Weekly Blog
June 19-23
Second last week of school?? What?! This year flew by. I can't believe it is almost over. To celebrate our amazing year in grade 1, we decided to make yearbooks! We brainstormed all of the memories we had from grade 1, and all of the great learning we did in class. Students then were able to choose their favourite memories and write about them in French. Can't wait to see the finished product!
In Science, we finished our Exploration, and talked about the different answers to the Exploration wonderings. Such great conversation came out of this discussion, and it was great to see the evident contextual learning.
We also completed our "All About Books," supporting the needs of living things. Students can't wait to bring them home to share with you!
June 12-16
This week was a great week! We began a new Science investigation, where there were multiple questions to explore and investigate. Some of the questions included:
- Quels sont les partis importants du corps humaine? (What are the important parts of the human body?)
- Comparer les choses vivant. Comment est-ce qu'ils sont la meme? Different? (Compare living things. How are they the same? Different?)
- Quels sont les partis d'une plante? (What are the parts of a plant?)
- Comment est-ce que nous pouvons aider les choses vivant? (How can we help out living things?)
The investigations that came from these questions were so interesting! We will continue to investigate these and bring our findings to the whole group next week!
We also continued our "All about books." It was great to see how our researching skills are improving, while also writing the information in French!! We will also
June 5-9
This week, we wrapped up our classroom community by exploring! Students played, and acted like the community helpers to solidify their knowledge of community and community helpers. They chose different areas to work in, and worked together to meet the needs of the civilians of the community. At the end of our few days of exploration, we reflected on what we explored, and how it helped and supported our community. We wrote down our ideas, and identified how our actions made a difference in the community. It was great to see the students reflect on their own actions!
For work on writing, our learning goal is now to stretch out French words we know how to spell, making sure we hear every French sound in the word we are trying to spell. It is very important that students know the spelling does not have to be CORRECT, but I should be able to identify the word using the sounds they used. It is important that students have confidence in writing, before worrying about spelling words correctly.
In Science, we continued with Living Things, and began to explore the needs of all living things. We also began an "all about book", choosing one living thing, and how that living thing's needs are met. I can't wait to see the continued progress on these books next week!
May 29-June 1
This week, we wrapped up Reader's Theatre by presenting our performances to the class. We tied in both French Oral and Drama aspects to the presentation. It was such a lovely day on the day of our presentations, so we decided to go outside to present! Students were inspired by the "stick" house in our readers theatre "Les Trois Petits Cochons", so to add to their presentation, they made houses out of sticks they found outside. This then provoked more investigation and exploration. They then began to collect rocks and twigs to symbolize the house of brick and the house of straw. It is amazing how the outdoors can spark such imagination and creativity. We had a great time presenting Les Trois Petits Cochons in a natural environment, and the French speaking was amazing :)
In Social Studies we began to explore in our community areas, using the aspect of "play" to tie in community helpers, where they work in the community and how they help us. The strong connections were based on the involvement of students and the contextual learning that was happening! We will explore these community areas more next week!
May 23-26
This was a very exciting week, as we had Scientist in the School come to visit! We learned about animal coverings, and how animals adapt to different seasons. It was great to see students investigate and question animal furs, shells, skins and even quills! To continue with Science, we also begun the discussion about what living things NEED to survive. we brainstormed our ideas on a page, and will continue the discussion next week. We also gave examples of living vs. non-living things (see pictures). In Social Studies, we finished up our community areas, and will begin exploring, investigating, and playing in these areas next week! In French, we continue to work on the learning goals "I will continue the same idea throughout my writing" and "I will sound out known French words using my sound strip." We are excited to see what next week's learning has in store!
May 15-19
What a great week of learning! This week we started Reader's Theatre in French. We are doing the story "Les Trois Petits Cochons." The students have done such a wonderful job reading, and working on their fluency. Once they are comfortable with their reading, we will then incorporate drama, present these in a dramatic play to the class. We will begin to plan the setting of the play (e.g., making props) and focus on character (e.g., embodying your character). We also continued to build our community, really focusing on what a community NEEDS, and build with those goals in mind. We also went outside to observe living and non-living things for Science, one day staying on the path the forest, and then we went closer to the creek to examine what was living closer to the water!
May 1-5
This week, we started to build our community! It was very exciting, with all of the cardboard, props and goodies that were sent in! Students were engaged with this hands-one learning, and so much contextual French vocabulary came out of this as well. Below are some pictures of the START of our build. I can't wait to see the growth as we build!
In French, we started two new learning goals: I will keep the same "idea" throughout my writing (e.g., not writing about a red apple, and then playing hockey) and stretching out our French words instead of coming to the teacher for help (e.g., asking how to spell 'cochon'). We worked on these learning goals during French Exploration.
April 24-27
This week was very exciting with our visitors (chicks) growing in our classroom! We had many great conversations about the needs of animals and their behaviour, which is a great opening for our new science unit we will be starting in a couple of weeks (needs and characteristics of living things). We also applied these great conversations in Science to plan our Chicken Coops! The designs are wonderful. So many strong and safe materials and attachers were used! We will be presenting these in the next week!
In French we began a listening activity, where one partner had to tell the other what to draw, and they drew what they heard. To incorporate writing, students then wrote about their picture below. We focused on listening for meaning, and listening to understand. The students loved this activity, and so much learning came out of it, we continued it throughout the week!
In Social Studies we begun planning and building our community. Students have been having many discussions about what a community needs, what their community area needs and what they should include. Once these areas are built, we will start creative play (in French!) to see what community helpers are involved at each community area!
April 18-21
What an exciting week! Our chicks came back to the classroom from Easter weekend "unhatched," and there was a constant buzz around our classroom! Our first baby chick finally hatched yesterday, and it was SO exciting! Two more hatched overnight, and one hatched before the students came in on Thursday morning. I got to videotape that hatching, and showed the students! We will have to wait patiently for the others to come!
Despite this excitement, there was other great learning that went on this week. In French, we begun "Writers Workshop", taking our skills and strategies we practiced in French Exploration, and now writing about it on chosen writing paper! Our Learning Goal for this week for Writers Workshop was the same as last week during French Exploration; I can use the sentence stretching checklist, I can use at least two adjectives in my French writing. They then conferenced with me, and were given some new goals ("wishes") to work on for our next French Exploration and Writers Workshop!
In Science to wrap up our Structures unit, this provocation was used:
"If Mlle. Haney were to keep the chicks for herself, I have no where to keep them at my house! Can you help me? I need help building a chicken coop that is safe, and stable for the chicks to live."
We then discussed what we should include in our chicken coop, and co-created the following checklist:
- use at least 5 materials
- use at least 3 attachers
- sketch a diagram
- lable the materials and attachers (in French)
- strong and stable
We then got to planning! We will continue planning next week!
In Social Studies, we continued planning our community, and will be discussing needs in a community!
April 10-13
This week we looked deeper at our sentence stretching checklist, exploring how adjectives can add detail and "paint a picture" in the reader's mind while reading our writing. As a class, we co-created a list of common adjectives, and began using these in our writing. The Learning Goals for this week, during French Exploration were then, "I will us the Sentence Stretching Checklist" and "I will use at least one adjective in each sentence." Students did a great job giving this new goal a try, and will continue to use this Learning Goal next week!
We continued to explore the growing chicks in the incubator, and continued to record the daily changes in our "Livre d'Oeufs" (egg books). The chicks were due to hatch this weekend, so they went home with the family that brought them, and will hopefully have some chicks when we return! Some were not ready to hatch quite yet, so some eggs may remain un-hatched!
In Social Studies we finished our community maps, and begun planning our classroom community! We will continue to do so next week as well.
April 3-7
What a great week of discovery! Last Friday, we combined French learning and Math learning into one amazing investigation. In French, we have been talking about natural structures, and the students were very interested at further investigating Bird's Nests, so we decided come together as both classes to build our own! Students brainstormed materials to use, and created a plan using labels and lists they needed (all in French!) We then took our plans a step further, and students investigated how BIG they needed their birds nests to be in order to fit one large egg or three small eggs. We then took this learning and went outside to build. It was messy, muddy and amazing :) The students did a great job (as you can see from the pictures) building these nests, and working on our class goal of not giving up. We were so happy with their grit and stamina.
In French, we continued our Egg Observation book to keep track of all of the changes going on inside of the egg. We are learning so many new French words (e.g., body parts, chick parts) and contextually incorporating those in writing! A parent even came in to help us "candle" the eggs, so you can directly see inside the egg and what is happening . The students were amazed to see what we were writing has come alive! We will continue this next week!
We also continued our French Exploration and finished making maps of our community! Next week we will be ready to start planning and building our classroom community!
March 27-31
This week was a very exciting week, as we have an amazing opportunity for investigation in our classroom! Over the next few weeks, we will be observing eggs in an incubator that will hatch into little chicks! The students are so excited, and wanted to make books about what is happening inside the egg every day. We went over French vocabulary, and began to write these books in French! There have also been such great wonderings, which we will investigate next week. We can't wait to see what further investigations come out of this learning opportunity! Also, in French, we investigated many French Language exploration areas including creating sentences on different white boards, mix and fix, work on writing, and read to self. The Learning Goal for this week was to use our Sentence Stretching checklist to expand and add more details to our sentences.
For Science, we continued to explore new learning areas, and answering questions such as "how do materials stick together," "which are the strongest structures and WHY," and "how are these birds nest made?" There were such great conversations and ideas during this learning. After investigating the bird's nests, students wanted to learn more about animal houses and how they are built! I will turn that into an provocation next week :)
In Social Studies, we continued to create our maps of our community, and next week, we will start to build our community!
March 20-24
What an amazing week of learning! Our writing has really taken off, as students wanted to write about their March Breaks. Our learning goal for this week was to use more than one linking word in our writing. We really met that expectation, as students expanded their writing using many French linking words! We also focused on silent letters in French, as there are many of them! Students did a great job looking through books and their personal word walls for silent letters, and sharing them with the class. In Science, we continued to explore structures at our investigation areas, and even went outside to look for some more natural structures! In Social Studies, we began to plan our community, as we started looking at maps, and began creating maps of the community we want to build! We discussed legends and symbols and started incorporating those in our maps! Next week we will continue to plan then start to build our community in our classroom!
March 6 - 9
To wrap things up before March Break, we decided to finish our unfinished work in our writing folder during work on writing. If students were finished their work, they were to move on to something new. Some students decided to write another "Qui suis-je?" book, some chose to write another animal book, and some chose to write books to teach their little siblings French! It was very neat to see the ideas they came up with, and the amazing French writing that was attached to these ideas. In Science we continued our investigation on structures, but dug deeper into natural structures vs. man-made structures, and also began investigating how structures are built and the different materials we use to build those structures. After March Break, we will continue to investigate certain materials that are used, and how different structures require different materials. In Social Studies, we brought the 3D structures over to the French class to add to building our class community! We will continue to build our community after March Break!
I hope you have a safe and fun March Break with your families!
February 21 - February 24
This week we wrapped up our Science and animal units with presentations. We presented our amazing Science Inventions and our Qui Suis-Je books. We even presented our Qui Suis-Je books to the Grade 2 class! Here are some of our inventions with our plans!
February 6 - February 17
I have decided to combine these past two weeks, as we have really taken a deeper understanding of our French Board Games and our Science Inventions. Students have worked very hard on these inquiries, and have presented their French games so they are ready to play next week! Our Science Inventions are almost completed as well, and will be presented in the coming week. I can't wait to see what our inventors have come up with! In continuing our inquiry on Animals, we started a new activity called "Qui suis-je? (who am I?) Students wrote a book giving 2 clues in French about their chosen animal, and drew a picture on the back in case the reader has trouble guessing. They did such a great job on these, and it was great to see how much writing came out of it!
Next week we will start our study of Communities in social studies with a Knowledge Building Circle using the question "what do we know about our community?" Can't see what next week has in store!
January 30-February 2
Joyeux Carnaval! This week was a very exciting week here at Pilgrim Wood. The French-Canadian celebration of Carnaval came to our school on Wednesday with lots of outdoor activities and celebrations. We had a slalom activity, a toboggan race, a hockey match, and a hot chocolate treat! It was such great fun. On Thursday, our second day of Carnaval, we had the chance to see Cabane a Sucre! This is a great tradition in Quebec where they pour maple syrup on snow and then it turns into taffy. Yum!
Even though we had a really exciting two days, we still managed to get some great work done :) Last week, one of the friends in our class brought in a picture board showing his travels to South Africa. On the picture board was an arrangement of different animals he saw on his safari. This sparked such great curiosity in the students, and such great questions, that I had to make this a discovery table focus. This was also a great opportunity to teach animal vocabulary to use in our speaking and in our writing! We went to the library to get out some animal books to spark some inquiry and research as well. Next week our "must do" activity will be to write animal books in French!
Our French games are also almost finished, so we will be presenting these and playing these next week. It is amazing to see how they have come together and the hard work that has been put into these games!
In Science, to cap off our Energy unit, the students are to design an object that uses some sort of energy. This object is something that has never been invented before. It is a very "open" assignment, so I can't wait to see what they come up with!
January 23-27
What a busy week! We continued Wonder and Wander while working on our French games. Most of the game instructions are finished, and now we are on to building. We can't wait to play them! Our "must do" of the week really stretched our thinking. The expectations of the "must do" were to write two sentences in French, using at least one verb in each sentence, and at least one linking word in each sentence. Some students wrote stories and fairy tales, and others chose to write about their weekend. Some students even chose to make up silly sentences! It was great to see so many students take risks. In Science, we finished our posters on how to conserve energy, and begun hanging them around our room. It is great to see so many great ideas! We also looked at how we use energy at our homes, and our family can help us conserve the energy we use. There is even homework coming home for the weekend to help us further investigate energy usage! It is really exciting to see how much French we are now using when we are writing, reading and speaking, and can't wait to see what next week has in store!
Special note: A Home Reading note was sent home last week. Please encourage your child to pick up a French book along with the English home reading book. This will help build confidence in French reading!
January 16-20
What another great week of learning! We continued to work on our French games, as most students were finishing their plans and moving on to their "bon copie" of their instructions. Next week, we are going to begin to set up our Games Store, and begin to buid our games! So exciting. Another centre was added in Wonder and Wander, and that was our stamps centre. We used the stamps to make as many words as we could in French that we knew off the top of our head and without looking at our word walls or in the writing corner. It was great to see the learning at this centre! We also worked on our Writer's Workshop having to think of an idea, draw a picture, label it, then write a sentence in French. This week, a challenge was added to our writing, as we learned two new linking words; "avec" (which means with) and "Ă " (which means at). The expectation for this week is adding these new words into our chosen writing topic. You should have seen what the students came up with! (I am keeping these for a little bit to see the growth in Writer's Workshops). In Science, we investigated how we can help our earth by conserving energy, and why it is important to do so. In our investigations, we make the conclusion that energy is made from coal (charbon) and natural gas (gaz naturel). When we run out of these things, they cannot be made again! We then made posters to advertise how we can save energy and why it is important! Next week we will investigate sources of energy we use at our houses and digging deeper about how we can conserve each source.
We also had such a great time at Cafecole! It was such a great contextual experience for the students to apply their vocabulary and oral French. I THINK they also loved the sweets :) (Pictures are coming!)
January 9-13
It was so great to have everyone back after a safe and happy holiday! Even though it was our first week back to school, our learning really took off! We decided to take down our holiday store and think of a new "dramatic centre" to play in and to practice our French. Both classes decided to make a Games Store, but of course, we need some games to put in our store! So then our thinking lead us to making French games for the store! We first started with plans, and writing instructions for our games ALL IN FRENCH! We used the word wall we started to make, to help us with some common French words that are included in games. This was a big hit, and we will continue to plan these games next week! Our goal is to have a full store of games so we can play each other's when we are finished! In Science we investigated energy chains/food chains further, and read a book about them. We then acted out some energy chains in groups. We had a lot of fun with this! Next week we will play our "food chain game" we created during Wonder and Wander. We will also be exploring how we can save energy in our houses, and will be setting up a challenge for ourselves to conserve! In Social Studies, we discussed our Roles and Responsibilities during the holidays, and then wrote about it. What a great week of learning!
December 19-23
This week was a week of exploring and investigating! We spent a longer time in Wonder and Wander, as students interests became more evident in certain areas. Some students wanted to investigate further into World Flags, so they decided to write a book in French about them! Some students were interested in investigating different games they could make in French. Some came up with the ideas of Memory Games and Matching Games. First they had to make a plan (in French!) to show Mlle. Haney how they were going to play it, and what French they were going to be using. Some students even investigated their own wondering of "why do we have a brain?" They then made a book about the importance of our brain. All of these inquiries were done during French language time. This was a great way to spark interest in writing, as they were writing about things of great interest! Along with these amazing inquiries, there were questions set up around the classroom to tie in our science investigations. Students were to visit these tables as well. One table had the question "The sun is the most important source of energy....why?" Students were then to record four reasons the sun is our most important source of energy. To start our learning on Energy and Food Chains, there was a table also set up with the question "What is an energy or food chain?" There were also books on the table to support their learning. Students were to write their thoughts on a post-it note then post it up. As this was also the week before Winter Break, students also made a special surprise for their families :) They worked hard on these and cannot wait to show you!
I hope you have a wonderful Holiday and a safe and happy New Year! Can't wait to see everyone back in January !!
December 12-14
This week was a busy one! As students were becoming less and less interested with Cafe Francais, we decided to switch it up a little bit and we came up with the idea of building a Holiday Store! This would give the students an opportunity to authentically learn Holiday French vocabulary from many different celebrations around this time, along with learning about different celebrations. Students brainstormed ways they could make this Holiday Store, and made plans during Thinking and Learning time in French. We then started to build the store! It is looking fabulous. Next week we will "play" in the store using authentic French vocabulary. This will work on building oral French and communication skills! In Science we begun having the discussion of "what would happen if we didn't have electricity" along with continuing to explore the sources of energy during Wonder and Wander time. A lot of authentic learning here! In Social Studies we wrapped up our investigation on Timelines with presenting our own Timelines about our lives. One more week until winter break!
December 5-9
This week was amazing to see the student's progress in French. Instead of doing Thinking and Learning centres in French, we did our Atelier des Auteurs ("Writers Workshop"). To make stronger connections between the English classroom and the French classroom, we followed the same checklist for Writer's Workshop that Ms. Coric uses in English. That is, first think of an idea, then draw a picture, then label, then write about it using the vocabulary from the labels. It was really amazing to see the students' work, and the French they were authentically using. They used the words in the writing centre, their visual dictionaries, our sound wall and an online dictionary to write about whatever they wanted. A lot of students were excited to write about the weekend, so I put up the sentence starter "Pendant le weekend..." (During the weekend...) and that was our sentence starter of the week to support their learning. We are going to continue to do open exploration such as this writers workshop, as when students are inspired about their choice in writing, it is amazing how far they can take that inspiration, and make so many more authentic and contextual connections! In Science we continued to use our Wonder and Wander time to deeper investigate the sources of Energy and how they are used. Students had the opportunity to look in our large choice of Energy books, at the discovery centre, and making their own connections from experience. In Social Studies we have still been working hard on our timelines ! I can't wait for learning next week has in store for us.
November 28-December 3
What a busy week! With all of the excitement with the dance-a-thon, our classroom was buzzing! In our Thinking and Learning centres we looked at the sentence starter "Voici" and our new vocabulary about our family. Wrote books about our family all in French using our sentence starter and a descriptive word. We also incorporated our new words "il" (he) and "elle" (she) into our writing. We will be taking this home shortly to show our families. Our sound of the week was "en" and "an" and went on a hunt. In Science we begun investigating sources of energy on our investigation table, and had our wonder of the week "What are different sources of energy?" We discussed this as a whole group and begun looking for different sources of energy in our non-fiction books to add in our science journals! In Social Studies, we continued to work on important events in our lives, putting them in a timeline. We started our good copy of our timelines, which we were all very excited about! Next week we will continue to work on our timelines and continue to dive deeper into the different sources of energy.
We also started reading/speaking buddies in French class! Our buddies are from the Grade 4 class and Grade 3/4 Class. Every student has a buddy, which we will be seeing once a week to help with our reading and our oral French!
November 21-24
This week we continued to work on our clothing vocabulary during writers workshop, along with our sentence starter "Je porte". We incorporated "et" into our writing to stretch out our sentences, along with what the weather would be if we wore certain items of clothing. For example "Je porte un t-shirt bleu et un short noir. Il fait chaud." The students really loved this activity, and it was so exciting to see how far they have come in French writing! We also started a new song called "Jouez au Hockey" (playing hockey). In Science we started our new unity on Energy. This included showing everything we knew about Energy, along with showing our thinking in a Knowledge Building Circle. Next week we will begin to investigate the different sources of energy through our discovery table and books in our wonder centre. We also presented our Dances this week for our dance unit. A lot of students took great risks presenting in front of the class! Thank you to everyone who attended the student-lead conferences this week as well. It was great to meet with you and discuss the great things the students are doing in the class, along with individual goals we are all working on!
November 14-18
What a great week of learning! We learned new vocabulary (clothing) and the sentence starter "Je Porte" (I wear) to go along with our clothing vocabulary. To practice the sentence starter with our vocabulary, we had a great speaking circle, where we spoke ALL FRENCH! Our new sound of the week was "oi" (sound like "wa"). In our Thinking and Learning Centres we practiced our new sentence starter, vocabulary and new sound of the week. We also added a new learning centre called "Marcher et Demander" (Wonder and Wander). Instead of students coming in in the morning and sitting on the carpet, they are going to go directly into wonder and wander. They have a choice to go to the Discovery Centre (to work on their own wonderings, go to the discovery tables, answer the Wonder of the Week), or play at the French Cafe. This will be a part of our new morning routine, so we can get directly into learning! In Science we wrapped up our Seasons unit with some great presentations! We will be starting our new unit on Energy next week. In Social Studies we continued to talk about Timelines, and begun writing our own timeline about important times in our lives. This will be our next big Inquiry in Social Studies! I can hardly wait for the learning that next week has in store!
November 7 - 11
This week we finished planning and building our French Cafe and started "playing" at it. The expectations were very clear to the students, that they must speak in French, and write orders down in French. This was such an amazing opportunity to watch the growth in their oral language and French writing! We will continue this again next week. We also spoke about Remembrance Day and the meaning behind it. We read our Poem of the week "Le Jour des Souvenirs" (Remembrance Day) and made a beautiful wreath for the Remembrance Day assembly. Our new sentence starter of the week was "J'aime" (I like/I love) which we practiced in a speaking circle and in our work on writing activities. As we are now building our repertoire of French vocabulary and sentence starters, we are moving on to "free write" in the Work on Writing Centre during Thinking and Learning Time in French. We chose to write about Pokemon, Harry Potter, Seasons, Family etc all in FRENCH! It was such great learning. In Science we started our final Seasons Inquiry. In groups, students chose a season and are able to choose how they are going to present the checklist of information about their season. Some chose a poster, a play and a report! Can't wait to see these presentations next week. In Social Studies we continued to conversation about important people in our lives, and begun talking about important times in our lives. We will eventually be making a timeline of these important events. Excited for more learning next week!
October 31 - November 4
This week was a fun-filled week! It started off with the Primary Halloween Parade. Everyone looked so great in their costumes! We then continued the Halloween festivities by looking at our own Halloween books, matching the colours to the pictures, and making our own Jack-O-Lanterns. We drew our Jack-O-Lanterns, then wrote about them in French, using our new vocabulary (parts of the face). We also learned another sentence starter "Je Vois" which means "I see." Our sound of the week is "on" (not pronounced like the word in English) which sounds like a pig. We also continued to learn "O Canada" which we are really starting to sing well! In Science, we discussed the activities we can/cannot do in each season. We know a lot about this! In Social studies, we continued to look at members of our family, and started discussing important people in our lives. We are also almost finished our French Cafe (see pictures below to look at our progress!) I was so glad to see all of the French learning that was encompassed in this project! Our Learning Skills are now finished, and we begun making our own goals (a star and a wish) for the Learning Skills we do well, and the Learning Skills we need to work on.
October 24-28
This week was a "review" week. We reviewed all of the French sounds we have learned thus far, along with the sentence starters we have learned thus far. Because we love to write books, we write our own "Silly Sentences books!" We incorporated all of the sentence starters and chosen vocabulary we have learned! We also started learning "O Canada" in French! This will act as our Poem of the Week for the next couple of weeks. It's a long one and a challenging one! In Science we discussed how humans adapt to each season, and we did this with a Knowledge Building Circle. We had so many great ideas, and built off of each other's thoughts. In Social Studies, we begun talking about our families and how all families are different. We have started learning family vocabulary as well. Another exciting thing we have started is building our own French Cafe in class! This will be used to practice oral French, and use the recent vocabulary learned. Hopefully we can start using it next week once everything is set up (e.g., we are making a dishwasher, oven, meunus etc). This is a fun way to incorporate all aspects of the French curriculum (e.g., reading, speaking, writing, listening).
October 17-21
What a great week of learning! We continued to expand our knowledge about building sentences in French, but now we are clear of expectations. We used the terms "Getting There" (level 2), "Met Expectations" (level 3) and "Above and Beyond" (level 4) (see picture below). We started "sharing circles" where students offer to share what they did during Thinking and Learning time. There have been some great pieces of writing shared, that really demonstrates growth and learning! We also learned a new sound for our sound of the week, which is "ch". This is different from the English sound, because it sound like the "sh" sound in English. Along with our new sound of the week, we learned a new sentence starter "J'ai..." which means I have. Next week we are going to review the sounds of the week and sentence starters we have learned thus far. In Science, we have continued to investigate what animals do at each season, and will begin to investigate how the day changes with each season (e.g., longer days in the summer, shorter days in the winter). In Social studies, we continued to learn about our roles and responsibilities in our community, and next week will investigate what kinds of roles and responsibilities are in our family!
October 10-14
What a busy week, but it flew by! We continued learning about building sentences, and added in our new vocabulary! The new words we learned were food words. There is a picture of them below. To go along with our food vocabular, we learned a new sentence starter "Je mange..." (which means I eat). We know this is not all food, but it is a good start! We also studied our new sound of the week "ou" (sounds just like a wolf howling) and went on a "sound hunt" around the room to find words with these sounds. Our new Poem was a hit (now under the "poems" tab)! It connected to Thanksgiving, as it is reminding us what to be thankful for. In Science, we started the conversation of what animals do at each season. We got our ideas through a Knowledge Building Circle and will continue to expand on these ideas next week. In Social Studies, we continued our conversations of rule and responsibilities, and finished our work talking about rules and responsibilities at home. Next week we will talk about our rule and responsibilities in the Community!
We continued our conversation about Learning Skills and added two to our board; Responsibility and Self-Regulation. We will continue to look at these each week, as we know these skills help us learn! The conversation of "how is your engine running" is also continuing, as we are starting to regulate ourselves, getting energy boosts when needed or calming our bodies down using animal stretches when needed.
Thanks again to everyone who joined us in Open House on Thursday. What a great night to celebrate the student's work thus far! I can't wait to continue the wonderful work we have been doing.
October 3-6
There was lots of new learning that happened in French this week! We started to build and write sentences in French. We used the building sentences pictures to first build a sentence, then we looked in our visual dictionaries/classroom anchor charts to find the spelling for the words and put them in a full sentence. We started using the sentence starter "C'est..." (it is...) to help us with our writing and our speaking. In science, we went to explore in the trails behind the school and came upon a tree with just one branch of red leaves. We wondered "why has only one branch turned colour, and the rest of the leaves are green?" This will turn into a class inquiry - investigating how and when leaves turn colour. In social studies, we kept on investigating roles and responsibilities at school, and started discussing our roles and responsibilities at home! Next week we will look at the similarities and differences between the two.
We also kept our conversation going about self-regulation and how our bodies are feeling, strategies to keep calm, and strategies to get our bodies back to calm so we can put forth our personal best efforts! We use the question "how is your engine running". Please view the picture at the bottom of this text. Feel free to use the same vocabulary with your students at home!
September 26-30
What a great week! So much learning in our French classroom. We started using the sentence starter "il y a..." (there is) in our speaking circle and in our writing. We even made our own books and started writing sentences in French! Our new sound of the week was the sound "Ă©" (the sound as saying the letter A). The Terry Fox Run was a big hit! In Science we continued to investigate objects in the discovery centre, and started to Wonder about certain objects. We started to talk about cycles, and different types of cycles. We came up with so many great ideas! (Example: life cycles, butterfly cycle, moths, days of the week). To answer our wonderings, we started to study the Inquiry wheel. This wheel includes exploring, investigating, analyzing and sharing. Can't wait to see this process with our own Wonderings! We continued to study responsibilities at home and at school in social studies.
To help problem solving, we discussed Kelso's choices. To problem solve, we studied the difference between a small problem and a big problem. If it was a small problem, we can use two of Kelso's choices to solve the problem. We know it is a Big Problem when we feel we are in danger or we are hurt. If it is a big problem we go to the teacher right away. We will continue to use Kelso's choices to help solve our small problems!
September 19-23
This week we started learning about sounds in French, with our new sound of the week "i" (eee). We practiced going on a Sound Scavenger Hunt around the room to look for words with the "i" sound. We also started "Pensez et Apprendre" (Thinking and Learning) centres in French! We have 5 centres that are show in the image below. These centre include Read to Self, working on our French visual dictionary, looking for words with the French sound "i", practicing our oral french at the dramatic centre (Staples), and our Wonder and Discovery Centre. At the Wonder and Discovery centre, we had to investigate two things. The first, was answer the Wonder of the Week (I wonder...what is a cycle?), and the second was looking at some books at the discovery centre to observe what they might have in common. Each week, the Wonder and Discovery centre will have a "Wonder of the Week", that ties to the science curriculum, and that comes directly from the student's wonderings. I will post the Wonder of the Week each blog entry.
We also started talking about Rules and Responsibilities, which is a strand in our Social Studies curriculum. We talked about the difference between the two, and started to discuss our Rules and Responsibilities at school. We will continue to talk about the difference/similarities between Rules and Responsibilities at school/home/in our community!
In Science, we not only tie in curriculum during French centre time, but also have thorough discussions about the unit's topics. This unit is on Daily and Seasonal Changes. In our first Knowledge Building Circle, we answered the question "How Do Sesasons Change?" In a Knowledge Building Circle, the teacher does not participate. The students pass around a talking stick to those who have their hand raised and share their ideas, as the teacher writes them down. We came up with so many great thoughts! Can't wait to expand on these thoughts next week!
September 12-16
This week we learned lots of new French words, along with a new song. We continued learning about colours, and made our own colour books. Our theme of the next couple of weeks is "classroom tools." We are learning the French vocabulary of tools around the classroom. During French literacy time, we labelled tools in French, started working on our French Visual Dictionaries, and begun reading books in French. Even if we do not know how to read, we know to read the pictures, and try to find any "mots amis" (friendly words - words that are spelled the same in English and in French). The "Bonjour" poem is another easy way to learn to read French. It was even read as a class without teacher assistance! We even made our classroom dramatic centre into a Staples so we can practice speaking with our friends in French and using the new vocabulary we learned in a contextual way!
To make expectations clear, we also co-created a checklist for classroom expectations and got to sign our names next to it. This was a contract! We also started to brainstorm what Explorers say, do, and use so we can go outside and start to ask some questions and wonder about some aspects of nature. This was done in English, as we have so much more French to learn, but wrote down the words we already know in French! So much learning this week!
So we are able to think and learn, we have also started asking ourselves "how is our body engine running?" If we are at green (vert), we are calm, we are ready to learn, and we are ready to do our personal best. If we are at red (rouge), we are over-excited, our bodies are not calm and our brains are not ready to learn. If we are at yellow (jaune), our bodies and/or our brains are tired and we need an energy boost. We will review more strategies to regulate ourselves next week and brainstorm ways to return to calm as a class!
Here is a song we have started to sing in class:
Song title: Qu'est-ce que C'est? Song Title: Bonjour, Bonjour
September 7-9
What a great first few days of school! We explored the new classroom, learned French weather words, learned French colours and started counting! Here are some of the words so you can practice at home...
