April 18-21, 2017

Our French digraphs (with more than 2 letters) of focus this week were "elle" and "ette." I began telling a new story, The Fox and the Walking Stick. The kids helped me decide on gestures and began learning to tell it themselves. We continued to read books aloud with a puppet friend who models a comprehension strategy. The puppets are more visible now, and the kids are requesting particular puppets. A student can chose a puppet to animate and thus model making connections, asking questions, visualizing the story, predicting or retelling the story after reading it. Each puppet models one of these activities. Their names are Imogène Qui Imagine, Fleur Connecteur, Didi Qui Prédit, Rolande Qui Se Demande, and Le Compte Qui Raconte.

We also began to review all the words on our word. After a writing period, I asked students to tell the class what words they had looked for there and how they found them.

We continued to sing "Notre Planète" all week and we sang it for the Earth Day assembly. The kids kept the rhythm of the song by slapping their thighs.

In math, we began talking about and making patterns. We reviewed the idea (and vocabulary) that a pattern has a repeating core made up of specific elements. The students drew patterns and then circled the core of their neighbour's patterns.

Then with students working in pairs at stations around the classroom, I gave them various challenges: make a pattern with a core that has 3 elements, make a pattern where the elements change their position (not their colour), make a pattern and then show the core on a piece of paper...

We also returned to the subject of energy, reviewing the sources of energy for familiar processes.