Retell: Brontorina

This week we are practicing a retell of the book "Brontorina". It's a really cute book about a dinosaur who dreams of being a ballerina, but she doesn't have the right ballet slippers and she is too big for the dance studio.

After reading the book we made a list of key vocabulary from the book that would help with the retell. 

We brainstormed the beginning/middle/end as a class and then my students drew it so they could have a visual reminder to practice with. We talked about how to "sketch" a quick drawing so that their time would be spent practicing instead of drawing.

I like them to have a visual prompt as a reminder. What do you use to help your students with oral presentations? 

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Winter vocabulary games

Here are some pictures of my new French winter vocabulary game pack! 

It includes "Bug in a rug" cards to match my winter word wall pack: 

 

These are short sentences for reading comprehension:

I have attached them onto shower curtain rings (from dollarama). My students love to read the sentences and then draw what they read on a whiteboard. They use the same vocabulary from the word wall cards. 

 

These are the vocabulary words in groups of 5 for students to sort into alphabetical order:

I laminated the tracking sheet so that they can use dry erase markers in a centre. 

 

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Salt dough diyas

This year we made diyas for Diwali! 

Here they are before they were painted: 

To make them: 
- 1 cup of salt
- 2 cups of flour
- 1 cup of warm water (I ended up needing to use a splash more) 

It took a few minutes of mixing with my hands, but it was easy for the students to use once it was mixed. I made 2 batches of the recipe to use for 20 students. It wasn't too messy either - it was very easy to clean up off their desks after they were done shaping their diyas. I will definitely use salt dough again in my classroom! 

We made them on a Friday and left them over the weekend to dry. I should have left them on a baking tray, as they didn't dry properly on the bottom over the weekend. So I just flipped them over and then left them another night before we painted them. 

We were a bit late making them, as Diwali has already passed. BUT the kids had a blast and loved making/decorating them. After they finished painting them, they added sparkles! 

You can even send them home with a little tea light to put inside their diya! 

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French reading game: Le lutin sous l'arbre de Noël

I use this game when we start learning holiday vocabulary. My kids LOVE this game! They know "bug in a rug" from English class, so they are always really excited to play this version in French class with me. (Here is the same game in English). 

We choose 6-10 of the vocabulary trees, and one student gets to hide the elf under the tree of their choice. The students then try to guess which tree the elf is hiding under. They have to say the word in french (or use it in a sentence, if you have students who are ready for the extra challenge). Whoever finds the elf is the next one who gets to hide him. 

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Stickers stories - Work on writing

Today we added a new activity to Daily 5/Work on writing - Sticker stories!

We tried it as a class first, picking stickers that worked together in a picture.  Then as a class we wrote the story to go with it! 

Here is Spider-Man, trying to escape from a shark! There is also a police car on the ground that is trying to help him. 

My class thought this was hilarious and were really excited to try it on their own. Together we decided that the maximum for each picture would be 5 stickers, and that the goal would be 3+ sentences for each picture.

Their stories are not done - I'll post them next week!

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Guided writing -- Fall writing

Today we tried some fall writing sheets!

First we talked about what each of the 5 words meant, and then talked about what we could draw to show that we understand the word (for e.g., an arrow for a verb). 

Then I modelled drawing a quick sketch to get my ideas down. I like them to draw something first to help them when they start writing - but don't want them to spend all of their time drawing. We talked about how they could go back AFTER they were done writing to colour and add more details to their work.

As a class, we decided on the sentences to use for this example on the chart paper:

(We have talked a lot about "bumping up" our work - there are more sentences here than I would expect from them independently because they wanted to help me to bump up my own work!)

Then they tried on their own! 

I left the chart paper up for them to use for ideas and words if they wanted to use it. Other students wanted to try coming up with their own sentences. 

Here is some of the work my students did today:

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Book display

I was looking for a nice way to display the books that we are reading in class and came across the Ipad stands at Dollarama! They are adjustable and are working well so far! Hopefully they will hold up well.

Here it is in use:

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Gros Grognon

This week we practiced retelling stories! We read the book "Gros grognon". It's a cute story about a bird who wakes up and he is too cranky to do ANYTHING but walk. As he walks, animals ask him what he is doing and decide to follow him. He ends up forgetting that he is angry and having fun with his friends! 

My class made great connections to the book. A lot of them could relate to waking up and feeling cranky! 

Excuse my lack of artistic skills!!! 

We decided on the beginning/middle/end parts of the story together: 

Then they went and drew the 3 parts of the story. When they were done, they came back to the carpet and practiced in partners. I had them use their drawings as a visual cue when they presented their retell to the class. 

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Remembrance Day

Today we started to think about Remembrance Day next week. 

We sang this song: *Tune: Frere Jaques

And we made a wreath for our assembly on Monday. I had my students trace their hands and write a thank you message to the soldiers. Then I glued them onto a pizza box, so that we could prop the wreath up on the lid of the box. 

I read this book to my class: 

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Diwali video (National Geographic)

We watched this youtube video in class to learn about Diwali!
Unfortunately it is in English :(

Then we wrote in our Social Studies journals. We did a guided writing piece for the first few sentences, and then students added their own final sentence with a connection. Many connected Diwali to Canada Day (because of the fireworks), to Christmas (lights), and to Eid (buy and wear new clothes).

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L'air et L'eau - Les phrases

Today we worked on building sentences again. I pulled small groups to play "bang" with, using my Air/Water unit flash cards. 

After each student said a sentence, I asked them a question. Using the "bang" cards as conversation starters took the anxiety away from sitting there having a conversation with me in French. It worked well! I wrote down some of their sentences in my anecdotal notes to keep track of their strengths and next steps. 

How are you working on sentence building/comprehension with your students?

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Je peux faire flotter la pâte à modeler

Today we experimented with plasticine! 

I used this pack of plasticine from Dollarama - I liked it because I didn't have to worry about cutting up a big block of plasticine for them. 



Our goal was to make a ball of plasticine float. It took some trial and error, but they got the hang of it! 

Here is a sheet from my air/water pack on TPT. 

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