Thursday 24 March 2016

École Robert Browning and the 8 Fantastiques are hosting the EcoKids Battery Buster Spring Cleaning Contest!

From April 1 to 29, 2016, recycle your single-use, household used batteries! Bring your old batteries to Room 18 or the Office.

Not only will you help the environment, you will also help us enter a contest to win prizes that will support future environmental initiatives here at ÉRB.

Spring Break

Good morning!

It's hard to believe that Spring Break is already upon us! I know students have a busy schedule planned for next week, so there will not be too much homework assigned over the break.

I do encourage them to still do home reading and Xtra Math at least twice throughout the break. If they have time, I have also asked them to begin looking up pictures of their researched country that they would like to use for their poster boards. They can either print them out at home or email them to me to be printed out.

There will also be a multiplication quiz on April 4th. This will allow me to determine if they have retained their multiplication facts up to multiples of 5 or if we will need to do a quick review our first week back.

Possible topics this week: Multiples of 5, Wonder, Jelly Bean graph activity, Teacher vs. Student basketball

I hope you have a wonderful Easter and much deserved Spring Break!
Mme Buchanan

Thursday 17 March 2016

Multiplication tricks

Here are some mental math strategies that we've learned in class to help us with our multiplication facts:

x0 - 0 x Number = 0

x1 - 1 x N = N

x2 -  "double" (2 x N = N + N)

x3 - "double + N" 3 x N = (N + N) + N

x4 - "double double" 3 x 4 = (N+N) + (N+N)

x5 - the clock (1=5 minutes, 1 X 5 = 5; 2 = 10 minutes, 2 X 5 = 10)

**I will add the strategies for the other multiples as we learn them!

Please let me know if you have any questions!
Mme. Buchanan
Good evening! In all of our excitement preparing for the student-led conferences, I forgot to ask to students to write down their multiplication quiz in their agendas. We will have a quiz on multiples of 0, 1, 2, 3, and 4, included two digit times one digit multiplication (the "boîte" method).

Aside from Spelling, Home Reading, and Xtra Math, there will be no additional homework this weekend!

I look forward to seeing you all at the conferences!
Mme. Buchanan

Friday 11 March 2016

This week students have been working on their "Friendly Letter" writing skills. To coincide with our research project, students were asked to pretend to be visiting their researched country and to plan out and write four friendly letters to four different people, telling them all about their "experiences" based on their research. Most students have worked up to their third or fourth letter, and have been asked to have all four completed and handed in by Monday, should they not be finished by this afternoon. Below I have attached the web outlines for the third and fourth letter:
Students are also reminded to study for their dictée and multiples of 3 quiz on Monday.

Possible topics for discussion this week: Friendly letter writing, multiples of 3, and two digit multiplication.

Please let me know if you have any questions!
Mme. Buchanan

Friday 4 March 2016

This week students worked hard on a type of Senegalese art known as "Souwère". Students were asked to write a reflection on their artwork and the multiple steps they took to complete it. Students not finished the reflection were asked to complete it as homework for Monday. They were encouraged to use the transition words "en premier, ensuite, par la suite, après, en fin" when writing out the steps. I recommend the websites www.wordreference.com and www.linguee.fr if they are seeking out a French word or the proper writing of a French word. Please, no google translate! I challenged students to see what they were able to write in French on their own at this point in the year.

**A reminder that there will be a short multiplication quiz on Monday on the 0, 1, and 2 times tables.

Possible topics for discussion this week: multiplications, "Souwère" art, Choral Fest

Have a great weekend!
Mme. Buchanan

Tuesday 1 March 2016

March homework

Now that our hard work for concours is behind us, students will begin getting back into routine with a similar homework schedule they we had before the winter break.

Next week, students will be given a new set of Dictée words to study and we will continue to rotate on a weekly basis between Dictée and Spelling words. (I will publish a reminder post next Monday, when students get their word list).

Now that we have begun working with basic multiplication facts, students will be working with a different multiple each week and will be tested with a "mini multiplication quiz". For example, this week we are studying our 2 times table, so next Monday students will be writing a small quiz on x 0, x 1, and x 2. Next week, we will be studying the 3 times table, so students will then be writing a quiz on x 0, x 1, x 2, and x 3 on the following Monday. This routine will continue into April, until students have mastered up to the 10 times table. **Students will be provided with daily questions, practice sheets, and games, but are encouraged to study at home with flash cards, "quizzing", or multiplication games and apps.

T.U.S.C. will resume after Spring Break.

To summarize: Dictée and Spelling will resume next Monday (I will hand out word lists on Monday), there will be a multiplication quiz every Monday from now until the end of April, no T.U.S.C. until April.

Please let me know if you have any questions!
Mme. Buchanan