Our major theme this month was the body. We learned a new song (check it out under 'les chansons') to help us remember our French vocabulary for our body parts.
During Alphabet Centers, some students chose to 'write' their vocabulary words using stickers, stamps, or collage magazine letters.
Our major art project this month, which I could not have accomplished without the fabulous Kimberley (Emily's maman), was tracing an outline of our bodies and painting it with the help of our Big Buddies. They look fantastique!! My apologies to those who aren't yet pictured...I still have some to put up on our bulletin board!
During Circle time, we explored les 5 sens with lots of hands-on activities. I passed around smelling jars and students identified what was inside using their sense of smell. Always interesting was passing around the jar of coffee beans - half of us loved it and half of us hated the smell!
We explored sound by holding seashells up to our ears,and texture by feeling hospital gloves filled with beans, flour, sand, rice, and popcorn kernels and describing what we felt.
I added these materials and more to our discovery table for students to explore independently: mirrors, jingle bells, magnifying glasses, colour mixing glasses, sorting cards...
We explored sound by holding seashells up to our ears,and texture by feeling hospital gloves filled with beans, flour, sand, rice, and popcorn kernels and describing what we felt.
I added these materials and more to our discovery table for students to explore independently: mirrors, jingle bells, magnifying glasses, colour mixing glasses, sorting cards...
We did a sorting activity on the 5 senses. This led to some interesting conversations when I asked students to explain their thinking. Where to put an ice cube? "I thought it was butter so I coloured it yellow" or "I thought it was a toaster so I coloured it brown. You can look at a toaster." Where to put a coin? "Some coins have chocolate in them." All great reasons!
With our Big Buddies, students completed 5 different learning centers. They played a memory game where they observed 10 objects for 1 minute, then drew as many as they could remember once their Big Buddies took away the objects. They played a mystery sound game where their Big Buddies shook a mystery object in a container behind their backs for them to identify. They reached into a feely bag and described what they felt. They matched the smelling bottles to their pictures. And the class favourite, we explored popcorn using all our 5 senses, culminating in taste!
That led us nicely into our 2 week study on food. Last week, we practiced our emergent reading skills with an easy reader book on lunch. Students underlined every time they saw the words 'Je mange'.
That led us nicely into our 2 week study on food. Last week, we practiced our emergent reading skills with an easy reader book on lunch. Students underlined every time they saw the words 'Je mange'.
We also did a cut/paste activity in our journals using the sentence structure 'Je mange...'. We talked about a sentence beginning with a 'lettre majuscule' (which we say in a really BIG DEEP voice - compared to 'minuscule' which we say in a small, squeaky mouse voice) and finishing with a 'point'.
We will round out this week with a writing activity for our end-of-year-portfolio, as well as a Bingo game on food. Then we will get on to the important business of celebrating the holidays. Santa is already making a regular appearance in pictures the students are drawing at bricolage! I have planned many exciting activities for the month of December. Stay tuned for our class newsletter, as well as exciting opportunities to volunteer in-class!
We will round out this week with a writing activity for our end-of-year-portfolio, as well as a Bingo game on food. Then we will get on to the important business of celebrating the holidays. Santa is already making a regular appearance in pictures the students are drawing at bricolage! I have planned many exciting activities for the month of December. Stay tuned for our class newsletter, as well as exciting opportunities to volunteer in-class!