Dear families,
Happy March break! I've been hearing about all the fun activities you have planned! Before we left, we made sure to tidy up our desks and cubbies, and almost everyone brought their indoor shoes home in case they need them. It's also a good time to make sure they still fit!
Below is some light reading and pictures to enjoy over the break!
In French recently, we have been working through some language centres. Currently, these include listening to reading, word work (magnets and stamps), learning to type, assembling a story and reading with Madame. We have one more rotation to do after the break and then we will likely do one more set of centres, so that I have time to read with everyone individually. Many students have been excited to get their turn on the laptops. If they liked the learn to type game, it can be found linked to our Google Classroom, so they can continue working through the levels.
(ancient but fun technology!)
Another fun thing in language is that we have continued to learn more and more poems, and we have been given the opportunity to recite some on the morning announcements!! Several groups from our class have, or will be doing this, and have been practicing in class and even at recess. The first two groups that presented this week did a fabulous job, and I will put the audio recording on Google Classroom. Bravo mes amis!!!
In math, we have been working communicating our thinking during problemn solving. Sometimes we can do the math in our head, but our math curriculum is not only about how high we can add, but also how we can communicate our mathematical thinking. We have been sharing strategies for doing this and are naming them after people that use them extra effectively! Some of our strategies are to draw a picture, show the numbers that go with the picture, cross off for subtraction, and add numbers that make 10 first.
In science, we worked on sorting all kinds of things that move or turn on into categories based on where they get their energy. The kids really had fun sorting some of Wales' funny toys!
Now we are taking a look at some energy sources in more detail. We started out talking about ourselves, and where humans get energy. We created energy chains to track our food sources right back to the sun, and we learned that the sun is the most important source of energy that we have. We created our own energy chains in our science duotang showing what we learned.
In visual art, I was impressed yet again with the plasticine art we did. We watched some tutorials by artist Barbara Reid, who has made incredible plasticine illustrations for many books (one of which we read in class), and written how-to book about it. We talked about her techniques and the order of steps that she follows. I also cut out some animal outlines in case students wanted to try her technique of tracing an animal shape into their background.
Our artists were inspired by all the examples they saw her make, and did their versions of animals in nature, outer space pictures, even the Northern Lights! They are SO well done, and I will do my best to get them home without damage. Our thumbs were so sore after all the smearing required to create the background!
Mr. Lee has been busy with our class too! He has been working through a health unit on the human body, and I've gotten to be around to see the kids building skeletons, learning about their brain and doing some cool experiments with Mr. Lee. Of course, he even took them to the park this week, with the help of one of Dewson's former (outstanding) gym teacher Mary Ann. Merci!
this skeleton has a baby
This week, the Ontario Science Centre offered a livestream about insects. We got to see live stick insects, silk worms, huge cockroaches and others. We learned about where they live, their characteristics, what an exoskeleton is, and lots more!
We finished our week with an optional PJ or green day and some free choice centres!
See you all on Monday the 21st! Have a fabulous week!
