Welcome to a brand new year!

To begin with I would like to thank everyone for all of your Christmas wishes and gifts and goodies. They were all appreciated.  I had a very relaxing holiday and I am ready to get on with the next few months of hard work.  

Français: we are finishing our presentations on monsters. This is an oral presentation to go with our novel study. Test on “imparfait” verb tense Thursday Jan 12th.

English: we will be finishing our presentations on Greek gods and goddesses. After that, a unit on poetry.

Science: finishing our unit on astronomy with a project on planets...a travel brochure using the information we collected before Christmas.

Math: finishing our unit on decimal numbers.

Études sociales: starting our unit on the Iroquois confederacy and how it ties into our democracy.

Religion: Test on units 1-4 that should have been done before the break, but there were too many sick students. Will review. Test on Friday Jan 13th

As an end to our unit on Ancient Athens, we will be having our greek games on Monday December 19th after the second recess. I would like students to dress up in togas (plain sheet, pins everywhere) in order to make the event more fun. Merci

Two more weeks until we can finally rest and relax...

Super Huge kudos to the Grade 6 class for their phenomenal performance at the Christmas concert. I was down in front, expecting to direct them, when suddenly...I looked at them and found out they were not looking at me but doing exactly what they were supposed to do...perform! Tears ran down my cheek...so proud of this awesome group! Hope you liked it.
Please consider sending wet wipes...we have several students sick already, and wiping down desks will go a long way to keeping germs at bay.
This week in learning:
Francais: doing a research on Big Foot or another legend, whereby they put their information on a poster. Goes with our novel study.
Math: Studying for the unit test on December 16th. NOW is the time to ask questions about stuff they don't understand.
ELA: finishing research on Greek gods, and goddesses, that we will present to the class in the coming week. Starting to write in a journal to get them into the habit of writing down ideas quickly.
Science: continuing with astronomy. Finished seasons, next up, magnitude gauges, constellations and moon phases. The sheet on Moon phases will be picked up this Thursday.
E.S: finishing up on Ancient Athens. We will have a unit test on December 20th. We will also have Greek games on the afternoon of the 19th. In the past, Mme Ginette made it a greek day, but there were so many problems last year, that I decided against it. We will dress up in togas for the afternoon and have our very own Olympics, but no greek food. Sorry for the inconvenience.
Religion: talking about Advent, how Mary said yes, and life in the first century. We are also busy with our Candy Gram campaign. 50 cents for a candy cane to give to someone who you would not normally give to. The money goes to charity.

pour les livres pour notre salle de classe.

Thank you to the parents that bought books for our classroom...much appreciated

Just looked at last week's BLOG...full of mistakes..shame on me for rushing and not looking it over before sending it...practice what I preach much!
A HUGE thank you to Teresa Cowan for organizing the Bake Sale and to the parents for providing goodies to be sold. I do not have a total for the sales as of yet.
Thank you to everyone who came to the interviews. I believe the most important message brought forward, is that students need to read more in French, as it is the foundation for everything else. 
This week: 
Francais: Imparfait verbs; finishing the novel, with a culminating activity at the end.
ELA: Koudos to the students for their Reader's Theater presentations...nothing but AB and EX. We also presented to the grade one class, our reading buddies, but one group has yet to present. We will be finishing the research projects on greek gods and godesses. The goal of this project was to learn GOOD research skills and making sure they know how to cite books and websites.
Math: Working on equal equations.
Etudes Sociales: Was ancient democracy equal for everyone?
Science: We will look at the magnitude of stars and make a magnitude gauge. Are your children still observing the phases of the moon and writing them down? I will pick those up next week. Also looking at how the sun, the earth and rotations/revolutions give us seasons.
Please have costumes at the school by Tuesday...really looking forward to the concert! We have worked very hard on our performances.

This week in Grade 6:
Francais: continuing to work on "La montagne noire", but are taking a break from the reading so that we can write a letter as one of the characters. With respect to verbs, we are now studying "L'IMPARFAIT", part of the past tense. Students shold know the endings and memorize the most used verbs on thier sheet.
Sciences: I brought in the Star Lab, and even thought the students have been excited about it, I discovered that they did not send the proper cylinder...I am more than disappointed, but we will try to make the most of it. Thursday night of the interviews, barring nice weather, my husband has offered to bring our telescope so that students can have a look at the night sky. If yo are not scheduled for an interview, but want to come by, you are welcome to do so. Students should still be orbserving the moon phases and writing them down on their sheet.
Social Studies: Still studying the Ancient Anthenians and the roles of the women vs men vs slaves.
ELA: finishing and presenting Reader's Theater Wednesday. Also doing a research project on the greek gods so if you hear some weird relationship stuff...consider the source...gods were a little wacky! The important part is learning how to do a good research project.
Religion: Learning about covenants and starting Advent and how we can prepare for Christ's coming.
Health: quiz next Monday on how to study and how to cope with stress.
Math: working on coordinates and how to plot them on a graph. Please sign quiz and send them back in. Next unit, will be on equalities.
Our Christmas concert is around the corner. I have a John Deere cap and am hoping that everyone else is on track to get their costume/outfit together. Eve needs overalls...anyone? Practicing the LAST verse of Leroy is imperative.
LASTLY:
Although it was not on the school supply list, please send in a container of hand wipes as they are often used for clean-ups and wiping desks of their germs. If everyone sent in a container, it should help for the year. Thanks for your help with this.

UGH!!!!!!!!!!! Just wrote a huge blog and it disappeared because I didn't save it as I went along....UGH!!!!!!!!!
This week in learning:
Francais: Reading La montagne noire, one chapter per night.
For the opinion letter, some students did not meet the requirements for an acceptable mark, and will have to redo the assignment this week.
ELA: For the NEWSARTICLE, again, some students did not follow the directions and did not meet the acceptable level. A new article will have to done, following the guidelines that we learned in class. We are also going to make roups for Reader's Theater.
Sciences: Rotation vs revolution; things that emit light or reflect it; the Star lab comes Thursday, but no one has told me where we are placing it, as the Learning Commons will have the book sale...stay tuned! Every third night, students should be writing the position of the moon on the sheet that went home for observations.  Title page due this Friday.
Etudes Sociales: learning about who was a citizen in Ancient Athens and what the roles of the family members were. Title page due this Friday.
Math: We just finished pattern numbers and there will be a quiz on Thursday...module 1 lessons 1,2,4. This week we are ooking at mapping coordinates.
Religion: Just finished Moses' life history. Quiz to be announced. We will talk about oppression and what to do about it.
MUSIQUE: practice practice practice our songs for the play.

Needed:

We  are in need of costumes

Reindeer: jeans or blue pants, white shirt, antlers, white tail 

(if your child is not a reindeer, but you have antlers, could you please send them...that goes for any of the costumes please)

Garcon: normal kid clothes, crossword puzzle

Soeurs: normal kid clothes, hair in pigtails, stuffy or doll

Maman: jeans/pants, blouse, apron

Papa: suit, tie, newspaper

Grandpapa: jeans, checkered shirt, gray hair?

Oncle Joe: same as grandpapa, but not gray hair

Rudolph: same as deer, red nose

Leroy: jeans, checkered shirt, John Deere ball cap (does ANYONE have one?)

Santa: we have a suit here, unless someone has a smaller one

I think that is IT! Thanks in advance for your help...