Festival - Part 2

Hi parents,

I'm back with more about this Thursday's Festival.

1) Dismissal will be in the basketball courts

Dismissal is always a challenge on Festival day. Although the fun will have already begun, it's my responsibility to make sure that everyone is taken are of at the end of the school day, just like on all other days. 

Here's the plan: we will leave our bags in the basketball courts when we go out to the festival around 2:30. Children will be free to enjoy all the festival activities under the supervision of many teachers floating around the yard and at the exits. I will be going over our expectations for playing safely and for listening for the 3:30 bell to come and meet me. Please meet us in the basketball courts at 3:30 instead of under the overhang. If you arrive before 3:30, please feel free to find me in the yard to let me know that you've got your kid - this way I'll know not to worry about him/her at 3:30.

2) If your student normally takes the bus or goes to daycare, please let me (and the office/your daycare) know if your arrangements for Thursday afternoon have changed.

3) Talk to your child about tickets/money

I assume most children will begin enjoying the festival before a caregiver arrives. Therefore, you may be sending your child to school with tickets or money. Please discuss with your child where they will keep their tickets or money so that they don't misplace them (e.g., a zipper or button pocket) and what they are allowed to spend them on. For example, should they go ahead and buy treats or wait for you to eat? Can they share with friends? Can they use them all, or save some for later?

Thanks for your help making this fun day a huge success!

Words of the Week

Thanks for reminding your speller to finish their homework! Almost everyone had their j'ai and je suis sentences ready for me today!

This week we are learning how to conjugate regular -er verbs in the present tense, focusing on the first person only (je). This is one of the structures that our students use regularly. I’m not going into a lot of detail with students (e.g., which verbs this rule does and does not apply to) - as they learn more about conjugating, they will learn when this rule does not apply. For now, we will begin simply by trying to remember that when you say (and write) “Je [fill in action word here]...”, that action word usually ends with an e, even though we don’t really hear it.

A fun game this week might be a Wheel of Fortune or Hangman style game. Let your student be in charge of making up short sentences beginning with these words, and you guess the letters - making sure they remembered the final e!

E.g.: _ _   _ _ _ _ _ _ _   _ _ _   _ _ _ _ _ _ .

         J e    c h e r c h e   m o n   c r a y o n.

je marche, je cherche, je chasse, je me lave, 

je nage, je parle, je regarde, je vole, 

je donne, je joue

Festival - Part 1

Hi parents,

Thanks again to everyone who has supported our class this year. If you weren't able to make it to the breakfast this morning, a card and plant is on its way home for you.
If anyone has anymore time to give, our book hospital is quite full and our glue bottles are once again empty. If you are able to help with either job I would be eternally grateful!

The Dewson Festival is next Thursday! Thanks to everyone that has signed up online to help. There are still some spots that need to be filled, and we will need food donations for the supper. Information about the latter is coming home today on a small blue paper.
On a bright pink paper, you will find all the information you need about buying tickets for all the fun activities. Students and adults need tickets in order to buy food, play games, go in the bouncy castles, get faces/nails painted and participate in the raffle.
Tickets are available online, on the day, and by returning the pink slip to me with payment (before June 7th). I highly recommend the wristband option if you think you will be spending a significant amount of time at the festival. It eliminates the need to carry lots of small tickets around and will probably save you money, though it does not cover absolutely everything.
Please read the pink note for more information.

Please check back early next week for more information about what to expect on the day, and how we will manage dismissal.

Read on for some great performing arts opportunities and have a great weekend!
Tamara

Performing Arts

Dear parents,

This Saturday and Sunday the Toronto Symphony will be performing Gershwin's "An American in Paris". This is a neat, jazzy work which evokes the sights and sounds of Paris. In the music you can hear very clearly the honking of cars and imagine being a tourist walking down Les Champs Élysées. In the middle is the very famous trumpet blues solo which represents the tourist feeling homesick. I had planned on introducing the class to this work, but I think preparations for our open-house will have to trump this musical story for now. Nevertheless, if you have the time and would like to hear it live, check out the TSO Website for details! You can, of course, hear it on YouTube as well.

Earlier this week we listened to Saint-Saëns' Le Carnaval des Animaux. This work is very accessible for children. It is made up of 14 short movements which represent animals (including humans and fossils)! The music always moves or sounds the way the animal does, making them very guessable! My personal favourite are the Fossils in movement 12, represented by the xylophone, but the most famous movement is certainly #13, The Swan, for solo cello with piano accompaniment, which has become famous on its own. You will certainly recognize it if you hear it. I encourage you to listen to this wonderful work again with your child and see if they can tell you which animals are coming and going!

If dance is more your thing, I'd like to draw your attention to the National Ballet Website for information about their new ballet, Le Petit Prince, based on the book by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. You'll probably recall about two months ago I mentioned that the movie was airing at The Royal on College and that we would be reading the book later this year. Well, it's later, and we are reading it! We are on chapter 6 already and have been introduced to the aviator (the narrator) and le Petit Prince. We know that the Petit Prince lives on a very small planet and that he needs help keeping the baobob trees from taking over his small space! About the narrator, we know that he likes to draw, but doesn't think he's very good at it because of some unfortunate comments from adults when he was a kid, and that because of this past experience, he doesn't have the highest regard for grown-ups (even though presumably he is one now).
Anyway, from what I've read, the ballet doesn't retell the story, but is based on the same themes. I'm sure it will be great - I've got my tickets!