Hello Parkwood families! I know that our current situation can be difficult, and that home learning may cause extra stress. Please know that your school family is thinking about all of you and want to help however we can. Your teachers and staff at Parkwood are still here to support you if you need help. If you are looking for information or support, please feel free to contact me through e-mail. If we don’t have the means to help, we will direct you to organizations in our community that can. Please remember to take care of yourselves and your family!

Daniel Doucet: danielf.doucet@nbed.nb.ca

506-547-5245

Recommended daily activities for the week of Tuesday, April 14^th 2020

-          Reading in French (15 minutes);

-          Speaking or listening in French (15 minutes);

-          Writing in French (15 minutes);

-          Mathematics (15 minutes).

Reading: Continue to read daily in French at home, using either books at home or other sources, such as Kidsa-z.com.

For this week you can start asking your child to retell the story they have just read, in French if possible. The goal here is to have the student retell as much of the story (and details) as possible by simply asking them to tell you what they’ve read. Additional questions (for example: And then what happened? Who are the characters in this story?) should only be asked when necessary. Once your child can properly retell a story, then he will be ready to answer comprehension questions about the books. (Such as the ones provided in the “Kidsa-z” website.)

Speaking: Continue speaking in French with your child. For your convenience, I am repeating last week’s notes below:

You can talk about routine things like the weather, how their day went, or how they are feeling. As a guide, here is a list of sentenced structures (Questions and answers) that we practiced throughout the school year so far. Obviously, we do not expect you to go over all of these with your child. These are merely a variety of suggestions *If you are not comfortable communicating with your child in French at home, feel free to skip below, to a list of alternate activities.

• [What do you eat to stay healthy ? / To stay healthy, I eat (examples : a banana, chicken…)] :

Qu’est-ce que tu manges pour être en bonne santé? / Pour être en bonne santé, je mange… (p. ex., une banane et du poulet…) ;

• [What do you do to stay healthy? / To stay healthy, I (examples: dance and I play soccer)] : Qu’est-ce que tu fais pour rester en bonne santé? / Pour rester en bonne santé, je…. (p. ex., danse et je joue au soccer) ;

• [What do you do to take care of your body? / To take care of my body, I… (brush my teeth twice per day…)] :

Qu’est-ce que tu fais pour prendre soin de ton corps? / Pour prendre soin de mon corps, je…. (p. ex., me brosse les dents deux fois par jour…) ;

• [What does a good friend do? / A good friend… (examples: shares his toys, plays with me, consoles me when I am feeling sad.)]:

Que fais un bon ami? / Un bon ami est… (p.ex., quelqu’un qui partage ses jouets, quelqu’un qui joue avec moi, quelqu’un qui me console quand je suis triste) ;

• [What do you do to keep your friends? / To keep my friends, I (am nice with them every day…)] :

Qu’est-ce que tu fais pour garder tes amis? / Pour garder mes amis, je (p. ex., suis gentil(le) à tous les jours …)

• [How do you feel? / I feel (happy, sad, angry…)] :

Comment te sens‑tu? / Je me sens (content, triste, fâché…).

• [What do you do when you are (happy, sad, angry)? / When I am (happy, sad, angry…) I __________.] :

Qu’est‑ce que tu fais quand tu es (content, triste, fâché(e)…)? / Quand je suis (content, triste, fâché(e)…), je ___________.

After these specific structures, we had followed up with a more “open ended” dialogue, where students where encouraged to talk about and ask questions about animals, the life cycles of the frog, plants, and butterflies, as well as the different states of matter (gas, liquid, and solid, or “gaz, liquide et solide” in French) for water (steam, water, and ice, or “vapeur, eau et glace” in French.  Therefore, these are all potential topics that you could discuss with your child in French.

*If you are not comfortable speaking in French with your child, you can instead have your child listen to a French show on TV, YouTube, or on an online streaming platform such as Netflix or Disney Jr, or watch a YouTube video of someone reading a French children’s book aloud.

Read-Aloud: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=in_a-pr9EWc

Here are two examples of a TV episode available on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aBvTQ9ppbJ0  (Paw Patrol)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GKfv2OuePQU  (Princess Sophia)

*Also, feel free to watch other videos from these series

Writing: This week, ask your child to write a story based on an image that is given to them. This was our current (and unfinished) writing assignment before schools were closed. They’re free to choose the same image they had chosen at school or to choose a different image. (Look in “documents” to find the pictures.) They are simply asked to choose a picture, and then make up a story and write it down, using the image as inspiration to help them start things off.

Note: Please keep in mind that your child does not need to write the entire text in one sitting. This would likely take much more than 15 minutes. In class, students often require multiple writing periods spread over a few days to finish a writing assignment.

Mathematics:

1. Counting Circle (another video demonstration will be posted on the site): Count in jumps of 2 from 0 to 100, forwards and backwards.
2. Once “Doubles” and “Friends of 10” have been properly learned (review last week’s assignment if necessary), you can move on to the following (again, I recommend practicing one for two days, and then the other for 2 days):
   1. From “Doubles”, we move on to “Doubles +/- 1 or 2”: Students need to use their knowledge of doubles to quickly solve additions that are close to doubles. These additions should be no more than 2 higher or lower than a double. (For example, 6+8 would be 2 more than the double 6+6=12, while 6+4 would be 2 less.)

Here is an example of a “doubles +1” to show you how this should go:

-          Parent or teacher: “What’s 6+7?”

-          Student: “Well, I know that 6+6=12… Since 6+7 is only 1 more than 6+6, then 6+7=13.”

*Also, the student can just as easily answer with: “Well, I know that 7+7=14… Since 6+7 is only 1 less than 7+7, then 6+7=13.”

1. From “Friends of 10”, we move on to “Bridging through 10”. When bridging, not only do you make 10 like you did last week, but you’ll also go past 10 by adding whatever is left afterwards.

Example: If we ask a student to solve “What’s 8+6?” The student knows that to make 10, he needs to take 2 from the 6 and add it to his 8. So, he/she’ll start off by saying or writing that 8+2=10. From there, finish solving the equation by adding what’s left:

8+6=?

8+2=10 ; 10+4=14.

8+6=14

*See video for a more thorough explanation, as well as how to use a 10-frame to help practice the “Bridging through 10” technique.

As always, I am available to offer feedback and to answer questions. You can contact me by e-mail at Daniel.godin@nbed.nb.ca, or message me through ClassDojo.

Stay safe and have a good week!

Mr Daniel Godin