A busy two weeks!

We've had a great first 2 weeks back at school. 

Here's a look at what we've been up to!

Math: We've been practicing a new mental math strategy - adding with 5s - and have also been working on two new problem-solving questions. We reviewed how to plot coordinates on a cartesian plane and complete a translation of a 2D object. A translation (a "slide") can be horizontal, vertical or diagonal. We have started learning about rotations and reflections of 2D objects and will continue practicing all three of these geometric transformations this week.

We have also started working in "randomized groups" to solve different types of Math/logic questions on non-permanent vertical surfaces (such as white boards). We start off as a whole class group to discuss a question and then students are placed into smaller groups (at random) to collaborate and solve the question by showing their work on the white board. Each group is only given one whiteboard marker and must ensure that each group member is able to explain the solution before moving on to the next step. 

These type of problems sure make our brains work hard!

Science: We continue to work on graphing and have now graphed 5 different data sets to practice creating different scales on the x and y axes. We have just started graphing our final Tomatosphere data and will learn how we can graph two sets of data on the graph so we can directly compare the results. We have also submitted our final results to Tomatosphere and are waiting to hear back about which seeds belonged to which group in our double blind test!

Français: We continue to work on our reading daily, reading both independently and with a partner.

We have also been working on our writing, adding a few new skills to our writing tool box.

We started off by reading the book, "L'anniversaire" writtten by Robert Munsch (translated by Raymonde Lingual). We then did a shared write as a class describing the party that Mireille (the main character of the story) 

threw for herself.

We were then tasked with planning and writing about our dream party! Anything goes! Flying the whole class to Paris for lunch? Sure! Taking your entire hockey team to New York to watch the Rangers play? Why not?!

Once we had our texts planned and underway, we focused on learning a new verb tense "le futur proche." We were lucky to have Mme Galka (one of our division literacy coaches) with us to help us learn. She showed us THIS VIDEO and helped us apply this new verb tense to our written texts.

We also reviewed how adjectives can really help bring our texts alive with more detail, and learned that, in French, while most adjectives are placed after the nouns they describe, there are certain adjectives that are placed before. Adjectives describing Beauté (Beauty), Bonté (Greatness), Age (Age) and Size (Taille) are the adjectives that are placed before nouns. We are using the acronym B.B.A.T. to help us remember these four categories of adjectives. We practiced placing the adjectives in the correct places on the smart board and also in an interactive "create a sentence" activity using word cards.

We will be editing and writing the final copies of our paragraphs this coming week and will then be reading them to the class so we can all share our fabulous super parties with one another! So fun!

Have a great weekend, everyone!

Enjoy the warm weather! :)