It is hard to believe that we are into the last week of November! Where has the time gone? We are already busy preparing for our annual Christmas Concert, which we are excited to share we you in just a few short weeks 🙂

This is the last week for Christmas tree sales. Students must have all money and tickets passed in to our Home and School volunteers by Friday, November 28^th. They will be in school today and on Friday to collect these items.

There have been some changes to our lunch orders here at Gulf Shore. An email with the details of the changes was sent to parents last week, but here is a summary of the changes:

Mondays-Sub order forms will be sent home to be filled out.

Tuesdays-Token sales for pizza and milk and sub order forms are to be passed in.

Wednesdays-Sub day (those students who ordered subs will receive them for lunch).

Thursday-Pizza day (those students who ordered pizza will receive their pizza for lunch).

In previous years, our pizza day has been on Fridays, so please note the change 🙂

Here’s what’s happening inside our classroom this week…

Grade 5

French- This week for our dictée, we will continue to work on homophones. We will finish up the son/sont group and will start to explore the a/à group. Students are reminded to spend some time each evening reviewing these concepts.

During our reader’s workshop this week, we will finish up looking at some strategies to enhance our responses to what we have read and at what happens before, during and after we read. We will also continue to work on our individual reading goals and in our guided reading groups.

In writing, as we continue to explore procedural writing, we will continue to create some topics and to write some texts together, both as a class and in small groups with our peers. We will then begin to prepare our first individual procedural writing text.

Math-This week we will continue to work on our third foundational learning on estimating and we will start to flashback to some of our work on fractions and decimals. Students are reminded to continue to practice their multiplication and division facts, continually improving their speed and accuracy.

Science- This week we will create our final project, our own instrument that will demonstrate our knowledge of sound and will wrap up our first unit of Science before starting our first unit of Social Studies.

Grade 7 Science

This week we will be assessed on the final concepts of our unit on the earth’s crust and we will start into our next unit on solutions.

Grade 8 Science

This week we will be assessed on the final concepts of our unit on fluids and we will start into our next unit on optics.

Have a great week!

Madame Walker

I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend! Here are just a few updates for the week 🙂

A reminder of the Home and School Christmas Tree Fundraiser that is well underway. Each Monday until the end of the month is a collection day and all unsold tickets must be returned by the end of the month.

There will be no classes on Friday, November 21^st, as teachers attend professional development sessions.

Here’s what’s happening inside our classroom this week…

Grade 5

French- This week our work on homophones continues. We will be looking at the on/ont and son/sont groups. Please remind your child to complete the assigned section of their practice sheet each evening, in addition to our work together in class.

During our reader’s workshop this week, we will review book choice and will work on strategies to enhance our responses to what we have read. We will also continue to work on our individual reading goals and to read in small groups.

During our writing blocks this week we will continue our study of procedural writing (how-to writing). Last week we examined some procedural texts and found some common features of this type of writing. We also discussed it’s importance in our everyday lives. This week we will begin to practice writing some of these texts together as a class and we will create a list of possible how-to topics.

Math-We have now finished the formal study of our first two foundational outcomes on fractions and decimals. As these concepts are foundational at the Grade 5 level, we will continue to review them throughout the year. We will now be focusing on our third foundational outcome on estimating. This week, your child will learn to estimate sums and differences, and how to select and use estimation strategies to determine if his or her calculations are reasonable. Students are encouraged to use a variety of estimation strategies to add and subtract depending on the situation and the context. Calculating with number sense means that children look at the numbers and operations involved and choose the most efficient strategy. Ask your child to show you some of the different estimation strategies that he or she uses.

Here’s a suggestion for an activity you can do at home:

Newspaper Numbers

Take a page each from a newspaper and circle all the numbers in the articles and advertisements on that page. Then talk about the circled numbers. Which are estimates? Which are not? How can you tell? Next, both of you choose one number and describe it to one another in terms of its number of millions, ten thousands, thousands, hundreds, tens, and ones only. Then challenge your child to find your secret number while you identify her or his number.

Science- This week we will finish up our unit on sound and will move towards switching to our first Social Studies unit of the year on community.

Grade 7 Science

As we near the end of our unit on the Earth’s Crust, we will spend this week preparing for our end of unit assessment. This assessment will cover rocks and minerals, soil, erosion and the rock cycle. Students are reminded to complete and study the revision sheets and to come see me at lunch time for any extra help/study time.

Grade 8 Science

This week we will conclude our study of pressure and begin to prepare for our final quiz of our unit on Fluids.

Have a fantastic week!

Madame Walker

What an exciting week we had last week, with our first set of Student Learning Conferences! I was so impressed with the students’ abilities to articulate their learning progress thus far and their goals for the next few months. We will be equally excited to update you on their progress in the new year and in the mean time, we will all work together to help them achieve success 🙂

This week will give us an opportunity to get back to routine after preparing for our conferences over the past few weeks. However, as this is Remembrance Week, we will also take some time to reflect on the sacrifices that so many have made and continue to make for our freedom here in Canada. On Monday, we will attend our annual Act of Remembrance assembly and on Tuesday there will be no classes for students, so that families may attend Remembrance Day events in their communities.

It’s hard to believe but we are almost halfway through November and thus the annual Home and School Christmas Tree Fundraiser is well underway. Tickets were sent home last week with the youngest child in each family. All tickets unsold tickets must be accounted for, so please ensure that they are returned to the school. There will be several collection dates over the next few weeks, the first of which is today, November 10^th.

Here’s what’s happening inside our classroom this week…

Grade 5

French- This week we will continue our look at homophones. We will finish up our focus on the group peu/peut/peux (quiz on Wednesday) and will start working on our next group on/ont. Each evening students can complete a section of their worksheet to help them study these concepts, in addition to our work together in class.

During our reader’s workshop this week we will discuss what happens before, during and after we read. We will also begin our guided reading groups, will work on our individual reading goals, and will continue to respond in our “carnet de lecture.” I ask that students read in French for 15 minutes each evening (Monday-Thursday). Your child may find it helpful to read out loud in French, in order to practice proper pronunciation and to solidify strategies we are working on in class. Even if you may not understand what they are reading, your support is much appreciated 🙂

During our writing blocks this week we will begin our study of procedural writing (how-to writing). We will start by looking at some procedural writing samples to explore the necessary components of this text type. We will also be exploring how we use certain verb tenses to write this type of text in French.

Math-As we took a great deal of time last week to reflect on our learning in all subject areas, we didn’t get a chance to finish up our study of comparing fractions. Thus, this week we will have our revision and assessment of our progress on this outcome to date and we will continue to review our mental math skills.

Science- We have almost complete our first unit on Sound. This week we will take some time to review what we have learned so far and will start preparation on our final project, the creation of our own instrument, which will demonstrate our knowledge of how sound is produced and heard.

Grade 7 Science

This week we will continue to look at the rock cycle and how different events impact the formation of rocks and soil.

Grade 8 Science

This week we will continue to explore how force relates to fluids, in particular pressure and will explore some hydraulic systems and how they work.

Have a marvelous week!

Madame Walker 🙂

I hope you all had a great Halloween weekend! It was so nice to see all the wonderful costumes on Friday!

We are so excited that this week marks our first set of Student Learning Conferences. The children and I are working hard to get their portfolios ready to present to you and we will share them on Thursday and Friday. Just a reminder to check over your time sheet and please let me know as soon as possible if you need a change to your scheduled time. Day care services will be provided on Thursday evening and all day Friday should families need to bring younger children along with them to the conferences. I look forward to seeing you all and sharing in your child’s progress thus far in Grade 5 🙂

Here’s what’s happening inside our classroom this week…

Grade 5

French- This week we will continue our look at homophones, focusing on the group peu/peut/peux. Each evening students can complete a section of their worksheet to help them study these concepts in addition to our work together in class.

This week during our reading and writing periods, in addition to our continued practice of our independent reading and writing skills, we will continue to develop our learning portfolios. This week we will take a look at our self-evaluations and the goals we’ve created and will develop our action plan to help us meet those goals. We will also take some time to practice going over our portfolios with a friend, so that we are prepare to present to our parents on Thursday and Friday.

Math-This week we will continue to look at comparing fractions and changing fractions to decimals and vice-versa. Students have been playing some fun games to help solidify their knowledge of these concepts and we will be evaluated on our progress so far later on in the week or early next week. As always, we also continue to practice our mental math skills and our multiplication and division facts.

Science- This week we will explore how sounds travel differently through solids, liquids and gases and we start to plan out our final project for this unit; the creation of an instrument that demonstrates our knowledge of the different concepts we’ve studied so far.

Grade 7 Science

This week we will finish our study of weathering and erosion and its impact on our soil and we will begin to look at the rock cycle and how different events impact the formation of rocks and soil.

Grade 8 Science

This week we will continue to explore buoyancy and pressure.

Have a super week!

Madame Walker