Bonjour, les amis!
I hope that everyone enjoyed their day in Room #5. I think that, on the whole, it was a very good day, and I had a great time working with your children. :)
This morning began with Literacy-based centres, including "la vie d'une citrouille" (life cycle of a pumpkin) sequencing with the felt boards; Wiki sticks, textured 'sandpaper' letters and word strips; playdoh with letter stamps (I just purchased some new colours over the weekend, as our supply was looking a little on the brown and crumbly side!), and a 'rainbow writing' and "Bb" practice page that I designed - all of the words on the page were French vocabulary that began with the letter b. The goal was for the students to trace the letters to practice forming them, and then to write those letters on the dotted lines directly below. The students who tried this sheet did very well, and I was happy to see that some JK students were able to not only complete the "rainbow-writing" part of the page, but also took the next step and wrote the letters underneath it very well! Félicitations! :)
At around 9:30 am, the students cleaned up their centres, and we met very briefly at the tapis to discuss our gym activities. The students changed into their outdoor gear and we did some stretching, before heading outside, where we played a few different games with the parachute, inluding one with plastic balls that we made into "mais soufflé." We played a few rounds of "Quel heure est-il, Monsieur Loup," as well, and then returned to the classroom to wash our hands before the first nutritional break.
Following la collation et la recréation, we met au tapis once again and discussed "la vie d'une citrouille" (the life of the pumpkin). We read le livre, "Pumpkin, Pumpkin," by Jean Titherington before reviewing all of the steps in the life cycle of une citrouille. I asked the students to act out each step in the cycle, and they all had very creative representations to share! :) The students then visited math centres that included a reader entitled "Maria compte les citrouilles" (we read and counted the pumpkins together at this table, and then the students coloured the book to take home for extra practice); a cut and paste sequencing activity in which the students coloured diagrams of each step in the life cycle of the pumpkin and then cut and pasted them in order onto a sheet of construction paper; and two sorting tables filled with seasonal manipulatives (les araignées et les vers de terre were quite popular!) for the students to use to practice their sorting skills. Math today was followed by a baking activity! As a class we worked together to make pumpkin-chocolate chip cookies. :) I was surprised at how well these turned out... they had an almost muffin-like consistency. Hopefully you got to try a bit of the one that I sent home with the students in little zip-loc bags!
After the second nutritional break, we had a little bit of quiet time and then walked (very well, might I add!) down to la bibliothèque, where we met up with Mrs. McKerracher's class and Mme. Tovell read (in her wonderfully animated way! :)) a book called "Mister Seahorse," by Eric Carle. The students seemed to find it interesting to learn a little bit about the biology of sea creatures in this context. When the read-aloud was complete, the students were given an opportunity to check out two new books to read at home. It seems that many of them gravitate toward the graphic novels that are meant for higher grades (5-6 I'd say). I am going to see if I can possibly find some graphic-novel-type books for beginning readers in French... maybe through Scholastic. I think that these would be a great way to get some of the kids more interested in reading!
Tonight I attended a workshop as a part of the New Teacher Induction Program. I am so excited to have such a wonderful opportunity to network and to connect with people who are very experienced and knowledgeable in the areas of assessing students. I picked up a number of strategies that I hope to apply within the classroom - particularly in regards to taking better anecdotal notes and for making more effective checklists to capture what I observe going on with each student.
I look forward to seeing you on Wednesday! We are going to learn the classic song "C'est l'halloween," learn more about la lettre Bb (and review what we know so far of the French alphabet), and also practice le numéro un et deux. :)
Mlle Craig
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