Dear families,
There has been so much to celebrate this month! I hope you enjoy a lovely long weekend and family day with your loved ones. With the PA days, our library day will switch to Tuesdays, and our words of the week will return to Tuesdays as well.
It was really nice speaking with many of you yesterday and today. I have some good goals for myself and our students for next term. One idea that came up was to create a parent contact list that we can share, which will hopefully help facilitate some playdates, when and if your family is ready. I will send home a little form so that you can let me know if and what contact info you would like to share. Of course, it is completely optional. Everyone in our class will receive a copy of the list I compile. Please return the form to me by next Friday.
We had a lovely Valentine's Day this week. We brainstormed some kind messages and had lots of time to work on extra cards, valentines or decorations that we wanted. We sat in groups with our classmates all day, and at the end of the day, we had time to deliver our valentines to each other. I had so much fun designing a recycled crayon heart for everyone!
This week, we are beginning new units in math and science. In math, we are beginning our unit on operations (addition, subtraction and problem solving). Many of us practice these skills at home and have expressed a lot of enthusiasm already! I've provided many extra fun practice pages for students that wish to do some extra math during lunch or any free time they have, and many students have already begun exploring these activities when they've completed their assigned tasks. This unit isn't just about how high or how quickly we can add. It's also about how we can show our thinking during problem solving. We will share some helpful strategies for this and learn how we can show them in our written work.
In science, our next unit is about energy. We will learn that energy makes things move, and we will look deeper at what is causing the movement - the sources of energy. I have some fun activities planned! Last week, we finished up our unit on structures by viewing a tour of unique world structures, man-made and natural, that I created on Google Earth. It is linked in Google Classroom, so students can view it again if they like. They can also use Google Earth to visit other structures in the world that they are curious about!
For art this week, we finally did a project we talked about when we were studying symmetry. We used special finger painting paper, which is shiny and doesn't soak up the paint so quickly. We painted only half of our image and then folded it to create the other half of the picture. Many students used my half butterfly or flower template to trace an outline, but everyone created their own beautiful designs within.
Words of the Week
Like in English, another way to make the ‘k’ sound in French is with ‘q+u’.
Most of the words that begin with ‘qu’ are question words. In English, we think of the 5 W’s (Who, What, When, Where, Why). In French, it’s the 4 Q’s: Qui, Quoi, Quand, Que, Pourquoi (and Où).
When you read stories, take time to discuss them using these words. Who was it about? (Qui), Where and when did it take place? (Où & Quand), What happened? (Quoi/Qu’est-ce que), Why did this event happen? (Pourquoi)
que, qui, quoi, quel, quand, quatre
Bonus words: pourquoi, qu’est-ce que
The sound ‘in’ is very tricky. I remember sitting around the table with my exchange family trying to match exactly what they said so that I might have a nice French accent!
Your expert French speaker needs no assistance speaking this sound, they all know how to say "la fin"! The best way I’ve found to describe it is to start saying the word “kangaroo” but pause on the “an” part. This is approximately the right sound. Note: The last 2 words in the list have a pesky e in between the i and n. We already learned what sound e+n makes, but in this case, they make the ‘in’ sound. We still hear the regular i sound as well. I’m sure you’ve heard the phrase, Très bien!
lapin, la fin, train, vingt, bain, rien*, bien*
Bonus words: cinq, dinde
