Updates & Homework

Monday June 16th

Bonjour!

I hope you all had a great weekend! This will be the last week of doing an update on here, so please read through it carefully. With there only being four days next week, I'll just send an email if there is anything to let you know.

A few things to mention:

• I will be out of the classroom on Thursday as I will be chaperoning my daugther's field trip to Shining Waters. Any after school changes for that day, please contact the office.

• It seems as though the summer weather is here to stay this week. Our classroom does get super hot and it seems to stay stuck in our room. I do have about 3 fans and I try to keep the lights off as much as possible to eliminate some heat but it still gets hot. Please make sure your child comes to school each day this week with a full water bottle (our stash in the office is very out), sun hat/ball hat, cool clothing and UNSCENTED sunscreen.

• The student's don't know this yet either (ssshhhhhh), as it's also in one of our balloons we pop each day, but we will be having a water day on Monday of NEXT week. Student's will need an extra change of clothes on this day (don't forget undies) and a towel. If girls are wearing a bathing suit, please make sure they wear shorts over the bottoms.

• Please send in your child's favorite board game by Wednesday.

• Please have all reading books returned to the classroom by Friday.

• Please have all library books returned by Friday.

• This Wednesday (June 18th) is our Field Day at school! Our class will be playing organized games. Please make sure they have a water bottle, sunscreen and weather appropriate clothing. By that I mean an extra sweater or coat if it is cooler, and no flip flops that day as they will be running around. I just find flip flops can fall off or not super comfortable when running and moving quickly. If it's raining the Field Day will be the next week.

• With only 9 days left of school I will be starting to do the classroom clean up and will be sending a lot of stuff home. Please make sure to empty homework bag EACH NIGHT as it wil probably get filled again the next day.

• If you are placing lunch orders for June, please DO NOT order food for June 26th as I will be buying the whole class pizza (each student will get 1 pizza and garlic fingers).

This week in the following subjects:

• Reading: I will continue to read one on one with students everyday.

•  Sounds of the week: 

  • • We have finished all of our sounds for the year and now we will review for the remainder of the year.

  • Word Study/Spelling words of the week:

    • The big test is done! I will be sending them home this week, as I was out most of last week.

• Writing:  This week we will work on our end of the year writing activity and do a few few writing activities for summer.

• Math: This week we will be a review week. We will go over everything we have worked on this year. 

• Integrated Studies:  I popped into school this week to get caught up on some work and noticed that we have 9 butterflies!!! There was still on in a cocoon, so we'll see if he's out in the morning. We will release the butterflies on Wednesday. The students always love watching them fly away but can also be a little sad. I didn't think we would get that many so it's great to see! It is one of my favorite little projects to do! 

• Homework: Homework is done for the year except for one more task for this week. It will benefit parents! Students are to clean their bedroom (you're welcome)!!! There is a sheet in their black homework bag asking for students to clean and search for library books and classroom books.

Dates to remember:

• June 16th - Yellow Day

• June 18th - Students can bring in a towel or small blanket for something fun we will be doing in class.

• June 20th - Board Game Day! Students can bring their favorite board game from home.

• June 23rd - Water Day (ssshhhh)!

• June 26th - Report Cards go home & Last Day of School!

I hope everyone has a great week!

Mme Melissa

Monday June 2nd

Bonjour!

I hope you all had a great weekend! June is here and we are in the home stretch with a busy few weeks. Lots of fun things happening the next three and a half weeks.

A few things to mention:

• Evaluations are in full swing, so students will be getting pulled by myself and resource (if they had any this year) this week and next week. Hoping to get as many as I can done this week.

• We will have a Show & Tell this Friday. Students are asked to bring in an object (toy, teddy, etc.) to present to the class. They will have to talk about their object in French when presenting it to the class.

• The countdown to the end of the year is on (19 days)! I really enjoy doing a classroom countdown. I keep as much of it a secret as possible because it's fun to surprise them. The days that the students will know are the following because there are a few things needed from home.

  • June 2nd - PJ/Teddy Day

  • June 4th - Sports Day! Students can bring items from home to play a sport outside.

  • June 13th - Beach Day! Students can come to school ready for the beach (shorts, tank, sunglasses, hat, sandals etc.) Beach towels are also recommended because we will be using them for some reading as well. We are NOT going to the beach, it's simply a dress up day in class.

  • June 20th - Please send in your child's favorite board game.

• Thank you to those who donated to our PJ walk happening this Friday! We are so close to hitting our goal. If there are still some that wanted to donate be my guest. Here's the link: PJ Walk Donations 

• On Wednesday June 11th Home and School will be having a celebration at our park from 4pm-6pm. Come on out and celebrate the year!

• Please remember to sign the spelling test (little green scribbler) and send it back in.

• Libray is done for the year, so please send in all library books ASAP. I will sending home email with books that are not returned by next week. 

• If you are placing lunch orders for June, please DO NOT order food for June 12th as we will not be at school that day (field trip) and June 26th as I will be buying the whole class pizza (each student will get 1 pizza and garlic fingers).

• The weather has still been iffy. Just make sure your child has everything appropriate for the day and weather.

• We will continue to work on speaking French as much as we can. Some are really catching on to our addition of 2 blocs each when speaking to a friend in French. Others are still not even trying. The ones who are trying, I now need them to talk to everybody in French to hopefully encourage others to do the same (fingers crossed). 

This week in the following subjects:

• Reading: This week I will continue to give those who need that finial push some extra one on one time.

•  Sounds of the week: 

  • • We have finished all of our sounds for the year and now we will review for the remainder of the year.

  • Word Study/Spelling words of the week:

    • There will be a big test this week. It has all the words that we have worked on this year. It's a lot but many of the words are 2-3 letters.

• Writing:  This week I'm simply going to let students write me a story. We have been working so hard on getting our ideas on paper and how to write about what we have drawn. I want to see now what they are capable of doing.

• Math:This week we will continue our unit on measurement and also start out final unit on patterns. For measurement, we will focus on things being heavier or lighter than something else. We will use a small balance scale and our hands to do this. We will most likely finish up this unit this week as it's a small unit and students seem to grasp this concern pretty fast. For patterns, it's a fun unit to do at the end because patterns is something they have seen in kindergarten, so it's familar and a bit easier. We will take a step further by doing patterns with sounds, objects and colors. Lots of hand on learning this week.

• Integrated Studies:  We continue to watch our butterflies grow and I'm hoping that when we return Monday some may be in their cocoons. Once all caterpillars are in their cocoons, I will be moving them to their home where they will turn into butterflies before we release them. We will also continue and finish our unit on plants. We planted some two weeks ago, so we will continue to watch to see if they grow. We will also talk about why the sun is important and we will check the weather each day to see how it changes.

• Homework: I have added this weeks homework sheet to the purple duotang. Don't forget about the section about the spelling. Our quiz this week will be all the words we have worked on this year with a big test on Friday. I placed all the words in the purple duotang last week if you are wanting to practice. I have also added this weeks math homework. Please check it out!

Dates to remember:

• June 2nd - Cassroom countdown begins!!

• June 2nd - PJ & Teddy Day

• June 4th - Sports Day! Students can bring anything to play their favorite sport from home.

• June 6th - Show & Tell - please bring in a favorite toy or teddy.

• June 11th - Home and School Celebration - GSP Fun in the park!

• June 12th - End of the Year Field Trip to Camp Triumph

• June 13th - Beach Day! Students come dressed ready for the "beach", don't forget your towel. We will NOT actually be going to the beach. It's simply a fun dress up day and students will do their work spread out on their towels all day.

• June 20th - Board Game Day! Students can bring their favorite board game from home.

• June 26th - Report Cards go home & Last Day of School!

I hope everyone has a great week!

Mme Melissa

Tuesday May 20th

Bonjour!

I hope you all enjoyed the las long weekend of the school year! We are in the home stretch now!

A few things to mention:

• It's that time of year again for sunscreen! Please remeber that our school is scent free. Just a reminder that I do not have time to put sunscreen on the students. If someone missed a spot or asks if it's rubbed in properly that I can help with but helping all students would be impossible. A few notes about sunscreen if you are sending it to school with your child:

  • Please teach your child how to properly apply sunscreen (in good proportions - not too much and not too little)

  • Please DO NOT SEND SPRAY SUNSCREEN.

  • Remind your child to not share sunscreen with friends as some individuals are allergic to the products in the sunscreen.

  • Some students have been bringing s stick of sunscreen and it seems to workking efficiently. 

• Last week I had sent home our last Scholastic flyer of the year. There are some good deals in this flyer, as I grabbed some for my girls. Remember when placing an order to use the code at the top of the flyer to give our classroom some rewards (RC166771).

• I asking all students/parents to clean out their black homework bag. Some are getting pretty full. All that should be in the homework bag is the homework duotang and the NEW blue "traitement alphabétique" book. Everything else can stay home.

• Please remember to sign the spelling test (little scribbler) and send it back in. 

• Last week was our last last spelling quiz of the year. Starting this week I will be doing a quiz at the end of the week on numbers (5 of them). I will continue to send the little scribbler home to get signed. We will do this for a few more weeks.

• Please have library books returned by Friday May 23rd.

• If you are placing lunch orders for June, please DO NOT order food for June 12th as we will not be at school that day (feild trip).

• The weather has still been iffy. Just make sure your child has everything appropriate for the day and weather.

• We will continue to work on speaking French as much as we can. Some have been doing very well speaking to me in French but now I want them to speak to their friends in French. I am going to up the anti by giving 2 blocks if I hear someone speaking to a friend in French.  Now once they receive 15 blocks, they'll get to trade those and pick from the prize box.

This week in the following subjects:

• Reading: This week I'm going to focus on those who really need that end of the year push. I have finished a round of evaluations but now I have time to really work one on one with those who need that push. I will be doing another round of evaluations in a couple weeks to see if this extra push has helped.

•  Sounds of the week: 

  • • We have finished all of our sounds for the year and now we will review for the remainder of the year.

  • Word Study/Spelling words of the week:

    • We are all finished of our little spelling tests for the year. In a few weeks (June 6th), we will be doing our big test off all the words from the year. I will be sending the words home either later this week or at the beginning of next week.

• Writing:  This week we will continue to revisit our writing unit on small moments. We are still going to work on getting those ideas on paper and to add details to those simple sentences. Some are still writing things like "Mon papa joue avec moi." I want them to add things like what did you play with dad, where did you play this game, when did this happen.

• Math: This week we are going to be doing some written math problems and trying to work out how to find the missing number. For example: Sam has 6 hockey cards. Sean gives him some hockey cards. Sam now has 13 hockey cards. How many did Sean give him? These will really make students think about their addition facts. We will use manipulatives like marbles, bingo markers to help us figure out these type of questions. There will be different kinds of these question with addition and subtraction.

• Integrated Studies:  We will start our small unit on butterflies this week. We will talk mainly about their life cycle and how long the whole cycle takes. This is all a part of our unit about how things change.

• Homework: I have added this weeks homework sheet to the purple duotang. We are done of the spelling tests for now (there's a big one to come closer to the end of the year). Instead we will be doing a test on numbers (5 of them). Our quiz of 5 numbers will be Friday. I have also added the NEW BLUE "traitement alphabétique" book and a sheet for math homework. Please check it out!

Dates to remember:

• May 29th - Ice Cream Sale

• June 12th - End of the Year Field Trip to Camp Triumph

• June 26th - Last Day of School!

I hope everyone has a great week!

Mme Melissa

Monday May 5th

Bonjour!

I hope you all had a great weekend! It was so great to see that sun and some heat on Saturday. Well here we go turning the calendar to May and I cannot believe it. We have lots to do and accomplish this month so the push is on.

A few things to mention:

• I asking all students/parents to clean out their black homework bag. Some are getting pretty full. All that should be in the homework bag is the homework duotang and the yellow "traitement alphabétique" book. Everything else can stay home.

• Thank you to all of those who were able to pop in quickly on Thursday to see the projects! They all did so well and were so proud to show them off to parents and other classes that came to visit. If your child did not take their project home, it's because it's too big and they didn't want it to break on the bus. I'm asking for you to pop into school Monday or Tuesday to pick up your child's project.

• I will be out of the classroom on Wednesday as my daugther has a dentist appointment. If there are any changes to after school plans for that day, please contact the office.

• Please remember to sign the spelling test (little green scribbler) and send it back in. 

• Please have library books returned by Tuesday May 6th.

• Reminder to please make sure any toys, hockey cards and stuff stay home.

• With spring finally here, the weather has gotten nicer. I have been letting students go outside in just jackets but have warned about the mud still around our playground. If they have splash pants in their school bags as a jus in case that would be great because it could rain in the morning and we go out at lunch and everything will be wet. So just be prepared.

• We will continue to work on speaking French as much as we can. This week we are really going to focus on speaking to Madame in French all the time and move on to speaking to our friends. Some are catching on others are still not seeming to care. So we will see how this goes. 

This week in the following subjects:

• Reading: This week I'm going to continue our reading groups but also squeeze in some reading evaluations as some are ready to move to higher reading levels.

•  Sounds of the week: 

  • • -et at the end of a word (as in violet)

  • Word Study/Spelling words of the week: *test on Friday*

    • aussi, j'aime, beau, vite, viens, je vais

• Writing:  This week we will be writing about animals. We are really going to get into details about these animals because that is what some are missing in their writing. We will talk about details like if an animal is big or small, what color is the animal, what does the animal like to do.

• Math: This week we will continue working on subtraction. We will be working on drawing out our subtraction problems. This is a big part in helping students visualize the problem and what exactly is happening.

• Integrated Studies:  We will start talking about how things are changing outside for spring. This will lead us into a lot of fun activities that I love doing in spring.

• Homework: I have added this weeks homework sheet to the purple duotang. Don't forget about the section about the spelling. Our quiz with the 5 words will be Friday. I have also added a sheet for math homework. Please check it out!

Dates to remember:

• May 19th - Victoria Day (No School)

• June 12th - End of the Year Field Trip to Camp Triumph

• June 26th - Last Day of School!

I hope everyone has a great week!

Mme Melissa

Tuesday April 22nd

Bonjour!

I hope you all had a great long Easter weekend! It was great to see that sun on Monday for sure. 

A few things to mention:

• Easter Seals Ambassador's will be visiting the school on this Wednesday April 23rd. 

• I will be out of the classroom on Friday as my oldest daugther has a dance competition in Halifax. If there are any changes to after school plans for that day, please contact the office.

• I will not be sending reading books home this week and possibly next week, as I'm in the process of counting all books for inventory. Reading this week will simply consist of the yellow traitement alphabétique book and colored sight words/sentences.

• Reminder of the family project due next week (April 30th). The sheet of information is in the purple duotang. I will send an email later this week about the date and time that parents can come in to see the projects. It's looking like I will be inviting parents and other classes in to visit on May 1st but stay tuned for the email as I figure it out.

• Please remember to sign the spelling test (little green scribbler) and send it back in. 

• Please have library books returned by Friday April 25th.

• Reminder to please make sure any toys and stuff stay home. Some have still been sneaking stuff into the classroom which has been distracting others.

• It seems as though spring has finally arrived, so splash pants will be the way to go for outdoor recess. A reminder though that the playground is still very wet, so please make sure your child has extra clothes just in case.

• We will continue to work on speaking French as much as we can. I have giving reminders a lot lately and a lot are still not catching on and it's getting frustrating. I may have to think of another way to get them to start speaking French all the time.

This week in the following subjects:

• Reading: This week I will continue to give reminders when listening to students about what strategy they should/may be using.

•  Sounds of the week: 

  • • -p at the end of a word (it is silent)

    • x at the end of word (as in deux) - the x is silent at the end of words

  • Word Study/Spelling words of the week: *Friday*

    • bonjour, jour, je cours, toute, que

• Writing:  This week we will be writing about what we can do to help our planet. We'll do a little art project to go with it. We will talk about things together first then students will have to write on their own what they will do. We never got to do this last week, so I will simply do it this week.

• Math: This week we will continue our addition strategies. This week we are going to look at fact families. I like to save the fact families strategy for the end as we have to use subtraction in our fact families and that will lead us into the subtraction part of this unit. 

• Integrated Studies:  We will be putting this on pause for the next couple weeks to simply concentrate on other things we have to do in the classroom. I like to pick this unit back up around when spring really starts outside.

• Homework: I have added this weeks homework sheet to the purple duotang. Don't forget about the section about the spelling. Our quiz with the 5 words will be Friday. I have also added sheet for math homework. Please check it out!

Dates to remember:

• April 23rd - Easter Seal Ambassador Visit

• April 25th - Madame is out of the classroom

• May 2nd - Teacher's Area Association (No School)

• May 19th - Victoria Day (No School)

I hope everyone has a great week!

Mme Melissa

Monday April 7th

Bonjour!

I hope you all had a great weekend! I'm hoping this weekend was the last of the snow because I am over it. Hoping for nicer spring days in the coming days.

A few things to mention:

• There will be a note in your child's purple duotang in regards to a family project (will be after the homework sheet). I do this project each year it is one of my favorites. Please read the sheet and take note of when the project is due in class.

• This week is French week at Glen Stewart. We will be doing a few activities in class to celebrate. We will also be attending a little concert on Thursday. The Music Man (Michael Pendergast) will be putting on a little concert for all students in the school on Thursday. He's always so fun and I know the kids will be excited!

• Please remember to sign the spelling test (little green scribbler) and send it back in. 

• Please have library books returned by Monday April 7th.

• Reminder to please make sure any toys and stuff stay home. Some have still been sneaking stuff into the classroom which has been distracting others.

• It seems as though spring has finally arrived, so splash pants will be the way to go for outdoor recess. A reminder though that the playground is still very wet, so please make sure your child has extra clothes just in case.

• We will continue to work on speaking French as much as we can. I have giving reminders a lot lately and a lot are still not catching on and it's getting frustrating. I may have to think of another way to get them to start speaking French all the time.

This week in the following subjects:

• Reading: This week we will continue talking about different strategies for reading unknown words. Some of these they may know already from the new program that we have been doing since September but some are still not apply them to their reading. Here are the ones we will be looking at this week:

  • • Syllables - how to split words into syllables

    • Looking for parts that I know

    • Ways to merge sounds together

    • When there are 3 vowels together

•  Sounds of the week: 

  • • double consonants (rr, mm, pp, ll, ss, nn)

  • Word Study/Spelling words of the week: *test on Thursday*

    • regarde, rouge, aussi, petite, grande

• Writing: This week we will be doing a little writing piece about if we were the Easter Bunny. This is a fun little writting activity to get creative and silly. We will brainstorm ideas about different things that the Easter Bunny may do around our houses then we will be pick 3-4 and write them by adding different details.

• Math: This week we will continue looking at different strategies that help up figure out the answer to addition problems a little faster. We will be looking at doubles. We will think of different things around the classroom that can help us with doubles, find some patterns in doubles and apply them to some problems.

• Integrated Studies:  We will be putting this on pause for the next couple weeks to simply concentrate on other things we have to do in the classroom. I like to pick this unit back up around when spring really starts outside.

• Homework: I have added this weeks homework sheet to the purple duotang. Don't forget about the section about the spelling. Our quiz with the 5 words will be Thursday. I have also added sheet for math homework. Please check it out!

Dates to remember:

• April 11th - Professional Development Day (No School)

• April 18th - Good Friday (No School)

• April 21st - Easter Monday (No School)

• May 2nd - Teacher's Area Association (No School)

• May 19th - Victoria Day (No School)

I hope everyone has a great week!

Mme Melissa

Monday March 24th

Bonjour!

I hope you all had a great March break! I had a busy but amazing trip to Disney World! As much as we did not want to leabe I am so excited to see al those little faces tomorrow.

A few things to mention:

• I will be out of the classroom Monday afternoon as my daughter has a dentist appointment. I know timing isn't right with just getting back but they needed to get her in as soon as possible. The same substitute that was in for me on the Friday before break will be in for me again. If there are any after school changed please let me office know.

• Over the winter months some students have used up their extra change of clothes and with the wet months coming I feel as though some may need to be replenished. Please make sure your child has an extra pair of clothes (maybe even 2 pairs of pants and socks). I know it will be cold for a little bit longer but when that snow melts our playground becomes a mess and mud pit.

• Many were also coming in from recess before the break with wet socks. Please pack a couple extra pairs as we do go out even if the playground is wet. As much as I tell them to stay out of the water it doesn't help.

• Please remember to sign the spelling test (little green scribbler) and send it back in. 

• Please have library books returned by Wednesday March 26th.

• Reminder to please make sure any toys and stuff stay home.

• It seems as though Spring has arrived and has turned our playgrounw into a mud pit. Snow pants may not be necessary anymore (depending on the day) but splash pants for sure. As always, please make sure to pack appropriate clothes for the weather (hat, mits, splash pants/snow pants, boots). I always make sure they have everything they need on as well.

• We will continue to work on speaking French as much as we can. This week I'm going to start asking students to try and say certain sentences in French when speaking to me. It will be sentences that I know they can say in French. After speaking to you all at interviews I feel as though some may come around and start to speak more French (my hope).

This week in the following subjects:

• Reading: This week we will simply continue to work on all strategies that we have learned up to this point to help us read unknown words. I'm hoping to get into strategies to help with fluidity in the coming weeks.

•  Sounds of the week: 

  • • qu (as in question)

    • soft c & ç (as in cerise & garçon)

  • Word Study/Spelling words of the week: *test on Friday*

    • ta, te, voici, tes, par

• Writing: This week we will start our week talking about different things we did during the break and write about them. Things we did during the break can be as simple as going to watch a movie, going to a friends house, playing outside, going skating, going on a trip etc. We will also start our unit on transportation. We will talk about the different kinds of transportatiom and what we use them for. We will also talk about if each different mode of transportation floats, flies or roles.

• Math: This week we continue working through our addition strategies. This week we will conitnue working one the strategy of making 10. I like to spend a little bit more time on this strategy as I find it can be very helpful for students. 

• Integrated Studies:  We will be putting this on pause for the next couple weeks to simply concentrate on other things we have to do in the classroom. I like to pick this unit back up around when spring really starts outside.

• Homework: I have added this weeks homework sheet along with our last colored list (turquoise) to the purple duotang. Don't forget about the section about the spelling. Our quiz with the 5 words will be Friday. Please check it out!

Dates to remember:

• March 24th - First day back after break

• April 11th - Professional Development Day (No School)

• April 18th - Good Friday (No School)

• April 21st - Easter Monday (No School)

• May 2nd - Teacher's Area Association (No School)

• May 19th - Victoria Day (No School)

I hope everyone has a great week!

Mme Melissa

Monday March 3rd

Bonjour!

Here we go with the month of March! I hope you all enjoyed your weekend. I spent the weekend starting to pack for our trip on March break.

A few things to mention:

• I will be out of the classroom on Monday as my daugther has an appointment. If there are any after school changes please let the office know.

• Thank you to those who have signed up for an interview time this week. There are still a couple who have yet to do so, please if you could sign up by Monday at 3pm that would be great because that is when the sign up portal will be closing.

• We will be going to the book fair on Tuesday. If you are planning on sending in money, please do so on that day.

• Over the winter months some students have used up their extra change of clothes and with the wet months coming I feel as though some may need to be replenished. Please make sure your child has an extra pair of clothes (maybe even 2 pairs of pants and socks). I know it will be cold for a little bit longer but when that snow melts our playground becomes a mess and mud pit.

• Please remember to sign the spelling test (little green scribbler) and send it back in. 

• We will miss our library this week due to the book fair.

• Reminder to please make sure any toys and stuff stay home.

• As always, please make sure to pack appropriate clothes for the cold weather (hat, mits, snow pants, boots). I always make sure they have everything they need on as well. 

• We will continue to work on speaking French as much as we can. The block system is working for many but some are still not catching on. Basically if someone speaks to me or I hear someone talking to their friends in French then they receive a block. They have to receive 10 blocks before getting to pick out of my prize box. I need them to simply try saying simply phrases learned in the classroom. We are past saying just one word in the sentence in French. They should know enough now to be able to say 2-3 sentences in French. This is all the process on working towards speaking French all the time and I know we can get there.

This week in the following subjects:

• Reading: This week we will continue talking about different strategies for reading words. Here are the different ones we will look at this week:

  • • Consonant Blends

    • Inseperable Vowels

•  Sounds of the week: 

  • • ai (as in j'aime)

    • ei (as in neige)

  • Word Study/Spelling words of the week: *test on Thursday*

    • ou, papa, pas, petit, pour

• Writing: This week we will continue our unit on small moments. This week we will continue to talk about our ideas and that we do a quick drawing of what happened on each page that way we know what to write. We also do what's called "Touch et Raconte". It's when we tell what happened on each page by touching the page before writing.

• Math: This week we will continue looking at some different mental math strategies to help us with addition. This week we will look at the strategy of what happens when you add 0 and turnaround facts (3+2=5 so 2+3=5).

• Integrated Studies:  We will continue our unit on important changes that happen in life (seasons, animals, ourselves from season to season...). We will be talking about seasons and how things change from season to season. This will be our unit for awhile as we will be having lots of discussions and doing lots of different activities to really think about these things.

• Homework: I have added this weeks homework sheet to the purple duotang. Don't forget about the section about the spelling. Our quiz with the 5 words will be Thursday. Please check it out!

Dates to remember:

• March 6th - Parent-Teacher Interviews (Evening)

• March 7th - Parent-Teacher Interviews (No School)

• March 10th-14th - Winter Carnival Week - Stay Tuned

• March 14th - Madame is away

• March 17th - 21st - March Break

• March 24th - First day back after break

I hope everyone has a great week!

Mme Melissa

Tuesday February 18th

Bonjour!

I hope you all enjoyed the extra long weekend and Islander Day yesterday! My family and I took in the Jack Frost Winterfest all weekend so we were busy but still so much fun.

A few things to mention:

• With Valentine's Day cancelled last week, we will be having a our little Valentine's Party on Tuesday. I had sent home a list of all student names last week (pink sheet) for those who will be making Valentine's for the class. If you are sending in treats, please remember that they have to be peanut/nut free. 

• Please keep an eye out later this week for the sign up portal for interviews. It should be going live on Monday February 24th. Just like last term, I will be opening up some time slots on Monday, Tuesday & Wednesday giving you all more options.

• If your child will be absent for a day can you please let myself or the office know. I have to put absences into the system and if I don't know then it goes in as unexcused.

• Please remember to sign the spelling test (little green scribbler) and send it back in. 

• Please have library books returned by Wednesday February 19th.

• Reminder to please make sure any toys and stuff stay home. Some have been sneaking stuff into the classroom which then distracts them and others.

• As always, please make sure to pack appropriate clothes for the cold weather (hat, mits, snow pants, boots). I always make sure they have everything they need on as well. 

• We will continue to work on speaking French as much as we can. The block system is working for many but some are still not catching on. Basically if someone speaks to me or I hear someone talking to their friends in French, even if it's simply a word or two, then they receive a block. They have to receive 10 blocks before getting to pick out of my prize box. Like I said before, I need them to simply try and say the words that I know they know (saying numbers, colors, certain vocabulary words we've learned). This is all the process on working towards speaking French all the time and I know we can get there.

This week in the following subjects:

• Reading: This week we will continue talking about different strategies to reading words. The strategies that we will look at are: saying the sounds not the letters and using all sounds we have learned to decode words. I'm also hoping to finish up reading evaluations this week.

•  Sounds of the week: 

  • • è/ê (as in lève & fête)

  • Word Study/Spelling words of the week: *test on Friday*

    • joue, le, la, ma, maman

• Writing: This week we will be doing a lot of free writing as I want students to be able to show what they are capable of writing at this point of the year. We have done lots of work leading up to this about how to sound out words and what we need in a sentence. I know some will be stuck so we will dicuss before hand of some possible ideas they could write about.

• Math: This week we will continue looking at different strategies to help us with addition. We will contiue to review our basic strategies (drawing, dice, using our fingers) but this week we're going to focus on using a number line. I wasn't able to start the mental math strategies last week with me being out on Tuesday and home early Thursday plus no school Friday. This week is also a shorter week with other things planned, so I'm going to hold off on the mental math strategies until next week.

• Integrated Studies:  We will continue our unit on important changes that happen in life (seasons, animals, ourselves from season to season...). We will be talking about seasons and how things change from season to season. This will be our unit for awhile as we will be having lots of discussions and doing lots of different activities to really think about these things.

• Homework: I have added this weeks homework sheet to the purple duotang. Don't forget about the section about the spelling. Our quiz with the 5 words will be Friday. Please check it out!

Dates to remember:

• February 18th - Valentine's Class Party! Wear anything pink red or white.

• February 21st - Winter Wellness Day. Students can wear a hat/toque all day in class.

• March 6th - Parent-Teacher Interviews (Evening)

• March 7th - Parent-Teacher Interviews (No School)

• March 17th - 21st - March Break

I hope everyone has a great week!

Mme Melissa

Tuesday February 4th

Bonjour!

I hope you all had a great weekend! We are flipping the calendar once again in the classroom and things are moving along great!

A few things to mention:

• If your child will be absent for a day can you please let myself or the office know. I have to put absences into the system and if I don't know then it goes in as unexcused.

• I am sending home a list of all student names (pink sheet) for those who will be making Valentine's for the class.

• Please remember to sign the spelling test (little green scribbler) and send it back in. 

• Please have library books returned by Friday February 7th.

• Reminder to please make sure any toys and stuff stay home. Some have been sneaking stuff into the classroom which then distracts them and others.

• As always, please make sure to pack appropriate clothes for the cold weather (hat, mits, snow pants, boots). I always make sure they have everything they need on as well. 

• We will continue to work on speaking French as much as we can. I implemented our system for speaking French last week. I had a few friends able to receive some blocks for speaking French. Basically if someone speaks to me or I hear someone talking to their friends in French, even if it's simply a word or two, then they receive a block. They have to receive 10 blocks before getting to pick out of my prize box. Like I said before, I need them to simply try and say the words that I know they know (saying numbers, colors, certain vocabulary words we've learned). This is all the process on working towards speaking French all the time and I know we can get there.

This week in the following subjects:

• Reading: This week we will continue talking about different strategies to reading words. The strategies that we will look at are: think while reading and to auto-correct, make sure we say the first, middle and last sound of each word. I'm also going to try to start working on some reading evaluations as report cards are fast approaching.

•  Sounds of the week: 

  • • oi (as in oiseau)

    • - t at the end of words (as in dit)

  • Word Study/Spelling words of the week: *test on Friday*

    • a, bon, dans, de, du

• Writing: This week we will be doing a bit more free writing. I did it once last week and it went much better then I had hoped. Prior to simply letting them write, we talked about different ways we can start out sentences. I then asked students to give me a sentence that started with each of those sentence starters. They had so many ideas. I simply had to ask them if they could write what they just said and they all said yes. This week I will introduce a few more sentence starters to give them more variety. 

• Math: This week we will start looking at different strategies that help us figure out the answer to addition problems a little faster. We will start with drawings, dice, ten frames and number lines. We only do addition with numbers that equal 20 in grade 1. 

• Integrated Studies: We will continue our unit on important changes that happen in life (seasons, animals, ourselves from season to season...). We will be talking about seasons and how things change from season to season. This will be our unit for awhile as we will be having lots of discussions and doing lots of different activities to really think about these things.

• Homework: I have added this weeks homework sheet to the purple duotang along with a list of names for those wanting to make Valentine's for the class. Don't forget about the section about the spelling. Our quiz with the 5 words will be Friday. Please check it out!

Dates to remember:

• February 14th - Valentine's Class Party!

• February 17th - Islander Day (No School)

• March 6th - Parent-Teacher Interviews (Evening)

• March 7th - Parent-Teacher Interviews (No School)

• March 17th - 21st - March Break

I hope everyone has a great week!

Mme Melissa

Monday January 20th

Bonjour!

I hope you all enjoyed your weekend! I had a busy weekend with my oldests 8th birthday party. Now I just need another day to rest from that. Haha

A few things to mention:

• Next week is Family Literacy week at Glen Stewart. We are encouoraging parents to take a picture of their family celebrating literacy together or what it looks like in your house and email a copy of the picture to our school email account : GSPliteracy@gmail.com. We would like to print the pictures and make a collage of all the pictures of our familes. Please have pictures submitted by Friday January 24th so we can get things organized.

• I will be sending the first spelling test home in the purple duotang on Monday. I ask that parents sign the test and send the little green book back by Thursday.

• I'm asking all students to clean out their homework bags. Some are getting very full and students are having a hard time placing them into their school bag at the end of the day. All that needs to be in the homework bag is the purple duotang, the green traitement alphabétique book and reading books that I send home. Please take out the ziplock bag of paper books. Those can stay home that you can use whenever you see fit. Also please remove any work sheets or art projects that I have also sent home. 

• Reminder to please make sure any toys and stuff stay home. Some have been sneaking stuff into the classroom which then distracts them and others.

• Reminder that if you are wanting to order some books from the Scholastics flyer, I will be placing the classroom order on Friday. You simply have to place your order, use our classroom code then I will received an email about it. It automatically goes into my classroom order and I place the entire order at once.

• The cold weather has arrived. Please make sure to pack appropriate clothes for the cold weather (hat, mits, splash/snow pants, boots). I always make sure they have everything they need on as well (weather depending). 

• We will continue to work on speaking French as much as we can. In the coming weeks I will be putting a reward system in place for those who are trying to speak French. I'm looking for students to be speaking a little French with myself and friends. If they say "I went to the store avec maman" that's what I'm looking for. I need them to simply try and say the words that I know they know (saying numbers, colors, certain vocabulary words we've learned). This is all the process on working towards speaking French all the time.

This week in the following subjects:

• Reading: This week we are really doing to focus on our sounds for reading and how to tell if we should say just one letter or two letters together (syllable). Some are catching on to what we worked on last week in breaking up a word. We're simply going to continue that by really looking at the sounds (that we have already learned).

•  Sounds of the week: 

  • • consonant + r (as in bras, froid, crie, gros, dragon, trouve)

    • an/en (as in enfant)

  • Word Study/Spelling words of the week: *test on Friday*

    • est, c'est, des, les, mes

• Writing: This week we will do some writing about what we like to do in the winter. We have been talking about different activities and what we all like to do. We will using the structure "Pendant l'hiver, j'aime...". They will also be asked to add a little detail at the end of each sentence. If they write that they like to build snowmen I'd like for them to write with who. Later in the week we may start doing some free writing. This will proably be scary for some students but it's that time of year where they have to start writing words on their own. I will be doing lots of modeling and how we create sentences to help them out. 

• Math: This week we will talk about the terms "plus", "moins" & "autant" when comparing numbers. I will be showing numbers in different ways (ten frames, dot cards...) and students will have to show me a number (with blocks) that's for example 2 more than or 1 less than etc. We will be doing this in various ways.  This will lead us into our unit about 1 more than, 2 more than, 1 less than and 2 less than. This will be the beginning part of our unit on addition and subtraction. We will use different manipulatives to be able to visualize what is happening when we do these kinds of problems. 

• Integrated Studies: We will get into our unit about how things change. We will be talking about seasons and how things change from season to season. This will be our unit for awhile as we will be having lots of discussions and doing lots of different activities to really think about these things.

• Homework:  I have added this weeks homework sheet to the purple duotang. Please check it out!

Dates to remember:

• January 27th - Walk to Stratford Library

• January 28th - Family Literacy PJ Day

• January 29th - Family Literacy Day - students are to dress up as their favorite character from a favorite book and bring that book into class

• February 3rd - Professional Development Day for teachers (No School)

• February 17th - Islander Day (No School)

• March 6th - Parent-Teacher Interviews (Evening)

• March 7th - Parent-Teacher Interviews (No School)

• March 17th - 21st - March Break

I hope everyone has a great week!

Mme Melissa

Monday January 6th

Bonjour!

Happy New Year to you all!! I hope you had a great Holiday break and enjoyed some time with family and friends. Here we are in 2025 and with a new year there's always excitement and new things. I feel completely refreshed and energized to start this year off with my little kiddos. As much as I have loved being home with my family (and maybe not quite ready to go back), I'm so excited to see all those 19 faces this week. 

A few things to mention:

• I fully expect students to be tired or simply excited to be back at school this week. We will start the New Year a little easy in the hopes to get this year off to a great start.

• Please if you have any library books at home please send them in by Thursday.

• I have added a new tab at the top of the page. It's called Student Sites. These are some sites that we use in the class that the students love. Feel free to use them at home when you want.

• The cold weather has arrived. Please make sure to pack appropriate clothes for the cold weather (hat, mits, splash/snow pants, boots). Some have been saying they're cold when coming in. I always make sure they have everything they need on as well (weather depending).

• We will continue to work on speaking French as much as we can. With the break I know things may be a rusty when students are talking to me but I will remind them and we should be good. I'm now looking for students to be speaking a little French with their friends (saying numbers, colors, certain vocabulary words we've learned). This is all the process on working towards speaking French all the time.

This week in the following subjects:

• Reading: This week we will review and talk about what does reading look like in the classroom. Before the holidays reading in the classroom was hard to do simply because students were excited but we will revisit this and get back on track for the New Year! 

•  Sounds of the week: 

  • • on (as in cochon)

    • in/ain/ein (as in lapin, main, peinture)

  • Word Study words of the week: * we practice writing them every day

    • We will pick these back up next week. We will also be doing something new with our words so stay tuned.

• Writing: This week we will start talking and writing about what we wear for different seasons. I will be consentrating mostly on winter clothes but we will talk about what we wear in summer and other seasons as well. We will be using the structure Je porte.... We will be adding on the clothing and the color. 

• Math: This week we will do a little review of what we learned before the break which means finishing out unit on 2D and 3D shapes. We will also take a little step back and do some review with counting by 2's, 5's and 10's. We will also really practice counting backwards between two given numbers between 40 and 70. 

• Integrated Studies: We will get this back up and running in a few weeks.

• Homework:  I have added this week's homework sheet to the purple duotang. I am also sending home the new Traitement Alphbétique book (green this time) which is the same idea as the white book that has been going home. This one has our grade 1 double and harder sounds. Next week I will be adding something new to homework. Please check it out!

Dates to remember:

• February 3rd - Professional Development Day for teachers (No School)

• February 17th - Islander Day (No School)

• March 6th - Parent-Teacher Interviews (Evening)

• March 7th - Parent-Teacher Interviews (No School)

• March 17th - 21st - March Break

I hope everyone has a great week!

Mme Melissa

Monday December 9th

I hope you all have a great weekend! This week is going to be a busy but fun week with concert preparations, so a few things may simply not happen in the classroom.

A few things to mention:

• I forgot to send out an email about different dress up and activity days happening this week. I have listed them at the bottom of this message for you.

• Christmas Concert: Our concert will be taking place on December 11th at 1:10pm and 6:00pm. Each student received 2 tickets per show last week. If you have any extra tickets could you please send them in ASAP. We want to redistribute to those you may need them. If you do need extra tickets please reach out to our principal, Vanessa Dunn. Students are to come dressed in their best concert attire both in the morning and the evening. For the evening concert, I ask that students arrive by 5:30 and simply come down to the classroom (parents can head to the gym and find a seat for the concert).

• Friday this week, we wil be having a board game afternoon. Please send in your childs favorite board game by Friday. You can send them in any day this week, as long as they are in the classroom by Friday.

• Reminder to please send in permission form and $2 by Wednesday for our field trip on Thursday.

• This past week as much as many have been excited for the Holidays, we had a bunch bigger excitement in the building. The grade 1 English classes hatched about 150-160 chicks this past week and we were able to go down to a class on two occasions to see these chicks. We were able to hold a baby chick (some did not want to) and we also got to do some partnered reading to the baby chicks. Some said that the day that we read to the chicks was their favorite day. I took many pictures to Click Here to check them out!

• I have added a new tab at the top of the page. It's called Student Sites. These are some sites that we use in the class that the students love. Feel free to use them at home when you want.

• The cold weather has arrived. Please make sure to pack appropriate clothes for the cold weather (hat, mits, splash/snow pants, boots). Some have been saying they're cold when coming in. I always make sure they have everything they need on as well (weather depending).

• We continue to work on speaking French as much as we can. I'm now looking for students to be speaking a little French with their friends (saying numbers, colors, certain vocabulary words we've learned). This is all the process on working towards speaking French all the time.

This week in the following subjects:

• Reading: This week we will continue to work on looking at all the letters in a word to help us figure out the word. We will continue to talk about our strategies we use when we get to a word that we don't know. One thing that I always tell them is that I'd rather you at least say the first syllable then simply guess the word.

•  Sounds of the week:  *we now work on our double and more complex sounds

  • • we have finished all our complex sounds for now. We will continue to review and practice and start looking at some new ones after the holidays.

  • Word Study words of the week: * we practice writing them every day

    • lit, je cours, nous, tous, sous

• Writing: This week we will start to talk about what Santa may have in his big red bag. We will use the structure "Dans le sac du Père Noël, il y a...". We will start by saying the sentence out loud by picking items out of a big red bag that I have in the classroom. We will then move on to writing about it. 

• Math: This week we will continue to work on our unit about 2D and 3D shapes. We will be comparing different shapes, talking about the different aspects of the shapes and a treasure hunts around the class to find these different shapes. We will also do some review of past concepts. This will be our unit until Christmas.

• Integrated Studies: We will continue talking about ways to stay healthy and what our body needs. We will talk about physical activites, what we eat and what we need to do to protect ourselves from sickness. This will be our unit until Christmas.

• Homework:  I have added this week's homework sheet to the purple duotang. Please check it out!

Dates to remember:

• December 11th - Concert Attire

• December 11th - Christmas Concert 1:10pm & 6pm

• December 12th - Mme Sarah's last day

• December 12th - Field trip to the French school

• December 13th - Jersey Day

• December 13th - Board Games Day

• December 20th - Last day before the Holidays

I hope everyone has a great week!

Mme Melissa

Monday November 25th

Bonjour!

I hope you all had a great weekend! I can't belive we are changing the calendar to December at the end of the week. Lots of fun stuff coming. I love December!

A few things to mention:

• Report cards will be going home next Wednesday, December 4th.

• Thank you to all of you who were able to meet with me and talk about your child. It was great talking to you all and finally being able to put a face to the name.

• Christmas Concert: Our concert will be taking place on December 11th at 1:10pm and 6:00pm. Each student will receive 2 tickets per show. Our principal Vanessa will be sending out an email at the beginning of the week explaining how this will work. If any questions please ask. Students are to come dressed in their best concert attire. We will be making festive headbands that students will be wearing on stage.

• Later in the week I'll be sending out an email about parents doing a Christmas read aloud to the class in the month of December. It is one of my favorite things to do around the Holidays. Stay tuned for an upcoming email.

• If you or someone you know has a little one ready for kindergarten next year, please remember to register them as soon as possible. Simply drop by the school (or school in your area).

• The cold weather has arrived. Please make sure to pack appropriate clothes for the cold weather (hat, mits, splash/snow pants, boots). Some have been saying they're cold when coming in. I always make sure they have everything they need on as well (weather depending).

• We continue to work on speaking French as much as we can. I'm now looking for students to be speaking a little French with their friends (saying numbers, colors, certain vocabulary words we've learned). This is all the process on working towards speaking French all the time.

This week in the following subjects:

• Reading: This week we will work on looking at all the letters in a word to help us figure out the word. Some are still guessing the words and not fully looking at all the letters. Others don't always recognize words in books but do on their own. We will try and find strategies to help us remember our sight words from our lists and be able to see them in books.

•  Sounds of the week:  *we now work on our double and more complex sounds

  • • ch (as in chuchote)

    • -e at the end of words (as in fée) - when -e is at the end of a word in French it's silent

  • Word Study words of the week: * we practice writing them every day

    • petite, toute, frère, rouge, dis

• Writing: This week we will be learning how to write letters. This falls good with our theme for the next four weeks being Christmas. We will work on kind of generic letters and not get into to many details about exactly what we want for Christmas. We will be using vocabulary words like blocs, books, dolls, sport equipment.

• Math: This week we will continue to compare numbers. Last week we worked on put numbers in order from smallest to biggest but this week we will try biggest to smallest. We will also continue to review stuff we have already learned such as counting by 2, 5 and 10 each days as a warm up. We will also start our unit on shapes. This is fun and easy unit which is perfect for this time of year.  

• Integrated Studies: We will continue to talk about ways to stay healthy and what our body needs. We will talk about physical activites, what we eat and what we need to do to protect ourselves from sickness. This will be out unit until Christmas.

• Homework:  I have added this week's homework sheet to the purple duotang. Please check it out!

Dates to remember:

• December 4th - Report Cards go home

• December 11th - Christmas Concert 1:10pm & 6pm

• December 12th - Mme Sarah's last day

• December 20th - Last day before the Holidays

I hope everyone has a great week!

Mme Melissa

Tuesday November 12th

Bonjour!

I hope you all had a great long weekendyour weekend! I had a busy few days with the teachers convention then I went to Halifax to do some Christmas shopping for the weekend. I also feel like it has been forever since I seen all my other kiddos. I'm looking forward to seeing them this week!

A few things to mention:

• Scholastics - you will find November/December's flyer in the purple duotang. As always I have indicated our class code at the top. This will be our last book order before Chrismas.... if anyone is wanting to pace an order as a gift please let me know and I can keep it a secret when it arrives.

• For the writing piece that we will be working on this week, each student will need some pictures. I'm asking that each student bring in pictures of members of their family (themself, mom, dad, brothers, sisters). We won't get into grandparents or aunts and uncles because that'll just be too much. We will be cutting these pictures. Please have these sent in by Wednesday of this week!

• Interviews are just around the corner. Mrs. Dunn sent you the link in an email (on Friday). That link will go live this Tuesday morning (the 12th). Please sign up for a time slot as soon as you can. You will notice that I have openings all that week for interviews. I always open time slots on Monday, Tuesday & Wednesday just in case you can't come Thursday or Friday. Choose which ever day and time works best for you.

• Library - please return your childs library book by Wednesday.

• If you know that your child will be absent, can you please send me a quick email. I have to keep track of absences and have certain codes to enter. Knowing why a student is out makes it much easier.

• With the weather being so unpredictable in PEI, please ensure that your child is dressed properly and has extra clothes. Sneakers don't always cut it for playing outside on our playground. The ground is usually always wet and some play games/soccer in certain areas that are quite muddy. 

• I have added our photos from Orwell Corner. What a fun day we had! Click Here.

• This week we will continue to work on speaking French as much as we can. Some have caught on to certain phrases really quickly and don't need any reminders to use them. Others are still asking to go to the bathroom in English, which is something they learned in kindergarten. I remind those students to try again or ask them how do we say that in French.

This week in the following subjects:

• Reading: This week we are really going to dive into our strategies for reading our books. Up until now we have been reading little books, paper books or syllables but students will now start "reading" bigger books in the classroom. Some strategeis that we will look at and talk about this week is how do we prepare for reading, I look and read the words, I choose a book I like and I read during the entire reading time. This will be a big change for some but we will practice each day.

•  Sounds of the week:  *we now work on our double and more complex sounds

  • • au/eau (as in auto or chapeau)

    • ou (as in hibou)

  • Word Study words of the week: * we practice writing them every day

    • neuf, bleu, soeur, veux, peux

• Writing: This week we will work on our little writing piece about our family. With this writing piece students are going to have to be a little more independent because I'm only giving them the first word of each sentence. They will have to use their vocabulary words on family to fill in the rest.

• Math: This week we will start our small unit on equal groups. This can be an easy a faster unit. Students will use manipulatives to seperate numbers into either 2 or 3 equal groups. We will also continue to review stuff we have already learned such as counting from 0-40 forwards and backwards and counting by 2's each day as a warm up.

• Integrated Studies: We will start talking about ways to stay healthy and what our body needs. We will talk about physical activites, what we eat and what we need to do to protect ourselves from sickness. This will be out unit until Christmas.

• Homework: I have added this week's homework sheet to the purple duotang. I have also placed all students paper books in a new ziplock bag to keep them in one place. If your childs books were not in their homework bag I simply placed the ziplock bag in for you to put the books in. Please check it out!

Dates to remember:

• November 21st - Parent Teacher Interviews (Evening)

• November 22nd - Parent Teacher Interviews (No School)

• December 11th - Christmas Concert 1pm & 6pm (I have to double check these times)

• December 13th - Mme Sarah's last day

• December 20th - Last day before the Holidays

I hope everyone has a great week!

Mme Melissa

Monday October 28th

Bonjour!

Happy Halloween! I hope you all had a great weekend! Is was lovely to have such a beautiful day Saturday but I think the colder weather is here to stay now. It's going to be an exciting and long week with the anticipation for Halloween. 

A few things to mention:

• Halloween Thursday - Kids are allowed to dress up in their costume but there should be no masks or weapons. We will also have a classroom party with some treats and fun!

• We will have library on Monday morning, so please send your child's library book. I had to reschedule it to Monday as our normal day falls on Halloween.

• If sending treats in your child's lunch this week, please limit the amount. I always say that 2 treats are enough. I will also not allow them to eat the Halloween treat at snack, it must be after they have finished their lunch.

• This week we will continue to work on speaking French as much as we can. Little things like saying "Ma maman..." instead of "my mom..." is kind of what I'm looking for. Basically if they know the word they should be able to say it in their sentene even if the sentence is half French and half English.

This week in the following subjects:

• Reading: This week I'm going to hopefull finish evaluting the red & orange list words and move on to evaluating their reading. In the middle of all that we will continue to talk about what we do when we get to an unknown word.

•  Sounds of the week:  *we now work on our double and more complex sounds

  • • o (as in fort) - this sound is not the same as "o" we did before. This sound is an open o and sounds almost like a lower voiced a

    • c/g (as in corbeau & gorgée) - we have already worked on the sounds for these two letters but now we will work on combination of letters that help each letter make the sound (ca, co, cu, ga, go, gu, cr, cl, gr, gl)

  • Word Study words of the week: * we practice writing them every day

    • garçon, beau, jaune, fille, famille

• Writing: This week we will finish our writing about haunted houses. The students have been doing very well with this writing piece. Some are taking a little longer because they keep losing their place when writing, and one of the strategies we have been talking about is being able to copy the words that Madame wrote. We've also been watching how we form our letters. I've also been very picky with their letters simply because we have been working very hard on them.

• Math: This week we will simply continue our work with representing numbers. I'll be doing some evaluating as well this week to see how students are able to count and represent numbers in certain ways.

• Integrated Studies: We will resume our integrated units of study after Halloween. I have lots of stuff planned for this week.

• Homework: I have added this week's homework sheet to the purple duotang along with the new yellow sight words and sentences. Please check it out! I have changed a few things this week in preparation for soon sending books home.

Dates to remember:

• October 31st - Halloween (Kids can dress up)

• November 1st - Professional Development Day (No School)

• November 4th - Orwell Corner

• November 7th - PEITF Convention (No School)

• November 8th - PEITF Convention (No School)

• November 11th - Remembrance Day (No School)

• November 21st - Parent Teacher Interviews (Evening)

• November 22nd - Parent Teacher Interviews (No School)

I hope everyone has a great week!

Mme Melissa

Tuesday October 15th

Bonjour!

I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving weekend! It's always good to spend time with family and recharge. The weather was a bit chilly.

A few things to mention:

• We have chosen to try for Cotton Park on Tuesday. There is about 1mm of rain in the forcast but there's also rain in the forcast each day next week. Tuesday has the warmest day. Please send your child to school ready for the weather (rain jacket, splah pants, rubber boots, hat/mitss) on Tuesday because even if it's sprinkling we will still walk over. 

• I have been adding some pictures of activities we have been doing to our Classroom Tour page. Take a look by visiting the Classroom Tour tab or simply click here.

• We are still working on controlling the volume in the classroom. Some are using almost outdoor voices in the classroom and trying to yell across the class at their friend in the middle of doing our work. We are also working on concentrating on our own work and not worrying about what others are doing. Many get distracted by others instead of doing their work and then run out of time to finish the task.

This week in the following subjects:

• Reading: This week we continue to practice our red and orange lists of our sight words. Even though I have sent the orange list home this week students haven't gotten their new words in the class simply because it was a busy week and I didn't have time to evaluate. I feel as thought their are some that are ready for the next words so I'm hoping to find some time to evaluate some of them this week. I have noticed that practicing these words is helping them with some reading. They are recognizing them in their books which is great. We have also been "reading" each day where students look at their books, read words they know and maybe trying to figure out other words based on the first sound and pictures. Right now they are "reading" for 8 minutes, we will build on that time and hoping to eventually get their stamina to 15 minutes (that could take awhile).

•  Sounds of the week: 

  • • x (as in exttérieur)

    • w (as in wow)

    • y (as in yoga)

    • z (as in zigzag)

** We will be wrapping up our review of letters this week. We will continue to practice everyday but we will also be moving on to our grade 1 sounds next week. These next sounds can start to get tricky so students have to really practice and pay attention. These next sounds are the ones that we will really help students read.

• • Word Study words of the week: * we practice writing some every day

    • voici, avec, à, belle

• Writing: This week we will do a little descriptive writing. We will be writing about monsters. I will be giving students a modeled sentence and they simply have to fill it in. They will have to descrbe what their monster looks like (how many eyes, ears, arms and what color they are). This may be a little scary at first because they will not be copying Madame this time but we will do some practice together orally and some shared writing to help us out.

• Math: This week we will continue representing numbers. We will focus more on representing numbers with tens and ones (10 ones is the same as 1 ten). This can be hard to comprehend at first becasue there's a lot of manipulating with materials and sometimes it's hard for students to visualize what is happening.

• Integrated Studies: This week we continue to talk about how things change. Our focus will be on what is changing outside with the seasons. I love using fall as an examples because so many things are changing.

• Homework: I have added a new homework sheet to the back of the purple duotang. I have also added an orange sheet that has our next sight words and senteces. Please take a look at what I have asked to do each night this week. Please remember to return the purple duotang to school each day in the homework bag.

Dates to remember:

• October 14th - Thanksgiving (No School)

• October 15th - Cotton Park (fingers crossed)

• October 31st - Halloween (Kids can dress up)

• November 1st - Professional Development Day (No School)

• November 4th - Orwell Corner

• November 7th - PEITF Convention (No School)

• November 8th - PEITF Convention (No School)

• November 11th - Remembrance Day (No School)

• November 21st - Parent Teacher Interviews (Evening)

• November 22nd - Parent Teacher Interviews (No School)

I hope everyone has a great week!

Mme Melissa

Tuesday October 1st

Bonjour!

I hope you all enjoyed the beautiful fall weekend! We got our first full month in the books and now things will really start to roll. 

A few things to mention:

• Library books are due by Thursday.

• Check out some pictures I've added of different activities we have been doing around the class.  Click Here

• Reminder of the Scholastic flyer that I sent home at meet the teacher night. I have received a few orders from some of you but I will give until the end of this week before I send in the class order. If there is something you would like to order, plese remember to use our class code written at the top.

• Please, if you have not already, send in a pair of headphones by Friday for your child to use when we use the computers. With no headphones all the sounds can be heard from computers and it can get kind of loud in the classroom. Preferably headphones and NOT earbuds.

• Students are starting to settle into classroom routines and expectations. One thing that I have noticed is that some students like to simply blurt out answers instead of raising their hand and not sharing the answer with the whole class. This is something that we will continue to focus on a lot this week. 

• A reminder to check homework bag each night and to send it into school each day! Please remember to keep the purple duotang IN your childs homework bag. This is where I add sheets for home and where I will add each weeks homework. I check for them each morning.

• Utensils - When packing your child’s lunch, please make sure to include any utensils necessary.

• Clothes- with the weather now a little cooler, please make sure your child is dressed accordingly. I know it can be cooler in the morning and warm in the afternoon. Also, please make sure your child has a change of clothes in their school bag. You never know when they might need something.

This week in the following subjects:

• Reading: This week we are really focusing on listening to the first sound of a word. We are also doing some blends of random sounds to help us with our reading. Students will also receive books for the class this week. As I told them, Madame is not looking for you to be able to read the books right now but able to simply look at the books, find sounds and find words.

• Sounds of the week:

  • • f (as in froid)

    • b (as in bébé)

    • r (as in renard)

    • g (as in gorgée)

    • v (as in voler)

  • Word Study words of the week: * we practice writing them every day

    • des, ses, mes, tes, sur

• Writing: This week we continue to make our way through printing our lowercase letters. We will also talk about different ways to start our sentences (Regarde......., J'ai......., Voici....., Il/Elle....., etc.)

• Math: This week we will continue with our counting but also start representing numbers, whether it be with a drawing, just the number or ten frames. As for counting, we're kind of stuck on numbers 11-20 because students are forgetting those very easily or when I say a number they don't know which one I'm saying. So we will continue to work on those every day now that they each have a white board in their desk.

• Integrated Studies: This week we will continue to talk about how everyone is different, unique and have different interests.  

• Homework: I have added a new homework sheet to the back of the purple duotang. This week I have also added a red sheet that has sight words and senteces. Please take a look at what I have asked to do each night this week. Please remember return the purple duotang to school each day in the homework bag.

Dates to remember:

• October 7th-11th - Book Fair at School (more info to come)

• October 9th - Picture Day for French Immersion kids

• October 14th - Thanksgiving (No School)

I hope everyone has a great week!

Mme Melissa

Monday September 16th

Bonjour!

Welcome to our first update of the 2024/2025 school year!  I am so excited to have your child in class with me! Each week there will be three sections to my updates.

A few things to mention:

• I'm looking forward to meeting as many of you as possible and finally putting a name to the face at our Meet the Teacher this Wednesday September 18th. My classroom is room 107C, when you enter through the main doors, head down the stairs and turn left at the Winnie the Pooh wall. My room is the first door on your left, you go down a little hallway to get to my little door at the back. There are three sessions. This gives parents ime to get to different sessions if they have more than one child in the school. The times are as follows:

  • 6:00-6:15 - Kindergarten

  • 6:20-6:35 - Grade 1 (that's us!)

  • 6:40-6:55 - Grade 1

• Terry Fox walk will be happening next Friday.

• For the past two years I piloted a program in my classroom and this year it is now a part of the grade 1 curriculum. I have seen the last two years how much this program helps students achieve goals and really learn how to read. It focuses on breaking words down into sounds and being able to hear all sounds in words as well as write them. It is all phonics based. We actually started the first part of it last week and will continue for the next 5ish weeks. Right now it is a review of letters and sounds and learning how to write the alphabet in lowercase. We do't write in uppercase in grade 1 unless it's at the beginning of a sentence and the first letter in our name.

• There has been a little confusion on which door we use when entering the building in the mornings (off the bus or being dropped off). Our class is to use the main doors. The ones that take you right to the office/lobby. 

• This week we will continue to work on our routines sush as lining up, walking in the halls, raising our hands, waiting our turn and controlling classroom volume.

• I also try to have my Google site updated by Sunday evening (Monday after school by the latest) and I'll send out an email to let you know. 

• My email address is mabutler@edu.pe.ca and I check it as often as I can. If you have any questions or concerns please send me a message!

This week in the following subjects:

• Reading: This week we will continue to review letters and sounds of the alphabet. We will also start putting consonants and vowels together to make blends. This will get us going in the right direction to help us read some books. 

• Sounds of the week: *we work on 2 sounds a day

  1. • u (as in tu pues LuLu)

     • m (as in macaroni)

     • d (as in descendre)

     • e (as in je)

     • k (as in koala)

     • c (as in corbeau)

• Writing: This week we will start our writing block by practicing our printing of lowercase letters. We will talk about letter formation, lowercase letters and when to use them. Many have been rushing and simply not following direction, which leads to a lot of letters being erased and having to start over. We will also work on creating sentences. We use modeled sentences, find the words needed to make the sentence and put it together by adding a vocabulary word at the end. It's called our "Fantastic Sentences".

• Math: This week we will be doing some counting. Right now we are counting forward from 1-10 but this week we'll add in counting backwards from 10-1. We have to make sure we know these numbers the best as they help us with bigger numbers to 100. We're going to also look at certain numbers, how to properly write them and how to say them correctly in French. We will also work on finding mistakes in a number line and fill in the missing numbers.

• Integrated Studies: Our science, social studies, technology and art curriculums have been integrated into units. One of our units talks about how everyone is different, unique and have different interest. It fits really well with many back to school activities that can be used to create a positive and good working classroom.    

• Homework: There will be no homework this week. Once I have a good review of where students are with letters and sounds, I'll start to send home some activities (I'm thinking next week).

Dates to remember:

• Septembre 18th - Meet the Teacher (6:20-6:35 is our time)

• Septembre 23rd - Professional Development Day (No School)

• September 27th - Terry Fox Run

• September 27th - Orange Shirt day

• Septembre 30th - National Day of Truth and Reconciliation (No School)

I hope everyone has a great week!

Mme Melissa