Chers familles de division 6,
Another exciting week of learning has begun! In French Language Arts we are continuing to learn about the past tense and looking for it in a variety of texts such as books, pen pal letters and our journals. As students become familiar with the passé composé, they will also learn about another common past tense: l'imparfait. This past tense is used to describe what was going on in the past or during an ongoing event that is not yet completed (whereas the passé composé is used for a specific past event or succession of events that are complete). It is not always easy to figure out which past tense to use, so students will continue to learn about this in future grades. When identifying them in texts, remember that passé composé is always made up of two parts (J'ai mangé= I ate) and the imparfait is one part, often with an ai sound at the end (Je mangeais= I was eating). In Writing, our goal is to finish our pen pal letters this week and start writing a fictional story. In Reading, students are reading with me one-on-one. We are looking for verbs in the past tense as well as working on fluency and comprehension.
In Math this week, grade 2's are working on a graphing unit. They are learning 1-1 correspondence (for example one square on a line graph is equal to one person). They are also discussing the likelihood of events happening, which helps to interpret the graph and introduces the concept of statistics. In Grade 3, students are beginning a geometry unit where they will be learning about both 2D and 3D shapes.
In Science, last week we got our hands dirty and sifted through our worm bin to harvest our delicious soil. We created a new home for our worms using newspaper, cardboard, soil, sand, water and fresh food scraps. Our fresh soil was used for planting our vegetable starters, sent home for Mother's Day. Hopefully plants made it home safely and can now rest in a warm sunny window sill for a few more weeks. Make sure to give them plenty of water! Students also learned more about food webs today and the importance of both plants and animals. Students have also been shown how to create a PowerPoint presentation. They will soon choosing an animal and habitat of their choice from the National Geographic for Kids website.
In Art this week, students are putting their Emily Carr painting on display in the gym. Come and see our school-wide Art and Book Show Open House display on Wednesday evening from 6-7pm. This week, students will create stone art. These can make wonderful paper weights and door stoppers!
In PE, students will continue their tennis lessons in the gym, and track & field activities outside. A reminder that whole school photos will be on Thursday, so students are encouraged to attend school if they can.
Have a wonderful week,
Mme Garcin