French

• Our focus is the sound eau which makes the long o sound in nose.
• We are reading and writing holiday and winter vocabulary.

Math

• We continue to add and subtract, and to work with tens and ones.
• We are building 3D shapes.

Bake sale

• This Wednesday, there will be a bake sale during snack. Items cost 1$. They will also visit on Thursday and Friday, should your child be absent or forgot and wish to participate.

Outerwear

• LABEL YOUR CHILD’S OUTERWEAR! Many items are found in the hallway- extra clothes, boots, coats, hoodies, gloves, tuques… and if this items are labelled, it gives us a chance to find the owner before items are sent to the lost and found. The custodian removes any items left on the ground daily. Also remind your child to wear winter boots home at the end of each school day.
• Hooks: with snow on the horizon, and many children coming to school with snow pants, I request that you send your child to school with a labelled over the door hook or large command hook so that snow pants can hang on the outside of the locker. A hook that fits tightly is ideal, as loose metal hooks can fall and hurt children. A hook with 2 hooks at most- a hook with 3 hooks is too big for our lockers.

January

• After the break, we will be ice skating. You may wish to have your child try on old skates at home to see if they fit, or organize borrowing some skates ahead of time. LGES has some skates, but they are not in the best condition. If you would like to borrow them, you can arrange a time to see me before/after school, and I can take you to the skate room to try skates on. We will wait until closer to the date.
• We will be using chromebooks after the winter break. I will be asking children to bring in their own headphones. They need to have a built-in microphone, and a narrow prong to go through iPad cases in case we use those as well. Your child can bring them back home in June.  If your child doesn’t own any, there’s a holiday gift idea!

Concert

• A reminder that our concert will be on Tuesday, Dec.19th. The office has sent out emails regarding tickets.

French

• Our focus is the sound au in auto. This is the long o sound as in nose. Be careful! Some students get an mixed up with au .
• Students continue to  read in a small group with the teacher and to write in their journals.
• Some writing from this autumn will also come home today.

Math

• Our focus is on 3D solids. I am proud that the students are becoming familiar with naming them in French!
• Children continue to explore 2D shapes, addition and subtraction.

Food Donations

• We have a box in our class to accept food donations until Tuesday, Dec. 19th. We also have a jar to collect cash donations. Please clarify with your child if they bring money, that it is to donate in our jar as we have various canteen and bake sales in December as well. Donations will also be accepted at the K-5 winter concert on Dec. 19th.
• Canned beans, soup, fruit and vegetables are needed. Rice, dry pasta and tinned fish are also needed.

Ma famille

 

Tell us about your family! You can bring in a photo or two, a drawing, or an object to represent your family this December. You may include pets:)

 

Who is in your family?

What is a tradition or activity you like to do together?

What do you like to do in the winter?

 

Sample sentence starters:

 

Dans ma famille, il y a… 

Ma soeur (my sister), mon frère, mon père, ma maman, ma belle-mère (step-mother), mon beau-père (step-father), moi!

You can also just name family members:)

 

J’aime ________ avec ma famille.

 

Chez moi, il y a _____________.

 

Mme Harmatuk’s Example:

Dans ma famille, il y a Siena, Henry, Shane et moi.

Pendant les vacances d’hiver, j’aime patiner sur la glace.

J’aime aller dehors avec ma famille en hiver.

Chez moi, il y a un sapin de noël dans la maison.

 

Helpful verbs – J’aime + infinitive of verb

Manger, aller, voyager, visiter, cuisinier, jouer, marcher, chanter, patiner

Faire du toboggan, faire du ski…

Our sound of the week is oi (w-a). There is an assignment with this sound on Lalilo!

We are learning about 3D Shapes in math.

We learned about the Pieds Noirs, the Blackfoot people of southern Alberta, in social studies.

December calendars have been sent home. Show and tell Family begins next week.

Here are some things we have been learning about last week.

Health – Nutrition

• We learned about different kinds of grains important for us to eat.
• Many children wanted to try quinoa and couscous.

Math

• We continue to add and subtract, mastering until 20, building towards 100.
• We have been exploring the names and attributes of 2-D shapes.
• We began tangram puzzles today, using shapes to solve puzzles.

French

• We have continued to write in our journals.
• We use a list of commonly used words to help us spell correctly when writing.
• We use vocabulary from our visual dictionaries to help us express ourselves well in French.
• Our sound last week was ain and this week it is ein. Both combinations sound the same as in.
• We continue to read with the teacher in small groups.

Art

• We used shapes to create salmon art.

Canteen

The grade 7s are running a canteen open some days at lunch. Items are 1$. My recommendation is for students to come in and finish their lunch before visiting the canteen. If there’s no time to visit, they can wait for another day. Please review the items for sale so you can decide as a family if you are interested in participating. Items cost 1$. Items can also be brought home for consumption. The bell rings to come in at 12:40, and we tidy up at 1pm, leaving the class to go straight to music 2 days a week. Time needs to be prioritized for organizing outdoor shoes and gear, and eating the lunch each family provides for their child.

 

Math

We learned a new math game today, an NHL (LNH en français) game where we explore tens and ones, which numbers are bigger than others and French math vocabulary.

Salmon

We read a book about how the coastal Salish people smoke salmon using alder and ferns.

Our salmon life cycle focus was on the adult stage, when salmon head to the ocean and camouflage in the sea.

Gym

We played a tag game outside with Mme Stafford’s grade 2 class.

Remembrance Day Paint & Pastel Poppies

I’m so proud of the students’ gorgeous poppies!

Nutrition

We have been learning about healthy eating this term. Children are encouraged to try new foods, recipes, colours, textures, and eating familiar foods in new ways!

• Eat a rainbow of fruits and vegetables.
• Eat fruits and/or vegetables with every meal and snack.
• Have you tried: pomegranate? dragonfruit? lychee fruit? Children are encouraged to try new foods. These are some that came up in our reading and discussion that many children said they had not tried.
• Drink water throughout the day.

Salmon

We have been learning about Pacific salmon across subject areas.

• Science: We continue to learn about the life cycle of the salmon. We are also learning about salmon’s role in the ecosystem.
• Social studies: Salmon is important to local Indigenous Peoples.
• Nutrition: Salmon is a nutritious food source in  many ways.

We read Salmon Forest. At the end of the book, there is a recipe for the salmon that the children in the story were eating if you want to try it at home! The recipe will be coming home with your child.

Remembrance Day

We have been learning about the significance of remembrance Day. We read a book called Brave Soldat and have learned a song, Brave Soldat. The grade 2s will perform the song at our Remembrance Day assembly at school on Friday. This assembly is for staff and students only.

We are completing a paint and pastel poppy project in art this week.

French

Our sound this week is in in lapin. This can be tricky as some words have “in” in them, but often when the n is followed by other letters (i.e. épine) the in does not make the sound in. Children are encouraged to flip the sound when they are unsure: this means, try both sounds (in in lapin, and i in iglou or souris ) to see which one sounds right and makes sense.

Honesty

We have been learning about honesty throughout the first term. Telling the truth was one focus. We are building on this grade 2 virtue, and using the district’s grandfather teaching of the Swan to explore a broader meaning of truth with students. Being a good example and following the rules of a game are also ways students can be truthful.

Montre et raconte – Show & Tell

Novembre

 

During November, each student will choose a plant or an animal native to our province of BC, or a natural wonder in BC to learn about.

 

Each child will conduct research about their topic. Find out:

• How to say the plant/ animal or place in French
• Where it is found in B.C.
• Something interesting to share about the topic in French!

 

Sample topics:

• Spirit Bear/ Kermode Bear -L’ours Esprit/ L’ours Kermode
• Black bear -L’ours noir
• Pine tree– Le pin
• Cedar tree- Le cèdre
• Bald eagle -L’aigle
• Pacific Ocean- L’Océan Pacifique
• Stellar Jay- Le geai de Stellar
• Jade- Le jade (our official mineral!)

 

Please bring in an object or visual such as:

• An artifact (a piece of jade, a salmon bone, an eagle feather, a pinecone, a cedar bough, etc).
• A photo from home
• A drawing made by the student
• A book from the library
• A picture printed from the internet

*Please choose a WILD plant or animal native to B.C.- NOT a pet puppy, cat, etc

*See Mme with a 1st and 2nd choice, so we can avoid any duplication:)

 

Also please bring a labelled image that we can put on our bulletin board!

 

Pit Houses

Today Mme Jules came into our class and taught us about the traditional winter homes of the Secwepemc people. Children made their own pit houses. They will get a chance to set up play villages on Friday, then take them home. If you wish to send a small bag Friday to transport the pit house, you may.

Interior of our pit house.

French

The sound of the week is on  (like “aw” with your nose pinched). We also looked at next week’s sound, eu (like to short u sound in put). Check out the songs under “seasonal songs” in our chansons section. The skeleton song has lots of eu words!

Thursday

Thursday students will be dismissed at 12:46. Please bring a lunch. Girl guide cookies will be provided. Please send a small treat if you wish in place of a cookie.

Parent-teacher interviews

It was lovely to meet many parents today, and I look forward to upcoming interviews. Meetings are in person unless you indicated/ got in touch to organize a zoom meeting.

Library

There is NO book exchange at the Lloyd George library this week.

Book Fair

We will visit the book fair as a class on WEDNESDAY. You may send money with your child then.

You may also visit the book fair in the library as a family Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday either BEFORE school at 8:10AM or after school on those days.

Early Dismissal Thursday

On Thursday, school will be dismissed at 12:46. In our class, we will eat lunch at 12pm. Please send your child to school with a snack and a lunch. The book fair will be open after early dismissal.

Lost and Found

Lost and found items have been neatly laid out outside the library. If you are in the building this week, please go have a look in case you see something that belongs to your family there.

French

Our sound this week is on in the word bonbon. We are reading Halloween stories and building our Halloween vocabulary.

Math

We are playing Shut the Box in groups. We are learning about dizaines (tens) and unités (ones).