Monday 30 September 2013

October newsletter


Chers parents,

I hope you had a good weekend and enjoyed the sunshine.  Thank you to the parents who joined us for our walk to the pow-wow.  We greatly enjoyed the experience.  As we go into October we are working on new themes and new vocabulary.  We will be doing colour days: les jours de couleurs.  On colour days I ask that students dress in the chosen colour.  They can also bring something that is the chosen colour for gluing on a poster representing that colour.  (Please do not buy new things or clothing for these colour days).  On your child’s special day we will be filling out a fall favourite sheet that they can present and the children can ask questions. We will be walking to Pooh Corner at Frances Morrison Library soon.  Please keep the calendar where you can easily refer to these dates. On Halloween we will be having a parade—un défilé throughout the school.  Please no gory costumes or weapons. 

*Did you know that the word costume in French means a suit?  For play/ dress-up like a Halloween costume we say un déguisement
We are also starting our MIMI poster, (Modèle Inductive de mots and images). 
See previous post below.

Colour days and days to note:
vendredi le 4 octobre: rouge (red)
lundi le 7 octobre: vert (green)
mardi le 8 octobre: jaune
mercredi le 9 octobre: bleu
jeudi le 10 octobre LES PHOTOS (picture day)
vendredi le 11 octobre: pas d'école (no school PD day)
lundi 14 octobre: L'action de grâce (Thanksgiving)
mardi le 15 octobre: violet ou gris (purple or grey)
mercredi le 16 octobre: rose (for those who do not have pink this can be red or peach)
jeudi le 17 octobre: brun
vendredi le 18 octobre: orange (orange and trip to Pooh Corner)
lundi le 21 octobre: noir et blanc (black and/or white)
mardi le 22 octobre: arc en ciel (rainbow)

MIMI poster: Notre classe


Here is our MIMI poster entitled: Notre classe.
The students voted on that title and helped choose the words for our focus.  We have begun discussing parts of words and their sounds: "ch" in les chaussures sounds like "sh" in English; au sounds like "oh"  We have also begun to discuss syllables/beats in words.  Here is a list of those words:

Notre classe
Pierre le Panda
une fille
un garçon
les livres
le coin d'amis
les amis
les chaussures
le parc
le calendrier
les nombres
un, une
le, la, les

? --une question   <<Qu'est-ce que j'apprends?>>  What am I learning?  We have had discussions about what a question is and how it is different from a statement. 

Friday 27 September 2013

POW-WOW

The sun starting shining and we got to be there for the Grand Entrance. It was a wonderful opportunity to learn about pow-wows.  We also partcipated in an intertribal dance.  The regalia was beautiful.  The drumming groups were very good.  Thank you to parent volunteers who came and helped. 









Thursday 26 September 2013

Before pow-wow

We had a visit from Henry today.  We shared with us about the drum and pow-wow. 
HI-HI!  Merci!

Wednesday 25 September 2013

J'aime l'école!

The booklets the students made went home today.  Each page is about your child.  They were proud of their books and were eager to read them during reading time.  We are also excited to have a First Nations traditional knowledge keeper coming tomorrow to speak to us about PowWows.  Thank you to Mme McCrea for arranging this visit!  We are looking forward to the PowWow.  If you are in the hall you will also notice the work the children did on their drawings of themselves (with their hands and feet traced).  I did a short interview with them to ask them what they liked and added that to the drawing.  Some had quite the list!  We have begun adding words to our MIMI poster.  Our title: "Notre classe" was decided upon after a vote.   We focused on the words: "les chaussures" today.
Stay posted for pictures and words coming home soon.



Friday 20 September 2013

Terry Fox

As a morning class we don't always get to take part in the whole school activities that take place in the afternoon.  Therefore this morning Mme McCrea's class and our class had our own Terry Fox activity planned.  Mme McCrea's class came and we watched a five minute video about Terry Fox.  Most students knew about the run but many did not know who Terry was. We followed up by doing our own run outside in the field.  Doing as many "aller, retour" runs as possible.  They did very well and ran very hard.   I was proud of their positive spirit as they ran.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZF8k8hpyp_A

Thank you also to all who came for the Meet the Staff night September 18th.  It was wonderful to meet many of you and for your children to show you a little about who and what they know! 

As you can see we are practicing upper and lower case letters in printing our names.  We are also talking about colours.  Next month we will do a focus on colours.  Stay tuned for the "J'aime l'école" booklets,  about themselves.

Tuesday 17 September 2013

Library book exchange days


Mardi le 17 septembre 2013

Chers parents,

Today your child will be bringing home books from the school library.  Each student may take out up to two books: one in French and one in English.  The expectation is that books will be returned once a week—on Tuesdays.  We hope that you enjoy this reading time at home.  Please treat the books with care and return them in the back pack or dossier so that your child can take out one on exchange days.

Merci!

Mme Wallace

Did you know that library is bibiothèque in French and that a bookstore is called une librairie?

Monday 16 September 2013

What am I learning? Qu'est-ce que j'apprends?

Some of you may be wondering just what your child is learning.  I hope that you have already had some of conversations around what goes on in class and at school.  The alphabet in French is an important focus we will have all year.  It is foundational to learning in French and we do a lot of alphabet work.  We have begun working on workbooks, les cahiers, where we work on letter formation, spacing and upper case and lower case letters.  We also are learning things about ourselves: how we introduce ourselves, how to describe ourselves, what age we are and what colour we like.  And we are making books that describe ourselves.

In math we started work on recognizing and creating patterns that we see around us.
We are also learning terminology like how to ask for things in French and what a question is.
Socially we are learning what good listening looks like and what respect looks like.

As your children learn more I hope that you feel you are also learning along with them.  Thank you for being a part of this learning journey.  Ensemble on apprend--BEAUCOUP!

Thursday 12 September 2013


Chers parents,

We have had a great 5 days of school!  The children have been learning and adjusting to school routines.  We have begun our focus on our theme: C’est MOI!   We have also been focused on learning the alphabet in French.  We are looking forward to all the fun we will have learning together.

A fun part of our school is its proximity to wonderful events and places to visit.   We will take a short walk to Oskayak High School for a pow wow.  If you would like to join us we will need two parent volunteers.  We will not stay for the entire program but we would like to take part in this opportunity.*

In October, we will be walking to Frances Morrison Library (Pooh Corner) for an interactive story time.   Please join us if you can.*

Thank you for all your support and for the great start to our 2013-14 school year

Merci pour votre soutien!

Mme Jennifer Wallace
 
*please check the newsletters sent home for dates and details of these trips.  Thank you!

Wednesday 4 September 2013

Qui suis-je?



C'est la rentrée--It's back to school.  For our kindergarten students however we say:
"Bienvenue!"  So happy you are here and we are starting a new year.  You can come here to receive updates and keep up with what we are doing in class.  There are also some wonderful links that you can connect with.  I will continue to have newsletters but this is another great tool.  Hope you enjoy.

Our theme this month is MOI--All about me.  *Please remember to have your child bring a baby photo for his or her special day.  Check the calendar I sent home in your child's dossier.  Unfortunately we cannot fit everyone in the month of September so there will be a few in October.
Guess who the first two babies are...
The smallest photo is a kindergarten photo. 

(*Please note this is a public blog and I will avoid putting photos of individual children--with the exception of these two vintage photos above. You can visit my old blog www.lamagiedelamaternelle.blogspot.com to see an example. )

First newsletter


September 4th 2013

Chers parents,

Bonjour et bienvenue à la maternelle! Welcome to kindergarten! This is an exciting time for kindergarten students and their families. I look forward to getting to know you and your children better. Let me introduce myself:

My name is Jennifer Wallace. I first came to École Victoria and the beginning of January 2009 following a maternity leave from teaching French Immersion Kindergarten at École Rivers Heights School. I am very pleased to be working in this community and have a child who is also attending here.  We have wonderful staff and students at École Victoria and I am glad that I am a part of this school.   I am excited about starting this year.

I hope you will find the following information about classroom procedures helpful:

BELONGINGS: Please label all your child's belongings that come to school including sweaters, hats, mitts, jackets, knapsacks and especially runners and boots.  Please send shoes that have velcro rather than lace-ups.  This makes getting in and out for recess much easier.

ARRIVAL AND DEPARTURE: If you are dropping off or picking up your child, please use the front entrance. If you arrive early for the start of class the expectation is that students wait outside on the supervised playground until the bell has gone.

If your child takes the bus, please remember to contact your child's bus driver if he or she does not need transportation on a certain day. We will be sure that all bus students are safely on the bus at the end of the kindergarten day. Please let me know in a note as well if there are changes.

ABSENCES: If your child will not be attending school or if there is any change in the normal routine, please call the school to let us know.

BIRTHDAYS: If your child is having a birthday and you wish to send a snack for the class, please let me know in advance. Children with summer birthdays may wish to celebrate their "half birthday" (i.e. July 16th= January 16th). Please send a note in advance so that time can be set aside on that day. *It is very important to let me know if your child has allergies so that others parents and teachers can be made aware of this. Please do not send snacks or treats containing nuts or nut products.*

SNACKS: Your child should bring a small nutritious snack to school. Some suggestions include apple slices (half is usually plenty) or other fruit, a piece of cheese, crackers, carrot sticks, raisins, an oatmeal cookie, granola bar or a small muffin. For drinks, please send water bottles.  If you wish to send juice, please use a reusable Rubbermaid drink box or other similar spill-proof drink box.

COMMUNICATION: Your child’s two-pocket folder or “dossier” which will be used as the primary method of communication between home and school. Please check your child's dossier each day and remove everything from the right-hand pocket. For example, a t-shirt letter will be sent home with this letter to indicate your child's upcoming special day. If you wish to return forms or send a note/letter for our attention, please place them in the right-hand pocket. Please return the dossier to your child's backpack each day. I can also be contacted by e-mail: wallacej@spsd.sk.ca We will also have a classroom blog that I will send the web address in a newsletter.

At the beginning of each month your child will receive a class calendar and newsletter. If you have any questions or concerns, please call the school. If I am not available at the time of your call, I will return your call as soon as possible. Good communication from home and school is an essential part of any successful classroom!

PARENT VOLUNTEERS: I always welcome parent involvement. Volunteers are especially needed on out of school excursions.   I will inform parents as soon as possible of outings.  If you have a project, cultural experience, a special talent or a story, please feel free to come and share that with our kindergarten class.  I am also looking for a parent to act as room parent for our Home and School Association. Please let me know if you are interested in this position.

LITERACY FOR LIFE: We have received extensive training for our Literacy for Life initiative. This includes a program called PWIM(Picture Word Inductive Model) or MIMI (Méthode Inductive de Mots Illustrés). MIMI and phonics strategies are integrated into our program in learning the alphabet and learning to read. In addition to MIMI, I encourage students to read at home, (or be read to) on a daily basis. In kindergarten, a child who reads a book in his or her own way (by memory, inventive storytelling, along with pictures…) can also count as a book read. I encourage parents to try reading with your child for 20 minutes at home each day.

 MEET THE TEACHER NIGHT: Wednesday September 18th—Welcome Back—Meet the Staff Evening.  I am truly looking forward to greeting you on this evening.  Please have your son or daughter introduce you if they haven’t already done so! 

 

THIS MONTH the two themes we will focus on are: C’est moi! (All About Me) and Les couleurs (Colours).  On the calendar is your child’s special day—on which he or she can bring a baby photo.  For the colour days children can wear the designated colour on that day.  We are hoping to go on a walking field trip to Pooh Corner at Frances Morrison Library soon.  If you would like to join us as a parent volunteer please let me know.  Thank you and I look forward to the days ahead!  Bonne Rentrée!

Sincèrement,

Votre enseignante de la maternelle,    Mme Jennifer Wallace