Scholastic Orders

For April's Scholastic orders, feel free to choose any book that is at Level 1 or 2 (Niveau 1, Niveau 2).

Le calendrier d'avril

Avril 2015
dimanche	lundi	mardi	mercredi	jeudi	vendredi	samedi
Cercles de lecture	Annika Benjamin Elsa Brayden	Sinead Joel Makayla Joseph	Sophie David Madeleine Ian	Chrisitian Marjorie Brendan Zoe	Valerie Elliot Caite
			1 Day 1 Musique STEM	2 Day 2 STEM Bibliotheque	3     Joyeuses	4   Paques!
5   Joyeuses	6   Paques!	7 Day 3     MusiquePiscine	8 Day 4   Gym	9 Day 5 Gym   Math Night	10 Day 1Musique STEM	11
12	13 Day 2STEM Bibliotheque	14 Day 3   MusiquePiscine	15 Day 4   Gym Pizza Lunch	16 Day 5 Gym	17 Day 1Musique STEM	18
19	20 Day 2STEM Bibliotheque	21 Day 3   MusiquePiscine	22 Day 4   GymScholastic orders due	23 Day 5 Gym	24 Day 1Musique STEM	25
26	27 Day 2STEM Bibliotheque	28 Day 3   MusiquePiscine 8	29 Day 4   Gym	30 Day 5 Gym	1	2

 

April Newsletter

 

Welcome to April!

Right after March Break the students and I speak ONLY French in class and any time when we are together. They get tickets for using French as much as possible. The tickets are collected in individual pockets for each students. I encourage them to try their best to speak French at all times in order to earn

more tickets. In June during our final class celebration, there will be a variety of things (books, crayons, games, etc) that students will be able to buy with the earned tickets. Please encourage your child to speak in French at school and at home.

 

In April we will continue our programme of Guided Reading. The children keep working on developing decoding and comprehension skills in reading.

They enjoy working in a small group setting with me. Students 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 love to demonstrate their decoding skills. They learn how to 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 started  in March and will continue into June, when the students will be tested for the level of reading that they achieved through this school year. As well, we will be working on Retelling. This will involve learning about characters, setting of the story, its problem and how it is solved. What students learn during Guided Reading sessions, will be applied in this unit. 

In Writing, our focus will continue to be on capitals, periods, space between the words, using dictionaries, anchor charts to spell some words correctly. Besides, students will continue learning how to organize their ideas in writing, to insure that their writing makes sense. In class I encourage them to reread what they wrote in order to check their work every time they finish it. Feel free to ask your child what the check points are. 

 

In Math, the unit on 2D and 3D shapes will be wrapped up during the first week of April.Afterwards, we will work on fractions and number operations: addition and subtraction. As usual, a big chunk of our time will be given to solving word problems.

 

As the nature wakes up in spring and the world around us becomes green, we are planning to investigate needs and characteristics of living things, which will be under focus in Science.Some ‘gardening’ activities have already happened and will continue in our classroom. The children planted tomato seeds last Friday. The students were divided into two groups. One group got natural, untreated seeds of tomatoes. The  other group got the seeds that were treated in simulated space conditions (at -80*C in a vacuum) at the University of Guelph. During the month of April, the children will be observing how the tomatoes grow and if there is a difference between the two groups. Meanwhile, during the first week of April, we will be finishing our Social Studies unit My Community. Thank you to our parents who volunteered for the Community Walk last Friday: Ms. Mansworth, Ms. Yang, Ms. Browne, and Ms. Hung. With their help, students were able to use iPads and take pictures of the community in order to discuss its features and what they would do to improve the community they leave in. It was amazing to witness their critical thinking at work! Besides, the Walk material allowed us to wrap up the unit on recount as the children wrote about the walk. Great work!

 

We continue to work with iPads in class. Students record themselves when they work at morning stations.

They use iPads to organise their ideas, to prepare to produce a hard copy writing. They started to learn how to find a word meaning, using Google Image.

 

To conclude, I am encouraging you to pursue more activily the opportunuty to buy Scolasticbooks. Two reasons for that. One is that it is the good time to start creating  your child's "Frenchlibrary" for the summer months. Another one is that the more books we buy, the more points weearn, which will allow me to buy some things (to validate the tickets earned for speakingFrench) from Scholastic for the class final celebration at the end of the school year. 

Thank you for all your support and co-operation.  

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

 

Amicably,

 

Mme Volokhova