Test- Date change!

7H and 7B- The french quiz will now be Thursday, December 17th instead of Monday in order to ensure that you have all the time you need to review and to ask for extra help. 

Study Strategy and Organization presentation

Recently we had a wonderful presentation with Mrs. Natalie MacKinnon. The presentation covered important topics such as improving organizational skills and learning good study strategies. Students reflected on the presentation afterwards and seemed to find something that would work for them. I was excited to see some students practising with flash cards during their free time and organizing themselves differently in their binders.

 

le mardi 10 novembre

Today I held extra help at lunch for students needing to ask questions and get anything clarified before the french test Thursday. I only had one student (from both classes combined) come. Please make sure appropriate review is being done at home. As always, I encourage students to review nightly as well as come to me when they need help. 

7H- Interview slips were sent home yesterday. Please return them as soon as possible , especially if the time does not work for you. 

Please refer to the homework page for details on homework and upcoming assignments. 

Parents: Chartwells has introduced a NEW and CONVENIENT way to purchase food at the school cafeteria with the Zipthru DINE WITH US Reloadable Card! Just like any gift card, a balance is loaded on a card and declines as purchases are made. The online function of this program provides convenience for parents to purchase, reload and monitor spending as well as set up an account to protect the remaining funds.  In 4 easy steps you will be confident that your child has been provided with healthy meal options and a protected balance.  This relieves the need for a packed lunch or carrying cash.  Purchasing or reloading $100 or more will give you an ADDITION of 10% bonus dollars directly added to your balance.  Visit www.zipthru-card.ca to purchase an e-Certificate by email today.  Present the printed e-Certificated to the cafeteria and receive a Zipthru card with the designated balance!

le mardi 3 novembre

Don't forget to check the homework section for things I've asked the students to finish up at home as well as to see the date for the upcoming french quiz 

Parent Teacher Interviews are fast approaching (Nov. 19-20) – looking forward to seeing everyone. Interview times going home soon.

le lundi 2 novembre

Something has clicked and students have really started to show off their communication skills in the french language. In the last couple of weeks we have been working very hard in class. We had Mrs. Natalie MacKinnon come in to talk to the students about organizational and study strategies. The presentation was very well received and students had time to reflect on things they have been or haven't been doing and what they could change to improve the results they've been seeing. I can't wait to upload some photos to show you what we've been up to! 

le lundi 19 octobre

We had a great Monday. Here is a summary: 

7H Health-  We started our second chapter today and had a bit of a discussion about how our each of these things can affect our health in one way or another. Students had a blank copy of the wheel and started to brainstorm some ideas. We will finish this short activity next health class. 

The cartoon strip will be due tomorrow. 

7B and 7H French- Students passed in their "dream school" activity today. If they did not pass it in , it will be considered late but it can be passed in at any time for marks. 

We spent some time going over the following words today "parce que" , "mais" and "et". Students had a short activity to work on in class to help with their comprehension. 

We also spent some time today doing a read aloud. I read the first part of a graphic novel to the class that most of them have heard of in English. They really enjoyed this as it gave them time to relax and learn all at the same time. We will continue with the same novel every so often. 

7B and 7H social studies- we have been looking over characteristics of a society, including the economy, agriculture, government, written language, etc. Today, students researched characteristics of the society of Mesopotamia by looking through a textbook I provided. They worked in pairs to jot down notes. We will continue with the same activity tomorrow. 

8C Science- No class today, but there will be a test tomorrow on what we have covered so far in Chapter 1. 

Recent Snapshots

Here are some snapshots of 8C working on their lab. Their task was to compare vegetable and animal cells. Students were so intrigued with what they were viewing through the microscope that they asked if they could take a couple of snapshots with their phones. Even though phones are not usually allowed in class, I did allow an exception for a few minutes this time so that they could show their family and friends at home what great things we're learning :) 

 






Here are some snapshots of 7B working on their "Ecole de reves" (Dream school). I am so impressed with the amount of work and effort put into this assignment in the last couple weeks. Students are really enjoying the project and learning a lot about sentence structure and school vocabulary in the process. 

le vendredi 16 octobre

It has been a great week! Here is how we finished it off. 

7B and 7H Health- students wrote a very short quiz to finish up our first unit. The students had to match definitions to terms, all having to do with the types of intelligences and learning styles. Students have also been working on a "Bande Dessinée" (Cartoon strip) for the past couple of weeks in class that will be due Tuesday. 

7B and 7H French- we have been learning parts of speech. In the past few days we have been learning about adverbs and adjectives. Students have been doing very well at completing in-class activities and I've been impressed with their level of understanding. For the last two weeks, students have been given a large amount of class time to complete an assignment that will be due Monday. The assignment is called "L'école de mes rêves" (my dream school) . Students are to draw their dream school and attach a typed paragraph to describe their school. 

7B and 7H social studies- we have been looking over characteristics of a society, including the economy, agriculture, government, written language, etc. We spent time discussing all of these characteristics with PEI as our chosen society. We will now be concentrating on the characteristics of the society of Mesopotamia . 

8C Science-We have spent the last two days in the lab comparing plant and animal cells. Students were able to observe an onion cell under the microscope as well as different types of animal cells. They seemed to really enjoy this activity. There will be a test Tuesday on what we have covered so far in this chapter. (characteristics of living things, the microscope and parts of a cell and their function) 

les dates importantes

Please check the homework page for upcoming quizzes for each subject :) I hope everyone had a fun and love-filled thanksgiving weekend. 

7H- Please remember to bring food drive items in tomorrow! Merci :)

Comment pratiquer les verbes?

How to Practice conjugating: 

Once you've learned the conjugations, you need to practice them.

The more you practice, the easier it will be for you to "grab" the right conjugation during spontaneous discussion. Some of these activities might seem boring or silly, but the point is simply to get you used to seeing, hearing, and speaking the conjugations - here are some ideas:

Say them out loud
When you come across verbs while reading a book, newspaper, or French lesson, say the subject and verb out loud. Reading conjugations is good, but saying them out loud is even better, because it gives you practice both speaking and listening to the conjugation.

Write them out
Spend 10 to 15 minutes every day conjugating verbs along with the appropriate subject pronouns. You can practice writing either the conjugations for several different tenses/moods of a single verb, or all of the, for example, imperfect conjugations for several verbs. After you write them out, say them out loud. Then write them again, say them again, and repeat 5 or 10 times. When you do this, you'll see the conjugations, feel what it's like to say them, and hear them, all of which will help you the next time you are actually speaking French.

Conjugations for everyone
Pick up a newspaper or book and look for a verb conjugation. Say it out loud, then reconjugate the verb for all the other grammatical persons. So if you see il est (he is), you'll write and/or speak all of the present tense conjugations for être. When you're done, look for another verb and do the same thing.

Sing along
Set some conjugations to a simple tune, like "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" or "The Itsy Bitsy Spider," and sing it in the shower, in your car on the way to work/school, or while washing the dishes.

Use flashcards
Make a set of flashcards for the verbs you have the most trouble with by writing a subject pronoun and the infinitive on one side and the correct conjugation on the other. Then test yourself by looking at the first side and saying the subject and its conjugation out loud, or by looking at the conjugation and deciding which subject pronoun(s) it's conjugated for. 

le jeudi 24 septembre

Here's your first glimpse into our classroom. We had a very productive day today. Students in 7H and 7B are working hard with the verbs "Aller, Etre and Avoir". They have a quiz coming up Wednesday and were very motivated to master these three verbs. In social studies, we are learning about the historic method and students will soon be participating in a small activity to help them grasp the concept. We also spent some time discussing Terry Fox today, as the Terry Fox run will be taking place tomorrow afternoon. The students watched a short video and then they took time to think about their own dreams and goals and what they would need to do to accomplish them. Finally, students had time to practice for their Timeline presentations which will be taking place tomorrow. I'm very excited to see their memories brought to life with the photos they've chosen. 

le mardi 22 septembre

A reminder: Even if there isn't any homework, students should be reviewing for a short amount of time each evening, especially when receiving new material in class. 

7B&7H. 

Sciences Humaines- In the last couple of days we have discussed the time period we will be learning about more in depth. We have been exploring a time line and placed important events in history on that time line... ranging from the year -15,000 to current day. Students did very well with this activity and seemed to enjoy the challenge of trying to figure out where things go on the line. 

Francais: For the last couple of days we have been learning important classroom vocabulary. Students should now be able to ask me " Can I borrow a pencil" or "Do I use a ruler" in French. We also discussed the verbs "Etre" et "Avoir" and we will practice these verbs more and more in the upcoming weeks. 

F.P.S: In health, we are learning more about our own unique learning style and creating small posters to demonstrate how we learn best. We are also discussing our favorite activities, our talents, and other aspects that make us unique as individuals. 

8C-Sciences- We started unit 1 this past week and are we are also reviewing an important section on lab safety that students would have discussed in grade 7. There will be a lab safety quiz coming up soon. 

le mardi 15 septembre

7B & 7H- Today in social studies we corrected the rough draft for our time lines and I gave the students some time to review for their quiz tomorrow. 

7B- In french we corrected the page in "la rentrée" where students had to search for words in the dictionary. I had planned on grading it but many students had difficulty with it so we instead reviewed it as a class. 

7H- Students had a session this morning with the school counselor, Sheila Doyle-Hogan. They seemed to enjoy the presentation. 

8C Science- Students are working in trios and pairs on a small experiment to find a way to slow an eraser from falling quickly. They must come up with a creative way in slowing the eraser down and present it by following the scientific method. We will be doing the experiment Thursday and they must hand in their assignment the same day. 

We also started our first unit today; students had notes to take down and answered some questions. 

Please check the homework section of the blog each evening :) 

le lundi 14 septembre

I hope everyone had a great weekend! We did some review today in class of concepts we learned last week. In social studies, we worked on terminology relating to time lines and spent a small amount of time reviewing for our test Wednesday. In french we also did some review and started learning how to properly use a french/English dictionary. 

Important dates to remember:

le mercredi 16 septembre: Quiz de sciences humaines (Social Studies quiz)
le vendredi 18 septembre: Quiz de français (French  quiz)

I gave students the address for a great online dictionary today (wordreference.com) but still encourage them to use their bound dictionaries for the time being. 

Don't forget meet the teacher this Thursday!

Comment bien étudier ?

I spoke to my grade 7s yesterday about upcoming Quizzes in some subject areas. We discussed that even though there are no dates set in stone yet, it's always a good idea to review class material each evening, even if only for 5-10 minutes. We also discussed what it means to have good study skills. Please refer to the following website for some studying tips! Don't forget that meet the teacher night is Thursday, September 17th at 7pm. Have a great day everyone! 


                        

Student Fees

7H- students and parents, please remember to send student fees as soon as possible. The fees are as follows: 

Grade 7 and/or 8 : $20.00/student or $30.00/family
Grade 9- $30.00/student or $40.00/family (includes $10.00 gr 9 year-end fee) 

$8.00/$5.00 - Home Ec. (to be paid separately from student fee) 
$10.00- Industrial arts  (to be paid separately from student fee) 

Student fees help with the cost of : 
- locks
- co-curricular trips
-club parties
-honorariums and guest speaker presentations
- emergency school supplies
other opportunities that present themselves each year

Paying a student fee avoids the hassle for students and parents to have to bring $5.00 here and $5.00 there and saves time involved in collecting for each individual event or occasion. Home ec. and industrial arts fees must be paid separately. 

Late French Immersion- A guide for students and parents (Video)

This is a fantastic video that will give you an idea of how the Late French Immersion program works... filmed from East Wiltshire School! There are two parts to the video. 

le mercredi 9 septembre

Thank you to parents and students for their great effort in returning the permission forms so I can start making this blog a bit more of an interesting read.  


Today, I started with 7B in the health curriculum. Some students found it a bit overwhelming copying sentences in french but you could see their confidence grow as we started reviewing them together. It's amazing how much they can understand by pulling words they might recognize from English. We call this using our "mots amis". 7B also started their "projet de nom" where they draw their name and six things that define who they are. they then need to label it using the appropriate article and noun. I did a mini lesson on "les articles" and "les adjectifs possessifs" to help them with their project. We also went over some basics like the french alphabet and did some more review of important classroom expressions. 


7H has almost finished their name projects but we didn't get much further today as we only had one class together. I look forward to continuing with them tomorrow.  

I had a great start with 8C today discussing my classroom expectations and talking a bit about the blog. After I handed out the text book there wasn't much time to do anything else, but I can't wait to get started on the first module tomorrow. Students will be starting the year learning about Cells, tissues, organs and systems. We will start by asking ourselves "what is science" and looking over the scientific method. 

le mardi 8 septembre: First day = success!

Welcome students and parents,

We had a great first day! I had the privilege of meeting 7H and 7B today. We went over class expectations, some useful french expressions and started our first assignment (7H). Students are to write their name on a sheet of paper and draw six things that describe themselves around their name. They are then to find the article and noun to describe their drawing by using a French/English dictionary. 

I was very impressed with the students today and hope to see the same amount of effort and motivation continue throughout the term. Please refer to the homework section for tonight's homework.