Embrasse quatre fois

Voici une chanson qui s'appelle Embrasse quatre fois.  On peut pratiquer faire les actions et lire les mots pour la lecture chez toi ce soir.

Voici la vidéo:

- écrit par la classe de Mme Hegarty

French Immersion Week

École Victoria is celebrating French Immersion week starting tomorrow, Monday, February 3rd.  Some of the festivities include:
- a singing assembly on Monday where we will learn some traditional French Canadian songs
- a presentation (story telling) from Mme Sutton's Grade 4/5 class
- the chance to win a prize for speaking French during recess times (tickets will be given to students who are heard speaking French outside of the classroom and a prize will be drawn every day this week)
- a French film will be shown to the primary classes
- our students will sing a song from the play La Poule Maboule as well as be an audience for other primary classes who have something to share

Vive le français!  Long live French!

Bonne année!

Happy New Year! 
I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday.  Now that we are settling into school once again, I thought I would take the time to update families on some of the things happening this month. 

Firstly, I should tell you the great news: we have an additional teacher joining the Grade 1 French Immersion team.  Mme Brooke Spafford will be joining us in the mornings to help provide additional support in our large classes. 

Secondly, there are new clubs starting this month that your child may be interested in joining.  The junior choir will be shifting its focus a little bit in order to put on a mini-musical, so any students from grades 1 to 4 who are interested in acting, singing, or both should join us on Fridays at lunch recess in the auditorium starting tomorrow (January 10th). 
Math club is beginning next Tuesday, January 14th at lunch recess in the library and it is open to students in grades 1 to 8 who are interested in playing math games. 

This week we finished "shaking out" our words from our latest word study poster. I have included a photo of it below for your reference.  I have also added the link to a website which offers some help with French pronounciation (I probably gave you a paper copy of this in November).  It can be found on the right hand side under the heading "Parent Resources".  I hope you find it helpful!

That's it for now, but don't forget to check back periodically, as I intend on adding more information here soon.  Have a great weekend!

Les questions - a quick update

We are very lucky to have M. Bazin in our classroom a few days a week this month and next month in order to co-teach with me.   M. Bazin and I have been teaching the students question words and how to ask and answer questions in French.  We will use this learning in order to explore our next word study poster as well as the themes of celebration and the 5 senses.

Here are a few songs that we have been singing in the class that fit in very well with our learning so far.  It would be great for your child to practice at home by singing along (and who knows, maybe the whole family will want to join in!).

Qu'est-ce qu'il y a à manger?  Par Jacquot:

 Y a un chat par Charlotte Diamond (click here)

Qu'est-ce que c'est? par Jacquot:

 Other things to mention:

This Friday's spirit day is called Thrifty Threads.  This day is meant to encourage students to help the environment by wearing second-hand clothing. 

Here is an article that lists 10 foreign language apps that can help foster bilingualism in children.  I know many parents were asking me about apps to support their child's learning, so I hope this will be helpful to you.  Click here for more information. 

A short recap of last month's learning

In November, we worked on so many things!  We learned about different schools in Russia, England, Africa, Japan, and more.  We created our sentences, some of which we based on our comparisons that we noticed and discussed in our learning about schools around the world.  We played with our sentences by changing the punctuation (adding question and interrogation marks) and by turning them into a negative sentence by adding ne and pas to the sentences.  We also created a book of our sentences with our care partners in grade 3/4 which will be going home with students one by one soon.  We continued to learn about the sounds of the alphabet in French and learned many sight words in French, such as c'est, je, mon, ma, il, elle, and so on.  When I would add a new sight word to our word wall, the students would be encouraged to look for this word during Reading to Self, or partner reading time.  We have been adding new words every week to our Sight word book, which students are taking turns bringing home for a night.  We have also been working on speaking and writing in sentences as much as possible in order to develop our language skills.  
In math, we explored patterns and learned about different types of patterns with 2 to 4 elements.  We also have been working on counting by 1s and 2s.  
In this term, we will continue to work on speaking as much as possible in French in the classroom in order to continue to grow in our learning in all areas.  In the new year we will also begin to learn about word families in order to help us write and read in French, and we will take a closer look at our writing by creating and using a writing continuum (more on that later). 
The themes for this next term will be:  questioning, traditions and celebrations, the five senses, and family.

If you have any questions about our learning, please feel free to contact me.

Physical Education

The following is a short summary of Mme Muzika's Physical Education program:

Physical Education

During this past term we have covered the following concepts:

Personal Space – We have worked on movement in our own personal space.

Locomotor Movement – We have learned different locomotor movements such as walking, running, skipping, galloping, hopping, jumping, shuffling, and leaping.  We have worked on these movements at different levels as well as changing directions. These movements have been taught in general space in the gymnasium. Students have also worked on ways to avoid and dodge each other while performing these movements.

Manipulative Skills—So far this term, we have been working on throwing, catching, and hand dribbling. 

Fitness – We have begun to incorporate more emphasis on fitness activities on a daily basis. Strength and endurance have been emphasized at this time. 

Games – The students have been taught a select few games this term. The emphasis has been on participation and sportsmanship.

Progress reports

Your child's first Progress Report is being sent home tomorrow, and I know it may be an exciting/nervous evening for parents and students alike!

In order to ensure that this first evaluation is as positive and productive as possible, here are some suggestions on how to approach reading and responding to your child's report card:
1) Set aside a quiet and private time to read through the documents on your own
2) Arrange a quiet and private time to sit down with your child to read the report card together
3) Discuss the evaluation calmly and positively, beginning with your child's areas of strength, including examples of how your child exhibits these behaviours and skills at home
4) Discuss the areas needing further attention in a practical manner, including brainstorming ways that these skills can be practiced and reinforced on a regular basis at home and at school
5) Make jot notes together about areas needing further clarification to take with you to the conference this week

I am looking forward to discussing your child’s progress during three-way conferences on Thursday and Friday of this week.  When arriving at the school for your conference, please remember that, due to sensitivities in the school community, our school is now a scent-aware building, so please refrain from wearing perfumes or colognes when coming to the school.