As hard as it is to believe, we have arrived at our final school week of 2017. There is a great deal of excitement in the air, and we will surely have lots of fun over the next couple of days together, as we wrap things up before Christmas vacation.

Spirit Days-This week is Spirit Week and we will have special theme dress-up days each day. Tomorrow will be Tropical Tuesday (students can dress in their craziest tropical clothes and colours). Wednesday will be pj day (students can dress in their pajamas). Thursday will be twin day (student can dress alike) and finally Friday will be Christmas day (students are encouraged to dress in Christmas sweaters or colours).

On Thursday evening we will have a Christmas themed social from 7-9pm for our Jr.High students.

On Friday, our last day, we will have no regular classes. Students will spend the morning in their homeroom classes cleaning and celebrating together. After morning break, we will have a school-wide carol sing and finally in the afternoon our Student Leadership students have organized our annual Yuletide Yippee activities.

Here is a snapshot of the learning that we will finish up this week….

French- We are now halfway through our novel “Le complot.” There are many interesting themes in this story that tie in perfectly with our unit on equality and justice. We are enjoying many discussions around these themes and are learning new vocabulary along the way. Students are reminded to keep on top of their readings and to re-read any parts that they may not fully understand. We will also finish up our oral presentations for our “prix d’équité” and our warm-ups and instant challenges this week will most definitely be holiday themed 🙂

Social Studies-This week we will finish up comparisons of the political, economic and social structures of Medieval Europe with those of modern day Canada. We will also take a look at what Christmas was like during the Middle Ages and discover if any traditions or customs from that time period are still practiced today.

Science-As we continue to move along in our study of how human life is created, this week we will have a quiz on the parts of the female and male reproductive systems (Tuesday, December 19th) and we will continue to discuss the stages of development during pregnancy.

Grade 9 Science- We will continue to explore the respiratory system over the next few days.

Grade 7 Science- Moving along with our unit on ecology, this week students will spend time discussing habitats and will learn about different populations. They will also complete a case study about different species of trees, as they show what they’ve learned over the past few weeks about how living things are classified.

I want to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and a wonderful holiday season with their families and friends. I look forward to hearing all about your adventures when we return to school on Wednesday, January 3th, 2018. Joyeux Noël!

Mme MacNevin