We're experts at "going with the flow" :) - Nov. 29

While today started out as just any other day, a few changes snuck in on us. 

We started the morning with a little bit of Mindfulness with Mme Annie.  This was her third visit.  So far we learned about mindful listening, mindful breathing and today about thoughtfulness (being able to change how we feel by thinking about someone who is nice and kind to us or someone who makes us happy.)

We then did some quiet reading followed by our Math quiz.  We also started talking about our next math lesson in subtraction.

Following Math, we had a lovely lady Mme Suzanne visiting our classroom all the way from Quebec to read to us in French.  We loved listening to her read Le Petit Prince.

After recess, we went to the Library and had our French spelling test.  We wrapped up the morning by organizing our things a little to make things nice for when our parents come and visit for Parent - Teacher conferences. 

After lunch, we did some Raz-Kids, did our weekly recycling of the whole school, wrote our English spelling test, organized our desks and wrapped up the day with our Sharing circle.

Our Christmas tree has grown today by one more egg container.  Please continue to help us grow it by sending in your empty egg cartons.  We will be painting them as soon as we have more and we will recycle them after Christmas.

You can still book a Parent Teacher Conference through this site if you have not done so already: https://stgerard.schoolsoft.com/login.jsf

Homework:

- Raz-kids French books (Assignment  Nov. 26-30) - due Dec. 2

- Math homework - Thursday, Friday - semaine 11 - all due Dec. 3

- English homework - Thursday, Friday - week 5 - all due Dec. 3

(Please tell the kids to check their work as sometimes careless mistakes end up costing more than they should.)

REMINDER:

- NO SCHOOL TOMORROW!

CHRISTMAS CONCERT:
- The Christmas Concert will take place on Dec. 18 @ 6:30 PM 

Important Upcoming Dates:

• Friday, November 30
• Parent Teacher Conferences - NO SCHOOL

Have a Wonderful Weekend!

Just a regular day - Nov. 28

Today was just a regular day.  We had no birthdays to celebrate, no one to say goodbye to, and no visitors.  We got lots of work done though.

We started the day with typing (Dyctalographie) followed by Math.  In Math we focused on finishing lessons 5, 6, and 7 before we start doing subtractions.  We also did some quick math addition pages.  This will have prepared us for the quiz tomorrow.  The students worked so well that Mme Melendy and I hardly had anything to do and even had time to joke with the students.  :)

After recess, in French, we continued our work on the déterminants and we actually finished all the different types.  We talked about the fact that taking notes on these subjects not only helps with note-taking skills but secretly helps us with our spelling and even with our reading skills by recognizing how certain words are written as they have to be read at least three times just to have them in our notebook (1st on the board, second when writing it down, and 3rd when finished to check if it was written correctly.)

We wrapped up the morning with Religion and we started talking about the 7 sacraments.  We will continue talking about these throughout this chapter.

In the afternoon we continued to work on our research focused on the Rocky Mountains in Social Studies and we also spoke about how to find relevant and important information in a book for a research topic.  Tomorrow we will discuss in class our findings, and we will wrap up with a Google Slide.  The next region, the students will be in charge of creating the Google Slides and I look forward to working with this tool as well as a reporting tool.  Some of the students who have used it in the past are also very excited about using it as well.

Finally, we wrapped up the day with English by reading Wonder. We have changed our strategy in terms of reading and answering questions.  We now read a chapter and answer the questions, then we read another and answer the questions.  This way the information is fresh in our minds and we are better able to formulate our answers to the questions.  This seems to have worked well today.  Another change starting from the next time we read is that students who have books can also read chapters and those who don't have one but would like to read as well can borrow a book.  Eventually I am hoping to get everyone to read a little.  It takes time and courage, but I know all students can get there :).

Another thing we did today was a survey or we could really call it a vote too.  The survey was around whether we would like our desks in groups or in rows for the next re-arrangement in December.  The results of the vote will be revealed on Monday after the long weekend.

Our Christmas tree has not grown today, but we all need some rest from growing I guess :).  Please continue to help us grow it by sending in your empty egg cartons.  We will be painting them as soon as we have more and we will recycle them after Christmas.

You can still book a Parent Teacher Conference through this site if you have not done so already: https://stgerard.schoolsoft.com/login.jsf

Homework:

- Raz-kids French books (Assignment  Nov. 26-30) - due Dec. 2

- Math homework - Wednesday - semaine 11 - all due Dec. 3

- English homework - Wednesday - week 5 - all due Dec. 3

(Please tell the kids to check their work as sometimes careless mistakes end up costing more than they should.)

- Practice Words of the week; Mots de la semaine; Phrases en Français for Thursday Nov. 29 

REMINDER:

- Spelling tests tomorrow (English, French (words + phrases)

- Math quiz tomorrow (mental math additions)

CHRISTMAS CONCERT:
- The Christmas Concert will take place on Dec. 18 @ 6:30 PM 

Important Upcoming Dates:

• Thursday, November 29
• Sammy's Pizza
• Math Quiz (Mental math additions)
• Spelling Tests (French words, English words and Étude de la phrase)
• Parent Teacher Conferences (4:00 PM - 7:00 PM)
• Friday, November 30
• Parent Teacher Conferences - NO SCHOOL

Have a Wonderful Evening!

A Happy Day and a Sad Day all in one - Nov. 27

Today we not only celebrated a birthday (a round 10, the first in our class) but we also had to say goodbye to a sweet classmate of ours.  So after singing Happy Birthday to Scarlet we had to give our hugs and goodbyes to Katerina.  We will miss you Katerina more than you will ever know.  You are embarking on an amazing adventure and we hope that you only find treasure and happiness along the way.  The class will not be the same without you.  😢  We hope our little messages will be of comfort to you and will bring you back fond memories of us.

A big Thank you to Scarlet's mom for the beautiful sticks with fruit and marshmallows as well as Katerina's mom for the beautiful Christmas cupcakes.

Before the happiness and sadness though, we did some work too.  We started with reading and I am please to say that I see more and more French books during our morning reading time.

We then followed it up with some math work on Mathletics.  If you have some time, the students are encouraged to work on the Patterns section in Mathletics as we have now moved onto numbers and it would be good to get extra practice in the areas we are working on.  All the information to access Mathletics can be found in the Agendas.

After Mathletics we practiced our Christmas song again and I have to say I was impressed how quickly we learned the sign language for the first few lines of the song.  As Stephen said: "This will be quite the performance." :)  Here's the video again to practice at home too.

Here is the French song as well (Mon beau sapin):

We wrapped up the morning with a little bit of Le Petit Prince and helping out with our Grade 1 buddies.  Today we helped with Prodigy and some students were really good with this tool too. :) 

The afternoon we started with working on our Social Studies notes on Les Montagnes Rocheuses.  We will be wrapping these up this week and we will start sharing our findings as well as talk a little bit more about good note-taking strategies for when we are reading textbooks.  It is an important skill that will be useful for many years to come.

Certificats de Bravo!

Today was a special day as well, as during Hymn Sing several students got recognized for the great work they are doing in school and for being excellent role models.  Today three got recognized from our class: Scarlet, James and Katerina.  Don't forget to congratulate them.  I am always keeping an eye out for things that students can be recognized for and I am sure more will be coming in future Hymn Sings :).

We also had a visitor in class today who kind of took over my job.  His name was Bun-Bun and he became the teacher today.  I am not sure he is fit though as he did many silly things including stealing my snack and sitting on my purse.  We'll have to reconsider his employment in our class.  😋

Our Christmas tree has continued to grow.  We now have five egg cartons and one even came in green.  Please continue to help us grow it by sending in your empty egg cartons.  We will be painting them as soon as we have more and we will recycle them after Christmas.

You can still book a Parent Teacher Conference through this site if you have not done so already: https://stgerard.schoolsoft.com/login.jsf

Homework:

- Raz-kids French books (Assignment  Nov. 26-30) - due Dec. 2

- Math homework - Tuesday - semaine 11 - all due Dec. 3

- English homework - Tuesday - week 5 - all due Dec. 3

(Please tell the kids to check their work as sometimes careless mistakes end up costing more than they should.)

- Practice Words of the week; Mots de la semaine; Phrases en Français for Thursday Nov. 29

CHRISTMAS CONCERT:
- The Christmas Concert will take place on Dec. 18 @ 6:30 PM 

- See links to videos above for our songs.  I also distributed a sheet with the lyrics to the songs.

Important Upcoming Dates:

• Thursday, November 29
• Sammy's Pizza
• Math Quiz (Mental math additions)
• Spelling Tests (French words, English words and Étude de la phrase)
• Thursday, November 29
• Parent Teacher Conferences (4:00 PM - 7:00 PM)
• Friday, November 30
• Parent Teacher Conferences - NO SCHOOL

A MESSAGE FOR SCARLET & KATERINA 

FROM ALL OF US ...

When the day feels like it was just 30 seconds long - Nov. 26

As Stephen said today, the day went by so fast that it felt like it was 30 seconds.  I hope that it was because it was either busy or fun or maybe, I dare to dream, both. 😁 Though, there was a fair bit more chatting today than usual, so I asked everyone to send back to school tomorrow the kids I know I have, not the ones that talk too much and out of place :)

Aside from the talking, we did accomplish quite a bit today.  We started with the sharing circle and then went into Math.  We did some math addition drills using 4 digit numbers and then we started learning our Christmas concert songs.  See below for more information on the Christmas Concert.  A few more details will be added and an email will be sent out soon too.

After the morning recess, we had our first attempt at Journal writing in French.  I gave everyone a rubric so they can measure how well they are doing as they are writing.  The topic was "What I did this weekend."  We will be writing in our Journals every week.  We will use these to check our spelling, grammar and improve on our ability to write nice clean sentences.

In the afternoon we worked in groups to fill in our research diagram on "Les Montagnes Rocheuses".  We will be sharing our findings with the rest of the class end of this week and early next week.

Finally, we wrapped up the day with reading Wonder.

Our Christmas tree has also started growing.  We now have three egg cartons.  Please help us grow it by sending in your empty egg cartons.  We will be painting them as soon as we have more and we will recycle them after Christmas.

You can book a Parent Teacher Conference through this site if you have not done so already: https://stgerard.schoolsoft.com/login.jsf

Homework:

- Raz-kids French books (Assignment  Nov. 26-30) - due Dec. 2

- Math homework - Monday - semaine 11 - all due Dec. 3

- English homework - Monday - week 5 - all due Dec. 3

(Please tell the kids to check their work as sometimes careless mistakes end up costing more than they should.)

- Practice Words of the week; Mots de la semaine; Phrases en Français for Thursday Nov. 29

CHRISTMAS CONCERT:
- The Christmas Concert will take place on Dec. 18 @ 6:30 PM 

- Our French song will be "Mon beau sapin" - more details around this one and lyrics coming soon.  The version we will sing can be found here:

- Our English song will be "Silent night" but in addition to singing we will also be doing it using American Sign Language.  The students will be wearing a black or dark outfit and white gloves (I am looking for white gloves, so if you have any, don't put them away yet, and if you know where I could find some, give me a shout :)).  Again, details are being ironed out, but here is the video we are using to learn the song.  We will sing two verses.

(The signs are done really nice and slow and we will practice in class.  We do know a few lines already and we simply need to practice everything together once we learn all the signs.  Please don't hesitate to practice at home (or let your children practice) as that will help build their confidence.)

Important Upcoming Dates:

• Tuesday, November 27
• Katerina's last day with us :(
• Thursday, November 29
• Sammy's Pizza
• Math Quiz (Mental math additions)
• Spelling Tests (French words, English words and Étude de la phrase)
• Thursday, November 29
• Parent Teacher Conferences (4:00 PM - 7:00 PM)
• Friday, November 30
• Parent Teacher Conferences - NO SCHOOL

HAVE  A WONDERFUL EVENING!

Perseverance is key - Nov 23

Today we had to handle a bit of adversity in the classroom, but we rose to the challenge.  Our heater got a little loud and was not doing an extremely good job at heating the classroom, but we still were able to do work and learned a great deal too.

We started the morning with a sharing circle and then did Math on Mathletics.  We are getting better at answering the questions, however, we still need to work on reading them well and knowing what is being asked of us.  In our rush to get things done, we forget to slow down and read carefully and understand fully.

In music we looked at the Christmas song we will be doing and practiced our recorder a little more.  With background noise from the heater it was a challenge, but no-one can face challenges like us :).  Again, more details coming soon for the Christmas Concert.  Just a few more minor details to iron out.

After the morning recess, we did Raz-kids and then had a short Gym.  After lunch we looked at a Bill Nye the Science guy video on Simple Machines.  I was very surprised to see how much kids still love Bill :).  After the video we went to the library to read quietly and also to explore simple machines in a different setting.

 After the final recess, we wrapped up with Gym.  What a busy week.

Our Christmas tree has also now been planted.  Please help us grow it by sending in your empty egg cartons.  We will recycle them after Christmas.

IMPORTANT:

Report Cards went home today.  Please make sure you check your child's Agenda.

You can book a Parent Teacher Conference starting on Saturday November 24th @ 8:00 AM

You can access the Conference Manager through this site: https://stgerard.schoolsoft.com/login.jsf

Homework and quizzes: I have a number of homework assignments and quizzes that I have not yet sent home with the students as I was using these to help me with the Report Cards.  All of the marked assignments and quizzes will be returned to the students on Monday.  I will ask them to put them in their duo-tangs so parents can have a look at them during conferences.  Should you wish for your child to bring them home, please let them know and we will make sure that the duo-tangs make it home.

Rosaries:
I am also sending home the rosaries the students did this week.  These have not been blessed so please take them with you to Church the next time you go to have them blessed, if you wish.  They are absolutely beautiful.

Homework:

- Raz-kids French books (Assignment  Nov 19-23) - due Nov 25 
(New assignment has also been posted if anyone wants to read ahead)

Important Upcoming Dates:

• Monday, November 26
• Healthy Hunger
• Tuesday, November 27
• Katerina's last day with us :(
• Thursday, November 29
• Sammy's Pizza
• Math Quiz (Mental math additions)
• Spelling Tests (French words, English words and Étude de la phrase)
• Thursday, November 29
• Parent Teacher Conferences (4:00 PM - 7:00 PM)
• Friday, November 30
• Parent Teacher Conferences - NO SCHOOL

HAVE  A FABULOUS WEEKEND!

Discovering through story telling - Nov 23

Another amazing and busy day. Today we had the pleasure of having with us Melody from Teacher’s Pet to teach us about the history, traditions and culture of the Aboriginal peoples of Canada and Alberta. We learned a great deal and had lots of fun. On behalf of the entire class, I want to send out a Giant Thank You to all our volunteers: Sonia (Stephen's Mom), Mary (Max's Mom) and Mme Adrienne Melendy for their incredible patience and amazing enthusiasm.  We would have not been able to do this without YOU!  Thank you! Here are some pictures.

Although we had a fun afternoon, we still worked real hard in the morning.  We continued doing addition, estimation and comparing of large numbers in Math.  We continued working on our Si and La notes in music (combining them.)  We also did a great deal of note taking on les Déterminants in French.  I get the feeling we will soon be able to use that word on a dictée :).

During music we also talked about the songs that we will be performing at the Christmas Concert.  More details around that will be coming soon.  In preparation for Christmas, we also discussed that, in keeping with our environmentally friendly theme, we would like to create a classroom Christmas tree using egg cartons.  The corner has now been prepared.  If you have any dozen egg cartons (or smaller), please don't hesitate to send them to school with your child.  If they can paint it green at home, even better.  We will be painting the ones that are not painted in the school.  Hopefully we will have a lovely Christmas tree just in time for Christmas.  Thank you for your support.

Finally, I have to say that I love it when my students wear with pride what they learn. :)  Nice shirt Xavier.  Wish I had one of those :)

Homework:

- Raz-kids French books (Assignment  Nov 19-23) - due Nov 25

Important Upcoming Dates:

• Friday, November 23
• Progress reports go home
• Scholastic Orders Due

• Monday, November 26
• Healthy Hunger
• Thursday, November 29
• Sammy's Pizza
• Thursday, November 29
• Parent Teacher Conferences (4:00 PM - 7:00 PM)
• Friday, November 30
• Parent Teacher Conferences - NO SCHOOL

Rosaries, stamps and Google Docs - Nov 21

What a wonderful start to our day.  We had the pleasure of working with some amazing ladies learning about rosaries, making them and even learning how to pray a rosary.  This took pretty much the entire morning.  Here are some pictures.

In the afternoon we did a bit of Typing and then started learning how to take notes while reading and learning about the mountains in Social Studies.  Oh... and the brand new stamp designs are now done and out on the bulletin board.  We have some amazing stamp designers in our class for sure.

After the last recess, we continued to work on our Beakerhead stories.  Many have now finished so I'll be making correction suggestions this weekend and we will be ready to put our amazing book together next week.  I am so looking forward to seeing the finished product. :)

Many students have also started free-choice writing tasks in Google Docs.  This is an amazing opportunity to see creative writing with no restrictions.  From the feedback I got today, Google docs seems to be a favourite amongst our tools so far. :)

Homework:

- Raz-kids French books (Assignment  Nov 19-23) - due Nov 25

Important Upcoming Dates:

• Thursday, November 22
• Sammy's Pizza 
• Popcorn day
• Math Quiz
• Teacher's Pet Field Trip (1:00 - 3:00) - 1 more Volunteer needed! 
• Christmas Card submissions DUE
• Friday, November 23
• Progress reports go home
• Scholastic Orders Due

• Monday, November 26
• Healthy Hunger
• Thursday, November 29
• Sammy's Pizza
• Thursday, November 29
• Parent Teacher Conferences (4:00 PM - 7:00 PM)
• Friday, November 30
• Parent Teacher Conferences - NO SCHOOL