Week 5

Post date: Sep 05, 2015 2:50:14 AM

September 8, 2015

Dear Parents,

Welcome to Week 5! I hope everyone had a restful Labor Day weekend. I will not be in class on Tuesday due to Common Core Math training for all the Franklin kindergarten teachers. Mme Urquizo (aka Mme U) will be our substitute and Giulia will be there all day. I have informed the students about my absence, but it would be appreciated if you talked to your students to prepare them for the day. Mme U has consistently been my substitute for the past two years, so she knows the classroom routine well. She also cannot wait to meet the new class! Mme U or Mme Bollier (Lucy’s mother from 1st grade) will be my substitute whenever I am out of the class.

Your students went home with their cahier de sons/comptines/écriture on Thursday. I hope you had some time to look through it with them. Please make sure that they make it back to school on Tuesday. Don’t forget their library books, also!

Come and support Franklin’s first ever Spelling Bee on October 10th. Two parents and I will be representing the French team, Team BEEjoux. The amount of money raised may help our team purchase “cheats” during the Bee; ALL of the funding will go to BFEF which supports the Amity interns, book fair, gardening and music classes, teacher supply closet, Science Fair, etc. Everyone is welcome and I look forward to seeing you there! Our interns are invited to attend, too.

Some parents have mentioned that the students are shy in sharing what they are learning at school. This newsletter is your connection! Instead of asking, “What did you learn/do at school today?” I find that if you ask more specific questions it helps bridge the language gap. Here are some sample questions:

  • How do you say O (or any other letter we have learned) in French? What sound does it make? Can you tell me some words that have that sound? (Refer to weekly vocabulary below)

  • How do you say this color in French? (They know all 11 colors!)

  • Let’s count these together in French

  • Let’s listen to the song this week and we can sing it together. Can you show me the actions?

If your child is a French speaker, dig a little deeper (How many syllables are in “word”? What word rhymes with “word”?), and always have them respond in complete sentences to build vocabulary.

Here’s a breakdown of our week:

French:

We will be working on the letter O. It is pronounced almost like it is in English, but with a rounder mouth form. Listen to it here.

We will see:

  • une olive– olive – pronounced: une oh-leave

  • une oreille – ear – pronounced: une oh-rhay

  • une orange – orange – pronounced: une oh-rhonge

  • un ogre – ogre – pronounced: uhn oh-gruh

  • un océan – ocean – pronounced: uhn oh-say-on

  • une otarie – seal – pronounced: une oh-tah-rhee

  • un vélo – bike – pronounced: un v-ay-low

We will complete letter writing, sound isolating, syllable clapping, and syllable identifying activities.

We will be learning the sentence frame “Je suis” this week. We will be using the “je suis” sentence structure with an noun: Je suis – I am – pronounced: juh swee.

We continue to work with the sentence structure: C’est un… C’est une…

Book: La semaine de souris chérie. Here's a super cute version of the story as told by French students.

Math:

We are working on 4 this week. We will be decomposing and composing (adding) numbers within 4.

Art:

  • This week, we will focus on orange – pronounced: o-rhonge.

  • We’ll be making a hat on Thursday, using the little mouse (Souris chérie) in our book as inspiration.

Comptine:

  • Fais dodo. Download it here via Dropbox.

  • Watch the youtube video here.

Homework explanation:

  • Work on All About Me page – it’s due Monday 9/14.

  • Read for 20 minutes daily. E-books and/or books at home - find the e-book on Google Classroom with your student's account information.

  • Sign the behavior log

Encouraged, but optional homework:

  • Practice writing on the laminated page. Your child can erase it as soon as you have checked it.

  • On the lines with the squares, practice writing “C’est” and use one of our vocabulary words to make a sentence: Ex: C’est une orange. Try using one or 2 different vocabulary words each day. They can draw a picture to accompany their sentence(s). To have extra fun, use the structure “Je suis…” and let them use a vocabulary word with it. They have a lot of fun saying “Je suis un ogre.” “Je suis une orange.” etc.

  • Have your students count - anything. Most of them are able to count at least up to 10 by rote in French.

Reminders:

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

  • Library time is Tuesday at 8:30. Please bring the book back in the 2-gallon ziploc bag.

  • Remind your students to use the restroom before lining up, during recess, and lunch time.

  • Please make sure your child has a bottle of water. A hat is optional.

  • All About Me page is due Monday, September 14.