Week 24

Post date: Feb 06, 2016 3:12:22 AM

2/9/16

Dear Parents,

Welcome to Week 24! I hope everyone had a restful 3-day weekend. We will start math assessments this week and they will continue for the next few weeks.

We’re doing something cool (and techy new!) with Little Red Riding Hood. Your students have self-selected into 5 groups and have been collaborating beautifully making puppets and backgrounds. They’ve all negotiated their parts, too! We’ve been working on storytelling in class. On Thursday, 2/18, my colleague will be coming in to help film the students with a green screen, so they can retell the story! Ask your students which part they’re playing and what they’ll need to say. It’s hilarious watching them be the wolf/grandma/LRRH/mom/hunter. They all have slightly different versions, too. If you have an iPad and would like to download the app Green Screen (it has an octopus as its image) it’s super fun to play with! Just need a green background – I purchased a tablecloth from PartyCity. If you’re interested in helping me record also, that’ll be AWESOME. We still have 2 weeks to practice.

This Friday, we’ll be completing Valentine’s Day crafts. If your child would like to bring in Valentines to share, they’re more than welcome. They can sign their own names on the back, but please do not put individual student names.

Please mark your calendars of these dates:

  • Friday, April 1 – Field trip to Underwood Farms. More information will be provided as the date comes closer. We’ll be able to take 6 chaperones. Pick up will be extended to 2:15 on this day.

  • Thursday, April 7 – Open House, 6-8pm. Come check out what your students have been doing (hopefully in our new building!).

  • Tuesday, May 24 – Field trip to Aquarium of the Pacific. More information will be provided as the date comes closer. We would like to have 8-10 chaperones, as this is a more “free visit” after our session. Pick up will be extended to 2:15 on this day.

Here’s the breakdown of our week:

French:

We will be learning the letter G this week. G in French is pronounced like “J”, but it makes the same sounds – one hard like in “guy” (ga, go, gu) and one soft like in “giraffe” (ge, gi) . Here are the words we will be seeing:

  • Un gateau – cake – un ga-to

  • Une guirlande – garland – une geeer-lah-nde

  • Une guitare – guitar – une gee-tar

  • La glace – ice cream – la glass

  • Un gorille – gorilla – un go-reel

  • Une gomme – eraser – une gomme

  • Un garçon – boy – un gar-son

  • Une girafe – giraffe – une gee-raff

We work on reading syllables, ga, go, gu, ge, gi. We continue writing our common sentence starters: “je suis”, “c’est”, “je vois”, “j’aime”, “il est”, “elle est”, “je vais” and “je joue”. We’re starting to write with more details and I’m encouraging students to write a simple three sentence “paragraph”.

Sight words: So far, we have learned: C’est, je, suis, le, la, il, elle, ma, mon, comme, ici, vais, and joue, pour, fais, and dans. This week, we will be reviewing all of the sight words.

Book: We’ll read a final version of LRRH, a Chinese version called Lon PoPo. We will also be reading several Valentine’s Day theme books.

Math:

We add, subtract, count, and categorize. It’s assessment time. Your students are ROCKSTARS and blowing me and Giulia away. Have you asked your kids how or why they need to add/subtract in a word problem? They’ve got some good reasons to give.

Comptine:

With Chinese New Year, I taught them a traditional CNY song - we only learned the first verse. The kids loved it. Here's a Ni Hao Kai Lan version.

This week, we'll be learning Dans la forêt lointaine:

Homework explanation:

  • Read for 20 minutes daily

  • Cardstock of the alphabet and sight words are in the homework folders. I encourage you to cut them out and put them on a ring to review the words/letters/sounds with your students at home.

  • Classroom.google.com Check the typing sheet.

Reminders:

  • Please make sure you sign your child’s behavior log every day.

  • Library time is on Tuesday at 8:30. Please make sure to bring back your student’s book in the 2-gallon ziplock bag.

  • There is no school on Monday, Feb. 8 and Feb. 15.