Here are some short videos and songs for celebrating Autumn…au revoir été!
Monthly Archives: September 2016
Week of September 26- le 26 septembre
Fall greetings! Reminders: Open House is this Wednesday, room 133, 5-7. Looking forward to meeting you all!
Library is every Thursday. Please return books in a ziplock bag.
Thanks to everyone who sent in a baby picture. I’m still waiting for a few more, and I don’t want to leave anyone out. Please send in a photo (or a digital file) as soon as possible.
I sent an email regarding the Terry Fox run. Your support is greatly appreciated. Date: Thursday, September 29th, Rain Date- September 30th.
The apple crisp was a hit last week. We will continue to talk about the changing seasons in the weeks to follow. I’m planning a nature walk for next week and will be sending home the permission forms later this week.
This week, our Social Studies, Art, and French studies will revolve around the concept of “Tout sur moi”. All about me! Our author study will be on Karen Beaumont and Peter Reynolds. We will also be talking about families and the rules and responsibilities around school and home. We will be talking about how we resolve conflicts and solve problems together. In Art, we will be working on personal collages that show off each child’s uniqueness and identify the things we like to do.
In Physical Education and Health our focus is on developing healthy fitness habits by participating in physical activity each day. We are working on basic locomotion skills (running, changing direction, skipping, etc.), ball handling, and co-operative games.
Here are a couple of songs I’ll be introducing this week:
Have a great week everyone!
Week of September 19- le 19 septembre
Reminders: School Open House- Wednesday, September 28th, 5-7. Our class is room 133.
Friday, September 23- We will be making apple crisp as part of our fall harvest study. Yummy! I will supply the ingredients. If you have any questions about the recipe or ingredients please let me know.
Please send in a baby photo of your child this week (You can send in a print that I will return, or you can send me a digital file. Please send in as soon as possible as I use the photos for a guess the baby contest and creating a timeline for social studies.)
In French, we will be taking a close look at the vowel sound “e” as found in words such as cheval and sel. We also work on creating consonant + vowel combination such as be, me, te, de, etc. As children learn to read and write, I draw their attention to the beginning, middle, and final sounds in a word. Initial consonant sounds are usually the easiest to identify and from there I build the ability to identify consonant plus one vowel sound (or CV sounds) such as ba, ma, le, de, etc. The goal is to always bring this sound work back to connect with words and text passages through read aloud and small group books and other reading and writing activities.
Our read aloud books this week will be on the theme of “moi” and include the two books pictured below, as well as other books that talk about individual responsibilities. A big focus in grade one is learning and building self help skills- such as becoming more independent in taking care of ourselves and our own materials, solving problems independently, and taking initiative when approaching new learning. The grade one social studies topic rules and responsibilities lends itself well to this theme.
In Social Studies, we are creating two class big books about the rules and responsibilities we follow in school, at home, and in our community.
I introduce a lot of vocabulary and concepts through songs (plus it’s a great way to get us moving). Here are a few samples of songs we learn:
Have a great week everyone!
Frequently Asked Questions
I welcome your questions, and will often post replies to general questions here. You can find a pdf here of the newsletter I sent home on the first day here as I know papers sometimes get misplaced. newsletterseptembre2016
Communication:Mostly electronic. I update the blog Sunday evenings, and through the week as relevant. I usually email Mondays and Thursdays or Fridays. I post calendar reminders on the blog, and usually email reminders on a regular basis.
Note totes are sent home only when there is office information/forms to sign/or other important papers. Please return the note tote bags the next day for me to keep at school.
Homework routines and communication: I do not give formal homework in grade one. There are many studies on this topic, and you may have read some articles recently in the news that question the value of homework. I do, however, strongly believe that children need to read on a daily basis. I send home a duo tang at the beginning of each term that outlines the weekly topics we discuss in our reading and writing lessons as well as discussion topics for building school skills. I also send home reading books at your child’s reading level on a weekly basis. Children are invited to exchange their books through the week as they wish. I encourage parents to use this information and materials as they see best.
Based on my experience, combined with student and parent feedback through the years, I do not use agendas in grade one.
Grade one EFI structure: Last year, the OCDSB went through a consultation process and changed the format of early French Immersion. The implementation of these changes has now started. This year, all grade one students receive one hour of daily mathematics instruction in English. The remaining subjects are delivered in French. Grade twos and threes now receive math in English, as well as one hour of English for a total of two hours of English daily. Grades four, five, and six continue to receive two hours of English instruction daily (math and English). Starting in 2017, all students in the Early French Immersion grade 1-6 will receive two hours of English instruction (math one hour, English one hour) daily. Please refer to the OCDSB website if you have more questions about the delivery of the EFI program.
Transition to French program: September is a month full of transitions, and adjusting to working, listening, learning, speaking and participating in a French environment can add an extra challenge to this transition. As such, I understand that it is very natural for the children to need to gradually work up their stamina and capacity to participate in French. I have lots and lots of strategies to help with this and find with patience and reassurance from both me and parents, the children are able to adjust to these changes.
Week of September 12- le 12 septembre
Greetings! I’m so pleased with the start we have made to grade one and very proud of the children as they adjust to a new school year. Here are some of the main learning goals we will be working on this week:
In language, we will be starting our working with words activities. Each Monday we focus on a sound pattern in French and build our understanding through different hands on, individual, partner, and group activities. The children make and keep word sort containers which we add to each week. I do not have dictées (spelling tests) in grade one, however I encourage the children to consistently apply the sound patterns we have learned to daily work. I’ll talk more about this strategy as a building block for reading and writing development in the weeks to follow. I also introduce a short pattern book every other day and these books will become our take home reading program for the first half of this term- you can look for them at the beginning of October. Our daily read aloud typically draws upon one of the themes we are studying in class and is used as a discussion point to support that learning, develop vocabulary and comprehension skills, and to help the children learn how to connect to different texts
. This week we are continuing our Pat le Chat book study and will be making our own Pat le Chat felt puppet and writing about one of his adventures at South March before he goes home for the weekend!
Our integrated social studies and language theme this month will focus on Rules and Responsibilities. We will read some great books on the subject as well as build our own books on the important rules we have at home and school and the different responsibilities we have.
This term, I also go over proper pencil grip and introduce and reinforce proper letter formation. Here is some information on the tripod grip, the sky grass dirt printing strategy, and the handwriting without tears program that I find very helpful for children as they learn to correctly form letters and eliminate mixing capitals and lower case letters and reversals (common challenges in grade one).
I believe it is important that children learn how to hold a pencil properly and form letters properly and efficiently- mastering these skills makes the true writing process of forming and expressing thoughts less laborious.
Correct way to hold a pencil.
Correct way to hold a pencil.
Two strategies I use include the “sky, grass, dirt” approach, and the commercial program, “handwriting without tears”. The correct pencil grip is called a tripod grip.
In the sky, grass, dirt strategy, we discuss tall letters that go up to the sky (capital letters, and the letters, b, d, f, h, k, l, t, are all sky letters), grass letters that sit in the grass such as a, c, e, i, m, n, o, r, s, u, v, w, x, z), and dirt letters that start in the grass and go down to the dirt (g, j, p, q, y). Here’s a picture of what I mean to help you see the letter placement. To start children off, I colour the grass, sky and dirt on their page and challenge them to keep their letters in the correct place.
Correct letter placement.
Lastly, here’s a link to the handwriting without tears instruction (I use for printing). Even though this is a commercial site, there’s some great information for parents here which is free to use. If your child comes home talking about “c magique” or magic c, you will know that is an important printing strategy I use in class and one that is recommended by many occupational therapists; http://www.hwtears.com/hwt/parents
There’s lots more happening as well- but these are just some of the main points. I have some great iPad apps that I use in the class for writing and reading development. You can search those on the blog and I will post information about them in the weeks to come. I also introduce a lot of vocabulary and themes through music and will post links to that on a weekly basis (you can search my blog for the ones that were a hit last year with the class).
Feel free to contact me (email usually works best) if you have any questions or concerns. Have a great week everyone!
ipad apps I use in class
Here are a couple of iPad apps I use on a regular basis at the beginning of grade one. Please don’t think I expect you to purchase this, I just want to keep you informed and offer the information because parents often ask for suggestions in French.
TicTic Learn French by Tinoon
This is a fun way to review alphabet sounds (great for early grade one), as well as introduce and reinforce new vocabulary.
This supports proper letter formation and I can add French words and record my voice to build a reading, writing practice list for the children. Search writing wizard in the app store.
Welcome Back!
I’m delighted to be teaching grade one EFI again this year and look forward to a “ONE”derful year! I will be sending home a one page information sheet on the first day of school (I’ll post the pdf in a future blog post), and will also send home an email request form. I’d appreciate it if you could print your email address(es) and return the form the next day, if possible. Almost all of my regular communication is done electronically.
Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions.
