Week 2

Post date: Aug 15, 2015 12:28:53 AM

August 17, 2015

Dear Parents,

Happy Monday and welcome to the second week of Kindergarten! I hope all of you had a wonderful weekend with your child. I believe I was able to reach every one of you with a personal phone call or message last week. I’m sorry if I missed you. Please feel free to e-mail me if you have any questions or concerns. The students sometimes have a hard time sharing what they’re learning in school, so please feel free to use this newsletter as a guide to probe your student’s learning: “I heard you read this book about a bunny, tell me about it.” “Please sing me the song that you learned… something about hands…”

I would like to introduce a very special person to you: Giulia Zammit – our lovely French intern (who also speaks Italian fluently) who will be in our classroom the majority of the time, helping the students. She lives with the Westacott family with a 2nd grade French student.

We will be going to the library for the first time on Tuesday and the media lab on Friday. We also start PE this week. Please make sure your students are wearing comfortable, closed-toed shoes on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

Lots of learning will be happening in class this week. Here’s the breakdown:

French:

  • We start with our letter/sound learning with “I” pronounced in French as “eee”. We learn to write both in print and in cursive. (I will explain the reasons we write in cursive in French Kinder during BTSN.)

  • Words we will see:

    • Un iguane (iguana, pronounced: uhn eegwan)

    • Un igloo (uhn eeeeglooo)

    • Un livre (book, pronounced: uhn leave-ruh)

    • Une île (island, pronounced: uuunuh eeluh)

    • Un kiwi (as it sounds in English)

    • Une fourmi (ant, pronounced: uuunuh fwoorhmee)

    • Un tigre (tiger: pronounced: uhn teegruh)

  • We will be doing letter writing, sound isolating, syllable clapping, and syllable identifying activities.

  • We also start with the sentence structure: “C’est un (masculine)…/C’est une (feminine)…” (It is a/an pronounced: seh uhn, seh uuunuh)

    • The kindergarten teachers really promote speaking in complete sentences with the students.

  • Book: Toutes les couleurs by Alex Sanders

Math:

  • We will be learning to write, count, and recognize numbers 0 and 1 in number form.

  • We continue to build a solid foundation with our calendar routine, including days of the week, months of the year, shapes, and counting.

Art:

  • Hand print apple trees

  • Tear-art self portraits

Comptine aka nursery rhyme:

  • Une souris verte – using the sound “I”.

  • Last week, we learned J’ai deux mains and Tête, épaules, genoux et pieds. Apparently, I learned different versions of these and cannot find matching videos with the same words. I will record the kids singing it and put it here.

Here are some gentle reminders:

  • Remind your students to use the restrooms before lining up in the morning, during recess, and during lunchtime. Class time is precious learning time. (We go as a class around 8:50)

  • Blue Thursday folders need to be returned on Fridays.

  • Please make sure your child has a bottle of water, as the days are hot. I greatly suggest putting sunblock on your child and providing a hat to have more protection during recess times.

  • Back to School Night is Wednesday, September 2 @ 6:00-6:40. This is an adult-only event. Please come as I will be explaining EVERYTHING that will be happening this school year: expectations, supplies, volunteering, activities, etc!

Thank you for all of your support and patience through this immersion learning experience! Please let me know if you have any questions/comments.

Bien à vous,

Mlle Sun