Week of October 25-29

Happy Halloween! I’m looking forward to seeing lots of great costumes on Friday (no weapons or full masks please), and I’m crossing my fingers that we will have great weather and that everyone will have a fun and safe evening on Sunday night 🙂

This week will be Spirit Week here at Gulf Shore. More information on specifics can be found on the school’s webpage. There will be themed dress up days and special activities all week.

Picture day is tomorrow. Students will be called down in classes to have their picture taken. Picture packages will be available for purchase from Lifetouch in the coming weeks, so keep your eyes peeled for proofs in backpacks 🙂

This will be a full and busy week here at Gulf Shore. Let’s look at what we have planned over the next few days in our classes…
French-The drafting of want ads will continue this week and our mini lessons will focus on adding details and description to our texts as to better engage our reader.

Our Halloween-themed oral language activities will also continue, as will our read aloud novel “Mamie Gangster.” This week students will be assessed on both their oral language comprehension through a short assignment related to our read aloud novel and a written comprehension assessment related to the theme of transformations of matter that we have been studying in Science.

Science-This week we will work towards wrapping up our unit on chemical reactions and physical changes of matter. To show their understanding and to help them prepare for their unit assessment, students will work in teams to create an experiment that they will share with the class next week. Each group must show a chemical or physical transformation and then explain why their change occurred and how the mass of the reactants is equal to the mass of the products in their experiment. This project will also show their understanding of both the scientific method and proper lab procedures and finally it will serve as a way to assess their skills when presenting en français.

Grade 9 Science-Tomorrow we will move our focus onto diving deeper into the atom; as we explore sub-atomic particles and how our understanding of matter and the model of the atom has changed over the years. These outcomes are not included in the student textbook resource and mabiblio that we typically use in class. Notes and other resources will be provided both in class (paper) and on Google Classroom (virtually).

Grade 7 Science- This week we will begin our look at pH, through a fitting Halloween experiment. Using our “witch’s brew” of cabbage juice, students will create a liquid that will act of an agent to determine whether a substance is acidic or basic. We will also being to look at other properties of matter including conductivity.

Grade 9 English Science-With our Nature of Science unit complete, this week we will begin our study of chemistry. To begin, students will explore what matter is, it is organized, as well as ways to identify substances using their chemical and physical properties.

Have a spooky week!

Mme MacNevin

Week of October 18-22

I hope that everyone had a great weekend! This will be our first full week in a while. As always, it will be jam-packed!

Picture day is fast approaching. It will be on Tuesday, October 26th.

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

French-During our writer’s workshop this week, students will continue to explore the want ad. We will work on some shared and paired writing, before beginning to create a want ad of our own.

As always, our oral language warm ups continue each day; many of them following the Halloween theme this week and next, as we inch closer to the big day.

We will also dive deeper into our read aloud novel “Mamie Gangster.” I know there will be many wonderful discussions taking place around this funny story of a grandmother like no other.

Science-Our fun in the lab continues this week as we continue to explore the differences between chemical and physical changes in matter and discuss the indicators that allow us to know when a chemical reaction has taken place. We will also focus on the law of conservation of matter.

Grade 9 Science-Over our next few classes together, students will finish up their properties of matter lab and write their Chapter 6 assessment.

Grade 7 Science- This week we will wrap up our discussions around mass, weight and volume. On Day 3 (Tuesday), students will be assessed on these concepts (sections 1.1-1.3). Notes and practice activities can be found on Google Classroom and we will also be reviewing together in class today. We will then shift our focus to how temperature is measured and how thermometers work later on this week.

Grade 9 English Science-Our focus this week will be on pseudoscience and how to spot bad science. We will also begin preparations for our “Nature of Science” unit test will be take place on Friday, October 22nd.

Have a wonderful week!

Mme MacNevin

Week of October 12-15

Happy Tuesday everyone! I hope everyone had a great long weekend and filled up on lots of goodies, as we took the time to be grateful for all of life’s blessings.

We had a wonderful day last Thursday celebrating the legacy of Terry Fox. Just a reminder that pledge sheets are due back tomorrow. T-shirts are also available for purchase. They are $15. More detail is available on the school webpage.

Picture day is fast approaching. It will be on Tuesday, October 26th.

Now here is a quick snapshot of our learning during this four-day week….

French- This week we will continue focusing on giving good descriptions in French. Explorations of “la petite annonce” will also continue as we begin to write some as a class and in small groups. All this will lead up to our first small writing assignment. Students will create their own “want ad” “selling” a sibling or friend. Their goal will be to “sell” their person, highlighting all their special qualities and using the descriptive words we’ve been working on in our language warm ups as well as properly following the structure of this type of text. I can’t wait to see their creativity at work!

I will also start a read aloud novel this week entitled “Mamie Gangster.” This humorous story about a sweet old grandmother with a secret life will provide opportunities for discussions, as practice our reading strategies.

Science-There will be lots of fun in the lab this week, as we continue to explore physical changes, chemical reaction, and the law of conservation of matter through several experiments (Chapter 2).

Grade 9 Science- This week we will wrap up our exploration of the physical and chemical properties of matter; calculating density and spending some time in the lab identifying substances based on their properties and preparing for our assessment on Chapter 6.
Grade 7 Science- As we continue to explore the basics of matter, this week we will conclude our section on mass and weight. We will then shift our focus to further exploring how to calculate volume.

Grade 9 English Science-During our classes together these next few days we will finish up our look at bias and begin the final section of our current unit on pseudoscience.

Have a marvelous week!

Mme MacNevin

Week of October 4-8

I want to thank all my students for their thoughtful contributions to our Truth and Reconciliation week activities that took place last week.

This week will be another one of reflection, as we look to the legacy set out by Terry Fox and his fight for cancer research. Today, pledge sheets will be sent home. Students are asked to raise their funds virtually again this year and in their close family circles.

On Thursday, October 7th, we will hold our annual Terry Fox Day here at Gulf Shore. We will walk in the morning, and during the afternoon, our leadership team will run some team building activities to help us celebrate our first month of the school year. Please refer to the school webpage for more details later in the week.

Friday, October 8th is a Professional Development Day for teachers and staff, so there will be no classes. There will also be no classes on Monday, October 11th for Thanksgiving.

Let’s now have a look at what will be taking place during our time together for the next few days….

French- Our focus this week will be on descriptions in French. Our oral language warm up activities will task students will giving and receiving descriptions of objects, people and animals, as we practice our language goals and work to expand our vocabulary. This will lead us to our first project unit of the year-the want ad. Students will read through and listen to some want ads for various items over the next few weeks to discover the structure of this type of text that we often see online or in the newspaper. We will then work to create some of our own create want ads will I will share more about next week 😉

Science-Today begins our chapter on physical and chemical transformations of matter. To start, we will review the many physical changes that we studied last year. Most of this week and next will then be spent in the lab; experimenting as we create chemical reactions and describe how we know that what we are witnessing is a chemical change. We will also explore the law of conservation of mass; learning how the mass of the products of a chemical reaction must equal the mass of the reactants in that reaction.

Grade 9 Science-During our classes together over the next few days, students will continue their exploration of the physical properties of matter. We will finish our look at solubility and begin to discuss density in detail. If time permits, we will move into discussions around chemical properties as well. We are nearing the end of our first chapter in Science, so students are also encouraged to start reviewing the concepts studied to date in preparation for their first test of the year.

Grade 7 Science-Now that everyone has a solid understanding of the three states of matter and the differences between them, we will move into exploring mass, weight, and volume this week. Beginning with mass, students will define, calculate, and explain the differences between these important measurements we often rely on in the lab.

Grade 9 English Science-As we near the end of our first unit on the nature of science, this week we will wrap up our look at the scientific method and the steps that scientists take to make their discoveries. We will also look at bias, what it is, how to identify it, and how to reduce it.

Have a great week, and a happy and safe Thanksgiving long weekend!

Mme MacNevin