Dear Parents,

I have successfully recovered my blog address!

My apologies for this technical issue.

From last week into this week: 

We had an initial exposure to Mme.’s secret stock of toy instruments. We made a round robin with songs from the first terms. This week students can use the instruments to jazz up their spoken word presentations. Repetition of familiar poems and songs helps develop the structure of the language. Try this at home :)

In class we can already see how the instrument takes the focus off the pressure of speaking so students can enjoy the fun of making music and song.

We had a rhyme jigsaw activity as a precursor to building songs as a group. 

So many students know really great rhyming words that we may make a list for fun at-home games of "what ryhmes with..?".

Mme. learned a wonderful new goodbye song at the Conservatory and translated it for our class.

Partons en paix

Partons en paix

Que l’amour des tes amis t’entour

Tout partout

Tout partout

Tu y va.

It’s lovely.

I hope your child will share it with you.

My class at the Conservatory always insists we sing the French version now J

Both grades have been working with 2 dimensional shapes in art. We begin our geometry and spatial reasoning unit with investigating shapes and positional language (under, over, beside, in front of…etc.)

Coming soon! Mme. is working on a carpet size game of Tetris for a fun whole-class experience!

 Have a great week everyone!

Mme. Hulsman

Dear Parents and Caregivers,

Our first swim day will not be until next day 2, Monday February 8th.

I need to still collect all permission forms.

Anyone who has expressed interest in volunteering can discuss the details with me this week, I will be calling this week to find times to meet.

A police check will be required; the process must be started before you can accompany the class. 

Please

 Bring a $15 money order (payable to Toronto Police Services) to the office and there you can fill out the volunteer form. The office will submit both for you. 

Kind regards,

Mme. Hulsman

Welcome Parents and Caregivers, 

The school year has begun and fall is in full swing.

Since September, we have been establishing rules and responsibilities.

We continue to explore what respect looks, sounds and feels like.

We made a class book to promote respect of ourselves, others, our class and the school.

We made art for our class using lines and pumpkins.

*****

Our "Sac Masion / Ecole"  contaisn a duo-tang to support reading and sharing at home. It is also a word reference tool in class. Please return the duo-tang every day to be sure your child gets all the handouts!  Loose papers have a way of becoming lost papers! 

*****

We have a Vedette du Jour (Star of the day) who may present something personal to the class and field questions.

 Our Vedette should be prepared to answer questions from the class. Classmates are always encouraged to participate by listening to the person speaking and asking questions! 

We have learned a lot already in terms of our oral communication as a class. We continue to work on using respectful language at school and at home.

Your child is making amazing efforts every day to understand and be understood in another language. This effort is well worth some daily recognition! 

Your child is learning and reviewing how to ask for help and clarification with sentences such as:

Je ne comprends pas - I don’t understand…

Comment-t-on dit… ?  How do we say…?

J’ai besoin d’aide – I need help…

  

Our literacy centres offer a variety of ways to work with words, sentence structure, letters and sounds. Independent work and responsibility are very important to success in the centres. Students are reminded of this regularly.

As we focus on various spelling strategies in French, your spelling and reading strategies at home, in French or your home language, are both beneficial. 

Reading in any language will strengthen reading habits!  

Here are some strategies from class:

We follow words with our index finger named "Li-li” ('Lis' - from the verb lire – to read.)  

Does it look right? 

Does it sound right?

Does what you read match the image?

Can you sound it out? Cover half the word or uncover the syllables one at a time.

Is it a word that could sound like another word on the page, or on a previous page?

 Does it rhyme with a known word? 

Is it a word made of two words? Can you cover half of it and read that? Now read the other half.

In Math the class has moved through a unit on addition and subtraction and we are now working on patterning.

The grade one's investigate  1-3 attributes and a variety of pattern structures.

The grade two's work with up to 5 attributes as well as the concept of growing and shrinking patterns. 

I look forward to working with you, with the aim of guiding your child through a productive, inspiring, and fun French Immersion school year!

Kind Regards,

Meghan Hulsman