Tuesday 12 January 2016

Week of Jan 12th - 15th 2016

mardi le 12 janvier, 2016

Chers familles de Division 6,

In French Language Arts this week, students are practicing their writing through practice of their dictée words and sentences with chalk and chalkboards. Students are also writing their draft letters to their new Doncaster pen pals. Paying attention to detail with punctuation, capitol letters and verb endings are being emphasized more as we learn to self-correct and proofread our written work. In reading, students continue to do daily individual reading where they get to choose from a variety of picture books, chapter books, magazines and their library books. Today, in groups of 2, students did some purposeful reading with atlases, by looking for specific information in order to answer questions orally. Students are also encouraged to share what they read orally as a "show and tell" type of activity.

In Grade 3 English this week, students will learn more about prefixes and suffixes. Identifying words within words can help increase reading comprehension. This helps build English vocabulary and word identification. For example, restart (to start again) and unforgettable (to not forget). We are also continuing our novel study of Stuart Little, chapter 4.

In Math, grade 2 students are practicing speed and fluency by adding and subtracting to 20. They will have weekly quizzes in this order: 0, 1, 10, 9, 8, 5, 2, 4, 3, 6 and 7. They will then be moving into adding and subtracting 2-digit numbers over the next 6 weeks. In grade 3 Math this week, students have a multiplication quiz on Wednesday. They are also doing multiplication drills and card games up to 10 x 10. We will soon begin division of one-digit numbers.

In Social Studies, we have started our mapping unit. We are exploring the atlas and learning the different parts of a map such as the title, legend, north arrow, scale and colours. Students have mapped their classroom and we are now planning a classroom project- mapping Quadra school. To create this large map we will apply our tracing, writing and teamwork skills. We will also use our classroom IPad to take photos of school staff members.

Chinese New Year is coming up on February 8th, therefore students have created beautiful dot pictures of their favourite Chinese zodiak animal. 2016 is the year of the monkey. Come and see their beautiful artwork in the classroom! This week, students will create and complete lanterns and creative face collages they had started last week.

From now until March, during our Friday gym block, we will participate in an exciting in-school program offered by PISE (Pacific Institute for Sport Excellence). They will teach students a variety of movement skills and Physical Literacy. We will also continue being active on a regular basis by doing outdoor activities such as running and basketball.

Today we had a wonderful guest speaker and trumpet player from the Victoria Symphony Orchestra! Students were very excited to learn about orchestral instrument names and families. We will be going to the University of Victoria by bus in February to watch this group perform. More details to come by email.

Have a wonderful week everyone! Mme Garcin