Learning French with Geronimo Stilton

http://geronimostilton.com/portal/CA/fr/home/?fw=1
Today, during our computer time at the library, students were exploring this site. They played, read, wrote together with Geronimo. The link leads you to the site in French. We would recommend that your child visits the site to apply and practise French, on a daily basis for 15 - 20 minutes. Please remind your child to do so at your convenience.
You can also get Geronimo Stilton app for your ipad or iphone.

New Reading Programme in Class: Cercles de lecture

Our “Partage de livre” program has come to an end. Thank you for your support and overseeing this homework as well as listening to your child reading and practising their presentations with them. You may wish to continue this exercise at home, using French books from your own collection or your local library.

Cercles de Lecture (Reading Circles) is replacing Partage de livre starting Monday April the 14th. We are going to practise the procedure and review the expectations thoroughly during the weeks before.

As with Partage de livre reports, successful Cercles de lecture involves home preparation. Each child will have a turn being a group leader (le Chef) once a week on their day (please see their Agenda). They will be required to read their book (provided from our class library) each week at home. On their day, they will read it to their group members. They need to be very familiar with the characters (les personnages), setting (le cadre/le lieu), problem (le problème) and solution (la solution), so that they can effectively lead the other group members in a discussion about the book.

As you engage in helping your child prepare, you may wish to encourage discussion to include “retelling, relating and reflecting”.

Retell:

This story is about…                  Dans cette histoire, il s’agit de …

In this story, I notice that…     Dans cette histoire, je remarque 

                                                   que…                           

I especially like it when…          J’aime ça surtout quand…

Relate:

This reminds me of…                 Ça me fait penser à…

I remember when…                    Je me souviens quand…

It makes me feel…                     Cela me rend …

Reflect:

I wonder if/why…                       Je me demande si/pourquoi…

I predict….                                 Je m’attends à ce que…

If I were the main                     Si j’etais le personnage    

character…                                   principal…

There will not be any book report writing involved at home. However, I encourage my students to use Post-it-notes to jot down their thoughts and ideas while they are reading the book to better navigate their group members through the book discussion (the procedure is being modeled in class). 

Please remind your child to treat our class library books with care and respect.

April Newsletter from Room 111

Yes, it is spring! And we are in April already. 

For our class, April is a Month of Guided Reading. We continue our Literacy Pathways and keep working on developing decoding and comprehension skills in reading.

Children will be working in a small group setting with me. They will look for the clues to reveal the point of the author, to comprehend what the author wanted to say and what the story is about. They will be mastering their decoding skills. They will check if they read right by asking themselves: ‘Does it sound good?’, ‘Does it make sense?’, ‘Is it written like I read?’.The Guided Reading sessions will start on the 14th of April and will continue into June, when the students will be tested for the level of reading that they achieved through this school year.

Please ask your child about the programme and their experiences in this content. As well, I will make every effort to inform you of what will be going on during the sessions, via your child’s agenda. 

In Writing, we will be working on creating stories. Students will be learning about story elements: characters, setting, problem, solution. Also, we will be discussing and practising how to edit and publish our stories. Please, remind your child about capitals at the beginning and periods at the end of sentences when she or he writes at home.

In Math, students will be learning about fractions. We will be focusing on de binding objects into equal parts and giving them names: a half,a quarter , a third. As well, students will be investigating addition and subtracting and word-problem solving.

As the nature wakes up in spring and the world around us greens up, we are planning to investigate needs and characteristics of living things, which will be under focus in Science. Some ‘gardening’ activities will happen in our classroom. Stay tuned.

Dates to remember in April:

April 2 - Picture Day

April 18 a 21– Easter long weekend

April 25 - Panther Assembly

April 30– Pizza Day

I would also like to inform you that in April, Faculty Student from Glendon College (University of York), Mlle Karrie will be with us in class. This is Mlle Karrie's last practicum as she graduates from the University in May. Mlle Karrie, will be teaching the students on a daily basis. She has been coming to our classroom since January to observe and teach a couple of lessons. Mlle Karrie proved herself to be a very well organized, knowledgeable, and attentive to the students’ needs Teacher Candidate. Children love her and, I am confident, will gain much positive experience from her teaching.

Thank you for all your support and co-operation.  

As usual, please do not hesitate to contact me in person and via the agenda with your questio ns, suggestions, and ideas.