lundi le 28 septembre, 2015
Chers familles,
Bienvenue! This is going to be an exciting week because we are starting some engaging units and getting used to our many routines.
This week in French Language Arts, we do daily French phonics in the morning to help us learn and practice our French Oral language and word pronunciation. Today, students put some of these skills into practice by reading a short story to their new little kindergarten buddies. They also worked in pairs to learn how to find words and their definitions in a dictionary, one of many references materials students will learn to use this year. Students will also be practicing their dictée at least once per week in-class, whenever possible. The weekly dictée is on Thursday, and can be viewed on the previous blog post.
While Grade 2's do additional French Language activities with Mme Rolston on Wednesdays, Grade 3 students have started their English program with me. Together we are learning English phonics, starting with long and short vowel sounds. We will learn to read and write English through a wide variety of activities. Student's are encouraged to practice their spelling words at home with Spelling City (see direct link on previous blog post), and read as often as possible!
After Language Arts in the morning, we have Math after recess. In Math this week, Grade 2 students (with Mme Rolston) are practicing their number sense by counting by 2's, 5's and 10's up to 100, both forwards and backwards. This is an important skill to apply when learning to add and subtract larger numbers. Grade 3's this week are learning to write and identify numbers up to 1000. Today, they were introduced to the 3 symbols- greater than, less than and equal to. Students will practice these new concepts until they are ready to move onto place values up to 1000. Before the end of the week, we will be counting our Jelly Bean jar! This is great way to practice our estimation skills, and to count large numbers (in groups of 5 and 10).
In Social Studies, our first unit is about the Environment. We are thinking up of different ways we can help the environment. For example, we are getting into the routine of reducing our waste, re-using classroom materials, using less water, turning lights off and recycling our lunch containers. We will soon be composting our own food waste and hopefully creating a cell phone recycling station for the school and the community!
We will start our first Science unit in a few weeks. We will learn to ask questions and make predictions while studying solids, liquids and gases through a variety of hands-on experiments.
Here is a snapshot of some of our routines:
Library- For term 1, Wednesday mornings. Please return library books on Tuesday so that our librarian can scan them back in before our weekly Wednesday visit.
Music- Monday first block (students get picked up by the music teacher and go straight to the music room). Please go straight there if you check into the office late on a Monday morning. Our other music blocks are on Tuesdays and Thursdays just before lunch.
Gym- Friday after lunch. Please ensure your child has a pair of running shoes that stays at school.
Students went home today with a classroom newsletter outlining these routines and other important classroom information. I also sent home a parent volunteer form, request for student background information and a booklet of common French sight words.
I am working on getting a parent contact list and I will email it out as soon as I've heard back from everyone. I need to make sure everyone is comfortable sharing their contact information.
Last week, a home reading and dictée routine letter were also sent home. If you have any questions, feel free to email or call me at the school.
That's all for Division 6 news this week. Make sure to check the Quadra School calendar for important school-wide
activities that I will not be posting here on this blog. For example, Photo Day will be this Friday, October 2nd.
Have a wonderful week everyone, Mme Garcin