Geometry and Gingerbread


 The Gingerbread Man

We have been reading a version of The Gingerbread Man (le garçon de pain d'épices). We are continuing to talk about story elements. We read the story together projected on the board. Then we talked about who the characters were in the story. The children were given copies of the characters in the story and coloured them.

We read the story a second time and acted some of the story out. Later that same day, the children worked in groups to build the various settings from the story, the house, the farm and the woods. (See the photos above.)

After they had finished the setting, they got their characters and retold the story using the characters in the settings. (See the photos below.) Later this week, the children will get a copy of the story to read and colour. They can bring it home and share the story with you.



Geometry

Over this past week we have been exploring 2D shapes. The children have been using the pattern blocks in class to build triangles, squares, rectangles, hexagons and trapezoids. 


We will build Christmas Trees using the pattern blocks and green paper using what we know about the sides and corners of each shape. We are also going to talk about circles and compare them to shapes with sides and corners. 

After the break, we will continue to build shapes with a variety of materials, sticks, geoboards, and natural materials (when the weather is favourable). The grade 1's will compare and sort shapes based on one attribute while the grade 2's will compare and sort shapes using 2 attributes. We will also look for shapes in our environment.

If we have snow in January, we will also explore snowflakes and symmetry.

Later in the year we will explore 3D shapes.

FreshGrade

There are some new evaluations on FreshGrade are:
  • a writing assessment which includes a picture of your child's writing, their assessment of their work and my evaluation of their work.
  • a math assessment. For grade 1, it is an evaluation of their understanding around decomposing numbers. For grade 2, it is an evaluation of addition and subtraction facts to/ from 20.
Please take a look at your child's portfolio and add a 😃 or a 👍 or a comment in the comment section of these assessments. The work that I post on the portfolio is there to give you an idea of what we are working on and the progress your child is making. The comments that I write are to help give you a clear picture of where your child is and what the next steps are. These assessments are what I refer to when I am writing the report card in January. 

Things you can do at home:

  1. Give your child an opportunity to draw, build or find the different shapes we have been exploring at home. Ask them what the French name for each is.
  2. Write random numbers (10-60) on a paper and ask your child what it is called in French. I have noticed a number of the children are only able to say the French name when reciting the numbers in order. This is important vocabulary for all their time in French Immersion. The first time they will have Math in English is grade 10ish.
  3. Read the booklet "Le garçon pain d'épices" with your child when it comes home. 
  4. Ask your child about the pictures on FreshGrade. You could ask:
    • What is the activity you are doing?
    • What is challenging about this activity for you? or How could you make it more challenging? 

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