Reports & Interviews

Dear parents,

Thanks for returning your interview request forms. I'm pretty sure I've been able to accommodate everyone at, or very near to, one of the requested times. The confirmations will come home Monday. If you can no longer make your interview time, please email me ASAP and we will reschedule. I assume that if you did not return the form, you do not feel the need for an interview at this time. If you change your mind, or would like a quick check up over the phone, please let me know and we'll work it out.

Please be prompt when you come for your interview. I will try to be very mindful of the time so that you can be on time for your other appointments and get on with your evening!

Reports come home Tuesday. As always, I will be talking to students about some important report card etiquette. Here's what we will discuss:
1. Only open your report card envelope with a parent or guardian (not with a sibling, alone or on the bus).
2. Do not share your report card with friends. Everyone has different strengths and everyone is doing lots of things well. Comparing marks never makes anyone feel good. Everyone is trying very hard and should be proud of their accomplishments.
3. Try not to put too much emphasis on letter grades. Yes, marks are important and are a quick guide to how a child is progressing, however, everyone progresses at a different rate. A 'C' is not a bad thing at all, and an 'A' never means you are done learning. Please give more of your attention to the comments I have written. I have taken great care to explain the exact areas where students can continue to work in order to be even more successful.
4. Finally, remember that it is hard to progress academically without excellent learning skills. Please discuss this part of the report card in depth with your child. Please select one area (learning skill or otherwise) to set as a goal for improvement over the coming months. We will do a goal setting activity this week so it will be helpful to have thought this over ahead of time. Thanks!!

In classroom news, we have been very busy finishing up our final projects in data management and procedural writing. We are almost through with this and will spend some of this week celebrating Valentines day and writing nice notes to our parents and classmates.

Last week in Science, Mlle Bradfield set up yet another very interesting activity. We investigated what different objects are made of and found tons of examples of objects made from metal, wood, plastic, rubber and fabric in our very own classroom. Then, we talked about the story of the three little pigs and how they made houses out of 3 different materials. We worked in groups to build our own houses out of straws, popsicle sticks and blocks using different fasteners (tape, velcro and sticky-tack) and tested their strength using a fan! Happily, all our houses survived the fan test, but it was still evident that at least one material was probably not the best choice for a house! Ask your scientist what house they built and which fastener their group used. What were some of the challenges of using those materials? What would they do differently if they were to build another pretend house?

Have a great week,
Tamara

Tuesday Words

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)

This is a good habit to get into, and will help us write complete stories of our own later this term.

que, qui, quoi, quel, quand, quatre

Bonus words: pourquoi, qu’est-ce que

Skating, Science etc.

Dear Salle 211 families,

Thank you once again to the parents who came skating with us today. It was another successful morning and we had great luck with streetcars this time. Pictures below!

This has been a busy week, we have many projects on the go and I forget what I've told you about and what I haven't. Sorry if any of this is repeat! (Hmmm, maybe I should go back and re-read my own blog!)

In French, when we're not working on our procedures, we've been working on writing out some of our daily rhymes. Each student selected one and wrote it out, repeating it over and over to remind themselves of the words. They can do this work fairly independently
since they don't need to struggle with brainstorming their own content or with figuring out unknown French words.
Once they have written out the rhyme, they refer to a chart with a few things to check for (e.g., capitals, periods, is the word in your dictionary, on the word wall or somewhere else in the class?). Next, they ask a partner to check their work again to correct anything they didn't notice. Their editor has to sign the corner of the page to confirm they have done their job. Finally, they show their work to me and I get to make a few final corrections. When they've made a few corrections (just the stuff that we've covered in class), students begin writing out a good copy of their rhyme using their best printing and including an illustration of the rhyme. We're making a class book of rhymes and already have several good copies in it!

In Math, we're working on conducting one last survey and graphing the results. Almost everyone has now had a chance to visit a grade 2 or 3 class to ask their question and gather their data. I'm very proud of them for having the courage to visit an older class, ask the teacher for permission and ask the older students their question, all in French! (One of the teachers told me they were very cute!)
Now we're working on turning our data into a bar graph.

Our teacher candidate, Mlle Bradfield, is in charge of Science from now until she has to leave us. She planned a fantastic investigation for us this week, where we went to 5 different centres to touch different objects and figure out which adjective would best describe them. For example, at the Rigide ou Flexible centre there was an elastic and a pair of chopsticks. The scientists had to figure out which word described each object and note this on their investigation worksheet.
Part two of the activity was to choose just one of the objects and describe how we use it, and why it's important that it have the quality we discovered in order to do its job. For example, we figured out that spoons are curved and forks are pointy. One student wrote that the purpose of a spoon is to eat, and it's important that it's curved so that we can eat liquids, like soup!
Ask your students what the heavy object was and why it's important that it's heavy, or why it's important that the sticky object is sticky!

A reminder that Term 1 reports are coming home February 9th and interviews are being held on the 10th and 11th. If you would like to meet with me, please email or return the form (everyone got a hard-copy) by Monday the 8th or before. Hope to see lots of you on those evenings!