Week of November 29th-December 2nd

It was wonderful to see so many of you during conferences last week. I hope that you were also able to share in your child’s learning at home, as they presented their portfolios and outlined goals for their learning over the next few months. I feel blessed to be supported by such a great team of parents! Thank you for all you do to help the learning move forward and please continue reaching out.

This week will mark not only the first of December, but also our first full week of school in a while. It will most definitely be a busy one, as this always proves to be a very busy month even in the time of COVID.

Here is a snapshot into our learning from the week………

French-If technology is on our side (we’ve been having some technical issues with getting our new resource up and running), this week we will dive into our new resource #LaClasse. During the first unit “Bon voyage” students will work towards creating a travel journal of a past trip they’ve taken or one that they would have liked to have taken.

We also will continue reading “Mamie Gangster,” discussing the novel and making connections and predictions in small groups.

Science-In the lab, we will be working this week to conclude our exploration of osmosis and diffusion through a case study involving placing vegetables in different salt water solutions. We will then move our focus to how cells use these processes to engage in both cellular respiration and photosynthesis, as we combine our chemistry knowledge from last term with these new concepts in biology.

Grade 9 Science-Our focus this week will shift to looking at how atoms combine to form molecules, as we explore atoms and their electrons in detail; focusing on how atoms become ions and look to gain or lose electrons to become stable.

Grade 7 Science-This week we will spend our time together in the lab separating mixtures and discussing the six different techniques we can use to do so. Students will then begin to prepare for this Chapter 2 assessment to test their knowledge of these concepts, which will take place later on this week.

Grade 9 English Science-This week we will continue to explore the atomic theory, subatomic particles and elements and their symbols.

Have a fantastic week!

Mme MacNevin

Week of November 22-26

As hard as it is to believe, we are entering the last full week of November. This week marks our first set of student conferences and report cards, as we take time to reflect on all the learning that has been taking place these past few months and discuss goals for the coming term.

Your child will be coming home with their learning portfolio on Wednesday. Students can either present their work to you at home before their scheduled conference time and/or come with you to present this information during their conference. All COVID-19 protocols will be followed during the conferences including the PEI Vax Pass, which will need to be shown at the door. Please see our school webpage or contact me for more details. The book fair will be open in the library Thursday and Friday, or also feel free to check out our virtual book fair to pick up some holiday reading material. There will be no classes on Friday, November 26th, to allow for these conferences.

Report cards will also be sent home this week. Please review these with your child and returned the signed envelope (you may keep the actual report) as soon as possible, so that I am aware you have seen the report and we can reuse those envelopes next time.
Finally, a quick reminder that all picture orders are due back by November 24th. You can order online or by sending cheque/order form to school with your child.

Here is a look at what these next four days will have in store for us….

French-We will of course be spending some time putting the finishing touches on our learning portfolios, which students will share with their parents later on this week.

Reading of “Mamie Gangster” will also continue, as students work to go deeper beyond comprehension of this story, making connections, reflecting on the author’s message and reading between the lines.

This week we will also take a look at a new and exciting resource available to help us to expand our vocabulary and work on both our oral and writing language goals. It is called #LaClasse. Our first theme is called “Bon voyage.” During this unit, students will learn more about the “passé composé” verb tense as they create a travelers journal of a past voyage they may have taken or would have liked to taken if our friend COVID hadn’t have gotten in the way.

Science-Working through our biology unit, students will spend more time this week looking at genetics and how characteristics are passed through from one generation to another. We will also dive deeper into discussing how substances move between the cell and its environment as we begin to explore osmosis and diffusion.

Grade 9 Science-Our classes this week will focus on the periodic table and learning why elements are found in a particular spot, as we examine families and groups. Students will be challenged to help some alien friends organize their own periodic table based on these characteristics.

Grade 7 Science-Moving deeper into our unit on solutions and mixtures, this week we will discuss how mixtures can be separated using six different techniques. Students will have a chance to make a mixture of their own and then separate it in the lab.

Grade 9 English Science-Now that we have a good understanding of the basics of how matter is organized, we will take a deeper look this week into elements and the periodic table. Students will begin to explore how the periodic table tells us important information about the elements including their symbols and which elements are metals, non-metals and metalloids.

Have a wonderful week! I look forward to speaking with you on Thursday and Friday 🙂

Mme MacNevin

Week of November 15-19

I hope my students all enjoyed their extra-long weekend and are returning to school prepared to tackle another full week, as we lead up to learning conferences and report cards next Thursday and Friday.

If you have not already done so, please sign up for your child’s conference using the following link: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/70a084aaeaa2cabf85-grade3

All COVID-19 protocols will be followed during the conferences. Please see our school webpage or contact me for more details.
Picture order forms were sent home with your child last week. All orders are due back by November 24th.

There will also be picture retakes on Friday, November 19th.

Finally, a reminder that this is the last week of our Home and School Christmas tree fundraiser. Please contact Home and School for more details.

Now let us have a look at what we will be working on today this week….

French-This week, time will be spent creating our portfolios, which we are excited to share with you next week. As always, we will keep working on our oral language goals through our warm-ups and interactive instant challenges.

We will make some progress moving through our read aloud novel “Mamie Gangster” as we continue to practice adding detail and examples from the text to our reflections and moving past simply understanding what we read, but rather going further into the author’s messages and themes as we read between the lines.

Finally, if time permits, we will begin exploring a new interactive online resource, a magazine that will help us work towards improving our CECR levels.

Science-As we move through our biology unit, this week students will go deeper into their study of the cell and its organelles. Discussions will take place on genes and chromosomes and how certain traits are passed on from one generation to another. We will also begin to take a closer look at the cell membrane; discussing how substance move between the cell and its environment.

Grade 9 Science-Today students will write their quiz on atoms, subatomic particles and drawing Bohr-Rutherford diagrams. Once this is completed, we will begin a deeper look at the periodic table, as we explore why it is called the periodic table, examining families and groups and why the elements are placed where they are on this important tool.

Grade 7 Science- In the second part of our unit on matter, we are now discussing homogeneous and heterogeneous mixtures and the differences between them. Our focus later on in the week will be on homogeneous solutions in particular; discussing solutions and their parts (solutes and solvents).

Grade 9 English Science-This week we will finish up our look at the properties of matter. Students will write a quiz on the classification and properties of matter on Friday, November 19th. Review materials can be found in Google Classroom. We will also spend some time reviewing in class together during the later part of the week.

Have a fantastic week!

Mme MacNevin

Week of November 8-12

This will be a very short, yet still full, week here at Gulf Shore, as we begin to reflect on our learning over the past few months in preparation for our conferences that will take place later on this month (November 25-26)

If you have not already done so, please sign up for your child’s conference using the following link: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/70a084aaeaa2cabf85-grade3

All COVID-19 protocols will be followed during the conferences. Please see our school webpage or contact me for more details.
We will also spend some time this week reflecting on the sacrifices those who have served for our country have made for our freedom. On Wednesday, November 10th, Gulf Shore will hold its annual Act of Remembrance Assembly after morning break. As we are still in the middle of a pandemic, we will thank those who gave their lives so that we may live in peace virtually this year. Mrs. MacLaine and the Grades 7-9 classes will livestream their presentation from the Multipurpose Room, while K-6 classes will tune in from their homeroom classes. Unfortunately this event is not open to the public.

Parents and students are reminded that there will be no classes on November 12 (Friday) and 15 (Monday) to allow teachers and staff to participate in their annual conventions. Additionally, there will be no school on Thursday, November 11 as we observe Remembrance Day.

Here is a quick snapshot of what will be happening during our three days together….

French-This week, working in pairs, students will also participate in an interactive “duel” where they will play the role of people who find themselves having a conflict (ex. teacher/student, parent/child, policer officer/speeder, etc) and work together to find a solution. This activity showcases their oral language skills, as they must ask on the fly to come up with their arguments and defend their opinions en français. We will also continue reading “Mamie Gangster” and of course, a lot of time will be spent preparing our learning portfolios and goals for our conferences.

Science-This week we will begin a new unit on biology; as we shift our focus from atoms to cells; starting with a review of the parts of the cell we studied in Grade 7.

Grade 9 Science-This week we will continue to dive deeper into the atom; further exploring sub-atomic particles; protons, neutrons and electrons and their roles, mass and placement in atoms. Students will begin a short writing assignment where they will compare their own personalities with those of the “positive proton” the “neutral neutron” or the “negative electron”. Time will also be spent beginning to understand how to create Bohr-Rutherford diagrams to represent the number of subatomic particles in particular atoms.

Grade 7 Science- Tomorrow we kick off Chapter 2 on mixtures and solutions. Students will learn the differences between homogeneous and heterogeneous mixtures. Discussions will also take place around the solutions; as we learn how to identify solutes and solvents in everyday solutions with a few experiments in the lab.

Grade 9 English Science-This week we will dive deeper into the properties of matter, learning some new vocabulary related to these concepts. We will also conduct some lab experiments where we will begin to use chemical and physical properties of matter to identify unknown substances.

Have a wonderful week!

Mme MacNevin

Week of November 1-5

I hope that everyone had a wonderful Halloween weekend! I cannot believe that we are already into our third month of the school year! Does time ever fly!

With Halloween behind us, we look forward to the holidays. Our annual Home and School Christmas tree fundraiser will be kicking off this week. Please feel free to reach out to a Home and School member for details and/or see the school web page.

Learning conferences are only a few short weeks away (November 25-26). Stay tuned to my blog and the school website for the link to our sign up page which will be released very soon.

Now here is a look at what we will be exploring together this week…

French-This week students will finish drafting their want ad pieces. We will then shift our focus to revising and editing our work; looking in particular at how to avoid direct translations from English, homophones and verb tenses, and continuing to enhance our texts with detail and description to engage our readers and attempt to “sell” our products.

We are also about half-way through our read aloud novel “Mamie Gangster.” Our focus after reading this week will be around expressing our opinions about the novel using examples from the story to fully support our ideas and opinions.

Time will also be spent beginning to reflect on the first two months of learning; taking stock of how far we’ve come and setting attainable goals for the next few months. Some short oral language assessments will happen in class to help guide this process both when it comes to speaking and listening.

Science-As we near the end of our unit on chemistry, we will continue to explore changes in matter. Students will continue creating, and eventually present, an experiment of their choosing; explaining what type of change it represents and why and showing how matter was conserved throughout the transformation. We will also prepare for and write our Chapter 2 test. Students are encouraged to check out Google Classroom for review games and study tips.

Grade 9 Science-As we continue our study of the atom, this week students will work to create a timeline explaining how our model of the atom has changed over time and we will also begin to look deeper into the subatomic particules found in the atom-protons, electrons and neutrons. As I stated last week, these concepts are not covered in the Grade 9 textbook. Paper copy of notes have been distributed in class and digital resources have been shared in everyone in Google Classroom.

Grade 7 Science- This week we will finish up our formal study of the properties of matter. Students will then begin to review the concepts we’ve been working on over the past few weeks and will prepare to write their unit assessment on these concepts. Chapter 1 in their workbooks, the activities in our Google Classroom, and those accessible through their online etext-mabiblio, are all great resources to guide them as they study. As always, I am also available for extra support during lunch hour 🙂

Grade 9 English Science-This week will be continue exploring the chemical and physical properties of matter. There will be many experiments in the lab, as we attempt to identify substances based on their properties.

Have a marvelous week!

Mme MacNevin