Post date: Oct 30, 2015 9:22:32 PM
11/2/15
Dear Parents,
Welcome to Week 13! This is the last week of 1st trimester. Can you believe we are 1/3 done with the school year? Time is going by at lightning speed! Special thank you to Jennifer Carta (Oliver’s mom), Janet Atienza (Zola’s mom), Liza Sacilioc (Izzy’s mom), Jennifer Torres (Jasmine’s mom), and Rena Sassi (Imani’s mom) for their help with our Halloween activities on Thursday. I would love to have some help taking down our Halloween decorations on Monday, if anyone is free!
Be sure to check your conference time if we’re meeting this Friday. It’s back-to-back, so please make sure you’re on time so that we can maximize the 15 minutes. I will review your student’s assessment results (they're doing great!) and try my best to address any questions you may have.
Here’s a breakdown of our week:
French:
We’ve ended our Ogres, Witches, and Monsters theme with Halloween. We start our family and vegetables theme in November through studying various versions of Stone Soup. We’ll be making our own stone soup in class the Friday before we leave for Thanksgiving break and enjoying it with the butter! More information will be provided when we get closer to the date.
Book: La soupe au caillou by Tony Ross – This version has a wolf that tries to make the hen into soup, but the hen outsmarts the wolf.
We continue to work on main characters, setting, sequencing and predictions. We’ll be starting a new critical thinking skill: coming up with unanswered questions in a story.
Math:
We’ll be reviewing 0-10, comparing, composing/decomposing, and representing numbers. We will review geometric shapes, prepositions, and descriptive words.
Art:
Autumn trees with paper bags
Comptine:
We will start learning our holiday performance songs with Zaia. Please save Thursday, Dec. 17 @ 11:15am for our performance in the auditorium with the other French classes!
Homework explanation:
Continue to review syllabic reading with the students.
When reading with your students at night, focus on making a prediction then check if the prediction was true; there are no “wrong” predictions. Then ask if there are any unanswered questions in the story. An answer isn’t necessary; it’s the thought process of “wondering” that is important for developing critical thinking skills. For example, I wonder how long Goldilocks walked before she got to the Bears’ house? I wonder how Little Red Riding Hood’s grandmother got sick and if it had been the flu? The sentence frame is: “I wonder why/how…” or in French “Je me demande pourquoi/comment…” Be patient, it’ll be difficult for the students to start, but a good “I wonder” question will trigger other ones.
Reminders:
Please make sure you sign your child’s behavior log every day.
Library time is Tuesday at 8:30am. Please bring the book back in the 2-gallon ziplock bag.
There is no school for students this Friday 11/6, Wednesday 11/11, and Friday 11/14 is a minimum day.
Parent-teacher conferences are on Friday 11/6 and Friday 11/13. Please check your time and be prompt.