Short Week Ahead

Firstly, I hope you all  had an enjoyable long weekend!

This week:

Wednesday May 20- Electronic Day (Will explain below)
Thursday May 21- Library


Electronics Day- To celebrate our latest L to J all time best in Spelling, students have chosen Electronics Day. To keep it simple yet fun, we will be using our St. Thomas Ipads in the morning during Daily 5 etc and in the afternoon we will use our school laptops for doing some Mathletics. Please leave all personal devices at home. Thanks!

Here are some highlights from the past few weeks I have been hoping to share with you!

Ag Education Days: 

International Dance Day

April Showers...or snow.. Brings May Flowers

What a month it has been! Thank you for your patience in my absence on this blog.

This week we have a busy week ahead:

Monday: PM - Grade 1 Faith Retreat at Holy Rosary
Tuesday- PM- Ag  Education Days
Thursday- Hot Lunch- Sloppy Joe's and fruit salad

Here are some highlights from these last few weeks:

L to J Math- What a great day we had yesterday all dressed up celebrating our great success in L to J Math!

April has been a fun month as we have been learning about different elements of literature through imaginary animal books. We have read about Marley the dog, Winnie the Pooh, Howard B Wigglebottom, Franklin the turtle. When you are reading with your child look out for the author and illustrator! Keep an eye out for the problem of the story and its solution.

Here are a few fun activities we did this month:

We tried step-by-step art creating our very own imaginary animal. Here are just a few examples! 

  

We read a book called "Drole de dents". Students chose an animal that they would like to have teeth like and wrote about why they would like those teeth! 

We tried a version of abstract art with a flower garden. We discussed that in abstract art, we don't need to stay in the lines, flowers could come from any part of the page, colours did not have to be as realistic. I was really impressed by their interpretations. April is Poetry Month, so we wrote an acrostic poem to go along with our art. Lastly in Religion the students created beautiful and unique butterflies. Needless to say we have a very colourful hallway now! 

Around Easter we learned how oil pastels can repel water paint, therefore making a beautiful piece of art. 

Just this for now, have a great week!

4 day week = A very busy week!

Dear Parents,

Here is all that is happening in our classroom this week!

Monday- School assembly @ 1:35 p.m.
Tuesday- Library
Wednesday- Concours presentations to parents- this will begin right after O Canada and annoucements, around 9:10 a.m.
Thursday- Stations of the Cross @ 12:35 in the gymnasium
Friday- NO SCHOOL

Grade 1 words- We have made it through all of our words on the list. We will no longer be looking at specific words, but continuing to work a variety of them on a regular basis in class. This week we are working our last sound "oi".

Highlights from last week:

 

Last week we had a Pyjama Day, our privilege from the money we raised for Projet Haiti! Here is Jaycee reading to her bunny! How cute!

Last week we had fun practicing our words of the week writing them, on our partners backs!

Wishing you all a great week and hope to see you at our two events! As well, I hope you all enjoy Easter week!

Welcome to Spring

Weren't we lucky to be welcomed to spring with snow! I wasn't too surprised! A cute little comment from a student in our class today "It is spring, but it still looks like winter!" Thank you for all of your support in ensuring your child is ready for 20 minutes + of recess outside!

This week:
Tuesday- Mass at St. Anthony's church at 9:30
Wednesday- Pyjama Day (What our class bought from the privilege sale)
Thursday- NO HOT LUNCH (It has been moved to April 16)

Words for the week: une famille, bien, le jouet, aime (these words all have exceptional sounds that are usually a challenge in Grade 1)

lle- makes the sound like "ye"
ien- even though it has "en" it does not make that sound
aime- "ai" in the word is an unfamiliar sound
et- at the end of a word does not make the typical sound of "et"

Important for this week: 
Concours- We have one more week before students will be presenting their poems to parents. Our goal is that they can memorize the poem, recite it with fluidity and appropriate expression and some even like to add actions in! The faster the poem is memorized, the more students can focus on the other details. Thank you for your diligent work at home! We will be presenting to parents April 1st at 9:10 a.m.
Stations of the Cross Prayer Service- By now you should all have seen the purple note with your child's part attached. Please let me know if you need another copy. This is in English, to ensure that you can help at home. This service takes place Thursday the 2nd of April at 12:30p.m.

Thanks in advance for all your support with these two events!


Last week:
Thank you to all who made donations to our Haiti Project. Our class raised over 50$ together! There is so much power in We! I am thrilled to see our total getting closer and closer to 10, 000$.

Go Noodle- Go Noodle is a brain break program that we use when we have worked hard and finished work early, or when we have beat little records we hold in the class. Here are the kids enjoying a video after working so hard on their writing!

March Madness

Can you believe we are already half way through March?! We have been lucky these past few days to have some beautiful weather! The kids have sure been enjoying the outdoors. Thank you to all parents who have been sending students in weather appropriate gear! It really helps them stay clean and dry and ready to learn. If you haven't yet, it might be a good idea to send some extra socks and clothes just incase they do get wet or muddy.

Next week: 

Global Citizenship Event: During this Lenten season, Ensemble Nous Pouvons is planning a Privilege Sale. From Monday to Thursday the students in our class have the opportunity to bring in donations to go towards building our school in Haiti. At the end of that week, we will count up our total money raised and our class can decide together which privilege we will buy. The following week we will “cash in” our privilege! Some examples are Parachute time, Hat Day or Extended Recess. Thanks in advance for any donations that come in! 

Thursday is Salad Bar Hot Lunch. 

Words we will be studying while focusing ont the sound "an/en": dans, prends, orange, ma maman 

Concours: Just a reminder that Concours will take place on Wednesday April 1st at 9:10- 9:30 a.m. We will be practicing hard to show you how proud we are to speak French! 

Stations of the Cross Prayer Service- Our class along with 2C will be leading this prayer service at our school on Thursday April 2nd at 12:30 p.m. There will be a letter coming home soon with a more detailed explanation. 

Enjoy this spring-like weather! 
Mme Leflar

Joyeuse St Valentin

This week was another fun-filled adventure with our 100 day celebration, learning about our 5 senses and of course some Valentine's Day activities!

Here are a few more highlights from Carnaval last week: 

    

Our Tradansa instructor was FANTASTIC! 

100 Day- Thank you to Mme Jarvis and my colleague Mme Caverly who helped make this afternoon a success. I loved how invested the children were in each activity. I don't even think they realized they were working on numbers!

The 100 second challenge got us active! The 100 painting got us creative! 

We used our estimation skills to guess how many times we would have to roll to reach 100 and finally we used the Fruit Loops given by Zero the Hero to make our 100 day necklaces!

We were excited to FINALLY meet who has been leaving us treats every 10 days! 

This next week: 

Monday February 16- No School 

Wednesday February 18- Library (Please return books Tuesday. Mme Freeman really appreciates this!)                              - Ash Wednesday Prayer Service in the gym at 12:30                     

Thursday February 19- Hot Lunch Pasta

We will be continuing to work the sound in, as there are other variations (ain, ein) that make the same sound. Next week we will be working on those variations as well as our works: cinq, un patin, le lapin and un sapin

Reading strategy- We will continue to work the same strategy as this week "Est-ce que ca sonne bien" Does it sound right? 

Have a great Valentine's Day and Family Day!

100 day already?!

What a busy week we had! It was great to see the kids enjoying french learning in a different setting. What a privilege we have to experience a different culture!

Just a reminder February book orders were due today. If you still want to order please send it in tomorrow.

This coming week:

Tuesday- 100 Day Celebration
Wednesday- Junior ATB Deposit Day
                  - Early Release at 2:30 p.m.

Next week's sound is "in". We will be working on the words le lapin, le sapin, un patin and cinq.

100 Day Celebration- On our special day, your child should wear 100 of something! Use that creativity to design a shirt, hair accessory, hat, necklace, or anything that your child can wear that proudly displays 100 items!

A reminder that the following Monday the 16th  is Family Day, so the students will not be at school that day!

Highlights from this week:

You should have coming home at the end of this week a cute little craft for the sound "au". In keeping it on the Carnaval theme we will be making a hot chocolat craft! Mon bon chocolat chAUd!

Tradansa- Students had 2 sessions of Tradansa, learning different french songs and dances to go with it! We had lots of fun!

Lastly, we got an All Time Best this week in L to J Spelling! Seeings as All Time best are harder to attain now that our scores are higher, we decided to celebrate with a Pyjama day tomorrow! 

Have a great weekend! 

Joyeux Carnaval

Brace yourself as Carnaval is upon us beginning Tuesday! It is a week full of fun activities that is truly engulfes us in the French culture! Don't be surprised if your kids come home exhausted next week. Vive le Carnaval!

A look at next week:

Monday: Library

Tuesday: Carnaval Opening ceremonies 10:45

                Tradansa workshop

                Hot Lunch order forms to be returned

Wednesday: Pancake Breakfast 7:30-8:30

                     Hot Lunch order forms to be returned

Thursday: K-2 Outdoor games P.M. 

                February Book Orders are due

Friday- Tradansa workshop

           - Sleighrides

           - Closing ceremonies 2:30 

We will continue to work on the sound au/eau with the words beau, je saute and jaune

French Apps- Do you have any apps that you use with your children that are great? Please let me know! 

100 day celebration- February 10th is our 100 day celebration. I will be doing a portion of the afternoon with fun centres. I would love some parent help for this! If you are interested in helping out, please contact me for further details. 

Highlights from this past week: 

Thank you to all parents who were able to make it out to our Student Led Conferences! The students were trying extra hard last week in the work we were preparing because they wanted to make you proud. I appreciate all of your support at home, as that makes a difference here at school.

Pyjama Day- It was so fun to have the ENTIRE class  & school dressed in pyjamas today. Our school raised 400 food items that will be donated to a local charity, just from our Funhouse day the previous week. This is what the leadership decided to celebrate with! We thoroughly enjoyed the day! Thanks again to all who donated a non-perishable food item for that event. 

We would also like to welcome Elijah into our class. Our class is so great at helping the newest member of our 1C family. We pray each morning "I care deeply, I share generously and I help willingly." They have been living that out this week! 

Math- This week we started into 2D shapes. I loved their dinosaur creations! 

Wishing you all a restful weekend! 

Student Led Conferences week!

It is hard to believe that our second round of conferences is almost upon us! This Thursday Student Led conferences will be held from 4 to 6 p.m. This is an opportunity for your child to lead you through their learning! It is a drop-in basis. I will be around to answer any quick questions. Thanks for all of your ongoing support!

This week: 

Wednesday- Wear Blue, Gold or St. Thomas School clothing day

                  - Festival du livre (3:30-7:00)

Thursday- Festival du livre (3:30-7:00) 

               - Student Led Conferences 4-6 p.m.

This week we are working on the sound au/eau : jaune, je saute, beau

Last week we worked on the sound ou. Here is a look at a fun craft we did, to remind us at home of this sound!

80 Days and Counting!

This week we celebrated our 80th day of school! Zéro the Héros gave us a 100s chart because he LOVES zeros. We coloured all of the numbers that contained a zero and then counted by tens! We continue to practice at school counting by 2s, 5s and 10s!

One of my classroom incentives is a brain break program call Go Noodle. This morning they got enough points for a Go Noodle and here is a picture of them enjoying the movement of  ``We Like to Move It``

Hockey at recess- There seems to be many students in our classroom involved in this activity so I thought a clarification would be best made here. We have been asked that the ONLY sticks coming to school are mini sticks. These are little and can easily fit into the student's backpacks. If you seek clarifications, please feel free to email me. :)

Sounds work- Today was our last day specifically working on the sound "on" (although we touch on it from September through to June!). We made a fun little craft to remind us of the sound. I encouraged the students to put up their pig somewhere in the house, so that every time they see it they can practice the sound!

Next week: 

Words of the week: We start into the sound "ou". The words we will be focusing on are rouge, je joue and bonjour 

Thursday- Our student council is hosting a Fun House in which the students are welcome to enter into to participate in a fun activity of their choice. Activities available are face painting, glitter tattoos, dancing or having fun with a photo booth. Admission is a non-perishable food donation which will be donated to a local organization. 

Have a great weekend and enjoy this "not as cold" weather! 

Mme Leflar 

Warmer Weather On It's Way?!

I was so happy to see the warmer weather that is projected for this next week! The students were so excited for the two outside recesses we did get last week. Just a reminder to ensure your child comes well dressed in each day, even if it seems to cold to be out. We go outside if the windchill is -27C or warmer.

This week:

Tuesday- Mass at 9:30 at St. Anthony's
              - Scholastics are due
Wednesday- Early Dismissal at 2:30
                  - Library (Please return books Tuesday)
Thursday- SCC Hot Lunch

Words we are working on this week: We are still working the "on" sound, so will continue our words from last week: ils sont, un ballon, bon, un chaton

New: L to J Numbers has been changed now in 2015 to something we call Math Profiles. Math Profile quizzes are 8 questions like L to J Numbers were however they deal with all different strands of our Math curriculum. We will continue with all time bests! Just like L to J Numbers, this is a formative assessment to help students see what they already know and what they have yet to learn. You will get a chance to look at this at Student Led Conferences at the end of the month.

New: Strategy  of the week: Each week we will be focusing on a different reading strategy as a class. In the Take Home Reading pouch you should have different coloured pages on a ring. This is for you to refer to and help your child practice the strategy when they read to you at home. This week's strategy is Look at the Pictures.

Highlight from last week: We started our 5th element of Daily 5: Work on Words. Here is an example of a student working with Wiki Sticks! As well as a pair of student enjoying "Reading with others"

Have a great week!