Dear families,
I hope you had a wonderful long weekend in the beautiful sunshine! Thanks to the kids for wishing me a happy birthday last week and to all of you for the work you continue to submit. I appreciate it!
As report card writing time approaches, it is really important that I have some work samples in every subject to refer to, though I will draw heavily on my observations and conversations with students as well. I'm at a bit of a disadvantage having had so little in-school time with our students, so every sample I can look at will help me assign a more accurate grade. If you know your student hasn't submitted much work, and also keeps their camera off or doesn't participate much, it would be helpful to try to work on this a bit!
I hope everyone is enjoying our drama workshops with Mme Daphney, from The Travelling Stage. I think she's a wonderful leader and is working hard to get us involved though we are not in the same space. We have one final workshop left next Monday morning. I would love to see even more participation! Also, Mme Daphney would really appreciate if we could have our proper names in the Zoom boxes so that she can call us by our names (some families have generic names, like "kids", or other things).
I was really impressed with the art I saw happening this afternoon! We learned just a little about Van Gogh and other artists that shared his style or were influenced by it. We learned that he liked bold colours, thick paint and dramatic brushstrokes. We focused in on his Sunflowers and then did our own flower paintings using some of his techniques, such as spirals and bold colours. Bon travail les artistes!
Since I last wrote, we have almost completed writing our French stories. We worked on a page a day and just have the title page left to do. Immediately following this (tomorrow), I will ask students to begin presenting their stories to the class by reading them aloud. The stories are not long, but I hope students are proud of their work and are excited to show it off. I've asked students to practice reading their stories aloud, perhaps to their families or stuffed animals!
We have added several French poems to our repertoire, including some long ones like, "Il etait une vieille dame" and "Je m'appelle Joe". I hope you've seen the poem recording assignment, if you weren't nearby when I was explaining it to the kids. I'm asking everyone to record themselves reciting two of our earlier poems while they listen to me using earphones. Detailed instructions are posted on Classroom. I've received several submissions already and have started putting them together - I think it will turn out great!In math, we have been really practicing our numbers and many students have enjoyed doing skip-counting solos and being challenged to count higher or backwards! We are still reviewing this each day as well as practicing some addition and subtraction questions both with and without manipulatives. Financial literacy is it's own strand in the new math curriculum, which is why I've put a lot of emphasis on counting our pretend money and working in questions with money, such as our "class store" which I think we all found fun. It's definitely a good time to take your child to the store with you, if you can, and point out prices, see if they can add up how much a few things will cost, and talk about how you plan to spend or save money! This week we will get a little intro to some simple multiplication (as repeated addition) and division (through equal sharing). I hope we are able to apply some of our skip-counting and the addition/subtraction facts we worked on a couple weeks ago do these more complex problems, and I am also emphasizing the importance of showing a complete solution which includes numbers, perhaps a picture of the problem and even a number sentence. We have been keeping all this counting and number work fun by playing number bingo and estimating how many suckers are in my jar at the end of each math class. I sure hope we are able to get back to school so that I can give out all these prizes!
Before wrapping up science, we tackled a pulley-building construction project. It wasn't easy, but I saw lots of people with their materials prepared (thank you) and having some success with their machines! I've also loved hearing about how students have taken what we have been learning in school and applying it on their own time, not just in science, but also acting out poems or counting or continuing an art project. It's so rewarding for me, so thanks for sharing!
Take good care!
Tamara