Bienvenue le printemps!

I am very hopeful that spring is in the air! We are continuing to work on our play and will soon be going "on tour" in the school and sending out invitations once the sets are designed and the (fairly simple!) costumes prepared!

If you wish to help or review with your children at home, have them retell the story to you or I can send home the puppets each student has and they can present the piece for you as a puppet show. I am going to give students a chance to do a video rehearsal so they can start thinking about staging and hear how they sound as a group (this will be for viewing within the classroom only).

We continue to build on vocabulary from Les trois petits cochons and are also working on recognizing sound blends in French to build reading decoding skills (in this case, sounding out words). So far we have focused on the -eau/-au and -ille/-il blends. This can be a good reading challenge to try with the French books your child is bringing home, see if they can find words with those endings in the book. I will send home a list of blends in the communication books as we continue.

Here are some words we found at school:
-ille/-il
gentille/gentil
fille
quille

-eau/-au
bandeau
peau
chaud
oiseau
haut

Finally, a big thanks to all the parents who sent me back the forms telling me a little more about yourself and your child. I see that reading skills are an area of concern or interest for many of you. I have been reviewing choosing "just right" books at school and providing both individual reading time, time to read with a partner, reading aloud, and time to read with me in small groups (all in French) to encourage reading interest and enjoyment and have brought in some of my favourite picture books to share with the class.

If you have high speed internat access at home, I encourage you to re-visit RAZ Kids. It is a fun way to access levelled books (in English only at this point) online. Don't forget about the links available on the www.ugdsb.on.ca website either! From there you can go to UG2GO and find a number of resources in both English and French. And, of course, sometimes the "old fashioned" ways are the best, so the class has commenced the "Je lis" take home reading program wherein each student can take home 2 books (one English, one French) each night and then bring them back to exchange for more books. I have been asking students to give a little feedback about whether they liked the books they chose and also to reflect on whether it was too easy, too hard, or just right. Next I will be asking for students to present a book they especially loved to the class and tell about it.

In the world of reading assessment, I will be checking in with students individually to see how their reading comprehension is progressing and will have feedback available soon.

In math we are looking at the components that make up numbers (ones, tens, hundreds) to help build addition and subtraction skills, naming even and odd numbers, graphing the weather data we have collected (hoping for more sunny days and less snowy ones in April!) and writing equations. Coming up soon are units on money and measurement, both fun hands-on topics!

As always, if you have any questions, concerns, or comments, please don't hesitate to be in touch through email or by phone at the school.

Merci!
Mme Robi.

Les trois petits cochons.

We are currently using the AIM play << Les trois petits cochons >> in our language program. This play is based on the familiar story of the The Three Little Pigs and includes song and dance as well as lots of vocabulary perfect for Grade 1 and 2 FI students. Each student has a role and they are working on memorizing their parts. Some are already there! 

Please ask your child to tell you about it. Invitations will be coming once we are prepared. If you cannot make it, we will try and make a video copy available.

Here are some important vocabulary from our play for you to practice with your child:

French	English (phonetic)	Meaning
cochon	coh-shawn	pig
loup	loo	wolf
danse	dahns	dance
chante	shawnt	sing
premier	prem-yay	first
deuxième	duhs-ee-em	second
troisième	twahs-ee-em	third

Palmerston 1/2 FI Newsletter March 2014

March 5th, 2014

As the month of March progresses, I will be in touch either through the communication book, by email,
or by phone. If you have any questions or concerns, please email me at rayles@ugcloud.ca. I check my
email often, mostly after school. You may also call me at the school at 519-343-3520.

WEBSITE: As mentioned above, I have a blog http://mmeayles.blogspot.ca/ which I will try and keep
updated at least every few weeks. Please feel free to pass on feedback as the year goes on. I will be
posting any homework, words of the week, news and upcoming events, and more as the year goes on.

READING PROGRAM: We will be returning to a take-home reading program (Je lis) after March Break.
If the books I have sent home are too easy or too hard, please let me know, and I will send books from
a harder or easier level. Please note that the letter levels are equivalent to their number position in the
alphabet (ie. A=1, B=2, C=3, etc). All books should be returned to school, and can be exchanged on any
day of the week.

SURVEY: I am sending home a survey about your child for you to fill out and send back after March
Break. It is a chance for you to tell me about your child, his/her strengths and likes, and any challenges
or concerns. I particularly appreciate reading what you love most about your child. Use another page if
you need more space. I can also email it to you if you would prefer to fill it on computer. I’m sure much of
this information was already gathered by Mme E at the beginning of the year, but it is a great
opportunity for me to get to better know your child myself.

MOTS DE LA SEMAINE: Each week, students will have a list of words of the week that we will be
reviewing lots here at school. Please check the website for this week’s words. For the moment, they
will be common sight words and words from our play, Les trois petits cochons which has been a great
success! Look forward to seeing it in action once we are ready to present!

SUPPLIES: Scissors, markers, glue sticks and pencil sharpeners would be helpful at this time. If you are
sending in pencil crayons or pencils, please consider labelling them.

I am very excited about getting to spend the rest of the year with your child. We will learn lots and have
fun. Thank you for your continued support and communication!

Mme Robi Ayles

Resource for Palmerston parents.

I was asked earlier this month about a site available for UGDSB students to access at home that has games and activities. I think this is the one: UG2GO It has a huge variety of resources, including some in French. Enjoy!

French Phonic Slide Shows

If you're not sure how to pronounce a French sound, check these out for some help. Jolly phonique French phonics

FI sing-along!

I have created a youtube channel which has links to many French songs and stories. Please feel free to use it as a starting point to help your child practice French over the summer or anytime!

French songs from foreignlanguagehouse.com

There is supposed to be an imbedded player here, but it is not working, so try here instead.