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.

Friday, October 14th will be our annual Terry Fox Day. Just a reminder that pledge sheets are due back today. While our route will change a little this year due to Hurricane Fiona’s impacts on our National Park, we will still get out, enjoy the fresh aid and celebrate the legacy of Terry Fox and some yummy hot dogs courtesy of our wonderful Home and School.

Picture day is fast approaching. It will be on Thursday, October 20th.

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. We will spend some time checking out our new resource #LaClasse where we will get to practice describing people, places and animals. 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 of the year. 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-Friday began 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. If time permits, we will also begin to look at bias, what it is, how to identify it, and how to reduce it.

Wishing you all a marvelous week!

Mme MacNevin