Our Weekly Blog

This week November 18-22

11/23/2019

This week we attended a WITS assembly and learned some steps to deal with conflict. WITS stands for Walk away, Ignore, Talk about it and Seek help.

Found out that each of us is a teacher and a learner (even Mme Hawtree) We learned that each of us has things we can teach to others, and we are encouraged to be teachers as well as learners.

We worked on learning our vowels. We talked about A, E, I, O. We read little books for each letter, and learned a song for each one.

We continued to played with the colors vert(green), rose(pink), violet (purple), noir (black), brun (brown)

We learned that all stories need a character and created our own characters. We also learned that even though we can't write like a grown-up yet, we can still be authors of our own stories if we use the words and letter sounds we know, and pictures to write a story.

We also went to the garden to finish putting it to bed for the winter. We had fun digging around and we even found a worm! Some of us knew some facts about worms that we shared with the class.

This week Nov 12-15

11/15/2019

This week we have been having fun with colors. We have been asking ourselves and each other questions about colors. We wonder how they are made. Why light changes what color looks like. What kinds of colors there are. We noticed that colors come in different shades (light (pale) and dark (fonce). We mixed colors to see what kinds of discoveries we could me. Some of us learned that mixing red and white together made pink. We also learned the primary colors (rouge, jaune, bleu) can be used to make other colors. We wrote a little book about the primary colors and we are practicing writing and reading our color words. Rouge, Jaune, Bleu, Orange. We have also been practicing our graphing skills and counting skills to figure out how many of us wore the color of the day. We are getting pretty good at saying "Je porte du...." I am wearing (red, yellow etc.)

We have starting shifting our focus when looking at letters. We know that all letters have names and that they make a sound. We are working on learning the sounds that letters make. We learned that when we know the sounds of letters we can start to read words. We practiced with these little syllables... le, la , li, lo, lu and je, ja, ji, jo, ju.

In preparation for story workshop we read the book "Ish" We learned that when we write and draw, as a beginner things don't have to be perfect... they can be ish. For example if I draw a car it might not look exactly like the car in my brain but it is cari-sh. Or if I try and write a word, it might not be exactly how grown-ups write them but they are word-ish.

November 3-8

11/9/2019

Our guiding question this week was "C'est quoi la paix?"
What is peace. We read some books, and learned some songs about peace. We talked about les coquelicots (poppies) as a symbol of peace. We thought about what peace might mean.
We thought peace might be:
Hugs, friends, getting along, being kind, being funny, superheros, taking care of each other, listening, caring, helping each other.

During centers we have been having fun with our puppet center. Students have been making tickets, taking food orders and performing for each other. Some students have been having fun with our building center, creating rockets, cars and flying objects.

We are also having fun with our oral language games. We are getting better at saying things we like (j'aime) and we are working on learning some action words. Je saute (I jump), je cours (I run), je danse (I dance), je marche ( walk), je joue ( I play) je tombe ( I fall)

This week we also had some Westside Warriors come to visit and read us some stories and we had our Remembrance day assembly. We also had a great virtual field trip and learned about bears and we learned what un auteur (author) and un illustrateur (illustrator) are. Many of us are excited to start writing stories and make books.

This week. October 27-November 1

11/1/2019

What a wonderful week. We had a whole bunch of fun at the Pumpkin patch on Monday.

On Tuesday we carved pumpkins with our big buddies.

On Wednesday we invited the whole school to visit our pumpkin path. We made and handed out tickets, Counted out pumpkin seeds and handed them out and we collected over 200 lbs of food for the food bank.

Thursday we had fun with Halloween centers, music, a Halloween parade around the school and we did a great job performing for the grandparents at Westwood.

We are continuing to make a book a day for our friends in the classroom. We are beginning to connect numbers, quantities and the written number. We are practicing seeing, and recreating patterns. We are also learning the letter names, and sounds. We are starting to use the French words we know to communicate.

Here are something we are working on now.

I can understand simple instructions in French.
I can use the French I know to communicate with others.
I can count to 10 in French.
I can say the letters in my name.
I can write my name using upper and lowercase letters.
I can connect numbers to groups of objects.
I can ask questions about what I am learning.
I can use my imagination to create new things.
I get ideas from others.
I am a communicator who listens and shares my ideas.
I get ideas when I play.
I can keep trying even when things are tricky.
I can resolve simple conflicts with others.

This week in October 14-18

10/19/2019

This week Oct 7-10

10/11/2019

The farm, the Royal Victoria Museum and a walk in the wind. We had a very busy short week.

On Monday we went for a walk in the wind to see if we could find any signs of fall yet. We collected some leaves and other nature objects and went back to class to see how we could use them to create art work.

On Tuesday it was Dot Day. We learned that even though we don't always feel like we are good artists, or writers, or climbers if we make a start, try it and see were it takes us we can make and do wonderful things. We had lots of fun painting a dot painting too. They are posted in the hallway outside out classroom.

We had our first virtual field trips this year and learned how some Indigenous people used the plants and animal to make their lives better. We saw a pit house and lots of different animal carvings.

We are continuing to work on learning our letters. Some of us are working on learning to write the letters in our names. We are learning to write the special person's name everyday. We have been making them a special book with a picture of them in it. We also worked on learning to print the letters A and B this week. We are working on remembering that when we write our letters we start at the top. We are also working on remembering the name and sound of each letter. In math we are counting to 10 and sorting objects.

We are working on learning feeling vocabulary (triste (sad), content (happy) , fâche (mad) calme) and the seasons automne, hiver, printemps, été . We also learned a new song gratitude song. Our school theme this year is about gratitude. We drew a gratitude tree and thought about all the things we that we were grateful for.

Merci, merci pour ma famille (thanks for my family)
Merci, merci pour mes amis (thanks for my friends)
Pour le pain et les fruit aussi (for bread and fruit too)
Merci, merci, merci, merci (thank you, thank you, thank you)

We had a great visit to Paynter's market this week. It was fun to see the Alpacas and eat an apple straight from the trees.
We also picked and tasted Kale and parsley. We learned that different kinds of fruit trees have different leaves.

This week Sept 30-Oct

10/5/2019

This week we learned that les caméléons (chameleons) are really cool creatures. They can change colors, have very long tongues (la langue) and their eyes can look in two directions at once. We also got a new stuffed chameleon friend for our classroom. They class decided to name him arc-en-ciel (rainbow).

We started to explore sorting this week. We learned that we can put items into groups based on rules that we create or that are given to us. We played some sorting games, and practiced sorting things during centers.

We are also playing with loose parts and creating interesting designs. We are starting to notice patterns around us and trying to create them ourselves.

We are getting pretty good a singing our days of the week song and we are working hard to learn the months of the year too.

We are continuing to practice building, recognizing, printing and saying some of the letters of the alphabet. We know the letters F, E, P and B. We are also playing with the letters in our names. Our goal is to learn to write our names using upper and lower case letters. We are working on making sure we start at the top when we write our letters. We are also learning to sing the Alphabet in French.

This week September 16-20

9/21/2019

This week we are continuing to learn routines, new French vocabulary and we are learning how to work together. We are working hard on keeping our hands, feet and body to ourselves.

We are all learning to say the first letter and sound of the first letter of our name in French. We are working on working on writing our name using upper and lowercase letters.

We learned that if we get good at drawing lines and curves we can write any letter and draw anything we want. We practiced by drawing a few pictures together.

We had our first fire drill this week. We learned how to get out of our school safely.

We are learning animal vocabulary this week and continuing to learn our colors, classroom instructions and conversation responses.

We started to talk about the seasons. We learned that it is still summer (été) but that fall (automne) is coming very soon.

This week September 11-14

9/14/2019

What a great start to the year! Pat le chat (Pete the cat) came to visit on the first day. We read his School Shoe story and then went on a hunt around the school to find him. We spent some time practicing school routines and we got to play with many things in Mme Hawtree's classroom. We even got to have a disco dance party! We also read "J'adore mes souliers blanc."

We are working on learning some color words in French.
Rouge (red) Bleu (blue) Jaune (yellow) Vert (green) Violet (purple) Noir (black) Rose (pink)
We are also learning how to introduce ourselves, say hello, goodbye and respond to the question "how are you".

Some of our learning goals:
I can write my name so others can read it.
I can recognize my name.
I can understand simple classroom instructions in French.
I can share.
I can follow classroom rules.
I can play safely with others.
I can keep my hands feet and body to myself.

Welcome to la Maternelle!

8/29/2019

On this blog you will find weekly updates to let you know what we are learning. You will also get links to videos and activities you can watch or do with your child.

Please check back every week to see what is new.