1 Free Hug!

Dear Parents,

I hope you're enjoying the winter wonderland! I love it when the snow is fresh and pretty - so much fun to play in! A couple things that will really help us out as we deal with snowsuits...
1. Please make sure all pieces of outdoor clothing are labeled with your child's name. It doesn't take long and could save you tons of time and money searching and replacing. I am pretty good at helping the kids manage their belongings, but things do and will go missing... Names help a lot! We are also getting in the routine of putting all small things (hats, gloves, scarves) in our coat sleeves when we move throughout the school - a good routine to reinforce at home.
2. I am training the kids - snowpants first, then coat, then boots, then little things - mittens/gloves always last so that they can do their own zippers. If you could do the same at home, that would help us become independent dressers and get us out to recess and dismissal faster!
3. Please send extra socks and mittens. These items don't always have time to dry in between recesses and we all know how uncomfortable it is to put wet things back on. Yuck! If your child's boots tend to get wet inside, a plastic bag in each boot is a great solution so that socks and feet stay dry. Honestly though, 2 or 3 extra pairs of socks and mittens in the school bag is not excessive. You can get a bunch of cheap mittens at the dollar store.
Let's have a comfortable winter - thanks for your help!

I hope your child has been keeping you up to date with our kindness calendar tasks. Last week we held doors open, asked adults in the school how we could help and helped our classmates with their classroom jobs, among other things. Today we made a coupon (un bon) for one free hug. Students are giving their coupon to a friend or family member! We hope we can cheer some people up with this one!

In French we are working on writing nice letters. We created a list of 5 things that all nice letters have (e.g., the date, the name of the person we're writing to, some nice words to begin...). We wrote a class letter to Santa and are currently finishing up writing a letter to a teacher in our school with a partner's help. Next we will be writing letters independently, following our success criteria, to a family member. Later this week I will send home a little slip of paper where you can help your writer note the address of the person they wish to write to. We will transfer this to an envelope at school. Please help your student to start thinking about who they would like to write to!

In Math, this week we are working on telling time. Today we reviewed simply telling the time to the hour using analogue clocks, but grade 1s will learn to tell time to the half hour and grade 2s will work on quarter-hour increments.

We are also going to finish up our version of Van Gogh's "Starry Night". Ask your artist about the special tool we are using to create texture in our school paint!

Words of the Week

If the ‘on’ sound is ever forgotten, show your student a picture of a candy and it’ll come right back! Then you can say “C’est bon!” (Good stuff!)

This is another sound that doesn’t exist in English. The easiest thing is probably to ask your child to teach it to you. Ask them how to say “no” or “candy” in French. To describe it in English, say the word “on” with your lips closed almost all the way, and don’t close to the ‘n’. You’ll feel it in the back of your throat. This sound can also be written as ‘om’.

Grade 1: bonbon, mon, ton, non, nom

Bonus words: bon, son

Grade 2: bonbon, lion, maison, content, 

nous avons

Kindness Calendar

Hello parents,

For the last few weeks before Christmas break, we are going to tackle a couple new things in both math and language. 

In language, we are going to take a break from sounding out our daily rhymes and poems and focus on letter writing. We have already written some nice notes to Mme Shyama to thank her for her help, so we will recall how we did that to create a success criteria poster for how to write a nice letter. This will help us do a really good job in our next letters. Ask your student if there is a family member they would like to write to!

In math, we are in the middle of our first measurement unit and still need to tackle time and temperature. Last week, we graphed the weather through the month of November (we had been tracking this daily). Today, we got to look at some thermometers to learn about how they work and practice reading the temperature. We took the temperature in our classroom, noted it, and then took the thermometers outside and watched the temperature change before our eyes!

I also want to tell you about a fun December initiative our class is taking on. I have created a kindness calendar for Salle 211. I'm sure many children (and certain teachers whose names rhyme with camera) have chocolate calendars at home. Instead of chocolates, ours has a kind task that we will focus on during each school day in December. Each morning, a student comes to the calendar to find the card and read the kind act we need to do for that day. 

On Thursday we began by writing thank you notes to Mme Shyama on her last day. Today we went outside and picked up some garbage from our school yard. Please ask your child what our kind task is every day!

Words of the Week

This is one of my personal favourites. I think ‘oi’ is a fun sound to say. In English, it sounds just like ‘wa’, as in “water”. At first, children sometimes use the letter a when trying to write this sound. That’s just fine, they are similar. From now on, we’ll help them listen a little closer and remind them that there’s an even better way to write that sound. Our sound poster in class has a picture of a bird and the word oiseau. If you’re doing rule posters at your house, looking at this one is an immediate reminder of what the sound looks like.

Grade 1: oiseau, froid, moi, toi, voiture

Bonus words: roi, loi

Grade 2s are also adding the 'oir' and 'oire' sounds. This is the very same 'oi' sound, just followed by an 'r' sound. There are tons of words that end like this... avoir, bonsoir, savoir, boire, voir... I've chosen just a couple.

Grade 2: oiseau, je vois, froid, au revoir, histoire

Stuff and things and gr. 1 homework!

Dear parents,

Thanks for all the skating forms. I will put together a schedule for volunteers, so look for an email from me next week.

A couple other things are on their way home:
1. December Scholastic is due next Thursday. We should receive the books in plenty of time for the holidays. If you'd like to keep some or all of your purchase a secret, just let me know and I'll contact you when the order arrives!
2. Dewson is holding its annual vision and hearing clinic on December 21st. This is an optional, but highly recommended opportunity to check your child's vision and hearing at a very low cost. If you notice that your child is not interested in reading, or is struggling with it, or if they seem not to hear you clearly or respond right away, this is a good thing to check. It could be that a simple fix will make a big difference. Forms and payment are due back by the 14th.
3. At the beginning of our measurement unit, we worked for almost a week on finishing the numbering in our personal calendars. We added each others' birthdays and some important holidays and upcoming things to remember (like our skating days). I do hope very much that this will not simply be thrown out, but that students will be able to put it up somewhere at home where they can refer to it, and learn to use a calendar as a tool to stay organized. I am a better person because of learning to use an agenda!!

Grade 1 scientists got to bring home their 3D season yesterday! I hope you also got to see their self-evaluation. They worked in teams on creating all 4 seasons, and then reflected on how they worked together. Mme Shyama and I made sure that we read my comments to each scientist so that they understand my feedback. We have kept a copy of this in our school portfolio since it is such an excellent example of teamwork and reflecting on our work.

Grade 1s also have a bit of homework to do before our next science period, which is next Tuesday. We were talking yesterday about things that help keep us warm in the winter and cool in the summer. We thought of things like blankets, sweaters, a fan, a swimming pool... However, we didn't think of some of the things about our house that help protect us from the elements (such as insulation). The researchers are going to ask you to help them think of things about your home that protect us from the elements. We will discuss our discoveries on Tuesday. Thanks for your help!!

Have a great long weekend,
Tamara