Division 18 Newsletter

December 2015

Bonjour dear families! It is so nice to see some students beginning to speak en Francais! Here are some of the
things to keep in mind for the month of December.

Le franais (Language Arts)

Ami du jour (Friend of the day) This is your childs special day at school. They are invites to lead calendar
on their special day. They also have the opportunity to choose activities first and be the teachers special helper
for the day. They will also their turn for show and tell (montre et raconte) on their special day. Montre et raconte
theme this month will be colors. Your child should be able to say the color(s) in French of the object they chose to
share. Please do not send your child to school with toys for show and tell (no toys from home are permitted at
school in case they get lost or broken).
Les themes We have been learning a new letter of the alphabet each week but will stop at l before the break in
order to practice a little revision! For each letter your child has learned and will continue to practice a song and
action to help them remember the sound the letter makes. These songs are also posted on the class website. Your
child will continue to have practice printing these letters and completing other activities involving the letters we
have studied. We will continue to learn about rhymes and begin to look at the starting sounds in a word before we
start to break down words into syllables and phonemes. Recognizing rhymes is important in kindergarten as it is
the basis of phonological awareness: understanding that language is composed of words, syllables, rhymes and
sounds (phonemes). We will be finishing off our unit on community helpers and talk about Christmas. You can
help at home practicing the letter sounds with your child and identifying words that start with that letter when
reading. You can also work with rhymes at home by reading nursery rhymes or other rhymes in English and
asking your child to identify them. Identifying words (orally) that rhyme while reading, listening to music, or just
talking is also a great exercise to do at home.
La lecture Read to your child every day. One way to keep track of how much you are reading is to use the
green form provided by our school librarian.

Les sciences humaines et les sciences naturelles

Les science humaines We will be finishing off our unit on community helpers. You can help at home by asking
your child about their day at school and asking them how they are behaving with their classmates and teachers.
Les sciences naturelles We will continue to learn about weather in general. You can help at home by asking
about the French vocabulary that your child has learned with regards to fall and weather.

Les mathmatiques
Le nombre We have begun to explore numbers up to 5 and will continue to do so until the winter break. It is
very important to have an in-depth look at the basics to ensure your child has good number sense no matter what
their math abilities are. You can help at home by encouraging your child to practice counting out loud in French,
making groups of objects and learning to identify how many objects are in the group made.

Lducation Physique (PE)

This month after much fun with the volley balls, we will be returning to rotating skill stations and learning how to
use different types of PE equipment. You can help by discussing the importance of staying active and by asking
what we have been doing in PE.

Daily Physical Activity

Riverdale has a daily physical activity time set aside most days for students to dance and move about with music
and the help of an older student leader. We love to run at Riverdale and your child will be running around the
gravel field about 2 to 3 times a week depending on weather and how busy our schedule is.

La planification personnelle (Health and Career)

We will be working on our community helpers unit.

Les arts plastiques

We will be creating artwork themed around community helpers and Christmas. You can help at home by
encouraging you childs interest in arts and crafts and by asking what we are working on at school.

Other:

Please send the communication folders to school each day. Many students have not been bringing it back
to school and this makes it difficult for me to know if parents are getting the paperwork that is sent home.
Please check your childs communication folder carefully each night and take the time read and complete
pertinent paperwork. It takes quite a bit of time for teachers to check paperwork and it can be time
consuming to have to send paperwork home a second time to be completed correctly. If there are papers
you do not want in the communication folder please throw them out at home so that I do not have
to sift through them each day. This way I can spend more time with your child and less time sorting
through various papers in their file.
As it has gotten very cold out, I am making it mandatory for students to close/zip up their coats before
going outside. I have discovered this past week that many students still struggle with doing up their coats.
Please have your child practice doing up their coat at home on a daily basis until they can do it
independently. Merci

Class Calendar

Dec. 1st Report cards are sent home.

Dec. 3rd Parent teacher conferences and early dismissal at 1:30.
Dec. 10th Christmas Concert
Dec. 17th Our first field trip: The fire hall!
Dec. 18th - Pyjama Day!
Dec. 18th Last day of school before winter break. Have a happy holiday

Calling Parent volunteers!

Play dough I am looking for volunteers to make play dough throughout the year. A big hank you to all the
parents who have been helping by keeping us supplied with homemade play-dough. I would really like some help
with one batch for December. Please e-mail me if you can help.
Egg Carton donations I am looking for the clear type of egg cartons as they are very good for sorting and can
be used five and ten frames. If you do buy these please send me the carton instead of recycling it. No rush, I will
take them as they come. Merci
If you have any questions or comments. Please feel free to send me a note, talk to me after class or contact me by
e-mail at mcdonald_s1@surreyschools.ca. Please note that may not get around to responding to e-mails on a daily
basis so please be patient and I will try my best to respond within 48 hours. If you have something time sensitive
to communicate it is always best to give the school a call.

Thanks for reading!

Mme. McDonald