What we've been working on...

Ok so it's FINALLY starting to feel like spring MIGHT be coming soon. We had snow on the weekend and rain this morning. No more negative temperatures in the forecast this week!!! 

Last week we went back to our seasonal changes unit to talk about the transition from winter to spring. My poor little ones were having a hard time wrapping their heads around the typical spring activities we talked about, as they're all very different to the snow and winter boots they're still experiencing. 

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Pictures from the past two weeks

Although I've completely dropped with ball with blogging recently, I've still managed to take a few photos over the past two weeks to share!

Here we go...

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Winter sentence station, writing, and BAZINGA game!

This week we are focusing on winter vocabulary! We've been having fun with different games, and it's really exciting to hear them starting to remember the new vocabulary.

Today we started practicing our poem of the week, and I introduced this week's 4 words of the week. I photocopied this "set" (our second 8 week set of words) onto coloured paper, laminated them, and then stuck magnets on them. We practice them really quickly each day, and they hunt for the words every morning when they look through French books/Read to self while we wait for O Canada.

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Words of the week detectives

Now that we are 5 weeks into our words of the week, my students have 20 simple words that they're beginning to recognize. The fun part is that most of these words can be found in our weekly songs and poems!

When we filled out the page for their homework duotang last week, they started to circle the words they knew in the song. When we practiced our "novembre" poem last week we hunted for words that we recognized. We pulled the squirrel card from the fall word wall, and the words of the week from our word list. Being able to place the cards directly on/beside the poem was a neat visual connection for them!

Today we brainstormed and filled a venn diagram to compare fall and winter. I wrote simple sentences based on their brainstorms and then we hunted for words from both word walls and circled the words we could find!

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Verbs of the week and small group sentence building

Today we began our focus on weekly verbs! We will be slowly adding to our verb list over the next few weeks. 

My pocket chart calendar has space for a few verbs cards. I printed my verb posters really small so that they can fit in the bottom left corner. Once we move on to new verbs, we will keep adding them to the same place in our classroom to build a verb wall. 

The bottom right corner has our words of the week! I've also started building a sight word list with the past two week's word lists. 

This morning we rotated through some centres. We did:

1. Bang 

2. Bug in a rug

3. Matching (picture to the word)

4. Magnetic letters/word building (using word wall strips)

5. Writing on whiteboards (with visual dictionaries as guides) 

6. Working with me! 

The cards from the image are from my fall pack! Each time I sat down with a new small group, we went over the sentence starter prompts and sentence structure. With some groups, I talked about specific errors that were being made ("je vois 3 une pomme"), and with others we talked about how we could "bump up" our sentences ("je vois 3 pommes ET 2 citrouilles"). They loved "getting to play all morning!" 

I rotated through to the next centre about every 8ish minutes. Whenever I was done with the group I was working with I tapped my tap bell, and students cleaned up their table and returned to the carpet. Once at the carpet, we looked back at each centre to make sure it was cleaned up the correct way. Students from the whiteboard centres got to share their best sentence (it's the easiest centre for sharing!). Then I told each group where they were moving to next! 

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Words of the week & word work

We recently started practicing 4 words of the week per week. It makes for some fun centres that we can add to our rotations, and will help later on when we start focusing more on reading. We aren't doing any weekly assessments, but will do a simple check in after about 7 weeks (28 words). 

We practice the words using silly voices as part of our calendar routine. It isn't a huge focus, but they hear and read the words a few times a day for the week. I've added them to the bottom right corner of my pocket chart calendar!

We've added a few different activities to our centres (I updated my "J'ai fini" file with some new cards!). One is to spin the paperclip and graph the sight words they land on. I found a few of my students had a hard time holding the pencil and paperclip in place, so I attached the paperclip with a clip: *loosely, so it still spins*

The clip went easily through the page protector, which lets us save a TON of paper for these centres! 

We've also added magnets for word work. They take a ring of words and build them using magnets. We use cookie trays from the dollar store! 

*Photo cred to my AWESOME teaching partner!*

Of course, we are still also playing lots of "bang" and "bug in a rug" so that we continue to focus on oral communication!

What centres are your little ones enjoying? I'm always looking to add new centres to our rotation :) Leave a comment to share! 

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Words of the week

This week we are practicing the words: le, la, un, and une. 

It's felt like the perfect time to introduce them, as we've needed to quickly break the habit of "Il y a 3 un crayons" in our sentence building! Explicitly explaining what these words mean has helped them understand that if they are using a number in their sentence then they can drop the le, la, un, une, les, des from the in front of the word! 

We've added the 4 word wall cards to our calendar routine. We don't spent much time on them, but we practice reading them together using different silly voices. Right now I'm using that as an opportunity to teach some Halloween words (e.g un monstre, un pirate, un vampire)! 

When they line up to leave the classroom to wash their hands for lunch, I flash each of them a different flashcard and they read the word before they leave. 

We've also photocopied one of the practice sheets on the back of this week's song for their homework duotang, so they can do a quick review game at home as well. 

In class, we've played two of the "games" together. For this one, they find a word with a magnifying glass, circle it, and write it down: 

For this one, they spin a paperclip and write the word that it lands on. Once one word "wins" by reaching the top, then they write it on the line beside the trophy. I had them choose a crayon to rainbow write the rest of the words to fill up the grid (no sense not using that opportunity to practice more writing!)

Thankfully they thought this was really fun! It's also been a nice rewarding experience for me too, as I have heard them start to self correct "un" to "une" and vice versa as they are reading. They're also getting used to the idea that they DON'T say "Dans ma salle de classe, il y a 4 un crayons!" 

Yay for progress :) 

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Les mots usuels

Next week we will be starting some sight word practice. As the focus is still very much on oral communication, we will only be focusing on 4 words per week. This will NOT be the main focus of our week - we will still be focusing on acquiring new vocabulary. 

I've made up the first set of sight word practice on tpt with some fun activities to do throughout the week. We will NOT be doing all of the pages each week, but they've all been included in case you want some extra activities. We decided to also photocopy one activity onto the back of each week's poem so that our students can practice them at home as well. You could also laminate them to put in your centres. 

Here is what is included in the file: Set #1/Turquoise

For each set of 4 words: 
-->Spin worksheet (hold paperclip in place with pencil, spin the paperclip) - colour the word it lands on 
-->Read and colour the words (following the legend)
-->Spin (paperclip) and graph the sight words
-->Trace, cut and glue, and write the words
-->Magnifying glass hunt - write the words you find
-->Summary word search and template (so students can make their own to practice)

Summary "Bang" game to practice and review

Summary "Bug in a rug" game to practice and review

22 set bingo cards to practice and review:

(I printed mine in black and white to save ink, and used a turquoise sticker to mark them)

Set of word wall strips to use for word work:

(I printed mine on turquoise card stock)

7 page mini book - to practice and check off when each word can be read:

Assessment tracker - to send home once you've finished the 28 sight words: 

Vocabulary list: 
le
la
un
une
a
est
et
les
je
tu
j'ai
c'est
ma
mon
maman
papa
dans
ami
amie
qui
ou
mes
moi
voici
va
de

As always, if you've bought this pack and there is a way that I can make it more useful for you in your classroom, send me an email! I would be happy to try to improve it for you :) 

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Word wall clips

This year I've been organizing my word walls on clips! 

I use shower curtain hooks from dollarama and clip them together! My students can grab them for word work games and for writing help! The white hooks on the wall are from dollarama too - but they didn't stick without the help of a hot glue gun :)

The last picture is a tupperware with salt (also from dollarama). The white salt didn't show up when I traced in it, so I added a few drops of food colouring and shook it around to make green salt! They use a sharp pencil to trace the letters.

These are the word wall packs I have so far:
Seasons and celebrations
Sight words
Basic vocabulary

If there's something else that you're looking for leave a note in the comments :) I can make up more strips with different themes! 

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Sight word flashcards

I am going to use these when I pull my students to work in small group on their sight words. They're a bit more fun than just a flashcard with the word on it. I added the sentences and images to give them some context. 

Later in the year I am also going to use them in pocket charts as a mini word wall, but not until we start doing more writing. 

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Reading game - Memory with sight words

I use this game for "working with words" during daily 5. I choose 6-10 pairs, depending on the sight words we are currently working on in class. 

I play with small groups of students who are working on learning the same sight words. 

My class really likes to play memory. To make it more challenging, they have to use the word in a French sentence before getting to keep the pair of cards. 

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Loto – les mots fréquents

What games do you like to play to practice sight words? I use this set here.

My kids have tried:

-         -  Bug in a rug - Hide the bug under your cards. The student who guesses the card (pronounced correctly) with the bug underneath it gets to hide it the next time.

-         -  Memory – choose a handful of cards, flip them over. When a student correctly flips over a matching pair, they get to keep that pair. We play that they can only keep the pair IF they can say the words correctly.

-          - Loto – One person plays the bingo caller (or they can take turns pulling the bingo cards form a bucket). They have to repeat the word (to get them talking) before placing the token on their board. They love shouting “Loto!” (even though we keep playing when they get loto). You can use anything as your "tokens" (pasta shapes, small blocks, bingo chips, etc). 

What do your kids like to play?? 

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