Week of September 27 - October 1

The students have shown perseverance and patience this week while logging in to our Google Classroom at school.  I am happy to say that most students were able to log in and play a game about letters/sounds.  

It took some work but we did it!

Orange Shirt Day

We started a conversation about Reconciliation on Monday, Sept 27.  The students listened to a book called "When I Was Eight" and discussed the history of Reconciliation.  On Wednesday, many students wore orange for the school wide event.  We continued talking about Reconciliation and I read a story called "Parfois je suis un renard".  The students enjoyed the idea that in Indigenous cultures, Nature and animals are very important and that, in some tribes, each member has a "spirit animal".  When we got to the moose, many students were excited to talk about their moose sightings.  

Literacy

The students are continuing to work through the program "Raconte-moi les sons".  There is daily practice and review of the letters, their sounds and the action we associate with each sound.  So far, the sounds we have studied are:  a,e,i,o,u, y, è, é,ê,l.  They practice saying the sounds, identifying classmates' names and words that begin with the sound as well as printing these letters and words in their writing book.   

 The Grade Two's are reviewing the complex sounds that they learned in Grade One:  ch, ou, eau, au, in, im.  They search for words containing these sounds, read them to me and now, they are writing sentences using those words.  They are encouraged to "stretch" and make sentences more descriptive (ie:  un grand ours brun).

Mathematics

The month of September has been a review for Grade Two students.  The Grade One's are decomposing numbers using blocks and pictures and several of them are making addition sentences!  The Grade Two's are encouraged to find as many addition (and some subtraction) that equal the given number.  The Grade Two's will require more challenges next month!

Social Studies

Thank you so much for the magazines!  The students have worked together using the magazines to make a collage of "groups" represented in the magazines.  They presented the groups to the class in French after which we brainstormed as a class, other groups that we could include in the collage.  Next steps will include labelling the collages and adding drawings or pictures to complete the study.

Science

Did you know that the children made "Pooters"?  What are Pooters?  A pooter is a tool that the students can use to collect insects (we put them back, of course!).  They are simple to make.  Two straws of different widths are connected with a piece of nylon in between and taped together.  They went out to the community garden and were very engaged in collecting what they found.  They observed the insect and we discussed what they saw.  We will be drawing and labelling the insects after one more expedition in the following week.  

We have also been discussing seasonal changes.  The students spent time outside using their senses to identify changes in the environment now that it is Autumn.  Each student represented 3 changes that they saw, heard, smelled or touched (no tasting, please!).  

ON ANOTHER NOTE

Coulee Walk coming soon!

On Tuesday, October 12,  2021, Mme Pelletier's and Mme Varughese's classes will be taking an afternoon walk to the Coulee!  The students will take part in several learning activities while we are there.  The classes will leave school at 12:30 pm and return no later than 2:30 pm.

On that day, the students will be taking their backpacks, their visual journal and a pencil/eraser.  They will leave the rest of the contents of their backpacks at school (the less the better).  We strongly encourage you to send your child in layers due to Calgary's unpredictable weather.

I am hoping to have 4 volunteers to join us on the trip!  The volunteers must confirm that they have current approved volunteer clearance.  Volunteers will meet the class outside near the front doors of the school at 12:30 pm.

Please let me know as soon as possible if you can attend!  If you are unable to attend this time, we 

will be happy to consider you for a future trip.   If you would like to volunteer, please email me at chpelletier@cbe.ab.ca

Scholastic Reading Club

Magazines will soon be coming home!

Feel free to order online; our class code is:  RC214431

Have a great weekend!

Open House and resources for home

 Bonjour à tous:  I really enjoyed getting to know some of you during the Open House.  I simply can't apologize enough for the "glitches".  

ORANGE SHIRT WEEK

Next week, we are invited to wear "orange" all week! to honour reconciliation. I hope your children have more orange than I do.  We can always pin on something orange, though!  

I am including some YouTube links for parents who want to participate on occasion from home.  I will add to these as we build vocabulary!

VOLUNTEERING

I will be inviting parents to come for a walk with us to the Coulee during the week of October 4-8.  We have not set a specific date yet; we will be joining one of the other FI Gr. 1 and 2 classes.  I will get the date to you ASAP.  PLEASE make sure that you have volunteer clearance (the police check); we really want to have you in or, as it is this time, out for a walk with us!

Home Reading

I am hoping to begin home reading in October.  We will again be using "Je lis, je lis"- an online format that was used last year...I'll let you know as soon as we have the codes for membership.  These will also be uploaded to ...

Google Classroom

I have sent the link for Google Classroom out to the student emails and there are some activities there.  I will also put in the information for "Je lis, je lis" when I have it.  As well, as often as possible, I will post upcoming dates in the Google Classroom stream.  (FYI, apparently, last year, each time a teacher posted a blog, parents received an email.  This function is no longer active:(

YouTube links:

100

NUMBERBLOCKS IN FRENCH

Numbers to 20

Les fruits. (We have been speaking about our preferences for most of September.  This song teaches/reviews the fruit) We talked about which fruit we liked and during gym class, played a tag game called "La Salade de Fruits". 

L'abc des fruits This is such a cute song and it reinforces initial letters sounds!

I sing to other songs on a regular basis:  One is the days of the week to the tune of "The Adams Family" song and the other is the months of the year to the tune of "La Macarena".   

Bonne semaine!

Madame Pelletier

Amazing Terry Fox run!

 Bonsoir!

The students were AMAZING during the Terry Fox Run today.  I do have pictures that I can share once all the "i's" are dotted.  We discussed Terry Fox and the students demonstrated knowledge and compassion about Terry Fox's life.  We each wrote the name of a person (or just a friend) who we would run for.  

On Wednesday, September 29, we will also be celebrating Orange Shirt day to recognize First Nation peoples and to reinforce the idea of Reconciliation.  Thursday, September 30 is a non-instructional day in honour of Reconciliation.

In class, we have been learning/practising vocabulary related to our personal preferences (food, fruit, sports, insects!, holidays and seasons).  As well, the students have been practising letter and/or combined letter sounds orally and in print.  Our math focus has been counting to 100 by 1's, 5's and 10's, counting to 20 by 2 and backwards by 1.  As well, the students are grouping numbers to make sums between 10 and 20.  Today, we learned a math game called Mancala.  I was pleasantly surprised by how well the students caught on to the game that requires estimation, counting and strategy.  

In future, my intention is to send out a blog at least once a week between Wednesday and Friday (depending on the events that might be of interest).  

Looking forward to seeing you at Open House tomorrow, Thursday, September 23 and Friday, September 24.  

Bonne soirée

Mme Pelletier

Bienvenue - Gr. 1/2 students and parents Mme Pelletier

 Bonjour!👪

Already 4 days at school.  I am SO impressed with the student's engagement in learning and use of French in class.  

During these 4 days, we have learned routines, played games to practice vocabulary, written messages, drawn self-portraits, sang French songs, and played more games.  As well, we have begun a reading routine called "Daily Five" or "Les 5 au Quo" with a focus on "Reading to Self" and comprehension strategies such as "reading the pictures".  In math, we have made a "number line" out of beads to 100!

Grade One's are practising printing their names in upper/lower case letters on various Art projects such as name plates for their coat hooks.  Grade Two's are also doing so with more detail in their Art.  

You may have noticed lined papers coming home in the blue communication folder.  These are the agenda messages that the children are copying.  The reason for these messages is two-fold: number one is to communicate with YOU! and number two is for the children to have a reason to copy print.  The papers are 2-sided so, in an effort to reduce paper use, please return the sheet if there is a blank side.  

I have taken pictures of all our fun and look forward to publishing them once we have all the permissions collected.  

Je vous souhaite une bonne semaine! 

Mme Pelletier. 👩