In our last week of 2013...

Well, in our last few days we have certainly been getting lots done!

In Francais, we are still working on "ui", which we didn't spend much time on last week. We did look for more words containing this sound in our reading, and we made a good list of words that we were able to sound out together.

We are also working on personal letters to a family member - get ready, you might receive one soon!
Before we started this letter, we looked at the feedback on the letter we wrote previously to a teacher, and we reviewed the expectations for this letter. The writers are learning to use the resources they have to help them in their sounding out. They have the word wall, their dictionaries, our sound posters, tons of posters and charts around the room, many kids know of books that contain words they need, and each child also has a personal placemat with words and sounds right on their desk. It's wonderful to see students looking around to help themselves learn, and equally rewarding to see students trying their best to sound out words on their own.

In math, we have been continuing our work in geometry by sorting shapes using a Venn diagram (the 2 overlapping circles). This increased the challenge from the sorting game we had been playing before, as now we had 2 rules to follow, and some shapes followed both rules and were therefore placed in the middle section. We also created some neat pictures using only shapes. Check it out:

This week we are learning about symmetry by doing some more sorting games, and some more lovely math-art! We learned how to use special mirrors to check our shapes to see which ones were symmetrical (lots of students earned jetons for saying "C'est symétrique!" or "Ce n'est pas symétrique.").

We drew the shapes that were symmetrical and used this information to make symmetrical decorations. They look great! Please ask your mathematician what symétrique means and how they made the decorations to make sure both halves would be exactly the same.

I have to say, the mathematicians amazed me with how capably they used the special mirrors to complete symmetrical shapes. Here is the Venn diagram we solved today. Ask your student what the 2 rules are. What does it mean when shapes are in the middle?

Please note the change of time for the carol sing-along. It will now be Thursday afternoon, rather than morning, due to the Cross Country breakfast. I believe parents are invited to join us for the carolling!

Finally, while your child has hopefully returned all of his/her library books for the holidays, I am happy to lend out lots of our classroom books, and the white books, so that you can continue your French reading routine over the holidays. I'll make sure the children know that they can take books, but if you are concerned that your reader may not remember to take extra, just email me by Thursday morning and I'll double check. Please help your reader keep track of these precious books and make sure they come back to us in January!

Thanks so much!
Tamara