Week of March 29th-April 1st

I hope that everyone had a relaxing March Break and that the Easter Bunny found you all 🙂 I’m sure I will hear all about all the wonderful and exciting adventures that took place while we were away and I hope that everyone is ready to get back to routine, as we finish out the last few months of our school year together.

Here’s what is happening in our classroom this coming week…

Dictée- Before the break we studied verbs in the present tense and over the next few weeks we will begin our study of verbs in the past tense (le passé composé). This is a new verb tense in Grade 5 and it can be a bit tricky, so I would encourage everyone to take the time to complete their practice activities each night, in addition to our work together in class.

French-During our reading blocks this week we will start into some literacy centers. Students will work in groups to practice many reading techniques and strategies including; inferring, fluency and expression, comprehension, predicting, analyzing, and critiquing. Most students have set their reading goals in one of these areas and these centers will be a great way to start to work towards meeting them. We will also return to our guided reading groups and we will start a new read aloud novel at snack time entitled “Croque-cailloux.”

In writing this week, we will finish up publishing our persuasive letters that we started before the break and we will begin to look at our next genre in writing; narrative stories. We will spend some time this week and next reading different stories and discussing and discovering their parts. As we are studying the passé composé verb tense, we will also look at its place and importance in fictional stories.

Math-In math class, we will finish up our outcome on patterns and start our unit on statistics (data analysis) and graphing.
In this unit, your child will:
• Learn the difference between first-hand and second-hand data
• Ask questions and decide whether the answer requires first-hand or second-hand data
• Find examples of second-hand data in print and electronic media
• Solve problems by constructing and interpreting double bar graphs
Data analysis and graphing concepts can be practiced at home as well as at school. Here is a suggestion for an activities you can do at home:
• Watch for examples of tables and double bar graphs in newspapers, magazines, or on the World Wide Web. Ask your child what information the tables or graphs convey.

We will also continue to review our “flashback” concepts, as we prepare for our second foundational quiz which will take place in the coming weeks.

Social Studies-Just before the break, we began our new unit in Social Studies called “Les grands personages.” This unit will introduce us to Canadian explorers, heros, and other important people in the history of our country. We will spend some time over the next few classes discussing what makes a “grand personage” and we will begin to review some case studies of famous Canadians who have made large contributions to our society.

Grade 7 Science
In class this week, we will begin to explore how heat is transferred through different materials by conduction, convection, and radiation. We will work in groups to experiment and discover the differences between each of the different ways heat can move through object.

Grade 8 Science
This week we will continue to work on our body systems projects, as we prepare to present them to the class next cycle.

Have a marvelous week!

Mme MacNevin

Week of March 14th-17th

We have arrived at the final week of school before March Break. I can’t believe how fast this year is flying by! I first want to thank everyone for coming out to our conferences last week. It is always such a joy to see your children articulate their goals for the coming term and all their success and growth thus far. I appreciate your continued support in your child’s learning for the rest of the year and I know your children appreciate it as well 🙂

As this is the last week before our extended March/Easter Break, it will definitely be jammed packed. This week is also French week, and as immersion classes, we will be celebrating with exciting activities each day both in class and at lunch time. Mme Cynthia, our French monitor, has lots of great things planned for us, including a movie called “La guerre des tuques” on Thursday afternoon for all immersion classes, complete with popcorn 🙂

Tomorrow will also be a very special day here at Gulf Shore, as we get to present our Science Fair projects to judges from our community. The Fair will take place from 9:00am-12:00pm in the Multipurpose Room and Science Lab. When students arrive tomorrow morning they should: check in with me, buy their tokens and place their orders for pizza and milk, grab a book to keep them occupied while waiting to be judged, head to the Multipurpose Room to find their project number, and then set up their project in the designated area. Parents are welcome to come see the projects, but we’d ask that they hold off until 11am, allowing time for judging to take place. The Science Fair is a true celebration of all of the hard work and discovery that has taken place over the past few weeks and I’m excited to see all of the projects on display 🙂 We will have a few projects that will be selected to move on to the Provincial Science Fair that will take place during the first week of April. If your child has been selected to continue on, a note will be sent home with them later on this week outlining all the details for this event.

Now let’s take a look at the other learning happening in our classes over the next few days…

Dictée- We will continue to explore verbs in the present tense. After the break, we will move on to the passé composé. Everyone should continue to review their verbs nightly and practice conjugating them using their Bescherelle.

French-This week we will finish our author study of Gilles Tibo, as we wrap up our book clubs and our read aloud novel “Ti-Prout.” We will then spend some time reading independently, getting the chance to work on our reading goals and to respond the books we’ve read in our “Carnet de lecture.”

During our Writer’s Workshop this week, we will finish up the rough drafts of our persuasive letters and start the revising and editing process. Many students have set goals relating to revision and editing in their conferences and this will be the perfect chance to practice working towards meeting them. We have yet to hear back from Ms. Ready, but we continue to wait to see if we were convincing enough in our quest to stay in for big recess 🙂

Math-This week in math we will finish up our outcomes on area, perimeter, and measurement, and will start our next outcome on patterns. We will also continue to review our “flashback” concepts. Students are reminded to spend some time at home practicing these concepts in order to further solidify their knowledge, using the practice booklets I provided during their conferences.

Grade 7 Science
This week we will present our Science projects and will have our assessment on the particle theory and how it relates to temperature.

Grade 8 Science
This week we will prepare for and write our assessment on the parts of the cell and their functions and we will work in groups to explore different systems of the human body.

I wish you all a wonderful March Break and a safe and very happy Easter!

Mme MacNevin

Week of March 7th-11th

This week will be another busy one and it will have two central themes: learning conferences and Science Fair 🙂

Our learning conferences will take place on Thursday evening and all day Friday. Once again, these conferences will be student-led, as your children (with some guidance from me of course) will present to you their progress so far this year, goals for the coming term, as well as samples of their work. I appreciate most of you getting the time sheets back into me so quickly and if you haven’t done so, please make sure to have them in as soon as possible. I look forward to seeing everyone later on this week to share in all the great things that have been happening since we last met in November.
Learning reports will accompany this set of conferences and will be sent home on Tuesday with your child. Please sign the envelope indicating that you’ve read your child’s report and send it back to the school, either with your son/daughter, or at your conference.

We are also just one week away from our Science Fair. Projects are coming together very nicely and we will be spending some extra time this week practicing and putting the finishing touches on our backboards, as we prepare to present to the judges on Tuesday, March 15th.

Dictée- As we work through our review of verbs in the present tense, students should continue to use their Besherelle to complete the assigned practice activities for homework each evening.

French-This week we will start to finish up our book clubs in our reading blocks and will spend some time reflecting on our reading goals for the coming term. We will also have the opportunity to explore “les nouveautés” in our classroom library and will start to get back into the routine of letter writing about the books we’ve been reading. Everyone is enjoying our new read aloud novel “Ti-Prout” and we hope to finish it up later on this week.

We have now sent our shared writing letter off to Ms. Ready and we anxiously wait to see if/when she will reply, as we spent time last week practicing our persuasive writing and wrote her a letter as to why we should be able to stay in for lunch recess. Everyone had lots of great arguments and examples and they will now get to practice writing persuasive letters of their own. Last week we started planning our writing, deciding on our audience and topic, and this week students will finish their planning and start their rough drafts. We will also reflect on our writing goals for the coming term.

Math-I was very impressed with the results of our first foundational concept quiz last week. All of our “flashback” work has paid off and at conferences each child will receive an individual practice package to help them to continue to review these concepts in preparation for our second quiz next month. We will also continue our “Flashback Friday” review in class and here students will have the opportunity to work on those concepts that have not yet been mastered through centre work as well as one-on-one or in small groups with me. In our regular math periods this week we will finish up our study of measurement, area, and perimeter.

Science-As I said before, the Science Fair will take place next Tuesday. This week we will spend our science classes finishing up our reports and making sure our backboards are ready for the judges. We will also begin to practice our oral presentations. Everyone is welcome to take their backboards home with them after their conference to put any last touches on them over the weekend, if they so desire.

Grade 7 Science
This week we will prepare for our assessment on the particle theory and how it relates to temperature and will finish up our Science Fair projects. Presentations will take place this Wednesday and next Monday in class, as a practice for the fair on Tuesday morning.

Grade 8 Science
This week will finish up our cell projects and present them to our peers. We will then start to look at how groups of cells work together as tissues, organs and systems.

Have a fantastic week!

Mme MacNevin