Dear Division 2 families,
It has been a pleasure getting to know all Division 2 students last week. This is such a great group! Thank you so much for all the information that you shared with me in the All about your child questionnaire. Your input is greatly appreciated and is already helping me to plan my teaching according to student's interests, strengths, goals and needs.
For your information, here are some things that we have been working on so far in class:
It has been a pleasure getting to know all Division 2 students last week. This is such a great group! Thank you so much for all the information that you shared with me in the All about your child questionnaire. Your input is greatly appreciated and is already helping me to plan my teaching according to student's interests, strengths, goals and needs.
For your information, here are some things that we have been working on so far in class:
Expectations, Code of Conduct, Rules and Responsibility
We have spent time everyday going over the school code of conduct, discussing what a good learning environment is, establishing specific expectations for routine activities, and discussing the systems that we are going to use to monitor our level of personal responsibility and to address disruptive behaviour. For more information on this topic and to read the ECH Code of Conduct, please visit our Rules and Responsibility page.
We have already insisted on the fact that the ECH Code of Conduct applies to all interactions with schoolmates both at school and outside of school, including online and on social media. I will continue to insist on this point in class, but parent supervision of their child's use of social media is crucial since teachers are not able to supervise students' private chats outside of school hours. Please bring any concern to my attention.
We are also setting up a system to help motivate students to speak French consistently in class and to take on responsibilities in the class and in the school. Each student was given a responsibility in the class for the month of September. We will change responsibilities every month.
We have already insisted on the fact that the ECH Code of Conduct applies to all interactions with schoolmates both at school and outside of school, including online and on social media. I will continue to insist on this point in class, but parent supervision of their child's use of social media is crucial since teachers are not able to supervise students' private chats outside of school hours. Please bring any concern to my attention.
We are also setting up a system to help motivate students to speak French consistently in class and to take on responsibilities in the class and in the school. Each student was given a responsibility in the class for the month of September. We will change responsibilities every month.
Visual Art
In art, we started to study the elements of design in visual arts, beginning with line.
Students learned to use different types of line to create artistic 3D letters for their name tag. Many students had to work hard, making a few drafts until they got comfortable with the technique.
The results are fantastic, as you can see!
Students learned to use different types of line to create artistic 3D letters for their name tag. Many students had to work hard, making a few drafts until they got comfortable with the technique.
The results are fantastic, as you can see!
French
With COVID-19 school closures last year, most students have had a very limited exposure to French since March. In order to get our brains back into French mode, we are focusing a lot on listening to French in the moment.
SOS créatures fantastiques: Le secret des petits griffons
| We are reading the French version of a fantasy novel by Tui T. and Kari Sutherland during and after lunch every day. The ebook is projected on the big screen for students to read along while I read out loud. We are learning new vocabulary and students are asked to visualize what is happening to deepen understanding. Each student is creating a personal storyboard, drawing a picture or writing a short resume that represents the most important elements of each chapter. |  |
Students who miss class, who want to catch up on the story, or who wish to revisit previous chapters to make sure they understand more subtle details can read the book in English for free on Epic (see below).
Le Coach (song by Soprano, featuring Vincenzo)
As poetry is one of the main genres to study in the Grade 7 curriculum, we will study a variety of French songs this year. I will select songs that connect with the topics that we are exploring in class, focusing on songs that have positive messages and values, as well as songs that bring up relevant issues.
To connect with our Health & Physical Education topics last week, we began by listening to the song Le Coach (by the French singer Soprano). It is interesting to hear French spoken in a variety of ways, including the South of France accent and vocabulary featured in this video.
We have read the lyrics and discussed new words as well as the message of the song. While the song is, on the surface, about a coach motivating his team to get fit and to workout, it is also a message about the importance of working hard to achieve your dreams and persevering when things get hard. We are using the song in class for short body breaks where students can get up, move and sing along, and have begun to use it for warm-up in the gym. The enthusiasm is contagious!!!
To connect with our Health & Physical Education topics last week, we began by listening to the song Le Coach (by the French singer Soprano). It is interesting to hear French spoken in a variety of ways, including the South of France accent and vocabulary featured in this video.
We have read the lyrics and discussed new words as well as the message of the song. While the song is, on the surface, about a coach motivating his team to get fit and to workout, it is also a message about the importance of working hard to achieve your dreams and persevering when things get hard. We are using the song in class for short body breaks where students can get up, move and sing along, and have begun to use it for warm-up in the gym. The enthusiasm is contagious!!!
Health and Physical Education
We have looked at health and wellness through a first nation perspective earlier last week by learning about the Medicine Wheel. We were introduced to the concepts of physical, mental, emotional and spiritual wellness. We will dig deeper into all of these aspects of wellness this year. We have started to look at factors that influence physical health, such as physical activity, healthy eating and sleep. We began with cardiovascular health and students have learned to measure their heart-rate to monitor the intensity of workouts. We will continue to learn how various levels of intensity training have different health benefits and we will tie-in some math calculations into this in the following weeks.
Math
We have been playing fun games in math that involve estimating, logic, reasoning and place value. I am also assessing what students know about basic multiplication and division to inform my teaching. We have reviewed some basic mental math strategies for multiplication facts and worked on an activity called Chain Links where students connect numbers using concepts such as double, half, multiple, factor, prime number and composite number.
Home Reading and Epic Books
In the classroom, I have a library of French and English books that students can read in class. They are invited to take books home for home reading (one French and one English book at a time) as long as they return the books when they are done reading them. Library with Susan will begin in a few weeks.
I have also created a classroom account on EPIC books. Our class code is: lyi8456. Epic has a great selection of English books, as well as some good titles in French (mainly graphic novels). Students can use this class account to read Monday-Friday between 7AM-4:00PM. Parents can also create a free account to use at home for up to 2 hours a week after 4PM and on weekends, using an email address (optional).
Here are the instructions to login using the class account and the link to create a free home account that will be linked to your child's school account.
I recommend that students read a balance of French and English books at home (maybe alternating everyday). Reading a minimum of 30 minutes a day at home, in addition to any reading done in class, is expected. Students are required to write a daily log of the books that they read at home (title, number of minutes/pages) in the space provided in their agenda. Please remember to initial your child's agenda/reading log every day.
I have also created a classroom account on EPIC books. Our class code is: lyi8456. Epic has a great selection of English books, as well as some good titles in French (mainly graphic novels). Students can use this class account to read Monday-Friday between 7AM-4:00PM. Parents can also create a free account to use at home for up to 2 hours a week after 4PM and on weekends, using an email address (optional).
Here are the instructions to login using the class account and the link to create a free home account that will be linked to your child's school account.
I recommend that students read a balance of French and English books at home (maybe alternating everyday). Reading a minimum of 30 minutes a day at home, in addition to any reading done in class, is expected. Students are required to write a daily log of the books that they read at home (title, number of minutes/pages) in the space provided in their agenda. Please remember to initial your child's agenda/reading log every day.
Social Studies and Personal Artefacts Homework
On Friday, we discussed what artefacts are and how they are used by archeologists and historians to learn about the people who lived in the past. We started to think about what types of artefacts our civilization might leave behind that might be discovered 1000 years from now, and what information these artefacts will tell about our culture.
As a fun way to get to know each other and to get us thinking about what we can learn from looking at objects, students have been given a paper bag to take home for the weekend. I am asking them to put 3 objects in there that tell us about their activities outside of school, their interests, passions, or family, pets, etc. The objects have to fit in the bag.
Students should bring their bag to school on Tuesday and keep the content of their bag a secret until we start our activity. Students will receive a bag without knowing who's bag it belongs to. They will look at the "artefacts" contained in the bag and think about what they tell us about the student that selected them. If they want, they can try to guess who's classmate the bag belongs to. Later on, students will be able to explain to us why they selected those "artefacts" and it will help us to learn about each other.
*If your child was absent on Friday and did not get a paper bag, they can bring their 3 objects in another bag and transfer them in their given bag when they get to school.
As a fun way to get to know each other and to get us thinking about what we can learn from looking at objects, students have been given a paper bag to take home for the weekend. I am asking them to put 3 objects in there that tell us about their activities outside of school, their interests, passions, or family, pets, etc. The objects have to fit in the bag.
Students should bring their bag to school on Tuesday and keep the content of their bag a secret until we start our activity. Students will receive a bag without knowing who's bag it belongs to. They will look at the "artefacts" contained in the bag and think about what they tell us about the student that selected them. If they want, they can try to guess who's classmate the bag belongs to. Later on, students will be able to explain to us why they selected those "artefacts" and it will help us to learn about each other.
*If your child was absent on Friday and did not get a paper bag, they can bring their 3 objects in another bag and transfer them in their given bag when they get to school.
Coming up next week
Please take note that tomorrow (Monday September 21st) is a non-instructional day. This week, we will have the Terry Fox Run on Friday September 25th. During the week, we will look at Terry Fox and other inspiring figures, focusing on values such as perseverance.
We will use our English time to get deep into discussions about digital citizenship and about the safe and responsible use of social media and internet. We are going to explore this topic as a class right away, as some concerns with appropriate use of social media have been raised already. However, we are also working on organizing an in-depth workshop with an expert to help us get a well-informed perspective on this topic.
And to introduce this topic, nothing better than the following song, by Soprano, called Mon Précieux (My Precious...), which we will be listening to next week!
We will use our English time to get deep into discussions about digital citizenship and about the safe and responsible use of social media and internet. We are going to explore this topic as a class right away, as some concerns with appropriate use of social media have been raised already. However, we are also working on organizing an in-depth workshop with an expert to help us get a well-informed perspective on this topic.
And to introduce this topic, nothing better than the following song, by Soprano, called Mon Précieux (My Precious...), which we will be listening to next week!
Have a great end of the weekend!
Sincerely,
Nathalie
Sincerely,
Nathalie
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