October 10th and 24thth

In Madame Corine's and Madame Britanny's class:

Bonjour chers Parents,

Literacy:

I introduced  the letter T and M.   Here are a few examples of literacy centers they worked on this week: 

 I am learning to write by starting at the top. 

 I am using my body to create a letter.

I am creating a letter and making my fingers stronger.

I am learning to make letters with blocks.

Math:

We are continuing to work on the sequence 1 to 5.  The children are learning to subitize. Subitizing is a method of determining how many are in a group without specifically counting each item.  I commonly use dice, cards, plates with dots and dominos to teach them the strategy.  It is something that we do on a daily base.  It is a valuable skill for success in mathematics.  Later, they learn to subtilize “conceptually”, for example, seeing 5 as 2 and 2 and 1.

     

I am creating an ABC pattern using the color "rouge", "jaune", "vert".

My buddy and I are putting the pumpkin cycle in the right order (sequencing).














With Halloween coming up very soon, our students have been learning a very famous song and are loving it! 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sYfmQ5eAQlg

Dear parents, 

In Mme Brittany’s class:

We have been focusing on leaves. On the first day of fall, the students were asked what they knew about the season. There were some really insightful answers and many knew fall was the month for Halloween, but what kept coming up were leaves. Jumping in leaves, red leaves, leaves falling from the trees. These young students are well aware of the world around them! After going on a nature walk in our school courtyard looking for signs of fall, some students began to bring leaves they had found at home and they excitedly added them to our science table to study with magnifying glasses. In this way, the students of Rm. 27 were really showing their enthusiasm for the changing season.

On the French side, the students learned the colours “rouge”, “orange”, “vert”, ‘brun” and “jaune” and they have really enjoyed singing the song “C’est l’automne” which incorporates the use of the colours of fall. Looking ahead, we will add to this list of colours but for now, they are making the connection between the signs of fall and the ones we are learning to pronounce. All of this leaf exploration has culminated in an art project titled “les arbres de l’automne”. They diligently worked, using precision and fine motor skills to bring the fall forest to life.

Next week, our class will start a unit on pumpkins! We will look at the life cycle of a pumpkin, vocabulary surrounding it, complete math activities along this same theme and of course, an art project as we lead up to Halloween! 

On the literacy side, students have been learning about the letter "S" and this week, the letter "A". It's so interesting to see how the kids can easily recognize the capital letters as well as finding them much easier to write. I noticed that with the lower case "a" it was a little bit more of a challenge to print. Aside from simply writing out the letters, the students also had the chance to create them with play-dough, paint, sand and much more while learning the pronunciation of the letter and the sound that they make. 

 

Have a great weekend!

Brittany Larochelle

                                                                

Dear Parents,

In Madame Corine's class:

It has been a very busy but fun two weeks learning about apples. Here are a few things that we have been doing: 

We sorted our apples by color and size.

We made apple juice.

In the math centers, they played a few dice games.

The children tasted three different kind of apples.  After our apple tasting we created a  graph with our names to see which apples was the most liked in the class.  It looks like the Honey Crisps apple was the winner!

We have been singing the song “Pomme des reinette et pomme d’api” on Youtube”, and Michaud et le pommier.

We will continue to talk about apples next week and maybe cook a few yummy things with the children.

We are learning the following phrases in French:

La pomme est verte.

La pomme est rouge.
La pomme est jaune.
J'aime la pomme.

We will be learning the letters "T" and "M" for the next couple of weeks.

Have a great weekend!

Literacy Link

Dear Parents,

Recent research indicates that young children generally know a great deal about literacy before entering kindergarten.  This knowledge is not aquired magically but is supported by the family, particularly by you, the parent.  Family literacy experiences before, during, and after kindergarten will make a real difference to your child’s ongoing success in learning to read and write.  In kindergarten, three major areas work together to help your child be successful: Print Awareness, Phonological Awareness, and Oral Language.  Examples for each are provided below.

Print Awareness:

-your child’s understanding of: a book, a letter, and a word

-your child’s ability to recognize the letters of the alphabet, a very important skill

– your child’s ability to print letters of the alphabet, his or her name, and a few other words

Phonological Awareness:

-your child’s ability to play with sounds, such: rhyming, blending sounds (e.g., c-at=cat) and recognizing the first sound in a word (e.g., /c/ in cat)

Oral Language:

-your child’s ability to communicate by: using sentences, joining group conversations, using appropriate vocabulary in conversation and attending to and making sense of discussions, conversations, and book readings

I will be sending you through the school year a literacy home link that will provide you with many ideas to support your child’s early literacy learnings at home.

“Enhancing children’s letter knowledge and phonological awareness skill should be a priority goal in the kindergarten classroom” (Snow 188)

Enjoy the reading!