The next two days will be jammed-packed, as we celebrate the holidays here at Gulf Shore and wrap up the 2014 portion of the 2014-2015 school year 🙂

This afternoon we will be treated to some fun physical activity with a visit from the UFIT team.

Tomorrow morning we will have our class party, classroom clean up and a school-wide carol sing and tomorrow afternoon we will be treated to a lot of special Christmas-themed activities organized by our Student Council.

Tuesday will also be Pajama Day here at Gulf Shore 🙂

I’d like to wish everyone a very safe and happy holiday season and I look forward to hearing all about everyone’s adventures when we return to classes on January 5^th, 2015 🙂

Joyeux Noël!

Madame Walker

Here is a link to the “Flash Mob” video from the Christmas Concert

This week will be our last full week of 2014 here at Gulf Shore and it will certainly be an exciting one, as on Tuesday we will present our annual Christmas Concert 🙂 Our class has been practicing a great deal over the past few weeks to get ready for our big day and we have so excited to share our performance with all our family and friends on Tuesday afternoon and evening!

If you haven’t returned the signed envelope that contained your child’s learning report to the school yet, please do so as soon as possible 🙂

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

Grade 5

French- This week we will finish up our study of homophones, exploring the final group c’est/ses/ces/sais/sait/s’est. Students are expected to review their notes and to complete the assigned section of their worksheet each evening in preparation for our quiz on Day 1 🙂

During our reading and writing periods this week we will finish up our procedural writing unit, will continue to work on our improving our fluency and comprehension, and will spend some time working through some literacy centers with a holiday theme.

Math-This week we will explore how to add and subtract decimal numbers. There are lots of great activities that you can do with your child to help with their understanding of these concepts, as money is a great source of decimals numbers. Ask your son or daughter to add up the cost of the grocery list, or to calculate how much change they will receive from purchasing an item, etc. In addition, we will also continue to review the previous outcomes on comparing fractions, estimating and multiplication and division facts to 81.

Social Studies-We have started our unit on community. Last week we spent some time talking about the different parts that make up a community and this week we will begin to classify those components into categories.

Grade 7 Science

This week we will be evaluated on our understanding of the particle theory and will begin to explore how solutions are formed and how they can become over-saturated.

Grade 8 Science

This week we will look at how light travels in waves.

Have a fabulous week!

Madame Walker

It is definitely beginning to look a lot like Christmas here at Gulf Shore! Students have now received their parts for our annual Christmas Concert. While each student is only responsible for a few lines, it is important that they practice and memorize them at home, in addition to our practice together at school 🙂 We are so excited to get to present our show to you on Tuesday, December 16^th (Snow date: Monday, December 22^nd)

Progress reports will be sent home with students on Tuesday, December 9^th.

On Wednesday, December 10^th, we will be treated to a special presentation on computer coding and programming from a group of Bluefield students and to a Christmas performance from our school bands in the afternoon.

On Thursday, December 11^th, we will have some special visitors in our school in the morning from the Island Storm basketball team and in the afternoon we will honor our classmates who have been working extra hard this month at our monthly Shark Bite assembly.

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

Grade 5

French- Continuing our work on homophones, this week we will finish up our look at the a/à/as group and will start to explore our final group c’est/ses/ces/sais/sait/s’est. Students are expected to review their notes and to complete the assigned section of their worksheet each evening in preparation for our quiz on Day 1 🙂

During our reader’s workshop this week, we will finish up exploring some strategies to help us our when we get stuck in our reading and will start some center work that will help us work on our fluency and comprehension.

In writing this week, we will continue to focus on procedural writing, preparing the rules for our own board game.

Math-We will finish up our look at estimating and will begin to discover adding and subtracting with decimal numbers. As usual, students should continue to practice their multiplication and division facts at home and review their knowledge of fractions and decimals.

Grade 7 Science

This week we will show our knowledge and understanding of the particle theory and at the differences between solutions and mixtures, as we create a comic strip.

Grade 8 Science

This week we will continue to explore the properties of light and will begin to look at how objects reflect light and at how objects are classified as transparent, translucent or opaque.

Have a fantastic week!

Madame Walker

December has finally arrived, and as we quickly found out last week with our snow day, so has the cold and snowy weather. Just a quick reminder to make sure that your son/daughter has all the proper attire necessary to play out in the snow. It may even be a good idea to include an extra pair of mittens or gloves, in case theirs get wet 🙂

There will be no classes on Friday, December 5^th, as it is a collaborative work day for teachers.

Progress reports will be sent home with students on Tuesday, December 9^th.

Students have now received their parts for our annual Christmas Concert. While each student is only responsible for a few lines, it is important that they practice and memorize them at home in addition to our practice together at school 🙂 We are so excited to get to present our show to you on Tuesday, December 16^th (Snow date: Monday, December 22^nd)

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

Grade 5

French- As we continue our work on homophones, this week we will be focusing on the a/à/as group. Students are responsible to review their notes and complete the assigned section of their worksheet each evening 🙂

During our reader’s workshop this week, we will be exploring some strategies to help us our when we get stuck in our reading. We will also continue to work together in our guided reading groups and if time permits, will start some center work to help us with our individual reading goals.

As we continue our study of procedural texts in writing, this week we will start writing these types of texts on our own. Each student will come up with a new and creative game, will write their how-to text of how to play their game and then present it to the class. Once everyone has completed their games, we will have the opportunity to try them out 🙂

Math-We will continue to work on estimating this week and we will also focus in on how to read and solve word problems in French. As usual, students should continue to practice their multiplication and division facts at home and to review fractions and decimals.

Social Studies- We have now finished up our unit in Science and have started our unit in Social Studies entitled “Batîr une commaunté.” Throughout this unit, students will learn the different parts that make up a community and how they are rely on each other to work. We will be working towards our final project of building a model our own fictitious community.

Grade 7 Science

We have started into our unit on Solutions and mixtures. This week, we will be looking at particle theory and the differences between and properties of solutions and mixtures.

Grade 8 Science

We have started our unit on Optics. This week we will explore the properties of light.

Have a marvelous week!

Madame Walker