DON'T MISS IT!

Come cheer on your friends at the Lacombe Arena today at 4 pm!  Payton, Madison, and some of the girls from Mme Meston's class will be showing off their stellar ringette skills in today's game, and would love your support!  

The Chaos - a poem for the parents

Some days in the English Language Arts classroom, I find that we can come up with more exceptions to the rules, than "followers".  I came across this poem a little while ago, and it explains the situation in a delightfully fun fashion.   I urge you to read it aloud to yourself.  It's lengthy, but worth the read.  Enjoy!
 

The Chaos, by G. Nolst Trenite, aka Charivarius (1870-1946)

Dearest creature in creation,
Study English pronunciation.
I will teach you in my verse
Sounds like corpse, corps, horse, and worse.
I will keep you, Suzy, busy,
Make your head with heat grow dizzy.
Tear in eye, your dress will tear.
So shall I! Oh hear my prayer.
Just compare heart, beard, and heard,
Dies and diet, lord and word,
Sword and sward, retain and Britain.
(Mind the latter, how it’s written.)
Now I surely will not plague you
With such words as plaque and ague.
But be careful how you speak:
Say break and steak, but bleak and streak;
Cloven, oven, how and low,
Script, receipt, show, poem, and toe.
Hear me say, devoid of trickery,
Daughter, laughter, and Terpsichore,
Typhoid, measles, topsails, aisles,
Exiles, similes, and reviles;
Scholar, vicar, and cigar,
Solar, mica, war and far;
One, anemone, Balmoral,
Kitchen, lichen, laundry, laurel;
Gertrude, German, wind and mind,
Scene, Melpomene, mankind.
Billet does not rhyme with ballet,
Bouquet, wallet, mallet, chalet.
Blood and flood are not like food,
Nor is mould like should and would.
Viscous, viscount, load and broad,
Toward, to forward, to reward.
And your pronunciation’s OK
When you correctly say croquet,
Rounded, wounded, grieve and sieve,
Friend and fiend, alive and live.
Ivy, privy, famous; clamour
And enamour rhyme with hammer.
River, rival, tomb, bomb, comb,
Doll and roll and some and home.
Stranger does not rhyme with anger,
Neither does devour with clangour.
Souls but foul, haunt but aunt,
Font, front, wont, want, grand, and grant,
Shoes, goes, does. Now first say finger,
And then singer, ginger, linger,
Real, zeal, mauve, gauze, gouge and gauge,
Marriage, foliage, mirage, and age.
Query does not rhyme with very,
Nor does fury sound like bury.
Dost, lost, post and doth, cloth, loth.
Job, nob, bosom, transom, oath.
Though the differences seem little,
We say actual but victual.
Refer does not rhyme with deafer.
Fe0ffer does, and zephyr, heifer.
Mint, pint, senate and sedate;
Dull, bull, and George ate late.
Scenic, Arabic, Pacific,
Science, conscience, scientific.
Liberty, library, heave and heaven,
Rachel, ache, moustache, eleven.
We say hallowed, but allowed,
People, leopard, towed, but vowed.
Mark the differences, moreover,
Between mover, cover, clover;
Leeches, breeches, wise, precise,
Chalice, but police and lice;
Camel, constable, unstable,
Principle, disciple, label.
Petal, panel, and canal,
Wait, surprise, plait, promise, pal.
Worm and storm, chaise, chaos, chair,
Senator, spectator, mayor.
Tour, but our and succour, four.
Gas, alas, and Arkansas.
Sea, idea, Korea, area,
Psalm, Maria, but malaria.
Youth, south, southern, cleanse and clean.
Doctrine, turpentine, marine.
Compare alien with Italian,
Dandelion and battalion.
Sally with ally, yea, ye,
Eye, I, ay, aye, whey, and key.
Say aver, but ever, fever,
Neither, leisure, skein, deceiver.
Heron, granary, canary.
Crevice and device and aerie.
Face, but preface, not efface.
Phlegm, phlegmatic, ass, glass, bass.
Large, but target, gin, give, verging,
Ought, out, joust and scour, scourging.
Ear, but earn and wear and tear
Do not rhyme with here but ere.
Seven is right, but so is even,
Hyphen, roughen, nephew Stephen,
Monkey, donkey, Turk and jerk,
Ask, grasp, wasp, and cork and work.
Pronunciation (think of Psyche!)
Is a paling stout and spikey?
Won’t it make you lose your wits,
Writing groats and saying grits?
It’s a dark abyss or tunnel:
Strewn with stones, stowed, solace, gunwale,
Islington and Isle of Wight,
Housewife, verdict and indict.
Finally, which rhymes with enough,
Though, through, plough, or dough, or cough?
Hiccough has the sound of cup.
My advice is to give up!!!

Treat Day Rescheduled

Due to the snow day on Wednesday, treat day has been rescheduled for Monday, January 23rd.

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Don't forget to click on the tabs above to link through to wonderful things like vocabulary words in French Language Arts,  Science websites, Digital Citizenship videos, and so much more!!

Les nouvelles de janvier

We hope you had a wonderful holiday.  It's great to be together in the classroom again, with new energy and enthusiastic learners.  Upon hearing all of the stories, it sounds like Santa was very generous this year!  We would like to say thank you for the delicious goodies for our class party, the volunteers for the White Elephant Sale, the many special gifts and treats, and most importantly, the good wishes you shared with us before the holidays began. We are grateful that you are so caring and supportive.  Your involvement in your child's education is much appreciated, and so beneficial for their learning!

Please click on the tabs along the top to go directly to specific subject updates & related links and videos.

Happy New Year!

Please excuse me while I clean the cobwebs off the blog.  It's been a while since I have posted on here, and things have gotten dusty. 

I will pop in over the next couple days to bring you updates on our plans for January after I touch base with Mme Graves and Mme Forman.  Keep checking back in, or sign up at the bottom of the blog for email alerts that will notify you when we've updated things.

Happy New Year to you all!  I hope that your Christmas break was filled with fun, friends, family, love and laughter!

Warmly,
Mrs. Somers-Brown