Wednesday 30 September 2015

Last post for September!

NEWS FROM THE FRENCH CORNER

Grade 3/4 We talked nutrition once more and this will wrap up this short unit for the students. They really applied themselves writing: Je mange, Tu manges and il/elle mange. This is the begining of learning the verbs ending in -er.


Grade 7/8 both grades worked on their projects. Please remember that grade 7 work will be due Monday, October 5 and, grade 8 presentations are due on Wednesday, Oct. 7.

Grade 5/6 We had 3 presentations left to hear about then I gave them one of my favorite recipe for them to translate. The students finished the unit with a game of round the world on the vocabulary.

Grade 1/2 continued with their game of finding objects scattered around the classroom. They also sang the prepositions tune and we added 2 locations: en- haut and en-bas. There was a contest amongst the students for who had the whole song without mistake. Lots of laughter!

JK/SK this afternoon, we talked about des pommes rouges, jaunes et vertes. The students had a coloring activity and when finished, went back to the carpet to do some counting. Leon was very brave and counted 0-10 by himself. Bravo!

Monday 28 September 2015

NEWS FROM THE FRENCH CORNER, Friday, 25th

La journée de Terry Fox

Grade ¾ students looked at a map of Canada and practice naming the provinces names in French and they looked for the location where Terry Fox started his run and where it ended. After that, they started to read in their textbooks about who liked certain sports. They divided themselves in groups and said: j’aime…or je n’aime pas…

Grade 7 students took up Wednesday’s homework and it took longer than usual…a few students did not complete their assignment. These first uniits are on verbs and it is important that we do the review before moving on. Homework is to continue their verb studies for the main irregular verbs: aller, avoir être, pouvoir, vouloir, devoir, faire. They also have to work on their slides/pictures for their comic strip and provide an original ending.

Grade 8 students peer edited their work and reviewed the rubric. They are writing about their idea/worst day, due on Monday. They are also to come up with ideas for their Facebook/Web page for la tâche finale.

Grade ½ had much fun playing a round the world game with a full review of this month vocabulary, a little Math and general knowledge. Well done! The class was interrupted for birthday circle at 1:50p.m
JK/SK there was no French class today. Instead, they ran outside for the Terry Fox school run.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

MONDAY, SEPT. 28 We are back on schedule
NEWS FROM THE FRENCH CORNER today's edition

Grade 3/4 discussed the main three meals we take during the day. They also learned that other countries call their meals a bit differently and it often depends on the importance of that meal. They had seat work, copied their vocabulary and wrote what they would eat at certain meal.

Grade 7 worked on their comic strip. Oliver suggested that they use bitstrip: this was well received and  students will try it if their devices support it.

Grade 8 read their assignment about a horrible or ideal day and the class discussed the rubric. Well done!
The students received their tâche finale assignment: a Facebook/Web page offering a service. They will folow the rubric and will have class time on Wednesday to work on it. Due date is Wednesday, Oct.7

Grade 5/6 presented their recipe project. Good work and yummy recipes. We have 3 more students to present on Wednesday. 
We had a few minutes to watch Ricardo à la cuisine a video from CBC. Garret looked up famous chefs from France and gave a list all the way back to the 1600's.

Grade 1/2 started with their textbook and they combined their knowledge of numbers and class objects and answered to Qu'est-ce que c'est? and Qui est-ce?
They are slowly making the transition from what they hear to what is written. Fantastic group!

JK/SK are adding to the routine and the JK are really starting to participate. Today, they listened to a CD story of a panda bear who would shrink in the rain and regain its full size when the sun was out. 
They finished with counting all the squares on the carpet. Bravo, Samuel for being the closest to the count. Shylah did the calendar and even sounded out LUNDI!

Wednesday 23 September 2015

C'est mercredi!

NEWS FROM THE FRENCH CORNER

Grade 3/4 the students worked very hard today. They were able to identify the school rooms and the people who work there.

Grade 7/8 had a refresher on l'impératif and the verbs pouvoir, vouloir, devoir. Grade 7 will continue with activity sheets on verbs.
Grade 8 They listened to my story of a bad dream and now have the choice of writing about their best or worst day. They also have their rubric so they know what is expected of them.

Grade 5/6 are almost at the end of the unit and have to start to think about a recipe to present to the class. Today, they completed a quiz that will be marked and their homework is to complete their sheet and it is due on Friday. p.8

Grade 1/2 were all over the classroom and search for their characters in or with places/objects around the class. Some of the students are now able to sound out the words! Well done!

JK/SK Today was all about Fall. Weather, calendar , numbers etc... They were very active as usual but the class is normalizing nicely. This is going to be a great year!




Monday 21 September 2015

NEWS FROM THE FRENCH CORNER

Grade 3/4 students worked on classroom objects, but all in the plural form. They also learned to say C'est un/une and ce sont des...This is not an easy concept to apply. Then, they worked on how to ask questions by using: est-ce que je peux aller à/au... Homework is to finish the activity sheet.

Grade 7/8 received a combined lesson on pronominal verbs. Although this  is part of the Reach Ahead programme for the grade 8 students, the students realized that they already encountered this concept while reading a variety of text.
Grade 7 reviewed the interrogative words and their homework is to compose 5 questions in reference to a short paragraph. If it was not completed in class, please do it for homework.

Grade 8 worked on 10 parts of a telephonne conversation and had to re-organize the sequence. This group of students knows how to collaborate and work productively.
Homework: finish the activity sheet on faire du/de la and jouer à la/au...

Grade 5/6 are well on their way to conquer l'impératif. They know their action verbs. By the end of the week, they should start on la tâche finale: the recipe.
Homework: please complete the activity sheet p3/4.

Grade 1/2 were introduced to the characters from the textbook. After, a game of who's who, they had fun locating the cut outs all over the classroom and learning
to say where things are.

JK/SK We started talking about Fall and the leaves coming down. We started to locate objects around the classroom. We also started to talk about feelings such as je suis content etc...

Wednesday 16 September 2015

NEWS FROM THE FRENCH CORNER

Grade 3/4 Today was picture day and everyone looked their best! That gave me an opportunity to take a photo and wish Ms Halmilton a happy birthday in French. The students sang in French, had balloons and presents. They are so thoughtful.
They have started to apply the plural to familiar vocabulary and learned that if nouns were used in the plural we added an S at the end, BUT if it already had one, it was to be left alone. Oh, but that was not all! If it ended with -eau then you add X.  They were very quick and clever with this concept.

Grade 7 worked from their textbook and tested themselves by using these high frequency verbs: aller, faire, aimer, avoir, être. They are called auxiliary verbs. It is important to master these verbs, so they are homework!

Grade 8 read their paragraph about themselves to each other, peer edited it before presenting them to me. I was pleasantly surprised with the quality of their work. Then, I read them the selection from the textbook p.16,17, Une journée à mon goût. We are starting on the reflexive verbs. They have to fill in their activity sheet using some of the verbs in the side bar.

Grade 5/6 First, I want to wish Jasmine a farewell goodbye. You have been a delight to have in French class and I wish you all the best on this new adventure.

Today, we worked on the formation of the impératif! This verb tense will come handy when working on your recipe presentation.

Congrats to Jada, who already worked on this project. That is a winning attitude!

Grade 1/2 counted feet, fingers, arms eyes etc... up to seize (16). Then they completed in record time the sentences where they had to correctly write the name of colours. Good job, everyone!

JK/SK students are feeling the heat today. So, we pretended to be 'des éléphants au trou d'eau'. They took turns to the watering hole. Then they had to search around for colourful objects and sang.

Monday 14 September 2015

NEWS FROM THE FRENCH CORNER

It has been fun to have the kids come up and giving me the 'secret code' in exchange for house points. The code will change frequently and the idea is that the blog is read through.

JK/SK already have the routine down path with calendar, wheather and colours. They went around the classroom to get items with a designated colour. After, the students acted out what they do during recess: cours, marche, grimpe, glisse etc... They finished the class with drawing themselves at their favorite playground structure.

Grade 1/2 have now completed their colour word booklet and can read and recognize the name of colours. They also had fun with a game of name that day during a song where they had to quickly raise their day card when they heard it. Great day all around.

Grade 5/6 students read about a chef and other kids making pizza. The object of the lesson was to recognize verbs in the imperative tense. These verbs were recorded in their notebook and will be useful when they have to present a recipe to the class. More information to come later this week.
These students are really sharp!!!

Grade 7/8 had a combined lesson on 'adjectifs possessifs'. They copied the grid in their notebooks for future reference.

Grade 7 completed an activity sheet then they were asked to reflect about the virtual world versus reality. The statement of inquiry for this unit is:Video games offer opportunities to communicate meaning as a way to reflect on reality and the virtual world as different contexts. Students will be discussing this in the next few days.

Grade 8 were asked to start a rough copy of a paragraph modelled on one from the book. They will be describing themselves, their likes and dislikes.This will also help them to review adjectives, both regular and irregular.

Grade 3/4 have been brushing on their spelling skills. The vocabulary is all about the classroom items. I must say they are impressive!





Friday 11 September 2015

FIRST WEEK AND HOUSE GAMES

NEWS FROM THE FRENCH CORNER

We successfully, safely and happily completed our first week!!!!

Grade 3/4 students were fantastic at reading, writing and then putting fragments of words together. Everyone had a great time and they were able to identify objects around the classroom.

Grade 7 were treated to my reading the comic strip in the first unit: La galaxie virtuelle. They also did group work to extract the vocabulary from the story which they use at a later date.

Grade 8 did a reading as a group, researched the vocabulary from a fun survey. After they tallied their points, they read the results and could identify parts of their personality. 

GRADES 7/8 WERE GIVEN THE FOLLOWING ON-GOING ASSIGNMENT: they are to listen and keep a record of what they listened to. They have to tune in to ICI RADIO CANADA or TFO T.V. or radio for 15 minutes from now till Thursday and report on it.

Grades 5/6 became increasingly hungrier by the minute because we were talking PIZZA! Today was all about the partitives du, de la, de l' and des.

Grade 1/2 are just about to complete their colour booklet. They really worked well as a group and were able to expand the vocabulary to other items around the room.

JK/SK students are settling nicely and participation was up. Thank you Charlotte for doing the calendar.

We had fun in the GYM for House Games. All the teams were enthusiastic.

Have a great weekend!. 

Wednesday 9 September 2015

French Corner

NEWS FROM THE FRENCH CORNER- TMA

We already have our first day under our belt. It was fantastic to see everyone and meet our new students. Let's make this the best year!

On this blog, you will find the French activities, homework and other pertinent details about our day at The Maples (TMA).

The day started with the grades 3/4. The students received their books, they introduced themselves with 'bonjour, je m'appelle...' I was delighted to see returning students and familiar faces. We went to the morning assembly, so we will take up where we left off on Friday. REMINDERS! I have asked the students to bring a 1in. binder to keep everything under one 'roof'. They also know to tell you, the parents, to read my blog and of course to keep in touch via email.

Grades 7/8 The students looked through their new textbooks to get an overview of this year's programme. The curriculum for the grade 7 is rigourous and prepares the students well.
The grade 8, will be doing the Grade 9 programme! Yes, this is exciting news and the students will receive their French credit, grade 9, through St-Jude's Academy upon completion.
There is a letter/form that was sent to the parents to sign and return upon your approval. If you have any questions or need further information, please contact me in person or by email and of course Mr. Playford is also available.
There will be many opportunities for both grades to interact and work on similar grammar concepts, for examples. Today, we identified les profiles de l'apprenant and looked for the differences in spelling for feminine and masculine.

Grade 5/6 were encouraged to tell the class, in French of course, about their summer. Ben was brave and went first, Molly then everyone jumped at the opportunity to try their French. The students also worked on the learner profiles
in French. They also looked through their textbooks and perhaps because it was just before lunch and the unit is about pizza...they were feeling the hunger!

Grade 1/2 students started with a bit of review such as, je m'appelle...quel temps fait-il...and colours. They have started a booklet on spelling the names of colours.
Today, they did rouge, bleu and jaune.

JK/SK students were for the most part active participant and the SK took the lead in singing about the weather, the months etc... Samuel was the leader and did a fantastic job with calendar work. Well done!

Now, here is my way to know if the students told their parents to read this blog.
Here is a secret code name: ECHO
If the students can tell me, without being prompted, there will be house points!


Friday 4 September 2015

NEWS FROM THE FRENCH CORNER

Bonjour à tous!

Welcome back to a brand new and exciting year of French at The Maples!

I look forward to seeing everyone, ready to tackle new challenges. But first, let's take a look at what's new for this year.

The students from grades 1 to 8 will be in charge of supplying their own 1 inch French binder. Any colour will do, BUT, you all know that I like bleu, blanc et rouge. We will discuss this further on the first day of school.

Many of you already know that I have accepted a new challenge and will be going to our sister-school St Jude's Academy (SJA). I will be teaching grades 6 to 12. So, I will be at The Maples on Mondays, Wednesdays and every other Friday. 

All the students, here at The Maples, will receive the same number of hours of French per month, just like before. The classes will be 60 minutes each which will give us more time during class to complete our work.

As you know, I am always available after school and by email at jvilleneuve@themaplesschool.com

See you very soon!
Madame Villeneuve