Bonjour parents!

We have had an eventful few weeks recently, and the countdown until the end of the year is on!

We have been having a fantastic time exploring and learning at Forest School. Some of the students' preferred activities have been painting on tree stumps and tarps, balancing on a variety of balance beams, and creating a muddy river to connect the water tap to a large puddle nearby.

The students have been particularly interested in different insects they find in the Forest. They are enjoying collecting these in pots and observing them! Although difficult to capture on film, we were treated to a swarm of dragonflies a few weeks ago; they were circling the clearing where we gather for group discussions. It was really quite cool to see! 

We have talked about some insect vocabulary once we returned to the classroom, and were delighted this past week to find that our painted lady caterpillar had emerged as a butterfly when we returned from Forest School!

We have also been hard at work preparing for our play! We have been working hard to memorize our lines, and we have been painting the backdrop for the play.

Some reminders about upcoming dates/events:

1) Wednesday is Forest School! Please ensure your child is dressed appropriately for the weather, with long pants tucked into socks.

2) Thursday is our play, Mercy Watson! Please arrive at 2:45 (or a few minutes before) so we can begin right away. The play will be held in our classroom, room 150. *Please ask your child about any special clothing he/she is supposed to wear for the play.* Merci!

3) If you have not yet returned the permission form for the Brewer Park end-of-year field trip, please do so asap! This outing will take place on Tuesday, June 27th.

4) As you may have noticed, we are trying to collect all books (both library and classroom) for the end of the year! Please return any books belonging to Alta Vista that you may have at home.

Have a wonderful week! :)

Mme Bena

Bonjour!

We had a fantastic time last week with many exciting things taking place :)

On Tuesday, we had our first visit to Forest School! The students played in a Forest playground filled with loose parts designed to support free exploration: logs, tree stumps, buckets, pots, and pans, shovels, kitchen tools, two rope swings, and a series of tight ropes stretched between two trees.

It was so interesting seeing the creativity that emerged as the students played. At first, they ran around and tested out all of the materials. Soon, they were building ramps, catapults, climbing trees, and building a make-shift vehicle with logs as wheels.

 

We also went on a hike through the woods, where the students saw some frogs in a puddle, and later on even discovered a snake! Can you spot the frog in this picture? And the snake?

They played at "The Rocky and Mossy Place 2", doing more tree climbing and throwing rocks off a ledge to see which ones would break. We at our meals around a campfire.

It was a fantastic day! I overheard one student saying, "I wish I could stay here forever!" and another saying this was the "best field trip ever!"

We will be returning this Tuesday, so please remember to send your child in similar clothing (long pants tucked into socks, and closed shoes). Please also remember to do a "tick check" when your child returns home!


We have been working on our map of the community, adding local businesses, parks, and other landmarks. It is looking great! 

We also have some caterpillars in our classroom again! This time, we have a Painted Lady caterpillar and an Eastern Tent caterpillar. The Eastern Tent caterpillar will turn into a moth, not a butterfly! The students are really enjoying observing them and noting the many differences. Each caterpillar eats a different type of food, and they are growing at vastly different rates! This is an excellent review of our science curriculum, as we have discussed the needs of both plants and animals: in order for our caterpillars to survive, we have to ensure that all of their needs are met (proper food and water source, temperature, etc.) and that we meet the needs of the plants they feed off (sunlight, water, soil, etc.)

Important dates & reminders: 

1) I will be sending home a Scholastic book order on Monday. If you wish to order books, please return it by Thursday, June 1st. Merci!

2) Tuesday is our Forest School visit. Please remember appropriate clothing, sun screen, bug spray, and a water bottle.

3) We are working on a class play, inspired by the novel series we recently read, Mercy Watson. We will be holding the play in June. Please use the following link to vote and tell me which times would be best for you to come see our play. I will choose a date/time based on parent availability. Merci! https://doodle.com/poll/sfnrxtadzf8c7frn

Enjoy the rest of your Sunday!

Mme Bena

 Bonjour, Parents!

We had a wonderful week last week in EF1C! On Monday, we had our field trip to the fire station. Students listened to a presentation about fire safety, and were given a tour of the fire station, including the trucks! 

Thursday was Math Day at Alta Vista, where the students were placed into teams spanning several grade levels, and rotated from classroom to classroom where they participated in fun math activities!

We have been learning about features of our local community, including the roles of people within the community, buildings, and points of interest such as parks, schools, etc. 

We have been using Google Earth and Google Street View to help us go on "virtual field trips" around our community, visiting places like our school, nearby parks, Billings Bridge, etc. We also projected a large map and found each student's house on the map! 

Next, we will be making our own map and including key features of Alta Vista! Students will each make their own house and place it on the map. We will include local businesses, parks, hospitals, and more! 

I also read the students our first French chapter book, which they LOVED! We read "Mercy Watson à la rescousse!" over the last two weeks, and we have just begun another book in the series, called "Mercy Watson, princesse d'un jour!" They always beg me to read just one more chapter :)

Some upcoming dates:


- Our class will be participating in 6 full-day workshops at the Ottawa Forest & Nature School in May/June! http://childnature.ca/ottawa-forest-and-nature-school/
We will be sending home more information in the coming week, but I wanted to share the dates with you in case you are able to volunteer:

Tuesday, May 23, 2017
Tuesday, May 30, 2017
Wednesday, June 7, 2017
Wednesday, June 14, 2017
Wednesday, June 21, 2017
Wednesday, June 28, 2017

- There is an information evening on Wednesday, May 17, 2017 about what our visits to Forest School will entail. We will share the time and location soon, but I wanted to let you mark your calendars now! 
- This Friday, May 12th, is "Twin Day". Students are encouraged to dress up like a classmate! 
- May 19th is a PD day- no school for students
- May 22nd is Victoria Day- no school 
- The "Celebrate Our Heritage" Potluck dinner is coming up on May 25th. Please return the blue forms to school as soon as possible for planning purposes. 

Have a great week! 

Mme Bena

Bonjour! I hope everyone has enjoyed a lovely weekend!

Last week, we did a Spring art (& listening comprehension) activity for our classroom display. We did our first "dessin dirigé" (directed drawing) where I gave the students directions orally, and they followed these directions to make a drawing of a bunny. The directions included starting with the head in the very center of the page, adding one ear pointed straight up and one ear flopping over, adding a bow tie, and adding 6 whiskers. Afterward, they completed the drawings with some of their own ideas: flowers, grass, baskets, Easter eggs, etc. The drawings look superb in our classroom!

We have been learning about verbs over the past two weeks. We've brainstormed all the action words that we know (there are many!) and the students did simple drawings to illustrate what they mean (ex., marcher, courir, parler, etc.) 

On Friday, we started working on silly sentences! The students noticed that when we are using verbs in a sentence they do not end in 'er', for example, we don't say "Mme Bena marcher," we say "Mme Bena marche." It is incredible how many nuances they pick up just from hearing and speaking French for several months! The students were asked to write sentences, using any person or character, and any verb-- but to write the verb ending that sounded right to them. The results aren't perfect but it is a great starting point that allows me to see each student's thinking as we move toward learning some formal verb conjugations.

This week, we will be learning some songs about conjugating "être" and "avoir". Here are links to the songs, if you would like to review them at home.





Some classroom news:
1) Last week a letter was sent home about confirmation of enrollment in September. Please return this form as soon as possible so that the office can use these for planning. Thank you :)

2) We have a field trip to Pleasant Park to watch their play, the Wizard of Oz, on Wednesday April 19. Permission forms were sent home last week; please return these to school by Wednesday. If you would like to donate $1 or $2 please also send this in by Wednesday of this week.

3) The primary classes will be participating in multicultural dance workshops led by Tradansa during the last week of April. There will be a performance for parents on April 27th at 2:30pm. We hope you can make it!

Bonjour!

Sorry for the gap in posting, it has been a very busy month!! However, I have continued to take pictures of our learning and will share with you some key moments from the past few weeks :)

The students heard a wonderful music performance for Black History Month at the end of February. They greatly enjoyed hearing about the different drums used in traditional music and clapping along with the rhythms.

We have started our "atelier d'écriture" (writer's workshop) which we work on every day. The students take some time to write about any subject of their choice, with a focus on getting their thoughts down on paper-- if they are unsure how to spell a word, they are asked to sound it out, guess if they're stuck, and underline the word if they still feel that it doesn't look right. This strategy helps build independence so that students don't get "stuck" when writing because they don't know how to spell something. I do not "correct" spelling in their writing folders (however, if a student misspells a word that is on our word wall, I do ask them to go back and write it properly!) The students have been so excited to write! We then gather at the carpet and they can read their writing to the class. Over the coming weeks, they will begin to write for longer durations and branch out to different topics. Before the March break, I modeled how to choose a topic: writer's write about things they like. This week, we have been practicing zooming in on a main idea, and moving away from simply listing things we like :)

We have been talking about seasonal changes now that Spring is here (even though it still feels like Winter!) We have been discussing different types of weather, and we have done some art activities that tie into our Science focus. We did some water colour paintings of animals that are adapted to live in cold climates.

In case your child did not explain the "nuage de compliments" craft they brought home just before the break, I wanted to elaborate. First, I asked students to tell us the quality they are most proud of: what do they like most about themself? This was written on the red strip. Then we completed the rainbow with input from their classmates: they told us what makes that student special to us. Finally, each child decorated and assembled their own 'compliment cloud'. 

A few news items:

- Friday is a school Spirit Day: "Battle of the Grades". Each grade is assigned a colour to wear, and it is a competition to see which grade wears the most of that colour! For grade one students, our colour is orange!
- March Scholastic book orders were sent home this week. If you would like to place an order, please return the forms by Friday. Merci! :)
- With the fluctuating temperatures, our school yard can be quite wet at times. We had many students with wet socks earlier in the week. If you could please send your child with an extra pair (or two!) of dry socks, that would be very helpful!

Have a great night,

Mme Bena

Bonjour! We have had a busy few weeks in room 150 :)

Last week we read a story called "Je veux un monstre!" The book describes getting a monster as a pet, and talks about the many silly varieties of monsters to choose from.

The students then created their own monsters, and did a writing activity to describe their characteristics. There were some creative monsters! After they had finished writing about their monsters, they presented them to the class. We all enjoyed hearing about the many types of monsters found in the imaginations of EF1C!

This past Wednesday was La Grande Marche Hivernale/Winter Walk Day. We created some posters to help encourage students of Alta Vista to walk to school. We talked about why walking to school is important: for exercise, for the environment, for your happiness (getting fresh air and sunshine).

The whole school did a winter walk around the school yard at 9am, so that everyone could participate, including students who are bussed to school. We had a great time! 

This week we have been learning about "le jour de la marmotte"/Groundhog Day (or as some students in the class have called it, Beaver day! :)

We learned about the tradition, we discussed seasonal changes from Winter to Spring, and we made a graph showing which season we prefer. The students surveyed their classmates: Est-ce que la marmotte va voir son ombre? (Do you think the groundhog will see his shadow?) They then made an adorable "marmotte" craft. 

Some classroom news items: 

1. Because we were not able to skate yesterday due to the forecasted cold weather, we will be looking at adding some extra dates for going to the rink. M. Joachim and I will be sharing these dates soon! We will need volunteers!

2. The February Scholastic book order is due Wednesday, February 8th. If you would like to place an order, please remember to send in a cheque or pay online (no cash please).

3. We will be doing an art project next week involving oil pastels. We will try to be careful, but these can sometimes stain clothes. If possible, please don't send your child to school in their best/special/new clothing next week :) 

4. Please save the date for the upcoming Primary Concert! It will be held on Friday, February 24th from 2:30-3:30pm in the gym! 

Have a wonderful weekend! 

Mme Bena