Posted in French

Ithaca

A journey to Ithaca never ends………..

 

My dear parents and students,

 

Our educational journey is almost coming to a close for this school year, with lots of positive moments and maybe a few challenging ones, at times. Speaking for myself, one of the greatest moments was when I joined the OJCS school, meeting such beautiful people and appreciating the Jews values and heritage that are celebrated. Being a diplomat’s wife, I am certainly used to developing an appreciation for different cultures and traditions and making lifelong friendships, but teaching in a school with a trilingual curriculum is unique. Shifting from “Good morning” to “Bonjour” and “Shalom” daily, opens a door to a whole new world not only for our kiddos but for us, the teachers as well. I don’t want to start listing the advantages of such education because; I am sure you all know them very well, and you can see the results everyday. However, I would like to stress  that as we all try to achieve our goals, it is important not to lose sight of the journey. Ithaca, in Homer’s Odyssey, symbolizes this idea of a destination as a long and winding journey, where the supreme aim is to find fulfillment, such as changing careers, getting a new job, passing an exam, coping with a serious health problem, moving to another country, or school, going through the loss of a parent, and so forth. Constantine Cavafy (one of the most renowned Greek poets) wrote the poem “Ithaca” in 1911, inspired by Odysseus’ journey home after the end of the Trojan War. Cavafy describes Odysseus seeing amazing things, without caring for the destination as he is, advised: “Do not hurry your trip in any way.” That’s what we should all pray for dear friends and students, a long trip full of adventures, difficulties that grow us, and numerous learning opportunities so that when we reach our destination, we will be rich in maturity, knowledge, and wisdom. No matter the hardships, never give up!

Now I would like you all to listen to the poem recited by the amazing Sean Connery and set to the music of Vangelis Papathanassiou. 

 

Sean Connery reads ITHAKA | Powerful Life Poem by C.P.Cavafy

 

Posted in 1A, French, General Studies

A school where fun never ends!

The school is buzzing right now! There has been so much activity lately at the school, and students are shining. Kids enjoyed spending a morning with their grandparents doing fun activities in all three languages, and they proudly showed them their work. For Mother’s Day, they made beautiful cards with wishes in French, and we read how people celebrate this special day in other countries. They keep practicing their reading and writing skills through reading buddies and playing games so that they can review all the new vocabulary, such as spring, the parts of the body, and animals. We are currently learning about animal habitats like the sea, the jungle, the farm, and the type of food they eat, and of course, as the weather steadily improves, we spend some time outdoors. As the end of the school year is getting closer, I insist on reading with the children daily so they can finish Grade 1 positively and successfully.

 

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The Three Little Pigs

 

1A had fun reading The Three Little Pigs recently. After reading the story, I challenged the class to build three solid houses that the big bad wolf couldn’t blow down. The requirements were that each group needed to make a straw house, a stick house, and a brick house. The students got excited and started to build. The Big Bad Wolf/Mrs. Bennett came calling.

                                                                 

I huffed and puffed, used a hair dryer, and made wind with a plastic top. As much as I huffed and puffed, I could not blow the houses down. All the structures were stable and standing: the children were so happy.      

The class wanted to write a new version of the Three Little Pigs. Listen to the children read their story of The Three Little Pigs.

Listen to the stories we wrote and recorded. We hope you enjoy them.

 

Posted in French

Le printemps est ici!

 

The students had another two weeks of great learning at the OJCS. Spring is finally here so we started exploring the vocabulary, reading stories and short poems, creating sentences with the words and doing fun and  educational activities. We also visited the restaurants that Grade 5 created. We saw the menus, we spoke with the owners, ordered food and drinks in French, and we voted for the best restaurant. The kids enjoyed it a lot.We celebrated the 75th anniversary of Israel by working in different stations, making the salads for the pitas and the falafel,l and dancing traditional dances. Finally the students learnt the song ”tête, épaule, genou et pieds” because the body is our next topic. On Friday they did reading buddies with Grade 5. Grade 1 proudly read to them, wrote a few simple sentences related to the story, and played word games. As we are slowly heading  to the end of the school year, I see my stars truly SHINE!.Their talent to switch from Hebrew to French and vice versa is staggering.They learn from me, and I learn from them!!!!!!

Posted in 1A, French, General Studies

La Francophonie

      

La beauté de la langue française!!!

Alors les amis, why celebrate la Francophonie? I can think of thousands of reasons why but it comes down to one thing: we love the french language because it is smooth, rich, and flowing: we love speaking french because, with its nasal vowels and melodious intonation, it sounds very musical to a non-native ear. We want to learn French because it is also called the language of love, cooking, fashion, theater, visual arts, dance, and architecture.

During la francofête at our school, we had the pleasure to admire all the students from JK-grade 8 sing, dance, act, and recite poems in french!!!! All the teachers worked hard to make that happen. The students were proud of themselves, and their energy and passion were evident throughout the afternoon. During the week of the francophonie, they read books, heard stories, watched movies, played games, learned the ten magic words, and tasted french treats. Alors mes amis as the legendary teacher Dorothy Grace Boyajian once said, “Let us keep the flame of knowledge alive so we can light the candle of our children.”

A très bientôt!  

 

     

The latest from 1A

A Virtual Author Visit

JK to Gr. 2 students got a virtual visit from Lark the Shark author Natalie Newman from her home in the U.K. The story and presentation helped our students learn about sharks and their role in the ocean ecosystem. Natalie shared how she wrote the book with her son and her son after learning about pollution in the ocean in his Grade 2 classroom. The students were curious about the publishing process, and Natalie talked about how they wrote the book. I think some students will be writing their books one day.

 

 

                                      Math Olympics

 

In honour of Pi Day on March 14th, students celebrated a love of Math by participating in the first-ever 1A Math Olympics. The children picked their teams a chose a name. The Marvelous Mathers, Math Detectors, and the Air Force A Math AA teams problem-solved, collaborated, and had fun with Math.
Congratulations to the Marvelous Mathers for winning the 1A Olympics!

 

Take a look at our opening ceremony

 

 

La semaine de la Francophonie

La semaine de la francophonie was lots of fun. The students loved all the French activities on Wednesday afternoon. The first stop was visiting the Makerspace cafe for croissants and hot chocolate. Obstacle courses, word searches, and bingo helped the children review all the French they are learning this year.

1A enjoyed a workshop with Quinn, our school social worker. Quinn taught about empathetic and active listening. The children practiced using listening skills by playing a few games. The students will continue to work on these skills throughout the rest of the year.

Posted in French, General Studies, Jewish Studies

Purim,la joie du carnaval

A different week Rush Week full of happy faces, fun, smiles, and dazzling colours has finished. Purim allowed me, along with my kiddos discover what this celebration means and symbolizes. Through fun activities, we watched, heard, and told the story of Purim in French. We discussed the good and bad main characters of the story. We learned new vocabulary and hid by dressing up in costumes, appearing as something else, while our true selves remained hidden underneath the masquerade. It was an incredible experience for ME and a fun time for THEM!

 

Both classes got together on Purim to have Ruach filled day. We made graggers. We loved listening to the Megillah Reading Rabbi Kenter. We had a fabulous fashion show. It was amazing how everyone got the same overall score from our judges. Moreh Saar, Ms. Karissa, and Mrs. Bennett claim all participants gave their best performance, so they had to give everyone the best possible score.

 

 

Posted in French

Les plaisirs’hiver

Salut les parents,

It’s time for a well-deserved break for all of us! The kids have been working beautifully, enriching their vocabulary, improving their writing, and practicing speaking French. After the winter clothes, they learned geometrical shapes by playing games and activities like building structures. They were quite amazed to discover that most  words derived from the Greek language, like pentagone,hexagone, etc. We also worked on the winter vocabulary, and we learned everything that is associated with the snow. They played charades, memory games, and puzzles to help them remember the words. Going outdoors during recess gave them the opportunity to practice the vocabulary. The children studied prepositions, and drew pictures of their room. The students presented their room pictures to the class while describing the location of some objects with the prepositions sur,dans,sous,devant, etc. In writing the children produced their first complete sentences using est( is). They were very proud of themselves. We are continuing with our complex sounds like CH and OI, and the best way to practice is by doing ‘Je lis’ regularly. I insist on them listening to the story many times before recording so they pronounce the words correctly. I am happy to see that they have become more comfortable with common words like Voici, C’est, Mon, Regarde, etc. During the break, try to expose them to the French language as much as possible, outings to museums, french cartoons like Caillou(there are over 400 episodes on the YouTube channel), french songs, and free online Apps like Duolingo, Hello-World French Children’s Activities can all make this journey for the kids educational and fun.

Have an exciting and wonderful break!


Posted in 1A, French, General Studies

French and General Studies Update

Salut Grade 1 Parents!

The last two weeks we have been talking about winter clothes and we have been doing different fun activities so that the children can remember the new vocabulary. It goes without saying that we regularly review previous words such as the colours, the numbers, the days etc.  Next  week we are learning the geometrical shapes. As far as reading is concerned, I follow their reading daily insisting on the correct pronunciation and the meaning of the words. In addition, I read with each one of them almost every day in order to boost their confidence. Since they are familiar with the books in Je lis, I started giving them simple  comprehension activities related to the stories so they get the chance to see, write and read the words again. Regarding the sounds, we have started exploring the complex ones like U, and OU and we will continue doing so because once they can recognise them, their reading will improve considerably. I strongly encourage you to go over the sheets they bring home when you have some free time, or even when you are out, and you see a sign in french ask them to identify any sound they know.  The great thing about Canada is that everything is written in both languages so even a simple walk to the supermarket can be a learning experience. Don’t forget that repetition is the mother of learning.

 

  

General Studies in 1A

Treasure Hunt

Excitement filled the halls on Tuesday as the class participated in a well-earned treasure hunt. Each clue had the children reading and walking around the school. The children loved discovering and walking through the maze. The treasure was found and divvied up amongst the class. I think I loved it as much as the children.

 

Groundhog Day

The students made their Spring predictions for Groundhog Day on Thursday. We then watched how Wiarton Willie and Punxsutawney Phil predicted an early Spring and a late Spring, respectively. The class predictions showed most of the class thinking it will be a late Spring.

 

 

Math

The children have been busy working on addition and subtraction facts this week.  On Thursday, we practised math facts by playing fun math games. Quinn, our school social worker, even joined in on the fun.

 

Team Building Activity

How does a class finish off the week on a bitterly cold day with no outdoor recess? You get together with 1B to do a team-building activity. Ms. Karissa challenged the children to pass a hula hoop around the circle while holding hands with each other. The students did it as one big group and then made two smaller circles to move the hula hoop. Two Grade six students came to help the classes with this activity. It was so much fun!

Posted in 1B, French

French Update and Chag Chanukah!

Salut les parents!

What an exciting month December has been!!! We are all looking forward to observing different celebrations and spending quality time with our loved ones. In class, we started our theme, Winter. The students got familiar with the new vocabulary through games, poems, songs, and writing activities. We keep working on our letters and sounds, and I must admit that I am happy with their recordings. The more they read and practice, the better they become. After the holidays, they will also do a comprehension activity linked to each story. This will help them understand the story and remember the vocabulary. In addition, we did some math activities in french learning, plus, égale, and practicing the numbers. We also watched a show about the planets, and the kids drew Space with the names of the different planets. Finally, we explored all the vocabulary associated with the celebration of Hanukkah, and they did a word search, mazes, and decoding sentences, bingo games.

 

They sang beautifully in french during the school event. And as if that was not enough, I decided to expose them to Greek mythology so I read to them the story of Dedalus and Icarus the famous engineers who constructed the wings to escape from the prison in Crete, but unfortunately, the latter did not follow the father`s advice and flew very close to the sun so his wings melted and he fell in the sea and died. They were so excited! so along with the drama teacher we made the wings, and the kids decorated them with feathers. They flew only in the classroom. Thank goodness!
I wish you all happy and restful holidays!

 

Chag Chanukah

This week has been a beautiful week of Chanukah Celebrations and fun activities! Together with Moreh Saar we lit the candles each day at school.

On Wednesday, together with our Reading buddies in Grade 6 we made Edible Dreidels! They were so yummy! After we ate our dreidels, we read Chanukah stories together. We look forward to January for more fun with Our Reading Buddies. 

What would you do if you were trapped in a snow globe? Here’s what 1A would do!

Look at our delicious Latkes that we made! They were so yummy! While the teachers fried Latkes, the class enjoyed sharing and playing with their games from home for our Games Day!

 

Playing Backgammon with Moreh Saar was a popular choice for Games Day!

At this time I would like to say it has been a true joy and a pleasure to have taught your children! They made coming out of retirement and being back in the classroom a great place to be!  Thank you everyone, for being such a supportive group of parents. I’m so happy that Mrs. Bennett has healed so well and is ready to be back with the Grade 1 class.  I know how excited she is to be with your children. 

Have a safe ,happy and healthy Winter Break Everyone! 

Morah Yaffa

 

 

 

Posted in French

French Update

Salut les parents,
Another exciting week full of learning and fun is over.  The students proudly recited the poem “Voici mon coquelicot” during the Remembrance Day ceremony on Friday.  Apart from that, they also learned the song ,”Mon beau coquelicot”.  We did different exercises where the students had to put the missing first letter of the word after hearing me say the word.  That exercise develops both their listening and writing skills.  In addition, I was reading different sentences to them with already familiar vocabulary and expressions, and they had to match them with the correct photo.  We also continued practicing our numbers and this week they need to learn another poem related to that.  Finally, we watched two stories in French, which they enjoyed a lot and afterwards they had to tell me what they liked the most and then draw it.
Here are the links for the stories and songs:
 https://youtu.be/QmTnK8f8DW8 (Mon joli coquelicot)
https://youtu.be/ExHZl0CvrUw (Le petit bout dans la chaussure)

Posted in French

French Update

Salut les parents,

This week the students listened to a song about Jour de Souvenir( Remembrance Day), entitled, ‘Mon beau Coquelicot’, coloured a poppy and practiced reciting our poem, which they will proudly present next Friday during the ceremony. We continued practicing numbers this week adding the expression “Il y a” (there is / there are). With this new expression, they made examples about what can by found in their house, for example, “il y a trois ordinateurs noirs dans ma maison”, so as you can see, we are gradually making our sentences longer. They also separated French words related to autumn into syllables and placed them in the correct basket (see pictures below). In class we always focus on sound recognition and syllable reading using the French book Taoki. Every Friday, I check the homework so I was so happy with both their dedication and your support. Your effort is highly appreciated. Every time they bring home their work, I urge you to take a few minutes and go over it together.  On Tuesday you will find in their note totes their accounts for ‘Je Lis’where I have assigned 2 books for them to read and record.

A tout a l’heure!