First of all, thank you so much to all the parents that came and met with us to talk about their child’s progress at school. It was a very fruitful and informative experience for us, and we look forward to moving ahead through the year with your lovely children.

Homework:

Mme Shelli’s Class: Students have word study/ spelling homework this week.  Each night, students should complete one page.  It should come to school each day.  

Mme Jana’s Class:  We have new French vocabulary this week. 

Important Dates:

Thurs, Nov. 16                Picture retakes (8h00)

Wed to Friday, Nov 22-24                      No School – Thanksgiving Break

Monday, Dec. 4             No School – Academy day for teachers

Mme Jana’s News 

FLA (French Language Arts):  As I wrote last week, for reading groups, a few groups are still finishing up their first books, then we’ll all begin reading “Quels drôles de pieds,” or “What If You Had Animal Feet? ” in English, by Sandra Markle.

We’ve also done the first Mercy Watson book, which I read to them, entitled, “Mercy Watson à la Rescousse.” I have the whole series of six in French, and I’ll be asking Mathilde to read the rest of them so they can hear her lovely accent.

As we discussed at conferences, spoken French continues to improve and come more readily to your children, and students are getting reading and writing practice every day as well. We’ll begin the verb être (to be) this week, and we’ll work on it for the next two weeks and beyond. We’ll also do the sound of the letter “i” this week, which makes the “ee” sound, not like in English, so ask your child to pronounce it for you.

I hope to begin Tap’Touche (our francophone typing program) this week although the list of names is still eluding me, I am getting closer! We will continue with cursive as well, getting daily practice.

Sophie Glasser:  We had a wonderful art workshop with Sophie Glasser last week, and I’m particularly impressed that your students were able to stick to speaking French the whole lesson. I’m sure you’ve seen your child’s flipbook, and I’ve heard a number of students have begun making their own. I’d like to follow this up with a stop-motion project at school, which we will do before winter break. Sophie has a book for sale, “The Big Book” or “Le Gros Manuel” that is available in French or English.  Check her out:  Sophie Glasser. I think Bernadette may have some for sale up in the office.

 

Sciences: We are still working on series and parallel circuits, including D cell orientation, and science and engineering practices, like asking questions and planning and carrying out investigations. We also continue to come back to the idea of “systems” and what that concept involves in electrical circuits. We’ll move into electromagnets next.


Mme Shelli’s News

ELA: This week students will complete writing their first draft of a 5 paragraph essay about an indigenous people group from Oregon.  Students will revise & edit their work.  Later in the week, they will get feedback from me and will begin the final draft process.  

In English reading, students will be reading a fun fiction story Dear Mr. Winston.  Students will be asked to draw conclusions based on text evidence.  Read our story this week in the Journeys online link – Lesson 9. If your child is struggling in reading, it might be a great home connection to have them read it aloud to you at home. Not only that, it’s a really funny story.

Math: We begin LearnZillion units 3 & 5 on Fractions.  Unit 3 begins this week with the idea of “reasoning up and down”, which reinforces the meaning of fractions and the components of fractions. Students reason from non-unit fractions “down” to unit fractions, and then reason “up” to wholes and then to other fractions with the same denominator. This process prepares students for future reasoning with ratios, and ensures understanding of the numerator and denominator. Find out more about the unit 3 goals at this link.