lundi le 19 janvier, 2015
This week in French Language Arts students are learning the irregular verbs aller (to go) and faire (to do) in the present tense. We are learning to also identify them in the past tenses which are called passé compose and imparfait. These two verb tenses are described in detail in last week's post. Students are learning to apply these verbs in their writing, and identify the verb tenses with colour coded pens. We will also do a review of the regular present tense verbs we learned in term 1: -re, -ir and -er verbs, and the 4 irregular verbs we are learning now: être, avoir, aller et faire. Today, students sang and created songs in small groups to help them remember our two newest verbs: aller and faire.
In English this week we are reviewing possessive nouns and introducing homonyms. Students also practice their spelling words with mini-chalk boards. Next week we will begin learning sentence types such as a simple sentences (an independent clause) and a compound sentences (2 clauses, for example with and, so and for).
On Friday, there is also a school wide literacy event on Friday morning called "Reading Around Quadra". All teachers and staff will be reading a book in a different room throughout the school (even the janitor!) from 9:40-10:10am. Students will have a choice of where they would like to go!
In Math we are continuing to learn how to read a 24-hour clock with fun mini-clocks that students can experiment and quiz each other with. We are also continuing to review multiplication and division techniques. This week I will introduce addition and subtraction using the old stacking method (up and down). We will compare this older method to our new mental math strategies (left to right). This will lead into our money counting exercises.
In Science we are continuing our structures unit by building shapes using various materials such as straws and play dough. We will compare the shapes and stability of what we build. By the way, students are asked to start collecting recycling box materials for their final group project: building a solid tower. The largest recycled object allowed is one shoe box, and a bag full of materials labeled with the student's name.
In Social Studies this week, we have a local Indigenous storyteller, Leslie McGarry who will be coming to talk about local First Nations culture. She will also be guiding us through our BC museum field trip coming up on the morning of Thursday, February 12th.
In PE this week we will be playing hockey. On Friday for art we are making tie-dye shirts. Remember to bring a white cotton t-shirt in a zip lock bag before Thursday!
Have a wonderful week! Mme Garcin