January 3 - January 13

Chers parents,

"Je suis l'Etoile de la semaine!" "C'est mon anniversaire!"

Welcome 2017! We are well into winter and the children are back at school and ready to learn and have fun with their friends. It's amazing to see all the changes that take place over the two weeks that we break for the holidays. In that short time, the children mature in a noticeable way!

Winter is an obvious theme to discover and explore this time of year. In Mme Brittany and Mme Corine's classes, the children have been learning lots of new winter clothing vocabulary:

Je mets des bottes (I put on boots)
Je mets mon manteau (I put on my coat)
Je mets un foulard (scarf)
Je mets un chapeau/tuque (hat/tuque)
Je mets mitaines/des gants (mittens, gloves)
Je mets un pantalon de neige (snow pants)

"I'm practicing fine motor skills"

To reinforce the new vocabulary, we have been playing games through which the children have to remember and repeat. This will continue to be something we work on while we add more winter themed vocabulary to the mix. This next week, we will talk about winter activities and learn vocabulary surrounding sports and leisure (ex. Je fais du ski, je fais un bonhomme de neige etc.).

"I'm exploring hot and cold" 

We have also continued to practice patterns by decorating an item of winter clothing or an accessory the children traced and cut. This combined math and art activity will be followed by a special snowman creation both indoors and outdoors in the coming week.

Songs are such a great way to learn languages and children in our kindergarten classes are especially excited when they get to sing something new. In the coming weeks, we will be learning "La vache a l'ecole" sung by Carmen Campagne. We all love to drink hot chocolat in the winter. But where does it come from? This song helps us discover the answer to that question in a silly way :)

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

I am making a snowman with a aerial perspective.

I am making making patterns.

 
I am writing my name in lower case.

Learning letters              

Dear Parents,

Research tells us that your child’s knowledge of letters (recognition) at the end of kindergarten is the single best predictor of first-year reading achievement. “a child who can recognize most letters with confidence will have an easier time learning about letter sounds and word spellings than a child who still has to work at remembering what is what” (Adams 43).  In other words, can your child recognize and name most of the letters of the alphabet?

There are many fun ways for you to ensure that letter recognition becomes automatic for your child:

.Teach your child to recognize and name the letters in his or her name. Having your child print his or her name and name the letters as they are printed helps to reinforce letter names.

-Have your child point to and name the letters in words they see frequently(e.g, signs, stop, go, washroom, labels).  Ask: “What is the first letter in “stop”?

-Have your child make some alphabet letters out of clay or other materiel.

-Play “fish” with alphabet letter cards.

-Make an “A” page. Have your child cut out many words from a magazine and paste them on a page to be displayed on the fridge.

-Read Alphabet Books together.

-Make alphabet cookies.

Learning the letters of the alphabet is important, and there are so many fun ways to ensure that this happens.  Make use of both intentional and spontaneous opportunities at home, in the car, on a walk.  Literacy opportunities are everywhere.  I teach it everyday, but research say that children who have those opportunities at home have a higher rate of success.

And “YES” you can do this all in English if you do not know French. Most sounds in English are the same in French except A/E/H/I/U.

Thank you for reading our blog!