Bonne Année, salle 211!
I trust everyone had a wonderful holiday. I've heard some stories and look forward to hearing more tomorrow.
We are diving right back into our work and reviewing our rules and routines. You may like to take the time to review our 4 class rules with your child since we have all probably gotten out of some of our good habits over the break. Here are our 4 very simple classroom rules again:
1) J'écoute (I listen and sit appropriately in order to do this without bothering others)
2) Je participate (I participate and try my best)
3) Je suis gentil (I am nice and encouraging toward myself, my friends and gentle with our classroom materials)
4) Je dis des mots gentils (I say kind words to myself and others)
Here is what's in store for the near future subject-wise:
In French, we are going to start this week on some procedural writing. I usually find this genre to be fairly accessible and fun since we can talk about recipes, instructions for a game or craft, and there is a specific structure to follow. Try to show your writer a set of instructions that they can follow (like we did with the cookies) for some extra reading practice!
Words of the week are continuing right away, and are listed below. At this point in the year, I usually start increasing the number of words per week since we have grown so much already as readers and know a ton of French sounds. I won't be doing this for grade 2s, but it might be a good idea to add an extra 5 minutes/day of French reading or sound word practice. We are ready for this!
In math, we are continuing for just a couple weeks with our graphing unit (my favourite!). Right now we are working on collecting information and representing it using either a pictograph or bar graph, both of which were introduced in December. Soon though, each student will get to plan their very own unique survey and represent their findings in an organized way as their cumulative project in this unit. Here are some students asking practice questions and working on diagrams before the break! Ask your grapher how to get a niveau 3 or even 4 on a diagram.
In science, grade 1 students will begin investigating materials and structures. We will talk about natural v. man made structures and perform many experiments to test the properties of different materials (e.g., heavy/light, floats/sinks etc.). There are tons of activities and experiments that relate to this but are easier done with just one or two kids at home, rather than with a group of 15 at school. The "Cardboard Boat Race" from Catch the Science Bug is just one good example of this and is linked to this blog in the Science Links list. I often just google "science experiments for kids" to find stuff like this. Hope you can carry this unit into your home!
In art, we will finally finish our Van Gogh paintings, which we had to set aside for all of December! I know that several students have been talking about this project at home - so cool for me to hear about! Thanks!
Other reminders and upcoming dates:
- If your student brought their indoor shoes home, they need to come back!
- Please label all winter clothing so that we can get them back to you if they go missing.
- If you received a slip from the library, keep searching for those books!
- Please return any borrowed classroom books ASAP so that we can keep sharing them.
- Report cards and interviews are coming up in about a month - there are a couple PA days in the calendar associated with this.
- We go skating again on Jan. 25 and Feb. 1 - all parents are welcome to join us at the arena, I'm covering TTC for the volunteers that I've been in touch with.
- We are beginning our second round of show-and-tells. You can look back in the archives to see when your student's next date is. I also put it on our monthly calendar in class.
- Our final big field trip will be on May 5th to the Science Centre!
I think that's pretty good for now. Take care!
Words of the Week
Before the break, we were introduced to the sound ‘en’, which can also look like ‘em’. Well, there are two more ways to
make this same sound: ‘an’ and ‘am’.
“Maman” was a bonus word in September, but now we have the
tools to be able to catch that final syllable. Again, search for this sound
(and others) before starting to read a book. See if it’s in a word you already
know or that you can sound out. That way, when you get there, you’ll be able to
read more fluidly.
Grade 1: maman, dans, enfant, grand, janvier
Bonus words: le camping, avant
Grade 2s worked on all the 'en' sounds before the break, so this week, we will review another sound, which we all probably know well, but haven't focused on: un. We know it well as the number (1), but this sound pops up in other words as well.
Grade 2: un, lundi, brun, chacun, emprunter