I hope you had a fabulous weekend. I'm sure you heard that we had a little Easter egg hunt here on Thursday afternoon. Somewhere in our class there is still one egg that none of us (including me) can find. Estelle, we are all hoping you can find it when you get back - it's yours! The seekers also each found a brand new eraser to keep at school. Here's hoping this solves are perpetually disappearing eraser problem!
We are right back at it and there's lots going on. Here are a few reminders and other bits and pieces:
1. Dance-a-thon envelopes were due today. I only received 10/20!! Please get these in ASAP.
2. Our dance party time is Friday morning at 9:05 am. Don't be late or you might miss it! Don't forget you can still request songs online and if you wear white, you will glow in the dark!
3. The larger envelopes (TDSB questionnaires for parents) are due next Friday the 28th. Thanks to all who have already returned them.
Yesterday, as promised, I sent home the final math word problem that we completed last week, together with your student's self-assessment and my rubric. I've also attached the little quiz that we did Thursday - as independently as possible - to give you an idea of the skills that your mathematician has mastered, and things that you might like to review a bit at home. Everyone did quite well!
We have already begun our 3D geometry unit with Mr. G, and our students are very excited to share what they already know. This will be a short, but super fun unit involving lots of hands-on and building with shapes. As part of this unit, we are planning to have students build something out of recycled materials and label their shapes. Next week, each child will need a large box (like a pizza box or cereal box) to use as a base. In addition, from now until next Wednesday, we will gladly take all of your smaller empty boxes (cracker/cookies/smarties/mini-cereals/tea), paper towel rolls and especially anything that's an interesting shape (do you have anything cone/sphere or pyramid-shaped?? how about J-cloth or Toblerone boxes??).
Send your garbage our way, and we'll return it to you in castle form later this spring!!
In poetry, this week we're working on what we're calling "poèmes de petits moments". These are small moments poems - free poems with no rules, as opposed to the very structured Cinquain, Acrostic and Haiku poems that we've done. Some students are loving the opportunity to express themselves freely without the constraints of lines, syllables or types of words. For other students (I would be one), it is a challenge to dream up what to say when there's no template. To help students in this, I'm introducing various poetic devices that they can try out to move their poem forward. I've also shared a bin of little trinkets I've collected that can serve as inspiration for a small moments poem. Please ask your poet what they've chosen to write about, what inspired them, and if they've experimented with comparisons (les comparaisons) and alliteration (allitération) yet. Still to add this week are rhyming ending syllables and onomatopoeia!
Each morning when we work on writing, a few students get to share a poem they've completed. It's been amazing to see students trying out the new things they're learning every day. Bon travail mes amis!
Trying out alliteration
Inspired by a seashell
Trying out comparison
Mots de la Semaine
Grade 1: Review of ‘u’
this week. See if your writer can invent some sentences using some of these
words. For example, J’ai vu une tortue turquoise!
une rue, numéro, j’ai vu, bureau, une tortue,
une fusée, une tulipe, j’ai bu, j’ai lu, turquoise
Bonus words: musée, légume
Grade 2: This week we are adding 'ette', which is another common ending in French. It is pronounced very much the way it looks, and I'm sure you are all too familiar with the word "pochette"! Like last week, I've never met a word ending in ette that wasn't feminine (la/une).
assiette, pochette, serviette, marionnette,
vedette (the star of the show, or the team!)
Bonus words: bicyclette, lunettes