mardi le 13 janvier, 2015
Dear Div 6 families,
In Language Arts this week, students are continuing to learn and apply irregular verbs être (to be) and avoir (to have) in the present tense. These 2 verbs are very important to know, not only in the present tense, but also because they make up the first part of the past tense "le passé composé", which I will explain below.
Students are also beginning to learn the two past tenses: "le passé composé" and "l'imparfait". Students are learning to identify them in a text, and in their journal writing, especially when they wrote about their holidays. Le "passé composé" is used when a precise action happened and was completed. For example: J'ai vu le film "Titanic" pendant mes vacances (I saw the movie "Titanic" during my holiday). Another example, Je suis allée à la piscine hier (I went to the pool yesterday). Both these actions are complete and have 2 parts (j'ai vu= I saw, je suis allée= I went). Part 1 (j'ai/je suis) is always the present tense of the auxiliary verb "être" or "avoir" and part 2 is the past participle of the main verb. On the other hand, "l'imparfait" is a past action that is incomplete, a description of something or a habitual event. For example: Je mangeais lorsque mon ami parlait (I was eating while my friend was talking). We will continue to learn and apply the present tense and these 2 past tenses in our French oral and written language.
In Math we are continuing to practice our multiplication and division skills up to 10, with the help of manipulatives such as tokens, cards and dice and worksheets. This week we are also decoding word problems and learning to show our work and answer the question using a full sentence. Students are continuing to learn how to read a 24h clock and count money. Together as a class we will problem solve (estimate and calculate) how much money we should have for the pool and how much we need. We will then count our pool money (loonies, quarters, dimes and nickels) together to make sure we have enough.
In Science, students have been working outdoors to identify natural and human-made structures, as well as label the various parts of a building (door, roof, window, etc). In Social Studies we are learning about early human settlement of North America and our cultural background using maps and atlases. We are learning the names of our 7 continents as we learn where all the various people came from who now call Canada their home. We have integrated art and structures by building small model First Nations canoes, which is how many people traveled long distances from one continent to another, even before sailing ships. We are also learning about the various First Nations cultures of North America, beginning with the Inuit from the north. Come and see our beautiful chalk art posted in the class!
This coming Friday we have a special rhythmic gymnastics activity in the morning, followed by our field trip to Crystal pool in the afternoon. Also very exciting, throughout the second term our weekly Friday morning library visit will be hosted by our school librarian Mr Mark Leischner.
Passez une très belle semaine! Mme Garcin