Week of March 30th-April 3rd

What a winter it has been! It was so nice to see everyone back at school late last week, and I’m hopeful that we’ll get even more time together this week before the long weekend 🙂

Let’s take a look at what is happening inside our classroom this week. Due to our extended absence because of the weather, it will be a lot similar to the last one 🙂

Dictée-For this week’s dictée, we will continue to explore the passé compose verb tense. As per usual, student should spend some time studying these verbs each evening.

Reading- This week we will continue with our literacy centers and guided reading groups, that will help us to work on our individual reading goals, expand our vocabulary, and continue to make good inferences and connections to the texts we read.

Writing- In writing’s workshop this week, we hope to finish up our revisions of our fictional stories and will start our good copies.

Math-In math class, we will continue with our next objective on analyzing patterns. We will also continue to review our foundational math concepts in preparation for our second “flashback” quiz that will take place in the next few weeks. Before the break, individualized practice packages were sent home with each student. They should spend a few minutes each evening trying to solve a few problems.

Social Studies-This week we will finish up our final project for our unit on communities, and students will continue with their new unit called “Les grands personnages” on explorers and Canadian heroes. This unit will be taught by Mr. Brad Deighan, a practice teacher here at Gulf Shore who is working with Mme Isabelle.

Science-With our Science Fair project now completed, we will start our next unit on Space.

Grade 7 Science
This week we will continue our unit on Heat. We will spend sometime exploring how different types of thermometers, and other devices that tell temperature, work.

Grade 8 Science
As we continue our unit on Cells, this week we will examine cells under the microscope, as we identify and discover different cells and their parts.

Have a fantastic week and a safe and happy Easter weekend!

Madame Walker

Week of March 23rd-27th

I hope everyone had a fun March Break! The snow continues to fall, but with any luck we will be back tomorrow and will get back into our routines 🙂

Let’s take a look at what is happening inside our classroom this week…

Dictée-For this week’s dictée, we will start to explore the passé compose verb tense.

Reading- This week we will start some literacy centers and guided reading groups that will help us to work on our individual reading goals, expand our vocabulary, and continue to make good inferences and connections to the texts we read.

Writing- In writer’s workshop this week, we will revise and edit our fictional stories, in order to get them ready for publishing.

Math-In math class, we will start our next objective on analyzing patterns. Patterns occur regularly in mathematics. As children learn to analyse patterns, they develop powerful reasoning skills that will help them make sense of mathematics.

In this unit, your child will:
• Analyze a number pattern and state the pattern rule.
• Pose and solve problems by applying a patterning strategy.
• Describe a pattern using an expression.
• Interpret a problem and select the best strategy.

Here are some suggestions for activities that you can do at home:

• Look for visual patterns around your home on fabrics, clothing, wallpaper, etc. How do the patterns change?
• Often adults use tables to organize data. Talk with your child about how she or he uses tables to organize and analyze patterns.
• Talk about how you use patterns in your daily life.

We will also continue to review our foundational math concepts in preparation for our second “flashback” quiz that will take place early next month. Before the break, individualized practice packages were sent home with each student. Students should spend a few minutes each evening trying to solve a few problems.

Social Studies-This week we will finish up our final project for our unit on communities and students will start a new unit called “Les grands personnages” on explorers and Canadian heroes. This unit will be taught by Mr. Brad Deighan, a pre-service teacher here at Gulf Shore who is working with Mme Isabelle.

Grade 7 Science

This week we will continue our unit on Heat. We will spend some time exploring how different types of thermometers, and other devices that tell temperature, work.

Grade 8 Science

As we continue our unit on Cells, this week, we will examine samples of cells under the microscope, as we identify and discover different types cells and their parts.

Have a wonderful week!

Madame Walker

Week of March 9th-13th

First of all I’d like to thank everyone for coming out to our Student-Led Conferences last Thursday and Friday. It is always exciting to have the opportunity to share and discuss your child’s learning and I am very impressed with the goals that were set for the coming weeks 🙂

This is our last week before March Break and it will be another full one! It is French Week here on Prince Edward Island and we have lots of fun activities planned in Grade 5 and throughout the school, to help celebrate the French language.

Wednesday, March 11th (Storm date: March 12th) is our school’s annual Science Fair. As you all know, we have been working very hard to finish up our projects and we are looking forward to sharing them with the judges. Parents and friends are welcome to come check out the projects on Wednesday morning, between 11:00-11:45am.

Let’s take a look at what else is happening inside our classroom this week…

Reading- This week we hope to finish our book clubs on stories written by Gilles Tibo. We have enjoyed sharing our thoughts and opinions about these stories with our peers and this week we will start to read a unique book by Mr. Tibo where he puts himself into some of these stories. We will also start to work on the reading goals we’ve set for ourselves this term.

Writing- During our writing blocks this week, we will finish up our graphic organizers and we will begin the rough copy of our fictional stories which will give us the chance to work on our writing goals.

Math-We have now finished up all of our foundational concepts and our first foundational quiz. This week we will spend a little extra time reviewing long division and area and perimeter before the break. After the break, we will continue our flashback reviews, in additional to the study of new concepts. Students will be receiving individual homework questions that will be specific to their needs and areas where they require review of the foundational concepts moving forward, in preparation for our second foundational concept quiz in early April.

Social Studies-This week we will continue our rough drafts of our fictional communities.

Science-On Monday and Tuesday we will be putting the finishing touches on our backboards and will spend some time presenting to our peers, in order to practice our oral presentations before the Science Fair on Wednesday.

Grade 7 Science

This week we will finish up our Science Fair projects, practice our oral presentations and start our unit on Heat.

Grade 8 Science

This week we will finish up our Science Fair projects, practice our oral presentations and start our unit on Cells, Organs and Systems.

Have a fantastic week and a fun-filled March Break!

Madame Walker

Week of March 2nd-6th

March has finally arrived and with any luck, it will hopefully bring a little less snow than February 🙂
We are very busy this week here at Gulf Shore, as we prepare for our second set of Student Learning Conferences. We are very excited to host you all on Thursday evening and all day Friday! Due to the conferences, there will be no regular classes for students on Friday.
During your time here on Thursday and Friday, why not check out the book fair? This is a great opportunity to pick up some March Break reading materials 🙂

Let’s take a look at what else is happening inside our classroom this week:

French-This week for our dictée, we will finish up our study of verbs in the present tense and will begin to explore verbs in the past tense.

Reading– Work continues this week on our book clubs. We are enjoying sharing our thoughts and opinions about what we’ve read with our peers. We will also set our new reading goals for this term, which we will share with you at our conferences.

Writing– In our story writing unit, we are now beginning to brainstorm ideas for our stories and will start to write our rough drafts. As with reading, we will also spend some time reflecting on our learning this term, as we set our writing goals for the next few months.

Math-This week we will continue our study of long division and area and perimeter. We will also have our first formative foundational concept quiz and we will form our math goals for next term.

Social Studies-This week we will continue our rough drafts of our fictional communities.

Science-This week we will finish up typing and prepare our Science fair backboards. We will also start to practice our presentations for the judges.

Grade 7 Science

This week we will have our quiz on hazardous materials and symbols and we will work to finish up our Science fair projects and at practicing our presentations.

Grade 8 Science
This week we will have our final quiz on optics and we will work to finish up our Science fair projects and at practicing our presentations.

Have a marvelous week!
Madame Walker