“I would teach children music, physics, and philosophy; but most importantly music, for the patterns in music and all the arts are the keys to learning”  -Plato

This week we attended our first Young People’s Concert! It was fabulous. We were entertained by Leading Ladies Little Big Band . The focus of the performance was to introduce the students to each instrument through musical selections from jazz, swing, and popular classics. The 11-piece ensemble gave students an unforgettable taste of their musical possibilities. The hope is that the students are inspired to study music in Grade 7 and beyond. There were a lot of excited faces and grooving bodies so it looks like the performance was a success!

Your music teacher, Ms. Petrovska, sent us an overview of what you have been doing with her in class this term and boy are we impressed. She told us that, “as musicians you have been practicing the “Lemonade Blues” arrangement on Orff (barred instruments), congas and parts of the drum set (snare drum, hi hat and crash cymbal). Also, you learned and sang songs for the Remembrance Day assembly. Currently, you are preparing for your parts in the musical “I Need a Little Winter Vacation”. The preparation for the musical incorporates aspects of singing, choreography and drama (for some students). You sure have had a busy term with lots of amazing musical opportunities!

In Math, many of you are zooming your way through Xtra Math! Many of you are on subtraction already and some even multiplication. We sure are impressed! Unfortunately, some of you are still having trouble being consistent with your practice. We have asked you to try for 5 days a week as we see this as the best way to improve your fluency. If you have not been doing 5 days a week, maybe talk with your parents right now and decide the days and times you are going to practice. REMEMBER SMART GOALS, if you want to achieve it, you need it to have a plan with times and days in order to stay on track. This week, we were working on four digit addition and subtraction. When we stack the questions, it breaks the numbers down into single digit addition and subtraction so, if you think about it, your single digit adding and subtacting skill fluency  is definitely going to help you be more successful in the day to day work we do in math.  Coming soon, we will be working on multiplication and division so if you can get ahead on Xtra Math, it will help you with those lessons too.  We also began exploring measuring with METERS.  A meter is a much larger unit than mm and cm and is most useful when you are asked to measure the length of something bigger.  Next week we’ll start actually measuring with this unit.

This week we had our Social Studies assessment focusing on the Provincial Government. Through a “Jeopardy” style game, we did a “buddy study”/ open book practice round.  As a class we discussed and went over the answers and then the game was put on TEAMS to practice at home.  The results weren’t as strong as they should have been… especially given all the practice opportunities you were given.  We did have a chat about what YOUR responsibility is when it comes to preparing for tests and that most of the time, teachers will give you a “heads up” and that’s about it!

What do an Advent Calendar, Tannenbaum, and Saint Nicholas all have in common?  They are traditions that are part of Christmas in Germany!  This is our next mini-unit for the month of December as we finish off this term and gear up for all the Christmas festivities. Mrs. Davis was born in Germany and many of the things we learned about are based on what she experienced as she was growing up — and still incorporates into her traditions now.  Each of you went home with an Advent Calendar to start your own countdown to Christmas.  Don’t forget to open the first window of your calendar on Sunday, December 1st!

Our mini “tannenbaum” is looking super cute with the toque ornaments you created!  We spent a bit of time each day this week working on them and everyone has made at least one toque that is hanging on our tree.  If you haven’t yet made one, you can make one at home too!  We’ll be making some other decorations for our tree next week.

Blog reminder. Whenever possible, you should be answering in full sentences. You all need to practice your sentence structure, grammar and punctuation. Any response is an opportunity to get better at this skill so keep at it everyone!

Your blog response this week has to do with our Secret Santa plans.  We discussed the format that we want to do this year and the decision was made to have a specific person that we shop for.  The question that we need to narrow down is the dollar limit that we want to spend.  Talk to your parents and respond to the following questions:

Will you be able to participate if our Secret Santa gift exchange is on Dec. 19 or 20th? ( you are planning on being at school) 

Should our gift limit be $10 or $15 dollars? ( make sure your parents agree to this!) 

Will your parents be able to take you shopping for whoever you are a “Secret Santa” for? 

Have a wonderful weekend Division 7!

Mrs. Gil and Mrs. Davis