If you haven’t already done so, please sign up for your child’s learning conference. Your child is welcome to join you to share in our discussion. Please follow the link below to sign up. Due to learning conferences, there will be no classes for students on Friday, March 24th.

https://www.signupgenius.com/go/70A084AAEAA2CABF85-march1

Later on this week, your child’s report card will go home. Please take some time to review it with them and bring any questions/concerns with you to your conference. Your family can keep the report, but if you would kindly return the signed envelope back to me as soon as possible, we will reuse them in June for the final report.

During our conferences our school book fair will be open. This fair provides families the chance to pick up some new reading material, while helping our library and classrooms attain more books as well.

Finally, last week two permission forms went home. One is for the Colonel Gray production of “Newsies” which our students in grades 4-9 will be taking in later on this month. Please return the signed form and the $12 fee as soon as possible. There was also a permission form sent home from Ms. Coady about a research survey that students will be participating in during their health classes tomorrow.

Let’s take a look at what else will be happening at Gulf Shore this week…

French-We are nearing the end of our book club discussions and we will soon begin “The Great Book Debate.” Similar to “Canada Reads” students will participate in an event to defend their book and promote it to their peers. We will also continue our read aloud called “Noémie: Le secret de Mme Lumbago and our oral language warm ups, and spend time finishing up our learning portfolios to present during our conferences.

Science-This week students will present their rock cycle compositions and begin to look at minerals and their characteristics. We will “mine” a chocolate chip cookie to find some “minerals” as well.

Grade 9 Science-Over the next few days we will wrap up our look at how cells divide through mitosis and meiosis. Students will work on an assignment where they will use their knowledge of these processes to find a mystery image and begin to compare the two processes through a Venn diagram.

Grade 7 Science-This week we will wrap up our look at the cell, as students will present their cell models and we will take a look at what cells look like under the microscope. We will then begin to prepare for their quiz on these concepts which will take place later on in the week.

Grade 9 English Science-Our work continues on ions and compounds. Students will make models ionic and molecular compounds and discuss why they combine in each way.

Have a great week! I look forward to seeing you all during our conferences.

Mme MacNevin

March is already halfway over! It is hard to imagine, but our second term is quickly coming to a close. With that, it is time to choose a slot for your child’s learning conference. Please be on the lookout this week for the sign up link to set up a time to discuss your child’s learning. We will be using the same format as in the fall. Students may attend their learning conference with their parents, or parents can attend alone. Either way, each of your children will present their learning portfolio and their goals for the last term of their Grade 8 year. Please let me know if none of the times are work and/or if you have any questions.

Now here is a look into what will be taking place during our classes together this week…

French-This week we will continue our book club reading and discussions. wE will also keep moving along with our read aloud called “Noémie: Le secret de Mme Lumbago and our oral language warm ups will focus on the verb “aller.” Finally we will spend some time beginning to prepare our learning portfolios that we will share with you next week.

Science-We continue to “rock” the rock cycle, as students are busy working on some original compositions to help retain this important information.

Grade 9 Science-Our focus these next few days will be on cell division, as we explore the reasons cells divide and the steps they take when dividing. This will lead up to our discovery to the two cell division processes of mitosis and meiosis. Students are reminded of the importance of frequently reviewing biology terms and new concepts, so that they are not cramming before an assessment.

Grade 7 Science-Cells, cells and more cells! That will be our theme over the coming week. We will look at the characteristics of cells and then begin to study the part of both the plant and the animal cell as well as the differences between them.

Grade 9 English Science-As we inch closer to the end of our chemistry unit, students will learn more about ions and explore why and how they combine. We will also start to look at how to name compounds.

Have a wonderful week!

Mme MacNevin

I hope that everyone had a wonderful break. I cannot wait to greet my students this morning and hear all about it. There was definitely a lot of excitement around the Island these past few weeks, but it will be nice to get into our normal routines again.

Here is a snapshot of what we will be working in this first week back from the break….

French-Today we will kick a new read aloud called “Noémie: Le secret de Mme Lumbago” and we will also start our book clubs. Students will have the opportunity to “taste test” several different books before making the choice of the novel they would like to read over the next few weeks. We will also begin our second unit in #LaClasse on interviews. As always, our warm-ups will allow us to practice our oral language skills and goals leading up to our learning conferences at the end of the month.

Science-Before the break we completed our second section of the year on biology and will now shift our focus onto geology. We will start by reviewing some of the concepts we learned during this section last year including the layers of the Earth’s crust, before moving into our new learning about the rock cycle.

Grade 9 Science-This week officially kicks off our biology unit. We will begin by taking a closer look at DNA. Students will “make” their own DNA molecules using twizzlers and mini marshmallows, “extract” DNA from a strawberry, and begin to learn about the importance of DNA in the body’s cells.

Grade 7 Science-This week we will begin to look into the next section of our biology unit, beginning with the characteristics of living things and the part of animal and plant cells.

Grade 9 English Science-Our lessons this week will focus on chemical and physical changes in matter and the differences between atoms and ions.

Have a fantastic week!

Mme MacNevin

The week that we’ve have been preparing for has arrived, both as we’ve been counting down to the Canada Games and our break and to our school science fair. This week will be jam-packed as we wrap up our learning and present our projects to the judges.
Our science fair will take place on Wednesday, Feb 15th from 8:40-12:00 in the Multipurpose Room and Science Lab. Students will arrive at school, check in with their homeroom teacher and head up to the MPR to set up their projects. Projects will be judged at least 2-3 times from 8:40-11:00am. From 11:00am-12:00pm our fair will be open to the public. Family and friends are welcome to stop by to see all the excitement and to grab a photo or two. We’d ask that families respect this timeline to allow students’ full attention to the judges earlier in the morning.

As we work our way to the Canada Games, our Leadership team also has an exciting week planned. A full list of events is listed on our school Facebook page and in posters around the building. There will also be a dance for our intermediate students on Wednesday evening, and lots of fun outside on Friday as we mark Winter Wellness Day.

Now look at what else will be happening during this last week before the break….

French-Students will finish up their travel journals before the end of the week and present them to their peers. We will also wrap up our written and oral assessments related to our work in #LaClasse.

Science-Our focus will be the science fair, as we finish up our boards and practice our oral presentations for the judges. We will then spend our last few classes after the fair doing some engineering instant challenges both inside and outside (weather permitting) 😊

Grade 9 Science-Our focus today and tomorrow will be preparations for the fair and getting our boards ready to present. Later on this week we will also wrap up our l’univers matériel as we finish our study of fluids and waves and write our final assessment on these outcomes.

Grade 7 Science-Once we’ve completed our science fair boards, we will practice presenting them and complete our chapter 3 outcomes as we wrap up our creation of our own animals.

Grade 9 English Science-Today and tomorrow we will finish our science fair boards and practice going over what our oral presentations will look like for the judges. After the fair, we will spend some time doing some instant challenges that will help walk us through the engineering design process.

Whether you are taking in the Canada Games, heading south to a sunny beach or enjoying some time just relaxing, I wish all my students and their families a wonderful break. I cannot wait to hear about all their adventures when we return to school on Monday, March 6.

Mme MacNevin

As hard as it is to believe, we are down to our last full week before the science fair next Wednesday. This week students will be busy finishing up their reports and putting together their backboards. If your child has not yet purchased their backboard and brought it to school this should be done as soon as possible. I had some luck getting them at Michaels (on the side wall up top) if you are still looking.

There will be lots of other learning taking place this week as well. Here is a look into that…

French-Students are working hard to create their travel journals, which they will present early next week. We will also spend some time this week writing some written and oral assessments related to our work in #LaClasse.

Science-With some of the recent storm days and other interruptions, we have moved our chapter 4 assessment to this Wednesday. Following the assessment, our full attention will move to the science fair in order to have everything ready for the big day.

Grade 9 Science-This week we will finish up chapter 8 on fluids and waves and begin preparations for an assessment on these concepts next week before the break. Class time will also be dedicated to our science fair projects.

Grade 7 Science-Over the next few classes students will finish up their animal adaptations projects and work on putting their science fair project boards together.

Grade 9 English Science-On Wednesday, students will write their assessment on atoms and elements. We will also focus a lot of our learning this week on how to create data table and how to draw our conclusions as we put our science fair presentations together.

Have a wonderful week!

Mme MacNevin

This week we will flip the calendar to the month of February. The storms last week may have put us just a little behind in our preparations for the science fair, but we are still well on our way. This week students should be finishing up their method and conducting their experiments. All results (meaning the completed experiment) are due on Monday, February 6. We will then begin to work on our backboards. Students should bring their backboard with them to school next week. If they cannot take them on the bus, I would suggest they bring them on an early morning band day or arrange for someone to drop it off to the school for them. I’ve heard that these boards are in popular demand around town, but I did have some success purchasing them at Michael’s if your child is still looking.

Now let’s take a look into our learning over these last few days of January and the first few of February…..

French-Work is moving along nicely in our creation of our travel journals. We will continue to use our online resource #LaClasse to help us in the creation of this project.

We continue reading our novel “Mamie Gangster.” We are nearing its end and will prepare for our final reflection on what we’ve read in the coming days.

Finally, during our daily warm-ups we will work on using verbs in the past tense and some commonly misused expressions.

Science-Over the next few days we will wrap up our study of human reproduction (Chapter 4). On Friday, students will write a quick Google Forms assessment on these concepts. This means that many of our classes this week will be spent reviewing the outcomes of this sections through interactive games and activities.

Grade 9 Science-As we keep moving through chapter 8, this week we will explore waves and the electromagnetic spectrum in greater detail through both some virtual and interactive experiments in the lab.

Grade 7 Science-Our look into ecosystems will end this week as we finish up chapter 3 with a deeper discussion into adaptations and how different species use them to survive, as we create our own animals and showcase their adaptations. We will then begin our review in preparations for our chapter 3 quiz which will take place early next week.

Grade 9 English Science-This week we will prepare for our quiz on chapter 5 (atoms and elements). We will spend our classes together finishing up our look at the periodic table and engaging in many different review games and activities to help us prepare. Students are also encouraged to check out Google Classroom for more review tools and games.

Wishing you all a marvelous week!

Mme MacNevin

Despite the last two storm days, our science fair work is coming along nicely, as students have now formed their hypothesizes and begun to develop their experiments. The next few weeks are when students will conduct their experiments and take note of their results. They are also reminded that now is a great time to purchase their backboard, as I’ve heard that supply is low in many places. If you are having trouble securing a backboard, please let me know as soon as possible and I will do my best to help.

Now here is a snapshot into the learning that will happen over this week…

French- Moving through our unit on travel in #LaClasse, students will take another step towards their final project of a travel journal as this week we discuss vocabulary related to lodging and write some retells of some misadventures we may have had on our travels.
I continue to read “Mamie Gangster” a few times a week, and students are engaging in discussions about this interesting grandmother and all her adventures to steal the crown jewels with her grandson Ben.

Science-This week students will create an informational poster on a method of contraception. Once this is complete, we will begin to discuss the final section of our unit on living things: sexual transmitted infections.

Grade 9 Science-On Day 4 (now Wednesday) students will write their assessment on Chapter 7. With that behind us, we will then begin to look into our last section of our “univers matériel” before we head into our biology section. This last chapter will focus on both pressure and waves.

Grade 7 Science-Our look into ecosystems will end this week or early next week as we finish up chapter 3 with a deeper discussion into adaptations and how different species use them to survive. This section will include some interactive activities where students will be given different “adaptations” to demonstrate their importance.

Grade 9 English Science-Our final few sections on the periodic table and the families and groups that make it up will take place over the next few days. Students will colour their own periodic table, representing these families and then discuss how atoms gain or lose electrons to forms ions and combine.

Have a wonderful week!

Mme MacNevin

We are now halfway through the month of January and working hard towards the Gulf Shore Science Fair. All Science classes are reminded that this week they should be working on completing their hypothesis, purpose and research for their science fair project. Additionally, if students have not yet purchased their backboards, they are reminded to do so.

Here is a peek into what we will be discussing during our classes these next few days….

French- We continue our unit in #LaClasse, working towards our final project of a travel journal. Additionally, we continue to read and discuss our read aloud novel “Mamie Gangster” and engage in interactive warm-ups to practice our oral language skills. Our work will also continue our work on the differences between the passé composé and imparfait verb tenses.

Science-Science-This week we will wrap up our look at the stages of both pregnancy and life and begin our study of different methods of contraception, exploring how they prevent pregnancy.

Grade 9 Science-We have now completed all the new learning for our unit on transformations of matter and energy. This week will be spent reviewing as we work towards our final assessment on these concepts which will take place on Day 4.

Grade 7 Science-As we near the end of our ecology unit, this week we will look at food chains and changes and adaptations different species use to survive.

Grade 9 English Science-Our look at the periodic table will wrap up this week. We will spend some time reviewing the concepts we have seen in Chapter 5 and prepare to write an assessment on these concepts in the coming days.

Wishing you all a great week!

Mme MacNevin

It is always so nice to get back into our routines after the holiday break. As I discussed in last week’s post, the next month or so leading up to our annual Science Fair will be very busy, but most definitely exciting ones here at Gulf Shore.

Please continue to refer to our school website and Facebook page for school events and messages. Additionally, it is important to mention, as the winter weather is upon us, that we are part of the Bluefield family of school in case of weather related cancellations and delays.

Let’s take a look at what will be taking place during our classes this week…

French- As we work through our unit in #LaClasse, students will continue work on their travel journals, we as always, will engage in some fun warm-ups to get us speaking in French and of course, we continue our read aloud novel “Mamie Gangster.”

Science-This week we will wrap up our study of the organs that make up the human reproductive system. With that complete, we will begin to prepare for a quiz on these concepts that will take place later on this week or early next week.

Grade 9 Science-As we work through Chapter 7, over the next few days students will continue their look at physical and chemical transformations of matter and will shift their focus to energy and its transformations. Students when then use their knowledge of these concepts to work on a case study about air bags and the transformations that occur when they are deployed in the event of an accident.

Grade 7 Science-Moving on in our ecology this week, we will look at abiotic and biotic factors as well as how different organisms get their energy (producers and consumers).

Grade 9 English Science-We will continue to examine the trends of the periodic table throughout our discussions these next few days.

Have a fantastic week!

Mme MacNevin

Happy New Year! Welcome back and I am so excited to begin 2023 together! I hope that everyone had a relaxing break. I cannot wait to hear all about the adventures that were had during our warm-up this morning.

Here is a snapshot into what our first school week of the new year has planned….

French- Our oral language warm-up this week will begin together with a pair and share about our holiday break and then continue later on this week practicing expressions that use the verb “avoir”, the passé compose, and also those where two verbs are used together. Proper verb conjugation is a goal for many of my students, so we will spend lots of time focusing on some activities in the coming weeks to help give them some strategies to improve their spoken language. As we work through our unit in #LaClasse, students will also make progress on their travel journals, looking closely at le passé compose and l’imparfait.

We will also return to our read aloud novel “Mamie Gangster” as we continue this story about a boy and his “gangster” Granny.

Science-We will begin the final sections of our unit on living things as we kick off Chapter 4 on human reproduction over the next few days. Together, we will look at the human anatomy, the stages of human development both before and after birth, as well contraception over the next couple of weeks.

With all my classes over the next few days, we will also begin our preparations for the Gulf Shore 2023 Science Fair. I am so excited that this event will make its comeback this year. More details to follow in the coming weeks.

Grade 9 Science-During our classes this week we will return to our textbook to explore chemical and physical changes in matter (Chapter 7). Much of this chapter is a review from Grade 8, but with our added knowledge of how atoms combine from our studies before the break, students will look at these concepts through a different lens than they did last year.

Grade 7 Science-Before the break, we began our unit on biodiversity. This week students will review the concepts we discussed in December including species, and taxonomy, before beginning to look at population, habitat and niche later on in the week.

Grade 9 English Science-As we continue to move through our chemistry unit, this week we will look deeper at the atom, exploring subatomic particles, how to draw Bohr models and at how the periodic table is organized, as we explain why it is called the “periodic” table.

Have a wonderful week! Please do not hesitate to contact me with any questions and concerns you may have.

Mme MacNevin