Friday 21 December 2012

Bravo!

We finished up the students' readers' theater presentations of J'ai Faim this week. Readers' theater is a little different from a full dramatic presentation -- it is an integrated approach that involves students in reading, listening and speaking activities (eventually, they'll even write their own scripts!)  It requires no sets, costumes, props or memorized lines. The goal is to read a script aloud effectively and bring it to life with voice, facial expressions and some gestures.

Some of the students appear in more than one video; they were helping out by replacing people who were ill or who were going to be away on the performance day.

These are not public videos on my YouTube channel, and should only be accessible through these links.

Enjoy your children's performances. I certainly did. (Apologies to Alissa, Gian, Lazar, Sasha, Tate and Veronica -- I will save a new copy of your video with a fancy title and upload it over the weekend!)

Alex, Carys, Felix, Marko and Sophie

Hannah R., Matthew A, Matthew M, Raya and Victoria

Carys, Haydn, Mackenzie, Madelief and Carys

Alissa, Gian, Lazar, Sasha, Tate and Veronica

Gian, Hannah J, Haydn, Joseph and Mackenzie,








Sunday 16 December 2012

It's the most wonderful time...

Here we are, the last week before the Christmas break.

The students started performing their J'ai faim presentations Friday; two groups will have to present this week because students were away. Once the last two groups have gone, Mr. Higgins and I will get the videos uploaded to this site as quickly as possibly. I think you'll enjoy them. I am!

They have also doing a really good job on their Save the Massassauga Rattlesnake posters. The Massassauga Rattlesnake is an Ontario species that was put on the endangered list earlier this month. These posters mark the end of our studies of habitats and communities in science.

In les études sociales, we'll finish up our investigation of Canada's geophysical regions. And, in math, we are starting to work with 2D and 3D shapes. I have some fun art planned using geometric shapes.

Christmas Gift Exchange
Thank you for your quick responses to our idea for a small Christmas gift exchange. The students are really looking forward to this and I am so happy to see them wanting to do something nice for each other. Each student will be responsible for one, wrapped gift worth $5-10. The gift should be generic -- something a boy or girl would enjoy (e.g. markers, books, Smencils, puzzle or other game books.)

We'll have our class party on Friday afternoon and have the gift exchange then and everyone will get a chance to pick one gift from the collection.

If you would like to send a treat for Friday afternoon, please remember that we are a nut-free classroom.

Tuesday 4 December 2012

Another Fun Site

Madelief pointed this site out to me; apparently Mme Legacy, our librarian, showed it to the students.

Digital Dialects

Saturday 1 December 2012

December 1st

Wow, only 14 school days until Christmas Break. Where has the time gone?

Thank you all for the tremendous support you have shown the staff during this difficult time. Friday's ceremony was beautiful and the balloon release touching. Tom's legacy are his students. He has touched every one of them, deeply. And now, we move on -- Tom would have insisted -- but never forget.

We will welcome Baby Ben and his mom Tanis into our classroom for our Roots of Empathy class this week. We are all very excited to meet them both.

And it will be a busy week as we continue and/or begin the process of wrapping up various units: Canada in les études sociales and Habitats and Communities in Science. We having been studying J'ai faim (I am hungry) and students will be working in groups on a short dramatic presentation of this text. I always really enjoy watching them put these together.

I have found another website with fun activities to reinforce some of our basic French vocabulary: eStudio de France

And, finally, don't forget that Friday is a PA Day. No school for les éléves!