Newsletter January 2019

Chamonix Mont Blanc, France

                     Hello parents ! Here is the first newsletter of the year !
                      
TAOKI / FRENCH SPELLING & WRITING
- We studied and learnt the spelling and the sound of : /ch/, /n/, /ê/, /è/, /v/
- We worked on the vocabulary and created sentences related to outdoor activities (biking/hiking/forest...).
- During all the month of January, the students had the opportunity to memorise and re-use all this outdoor vocabulary into sentences we orally create and then write.
- I highly increased the amount of writing production, and every new Taoki poster and/or album is a new writing/sentence creating opportunity. 
- To guide the students into this task, I use a colour code to show how to compose a basic French sentence : the subject of the sentence is always green, the action (verb) is always red, the place where the action takes place is blue. 
- I introduced the "writing blue pencil" as we do in France. Indeed French students in France rarely use crayons to write, so we are working on holding properly the blue pencil, and be careful and focused on our writing since there is no possibility to erase. 
- Students keep progressing in reading and some of them completely amazed me recently by their reading skills and good pronunciation !

MATH
- As I explained on a post on Bloomz, Math is getting a little harder as well. Indeed the chapter 10 in which we are working right now focuses on addition equations under 100.
- The most challenging part now is to understand that 10 ones make one ten, and represent it, applies it to find the right result of a given equation. 
- I explained the student this might be a little challenging but they all go for it, actually I saw amazing progress during this chapter. Literally I am very impressed of the hight level of involvement of the kids. 
- I started to assess the students "in situation", during the daily math lesson for the next quarter grades. I will give as well some test, but I am trying not to overwhelm too much the kids and to propose them different assessment type (I noticed that the kids are a little more relaxed when I assess them during the daily math lesson or orally). 
- Our first graders are doing very very well, I am a very proud teacher !

MORNING RITUALS
- Every morning, we are doing the date, the weather, the schedule etc... And since few days, I am trying a new form of rituals : I give my "very official" French badge and my microphone to a designated student, who will do the attendance, interact with the class, ask "class, who wants to come on the board and say the date of today ? " or "class ? How are you today...." it is really awesome to witness and  super cute ! the students have progressed a lot. 
- I increased the amount of mental calc, so pretty often during the ritual we throw a ball a student will catch up and choose and equation and throw the ball to another student who will have to say the result and choose a new equation, etc... 
- We are having a lot of fun ! 

CULTURE / GENERAL ACTIVITIES
- During some Fridays of the month, we are doing the "Big Friendly Friday". It consists into mixing all the 1st grades together to create 4 new groups who rotates between the four first grade teachers. 
- These BFF are the occasion for me to introduce the other students from the magnet and traditional program to French culture. Our little French Immersion kids are veryyyyyyy proud to show and help their friends from other classes to understand what I am saying. 

BEHAVIOR
- The students are gaining a lot of autonomy. They know the rules of the classroom, understand them, and respect them and now is the moment in which I give give them as much autonomy, personnalisation, choice as they want since I know they will considerate the others and be respectful. 

GENERAL INFOS
- SEP Conferences are coming, I will give you your child proficiency report in French. Please call the office to schedule an appointment with Mrs Squires and I.

As usually, if you have any question, feel free to contact me through this website or through Bloomz. 

Thank you !