Week of June 25th-June 27th

Our year together has come to an end. That being said, before we say our final farewell to the 2017-2018 school year and the fabulous Ms. Ready, there are a few very important events taking place……

Tuesday June 26th-Sandspit Field Trip (all day). Please remember to bring sunscreen and bug spray. Students will also need a lunch and/or money to purchase their lunch at the park.

Tuesday evening 7:00pm-Grade 9 closing. We will bid adieu to our departing students in our annual closing exercises. Grade 8 students in the band will play that evening, and are thus expected to attend.

Wednesday, June 27th-Final day of classes. Students will spend some time in the morning finishing up their clean up. Then, at 10:30am, we will have our Celebration of Learning, as we take time to showcase all the wonderful things that have happened these past 10 months together. Parents are welcome to attend.

Wednesday afternoon we will play some games together outside and chat about summer plans. Finally, at 2:30 students will receive their final learning reports and head home for summer break.

I want to thank each and every one of my students and parents for a fabulous year. It is a pleasure to work with you all and I can’t wait to hear all about your adventures when we return to school in September.

School supply lists will be available during the summer months on our webpage.

Passez un bel été!

Mme MacNevin

Week of June 18th-22nd

Well today begins our last full week for the 2017-2018 school year. Wow! I can’t believe how fast time flew by! It will be sad to say goodbye to such amazing students, but I know everyone is looking forward to summer vacation 🙂

If your son/daughter hasn’t already handed in their permission form for our trip to Sandspit, they should do so as soon as possible.

Everyone is invited to join the Gulf Shore family on Wednesday, June 20th from 4:00-6:00pm as we celebrate Ms. Ready as she begins her retirement.

Now here is a look at what we will be working on over the next few days…..

French-We have finished our novel “Aller/retour” and our final reflections are in progress. This story made for many great conversations over the past few weeks and I’m sure this week will be no exception.

We have also finished up our song lyrics for the verb aller and expressions using the verb avoir. This week we will get a chance to share our masterpieces with other immersion classes. We will also have a final session sharing with our Grade 4 Book Buddies.

As always, we will spend lots of time practicing our oral language skills, as we discuss ways to keep our French language up over the summer months. We will reflect on our learning this year, as we create goals for our reading, writing, speaking and listening skills in the fall. Students will also work to create a vision board that will serve as a starting point for discussions once classes resume in September.

Social Studies-This week we will finish up our discussions on New France and the Acadian Deportation.

Science- As work continues in our technology unit, this week students will finish up the construct of their windmills and begin to test them in preparation for our contest next week, where we will see which group can generate the most power with their prototype.

Grade 9 Science-Today we will dissect a cow’s eye, as we wrap up of unit on optics. Discussions will then shift to a quick study of space and how distance is measured in our galaxies. Finally, we will spend our last few classes together building the prototype of a mechanical limb that will combine our outcomes in both technology and biology that we have studied this year.

Grade 7 Science-We are now well into our unit on technology. This week students will plan, design, and create a house that is capable of withstanding an earthquake. This project combines outcomes from both our technology unit and our unit on the Earth’s crust.

Have a wonderful week!

Mme MacNevin

Week of June 11th-15th

I hope everyone enjoyed their weekend 🙂 We had a wonderful time on Friday at the FrancoFun Day. What a great opportunity it was to socialize and have fun “en français.” I hope my students enjoyed the day as much as I did 🙂

Just a reminder to everyone that permission forms and money ($15.00) for Sandspit are due back as soon as possible. This annual event will take place on Monday, June 25th.

Ms. Covey is also looking for money and forms for the Duke of Edinburgh program to be handed in by Wednesday.

As the month of June continues to fly by, here is a snapshot of the learning taking place in our classes over the next few days….

French-Work continues on our class novel Aller/Retour, as we read and discuss together using strategies we’ve been working on all year. We are nearing the end of this novel and hope to begin our final reflections near the end of the week.

We will also wrap up our oral language assessments and set our goals from next year. Students will also put the finishing touches on the songs they’ve been creating in groups to help remember the verbs “aller” and “avoir” and expressions that use them.

Social Studies-This week we will discuss the Acadian deportation and the reasoning behind this tragic event in our history, exploring the perspectives of both the English and the Acadians. We will also share our final current event with our classmates, linking what is happening around us to the societies we’ve been studying throughout this year.

Science-We are moving rapidly through our technology unit. This week, we will continue our instant challenge activities, putting into action those new learnings and vocabulary we’ve been exploring together. We will also begin construction on our wind turbines.

Grade 9 Science-This week we will finish up our unit on fluids and begin to explore sound waves and optics. Later on in the week we will explore the parts that help us see light, as we dissect a cow’s eye.

Grade 7 Science-Today and Wednesday, we will wrap up our learning stations for our unit on the Earth and Space. We will then start our own technology unit, where students will start to discuss movements and forces.

Have a marvelous week!

Mme MacNevin

Week of June 4th-8th

Our first full week of June, wow! I cannot believe how fast this year has flown by. After today, only 3 more Mondays!

On Thursday (June 7th) students in Grades 6-9 band will show off their skills during their annual year-end concert. A performance for the school will take place at 1:30pm and the evening performance will be at 7:00pm.

Then, on Friday, June 8th Grade 8-9 Immersion Students will travel to Abram’s Village to participate in the “FrancoFun” Day being hosted by the Dept of Education. There, students will be treated to musical presentations, games and some delicious food all “en français” 🙂 Please see the notice below for more details.

Now here is a look at what we will exploring in our classes this week…..

French-We continue to read the novel Aller/Retour. This novel has brought out some great discussions, reflections and predictions, which we will continue to share together over the next few days, as we near the end of this story.

Students will also record their final oral language production assessment of the year and begin to set goals for speaking French both for the summer and for when classes resume in the fall.

Social Studies-As we move along with our study of New France, this week we will start to examine the Deportation and the disputes between the English and French over the land we know call home. Through music, poetry and film, students will discuss both what happened and its impact both during the 1700’s and the traces of this tragedy that still exist today.

Science-Instant challenges are always a big hit and this week through our technology unit, we will have the chance to take part in several task-based or engineering challenges. Students will learn about simple machines and will then apply this knowledge to their creations. We will also discuss the constraints that we must keep in mind when building and we will look at how to draw a schema of our designs before we begin to piece them together, as they continue to work towards constructing a mini wind turbine.

Grade 9 Science- This week we will continue along in Chapter 8, shifting our focus this week away from fluids and into optics, as we work towards our cow’s eye dissection next week.

Grade 7 Science-I am very impressed with the quality of the projects currently wrapping up on the Earth’s Crust unit. Presentations will take place tomorrow and I cannot wait to see the finished products 🙂 After their presentations, students will work in small groups, as they make their way through stations and learn about the seasons, day and night, the properties of light and the phases of the moon.

Have a fantastic week!

Mme MacNevin

A week in the life…

There is always so much on the go here at Gulf Shore, especially as we near the end of our year together. Here are a few snapshots from some events over the past few days including: our day at the beach learning about ecosytems in Grade 7 and the instruments we’ve been making to measure lung capacity as we learn about fluids in Grade 9. -Have a wonderful weekend 🙂