Winter seems to have exploded in our class!

We had a great time skating today! Everyone had big smiles on their faces, and were wonderful representatives of Douglas Annex. 

We also started a December project today. We are doing a 30 days of gratitude challenge for the month of December. It's so important to think of everything we are grateful for. I challenge you to do it at home as well! I did a 100 happy days challenge and I have to say that it made a huge difference in my own attitude and outlook on life. 

I hope everyone is ready for skating tomorrow!! Please remember booster seats for your children. 

Here is this week's dictée 

It is the chorus of the song we are learning in class. The song can be found here: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=YIPi-Zr-kzo

Happy singing!

As you hopefully saw in the agenda, there is no dictée this week. Instead, this week we are learning how to proof read our own work. On Thursday, since there is no school on Friday, we will do a proof reading célébration. 

We are using an acronym to help students remember what to look for when reading. The acronym is e-pomme. Here is a picture of what we did...feel free to use this when practicing writing at home!

Sensory play

Today, we did a full day of papier mâché and writing. It was a very busy day! I was impressed with how little mess there was on the floor, and I apologize for any mâché that came home on faces or in hair.

Watching how calm the students were while doing the art project, I was reminded of how important sensory play is. We have learned lots about it at some recent professional days, and there is endless research about how important this is for brain development. Sensory play is basically a 'buzz word' for letting kids play with their hands. It can be anything as simple as water. As a child, I remember getting to play in the sink with the leftover coffee grounds for what seemed like hours. It could be as simple as that! Squeeze balls from the dollar store, or any fidget toys works great too! As your children get older, it's so important to remember that this type of play is just as important for their development as reading and writing.

We will be making fidgets in class, and we will be talking about how to use them to help us learn, and also to help calm us down if we are feeling upset or agitated.

If you're looking for something to make at home, you can try this space-related goo! http://www.two-daloo.com/night-sky-activities-preschool-galaxy-slime-borax-free/

Happy playing!

If you have any extra newspaper at your home, please send it to school tomorrow! Thanks!

I hope everyone is staying safe, warm, and dry in this weather! 

Last week, we worked on our space book. We are almost done our pages and the kids will bring home a copy soon!  This was their informational writing project, and they have done very well! 

We will also be doing some creative writing and will be making our own planets! 

I've also sent some of the goal setting work home. There are just a few more things I have to copy!! 

Finally, here is this week's dictée: 

I hope everyone has a wonderful rememberance day, remembering in whatever way your family does. The students did an AMAZING job singing yesterday. I'll try later today to get an audio clip on here. They also wrote thank you letters to veterans that I will be delivering to a legion today. I was very impressed with the thoughtfulness and sincere words of thanks. 

I know I said I would try to have goal setting stuff out early this week, but with no preps, and our network being down (no access to files), it didn't get done.  I will hopefully have it for you by Friday!

Une Colombe

On Tuesday, we will be singing for the rememberance day assembly. Here is the song to practice this weekend!

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=cdM3bz8OOMg

Dictée

This week's dictée is made up of sentences that we spent a long time talking about yesterday. They are all phrases that French immersion students use very often that are direct translations from English. In French, we call them anglicismes. This week we will be working with these phrases quite a bit, so there is no work to be done at home.