Here are some ideas for summer time learning to help your child be best prepared for grade 3!
Social Skills
There are sometimes interruptions to learning because students have difficulty getting along with others, playing fair and/or solving their own problems. Here are some ideas to help your child experience positive social interactions and hopefully make and/or build upon friendships:
1) Join a team, brownies, scouts, etc. This will provide your child with organized and supervised activities with kids around their age while focussing on leadership and problem solving skills.
2) Organize a play date with friends. This would work best if there was an activity planned (think... board games or making something, planting, cooking, baking, swimming, bbq-ing, etc.).
1) Number recognition. In grade 3, students will be learning how to count from 0-1000 (in French, of course). I taught them how to do this at the end of the year just to put the vocabulary and idea in their heads. If you can help them be proficient at number recognition for numbers 0-1000 they will have a solid foundation for learning higher-level math functions. Sometimes when students are unable to do mental math in French (for example +1/+2/+10/-1/-2 to any number) it is because they just forget how to say the number/correct answer in French. Practice counting and recognizing numbers in isolation (for example show them a number, let's say 125 and have them say it ("cent vingt-cinq"). They love to feel like they are the ones teaching so if you can give them the role of teaching you, you may have more success. Click here for a good site on how to say different numbers from 0-1000.
2) Patterns - they exist everywhere. Ask your child if they see a pattern wherever you are!
3) There are a lot of math booklets at the dollar stores and Scholar's Choice. Buy one and try it out. Students are able to do two-digit addition and subtraction, patterns, etc. Don't worry if they are in English, the beauty of math is that students can try to think of the numbers in French even if the instructions/descriptions are in English.
Math
1) Number recognition. In grade 3, students will be learning how to count from 0-1000 (in French, of course). I taught them how to do this at the end of the year just to put the vocabulary and idea in their heads. If you can help them be proficient at number recognition for numbers 0-1000 they will have a solid foundation for learning higher-level math functions. Sometimes when students are unable to do mental math in French (for example +1/+2/+10/-1/-2 to any number) it is because they just forget how to say the number/correct answer in French. Practice counting and recognizing numbers in isolation (for example show them a number, let's say 125 and have them say it ("cent vingt-cinq"). They love to feel like they are the ones teaching so if you can give them the role of teaching you, you may have more success. Click here for a good site on how to say different numbers from 0-1000.
2) Patterns - they exist everywhere. Ask your child if they see a pattern wherever you are!
3) There are a lot of math booklets at the dollar stores and Scholar's Choice. Buy one and try it out. Students are able to do two-digit addition and subtraction, patterns, etc. Don't worry if they are in English, the beauty of math is that students can try to think of the numbers in French even if the instructions/descriptions are in English.
English Language Arts
Here are some ideas to help your child maintain or improve upon their language skills over the summer:
1) Read, read, read! This year, the was an overall sense of a love for reading. Most students by the end of the year would ask permission to read when they were done their work (I am serious!!!!). Make it a daily routine in some way, shape or form. All students are able to read a variety of texts so they should be able to choose their own reading material and need minimal - no help. Some beginner chapter book series they like are:
The Magic Tree House
Junie B. Jones
Judy Blume
"Choice" is the key, when they feel like they are in control of their learning or the activity they are much more likely to enjoy and value it.
2) Writing. Next year we will continue word study, practicing printing, writing composition and we will also begin to hand write (which I know they are super excited for! - I showed them all how to sign their names this year so they could sign their art and they just loved it!).
If your child's printing needs practice I suggest you go to Dollarama, Dollar Tree or Scholar's Choice and purchase a booklet to practice printing. This will probably be boring and tedious but if you can set something up so that they practice out of the book and then maybe write a letter/poem/song/paragraph/story and you do something like frame it after - it could be really worth it. They respond positively to being provided with the opportunity to show ownership of their work, so putting it on display somehow would be a great idea.
Indicators that your child needs to practice printing: letters/numbers are backwards (in particular "b" and "d", "p" and "q"), incorrect/combination of lower-case and upper-case letters, misuse/lack-of punctuation.
Free-write in a journal (again - lot's of fun ones at the dollar store!). Give them a choice of their choice or a fun topic to write about like "What would you do if you woke up on the moon?" all I can tell you is the sillier, the better! Usually with free-write activities I don't have students edit or obsess over spelling every word they are unsure of correctly, the goal is idea-flow. All students are able to at least write a short simple paragraph consisting of three sentences about an idea. If that seems easy challenge them to write 4-6 sentences.
3) Life experiences. You would be surprised at how much this helps students connect experiences to the academic or social activity at hand. Students who have been camping know what the following are : a tent, sleeping bag, bonfire, lantern, etc. and when they come across those words in a text or are drawing on their experiences while writing, they relate to their experiences and it becomes something they can relate to their own life. I'm not saying you need to take your child camping but the more variety of places they go, people they encounter and activities they do, the bigger the repertoire they have to utilize in their academics.
French Language Arts
I have been mulling over this one for a while now because it is difficult to suggest activities when I know that everyone's family is so diverse when it comes to experience with the French language. What I think is really important right now is that students develop an identity as a French-speaker. When you use a language only in one facet of your life (in most student's case- school) it is really hard to view it as something that is important and valuable, and a part of who you are. If you are able to take your child to events, movies, plays, restaurants, concerts where they will experience French they will see that it exists outside of school and maybe even see something that makes an impression on them and motivates them. The French-Canadian pavilion at Folklorama is amazing!
Reading / viewing - The DREF (French library at St.Boniface University) has a ton of kids books, cd's, magazines and possibly even movies if you are looking for these types of resources. You can also try the public library in your neighborhood, they should have a French section consisting of books leveled from beginner - chapter books. Finally, there is the St.Boniface public library on Provencher. If you don't speak French, don't be intimidated! They speak English and are very willing to help!
Social Skills
There are sometimes interruptions to learning because students have difficulty getting along with others, playing fair and/or solving their own problems. Here are some ideas to help your child experience positive social interactions and hopefully make and/or build upon friendships:
1) Join a team, brownies, scouts, etc. This will provide your child with organized and supervised activities with kids around their age while focussing on leadership and problem solving skills.
2) Organize a play date with friends. This would work best if there was an activity planned (think... board games or making something, planting, cooking, baking, swimming, bbq-ing, etc.).
1) Number recognition. In grade 3, students will be learning how to count from 0-1000 (in French, of course). I taught them how to do this at the end of the year just to put the vocabulary and idea in their heads. If you can help them be proficient at number recognition for numbers 0-1000 they will have a solid foundation for learning higher-level math functions. Sometimes when students are unable to do mental math in French (for example +1/+2/+10/-1/-2 to any number) it is because they just forget how to say the number/correct answer in French. Practice counting and recognizing numbers in isolation (for example show them a number, let's say 125 and have them say it ("cent vingt-cinq"). They love to feel like they are the ones teaching so if you can give them the role of teaching you, you may have more success. Click here for a good site on how to say different numbers from 0-1000.
2) Patterns - they exist everywhere. Ask your child if they see a pattern wherever you are!
3) There are a lot of math booklets at the dollar stores and Scholar's Choice. Buy one and try it out. Students are able to do two-digit addition and subtraction, patterns, etc. Don't worry if they are in English, the beauty of math is that students can try to think of the numbers in French even if the instructions/descriptions are in English.
Math
1) Number recognition. In grade 3, students will be learning how to count from 0-1000 (in French, of course). I taught them how to do this at the end of the year just to put the vocabulary and idea in their heads. If you can help them be proficient at number recognition for numbers 0-1000 they will have a solid foundation for learning higher-level math functions. Sometimes when students are unable to do mental math in French (for example +1/+2/+10/-1/-2 to any number) it is because they just forget how to say the number/correct answer in French. Practice counting and recognizing numbers in isolation (for example show them a number, let's say 125 and have them say it ("cent vingt-cinq"). They love to feel like they are the ones teaching so if you can give them the role of teaching you, you may have more success. Click here for a good site on how to say different numbers from 0-1000.
2) Patterns - they exist everywhere. Ask your child if they see a pattern wherever you are!
3) There are a lot of math booklets at the dollar stores and Scholar's Choice. Buy one and try it out. Students are able to do two-digit addition and subtraction, patterns, etc. Don't worry if they are in English, the beauty of math is that students can try to think of the numbers in French even if the instructions/descriptions are in English.
English Language Arts
Here are some ideas to help your child maintain or improve upon their language skills over the summer:
1) Read, read, read! This year, the was an overall sense of a love for reading. Most students by the end of the year would ask permission to read when they were done their work (I am serious!!!!). Make it a daily routine in some way, shape or form. All students are able to read a variety of texts so they should be able to choose their own reading material and need minimal - no help. Some beginner chapter book series they like are:
The Magic Tree House
Junie B. Jones
Judy Blume
"Choice" is the key, when they feel like they are in control of their learning or the activity they are much more likely to enjoy and value it.
2) Writing. Next year we will continue word study, practicing printing, writing composition and we will also begin to hand write (which I know they are super excited for! - I showed them all how to sign their names this year so they could sign their art and they just loved it!).
If your child's printing needs practice I suggest you go to Dollarama, Dollar Tree or Scholar's Choice and purchase a booklet to practice printing. This will probably be boring and tedious but if you can set something up so that they practice out of the book and then maybe write a letter/poem/song/paragraph/story and you do something like frame it after - it could be really worth it. They respond positively to being provided with the opportunity to show ownership of their work, so putting it on display somehow would be a great idea.
Indicators that your child needs to practice printing: letters/numbers are backwards (in particular "b" and "d", "p" and "q"), incorrect/combination of lower-case and upper-case letters, misuse/lack-of punctuation.
Free-write in a journal (again - lot's of fun ones at the dollar store!). Give them a choice of their choice or a fun topic to write about like "What would you do if you woke up on the moon?" all I can tell you is the sillier, the better! Usually with free-write activities I don't have students edit or obsess over spelling every word they are unsure of correctly, the goal is idea-flow. All students are able to at least write a short simple paragraph consisting of three sentences about an idea. If that seems easy challenge them to write 4-6 sentences.
3) Life experiences. You would be surprised at how much this helps students connect experiences to the academic or social activity at hand. Students who have been camping know what the following are : a tent, sleeping bag, bonfire, lantern, etc. and when they come across those words in a text or are drawing on their experiences while writing, they relate to their experiences and it becomes something they can relate to their own life. I'm not saying you need to take your child camping but the more variety of places they go, people they encounter and activities they do, the bigger the repertoire they have to utilize in their academics.
French Language Arts
I have been mulling over this one for a while now because it is difficult to suggest activities when I know that everyone's family is so diverse when it comes to experience with the French language. What I think is really important right now is that students develop an identity as a French-speaker. When you use a language only in one facet of your life (in most student's case- school) it is really hard to view it as something that is important and valuable, and a part of who you are. If you are able to take your child to events, movies, plays, restaurants, concerts where they will experience French they will see that it exists outside of school and maybe even see something that makes an impression on them and motivates them. The French-Canadian pavilion at Folklorama is amazing!
Reading / viewing - The DREF (French library at St.Boniface University) has a ton of kids books, cd's, magazines and possibly even movies if you are looking for these types of resources. You can also try the public library in your neighborhood, they should have a French section consisting of books leveled from beginner - chapter books. Finally, there is the St.Boniface public library on Provencher. If you don't speak French, don't be intimidated! They speak English and are very willing to help!