April flurries bring may flowers?

Well I am not sure about you all but I am getting tired of this snow business! I hope the warm weather comes sometime soon.

This week we are looking at words with silent letters at the end, in french we call them les lettres  muettes or les lettres fantomes. I have noticed that some students tend to pronounce the lettres and then get confused with the meaning. For example we do not pronounce the "p" in trop. Most of our sight words this week all have les lettres muettes. In French we are also starting to look at comic books. This week we will compare and note all  the differences between comic books, fiction and non-fiction books. The student will have the chance to write their own comic books in the next couple of weeks. Earth is coming up so we will be brainstorming some ideas on how or what we can do to help our our environment.

In music the students were very excited to start to learn about "STOMP". We had a great introduction and they learned about vibration, amplification, frequency, and volume.

We are having some success in math as of today. I think I actually saw some light bulbs come on! Great moment! I encourage you to keep working with your child at home on this. Also if you are able to give them a good introduction to double digit subtraction at home it would be very beneficial for them when we will start to learn about it in the next coming week. I also wanted to ask you all if you could help your child with their double and double plus one math facts. I think that some do not have these master yet which is what can be holding them up.

We continue to work on adjectives in English and the students will start to learn about poetry, seeing that April is poetry month. This week we will look at the different styles of poetry and read a couple of poems by Shel Silverstein and Jack Prelutsky. The students will practice their rhyming skills and learn that not all poems have to rhyme.

In science we will be playing with thermometers and getting our hands wet for some of our experiments. This week students will learn the different parts of a thermometer and we will be putting them to the test in bowls of water. We will also be using our hands to measure temperature as well.

I am hoping to get to the art room sometime this week and work on a spring scene (If it ever comes). The students will be working with water color pencils, which can be super fun.

We keep getting post cards from around the world, a huge thank you for helping us out with this project. That is all for now. I hope things are going good at home, let me know if you need anything from me or just want some ideas on what you can do with your child at home. I am always happy to help you all out in anyway I can.
Chat soon
Laurie Anne

Happy mid month one and all!!

We are moving right along in grade two this month. The students seem to be really enjoying their time here!
This week we are going to be looking at the sound "eur" and "eu" sounds like "e" in french but is pronounced longer. Last week we wrote rhyming stories with the sound "oi". We finished them up today and the students had a chance to share them with the class. We will continue to do this with the sound "eu" for more practice on the concept of rhyming. We will continue to work on syllables this week and I will introduce the meaning of singulier et pluriel. We did talk about this a bit last week one thing that they need to remember is that when you see a word ending with "eau" or "ou" instead of adding an S to make it plural they must add an X. Example: un bateau- des bateaux or un hibou- des hiboux.

We are also going to be looking at all the different winter activities you can do inside and outside and doing an art project to go along with it. In health we have started a new unit which is on emotions. We will explore all the different emotions and discuss which are negative and positive. Each morning the students will come in and write how they are feeling next to their name, they may also feel free to change it after big recess if they feel any different.  That way we can discuss how a person can change the way they feel many times through out the day. In social studies we will be taking a closer look at the people of the three different communities. Last week we discussed what are museums, why do we have them and the different types that are out there. They really enjoyed taking a virtual tour of the Smithsonian museum of natural history. Feel free to continue exploring it seeing that we did not get a chance to see it all.
In math we continue to work on measurement and counting 1-100, by 2,5,10. We are also practising on number patterns and before and after of numbers.
Our sentence structures this week in French are: Je me sens .... I feel ....and De quoi as tu besoin? What do you need?

In English this week we are continuing to work on our tongue twisters with the blended sound "sl" Some of them are pretty funny. We will continue to work on the word family -ake, so feel free to brainstorm some words that end in that sound. Our sight words for English this week are-walk, think, learn, leave, study, live, read and write. You child may practice writing sentences with these words at home for practice.
We are also going to be exchanging our French reading books tomorrow. I will keep this the same date as when we exchange the reading program that Mme Victoria sent home.

I believe that's all for this week. I hope that the reading is going well at home let me know any time! Enjoy your week!
Mme Laurie Anne ;)

Winter blues maybe???

So I havent accomplished much since the last post. Im thinking that the winter blues have set in. However Im determined to become more active soo i dug out the ole cross country skies last weekend. I plan on going over the weekend with a friend, now just to find someone to go skating with me!!!
I have downloaded a new workout program, based off of what Demi Moore did to get in shape for GI Jane. Thanks Em for the inspirations. I think I need to just stick with one and master it. Perhaps its my lack of an attention span, thats causing me all these issues. Awwww well Im off for an afternoon work out sessions I went yesterday and now I have to keep at it.
Keep strieving forward, onward and upward.

Ive Hit a wall.......I very tall wall !!!

Soo I have done nothing, absolutly nothing. The results complete and maybe utter depression....ok maybe not that far but I am not please by any means with myself.I need something, a change, a new routine I just need something all across the board. I can not seem to get out of this slump that I am in. I am finding it really hard to be positive these last couple of weeks and maybe am putting too much on me, I dont know.
I need help....someone please give me something a little motivation, a complement, a cookie even!
Perhaps I need to listen to some uplifting music, Ill try that. Or give out some complements.
I am going to head to the gym tonight, first day in a looong while. I have no excuses other than I am lazy. I might just bike or run to clear my mind! One step at a time.

On another note, I have finished the book can you keep a secret. Rating is well its actually very good, a lot of laugh out loud moments!! I am currently reading Lullibies for little criminals. So far so good. Hope you still got your mojo!!!!

Week one complete

Soo week one is complete! I made it to the gym every day this week ok ok,except friday and saturday. I have decided that Fridays will be my day of rest from the gym.I would have went Saturday if it was not for the snow outside. I suppose I could have gone but didnt want to risk it. haha good excuse right.
 I went today and worked arms again. I was soo lazy and didnt want to be there. I think it was because I did not eat all that much in the am. I also need new tunes on the ole ipod. I find I get board with the old ones so fast.
Thursday night I went to a fitness class with one of the teachers from school it was not all that bad, total body work out thats for sure. Ilearned the importance of stretching that day. The lady puttin the class on was soo flexible, I want to be like that, perhaps I should take up yoga. Hmmmm thats a thought.
This week i want to focus on what I eat and put into my body. The cutting out chocolate thing is not going to work until i get rid of all the holiday treats that I got for Christmas, maybe I could give them to my students as prizes....I have tried that with halloween treats, but in the end kids treats =0 LAs treats= 30 (thats how many mini chocolate bars I bought to give out.
Guitar lessons start again this week soo i will have to go to the gym before guitar in order to keep this work out schedule.
I want to work on my butt this week, I seen a ladys butt today at the gym and was shocked! I have never seen a butt like it, it was like road kill I wanted to look away, but I found my eyes coming back to it. Did I mention that this was in the changing room and she was prancing around in her skippies. My question is how does an ass get to look like that..... I vowed right then and there, that from that point on I will work my butt, I will not neglect it, it keeps me cusioned soo I should look after it. Well thats all for now.
A demain

Struggle...

Tuesday I struggled to go to the gym. I almost had myself convienced to stay home and just use the weights here, in actuallity I was planning on doing nothing! I was soo tired but mainly I did not want to get out in the cold and drive into town.
I went though and Iam glad that I did. All I did was ran for 25mins of the treadmill and then biked for 15mins. Once I was finished of that I did a quick set of abs and it was off to home I went.
I am planning on going tonight after I am done of this. Goal tonight is to do some chest and back. My arms are a little sore from mondays work out!!! I want to be in bed pretty early though tonight so I dont want to stay too long.. I might go with a fellow teacher tomorrow night to a fitness class in kensington. She says the lady is intense and thats what Iam looking for, someone to push me. Well im to sweat some buckets. I think iam still working off the KFC I had for supper yesterday. I know .....not a good start to eating right. I should do an extra set of sit ups for that as punishement.

Day one complete

I really thought today that I was not going to hit up the gym, due to the weather. I ended up going but jump in with my father and uncle Ralph seeing that I didnt want to drive. If you know my uncle the drive there and back was extremely amusing!!
I had an hour to crank out a work out. So I ran for 10 mins for a warm up. Then right at it, todays work out shoulders and arms. I am using the workout from P90x, that I got from a girl when I went to Sainte Anne University for a 5 week intensive French program. I had to cut out some reps, because they were killing me. you are suppose to do 16, I started out with that, ended up finishing with 12. I finished that and then a quick round of abs. Not sure if I did a good job at rocken them seeing that they seemed rather easy. I guess tomorrow will tell the real truth.
Tomorrows gym goal is just cardio, cardio, cardio. I plan on biking for 30mins and a run for 30mins, finishing off with a round of abs.
Here is what is the work out I did tonight. If you want a detailed description let me know or just google P90x, they should show you some workout moves.
Alternating shoulder press
In &out bicep curls
Chair dips
I do all these back to back with no rest, start off with 10-12 and work your way up. I used 8 pound weights. Do three sets of 10-12.
Then move on to....
Arm curls over extended
Swimmer press
Stretch arm shoulder flys
Back to back, Do three sets of 10-12

After all that I went on to abs
in and outs
bicycle
crunchy frog
wide lef sit ups
scissors
pulse ups
oblique v
mason twist
I started out doing 15, you are suppose to do 25 but I couldnt do that, ill work my way up to that.

End weight 122.4