Welcome to Room 8 Grade 3 French Immersion

1. Welcome to Room 8 Grade 3 French Immersion

2. Curriculum Outline 2014-2015MmePagliaro Overview • Classroom Routines • Timetable • Homework Expectations • Field Trips • Curriculum content • Assessment, evaluation and reporting • Parent Communications /Volunteers • Websites

3. Classroom Routines • The students are expected to be respectful, have a good attitude, do their best and most of all be resourceful. • The students are expected to eat their recess snack and their lunch quietly at their desk. • The students work in the classroom in desk groupings, 3 tables. Each group is responsible for working quietly and cooperatively and for keeping their area tidy. On a regular basis groupings are changed to provide students an opportunity to work with various classmates. • We have a point system (I give out the $1 monopoly money) to encourage good classroom behaviour, working independently and cooperating, being helpful towards others, participating and providing leadership when working in groups. • Only French is spoken in the classroom. • The students have classroom tasks to help run the classroom. They learn what responsibility is when helping to empty the recycling bin, bringing down the attendance to the office, keeping our scissors and rulers accounted for etc. • The students are expected to arrive on time at school • When students return from an absence, they are responsible for completing the homework they missed. • our school (classroom) is nut-free • no electronics, cell-phones or expensive toys

4. Timetable /Technology • This year M. El Aziz is teaching Science to the class for 140 minutes a week and MmeSadeek is teaching Music for 80 minutes. • All other subjects are taught by me • Physical Education is scheduled for two periods of 40 minutes every week and DPA (daily physical activity) for another 100 minutes a week, approximately 20 minutes a day • We have a book exchange in the school library once a week every day 1 • In the classroom we have two desktops computers and 4 laptops. We also have a cart on the floor of 10 laptops computers that can be singed out if needed for whole class use. • Children will be using computers during literacy center time where they will be visiting mostly language web sites • They will have some practice with Microsoft Word, Microsoft Power Point and Google Maps throughout the year.

5. Homework Expectations • Homework is recorded in the agenda every day (No homework on weekends). Parents are asked to initial the agenda after their child has completed their work, on a daily basis • There is usually 30 minutes of homework on average, not including independent reading • homework usually includes exercises that are an extension of classroom work. • homework will be mostly math and grammar on a weekly basis; oral book report presentations and some special projects throughout the year • with minor assistance, your child should be able to complete the homework assignments independently and effectively within the time frame. Homework is always explained in class before it goes home. Home Reading Program: • 15 to 20 minutes in French every night • your child chooses books at his reading level from the classroom leveled- books bins every day before going home • books are to be recorded in the reading log (carnet de lecture) and should be dated and initialed by the parent. ( throughout the year, there will be a few oral book reports that the students will be required to present) • When homework is incomplete or not done, students will be asked to stay in to complete it , or it may be re-sent home to be finished for the following day.

6. Field Trips Some of the field trips we are considering for this year include: • Community walk- (mapping skills) in the fall • Speaker from the Town of Markham planning & development department- in the fall • Bruce’s Mill- (Maple syrup production)- in the spring • The Pickering Pioneer Village - in May-June • All field trips and guests are carefully selected to complement the curriculum and enhance the learning of our students. They are considered an important part of our program and all students are expected to participate.

7. Curriculum guidelines French Language/Literacy Oral Language • drama/role-playing activities - through the use of a child’s natural interest in drama and role-playing we will practise speaking with expression and intonation by doing activities such as reader’s theatre, simple dialogues, role-play and dramatizations of stories. • book talk - learning to express ideas about stories read in the guided reading groups, with partners (literature circles), oral book reports • oral presentations – for culminating activities such as for social studies, presenting a project on topics such as pioneer life or comparison of some communities in Ontario. • Everyday class participation and group work.

8. Reading (a balanced program of shared, guided, independent) The children will read daily through a variety of means: • shared reading (whole class) with reading follow-up activities that foster comprehension and increase students’ knowledge of story elements: • guided reading (with the teacher in small groups), where we will be using levelled books from our book bins so that the students will be taught reading and comprehension strategies with groups of students at the same reading level • During the literacy period the children will also be involved in other literacy activities at centers such as the computer centre, the independent reading/reading response centre, the word study centre and the writing centre.

9. Process Writing/ Printing • the children are expected to organize ideas, draft and revise their writing using different forms. • They are expected to edit and proofread their writing using their knowledge of language conventions and appropriate resources to correct their errors. • The children will practice sentence writing during the beginning part of the school year, and reading response activities, based on texts in the guided reading groups, will take place throughout the year. The children will be expected to print legibly. We will also learn cursive writing in grade 3.

10. Reading strategies and Writing forms

11. MathematicsThe mathematics textbook we are using is “La Chenelière”. This program focuses on problem-solving, whole class and small group work. The Mathematics provincial test (E.Q.A.O.) in May will be administered to the grade 3 students in French.

12. Social Studies The new Social Studies program for grade 3 is organized into two strands: Heritage and Identity and People and Environments: Living & working in Ontario. First Term: students will learn about the major landforms in Ontario; identify on maps the regions and cities that have been established in Ontario. Students will become familiar with the connection that exists between the natural environment of a region and the type of community that has been established there, including land use and employment opportunities in that community. Second Term: students will be learning about early Canada. They’ll learn about the life of the First Nations people in Upper and lower Canada during 1780- 1850, the pioneer settlers and the communities they established.

13. Science • The Science program for grade 3 is organized into four strands: “Life Systems”, “Matter and Energy”, “Structures and Mechanisms”, and “Earth and Space Systems”. A science series entitled Sciences et Technologies will be used as the basis for science discussions and activities.

14. Music, Drama, Dance and Visual Arts • For music Main focus: Understanding melody. Units: Music in my life, soundscapes, listening, melody maps.Instruments: Non-tonal percussive and tonal ORFF instruments. • For Drama the children will have opportunities to create Reader’s Theatre sketches, dramatize vignettes in various types of stories • For Dance they learn a variety of Canadian folklore dances moves and we also invite into the school a teacher for Hip Hop dance • In Visual Arts, they will have the opportunity to use a variety of materials and be familiarized with the elements of design; line, shape and form, space, colour and texture.

15. Health & Physical Education • The students will participate in activities in the gym and occasionally (weather permitting) in the school yard. They will participate in cooperative games, aerobics activities and learn to use different kinds of gym equipment such as hoops, scooters, skipping ropes etc. • Topics addressed in the Health portion of the curriculum include safety at school, at home and in the community, nutrition, human development, and identification of substances which can be addictive (e.g. coffee, nicotine, etc.)

16. Assessment, Evaluation & Reporting Reporting: • Reporting will take place three times throughout the school year (mid-November 2014, mid-February 2015 and end of June 2015). The November report card is an Interim report, not as detailed as the other two. Parent-teacher interviews, however, will take place in November. Evaluation and Assessment of Work: • The evaluations that you will see with your child’s work will include the following: • rubrics for important assignments (evaluation grids with levels 1, 2, 3, 4) • written comments outlining areas for improvement Evaluation Levels: • 4+, 4, 4- (exceeds the provincial standards – at the grade level) (A) • 3+, 3, 3- (meets the provincial standards)**** (B) • 2+, 2, 2- (slightly below the provincial standards) (C) • 1+, 1, 1- (far below the provincial standards) (D)

17. Parent Communications Volunteering • Monthly newsletters will be on the school web site or a hard copy will be sent home. They will include explanations of our units of study during that period, important dates and field trips that will be taking place. Class quizzes, tests will be sent home when graded. At some point during each of the terms, your child will also bring home the work completed in the different subject areas. Please initial the work your child shares with you, before returning it to school. • Should you need to contact me at any time, you may write a note in your child’s agenda, or call the school and leave a message on the voice mail. I will get back to you as soon as possible. The phone number and my extension are 905-294-3562 ex 208. Please, do not leave voice mail messages for same day issues – kindly call the office directly for that. • Absences need to be called directly to the school Safe Arrival number 1-855-203-2994, before 8:15 am. Even pre-scheduled absences need to called in to the number, whether you have writing a note in the agenda or not. • Should I need to contact you, I will either write a note in the agenda call you directly on the your phone. • If you can read French, we are always in need of parents who can listen to the children read, as this is the area where we can use a parent’s help. • We are also looking for a parent who can come in once a week to do the laminating for the school on our laminating machine, located in the basement. • If you have an expertise that is relevant to our curriculum, please let me know and we can arrange for you to come to speak to the class. • Some parents have already volunteered, we need a parent for laminating

18. Websites • www.yrdsb.ca/schools/franklinstreet.ps • http:/www.edu.gov.on.ca (for Ontario curriculum documents) • http:/www.cpf.ca (Canadian Parents for French) Educational web-sites Language • tumblebooks.com (username: franklinstps, password: books), choose ‘French’ explore read-aloud stories in French • languagesonline.org.uk (choose French on left side of screen) grammar based activities • www.duplaisiràlire.com (more grammar-based activities) • le conjugueur.com (for verb conjugation, a becherelle online) • http://ngfl.northumberland.gov.uk • wordreference.com (translation site)

19. Websites (cont’d) Math • linktolearning.com (choose Mathematics, then Math 3 Under the Sea) -a wide variety of interesting activities in all subject areas • mathfactcafe.com a wide variety of computation drills Social Studies • collectionscanada.gc.ca/settlement/kids games related to Aboriginals of Canada

20. Thank you for coming