Week of January 27th-31st 2014

Here are this week’s reminders:

On Tuesday we will be having a visit from the Island Storm basketball team. They will share a message with the students and will hopefully show off some of their talent 🙂

Teachers and support staff will be attending professional development sessions on Friday, January 31st and thus, there will be no classes for students on that date.

Here’s what’s happening inside our classroom this week:

Grade 5

French- This week for our dictée we will start our work on homophones; words that sound that same but are spelled differently and have different meanings. The French language is full of homophones! This week we will be exploring two groups of homophones: est/es/ai/et and peu/peut/peux. As always, students will be responsible to work on their practice exercises at home each evening; in addition to the work we will do together in class, in preparation for their dictée on Day 6.

During our Reader’s Workshop this week we will look at the endings of words in French. Many students become confused with the endings of verbs ex. é, e, er, ez, ent, etc. We will examine ways to understand each of these endings, how they are pronounced and their meanings, in order to further our reading comprehension and fluency. We will also continue to work on our individual reading goals, responding to our reading with high order thinking. In the coming days, we will begin an author study on Mr. Gilles Tibo, a popular children’s author, and will work towards starting book clubs exploring his books and his style of writing.

We are nearing the end of our unit on poetry. This week, we will finish up writing our poems and will continue to revise and edit them in preparation for our poet’s café. If time permits, we will start to publish our poems and practice reading them aloud.

In math, we will continue on with our work on decimals numbers and how they relate to fractions. This week we will discover thousandths (three places after the decimal point) and we will start to see the relation between decimal numbers, measurements and money.

Science- We are continuing to examine the weather. Students should be keeping track of precipitations and weather patterns in their weather journals. We will also be having some discussions in class about different weather phenomena that exists here in Canada and around the world.

Our preparations for the Science Fair are well under way. This week, students need to provide me with their question and in class we will be working on our hypothesis. At home, students should be working at starting their experiments and documenting their results.

Social Studies-Students are continuing their study of Canadian historical figures and explorers. This week, they will present their projects on a famous explorer to the class. After this project, we will be taking a short break from Social Studies and Mme Isabelle will be helping the students prepare their science projects during her classes with them leading up to the Science Fair.

Grade 7 and 8 Science

Students are reminded that they should now have their questions for the Science Fair handed in. This week, they should be working on researching their topic and formulating their hypothesis. During our classes together, we will be finishing up our unit on solutions and mixtures, examining WHIMIS symbols and how they are used to remind us of the dangers of using chemical solutions and the proper precautions we should take when we see these symbols.

Have a marvelous week!

Madame April Walker

Les mots difficiles

Here is the list of this week’s spelling words in case they are accidentally left at school 🙂

aimer

alors

ami (e)

aujourd’hui

Ă  propos

bleu

bibliothèque

commencer

dire

Ă©criture

hier

livre

meilleur (e)

milieu

parler

penser

personne

prédiction

premier

jamais

professeur

projet

quand

récréation

renard

seconde

seulement

temps

tomber

toujours

vieille

vraiment

Week of January 20th-25th 2014

After a short reprieve, Old Man Winter and the cold weather have returned. Please make sure your child has the proper attire for outdoor play and maybe an extra pair of mittens or gloves in case theirs get wet 🙂

Here’s what is happening inside our classroom during this week:

Grade 5

French- Our dictée for this week will be a spelling test. Students helped create a list of difficult spelling words for this point in their year, similar to the one we created together in September. We will be studying these words in class, and I’d ask that they review them each night at home in preparation for their dictée on Day 6 (Friday)

During our Reader’s Workshop this week, we will continue to explored different strategies to help us better understand and comprehend what we read in French. We will look at the importance of thoroughly reading through each word, especially when reading aloud, as to not mistake one word for another or to skip over any words. We will also examine how reading expands our vocabulary in French and how we can use the new words we’ve learned to enhance our writing and conversations. I’d ask that each student continue to spend some time each evening reading out loud in order to further increase their fluency.

During our writing time this week, we will continue out  unit on poetry. Last week, we looked at the use of figurative language to enhance our poems and at several different types of poems poets create. This week, we will focus on writing and revising our poems in preparation of our poets’ café.

In math, we will continue our study of decimal numbers and how they relate to fractions.

In this unit, your child will:

• Model, compare, and order fractions and decimals.

• Explore equivalent fractions and decimals.

• Relate fractions to division and to decimals.

• Use decimals to record measurements.

Fractions and decimals are used and encountered frequently in our world. For example, prices on grocery and other store advertising flyers typically show decimals and special sales announcements that include fractions. Encourage your child to look for such examples and to use fractions and decimals at home. If you are dividing something into equal pieces, such as an orange, have your child name fractions that describe the pieces. For example, if the orange is divided into 8 equal pieces, each piece is one-eighth of the orange.

Science- This week we will continue to explore weather. I’d ask that students fill out their weather journal each evening. In addition, preparations have begun for our Science fair. I will be sending information home with your son/daughter this week regarding this project and a calendar of important dates. Before Friday, students are asked to come up with their idea and to start planning their experiments. If you have any questions about this project, please do not hesitate to ask.

Social Studies-Students are continuing their study of Canadian historical figures and explorers. This week they are researching and creating a poster about an explorer to present to the class later this week.

Grade 7 and 8 Science

We are coming near the end of our section on solutions and mixtures. This week we will be learning about a very important solution: water and will start review for our test. In addition, we are beginning to prepare for the Science Fair. Students are reminded to have their topics and questions into me by Friday, January 25th.

Have a fantastic week!

Madame April Walker

 

Week of January 13th-17th 2014

Here are a few reminders for the week:

Last week book orders were sent home. If you are interested in purchasing anything please ensure that your order form is passed in by Wednesday, January 15th.

On Wednesday, there will be a Home and School meeting at 6:30pm in the Science Lab.

Due to a death in my family, I will not be at school on Tuesday. Mme Nicole Doiron will be spending the day with my students.

On Thursday, students will be treated to a special presentation from the Festival of Small Halls entitled “Let me tell you about the War of 1812.”

Here’s what else is happening inside our classroom during this week

Grade 5

French- Our dictée for this week will be a continuation of the present tense of verbs. As usual, I will be sending home a worksheet on Monday. Students are responsible to complete a portion of the sheet each evening and our dictée will be held on Day 6.

During our Reader’s Workshop this week we will be exploring different strategies to help us better understand and comprehend what we read in French. We will also look at how to improve our fluency and will continue to respond to our reading in our reading journal. Additionally, we will work on our individual reading goals through teacher conferences and guided reading groups.

During our writing time this week, we will continue to examine figurative language in poetic texts. We will also discover different types of poems that poets write and will start to write some more poems of our own. Our final project for our unit on poetry will be a poets’ café, where students will present their poetry aloud. I was very impressed with the student’s letters to themselves and the growth that they are showing in their writing. I’m sure when we open these letters in June it will be great fun! Bravo!

In math, we are moving through our study of fractions and decimal numbers. Our study of equivalent fractions is now complete and we continue to place fractions in order on a number line and to look at decimal numbers and how to relate to whole numbers and fractions. Students can expect another short quiz on these concepts later on this week.

Science- Our new unit on weather has begun and students have started their weather journals. We are also looking ahead to the school’s science fair, which will take place on during the last week of February. I have asked the students to think of their topic and question this week. More information on this assignment will be sent home in the coming weeks 🙂

Social Studies-The study of great Canadian historical figures has started with Mme Isabelle. The students are brainstorming and creating their definition what a hero is and learning about many Canadian heroes who have helped shape our country into what it is today.

Grade 7 and 8 Science

As we continue our study of solutions and mixtures, this week we will continue to experiment with solubility and how mixtures can be separated. We will also look at some solid solutions and gas solutions that are important parts of our everyday lives.

Have a fantastic week!

Madame April Walker

Weeks of January 2-10, 2014

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday with your families and friends 🙂 It feels nice to get back into a routine after the break, even on a day as cold as this one. I hope everyone is well rested and excited to start the 2014 portion of our 2013-2014 school year 🙂

Here’s what else is happening inside our classroom during this week and next:

Grade 5

French- This week we will be settling back into our routines. Our dictée for next week will be on the present tense of verbs. As usual, I will be sending home a worksheet on Monday. Students are responsible to complete a portion of this sheet each evening and our dictée will be held on Day 6.

As we finished our first set of literacy stations before the break, we will be heading back into our regular reader’s workshop. Mini lessons will focus on how to respond to what we have read with examples from the text, a review of strategies to help solve unknown words and how to make sure we always slow down to understand what we are reading in French. We will continue to respond in our Carnet de lecture and to work on personal reading goals during our conferences and with our guided reading groups.

In writing, we will start off this week off by reflecting on the year ahead. Each student will brainstorm to set some personal goals that they wish to work on this year (both academically and personally) and will compose a letter to themselves to be opened in June. We will also continue our study of the poetic text and to work on our writing goals during our independent writing time.

In math, we will continue the study of equivalent fractions and ordering fractions on a number line that we started before the break. We will play some math games and will use manipulatives to reenforce and demonstrate our understanding of these concepts, before a short quiz late next week. If time permits, we will start our study of decimal numbers.

Science- Our new unit in Science will focus on the weather. We will begin to keep a journal of the precipitations and weather forecasts each day and will examine how different weather patterns occur. With all of the wonderful winter weather we have already had here on PEI, this is bound to be an exciting unit of study!

Social Studies-The students will be starting a new unit in Social Studies this week with Mme Isabelle. This unit will be on heros entitled “Les grands personnages”.

Grade 7 and 8 Science

This week we continue our study of Mixtures and Solutions. We will we look at how solutions can become over-saturated and how particles of different substances come together to form different types of solutions.

Have a wonderful first few days and first full week of 2014!

Madame April Walker