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.

Top Tabs!

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

Busy, Busy, Busy

This past Friday, we wrapped up Artist in Residency week with a special assembly on Friday by Les Bucherons, followed by Cabane à sucre - a wonderful opportunity to enjoy another French Canadian tradition of maple syrup on ice, before saying goodbye to Les Bucherons, as they moved on to delight more Canadian students with their songs and stories.  What a whirlwind adventure!

This week started off with celebrations of Halloween throughout the school on Monday, with the students partaking in a school-wide hallway parade of costumes, enjoying special activities in various A-Den classrooms, and finally returning to the classroom for snacks and games to wrap up the afternoon. The costumes were fantastic, and thank you to the families who shared treats with the class, and also to the parents who joined the class for the afternoon activities - in costume as well!  Wow! 

A quick reminder that the school-wide Remembrance Day assembly will be held tomorrow morning (Wednesday) in the gymnasium.  Please join us as we honor those who have served and sacrificed to protect the safety and freedom of Canadians and people around the world. 

Students will also be given a yellow ribbon to take home and display as part of the town-wide campaign in recognition of Master Corporal Byron Greff, a former Lacombe resident who lost his life last week in Afganistan.

...AND finally, if you haven't already bookmarked our website, or you want to recommend it to other Grade three families, or even grandparents, you can now access this blog from the school website by opening the STAFF page, and clicking on the names of Mme. Graves, Mme. Forman or myself.

Les Bucherons Performances

Reminder:
Students will be performing in the gym as a whole school this afternoon, showing off the new skills  they've been practicing with Les Bucherons.  Performance will be at 2:15 pm this afternoon.

Les Bucherons themselves will also be performing tomorrow morning as well from 9-10 am.

See you there!

Scholastic Book Orders Due Thursday, Oct. 27

I forgot to post a reminder on the blog yesterday, so I will be accepting Scholastic Book orders tomorrow as well for the Oct. / Nov. Book order.  I will be sending home one more set of order forms before Christmas, for those of you thinking about purchasing Scholastic Books as gifts for the children in your lives.  Please attach a note to your order if you are planning on giving the books as gifts so that I can contact you directly for pickup and don't give them to your child.

News Flash

Kermit the Frog here, reporting to you live from the Enchanted Forest classroom in EJSM.  There is a series of short, silly video clips that we have been enjoying with our unit studies that offer another perspective on traditional fairy tales.

Here are two class favorites to get you started:







REMINDER:


Please keep checking the Important Dates in the sidebar when you stop by the blog. They are updated as needed, even when there are no new posts on the main page. I hope you are finding this blog a helpful addition to parent communication. If you happen to stop by the blog for a peek, please take a moment and leave a comment to let us know that you are using it..


MORE NEWS:


Don't forget that we will be celebrating the Hindu Festival of Lights called Diwali tomorrow (Friday), as an extension of the grade three Social Studies program of studies.


The students have been using the computers and MS Word software to write and edit stories about their Superheros in French Language Arts.


We look forward to participating in next week's whole school Artist in Residency program with Les Bucherons. The school will be buzzing with activity as Les Bucherons share songs, stories and traditions with all of the classes at our school over the week. Have a peek at Les Bucherons website.

Once Upon a Time

Can you believe that we are already halfway through October?  The children started their week by walking through the castle doors and into the enchanted forest. There were branches dangling from the ceiling, frogs croaking, and birds singing in the background.  A couple of small  trees had appeared, along with  a hooting owl and a hiding gnome.  There was also a beanstalk, and Jack had almost reached the top.

We spent our time together this week in ELA, with partners and as a class, learning about the identifying elements of a  fairy tale, and how to tell a fairy tale from a nursery rhyme.  We also asked these questions:  

• Why do cultures have similar fairy tales?
• How can I examine fairy tales from different cultures?
• How does the setting of a fairy tale affect the message, characters, or events?

and we began to find answers after comparing Perrault's version of Cinderella to a fairy tale set in Zimbabwe called Mufaro's Beautiful Daughters.  As the unit progresses, we will continue to reflect on these questions and search for answers in a variety of literature.  We will also be exploring "fractured" fairy tales as a means to better understand point of view and character development in writing.

Book orders arrived this week, and were sent home Friday afternoon.  I am still watching the mail for the CLICK order to arrive from Scholastic.  For those of you who ordered items from the CLICK brochure, I will send them out as soon as I receive them.  I will be sending home October's order forms next week.

The students made little lamps in celebration of Diwali with Mrs. Wessner in Art today.  They also watched this lovely video about a little girl who is celebrating her first Diwali in Canada.

Parents: Check This Out!

 CPF Alberta provincial conference on Saturday, October 22nd! REGISTER SOON!

For complete information and to register, go to  www.cpfalta.ab.ca/conference2011.htm

Gobble Gobble

Splish Splash!

Our class will be going to the Kinsmen Aquatic Centre for some swimming on this Thursday at 10:00am. Don't forget to pack a swim suit and towel that day!  Yippee!  Splash!

Les chansons

The class has been practicing some French songs with Mme. Graves.  Here are the lyrics to help with practice at home. Both songs were written by Jacquot Duschesneau. (A little tip from Mrs. Somers-Brown:  The French word "bis", means "repeat".)

Les superhéros

(Refrain)

Superhéros---------------nous voici!

Superhéros---------------les voilà!

Superhéros---------------toujours serviables!

------------Nous voici---------les voilà!

Tous les jours, (bis)

On les rencontre, (bis)

Dans les rues, (bis)

Dans tous les centres. (bis)

Il est sympa. (bis)

Elle est généreuse. (bis)

Il est intelligent. (bis)

Elle est courageuse. (bis)

Refrain

Regard-le, (bis)

C'est un superhéros. (bis)

Il est très sportif, (bis)

Il est super-fort. (bis)

Regarde-la, (bis)

Elle est exceptionnelle. (bis)

Elle vole en haut (bis)

Dans le vaste ciel. (bis)

Refrain (bis)

*****************************************************************************************

Qu'est-ce que c'est?

Refrain
"Qu'est-ce que c'est?
Ah! Dis-moi! "Qu'est-ce que c'est?
"Qu'est-ce que c'est?
Ah! Dis-moi! "Qu'est-ce que c'est?
"Qu'est-ce que c'est?
Ah! Dis-moi! "Qu'est-ce que c'est?
"Qu'est-ce que c'est?
Ah! Dis-moi! "Qu'est-ce que c'est?
Regarde autour de toi,
Et dis-moi tout ce que tu vois.
Qu'est-ce que c'est?"

C'est un livre. (bis)
C'est un cahier. (bis)
C'est une fenêtre. (bis)
C'est le plancher. (bis)
C'est un tableau. (bis)
C'est le professeur. (bis)
Nous voilà à nos pupitres, (bis)
Oh! là là! C'est le directeur qui dit:
Oh! là là!

Refrain

C'est une chaise. (bis)
C'est un crayon. (bis)
C'est un magnétophone. (bis)
C'est le plafond.(bis)
C'est une règle. (bis)
C'estun ordinateur. (bis)
Nous voilà à nos pupitres, (bis)
Oh! là là! C'est le directeur qui dit:
Oh! là là!

Refrain

C'est un corridor. (bis)
C'est un escalier. (bis)
C'est une très grande porte. (bis)
C'est un écolier. (bis)
C'est un classe. (bis)
C'est un visiteur. (bis)
Nous voilà à nos pupitres, (bis)
Oh! là là! C'est le directeur qui dit:
Oh! là là!

Refrain

****************************************************************************************

Happy singing!  We are looking forward to another wonderful week with our wonderful students! 

Time for Learning!

Mme. Forman has started teaching the students about telling time in Math.  You can practice at home  - ask your child to help you tell the time using an analog clock.  You can also help build time-telling skills by practicing counting by fives with your child.

Today the students were given individual user names and passwords for the computers at school.  We discussed the responsibility and importance of keeping our passwords private as we practiced logging into the computer and accessing the Tumble Books website.  We will continue to discuss and practice responsible digital citizenship skills and practices throughout the school year.

This week we continued our discussion about Respect.  Each student has a booklet that they are personalizing as we examine different ways to demonstrate respect as we honor our class rules:

1.  We will be respectful of ourselves.

2.  We will be respectful of others.

3.  We will be respectful of our school and community.

I have been reading "George's Marvelous Medicine" by Roald Dahl to the children over the past few weeks.  This action-packed story with it's zany storyline has become a class favorite.  Ask your child to tell you a bit about what has happened in the book so far.  We have shared many laughs thanks to George and his crabby Grandma.

As we continue to lay the foundation of the Daily 5 framework (read to self, read to others, listen to reading, word work, and work on writing) in English Language Arts, students also continue to practice choosing "Good Fit" books for their personal book boxes, and today we chatted about three ways to read a book.  They are:

1. Read the pictures.

2. Read the words.

3. Retell the story to someone else.

Please continue to check the sidebar for important dates and wonderful websites, as they are changed on an ongoing basis.

Reminders

Don't forget that the last day to bring in Milk orders & Scholastic Book orders is this Tuesday, Sept. 27th.  FOIPP forms are also due ASAP. Thanks!

I hope you all enjoyed the beautiful fall weekend!

Give It A Try!

We watched this video in class the other day, and had a quick discussion about trying things that we thought that we would never like, and being surprised at the results.  We didn't have a long time to chat about it, so I thought you might like to watch the video at home, and continue the discussion.  I challenge you all to try one thing you've been hesitant to try, and let us know in the comments how things turn out...because, as the saying goes, "You'll never know until you try!"



Enjoy your weekend!

Wonderful Websites

Hello friends!


I wanted to pop in to comment on the Tumble Books link that I had previously recommended.  Due to the  school district licensing agreement, we are unable to distribute the login/password information so you can log on from the link I had in the sidebar....however, you can still access this wonderful website by going directly to our school website and clicking on the Tumble Books link on the left sidebar.

École J.S. McCormick School

You can also find a handy link to pay your school fees, hot lunches, etc on the school website main page.


Mme. Forman has also shared some new Science websites for you to explore.  Check them out in the sidebar, on click through the links below.

 Study Jams - The Rock Cycle Sing Along

Interactive Rock Cycle (Parents may need to help navigate)

Happy surfing!

Nice To Meet You!

 Thank you to all of the parents for attending the Parent Information Evenings.  It was great to have a chance to meet the families, and let you know how everyone is settling into the school year.  

This week in your student's communication book you should find milk order forms, FOIPP forms and Scholastic book order forms. 

In regards to Scholastic book orders, if you are interested in purchasing books for children in your life that may be young readers, or above grade 3, please send me a note or email, and I will be sure to include the order booklets for those age groups in your next set of order forms.  Books make fabulous gifts!

In English Language Arts we discussed the "I PICK" method of selecting "good fit" books.  Making sure that we choose "good fit" books for ourselves helps us to become better readers, and makes reading so much more fun!

We also practiced the "Five Finger Rule" when looking at a book to see if we know most of the words.  Ask your child to explain how and why they use this method as they make book selections.

In Science with Mme. Forman, the students are learning about Rocks and Minerals, as well as the layers of the Earth.  Ask your child if they can remember the four types of rocks.

In Social Studies last week we read about Rosa from Peru, and this week we are reading about Tahar from Tunisia.  In the next week, we will also read about Oksana from Ukraine, and Anil from India.  Learning about these children helps us to learn and talk about the similarities and differences between our lives and children in other parts of the world.