Support during summer

Dear Parents,

Summer holidays are a time of rest and fun. As you enjoy the summer, please take time to do some review and enrichment.

Here are some Math and Language suggestions for the summer as well as some useful French websites. These activities can be done at various times of the day as you enjoy the summer and they will be of great benefit to your child as they prepare to enter next Grade.

Language Suggestions

It is important that students continue to be exposed to the French Language on a regular basis throughout the summer. There are French books and CDs at the public library and many bookstores. Most DVDs can be set to French.  Play dates with classmates are an excellent opportunity for your child to speak French! (Challenge them by telling them they are not allowed to speak in English with their friends.)

Spoken Language:

-         Call or Skype each other to speak in French.

-         Set regular French Only play dates with classmates.

Listening:

-          There are two good French channels: 12 - CBLFT and 13 - TFO.

-          Video (in the library), kids songs and animated films on YouTube.

Reading:

-          Read any French book

-          Using English books, practice retelling the story using Who, What, Where, When, Why.

-          Using English books practice retelling the story using beginning, middle and end.

-          Ask your child questions (Why and How or Explain) to see if they understand what they are reading.

-          Play word / sound / vocabulary games at www.logicieleducatif.fr

-       Study the Grade 3 and Grade 4 words on the vocabulary list package sent home.

Writing:

-          Write journal entries.

-          Write stories.

-          Play scrabble, hangman, boggle or any other letter/word games.

  

Math Suggestions:

-          Mental addition and subtraction.

-          Multiplication and division.

-          Cooking and baking (uses lots of measurement).

-          Measuring various objects using ruler.

-          Lots of money practice (e.g., counting coins)

-          Review the math workbook and handouts (complete and/or correct)

-          Play math games on www.logicieleducatif.fr

Audio-visual resources: tumblebooks.com      1. click on e-books for e-kids –                                   2. username = romeodallaire       password = reads                                   3. choose a language http://fslactivities.ca/kidsplayground/                                         www.envolerie.com/jeux/jeux.html www.tvokids.com/framestes/grownups.html                             www.pdictionary.com www.caillou.com                                                                       www.handwritingforkids.com www.momes.net                                                                       http://jeudeloie.free.fr/plateau.htm http://www.jeuxde,ots.providence.learningtogether.net/            www.miscositas.com www.prescolaire.grandmonde.com                                           www.tfo.org/gisou www.tfo.org.petitmonde                                                             http://www.ladictee.fr http://chez.com/jeudeloie/                                                         http://perso.orange.fr/jeux.lul

Additionally -

- Start practicing typing

- Explore and get used to Google products (Google Doc, Google Slides, etc.)

- Start thinking about which extracurricular activities they want to participate in as of September, as many opportunities will be open to them as they enter the junior division.

 I have had a truly fantastic year with all of your children and they must be really proud of their accomplishments this year. Thank you again for all of your support, it is very much appreciated. I wish you all a safe and enjoyable summer.

Bonnes vacances!

Enjoy your summer without forgetting French!!!

 M. Jung
Roméo Dallaire Public School, 2016-2017

Science Plant Presentation

Students have been researching on a plant of their choice and  putting together an on-line presentation using Google Slides. The success criteria included

1. Asking at least 3 "good questions" as we learned in our inquiry lesson. (e.g., not a yes-or no question, a question that provides information)

2. One of the question must be "how people can use / benefit from this plant?"

3. Includes a title and conclusion slide.

4. Includes a description of the plant.

5. Each slides contain precise and clear sentences, not a long copied-and-pasted paragraphs.

6. Letters are clearly visible and not too many colours/too much decoration.


Presenting will be done individually or in pairs (as they preferred). Presentation skills criteria are:

1. Makes frequent eye contacts with the audience, not just with the teacher.

2. Voice is clear, loud and appropriately paced for everyone to hear and understand.

3. Includes introduction and conclusion using set expressions taught in class.

4. Asks and answers questions at the end.

5. Does not read off the screen entirely.

6. Shows awareness of the audience by not blocking the projection.

These criteria have all been shared with the students.


Thank you for your support.

June newsletter

Dear Family,

Here are some curriculum updates and important information for the month of June.

Curriculum Updates

• Language

o We will continue to work on our persuasive paragraph.

o We will finish our dictation. We will have done 27 dictations by the end of this month.

• Math

o We will finalize our measurement unit with culminating tasks.

o We will do a short unit on probability.

• Science

o We have been working on our plant unit. We are learning characteristics of different plants and will investigate the relationship between living things and plants.

Important dates in June

5th, 12th, 19th Swim to Survive program after lunch at North Thornhill C.C.

8th RDPS annual Fun Fair + Wacky hair day!

22nd RDPS annual Talent Show!

23rd End of the year assembly

27th Report card goes home

28th Whole school play day! - AM

29th Half day – early dismissal – Last day of school

Reminder

• If your child will be away and will not be receiving their report card, it will be available to be picked up at the office on June 29th or 30th as the office will be open on these days. The office will re-open August 28th. Unfortunately, the report card cannot be mailed.

• As warm weather approaches, students are reminded to wear appropriate clothing. Items such as torn jeans, tank tops, tops with spaghetti straps, tops that leave the midriff exposed, halter tops and beach footwear (e.g. flip flops) are deemed inappropriate.

Thank you for your cooperation.

M. Jung

Mesure test result

Some notes on the test:

The very first question - both correct

Telling time question with clocks - two last questions weren't considered as the questions were a bit confusing.

Reminder: The final mark for measurement strand will be determined according to the triangulation of the data collected - Observation + Conversation + Product. The final mark is not entirely based on the test.

Rubric (disregard the descriptors on money)
- First low: planning skills for word questions.
- Second low: accuracy simple answer and multiple choice questions.
- Third low: accuracy in word questions.


Please review, sign and return

Thank you for your support.

Math tests - 2nd week of June

There will be two tests during this week, everything they have practiced a lot in class and as homework.

First test will be on measurement

1. Time
- read time to nearest 5 mins, indicate time using an analogical clock, solve problems related to time (duration of time)

2. Calendar

- solve problems regarding days, weeks and months.

3. Temperature

- read temperature in Celsius, including below zero. Recognize benchmarks relating to temperature (-10c is a cold winter day. 20c is a comfortable room temperature. 100c is when water starts boiling, etc)

4. Capacity and Mass

- recognize benchmarks for a gram, a kilogram, a litre and a millilitre. 

- solve problems relating to capacity and mass.

Second test will be on area and perimeter.

- know the difference between perimeter and area.

- calculate perimeter and area of a 2d shape.

- draw a shape that has x perimeter or x area.

- solve problems relating to perimeter and area.

March - May

Here are some activities that we've done so far since the end of the March Break.

1. Our field trip to the Pioneer Village

Students experienced the school life of the pioneer children in Upper Canada. This is part of our Grade 3 Social Studies curriculum. The experience was very authentic and the facilitator was a great teacher/actress! Students had a lot of fun!

 
 

2. Spring rain art activity

Students explored an interesting technique to express colorful rain. Students completed their work by adding more lines and colors with markers and adding a cut-out character as a focus of the space. Beautifully done!

3. Flower painting inspired by works of Georgia O'Keeffe.
Students learned to use their work space in a creative way by drawing an object that sticks out of the work space.

4. Paper plate woven tree art
In this work, students explored the ways to express distance in their painting of a scenery on a paper plate and combined it with a woven tree to create a mixed 2D/3D art work.

All the artwork will be sent home in June in their art portfolio. Evaluation rubrics will also be sent along.

5. Fractions of Pizza
Students read a book on fractions where the main character create different pizzas showing different fractions. Students become chefs themselves to create their own pizza, using their health / math knowledge!

6. Group work continues.. 

Students are sharing their ideas on how to support their opinion with rich examples and reasonable explanations to persuade someone. In this engaging activity called "graffiti," students are putting their ideas down on the chart paper before sharing them with their group and the whole class.

Students are solving a math problem in pairs using fake money cut-outs.

7. Math centres - essential part of a comprehensive math program.

Some centre activities continued on during these months. Through a variety of purposeful puzzles and games, students work collaboratively, practice their math skills and have fun at the same time.

8. Students were also lucky to be the very first class to check out the Maker Space at Learning Commons (AKA library). This is a special program run by our awesome teacher librarian Mr. Mittelstaedt, in line with the board's STEAM initiative (science - technology - engineering - arts - math). Students completed special tasks related to the ministry curriculum expectations.

9. For our soil unit, we have been investigating the effect of artificial substances on the growth of plants.

Students will continue to observe the plants watered with three different types of water (tap water, salty water and water with fertilizer) to draw a conclusion on the effect of salt and fertilizer on plants.

10. Our class was one of two classes that participated in 20-minute makeover, an initiative by the City of Vaughan and our school EcoClub. While participating in this activity, students also found a couple of killdeers protecting their eggs. This led to our lesson on how to ask good questions to start an inquiry process.

For more information, click: https://www.vaughan.ca/cityhall/environmental_sustainability/Pages/20-Minute-Makeover.aspx

11. G Suite workshops.

We have started using G Suite products (Google Slides and Google Doc) to get students used to working on computers. We have so far explored how to control texts and images on Google Slides and how to complete a writing task and submit it to the teacher using Google Doc. These workshops are to continue until the end of the school year combined with different subject areas.

May Newsletter

Dear Family,
Here are some curriculum updates and important information for the month of May.

Curriculum Updates
• Language & Health
o We are working on our opinion / persuasive writing unit combining the writing activities with health curriculum expectations on avoiding bad habits.
o We are learning to ask “good question” for inquiry projects and while reading.
• Math
o We are learning to estimate, measure and record length, perimeter, area, mass, capacity, time and temperature using standard units. We will also be learning to compare, describe and order objects, using attributes measured in standard units.
• Science
o We are almost finishing our soil unit. We have been learning to identify and describe different types of soil and their characteristics. We have also been discussing the relationship between living things and the soil.

Important dates in May
19th Funky Hat & Diversity Day : Wear funky hats and traditional clothing.
22-26th Scholastics Book Fair / EQAO tests. Specific dates to be announced.

Reminder
• We are still collecting BBQ related items to put a basket together for a silent auction during our Fun Fair this year. It is a great way to raise money for our school. Thank you for your support!



M. Jung