Math Update

Hi parents,

Today we did 3 cool science experiments all investigating heat energy. At one centre we were wondering whether heat can make things move at all. We tested this by warming up our hands and holding a bottle dipped in soap. What happened? What was in the bottle? Did heat make something move?

At another centre we were wondering whether food colouring would spread out faster in cold or hot water, or if both would have the same result. What happened? Why? Ask your scientist to act like a cold ice cube or boiling water. What's the difference?

At another centre we were wondering if colours really absorb heat differently. We tested this by measuring the temperature of a white and black shirt and then leaving them under a light bulb for a few minutes and taking their temperature again. What happened to the temperature of the white shirt? What happened to the temperature of the black shirt? What can we learn from this and how can we protect our skin from the sun?

I hope you have fun discussing our discoveries and thanks to the parents who helped out!

Last week, students had a 4-part math challenge to see how we are doing individually with communicating our thinking in math. We have done lots of practice of this sort of question in class over the last month, both individually and with partners. I am sending home a rubric and your child's work so that you can get an idea of how they're doing in this area.

In this task we discussed the importance of showing our strategies. Students know that a number on a page - even if it happens to be the right answer - can be no more than a level 2, because there is no communication of how that answer was reached. On the other hand, if a student shows that they were on the right track with an appropriate strategy, they can earn a level 3 even if the answer is wrong.

To the right, you can see some of the strategies our mathematicians came up with during our work periods over the last while. You can see that many of them focus on drawing the problem, or groups. These are appropriate strategies for grade 1 and is what I expect to see most often. To earn a level 4, students would have to communicate their thinking very clearly, perhaps adding a number sentence to their drawing, or showing multiple steps that went into solving a problem. Students also had a chance to show if they could think a bit beyond what we have practiced in class with a beginning division question. They will do more of this in grade 2. A level 2 indicates that the student needs a bit of teacher support to think of a helpful strategy, or put it into action.

Please remember that a mark is never based on 1 thing. This rubric alone is based on all 4 different challenge questions, each increasing in difficulty. I've tried to circle the average level for each child. Their final mark in Number Sense will reflect all the work they did in the unit.

We are now beginning a unit on measurement, but our addition and subtraction skills will come in very handy, so it's always great to keep practicing at home!

Here we are today measuring our desks and the carpet using different units. We figured out that the smaller the unit, the more we need. How many pencils did it take to measure a desk? How many toothpicks did it take?

This week we also had another theme day. This one was for Chiara and Shawna, who like rainbows and stars. Among our activities was a choose-you-own-adventure writing challenge. Each Club de Lecture wrote a short story about Princesse Étoile who goes on an adventure down one colour path of a rainbow. What happened in the different adventures?

Words of the Week

Which day of the week does not end with ‘i’? Between last week and this week we have covered them all. Ask your child to sing you the song that helps us remember the order of the days in a week! Note: In the word “fille” (like “famille”), the final ‘lle’ are not really heard.

souris, gentil, fille, triste, tigre, 

lundi, mardi, vendredi, samedi, dimanche

Bonus words: coccinelle, je lis un livre

Sudoku!

Hi parents,
Today the social skills rubric for March is coming home. We did an obstacle course in class where one person from each team had to guide a blindfolded member through the obstacles in French and also in a whisper voice. Speaking quietly has been something we have been discussing in class a lot recently, so it was a goal for this challenge. The other two goals were to participate, and say sorry often and for no reason! In our obstacle course, if anyone bumped into anything, everyone involved had to say sorry (even if it was just to a chair). We're trying to remember that saying sorry doesn't mean we're in trouble, or have done anything wrong. It doesn't hurt us at all, but often makes someone else feel a lot better. Definitely something we all need to work on doing.
Tomorrow you will receive the dictée rubric for March.

Today we learned to play Sudoku! It is one of our new math games and definitely a fun challenge. We're beginning with a beginner version that only uses the numbers 1 - 4. Ask your mathematician to tell you what you have to do in Sudoku and what math games they played today.

In science, we've made a neat display that shows lots of things that need energy in order to work or move, and we've connected them to their energy source. Ask your student to name a few things that move or that need to be turned on and where they get their energy. 

Please keep collecting and sending in your washed styrofoam trays. We need lots more!

Wanted: Styrofoam trays

Hello all,

For our current art project each student will need a styrofoam tray - the kind you get your meat on at the store. The large family size trays are best because we will be cutting the curved edges off, so the little ones end up quite small. If you have any, or come to have some in the next 2 weeks, please wash them with soap and send them in right away! Each student will need one, but extras would be helpful. Thanks a lot!

Today we received our envelopes for the Dance-a-thon fundraiser which is coming up in just a few weeks. Everything is explained on the envelope, and we went over everything in class. Here are the important points:
- the envelope is your ticket - please make sure it is returned by April 8th (2 days before the event)
- only ask people you know, do not go door-to-door
- for long lost relatives and friends, online donating is possible through the Professor Jamz website (which is also just a cool site to check out)
- make sure you write all donations on the outside of the envelope, including online donations
- the classes that raise the most money or have the most students participate in fundraising will win an ice-cream party (my class won last year... no pressure)
- on April 10th, all classes will have a scheduled time to go to the gym with their grade group to dance their hearts out!

Back to Work!

Welcome back! I hope you had a lovely week off from school.

We're getting right back into our routines and starting some new projects, including a science unit on energy. The scientists have already brainstormed and presented what they currently know about energy. I was amazed at what they already understand! Between the groups, they named all the sources of energy we are going to touch on and they were able to explain themselves very clearly using diagrams and some scientific terminology (e.g., "solar power"). Impressive! Ask your scientist what gives energy to cars, lights, the TV, plants and people.

We will be doing several group activities to investigate different sources of energy. Please let me know if you would like to help out with a science activity at any time. It's always helpful to have extra adults when we do experiments.

Please double check that your actor/actress has their script back at school. We will continue practising right away.
Also, our gym teachers have reminded us that we need indoor and outdoor gym shoes. Now that the snow is gone, students are expected to wear running shoes for outdoor gym (day 2). My understanding is that these should not be the shoes we are keeping clean indoors. If you have any questions about proper attire, please contact Mme Mary Ann Kowal. Your help with this is most appreciated.

Words of the Week

Almost all of these words contain the ‘e’ sound. Notice the difference between “je” and “jeu”. They sound the same, but the latter means game. With an ‘x’ on the end it would be plural (J’aime jouer les jeux.).

The word “elle” (=she) does not contain the sound ‘e’ even though it has the letter twice. I’m sure you know how to say it (think: Isabelle). Since it’s a word we use all the time, I wanted to make sure we included it in our practice at some point.

je peux, je veux, j’ai peur, les cheveux, genou, mercredi, jeudi, jeu, cheval, *elle*

Bonus words: neuf, renard

March Break!

Wow, what a busy week! We were trying desperately to finish our work in many different units so that we can start fresh after the break, as well as squeeze in some fun stuff! Here's some of what happened...

In Science, we wrapped up our unit on materials and structures by designing our own unique structures that serve a purpose. Ask your engineer what they designed. We also did some maintenance work on the stools we had made with Scientist Kathy and did another test to see if they could support the weight of a person. We discussed that testing each stool with a different person would not be a fair test since we are not all the same weight. Therefore, we chose one tester to sit on all 5 stools. Thankfully, all the stools were quite strong and she never fell to the floor! Ask your scientist why the one stool that didn't look as strong ended up working just fine (what shape was used to help support the legs?).

In math, we finished up our unit on adding and subtracting with our epic garage sale. We took turns selecting items and putting them in our shopping bags until everyone had all they wanted (or could afford). Then, students completed a worksheet outlining the money they were starting with, the items they had selected and their prices, what the total cost was and how much change they would receive, if any.

After the break we will probably do a few more open-ended adding and subtracting tasks to challenge students even a bit further before we move on to measurement. Our new math games are all centered around adding and subtracting and will be available for use during free time, or centre time, so long as we take care of them. Please do continue to play your own adding, subtracting and money games at home. This is something that we are really never done practicing, and these skills carry through every math unit and are super applicable to every day life.

In French, we have worked hard on our instructions this week and most of us completed the project, including making some corrections to our writing.

Even though some of us need to finish up after the break, we did our cookie decorating activity today. The decorators were instructed to bring home their cookie and eat it only with your permission since it's quite large and covered in sugar.

Next week is March break. I hope you have a great time and are able to relax a bit. Please try to keep up your reading routine, just like you don't take a break from brushing your teeth. I encouraged students to take a few extra books today, but there are also many links on this blog that will take you to French stories online. The public library is also a great place to visit! If you'd like to do a little more review and practice with your student, here are a few ideas:
- keep a journal of your daily activities
- review past words of the week
- write stories
- invent a new game and write instructions for it
- practice following a recipe
- work on your lines in the play
- work with coins (e.g., how many different ways can you make 20 cents?)
- give some adding and subtracting challenges (e.g., There are 5 people in our family, if we each eat 3 strawberries, how many will that be? - challenge your student to show you their strategy for completing the problem)
- talk about the changing seasons (What are some signs that spring is coming? What are the animals doing right now?)

Future Dates:
March 26th, the first Thursday back, is Junior Music Night. If you have siblings or friends in junior grades, they will likely be involved in the performance. I will also be playing the violin with the junior choir for one of their songs. Hope to see you there!
April 30, as you know, is our concert. Here we are in choir today!

We will have a special field trip on Friday, May 15th. Please keep that morning free of appointments if at all possible. I'd love to have everyone along. Details will follow closer to the date.

I hope you all have a wonderful March break. See you in a week!

Tamara

Les Pièces de Théâtre!

Happy Monday!

I was very excited today because I finally got around to preparing the scripts for our plays. Last week I asked the class what some of their favourite stories are. From their suggestions, I chose four and I have turned them into 4 plays that we will work on. Every student has a role in one of the plays and some lines to memorize. In the past, I've found that putting on plays is a fantastic way to get students using a lot of full sentences in French. I'm excited to try it with this group. As I often do when something is important, I've gone on and on about taking care of our scripts and making sure they are always with us at school. If the actors want to practice their lines at home, or if you'd like to help them rehearse, that's great, but please remind your actor/actress to put his/her script right back in the pochette so that the script is always at school. We are not relying on at-home practice will be rehearsing often with our groups, so we need to have our lines here. There is no expectation of how much you might practice at home and no deadline for memorizing. With lots of repetition, I know all students will end up knowing not only their own part, but probably their whole play! When we're pretty good with the words, we can work on acting and accessories. It'll be a great project for us to work on over the next few months. Please ask your actor or actress what play they are in and what role they have. You might want to request that they bring their script home over March break if you have some long road trips planned!

Today we also worked as a class to put prices on all our garage sale items. Thank you very much for your contributions! Ask your student what the different prices are and what they might like to purchase on Thursday. I've had some questions from the kids about bringing money from home. Absolutely not! We don't need any real money! All students will receive 20 cents of school money and will need to show me how they plan to spend it, and the change they will receive, before they can buy anything. They'll have to decide whether they would like to buy several less expensive items, or just one special thing. If you like, you can play some money games at home too. Give your child a bit of change and tell them they need to pay for their dessert! See if they can count out 15 cents for a bowl of strawberries! Could be super fun!

In writing, we got a lot of work done today on our individual procedural writing task. Everyone is writing instructions for how to decorate a gingerbread man. We are trying to remember what our partner rubric suggested we should work on. For some of us this means taking the time to draw helpful illustrations. For others, it means looking up words in our dictionaries or on the word wall. For many of us, it means remembering the majuscule et petit point in every sentence! Ask your writer how they're doing on this project.

Now that we’re experts in tons of French sounds, we’re reviewing all our sounds within slightly more complex words. Each week, challenge your expert to figure out which sound is found in all the words on the list. Suggest that they circle all the ‘a’s in green, ‘e’s in blue, ‘i’s in purple (for instance).

pas, mars, avec, mal, calme, la balle, le canard, avril, le rat 

Bonus words: ajoute, théâtre

Carnaval 2!

With the help of some brave parents, we had a very successful "Carnaval 2"! We had 4 stations: icicle tag, snow building competitions, obstacle courses and ice castles. In groups, we rotated through all 4 centres and then went inside for some hot chocolate. The kids had a lot of fun! Please ask them what their favourite part was!

Yesterday we did another experiment involving water. We tested various materials to see if they would float. The scientists had some very thoughtful predictions about why they thought some objects would sink or float. They considered weight, size and their own experiences swimming. The most interesting test was probably the orange. Ask your scientist what we discovered about unpeeled vs. peeled oranges.

Finally, we have a newly made set of math games. Here's a neat one in use during free time. Each popsicle stick has an addition or subtraction question and the answer to another.

Happy Weekend!