Week 8 Update

Bonjour!

Please see email for field trip information.


Of note this week (as well as the field trip):

Monday Oct. 24th - Library book exchange, Scholastic due, Cross-Country Meet after lunch

Tuesday Oct. 25th - Last week's Dictée cahier sent home

Wednesday Oct. 26th - Pyjama day

Thursday Oct. 27th - Photo retakes, Dictée


This week's audio dictée:

Week 7

Bonjour!

On Friday you should have received a letter re:  an upcoming field trip.  See email for more information.  Please let me know (by email or paper) if you are able to join us.

This week's happenings:

Monday - Library book exchange, assembly, Little buddies

Tuesday - Choir

Wednesday - Music

Thursday - Dictée, BC Shakedown practice, gym

Friday - BC-wide Professional Day for teachers.  No school in session.

Français - This week's words are French weather pattern words.  We have also been working on writing sentences in class, more specifically, remembering to capitalize the first letter in a sentence, and to include a period at the end.  Some students are also working writing their P and p.  (The latter one dips below the line).

We also started reading a short French story together about bats.  We will use this story as a launching point to learn more about Character, Setting, Problem, and Solution in a story.  We will also pick out factual information and take notes about bats.

Math -  We have been working on step counting, adding and subtracting since September, and are now working on continuing a pattern using shapes, numbers, and letters.  To help your child develop quicker computation skills, I encourage families to play board games with 2 dice, or card games with an element of counting involved such as War or Crib.

P.E. - We have been practicing how to throw a ball with one hand and passing, in preparation with learning how to play European Handball.

Art - For the past few weeks, students have practiced how to draw faces.  This week they created an auto-portrait, which will become the cover page for their scrapbook this year.

This week's audio dictée:

Week 6 - Field Trips, Agendas, Dictée, Fire Drill

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Field Trips
Please see email for upcoming field trip dates.  Watch for a paper newsletter with more specific information to come home this week.

Agendas

I use agendas in my class as an important communication tool between school & home.  Please make sure to sign it every night.  I tell students that it is their responsibility to ask you to read and sign it, but in reality these young people usually need a hand in remembering.  Since we look at our agendas at least once a day, it is also a good place for parents to write reminders (exchange books, bring home water bottle, ...)

Dictée

We are working with Thanksgiving terms in French as the students will be writing in the journals about this holiday.  Here is this week's audio dictée:

This week:
Fire Drill:  Willows has been practicing what to do in the event of a fire.  We expect to have a surprise Fire Drill this week, at which time the Oak Bay Fire Department will be in attendance to time our exit.

Assembly:  On Thursday morning we are expecting to meet Gareth Rees (Willows grad and Canadian rugby legend) as well as  Natasha Watcham-Roy and Bianca Farella, members of the bronze medal winning Canadian Women's Rugby Team. 

Bonne semaine!

Week 4 Update

Thank you to all of you who were able to drop-in to the "Meet the Teacher" event on Thursday evening.  It was very nice to meet everyone.

This week at Willows:

• Thursday Sept. 28 - Dictée
• Friday Sept. 29 - Library book exchange, Terry Fox run after lunch (weather permitting)

Terry Fox - mid August 1980, somewhere in Quebec/Ontario.  Taken on my small Kodak camera when I was moving with my family to Victoria.

We will spend a bit of time early this week getting notebooks and duotangs organized for the year.  I expect to officially start a Home-reading program this week.  Watch for a plastic bag with a small red notebook and a French book.  Further info about the program will be inside the notebook.

This week's audio dictée - Continents and Oceans:

Finally, these past few weeks I have had a bit of time on my hands as my sprained ankle was healing.  I am a big fan of podcasts and various education (and knitting) blogs and came across the following, which you may also find following interesting:

• This first one is about encouraging children to develop self-efficacy.  It gets interesting around the 7:13 mark.  Here's the transcript.  YouTube video also on this page.
• On raising children to include others.  While a little girl-centric, these principles could apply to both girls and boys.
• Being a big fan of nature walks, this article was also interesting.

2016/2017 Bonjour et bienvenue!

Welcome to the first blog post of the 2016/2017 school year.  As you have likely heard, my ankle is still recovering from an unfortunate hiking accident on Labour Day.  This past Friday I was excited to drop in the class and my new crop of Grade 3 students.  I tried to learn everyone's name, although it may take me a few more attempts to remember them all perfectly.  It was also nice to meet Mme Lucie Livernoche, who will be replacing me until my return, hopefully in the next week or so.  We are very lucky to have Mme Lucie's French Immersion expertise in our classroom.  She is very dedicated to her students and is also a native French speaker herself.

Upcoming events this week:

Monday Sept. 19 - Professional Development for teachers.  School is not in session.

Wednesday Sept. 21 - Photo Day

Thursday Sept. 22 - Meet the teacher from 6:30 to 8pm.  I plan on attending this event and hope to see you there!

Dictées/Spelling

You have no doubt been acquainted with dictées in past years.  In recent years the value of dictée and spelling quizzes has come into question as research seems to indicate that they do not necessarily lead to more accurate spelling when writing.  I have chosen to keep these two exercises because I believe they contribute to the learning in our classroom, beyond just knowing how to spell.  In a French Immersion classroom we are learning and using new words, often on a daily basis.  Most weeks our dictée words will reflect words which we are currently using as part of our Social Studies and Science units.  Studying them in a dictée helps students remember what they mean and enhances our class discussions with proper terms.  The dictée give us a chance to practice these words at school, and hopefully at home too.

As a general rule, new dictée words will be written in the agenda on Fridays, with the dictée quiz taking place the following Thursday.  Students absent on the Thursday will take the quiz upon returning to class.  Please encourage your child to practice writing the words out a few times during the week.

We will start spelling quizzes after the first report card, and at that point will alternate between a dictée one week, and a spelling quiz the following week.

This past Friday, Mme Livernoche and the students worked in groups to choose words often used in the classroom.  This Thursday, the students will be quizzed on these words.  The written words for the dictée were included in the email sent home.  Below is an audio version.  I will do my best to send this information home each week (fingers crossed!).  You can also find the printed words in your child's agenda.

Happy new school year!

Welcome back to school everyone!  I hope everyone had a restful summer full of fresh air and adventures.

I enjoyed a few camping trips and many great wilderness hikes this past summer.  Unfortunately, it seems that my year of living dangerously continued.  Monday morning, while hiking East Sooke Park, my right foot got caught in some rocks and in what seemed like slow-motion, my foot stayed put while my body tumbled over the ankle.

I am very sad to be missing this first week.  The first day back not only serves as a warmup day for everyone, but also as a transition to the new year, reconnecting with old friends.

I always look forward to the first day of school because I get to see how much my students have grown over the summer and to hear about their adventures.  Before sending students to their new classrooms, I like to remind them that our classroom is a safe place, and that if they are ever feeling sad or in need of someone to talk to, they can drop by.  I also encourage them to drop by and say hi once in a while, and to remember to get involved in school activities like sports teams, choir, lunch monitoring (in grade 5).  I hope you will be able to pass this message along.  I hope to be back at Willows real soon!

The following are 2 recipes from last June:  one for silly-putty and the other for bread:

Silly Putty

Over the summer, Health Canada recommended to avoid using boric acid in arts & crafts.  David Suzuki also addresses it here.  Unfortunately the recipe used in class last June, which came from a visiting scientist from Science World, contained Borax.  The following is a YouTube link to a Borax-free recipe.

Bread

12 ml of active dry, or rapid rise yeast (1 package?)
500 ml of warm water
1025 ml of all-purpose flour
10 ml of salt

1.  In a large bowl, mix the yeast and water.
2.  Add the flour and salt.  Mix until the dough is lumpy, but without dry flour.
3.  Cover the bowl with a tea towel and let it rest in a warm spot until it has doubled in size (about 2 hrs).

4.  Cover hands with flour.  Pickup the dough and place it on a baking sheet, cast iron Dutch oven, shaping it to the desired shape.

5.  Let the dough rise again for up to 60 minutes.

6.  Preheat oven to 375 F.
7.  If making bread, slash the dough with a bread knife a few times.
8.  Bake for up to 60 minutes.  Your bread will be ready when it is golden on top and your kitchen smells like bread!

9.  Move the baked bread to a cooling surface.  If possible, avoid the temptation of slicing into it right away as it is still cooking.

10.  Slice and enjoy!

Here are 2 more bread recipes.

Enjoy, and wishing everyone a great school year!

Last Week - potluck tomorrow

Can you believe it?  Tomorrow is the last day of this school year, already!  We had our year-end assembly this morning, so it must be true.

It's been such a joy to work with this class this year.  They were all very interested in learning and making progress.  Case in point, they crammed a mini-project about a Canadian region in this last week.  Do take a look at these projects as they are pretty cute.  It's a pamphlet with information & images.  Some groups also wrote and performed an anthem for their region.  Again, pretty cute and dedicated.

This past week was not just work, we had time for some fun too.  On Friday we had a lovely nature walk through Uplands Park.  Overheard were many comments such as:  "Wow!  This is the most beautiful walk I have ever been on!"  We ate our snacks on some rocks in the park, and had an activity where each student had a piece of paper taped to his or her back, and had to write a compliment on other students' paper.  I used to do this activity with middle schoolers because it really seems to build confidence, and was glad to see it worked quite well with Grade 3s too.

For this week, I thought about doing a few more tactile activities which didn't fall into a curricular area this year.  On Monday we made bread (pioneers), and this afternoon we made silly putty (matter).  Tomorrow afternoon, if I get brave enough, we may try to make ice cream (just because).  I'll have to try to make it at home first to make sure it works!

Speaking of tomorrow afternoon, we would like to have a snack-potluck after lunch, and play board games or do some art.  If possible, please send along a small sharing snack (carrot sticks, celery, cherries, chips, cupcakes, cookies, ...).  Uneaten snacks will be returned home at the end of the day.  We also invite parents to come to our class around 2pm.  The students have put together a scrapbook of their artwork this year, and this would be a nice time for them to present their work to you, if you have the time.

Please have some contact with the French language over the summer, especially reading, to keep up hard-earned skills.  In the "Links" section of this blog, there is a link to my colleague Josee Malo's website which has many sites with French texts, written or spoken.

If anyone is interested in the recipe for bread or silly putty please let me know and I will post them on this blog.

Thank you all for supporting your children's education.  I will miss each and every one of these little people.  Wishing everyone a happy summer!