Last week students in Grade 9 showcased their first few days of learning through a project entitled “Have your DNA and eat it too!” Students worked in teams to create edible DNA molecules using marshmallows and twizzlers.

In Grade 8, we participated in our first “Instant Challenge” of the year. Using the mystery materials, students created a device that would allow a goldfish to explore what life was like outside of a fishbowl. What innovative and imaginative stories they came up with and all en français 🙂

It was great to see so many faces at our “Meet the Staff” event on Thursday evening! Please continue to follow our class blog for updates throughout the year and do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions 🙂

Last week we kicked off our annual Terry Fox fundraiser. Pledge sheets were sent home on Thursday with our K-6 students. Our Leadership team is also working on putting together some fun activities to help raise funds for this wonderful cause. Check out the school’s webpage for more details.

Our Terry Fox Walk/Run and Fun Day will take place on Friday, September 20th. In the morning, students will walk along the beautiful Gulf Shore Parkway in the PEI National Park. In the afternoon, they will be treated to a BBQ lunch generously put on by our Home and School. After lunch, the fun will continue as we participate in many interactive team building activities put on by our Student Leadership Team. To date Gulf Shore School has raised well over $120,000.00 for the Terry Fox Foundation. Let’s keep that total rising!

Teen and Club de lecture book order forms from Scholastic were sent home late last week. Please try to have any orders in by mid-week. These book orders are a great way to pick up some reading materials for home all while supporting our teachers to purchases books for their classroom libraries 🙂

Our Hot Lunch program is now up and running. Please refer to the Milk and Hot Lunch Sales tab on our school’s website for more details.

Parents and guardians are invited to our first Home and School meeting of the 2019-2020 school year that will be held on Wednesday, September 18th at 7:00pm in the Science Lab. Everyone is welcome to attend 🙂

School pictures will be happening soon. Please see the webpage for more information.

With all those housekeeping announcements out of the way, now let’s take a look at what we will be learning during our classes together this coming week…

French- Our oral presentations will begin this afternoon and they will help us to establish criteria around what counts when we present to the class. These presentations will also provide a great starting point for us to identify areas for improvement when it comes to our individual short term language goals.

This week we will set up our writer’s workshop; as we take a look at narrative texts and establish their characteristics. As we listen to and read a series of stories, we will work to identify the elements necessary in this type of text and begin brainstorming some ideas of our own.

Diagnostic testing will also continue in grammar and both written and oral comprehension.

Science-We are now fully immersed in our first unit: “L’univers materiel.” This week we will continue to discuss atoms and molecules and Dalton’s atomic theory. We will also begin to examine the Periodic Table of the Elements and discuss how matter is organized and grouped on the table.

Grade 9 Science- We are well into our biology unit: “L’univers vivant.” Last week we learned about DNA and its make-up. This week we will explore the life cycle of a cell and the importance of cell division and genetic diversity. We will also begin to discuss how cells reproduce, both asexually and sexually, through the processes of mitosis and meiosis.

Grade 7 Science- Late last week we kicked off the first unit of our Science program on matter. This week we will discuss the three states of matter and how atoms behave in each state. Students will even become solid, liquid and gas particles, as we act out “the dance of the atoms” to explain the properties of each state of matter. We will then begin to look at how changes in temperature impact that behavior, as we explore how substances can change from one state of matter to another.

Grade 4-9 Core French- Over the next few classes we will continue to work to create our French class routines and review what we studied in previous years. We will also kick off our first units of study. In Grades 4-6 students will begin a unit called “Ça c’est ma journée!” In Grades 7-9 we will start a unit called “On part à l’aventure!” In both these units we will explore vocabulary surrounding daily events and activities; expressing our interests in activities, food and for my intermediate classes, eventually planning an event “en français.”

Have a fabulous week!

Mme MacNevin