Oral French with Goldilocks and the 3 Bears and numbers to 20

Oral language and story telling

We are beginning to talk about the elements of a story. Recently we learned that the beginning of the story introduces the characters (les personnages) and the setting (le lieu). We are learning that the characters can be people, animals or even things. The middle of a story usually has a problem that is solved by the end of the story. When reading stories at home, I invite you to talk about these story elements with your child. 

We have been reading many versions of Goldilocks and the 3 Bears (Boucle D'or et les 3 ours). The children have story props that they have coloured and cut out. They are practicing retelling the story to build their vocabulary. We are focusing on speaking as much French as possible and including adjectives such as big, medium, small, hard and soft. When everyone has had a chance to tell me the story as well as several friends, they will use the story props to create a new story. 

Retelling Goldilocks.

Number sense

We have been practicing math facts to 10 (or 20 in grade 2). Next we will be exploring the numbers 11-20. We are specifically looking at the amounts that these numbers represent and their relationship to 10. This is the very beginning of place value and an introduction to our base 10 number and metric systems.

In December we will begin a unit on patterns. This unit will include creating patterns, finding mistakes in patterns and continuing patterns created by others. We will also be exploring increasing, decreasing and circular patterns. This time of year lends itself really well to all sorts of patterning projects. 

Making 10/ Addition facts to 10




The Ed Inform App 

On the app this month, I have been adding both pictures of what activities your child is doing in class to practice their learning goals. I have also been adding evaluations.

Pictures and videos- I like for you to be able to see the activities that your child is doing in class which reinforces their learning.  To communicate this to you, I include pictures or videos under the appropriate learning sample. Sometimes, I include further information about the goals of the activity. To access this information, you click on the picture or video.

Evaluations- When I feel that I have details to share about your child's progress, I add comments in the Teacher Feedback box. I title my comments to match the title of the picture or video. I then include my observations. The next steps box can just include things that we will organically do in class or I may include specific steps that facilitate your child's goals.

New on Ed Inform

  1. Reading progress- I am finished all but a few evaluations. Log in to hear your child reading a book from their bin. Please keep in mind that these videos are taken during the day and so there is classroom noise and sometimes interruptions. 
  2. Math number sense- Over the next week, I will finish an evaluation of the strategies your child uses to count as well as their ability to add to 10 (or 20 for grade 2). I have about ½ the class finished at this point.
  3. Storytelling- I have been able to assess some students while they retell Goldilocks and the 3 Bears. I will have the others finished by the end of next week. 

What you can do at home:

  1. Encourage your child to count on. At home you can have a set amount of things out e.g. forks to set the table and ask the child to get knives and continue the count on from the number of forks. In our home it would be 3 forks then the child would say 4, 5, 6 for the total. This skill is an important step to take and practice before addition.
  2. Practice addition facts to 10 (for grade 1) and to 20 (for grade 2). Please have your child practice the facts orally in French. Many of the children know their facts, especially on paper, but are making mistakes in French. It is so important for French language learners to memorize these facts and numbers in French as it is the language of instruction.
  3. Have your child retell Goldilocks to you. Most of the grade 1's can retell with a mix of English and French whereas the grade 2's should be using French.
  4. Talk about different holiday traditions that you have as a family including special meals, trips and family time that are part of our winter break. In the next few weeks we will talk about our families and how they are the same and different. 

Popular posts from this blog

Information about our class

Image
  Our grade 2 class We have a straight grade 2 class. It is a busy class and everyone is eager to learn and start our time together.I enjoyed meeting the students today and noticed many established friendships and some new budding ones as well.  We will spend the first few weeks talking about our school community and establishing routines for our time together.  School supplies Please send in the school supplies as soon as you have them. We do use all 4 journal books right away as they are for different subjects.  I have included pictures of the outside and inside of the journals to help you when purchasing the supplies.  Inside of the journals  The covers of the journals needed Information for parents about our class: Here are copies of the Welcome Letter and Parent Handbook that will becoming home in the first few days of school. Please read both documents as they give you an overview of our class routines for the year.  Link to  Parent Handbook  Link to  Welcome Letter Every year th
Read more

Our First Full Week!

Image
  Literacy We have started our class learning routines and activities this week. The children are practicing reading on our own. They find a spot to sit in class and put a mat down. The children pick 2-3 books that they practice reading several times.  To practice reading the children are: getting their mouth ready to say the letter sound rereading new words to blend the letter sounds together e.g. R-o-s-ie becomes Ro-sie then Rosie checking that the words that they say make sense in the story. If there are more than 2 words on a page that they do not know, then they should change their book for something that is easier and still provides a challenge.  The blue bins, pictured on the bottom shelf, are activities that support oral language, sight word recognition and spelling. Each table gets a bin after snack and works at the activity. Each day they have a different activity.  Out literacy centres Math We have been using Cuisinaire Rods to create number trains. The children started the
Read more

Art Cards, Science and Social Studies

Image
Art Cards We have started out Art Cards! Social Studies and Health One of the Big Ideas, a focus, for grade 2 is the diverse regions of Canada. As a beginning  to this unit we made a map of the school grounds. We then looked at Canada using google maps and zoomed in to our school. We were able to compare our map with what we saw on the screen.  Over the school year we will be looking in more detail at different regions of Canada. Over the next few weeks we will be talking about the food we grow on the Island. This will lead to conversations and comparisons with the prairies, what grows on the prairies, the animals and geography of that region of Canada.  As we are talking about food, we will be reading and retelling the story of La petite poule rousse. (The Little Red Hen). We will also be talking about healthy foods vs snack and treat food.   As we approach Halloween could you please limit candy to 1 item per day if that is your practice to include candy in your child's lunch. As
Read more