Week of May 27th-31st

The final week of May!!! I cannot believe that we have already arrived at this point. With only a month of learning left for the 2018-2019 school year, we still have a lot of accomplish, so I would remind my students that although summer is close, it is very important that they continue to put forth their best effort 🙂

A big thank you to the Grade 8 class for organizing a great day on Friday for our Children’s Wish Walk. Our Gulf Shore community once again raised a large amount of funds for this worthwhile cause. We can’t wait to do it again next year 🙂

Most of the remaining school weeks will be jammed packed. On Thursday, we will be treated to a fabulous performance from our elementary drama club entitled “Through the Looking Glass.” These young actors, musicians and singers have been working tirelessly for months to get their production ready and I can’t wait to see the finished result!

Let’s take a look at what else will be happening during our week together…

French-This week we will continue diving into our novel Aller/Retour. I’m looking forward to lots of great discussions, surrounding some of the books themes including multiculturalism and family violence.
We will also begin our second to last oral language production and comprehension assessments of the year, as we look ahead to setting goals for our final month of learning.

Science-This week, as we continue our chapter on engineering, students will finish researching and creating a model of a simple machine that they will then present to their peers. We will also move ahead on our wind turbine projects as we sketch out some possible models and discuss the pros and cons of creating each one.

Grade 9 Science-On Wednesday, students will write their chapter 6 assessment on the properties of matter. We will spend the first few classes of the week reviewing. A detailed study guide can be found on their Google Classroom page. Following the assessment we will begin discussions and experiments on physical and chemical transformations on matter, looking in particular at how these changes and reactions happen in our body as we refer back to our work on human body systems from earlier in the year.

Grade 7 Science-Over the next few cycles students will continue to make their way through a series of learning stations and discuss the seasons, day and night, the properties of light and the phases of the moon.

Core French 4-9-This week students in Grades 4-6 will begin their final project for our unit on pastimes. Working in small groups, they will create a song to show off their learning including their interests in sports, music and ways they help out at home.

In Grades 7-9, students will finish up their own fake Instagram post where they must seek out advice on a problem. They will then respond to each other, giving some thoughtful suggestions en français 🙂

Have a marvelous week!

Mme MacNevin

Week of May 21st-24th

I hope everyone enjoyed their long weekend 🙂 It is hard to imagine we are nearing the end of the month of May. While this week is short, it will be very busy!

On Wednesday, May 22nd students in Grades 7 and 8 will be travelling to the Holland College Charlottetown Campus to attend the IMpact Expo presented by Innovation PEI.

The IMpact Expo provides junior high school students and teachers an inside glance at Prince Edward Island’s thriving video game industry. Guest speakers will deliver sessions and information about the video game industry, VG development, and VG artwork. Students will depart for Charlottetown right after morning announcements on Wednesday. We will return to the school in time for dismissal. Lunch consisting of pizza, juice/water/pop will be served to all attending students and teachers. We are looking forward to an exciting day learning more about technology.

On Friday, May 24th we will hold our annual Children’s Wish Walk for Wishes. Students will be bussed to the PEI National Park where they will walk along the beautiful Gulf Shore Parkway. Following that we will return for the school for a barbeque lunch sponsored by our Home and School and an afternoon of team building activities. This is always an exciting day for staff and students. Fingers crossed for some excellent sunny weather 🙂

Now here is a snapshot of what will be taking place during our classes this week…

French- We will continue to read together the novel Aller/retour and continue to travel virtually through the city of Montreal with the story’s main character Martin does. Many great discussions are taking place around this book and I have no doubt they will become richer we go deeper into the heart of the novel.

Science-Today we will begin our final chapter exploring the work of engineers and simple machines. Students will begin to work in teams to research and present a specific simple machines, tasked with teaching their peers how it works. This week will also bring a few more instant challenges as we put our research to use as well as some planning on our wind turbine projects.

Grade 9 Science-This week students will wrap up their exploration of the properties and characteristics of elements, looking at how this information can be used to identify unknown substances.

Grade 7 Science-What fabulous projects I received late last week. Everyone should be very proud of their efforts to show their learning related to the outcomes of chapter 5. We have just a few presentations to wrap up. As we move forward into chapter 6, students will work in small groups over the next few cycles, as they make their way through a series of learning stations and discuss the seasons, day and night, the properties of light and the phases of the moon.

Core French 4-9-This week students in Grades 4-6 will finish up discussions about ways we can help out at home, as they survey their classmates en français about their chores and use this information to graph and analyze the results.

In Grades 7-9, students are currently working on their own fake Instagram post where they must seek out advice on a problem. They will then respond to each other, giving some thoughtful suggestions en français 🙂

Have a magnificent week!

Mme MacNevin

Week of May 13th-17th

We thoroughly enjoyed the play on Friday. It always makes me so proud to see my students being such great ambassadors for Gulf Shore when attending events like this. A huge thanks to the Home and School for helping to offset the cost of this awesome activity.

Our annual Children’s Wish Foundation Wishmaker Walk will take place on May 24th. As I stated in last week’s post, the Grade 8 students have been working hard to organize this event. Fundraising will continue this week.

Our Grade 9 students have planned a “Semi Swap” all week in the Multipurpose Room. As upcycling and “thrifting” are huge trends right now, these students are encouraging their peers to bring in dresses, shirts, dress pants, ties, shoes, jewelry, etc to swap and share, as we prepare for semi and help the environment. Any questions on this event can be forwarded to Mme Kim and the Grade 9 students.

On Thursday, May 16th at 7:00pm in the Science Lab, our Home and School will have their annual general meeting.

Let’s now take a look at what will be happening during our classes together this week…..

French- We are now well into our novel Aller/Retour. This book is creating lots of great discussions and we are learning some new vocabulary too. In addition to our reading, we will continue to have fun getting familiar with the setting, as we take virtual tours of the city of Montreal using Google Maps and practice giving and receiving directions en français.

Science-We are currently wrapping up Chapter 7. Students will be assessed on these concepts later on this week (Thursday, Day 6). We will also begin planning out and researching the components necessary to construct a working model of a wind turbine, which will serve as our final project for this unit.

Grade 9 Science-This week students will finish up outcomes related to solutions. We will also begin to explore the properties and characteristics of elements, looking at how this information can be used to identify unknown substances.

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 on Wednesday and I cannot wait to see the finished products 🙂 After their presentations, students will work in small groups over the next few cycles, as they make their way through a series of learning stations and discuss the seasons, day and night, the properties of light and the phases of the moon.

Core French 4-9-Our games were a huge hit! I’m very pleased with the effort that went into preparing them. Students have been using these games to practice simple sentences that describe their interests and dislikes. Over the new few days we will finish up discussions about ways we can help out at home, as we survey our classmates en français about their chores and use this information to graph and analyze the results.

In Grades 7-9, this week we will be discussing how to make a plan for attaining a goal by analyzing texts and by practicing our own goal setting skills both orally and in writing.

Wishing everyone a marvelous week and with any luck, a sunny and beautiful May long weekend!

Mme MacNevin

Week of May 6th-10th

Spring has sprung! Hopefully we will continue to see the sunshine and warmer weather 🙂 I’ve already heard lot of great stories from the band and art trips last week and I’m looking forward to hearing many more as the day progresses. A big congrats to our band students for taking home gold at the Atlantic Band Festival! Bravo!!

On Wednesday, we will kick off our 2019 Children’s Wish Foundation fundraising campaign. This year we have decided to begin a new tradition at Gulf Shore. The Grade 8 class will be responsible for organizing and planning the whole event (with some help from their teachers, our administrative team and the foundation of course ;)). We will have an assembly on Wednesday afternoon after which pledge sheets will be sent home with all K-6 students and any students in 7-9 who are interested in door-to-door canvasing. Keep your eyes peeled on the website and blog for a few other fundraisers that will happen leading up to our Wishmaker Walk on Friday, May 24th.

On Thursday, May 9th my Grade 8 homeroom class will be writing the PCAP assessment from 9:05-11:40. A letter has been sent home with the details of this assessment. It is not worth marks. Students are encouraged to try their best; answering each question to the best of their ability. Last week we went through a practice assessment together to help give students an idea of the types of questions they may see during the assessment, as well to familiarize themselves with the software, as the test is taken online. If you have any questions please feel free to contact the school.

Finally, on Friday, May 10th Grades 3-9 will be travelling to the Confederation Centre to watch Colonel Gray’s musical: We Will Rock You! Permission forms were sent home last week. The cost is $8.00. Any families who have not yet sent back their permission forms and/or money are ask to do so as soon as possible.

Now here is a snapshot into our learning together this week…..

French- This week work continues on our class novel “Aller/retour” as we further discuss the themes of this story and put our reading strategies to good use 🙂 We will also review some verb tenses and concepts that have been causing some difficulty, both orally and in our written texts; especially the past and present tense and subject/verb agreements.

Science-As we move forward into our unit on technology, this week students will finish up Chapter 7 on systems and begin to prepare for their assessment on these concepts.

Grade 9 Science-This week students will continue to learn about the properties of solutions including concentration and solubility.

Grade 7 Science- Today we will complete the final section of our unit on the Earth’s crust. Students will then spend the rest of the week preparing their choice of a video, an animation, a children’s story, a poem or song, a comic strip, etc. that explains the concepts we’ve been studying these past few weeks including: the layers of the Earth, the lithosphere, the atmosphere, the hydrosphere, tectonics plates, volcanoes, mountains, earthquakes and erosion.

Core French 4-9-Last week students created games to help practice vocabulary related to pastimes we like and dislike. They will have a chance to share their games with their pairs, as they test them out over the next few classes.

In Grades 7-9, we will wrap up our analysis and comparisons of social media posts.

Have an awesome week!

Mme MacNevin