We are VERY generous in 3/4F

For a couple of weeks, we focused on the book L'Arbre Généreux (The Giving Tree).  We read a couple of times, discussing various things.  Here are a couple of examples:

- Pourquoi est-ce que l'illustrateur a seulement utilisé le noir et le blanc dans ses illustrations?  (Why did the illustrator use only black and white in the illustrations?)
- Est-ce que l'arbre et le garçon sont vraiment des amis?  (Are the tree and the boy truly friends?)

We worked on the steps to follow in order to properly and fully answer a question:

- Lis la question trois fois. (Read the question three times.)
- Surligne les mots importants dans la questions.  (Highlight the important words in the question.)
- Utilise les mots importants dans le début de la réponse.  (Use the important words in the answer.)
- Utilise les mots aussi, ensuite, finalement dans la réponse.  (Use the words also, then, finally in the answer.)

Once we were done working on our questions, I thought "How can I turn this into an Art activity?".  I love the illustrations in The Giving Tree and I just knew I wasn`t done with this book.  Then, I had a BRILLIANT idea! 

I started with a lesson on using the letter Y to create a tree with many, many, MANY branches.  I was shocked by how excited the students were about this lesson.  Everyone then had the opportunity to create his or her own tree in pencil.  The next step was to trace the tree with a black Sharpie.

Here are some of the trees posted up in the school hallway:

 

Once all of the trees were complete.  We started talking about character and what generosity and kindness look and sound like.  The students bombarded me with examples!!! 

 

So, we chose to add some colour to our trees.  I printed pages and pages of leaf templates on different coloured paper.  Every day for the month of November, the students will be writing acts of kindness or generosity that they have done recently on the leaves.  Slowly, more and more leaves will be added to their trees, demonstrating how generous and kind they are. 

 

Here are the trees with their first leaf:

 



Since our vocabulary focus for the next couple of weeks in Le Passé Composé (past tense), this is a great way to practice this verb tense, because all of their acts of generosity and kindness happened in the past.  They don`t have a choice but to write using the past tense!  This tense is new for the grade 3s, and a great review for the grade 4s.  Since they will be practicing it every day this month, they should be experts by December!

I look forward to the end of November when, hopefully, our trees will be full of leaves!!!  This will add colour and brightness around the school, since the yucky winter is coming...  I don`t enjoy winter!

Enjoy! :)

Stéphanie