Month: February 2016

Happy Weekend!

Quick update of what we did on Friday:

• We read more of Lemoncello and I asked everyone to let Ms. D know what materials they need for their game construction by making a list on the board.
• We have now completed the Reading Powers of Connection, Questioning, and Visualizing. Next come the more challenging ones of Infer and Transform. After we finish this book, everyone will read one of five books in Lit Circle groups, using these reading powers to complete assignments together.
• We worked on Puppet Pals again, and I emphasized how EVERYONE needs to do an outline or a storyboard for their presentation, because it will help them be more organized when creating the final version. For tutorials and rubric, see here.
• We had Library and picked out books to last us for awhile, as we don’t have library next week. Book fair preview is on Monday at 9:50 AM!!
• We are trying to narrow down our topic of interest for the end of year project. Today we partnered with someone to do a brainstorm together, to build on our ideas. We will be talking about this once per week until Spring Break.
• Free Choice involved a surprise visit from Mr. L, my husband, as he had an early dismissal from his high school. He brought over some of the projects he does with the students (he is a shop teacher of automotive, metal works, drafting, electronics, wood, maker group, etc.) Students enjoyed LED projects and metal tools, including metal tops which they tried to spin. They asked questions about the types of things high school students get to do in a shop. Thanks Mr. L for dropping by! He is going to try to come again with his 3D printer and other projects, as we have many makers in our classroom who are interested.

For Monday:

• French, 2 pages (or just finish the first packet labeled #1 on human body)
• Book Fair Preview Monday
• Puppet Pals Outline / Storyboard if you need some time
• Look for game materials to bring if you need it
• NEW CARIBOU TEST NEXT WEEK!!! Caribou math competitors should go online and try the interactive challenge before Wednesday.
• Short week next week- ProD day on Friday the 19th.
• Anyone in our class have someone who works in architecture in their family that might like to come in and talk about scale models, etc.?
• Ms. D away Monday to work with teachers, but lots planned for you guys — time to work on projects, French work, Math Polygons partner chart, Lemoncello reading, buddies, gym, book fair. Have a great Monday!

Hi Everyone,

Great day today — we had an online quiz using google forms, worked on puppet pals, talked about what it means to explore and wrote about it in our journals, read some more Lemoncello, and did some math work with protractors.

For tomorrow, please (in this priority, doing whatever you are able — #1 and #2 are what we need done for tomorrow):

1. Tuning In — Finish it by end of day tomorrow
2. Finish your journal entry on exploration
3. Make a storyboard or outline for your puppet pal presentation (most of you started thinking about this today)
4. Finish 2 more pages of French (I handed out package #2 to those who were ready.)

Bring library books as we have a special library session. No library next week due to the Book Fair.

Valentine’s Exchange will be on Monday, per the class vote. Everyone has agreed to bring in either a candy for everyone (that can be put in the bags), a card, or a candy with a card. Any of those is okay, as long as you bring enough for everyone. If you need a list of names, please see me tomorrow.

Thank you to Michael’s Mom, Emma’s Mom, Sylvia’s Dad, and Joshua’s Dad for volunteering to be with us during the Reifel Bird Sanctuary Trip. We appreciate your time!!

Ms. D

Wow! What a great Chinese New Year celebration! I haven’t seen it done so elaborately before in other schools, so it was great to see everyone’s excitement and performances. Thank you to all of Division 5 for their musical contributions; to Shelley for playing piano; to Emma, Sylvia and Shelley for ribbon dancing; to Emma and Sylvia for fan dancing; and to David, Adrian and Shelley for the beautiful banners. If I missed anyone, I apologize, but I was impressed with all of your work and that you all contributed to the school community! (Division 5 is starting to make a name for itself at Suncrest after this and the Reader’s Theatre presentations last week!)

Today we began working on puppet pals, which is an app in which you can make a story, record your voice, create backgrounds, etc. If you have an iPad at home, I highly recommend it. There is a free version, but we are using the Puppet Pals HD Director’s Pass. Everyone experimented with the app today, and we will be using it to make a story about our animals, their migrations, and the biomes where they live.

We are also finishing up our Quilt of Belonging pieces, which are due by EOD Friday.

We read more chapters from Lemoncello and we are now working on a language arts project to create a fabulous game Mr. Lemoncello would want in his collection! The game must 1. Be creative, 2. Be a board game, 3. Involve some strategy, and 4. Not be a game we have copied or found elsewhere. We will construct the games and share them with other partner groups in class.

Tomorrow we have a socials and science quiz on migration. We reviewed material yesterday and today. Please use your binder to study: key vocabulary, push factors, pull factors, criteria for immigrating into Canada, the difference between a 1st and 3rd world country, biomes, migration cues and types for animals, etc. I see many of you left your blue binders here when you packed your bags, so I hope you are all set for tomorrow?

Don’t forget our Reifel Bird Sanctuary field trip slips!

Have a good night!

Happy Chinese New Year! Tomorrow, please wear red as we will be celebrating Chinese New Year together. There is a special assembly in the afternoon. Thank you to all students who helped with the banners for the assembly today, especially Shelley, David and Adrian who stayed in during their lunch break time to do painting.

Tonight, please finish your animal research if not done already so you can begin playing with the Puppet Pals app to make a mini presentation. I think you will find this app a lot of fun to use, as it is interactive and uses voice and your choice of images to tell a story!

Please study the migration information from your blue binder. We will have a “checking in quiz” which will be closed book on Thursday. We did some review today. Please know that I am not checking for tiny details like how many people immigrated to a country. We went over questions I would ask today, which focus on vocabulary and main ideas.

If you are interested in purchasing one of the pencilgrams being sold by the grade sevens, they will be on sale at lunch tomorrow, but make sure you fill out one of the pink forms. There are some available in the classroom.

Everyone did a fabulous job during our Burnaby Art Gallery workshop, learning about First Nations art, the shapes used in their printmaking, and having the opportunity to use a screen-painting technique. Everyone took home their art today, and I will post some on the blog later for you to see.

Tuning In for Friday, Feb. 12th.

Bring in field trip notices, please. They are due Friday. I don’t yet have enough volunteers, so ask Mom and Dad if they can join us!

Have a good night!

Happy Family Day Weekend! No school on Monday.

Congratulations to everyone on a job well done presenting our reader’s theatre stories this morning! You delivered your lines with great expression and the classes enjoyed your presentations. Thank you for your hard work on creative props and costumes, and thank you for adding to the school’s Literacy Week celebration!

In Science, please answer at least one question for your animals research or add detail to the research you have. I encourage you, if you are in town, to visit the public library and try to use books for your research, as well.

For French, I have given out a packet to complete and study on the parts of the body. Homework is do two pages, which we started in class. Everyone will write a short description of themselves in French using vocabulary from this packet and those to come. There will be a quiz on the words during the week of Feb. 15, so please practice them by completing the work and saying the words aloud.

As regards our recent spelling quiz. If you had trouble with the words, I asked you to write them again. I think it is important to practice words we use frequently; however, I look mainly at your project work for language arts marks. Quizzes CAN make you aware of words you don’t know as well and encourage you to practice. Even if you make frequent spelling errors, the more important thing is that you know how to edit. Practicing words allows us to recognize them when misspelled. Know which tools can help you spell properly, and take the time to edit and present your work well.

Have a great weekend!

Hello everyone,

Just a reminder to make sure you have:

• turned in all your work
• your name on all assignments
• paid attention to criteria for the assignment
• turned in written work on the sheets I give you or lined paper, and
• added enough detail to show your thinking.

It is very common in January and February for students to have a bit of a slump, when we are all feeling more tired after the break, with illness and the rain. I have encouraged everyone to remember, though, to put their best effort forward as we head into our second report card, coming up soon!

Reifel Bird Sanctuary Field Trip is Feb. 26th. If you paid online, please send in the white slip saying you did pay. I don’t have immediate access to the school’s online payment system, so it will help greatly if you just let me know if you have paid.

Reader’s Theatre Presentations are tomorrow! Please make sure you practice your lines and bring in all costume and prop items tomorrow! We start with presentations at 9AM so please be on time. 

Literacy Week Last Day: Wear a shirt that says “read” or has books on it if you want for tomorrow. Ballots matching teacher books to teacher names are due tomorrow morning. There will be a reading assembly with the whole school in the afternoon.

Science Research on Animals: Please take some time to do some more research on at least one of the questions for homework. I encourage you to use library books, as well, that we picked up today during library time. If anyone visits the public library, look for resources that may help you.

Math, Socials and Science: Keep notes and homework organized, as you can use them to do our quizzes in these subject areas Thursday and Friday next week. Math will involve questions similar to our Skyscrapers work, as well as metric conversion. Socials will be about human immigration and vocabulary, and science will be about biomes, types of migration and migration cues. We will complete the scale measurement map of our classroom we were doing today for Math and move on to creating a draft of our skyscraper. Be thinking about what you would like to use to make your scale model discussed today.

Tuning In Articles due on February 12.

Thank you and have a good night!