.
- We made collages using only the primary colours, and we presented our work orally to the class.
- We made pine cone turkeys for Thanksgiving - hope you liked them!
- We used fall colours and Q-tips to make some gorgeous trees that feature the circle shape.
- Mme Welsh (the grade 4/5 and Core French teacher) visited our class to help us with a Halloween project involving looking at a face from two different perspectives. Ask your artist what their creation's name is!
- We have talked about different ways of moving our bodies.
- We have done some body awareness activities such as mirroring a partner and moving to music.
- We have started learning how to Waltz! (You heard me!) We started by just learning the basic step (ask your dancer to show you how they count to 3 twice and make a box shape), then we divided ourselves into "leaders" and "followers" and the followers did the same steps, but backwards in order to move the same way as their leader (holding hands of course). We are using the song "Edelweiss" (from The Sound of Music), as our accompaniment, but if you Youtube "Waltz", there are many other classics, including the very famous "Blue Danube Waltz" that you can listen and dance to at home! I do hope that your dancer didn't wait until now to tell you that they know how to waltz! They are doing amazingly well - please dance with them at home!
Music:
- We listened to the first of many musical stories that I will tell this year - Symphonie Fantastique by Berlioz. This 5-movement work sort of tells the story of Berlioz's own life. He loved an actress named Harriet, but for a long time she ignored him. In his music, she is represented by an idée fixe (fixed idea), or theme that keeps coming back. Every time we hear this theme, it means she's in the story, or the "artist" (code for Berlioz himself) is thinking of her. Berlioz tells the story from the perspective of an artist who has taken some medicine that gives him bad dreams, so the story gets a bit spooky in the last 2 movements, making it great for Halloween week! Please ask your listener to tell you the whole story!
To listen to it at home, click the links below. These videos describe some of what's going on in the story (though not in nearly as much detail as the kids could probably tell you having heard my version!).
Movement 1: Rêveries
Movement 2: Un bal (a Waltz! - hense my dance choice)
Movement 3: Scène aux champs
Movement 4: Marche au supplice
Movement 5: Songe d'une nuit du sabbat
- Mme Robinson generously provided us with a keyboard for our classroom! We haven't used it yet, but eventually we will all learn some simple songs!
- Archie and I brought in our violins and he showed us some of the parts and played a few rhythms for us.
Other special stuff:
- We have another student teacher! Mlle Liposcak (Mlle L) is from Niagara University and is with us 4 mornings a week until December. She has been great at helping facilitate our many many morning activities, in particular meeting with groups to play games and work on letters and combining sounds. We are so spoiled to have 2 excellent teacher candidates in our classroom this term. All the extra adults mean more attention for the kids.
- We had 3 special parent visits. Mme Leslie brought some autumn activities and made apple sauce with the children (which we ate and enjoyed). Mme Anderson talked to us about the voting process and set up a student vote using a real ballot box and ballots (we voted on where we'd like to go on a field trip later this year - ask your voter what was decided). Mme Leslie came again to do make some Halloween potions with the kids (assisted by Mme Rebecca & Mme Jennie). BIG thank yous to all parents for planning these activities and bringing all the supplies! Sorry I didn't get more pictures.
- Our student-nurses visited our class to do a presentation on hand-washing. We learned about the 3 places on our hands that are most often forgotten and three students volunteered to put fake germs on their hands so that we could inspect their hand-washing under a black light. They got them all!
- One of my goals for this year was to teach my class how to actually play many of the games that are available to them during free time. In the past, they have sat there unused because I didn't explicitly teach them! It takes many days to play each game with each table group, but so far we have learned how to play Uno, La Petite Araignée (a spinner game), Cherche et Trouve (an I spy game), Jenga and a board game that I'm calling "Chasse au trésor". It is nice to see students actually playing these games with each other during free time. Several students have also designed their own games and have made some incredible game boards!
- We completed our second social skills check-up. This time we built marshmallow towers and focused on teamwork. A rubric came home on that day.
- Students are now on their 5th classroom job (e.g., taking the attendance, carrying bins, holding the door, answering the phone). Ask your student what his/her current job is.
- Many of the children have been bringing items to show and tell. I enjoy show and tell, and any opportunity to see the kids speaking confidently in front of the group. However, since it often takes up a lot of our story time, we have decided to dedicated some time for show and tell on day 10 only. On other days, home items should stay at home. Thanks for your help with this!
Phew! See? Busy.
A reminder that our class' 10-day schedule was updated and sent home again mid-October. (I hear the school timetable might change once more - I'll let you know if it affects us.) We now have one period of music with Mr. Matheson (in addition to choir), and we know that gym will usually be outside on day 1 (at least). We actually have 2 gym teachers now, on day 1 we have Mme Burnett, who has just begun at Dewson, and the other two periods are with Mr. Ginestier - our grade 5 teacher - and he will be responsible for reporting. On non-gym/dance days we continue to have DPA with me, outside when the weather is nice. Please ensure your students come to school dressed for success! As we get into the colder months and more clothing is required, please try to have names in EVERYTHING! Our class has been pretty responsible about taking care of their belongings, but things do and will go missing. Names inside help a LOT! I will be teaching the class how to tuck their mittens, scarves and hats inside their coat sleeves when we have to take our recess clothes with us to other classrooms. You might like to reinforce this at home. I know winter gear is expensive!
Thanks again for your patience and support these last weeks. Glad things are back to normal.
Tamara
