le 19 decembre

Joyeuses fêtes. Hoping you have a happy, restful and safe winter break. A janvier!

Students will be bringing a special book home tonight:

All Grade One children in Canada will take home a free copy of My Heart Fills With Happiness (J’ai le Coeur Remplie de Bonheur), written by Monique Gray Smith, illustrated by Julie Flett and published by Orca Book Publishers. In honour of 2019 being named the International Year of Indigenous Languages, both the English and French editions will include Plains Cree text (translated by Mary Cardinal Collins).

The sun on your face. The smell of warm bannock baking in the oven. Holding the hand of someone you love. What fills your heart with happiness? This beautiful book reminds readers young and old to cherish the moments in life that bring us joy.

Since 2000, in cooperation with ministries of education, school boards and library organizations across Canada — the CCBC has given every Grade One child a free Canadian children’s book.

The book is to be taken home by each child to keep and to read with their parents. This far-reaching annual book giveaway program, which provides over 550,000 books to Grade One children across Canada, is fully funded by TD Bank Group. The program is intended to encourage literacy and reading for young children and supports the Canadian Children’s Book Centre’s mandate of bringing great Canadian books to Canadian children and to promote a love of reading and a passion for books.

le 18 decembre

Bonjour

Today we learnt about eye safety. Which tips can your child name? (Wear sunglasses, get your eyes checked, avoid rubbing your eyes, wear eye protection for building, sports, science experiments etc). Why do we need to take such good care of our eyes?

What can your child tell you about ear protection? (Avoid loud noises, wear earphones in loud situations, avoid overuse of headphones to listen to music, don't stick anything in there!) Why do we need to take good care of your ears? What else do your ears help with? Why is noise more dangerous for children?

Today's problem solving challenge:

Tomorrow is:
-festive apparel day
-last day for foodbank donations
and the last day of school before the break!

le 17 decembre

Bonjour

Students got to spend their gym period with paralympian John Leslie again today!

We are close to wrapping up our Five Senses Unit. Tomorrow we will learn how our senses keep us safe and how to take care of our eyes and ears. Over the past two days we have also reviewed the alphabet in American Sign Language (ASL) as well as how to sign some common words (done, eat, more, time, water, bathroom, listen, thank you, line up, sit down etc...).

Shhhhhhhh.....just for parents, if you have an elf on shelf can you please send me his/her name tonight?

December 18 – Toque Day
December 19 – Festive Apparel Day (Anything festive will work) 
December 19 – Last day of school and last day for Food Bank collections
December 20 – No school for students

le 16 decembre

Bonjour

Today we began some Math and Literacy centers. Ask your child about which ones they got to do! Any child that did the pattern station will have uploaded their pattern into Iris for you to see.

In Gym, paralympian John Leslie (snowboarder Sochi 2014) came to tell students his story and demonstrate some moves and encourage healthy active lives.

Important dates:
-Please return all library books

December 17 – Red and Green DayDecember 18 – Toque DayDecember 19 – Festive Apparel Day (Anything festive will work) 
December 19 – Last day for Food Bank collectionsDecember 20 – No school for students (Winter Break for families begins)

le 13 decembre

Oh what fun!

What a great day we had today! Caroling in the gym and making beautiful snowflakes with our learning buddies.

Bon weekend!

Important dates:
-Please return all library books

December 16 – Festive Sweater / T-Shirt Day
December 17 – Red and Green Day
December 18 – Toque Day
December 19 – Festive Apparel Day (Anything festive will work) 
December 19 – Last day for Food Bank collections
December 20 – No school for students (Winter Break for families begins)

What's going on in your child's brain when you read them a story?

An interesting read about the power of reading picture books to your child.

https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/51281/whats-going-on-in-your-childs-brain-when-you-read-them-a-story

le 12 decembre

Bonjour!

We had a fun stuffie day, did our science experiment and had Art, oh my!

Students enjoyed some of the food during our experiment, the dark chocolate did not taste as good as they were anticipating! They now know about the 4 kinds of tastes: amer (bitter), aigre (sour), sucré (sweet) and salé (salty). Students with dietary restrictions tasted some of the foods.

We have been doing some challenging number puzzles to familiarize ourselves with a 100 chart, have a look at these!

Tomorrow: caroling in the gym, students can wear festive wear, Santa hats, antler headbands etc if they would like. Please return all library books for the break.

le 11 decembre

Bonjour

Exciting news: Tomorrow students can bring in a stuffie as they have earned it as reward for a goal. Bravo!

We have been working VERY hard on speaking more French. Students are expected to be using the French they do know. We are trying to limit the number of English words to about 1.  I am expecting that they are trying to speak with peers in French while conversing and while playing centers/games.

Today we learnt about vision. We spent some time learning about seeing eye dogs and about Braille. Ask your child who invented it! Tomorrow they will be bringing home their names in Braille.

le 10 decembre

Bonjour!

Today we did some fun cookie problem solving. I am making cookies. I have candy cane cookie cutters and ornament cookie cutters. I made 20 cookies. How many of each did I made. How many combinations can you come up with? Students got to pick their own total number of cookies ranging from 10-40 in order to challenge themselves.

In Science we watched a short interview with a man who is colour blind. Ask your child what he/she learnt!

We also got to touch a variety of textures and identified the French vocabulary that go with them.

Important dates

Wednesday: please return library books and science permission forms. Students will be unable to participate without them.

Friday: Caroling, all welcome. 8:45

le 9 decembre

Bonjour

If you missed Friday's blogger, please see the instructions for logging into Iris.

Permission form coming home today for Thursday's Science project. Please return it asap for your child to participate.

Our new words of the week are below. Please continue to practice the words for weeks past, the goal is for students to be able to identify them at sight (without having to think about it). Des/les/mes/tes/ses are proving to be the trickiest ones, along with elle.

Important dates:
Tuesday: Healthy Hunger lunch
Wednesday: Please return all library books, please send permission form for taste testing Thursday!
Friday: Caroling 8:45, all welcome

le 6 decembre

Bonjour

Today we had our first Choice and Curiosity session, it was a lot of fun!

Our grade 4 buddies came to help us upload our first artifacts of the year in Iris. Log on to watch your child read and see the art project they are most proud of. We've encountered a bit of a glitch uploading the community projects, they will come in time.
https://iris.cbe.ab.ca/Account/LogIn?ReturnUrl=%2F
(Login information can be found on the inside flap of their pochettes).

Please return all library books by Friday. Library exchange will recommence after the holidays.

Bon weekend!

le 5 decembre

Bonjour!

Tomorrow is pajama day and our first "Choice and Curiosity" session in which students will be going to a read aloud in another teacher's classroom. It should be fun. Please don't send stuffies tomorrow, that's a goal they are working towards and might achieve by Monday.

Last day for scholastics is tomorrow.

Today we started "le toucher" in Science. Students practiced saying "Je touche avec ma main." and got to participate in centers in which they had to try to guess what was inside paper bags (rice, sand, cottonballs, pinecones etc). We practiced terms like:
rugeuex (rough)
mou (soft, squishy)
dur (hard)
lisse (smooth)
doux (soft ie like fur)
bosselé (bumpy).

In Social Studies we identifyied the differences between rural (rurale) and urban (urbaine) communities.

le 4 decembre

Bonjour

A delightful mystery was solved today! Luc le lutin has joined our class to learn French! Students are encouraged to speak to him in French and to read to him when they have time.

We have begun learning about our 5 senses in Science.

-Students will be asked to identify them and learn how they keep us safe and make sense of the world
-Identify how animals use their senses
-Learn what happens to people lacking sight or speech

Yesterday we began learning about smell by guessing some mystery smells (onions, cinnamon, coffee, oranges etc). Today we discussed how our sense of smell keeps us safe (smelling smoke, chemicals etc) and identified pleasant (and not so pleasant) odors.
The full curriculum for the 5 senses can be found here:
http://www.learnalberta.ca/ProgramOfStudy.aspx?lang=en&ProgramId=379983#771318

In Social Studies we learnt about how groups make decisions. How many ways can your child identify?

Students all have their cbe login information on the inside flap of their pochettes. Login name is their cbe id number that is listed. Not their name! Password is also listed. If it DOES NOT work, please let me know and I can reset it.
You can use this information to access IRIS as well as the CBE elibrary where you can check if you have overdue school library books.
Iris
https://iris.cbe.ab.ca/Account/LogIn?ReturnUrl=%2F
CBE elibrary
https://ims.cbe.ab.ca/uhtbin/cgisirsi/?ps=4vB1cHXQwI/AAAERS/X/60/1182/X

le 3 decembre

Some new and some favourite Christmas songs:
L'as-tu vu?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i9TWQLl2zvQ
Quand le Père Noel
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ynt7aO8CuGw

Here is a rubric we created together for our writing. At this point in the year, students are copying print, or using sentence starters to write (or complete) a simple sentence or two. Some students are even writing sentences on their own! Bravo!Our success criteria::

-My sentence starts with a capital letter.

-There is a space between each word.

-My sentence ends with a period.

We played Roll and Cover today which is a GREAT way to practice subitizing and mental math.
You can download and play at home. Games are the best way to practice all sorts of math skills.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B0SPeY_PyGOoSmlfdWFtVGMza1E/view
(alternatively on this site if the first one doesn't work)
https://smilingandshininginsecondgrade.blogspot.com/2015/12/december-ideas-and-freebies.html

Friday: Pajama Day

le 2 decembre

Wow! C'est décembre! Incroyable! (Incredible)

Today we started to learn some holiday vocabulary including: un sapin, une lumière and un lutin.

Speaking of lutins....we have a mystery visitor in our classroom....but he's not here for the reason you think... stay tuned to learn more...

We have been practicing different ways of counting: forward, backwards and skip counting. The goal is that students can count forwards and backwards to 20, and skip count by 2, 5, and 10 to 20 (or beyond!!!)

Today's problem was: When I count I say the number 8. How am I counting? Students were to come up with at least two solutions to this open-ended question. Ask your child to explain their thinking.

Home reading coming home tonight. If you missed Friday's blogger, please have a peak at the articles attached.

Important dates
Tuesday: Library-> Please return books
Friday: 
-Scholastics due (fingers crossed will arrive before the break)
-Pajama Day (for all classes)
-Choice and Curiosity: students will be going to another classroom and will spend some time with students across the grades listening to some of teachers's favourite picture books.