You may have heard about 2 collections going on at school right now. Perhaps you can help with one or both.
1) The gym teachers are asking for donations of any old sports equipment that is in relatively good condition, but that you no longer use. Good examples are balls of any kind, baseball gloves, skipping ropes and hula hoops. Please be very sure that you won't miss having it! I believe there is a table in the entry way to the school where items can be dropped, or you can send them with your child to me. These items will support our school's DPA (daily physical activity) programs and be available for recess play.
2) The WE club is holding it's annual WE Scare Hunger food drive. We will set up a box in our classroom and hopefully everyone can contribute a non-perishable food item. In years past, we have heard that baby food or formula, peanut butter (sealed, of course), pasta and canned fish were especially helpful.
A reminder note came home Monday about our upcoming field trip. This Friday we are heading to the Hindu Temple to learn about Diwali. Here are the main points:
- Please be on time for school! We are getting on the buses immediately after attendance and we would hate to leave without you!
- All students and volunteers are asked to cover their arms and wear bottoms that fall below the knees.
- Please speak with your child about the behaviour you expect on the trip. Remember that we will be visiting a location where people will be praying. We must absolutely keep our voices to a whisper and listen carefully to our guide.
- Students will need their regular lunch to eat a bit later when we get back to school. I will bring our morning school snack with us on the trip.
- If you have a child who suffers from motion sickness, the bus ride might not be fun. Please let me know ahead of time so that I can assign them a seat near the front of the bus and be close by.
Halloween! I know the kids are really looking forward to it. We will have a fun day with lots of Halloween-themed activities, but it is still school and that's important to remember. Students are welcome to wear their costume to school on Monday but please leave any pretend weapons (devil's staff included) at home. As you know from the beginning of the year package, we are not distributing treats or candy at any time (birthdays or holidays) and this includes Halloween. Please do not send candy for the class. If you would really like to send something, there are some great, inexpensive, options at the dollar store (e.g., pencils, erasers, stickers, stamps, glow-bracelets). Please don't feel obliged to send anything, the students will all receive a treat from me.
Words of the Week
This week it is our grade 1s' turn to officially learn the second way to make the sound 'o'. We watched the grade 2s review last week that a + u = o. It only works with the letters in that order!
Grade 1: au, manteau, chaud, autobus, aujourd’hui
Bonus words: jaune, je sauteI don't usually focus our words around consonants, but there are some tricky ones, so this week, grade 2s are looking at a couple things:
'ph' - we can write an addition sentence for this too: p + h = f (just like English)
'g' - like in English, the letter G can be hard or soft, so we have some difficult decisions to make! There are some rules which can help us figure out which sound to use. If followed by E, I or Y, G is soft. If followed by A, O or U, G is hard.
I haven't shared these details with students - way too much to remember! What I suggest is reading the words both ways and asking the questions, "Does that make sense?", "Does that sound like a word that you know?". This is a good strategy for solving unknown words.
Grade 2: photo, éléphant, grand, horloge, regarde