Posting for Two Weeks

Last week was the first time I did not do a weekly post. It was a bit crazy in my household with a sick child and having to be away to stay at home with him. This week's post will include information on what we did last week.

First of all, the December Newsletter has been posted at the top of the blog. Please check it out for upcoming important dates. 

Last week we looked at the "t" and "u" sounds in "La tortue" and "Une mule". We began a new cycle of Reading centres. The students really enjoyed the centre where they had to use a mirror to read words written backward. They then wrote their own words backwards and had other group members read them with the mirrors. We finished up our first cycle of writing centres. They went well. 

Last week in math, the students worked on math centres that focused on 2-d shapes and 3-d solids. They are still practising basic math facts in preparation of out next math unit on 2-digit addition and subtraction. 

Mr. McLatchie's grade twos joined our class one morning last week to watch a couple of episodes of The Magic School Bus so that he could attend an important meeting at the office. 

This week the students looked at the "v" and "w" sounds in "La vache" and "Les wapitis". They learned that the French alphabet never used to contain the letter "w" and that all "w" words in French are borrowed from other languages. They were also surprised that in French, the word "wagon" is actually pronounced "vagon". Our shared reading was the poem "On dirait que l'hiver tombe". We also started having Christmas stories as read alouds. We began another cycle of writing centres and finished up our cycle of reading centres. We will be focusing more on integrating Social Studies with Language in order to cover a lot of information on the different celebrations that take place at this time of year. 

In math, we have continued to learn about 2-d shapes and 3-d solids. There is a considerable amount of terminology that they need to know in this unit so we will spend the next couple of weeks on it. We also did a couple of "Math Talks". The students are getting used to sharing what strategies they use and are learning other strategies from their peers. 

In Social Studies, the class finished learning about London, England. Today we began learning about Hanukkah and will be doing some activities around this celebration next week. 

This week, I also began a "December Report Card" for the class. The report will cover the students' behaviour and work habits over the month. They are earning stickers for each instruction block and each nutrition break. This week I did all the tracking for them but starting next week, they will be responsible for bringing their reports to me to get their stickers. The reports will go home on the 19th. The students are also completing an advent calendar where they colour an item for each day leading up to Christmas. 

We had a great walk today for the Jingle Bell Walk. It was great that so many of the students brought in food items for the Food Bank. There is still time to contribute on Monday, if you child has not yet brought something. 

Have a great weekend!