VIP

Staff Sergeant Mizuno visited us for our initial VIP session on Tuesday.  In addition to explaining the program, she brought Police Constable Mederios with her.  Together they explained the polilce uniform, bullet proof vest, and all of the gear they carry on them.  We even got to examine and sit in a police cruiser!  Maybe we have some future law enforcement professionals among us!  Check it out!

Little Picasso

We have begun the creative process by using paint.  We are learning to create secondary and intermediate colours by mixing ONLY primary colours.  Friday was our practice day, and now we are working on a piece for evaluation.  Check it out!

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Good News!

Congratulations to the latest winners in our Good News ticket draw:  Alyssa, Jason, Nick, Carlo, and Alanna.  Keep up the great work!

As we continue to work on our first unit in Family Life, we have begun to learn about five types of development.  In addition to defining each, we are learning about the people in our lives that assist with our development.

Math Makes Sense!

We have been working on comparing, ordering, representing, and composing large numbers during math class recently.  Here are some photos of us working collaboratively with our peers to complete a math activity.

After one day, this is what my "tip jar" looked like:

It is full of "tips" and Lexie even purchased new markers that I am to use when creating anchor charts!  The "tips" range from various money amounts, to notes in French and English, and even a real dime!  Thanks everyone!

On Tuesday we completed our initial lesson about internet safety.  Here we are sharing our ideas in groups based on the problem that we studied.  Afterwards, we focused on our word choice:  I am encouraging sophisticated vocabulary instead of words such as mad, sad, bad, etc.

VIP Program is Set to Begin!

I am pleased to announce that all the grade sixes at St. Gabriel School will begin participating in our VIP program on Tuesday September 29, 2015.  We will have two special guests and another fun opportunity then as well.  I request that all parents please read the VIP letter attached to the Parents' Place page of our website.  It is not necessary to print it out unless you would like a hard copy for your reference.

In addition to the class work that we will do, each students is required to complete ten hours of community service between now and May 31, 2016.  It is explained in the letter provided and we will be talking about it in class as well.  Please find the community service form on the Assignments page of our website.  It will need to be printed out and completed by May 31, 2016.  Keep checking our class calendar for scheduled VIP dates/events.

Tips and More Tips

Look at what I received yesterday!  My very own "tip jar".  Thank you very much to Angelina who made this for me and brought it in.  Since I give out many tips to assist the students with their work, it is nice to know that I can also receive tips too!  Stay tuned for further developments.






Math tips - During the last few weeks, I have realized that many of my students are confused about what multiplying means.  The students now know that the order of the factors in a multiplication sentence is crucial.  See what I mean below.

3 x 4 = 12          $$$$      $$$$      $$$$  (3 groups of 4)

4 x 3 = 12          $$$     $$$     $$$     $$$  (4 groups of 3)

While it is true that the same product is the result in both cases, the simple graphic representations illustrate how these number sentences mean very different things.  

Consider this problem:  Four children each have three dollars in their pocket.  How much money is there altogether?

Which number sentence from the samples above would be the correct one for this problem?

If you decided on the second one (the green one) you are correct.  The first example would show that three students each had four dollars.  A very different situation.  Understanding this concept can mean the difference between achieving a level 3 or 4 in some situations.

Have you checked out the new anchor charts on our website?

Don't forget that tomorrow afternoon we welcome you to school for the Meet the Teacher social event.  I look forward to meeting all of the families in our classroom between 4:30 pm and 6 pm.  Your child will be able to give you a tour of the room, their desk, and their locker as well!

Gym and Paragraphs

Last week in gym we learned how to play a new team building game called "Alaskan Baseball".  The students seemed to really love this game since it is an all-inclusive game that requires no special skill but lots of active participation.  Ask you child about it.

Here is a paragraph with the prewriting steps that the whole class wrote collaboratively last week after explicit instruction on the topic.  We have reviewed revising (blue) and editing (green) as well.  The students have been working independently to write their own.  Remind them to use the success criteria that we created together to ensure their best work.  Ask your child about it.

Good News!

 Congratulations to the following students who were the Good News ticket winners for the second week of school: Lexie (yeah! finally a girl), Owen (twice), Aidan, Sabin, and Carlo.  Keep up the great work!

 

Last week we worked in groups to devise a way to classify (sort) living things in Science.  After the group work, each group presented their ideas to the class.

It's Good for Your Health

We have been working on our first health unit on personal safety, specifically internet safety.  As was outlined in the parent letter, we are learning how to be good citizens on line and what to do should a problem arise.  Here is some information we gleaned after watching a short video.

After writing a diagnostic paragraph for me on Monday, we have been working on how to write effective paragraphs.  This skill must be mastered before we can progress into writing longer pieces.  Please check out the anchor chart on our Literacy Anchor Chart Archive page of our site in the writing area.  Here we are doing a sentence sort activity where we needed to create an effective paragraph using the topic sentence provided and another group of sentences.  We are learning which detail sentences to include (or remove) and that the concluding sentence must match the topic sentence.  Feel free to have your child(ren) practise writing paragraphs at home!

We Take Charge and Present Tense

This month WE TAKE CHARGE of our
environment and learn ways to help make our community and planet a more sustainable place for the future. Our Social Justice group is making announcements this month about the little things we can do to make an environmental impact here at St. Gabe’s! Our first challenge is to bring a reusable water bottle to school, it’s so easy to just fill up at our water fountains! To help encourage all students to be more water aware, we are selling reusable St. Gabriel
water bottles for $3 all month. These bottles will also be available for purchase at Meet the Teacher night on Sept. 24!

Here is the link to the Social Justice website.  Check it out!

In Literacy we have been reviewing the characteristics of a narrative.  Check out the anchor chart on the Literacy Anchor Chart Archive page of our website.  One of those attributes is that a narrative is typically written in the past tense.  Some of us needed a refresher about verb tense and conjugating verbs.  Check out the cute comic (storyboard) that my son found in the Windsor Star recently.  Enjoy!

I hope that each student has continued to read daily (yes, including weekends).  Parents, if your child(ren) have read everyday from Friday September 11 to Thursday September 17, please jot a note indicating so in Friday's area in their agenda.  I will be checking them on Friday morning.  Thank you very much in advance.