Thoughts after the first day

I'm happy to say we had a lot of fun on our first day! A few tears, lots of questions, too much paperwork and the usual array of first-day jitters and mixups. You will find a letter in your child's bookbag clarifying the new traffic laws at Beachy Cove Elementary, which should help clarify any issues we had today. As I mentioned in my previous post, there are also number of other forms and one piece of writing that I would like you to sign/complete and send back tomorrow.

For the rest of the week we will focus on introducing the major elements of this year's curriculum and doing some fun activities to get everyone in the mood for learning. I hope to do a few simple science experiments, math games and read-alouds to this end.

I have embedded a link to the Canadian Parents for French website. It has a huge amount of great resources and is something I use constantly as a reference.

http://www.cpf.ca/eng/home.html

Hope everyone sleeps well tonight, and talk to you soon. Feel free to leave comments if you have any questions or ideas, and I can always be reached at sampaterson@esdnl.ca

Thanks,

Sam "Monsieur" Paterson

We made it to lunchtime!

It was great to meet some parents and all the kids this morning, and we're having a great time so far. We've done a few familiarity exercises, gone over things like rules and protocol in class, and learned a new math game.

I have also sent home a number of sheets to sign/complete and return, ranging from volunteer applications to emergency contacts. Each student borrowed a book or two from our class library, which they can keep for up to a week. If you are ever wondering which book they have out, we have a log in class of who has taken what.

A lot of the students have told me that they read at home, which is great. It is a great idea (as I'm sure you all know) to read with them as much as possible and encourage them to read their French books as well.
Throughout the course of the week, we will be developing a manual that will outline the rules, expectations, routines and other protocol we are working through right now. My hope is that they will use it as a reference and take ownership of our class.

I went a bit easy on speaking exclusively French today, since there is always a lag after summer. However, we will be bringing in a positive-reinforcement token system of some sort in the next couple of days. 

Thanks,

Sam Paterson