Survey day!

What an afternoon! Definitely ask your student about their experience this afternoon. Each student had a turn asking their survey question (that we planned a couple days ago) to a whole class of older students. They were expected to speak entirely in French, and from the feedback I've gotten from the host teachers, they did a fantastic job!
Before going on their mission, each group prepared by practising in front of us - from knocking on the door and asking permission, to pretending to count votes and saying "Merci". After their rehearsal, each group was sent to a different class, and returned with the information they need to continue their math project, and feeling VERY proud of themselves.
I know it wasn't an easy thing to do, but I'm SO glad that everyone did it, and happy that they would all love to do it again!! Maybe they can ask YOU their question in French, and add your response to their total tomorrow!
Again, please ask about what they had to do, how they felt before they did it, and how they felt after!

BRAVO Aire 24!!!!

Your writer has an important piece of mail and quick thing to do for homework tonight. I have given each student a copy of the instructions that they wrote with a partner last week, and a partially completed rubric. This is the very same rubric that I will be using to assess their next project (How to decorate a gingerbread man), which we began work on today. I have asked students to read over the rubric with you to see where they did a great job already, and one thing that they'd like to do better in their individual assignment.
I have not completed the portions of this practice rubric on sounding-out or printing. This is because in the partnership, generally, one person was doing all the writing and the other was helping to brainstorm and do the illustrations. Therefore, those categories really don't apply to both partners.
Just like with the letter rubric, this rubric is very much like the monthly sounding-out rubrics that you receive, however I put more emphasis on the elements of a procedure, and revision skills, that I have been emphasizing in class.
I'm very happy with the work students did with their partners. They really stepped up to the plate with a challenging writing assignment and everyone is on the right track for being successful in their next project!

Plan your Survey!

Hello, I hope everyone had a great long weekend!

Our words of the week are:

monde, j'aime, qu'est-ce que, non, gros, grosse, elle

We are also working on the sound "ai" this week. You probably recognize those letters from the word j'ai, which we are all trying so hard to spell correctly. J'ai, however, is an exception to the rule. It sounds more like "é" (ay), while "ai", normally sounds a little less bright. Start saying the name for the letter 'f' - ok, just like that, but of course without closing your teeth on it.

You can hear this sound in the words: Aire 24, semaine, mais and in lots of verbs... j'aime, je fais, je vais, je sais...

There are many letter combinations that make the same "ai" sound. For instance, you already know the words les, mes, and c'est. So, you can assume that "es" makes that sound. There are a couple others as well, but I'll save them for next week!

Today your mathematician did a great job collecting data (question: what's your favourite subject at school?), making a tally of responses, and creating a diagramme à bandes based on their information. Ask them how many people they asked and what the most popular response was! This week we will begin our big final project in this unit. This is for each student to plan a survey question, come up with the choices and then do what we did today (collect the data and create a diagram). To get a head start on this, help your child brainstorm a simple survey question that they'd like to ask, and 3 possible answers to choose from. For example, Quel animal préfères-tu, les baleines, les éléphants, ou les rhinocéros?

Today we also got to visit our reading buddies' classroom to watch their modified fairy tale films - in French of course. Ask your student if he/she recognized any of the fairy tales? (There was a Little Green Riding Hood, a Rumpelstiltskin where a baby is turned to chocolat, and a Three little monkeys and the big bad bear... for starters.)

Talk to you soon,
Tamara

Covered in graphite = Totally worth it.

Well, I knew that our workshops with Donnely would be a treat, but I was not prepared for how enthusiastic the children would be to learn about all the different techniques they would learn. Donnely and I were both truly impressed at how eager and creative the artists were today. Please ask them about what they learned and created in this workshop. Here's a quick summary…

First we experimented with our graphite (we learned the difference between graphite and charcoal, which was quite interesting) by adding layers of texture to our paper, beginning with fog, then rain, then heavy rain, then ice - we created an ice storm on paper. Then we experimented with different types of lines by imagining a swimming pool which starts out calm, and then gets crazy!

On another sheet, we made a value scale by going from darkest to lightest, and also thick to thin.

Our last technique with the graphite - and I think all of our favourite - was to make rubbings using tons of different recycled objects with interesting textures. Donnely brought salvaged flooring samples, mesh, metal disks with interesting patterns, keys, alphabet stencils and stickers and lots more. The children filled up their pages with tons of interesting textures that seem to appear magically from what would otherwise be garbage. (Try this at home!)

When the artists had exhausted the possibilities in Donnely's baskets, they quickly started finding other cool textures all over the classroom - from the surface of their chairs, to the drying rack, to the very interesting soles of their shoes!

When the children were all over the room, excitedly finding texture everywhere, I asked Donnely if this had ever happened before in one of her workshops. It hadn't.

With our pages filled up with tons of experimentation, the next step was to use them to cut out shapes for our collage. Some artists chose to make a creature, others made a city scene.

Donnely gave us some tips, like using the negative space from around a cut-out, as seen below. This became a popular technique.

At the end, we had chance to look at all our collages and comment on each others' work. We only had positive comments, and really some insightful ones too, recalling the techniques Donnely had shown and how someone had applied them, or complementing an artist's imagination and creativity. It was really lovely to observe, and I think all the collages look incredible. Truly!

*Donnely returns for the next 5 Fridays to complete her workshops. Don't forget to wear art-safe clothing!

Artist in the Classroom

Hello area 24,

Our new words of the week are:

mon, vendredi, au, ce, classe, pas

In addition, this week we are working on the sound 'qu' which, as in English, makes a 'k' sound.

Qu is the start of many question words, such as: que (what), quel (which), qui (who) and quand (when)

Also in language this week, we will finish up our first procedural text, which we have been writing with a partner. Students have been working on explaining how to do something (e.g., make a pizza or pack your school bag) step-by-step. They are including a title, list of things you need, steps with pictures and maybe a little word of advice or caution at the end. It's quite a challenge, but they've really been tackling it and I think they'll enjoy the independent project that will come next. Ask your writer who he/she is working with, how they have divided the work, and what they are explaining!

Exciting news about art! It is our turn to host a visiting artist in our classroom. We are VERY lucky to be starting a series of 6 workshops with Donnely Smallwood, a well-known Dewson artist and instructor. She will be working with us once a week for 6 weeks and we will accomplish several projects with her. Donnely's art classes will replace most of our regular art periods for the duration of her program, as she works with us for almost the whole afternoon when she comes. 

Our first workshop will be this Thursday afternoon, and subsequently it will be every Friday afternoon. Donnely suggests that we wear clothes that can get dirty, just in case!

See you soon,

Tamara

Math Show & Tell

Happy weekend everyone,

Several work samples came home at the end of this week, all relating to math.
Thursday you received 2 art projects that were linked to our geometry unit. The first, a picture made entirely from shapes. The second, a symmetrical painting made by painting on one side of the paper and then folding it. Ask your child what "symétrique" means and what shapes they used in their drawing. Hopefully they haven't forgotten everything we did in December!

Yesterday I sent home your mathematician's first graph. We're well into our data management unit now - last week we practised collecting data by asking our classmates questions and noting their answers (we earned a lot of jetons by asking our questions in French).


This week we've learned how to read a bar graph and we practised making them, using a ruler to draw straight lines. I thought you would be interested in seeing this first attempt. Ask your child to explain it to you (Where is the échelle? What does the diagramme tell us? What season has the most birthdays?).
Here is a bonus question not answered in class:
Our class has 24 people including Mlle. How many people are represented in the diagramme? How do you know? Is there anyone missing?


Next week we will continue reading and drawing graphs, but we will focus on pictograms. This is all in preparation for our big project that will involve creating our own survey, collecting our own data, and representing our findings in a graph.

Hope you enjoy looking at this good stuff!
Tamara

Help, we're all wet!

Dear wardrobe coordinators,

It is VERY wet in the Dewson yard. As the weather warms up, I anticipate that we will have lots of wet and slushy days ahead. The children often complain that their outdoor clothes are soaking, and I can appreciate that it is very uncomfortable for them to put wet boots and socks back on, but there isn't much I can do for them. I've asked them to talk to you about possible solutions... here are some of my ideas:
1. Send some extra socks (2 or even 3 pairs) in their backpack.
2. Send a complete change of clothes that they can keep on their hook at school.
3. Wear plastic bags over socks inside boots (teach them how to put these on).
4. Send extra gloves.
5. Talk about whether their boots are waterproof, and if not, places to avoid.

Thanks for your help!
Mlle
                                     

Hello Piano!

Happy Monday!

Our words this week are:

mes, tes, train, cinq, samedi, dimanche 

Last week we learned the sound "in". This is a very French sound. Unlike in English, you do not close on the 'n'. It stays open and is quite nasal. The best way to learn it is to have your student teach it to you by showing them the poster below. They'll know the word, and hence, the sound.

Other words that use this sound are: bain, coin, voisin, cousin, vingt (20), basin (bin), lapin and matin

This week we will review the sound "ch". We've met this sound before, so many children know it, or have been able to guess it based on other words they know, like chat and chien.

Other words that contain this sound are: le cochon, le cheval, une chose, j'ai chaud, les cheveux, je chante une chanson, je cherche, un chapeau, méchant

Last Friday we had a fun surprise - we finally got to open our piano! I hope to teach the children some simple songs before the end of the year. We started with some important pre-requisites, like how to be a good audience member, good sitting posture, and a relaxed hand. For our songs, we will always keep our thumb (finger #1) on middle C and we will use the first 5 notes of the C major scale. Therefore, we are starting by learning a 5-note scale. On Friday, everyone had a chance to play the 5-note scale, practising good posture, and using each finger to play the scale.
I know several students take piano lessons already, so they won't find our lessons challenging, but we'll look forward to hearing some performances soon!
Ask your students to play you our scale (1-2-3-4-5-4-3-2-1) on the air piano!

Bienvenue 2014!

Welcome back everyone, I hope you had awesome vacations!
The kids have been telling me, in French and in their writing, what they did over the holidays.

If your reader borrowed classroom books for the break, please help them find and pack each and every one so that we can get them back to class for our daily reading time. This includes the white books as well, we are continuing with our borrow-a-book program so please remind your student to exchange his/her books regularly. Also, most children brought their indoor or gym shoes home for the break. Please ensure that these are back at school tomorrow so that we can all participate safely in gym. Thanks!

Tonight several items are coming home:
1. Milk form due WEDNESDAY if you want milk next week.
2. Words of the week: on, papa, chien, tous, ils, ont (That's 6, I know - I think we're ready to increase the challenge!) 
3. The letter your student wrote in December. I had previously sent a copy so that you could read it before Christmas. Now I'm sending the real thing. It has a rubric on the back so you can see what the expectations were, and how your child is doing. The rubric is very much like the sounding-out rubric that you see monthly, however since we were working on the structure of a letter, that becomes a very important part of it as well. There is no need to return this, but I suggest keeping it with your other rubrics so that you can continue to check for things you want to help with at home.
4. Our day/night activity project from our last science unit.

This week we are starting several new units.
In French, we will be starting to learn about procedures, when we use them, and how to write one. This will be really fun, and you can easily expand upon this at home by reading and following instructions (e.g., when playing a game or trying out a new recipe).

In math, we are starting a data management unit on graphing. It's my favourite math unit, and should be great fun for the kids too. They will get to build and draw lots of graphs and will even get to create their own survey, collect data, and make their own graph to show off their results! Today we got started by building a graph of our vacation activities. Each child placed his/her own bar on the graph to represent something that he/she did.

We are continuing with Science, but changing our unit. We will now be investigating structures. What structures do we have in our community? What makes a structure strong? What kids of materials are used in different structures? Today we did our first experiment building shelves using different building materials. The scientists had to make a prediction of what material they thought would be the strongest, then build a bookshelf with their group. We tested the shelves using our books, and then the scientists noted which materials held all the books successfully.

See you all soon,
Tamara