December 20

Hello all! We made a Christmas card for you. We heard a story about David Noel. En fraçais, of course. We had music. We went outside for the morning and afternoon recesses but not the long one. Don't know why??
Yesterday we decorated our gingerbread house with our reading buddies from Mme. Hjertaas' class.

It is supposed to be minus 16 in the morning and then get colder. I am not allowed to take the kids out if it's minus 20 or colder. I got in you know what last time! I have the kitchen booked and we have a plan to decorate gingerbread peoples. We might even get to roll, bake, and decorate our own too. In the afternoon, we will eat our potluck (please bring by 12:30), play a game in the gymnasium, watch a xmas movie, eat some more, get a little gift from M. Pask, go home and drive mom and dad batty with our enthusiasm.
I will take your kids skating in the new year 4-8 times, I commit.
Ok, that's it. If I don't see you, and I will likely not blog tomorrow as I am going to virtual reality golf 18 holes at pebble beach, have a Merry Christmas and a happy New Year.
Oh yeah! The Mayan apocalypse in their calendar has arrived and we are still alive....YESSSSSSSS! Pyramids they could do, predict end of world...NO!

December 18

Hello all! I would like to take your kids skating. I would like to do this on Friday morning as I haven't had a volunteer for gingerbread dough...It is forcast to be minus 16! Could you send your kids to school with skates, cac approved skating helmet, layers of clothing. We will go before lunch if it is not colder than minus 20 with the wind chill. The school has skates and a few extra helmets. There are other classes skating at the LRC, there might not be enough! If you have friends with these items and you could borrow...?

I sent home a wintery evening Christmas scene yesterday. Today, a Christmas tree with a SUM in the star and matching coloured xmas balls connected with garland for the addition. If it doesn't come home, there was much tom foolery and it wasn't completed. 

That's all for now folks!

Three days until you have your offspring all to yourself! I can't wait to be with mine:) We will snowboard in the mountains and play billiards on our new table.

Oh my gosh

What a looooooooong week! The kids should sleep long and hard this weekend because they are tired. Of me? Of school? They need a break and there's a whole other week to go. We will have a Christmas party next Friday afternoon. On Monday I will send out an email with things for which to sign up. I am going to put everyone in the TO box, as opposed to the bcc box!!! If you don't want your email shared with the rest of the families in 2P, let me know beforehand please. I am going to make gingerbread cookies with your kids next Friday morning. If there is a mom who LIKES preparing the soft, ready to cut and bake stuff, please let me know. If not, your kids could get food poisoning!!! Hate paragraphs. We will spend much time outdoors next week too. Learning and doing is the only way to go! We might even skate on the basketball court rink too! No rest for the wicked. I go take my 14 yr old to swim club now. Kind of a selfish registration because I can swim while he does!! I haven't bought one single xmas gift yet, but for my educational assistants!! Should I be worried?

Dec 12

Great day. We played some math games on the smartboard this morning and had fun. We watched the grades 4-6 concert in the afternoon before we built graham cracker gingerbread houses with our reading buddies. We will decorate next week. Please send in a small ziploc with decorative candy for you child to finish up their house. Homework: Your child should discuss what xmas means to them and their family so that they may write about it tomorrow in class. Got to go decorate tree as I was too pooped last night. If you have a picture or three of the xmas concert, not eighty, please send them. I couldn't take any as I was making sure the actions and volume were good. I hate paragraphs. Later skaters! Oh yeah! One of my students is giving twelve gifts of xmas and I love it! Thanks. I am trying to figure it out:) On that note, I love getting gifts but please don't feel obliged to get me something. If you child is adamant, I love home-made gifts or donations on my behalf. Again, it is not necessary. My gift is being lucky enough to teach wonderful kids and get paid for it:)

Tuesday, December 11

Hello all! 1PM was concert and we rocked it! 6:45PM, you may bring your kids into the classroom. 7PM is xmas concert start time. At 8PM I will go home and decorate my tree with my boys. At 9:30PM I will go to bed. Tomorrow, I will get up and swim from 6-7. When I get to school, I will plan a day that includes an afternoon of tobogganing and then we will start to make little gingerbread houses with our reading buddies. Next week we will decorate them. If you have graham crackers lying around the cupboard and would like to send them in, perfect. If you have extra icing too, thanks. I will buy enough for everyone tomorrow at lunch.


I plan on doing something in the kitchen on the last day before xmas holidays. I will either make breakfast for the kids, or ginger bread cookies and allow them to decorate. I will let you know asap.

December 10....only 15 more sleeps!!!!!

 

 

Cold day and fresh air results in red cheeks and refreshed kids:)

Sometimes I force your kids to eat the food you give them!

The last 8 pictures are of your children reading to a friend. 

Tomorrow is Christmas concert 2012 and your child should wear pajamas and, if they have one, a robe and, if they have them, slippers. No teddies as they will need their hands for actions. The doors for the evening concert open at 6:30PM. Please keep them with you until 6:45PM. At that time the classroom doors will be open for them to come in.

Today we learned about how they celebrate Christmas/December in Czechoslovakia and Mexico. Ask them if they recall from country believes that a saint comes down from the heavens on a golden rope accompanied by an angel and a devil! Ask them where the children don't get gifts until January 6. The answers are Czech and Mexico respectively.

Hey all! We have been easing along in 2P. Working on math patterns and have tried doing some adding using number blocks of tens and ones. We did this before recess this morn. I would attach pics but...no more space?
We did visit classes and practice our xmas concert song before lunch period. I think you will all be pretty impressed by the whole ensemble of 2P. It is around 70% French and the kids really rock the actions:)
The afternoon was a bit of English language arts. Working on the short vowel sounds.
Our words this week are: rouge, vert, un sapin, un jouet, Noël, un cadeau. The kids will do their dictée tomorrow morning. If your child was sick and will be in tomorrow, and he/she feels up to it, practice.
Tomorrow is Jersey day. Soccer, baseball, football, lacrosse, rugby, notice what I haven't mentioned!!!
We are practicing our xmas concert tomorrow afternoon so if the sick kids feel ok...it would be good for them to be here...but only if they're not contagious.
That's all for now folks.

Hello all. Second night of interviews tonight. Your kids are doing awesome with the Christmas concert song. They almost have it mastered.

Yesterday was a great day with a lot of Christmas song practice! You can imagine the only thing that is stuck in my head this last week. We also worked a little more on skip counting.

Teachers all get their school pictures taken and I have no one to give them to; my kids could care less. I gave one out to a student as a joke because I know the parents. When the others heard, they insisted they have one. It's my classic and cheesy "Sears Catalogue" pose! I haven't taken a serious picture in my life:) Anywho, hopefully you have figured out that this is more of a joke to me and not an attempt at fame. If it bothers you, feel free to chuck it. No harm, no foul!

Today we started the day with our regular sentence writing and math practice, then we practiced our song again. I had to give the class a group hug because they are getting close to perfect!

Next, I told a story about a hungry brown bear searching for food in the forest. He heard bees, followed the sound, found them and the hive full of honey. He ate, got sticky, and while searching for water to quench his thirst, found that leaves, twigs, bugs, etc, were sticking to his fur because of the honey mess. He heard the sound of rushing water, followed it, drank from the river, saw fish jumping, caught and ate them. Now he has fish skeletons sticking to the honey on his fur. Finally, he went for a nap in a hollowed out tree. They had to write a minimum of 3 sentences and draw me a picture of my story. We did that from 1045-12:)

The afternoon was spent in music class and practicing the song again. We did do some sound work in French. It has been an indoor recess since yesterday, so we went out nonetheless. The kids didn't die or get frost bit! In fact, I think they were better for having done so! Fresh air and stuff eh! Who'd a thunk it?

When we came back in, I treated them to hot chocolate and a little bit of a movie in French. They ALL said thanks for going out and the hot chocolate...so polite!

Don't forget that it's pajama day tomorrow. Slippers, pj's, house coats, curlers... I promise to wear more than what the average adult sleeps in!

Watch for pics by the fire!

November 27

Hello there! We had a nice day in grade 2. We started out with our routine and then did some social studies work. We talked about the three places we are studying. Meteghan, by the ocean, Iqaluit, up north, and Saskatoon, where the Ukrainian farmers settled. They had to cut out images of each place and glue them under the correct heading. It went well.

We then proceeded to practice our song for the Christmas concert. It is coming along nicely. They have the first 4 stanzas/paragraphs down pat. They are working hard on the part I translated into French. It will be excellent!

We are getting ready for Christmas in 2P. If anyone has extra lights they no longer need (not the icicle lights please), I like to string a billion together and light up the class.

Tomorrow night and Thursday night are interviews. If you haven't booked a time, please call the office.

Again, we are doing a pajama day on Friday and in the afternoon, we are going to join Mme. Lange's class at 1:30pm to watch a movie.


That's all for now.

November 26

Tomorrow is Courgar wear day. If your child doesn't have any, they could wear black and red!! The dictée went very well for most students. We are working hard at practicing our Christmas song and the actions that go along with it. It is book fair and we did go as a class today. If your child would like to purchase something, I have no problem letting them go down after lunch during DEAR.

More tomorrow!

November 23

Well it was a great day in 2P. I am not going to lie, we practiced our xmas concert song all day. Well, almost. We did some learning while we practiced. Ask your child what a catastrophe is! Report cards went home, if your child was here at the end of the day. Please sign envelope and return with your offspring. We didn't do dictée at the end of the day because there were too many absent. Monday morning! I still have not deleted any old pics so nothing new. Monday will be better blogging again. My kids are done vball and report cards are finished. I will have more time!!! Cheers.

November 21

It was library day and hotdog day! We had a good morning routine today. Most listened very well. Ask your child if he/she did! What did we do? Can they skip count by 10 starting at 4? Check! In French if you can please. They can, you wing it!

We worked on our 6 dictée words after that. Le menton, trente, les gens, le ventre, commence, une tente! They had to be used in a sentence! I took a while for some but we are becoming writers!!!
After lunch, we had gym and then did a bit of English spelling. The grade 6ers joined us for the end of the day and helped out.

Report cards are all done, just editing a bit. I believe they go out on Friday but check the newsletter to be sure. Interviews are next Wednesday and Thursday.

Not a blog king but...

I was going to add new pics but apparently I am out of space and have to purchase more!?!?!

Cheers

november 20

I have been swamped teaching your children, coaching hockey and volleyball, parenting, is it bad that I put that last!? I have been a bad blogger! I promise a doozy tomorrow! Tomorrow is library day so, if there are any of you that can distinguish library books from your own, you know what to do.

November 14

We have been working on putting sounds together to spell words. Example: b and ien, together make bien. They have a sound sheet that they are to use when writing and we are trying to get used to it.

We went to the library this morning. I have been having the kids keep their books at school and they read them during DEAR. Some kids have overdue materials. Please see that any library books are returned tomorrow. There are students who aren't allowed to take out books because they have up to 4 overdue at home.

They ran hard in gym class before we did a reading/comprehension activity. I have sent home the reading and would like your child to read to you and explain what it's about.

We had reading buddies with our friends in grade 6 near the end of the day. They helped us with our reading and comprehension, as well as, understanding and answering the comprehension questions.

If you have been listening to your child read their At-home reading French books and the kids are reading the books 3 times over 3 nights, thank you soooooooo much. It will pay off. It already is with some:)

GRADE 2 FRENCH DICTÉE WORDS

November/December 2011

November 5-16 Dictée 5  (an) un ange blanc une orange une maman un enfant avant	November 19-23 Dictée 6  (am) une chambre un champ une jambe du jambon une lampe un tambour	November 26-30 Dictée 7  (en) trente le menton les gens le ventre commence une tente
Dec.3-7 Dictée 8  (em) le temps novembre décembre embrasse le printemps tremble	December10-14 Noël un cadeau une étoile un jouet un sapin rouge vert	December 17-21 IN-CLASS REVIEW

We are a week behind! We will do dictée 5 next week.

Today was cold! The kids are troopers! Rodeo day was fun. The kids did some comprehension activities in French. They had music and gym. We did art this afternoon. They did their interpretation of Flander's Field.
Have a nice long weekend!

8 Novembre

Here are some pics from reading buddies yesterday:

Today we had our remembrance day assembly; the kids were well behaved and attentive.
We worked A LOT on sounds for reading in French: ou, in, ai, em, on, oi, ier, ien, im, en, an, ch, etc. I said a sound and they wrote it down. After music they rotated through different activities:

                                              We read sounds

                                          We looked at pictures and said the word in French

                                                We did math

                                            More pictures and words

                                           We listened to a story in French

                                         Made patterns

                                         Played connect 4

It was a nice afternoon.Tomorrow is cowboy day. If Vyn could steal her father's cowboy gear for me that would be nice!!?? I slipped out of the cowboy phase after university!

November 7

We worked with Mlle. Lange's grade 2 class today. We made those things where you have to fold paper in a square, in triangles, in rectangles. Then you write numbers and things on them and put in both thumbs and index fingers and play a game with a partner. It was tedious and we will try again tomorrow. It is for vocabulary words, sounds, numbers and counting by 2, 5, 10, forward and backwards.

We spent some time with Mrs. Weatherby's class playing with our Power of 10 cards. Good number recognition practice.

We went to the library where Mrs. Lyall read a story about a dog. It will be for sale at the book fair coming up!

We wrote two sentences in French that M. Pask invented and then we coloured a picture representing the them. This is for French comprehension, spelling and using our sounds, and printing.

We ended the day with our grade 6 reading buddies. We read to them and visa versa!

Tomorrow we will do some pattern work. The kids will get the chance to show me how well they know what I have been teaching.

Friday is RODEO DAY. I told the kids they could dress up like a cowboy/girl for Canadian Finals Rodeo.

Enjoy the snow. It is perfect snowball weather!!!

November 5

Hello there! I know it's been a few days since I've blogged. I have been coaching my two older boys' volleyball team. There wasn't a teacher willing to take on the position and I didn't want my boys to miss that opportunity. Having said this, I have had to leave right after the bell to get to their school to coach. It will be all done in the next few weeks.
Last week was a blast and a blur! Halloween is REALLY exciting for these grade twos. Right up there with Christmas. The Halloween party was a blast and the pumpkin carving went better than I'd expected. Thanks sooooooooo much to the parents who were able and willing to lend a hand. My belief: NO BLOOD = SUCCESS!

We had fun!!!

On Friday we started the day by talking about Remembrance Day and what it is about. The kids were interested and keen to discuss. We talked about freedom and patriotism and country and heroism. It was a nice discussion. The end of the day was art:

We have been focusing on a bit of spelling in English Language Arts but we are going to spend the month of November talking about our feelings, attitudes and being a kind and caring person. There have been too many discipline issues stemming from unkind words, hitting or just plain unfriendliness. I would appreciate it, if you believe some of these issues concern your child, if you could have these same "kind and caring person" discussions at home.
Tomorrow I am away for PD on early literacy. Enjoy the pics!