October was certainly another fast month, and it ended with a party! It was so much fun seeing all the Halloween costumes, both in our class, and in the school. Thank you again to everyone who sent snacks and things for our Halloween Party!
This month, we have been hard at work in the class 1C!
In French, we continue to do our Daily 5 work. The students are doing a wonderful job, and while they are practicing their reading, writing, listening, etc, I am working one on one with students, or in a small group.
Also in French, we continue to practice our letter sounds, and we've been doing a lot of blending. We practice blending "nonsense" words, by sounding out the consonant and the vowel, and putting it together. We practice nonsense words with 2 letters, 3 letters, and even 4. Another aspect of our French classes has been with sight words. These are words that can't always be sounded out phonetically (like the word "les"), so we look at them repeatedly, and try to remember them. These words are being used more and more in home reading, and in our agenda messages. Words like "voici", "il y a", "c'est", "est", etc. We will continue to add to our sight words as move through the year. For example, today we played an acting game to introduce the words "viens" (come) and "regarde" (look). The students are wonderful actors!
We are also working on our writing at the moment. The students created some amazing monsters, using only cut-out shapes. They are all so unique, and they are now being used to write a story. The students used sentence starters, and vocabulary sheets with different numbers, shapes, and colours, in order to describe what the different parts of their monsters look like. Once they have written this portion, they are then able to copy out the sentences on some fancy monster paper! We discussed the fact that this is their first story of Grade 1. As they write, it is very clear that they are proud of their stories!
This month, we have been hard at work in the class 1C!
In French, we continue to do our Daily 5 work. The students are doing a wonderful job, and while they are practicing their reading, writing, listening, etc, I am working one on one with students, or in a small group.
Also in French, we continue to practice our letter sounds, and we've been doing a lot of blending. We practice blending "nonsense" words, by sounding out the consonant and the vowel, and putting it together. We practice nonsense words with 2 letters, 3 letters, and even 4. Another aspect of our French classes has been with sight words. These are words that can't always be sounded out phonetically (like the word "les"), so we look at them repeatedly, and try to remember them. These words are being used more and more in home reading, and in our agenda messages. Words like "voici", "il y a", "c'est", "est", etc. We will continue to add to our sight words as move through the year. For example, today we played an acting game to introduce the words "viens" (come) and "regarde" (look). The students are wonderful actors!
We are also working on our writing at the moment. The students created some amazing monsters, using only cut-out shapes. They are all so unique, and they are now being used to write a story. The students used sentence starters, and vocabulary sheets with different numbers, shapes, and colours, in order to describe what the different parts of their monsters look like. Once they have written this portion, they are then able to copy out the sentences on some fancy monster paper! We discussed the fact that this is their first story of Grade 1. As they write, it is very clear that they are proud of their stories!
In science, we continue with our colour unit. We see that not only can you mix primary colours, but you can mix colours with black and white as well. Science and colours can be a great way to continue practicing our French vocabulary. The students can talk about colours by using terms such as "vert foncé" or "violet pâle". We've been doing some hands-on activities, such as mixing paint.
We have, however, had a very fun little detour from colours in October. Scientists in School came in to talk about how animals adapt to seasonal changes! Thank you again to our volunteers. The kids had a blast visiting the different centres that were presented, and learning about some of the various ways that animals handle different weather. There will be another Scientists in School later this year.
(Photo on the left: Looking at a frog who is camouflaged against some leaves.)
(Making bird feeders).
In math, we have been working a lot on representing numbers. We have looked at numbers written in digit-form, and also written in French. We have also been looking at other ways to represent numbers, and have been using things such as dice, and stickers, and shapes. One example was to create pizzas out of different shapes, and then to write the number of shapes down. It was fun being able to represent le numéro cinq, for example, with triangle-shaped cheese!
We also continue to look at sorting, and les régularités (patterns!) It's always fun when we are talking during another subject, or reading a story, and someone points out that there's a "régularité!" somewhere!
We also continue to look at sorting, and les régularités (patterns!) It's always fun when we are talking during another subject, or reading a story, and someone points out that there's a "régularité!" somewhere!
Gymnastics were very much enjoyed during October. There was a lot of equipment, forming different centres that the students were able to rotate through. This month we will be doing some more cooperative games, before doing dance in December.
We continue to sing our rap/song for our classroom mission statement. The kids do such a great job, and they came up with not only the important themes to include in the lyrics, but also the wonderful dance moves. Some student may have performed our mission statement at home. If not, feel free to ask your child!
Here are the lyrics:
Nous sommes une bonne classe
et bienvenue dans notre espace !
Nous aimons le bilinguisme,
oui, le bilinguisme.
Parlons le franglais !
Soyons gentils, gentils,
car tout le monde est famille !
Translation:
We are a good class,
and welcome into our space!
We love bilingualism,
yes, bilingualism.
Let's speak Franglais!
Let's be nice, nice,
because everyone is family!
We will be doing our own personal mission statements in the near future, and really talking about the fact that everyone unique, and has different qualities and strengths that they can bring to the table. We certainly see that a lot in the classroom. This group of students have a knack for Habit 6: profite de la synergie ! (Synergize!)
Report cards are issued Monday the 9th, with Parent/teacher interviews on the 12th and 13th. Each student went home with your schedule interview time. Please remember to bring the report card and signed envelope with you.
We will be going to Helen Schuler later this month. More information will be sent home next week!
If you did not get a copy of the class calendar, you can find it in the "Documents" section of this page. There will be a lot of fun stuff going on this month, such as the French Book Fair, and Feed the Bug! Vive novembre !
-Mlle Mahar
We continue to sing our rap/song for our classroom mission statement. The kids do such a great job, and they came up with not only the important themes to include in the lyrics, but also the wonderful dance moves. Some student may have performed our mission statement at home. If not, feel free to ask your child!
Here are the lyrics:
Nous sommes une bonne classe
et bienvenue dans notre espace !
Nous aimons le bilinguisme,
oui, le bilinguisme.
Parlons le franglais !
Soyons gentils, gentils,
car tout le monde est famille !
Translation:
We are a good class,
and welcome into our space!
We love bilingualism,
yes, bilingualism.
Let's speak Franglais!
Let's be nice, nice,
because everyone is family!
We will be doing our own personal mission statements in the near future, and really talking about the fact that everyone unique, and has different qualities and strengths that they can bring to the table. We certainly see that a lot in the classroom. This group of students have a knack for Habit 6: profite de la synergie ! (Synergize!)
Report cards are issued Monday the 9th, with Parent/teacher interviews on the 12th and 13th. Each student went home with your schedule interview time. Please remember to bring the report card and signed envelope with you.
We will be going to Helen Schuler later this month. More information will be sent home next week!
If you did not get a copy of the class calendar, you can find it in the "Documents" section of this page. There will be a lot of fun stuff going on this month, such as the French Book Fair, and Feed the Bug! Vive novembre !
-Mlle Mahar