The End of September Already?

Good evening,

Well time has been flying! Things are going very well in our class.

A reminder that there is no school this coming Friday, October 1st as it is a professional development day.

The last day to turn in Norcard money and info is tomorrow, Monday September 27th. Please send this along with your child tomorrow. 

This week I introduced an incentive program to encourage students to express themselves in French. I placed laminated 'je parle en francais' grids on each student's desk. Each time a student makes an extra effort to use French vocabulary from our words of the week, colours or numbers (not simply bonjour or merci), they will receive a sticker. On Fridays (or Thursday this week) I'll open my "store" where students can purchase items with their hard earned stickers. Items available for "purchase" include pencils, erasers, and small toys. This incentive program has worked very well for my immersion students in the past, so I hope it will have a positive impact for this group as well.

The school will be doing a Terry Fox run on the afternoon of Thursday September 30th. Students are invited to make a donation of $1 if they so choose. Donations are welcome anytime, but please have them in by Thursday at the latest.

I sent home the October menu with students on Friday. If you'd like to order milk, pizza, or hot dogs for your child, please complete the form and return it by this coming Thursday.

Homework! I did assign homework once this week, but there will be more regular homework this coming week. I will be giving students two courier bags this week. The red courier bag will be for homework, so whatever scribbler/duotang is in the red bag will contain the homework. Students will also have a gold courier bag. The gold bag will be for transporting books from school to home and back. Students will begin taking homework and reading materials home in these two courier bags on Tuesday evening of this week.

For your information, here is our schedule for specialty classes:

Day 1     Music
Day 2-    Phys. Ed.
Day 3-    Music
Day 4-    Phys. Ed.
Day 5-    Music & Computers (computer class begins in October)
Day 6-    Phys. Ed. & Library

Because I was out of the classroom at workshops for two days last week, I decided that we'd spend some more time working on patterning and we did not begin working on the next chapter in our Math book which deals with numbers from 1 - 20. However we will be starting this new chapter on Tuesday.

The words of the week this week are: voici, jour, petit, petite, pour. We'll be also be working on vocabulary related to school supplies and objects in the classroom. We'll wrap up our focus on colours with a project of making a small book about birds of various colours that will get students writing simple sentences about the colours of different birds that they will colour in their book.

Because it's a short week, we may be working on some of the same topics early next week, it just depends how the students get along with the material.

We are planning a fieldtrip to Arlington's Apple Orchard for the morning of Wednesday October 13th. I will be sending permission slips home this week. The cost is $2 per child. If anyone would like to volunteer to come along, please let me know. 

Please send in old t-shirts/button-up shirts for when we paint.  I will have a few in class, but not enough for everyone. If you have any you'd like to donate to the class, please send them along with your child.

Lastly, a word about birthday invitations. We strongly recommend that students pass out any birthday party invitations outside of school hours. 

Enjoy the rest of your weekend :)

Ellen