Grade 4 Extended:

Sports Projects.

Students recently completed a project called ‘Un expert de sport’, this included an oral presentation and a diorama representing their chosen activity. The goal was to create approximately 15 – 20 sentences explaining the basic rules of their sport, the history, equipment needed and some fun facts.

Dioramas representing their sport were also created using a variety of different supplies. We had  many different projects from very popular sports like soccer and hockey to some more unknown activities like jai-alai which is apparently very popular in the Sunshine state. One student also profiled the increasingly popular sport of pickleball.

Baseball au Colisée:

We recently completed our first French novel study. This story is about a group of kids from Newfoundland who are transported to Ancient Rome by using a magical coin. Felix, Simon and their crew must entertain the emperor through a game of baseball or face big consequences. Students took turns reading aloud and translating the story. There were different comprehension based tasks to complete at the conclusion of each chapter. 

Bescherelle and Collins: 

One of our goals for this year was to improve our French writing skills by using the Collins dictionary and the centuries-old Bescherelle conjugation book. The idea was to move away from translation tools such as; Google Translate or Reverso. The students now have enough of a French vocabulary that they are able to put together paragraphs in French using familiar themes and verbs. The Collins First Time French dictionary is very user friendly by grouping different themes and using colourful images. We reviewed how to search for vocabulary in both languages as well as to find if a noun is masculine or feminine. We also used the Bescherelle book which is used to conjugate French verbs in all of the tenses. This book is a bit trickier to understand, but we got the hang of it rather quickly, and it has immensely helped French writing in our classroom. We have also reviewed how to use the online Collins dictionary and online Bescherelle.

Passé composé:

We have been learning to conjugate using the present tense verbs since Grade 3, but students were now ready to take the next step and begin learning the passé composé past tense. After becoming comfortable with basic conjugation and learning some of the key verbs, we then took the next step and wrote a composition in the past tense. Students were given several different options and asked to create a 15-20 sentence write-up about either their favourite childhood memory or trip with their family. Naturally, this would need to be written using the passé composé and include some relevant pictures. Many of our students wrote about their favourite memories from Camp B’nai Brith, but we also got to hear about a trip to Mexico, an unfortunate hiking in Gatineau mishap and a multiple day drive to Florida consisting of a few trips to medical facilities. You can read more about Quelque Chose de mon passé on the individual student blogfolios.

Pour vendredi le 16 juin