C'est l'Halloween!

Happy Halloween, everyone!
We were looking spook-tacular in our costumes this morning!

We started our day with a Halloween-themed theâtre de lecteur (reader's theatre). Working in randomized groups of 5 or 6, we had 15 minutes to rehearse our lines before presenting to the class.
Mme McKenzie (a superfab Grade 6 teacher and ALSO the teacher in charge of our drama program) worked with us to help us read our lines with more expression.

After our presentations, we finished our Français period with a fun drama game! Please ask me all about it!

After locker break, it was time to listen to one of Mme Careen's favourite Halloween songs!
It's SO silly! You can listen to it HERE!

Next on our list, was colouring different Halloween pictures to create Halloween cards for a friend. Most of us didn't have a chance to finish since we were too busy watching the Halloween music videos being played on the SmartBoard; it was an all-request period! 

And, of course, this song was quite popular too!

We finished our morning with an intense game of Halloween BINGO! Mme Careen learned that we are not very familiar with our Halloween vocabulary words in French, but we had fun anyhow!

*****

Agenda items!

1. Calcul mental assessment "Doubles" - tomorrow (Wednesday)

2. Photo retakes - tomorrow (Wednesday) afternoon

3. Moustache Day - tomorrow (Wednesday)

4. CFOO presentations - Thursday

5. Twin Day - Thursday

6. Meme Day - Friday

7. Pizza Fun Lunch - Friday

👻 Have a safe and fun evening! 👻

La tête décorée!

Happy Monday!

We were full of school spirit and looking great this morning showing off our decorated heads -
hats, fun hairstyles, sunglasses and more!

*****

Agenda items:

1) Halloween tomorrow! Students may wear their costume at school all day. Please ensure costumes are school appropriate; please no weapons. (Masks will be removed for learning).

2) Evaluation - Calcul mental "Doubles" - Wednesday

3) Picture retakes - Wednesday (Nov 1) Afternoon

4) CFOO presentations Thursday

5) Pizza fun lunch - Friday!

Spirit Days:

Tuesday - Halloween Costumes!

Wednesday - Mo-vember (Moustache Day)! 

Thursday - Twin Day!

Friday - Meme Day! (school appropriate)

Have a great week!

Many, many agenda items

Happy Friday!

Here are today's reminders and agenda items:

1. Section B Calcul Mental - lundi

2. CFOO presentation - jeudi, 2 nov

3. HPV vaccinations - Monday

4. Fun lunch Form - Monday

5. SPIRIT WEEK - All next week!

6. Peak of the Market fundraiser and Holiday Card Making Soiree Fundraiser forms due back soon!

Have a great weekend, everyone!

À lundi, avec vos têtes décorées! :)

CFOO et les buts

Happy Wednesday, friends!
Our morning of learning flew by!

In Math, we continue to work on factors and finding the pgfc for a set of numbers. Mme also handed back our first Multiples assessment and shared what we did well and how we can continue to improve.

In Français, Mme Careen read us the book, "Je suis Marilou Melon." We noticed how the story itself is quite quirky, but the illustrations are what really bring the story "over the top!"

Next, in Français, we got to work on our next CFOO presentations. This presentation's theme is "Opinion." 

CFOO presentation #2 will be Thursday, November 2.

 

After working on our CFOO presentations, we started writing the rough draft of our goals for the year. We had previously written an outline of our goals and actions plans, and are now working on putting our outlines into paragraph form. We had 15 minutes of independent writing time to get started. It wasn't easy at first to "shut out" our friends and other distractions, but once we all got into the groove, it was amazing to see how much writing we could get done in a relatively short amount of time. We will continue to work on our goal writing over the coming few days and will keep working on building our writing stamina over the course of the year.

*****
Agenda items for today:

À demain! :)

Doubles, factors, Science projects and Agenda items

Happy Tuesday, families!

We worked very hard this morning and accomplished so many things!

We started our Math lesson with a number talk and the introduction of our newest mental math strategy, "Doubles." We took the time to share our strategies and practice our new doubling skills.
We also continued our work with factors, focusing on how to find the "pgfc" [aka plus grand factor commun (greatest common factor)].

In Science we listened to the remaining project presentations and completed "self-assessments" of our work.

Finally, in Français, we worked together as group to finish co-writing our first class goal for the year. Our first goal is, "De faire un effort de paler en français." Part of the shared writing process is to frequently re-read our work aloud and to give suggestions about what we can add to our writing to make it better. Through this collaboration, we are able to create pieces of writing that have a clear, detailed message. Our shared-write goal will become the model on which we will base the writing of our own goals. We will begin writing our rough drafts in class tomorrow.

*****
Agenda items

1. Permission forms for Cinémental (pink permission forms) are due back to school ASAP.
Our field trip is this Thursday.
2. Fun lunch forms (organized by TPN) were sent home today.
Please fill out if interested and return to school by Monday.
3. Section A - Calcul Mental "Doubles" - due Friday.
4. PGFC Questions 2 et 2 (yes, the typo is correct) from the blue math booklet due tomorrow (Wednesday).
*Most students finished these 2 questions in class; only a handful needed more time to review their answers at home before correcting.

Have a great afternoon!

Taxman, Science Projects and SO MANY announcements!

Happy Monday, everyone!
It's great to be back after a 3-day weekend!

We started our day together with the Math problem, "Taxman" (en français, "le percepteur persévérant")! Working in randomized groups of 3, we worked together at the white board to see how much money our group could get without having the Taxman sneak it all. After a few trial and error chances, we started figuring out some pretty good strategies to help our totals grow. Please ask me how my group did!

In Science, it was so wonderful to see so many beautiful, creative extra-terrestrial projects being presented. Once all projects have been presented to the class, we will take time to fill in our self-evaluations and then Mme Careen will start marking our work using the rubric that was included in our project booklet.

And now for all of the announcements...

1) A reminder that permissions forms for our upcoming field trip are due back to the school ASAP! Permission forms were sent home last Thursday.

2) Atomic Level Volleyball Players - please ensure you permission forms are handed in to your coaches ASAP! Your first tournament is this Friday!

3) Peak of the Market - Our fabulous Parent Network (TPN) is organizing its first school fundraiser of the the year. Peak of the Market order forms were sent home with your child today. Order forms are due back at the school Thursday, November 8th.

4) Orange Shirt Day - Ness's Orange Shirt Day, in recognition of "The Rights of a Child" is tomorrow (Tuesday, October 24). In addition to wearing an orange shirt (or even you do not have an orange shirt to wear), every student will also be receiving an orange ribbon bracelet to wear to show that Every Child Matters. An email about Orange Shirt Day was sent out from the school office last week.

5) Looking to add a bit of dramatic flair into your school day? There's a club for that! "ADN," our school's drama club lead by the incredibly wonderful Mme McKenzie, is still looking for more Grade 6s to get in on the drama. ADN for Grade 6s meets either Monday mornings (8:00am) or Mondays at lunch (12:10pm). Please see Mme McKenzie (Room 209) for more info if you're interested!

6) Process and Design (Science) projects were due at school today. A reminder to those who forgot their projects at home and/or needed a bit more time to finish their work to have their projects ready to present tomorrow (Tuesday) in class.

Thanks everyone!
Looking forward to a great week! :)

Our feet (and books!) are famous!

Hello again everyone!
The fall edition of the CONTACT has just been published and we're in it! Wow!
Below is a screen shot of the article, written by our very own and very fabulous M. Sorokowski!

The CONTACT will soon be mailed out to all homes in the SJASD area. If you simply can't wait to get your hands on your very own copy, CLICK HERE for some wonderful Thursday night reading! :)

Félicitations les chevaliers et chevalières!

Way to go Knights! :)

Happy Thursday!

Hello, friends of learning!

We've had another great week here at school and have many important things coming up.
Here's a quick recap of our week together.

In Math we have continued our work with Multiples and have also added Factors to the mix. Today we learned how to find the "pgfc" (plus grand facteur commun) of a set of numbers and noted that sometimes the pgfc of a set of numbers is 1.

We then played the Factor Ninja game to practice our factoring skills!

Today in Français, we found out that we are headed on a field trip! Hooray!
All Grade 6 and 7 students will be headed to Cinémental next Thursday, October 26 to see the French film, Belle et Sébastien 2 - l'aventure continue. For more information about this movie, CLICK HERE!
An information letter and permission form are coming home today. The cost of the trip... FREE!
All that is required to attend is a signed permission form!

And with that, here are today's Agenda items:
1. Signed permission form for upcoming field trip - due back ASAP, please!
2. Process and Design (Science) project - final copy due at school on Monday.
(See below for a picture of the project, in case an extra copy is needed this weekend. The project was also explained on the blog earlier this week).

Have a great *long* weekend, everyone!
À lundi! :)

Project outline and rubric.

Pages for the working (rough) copy of dichotomous key and extra-terrestrials

Every Child Matters

Happy Wednesday, everyone!

We started our morning with a school-wide assembly.
We were very fortunate to have Ms. April Waters, one of our school division's Indigenous Education teachers,
join us for our assembly.

Today's assembly theme: "Every Child Matters" - Learning about Human Rights.
Here are the learning goals for our time together this morning:

Ms. Waters spoke to us about Rights of the Child.

We learned that Rights of the Child was declared in 1989 and has been adopted by 193 countries.

A child has a right to:

-  a name

- health care

- feel safe

- food and water

- education

- an identity (self expression)

- recreation and play

- love and affection

- much more!

We watched THIS VIDEO to learn more about Rights of the Child.

Ms. Waters also spoke about Residential Schools. We learned that Residential Schools were in violation of Rights of the Child, noting that the last residential school closed in 1996 (7 years AFTER Rights of the Child was declared).

Mme Banks then spoke to us about Orange Shirt Day. We learned who started "Orange Shirt Day" and the significance behind wearing an orange shirt.
Ness Middle School's Orange Shirt Day will be Tuesday, October 24.

After the assembly, we headed back to our classroom to discuss what we had learned during our assembly. We also had the chance to watch another short video clip about Shoal Lake 40 and learned of some of the terrible hardships the reserve has been through. (THIS VIDEO gives a brief overview to what we watched). Many of us were angry about what the City of Winnipeg had done to the community and were surprised to learn that the residents of Shoal Lake 40 (the very place from which we get our drinking water) have been under a boil water advisory for 20 years!

We will continue to learn more about Rights of the Child, Residential Schools and the people of Shoal Lake 40
(and other Reserves) on Tuesday, October 24 (Orange Shirt Day) and in the coming weeks.

CFOO!

Félicitations!

We have just finished our first round CFOO presentations and we are already showing that we are a promising group of public speakers!

What is CFOO, you ask?

CFOO (Le Club Fabuleux des Orateurs et Oratrices) is a public speaking "club" (similar to its English friend, TUSC) that will help students improve their oral French skills through short presentations. There are fifteen different presentation options, separated into three categories: Research, Opinion and Creativity. 

Our CFOO preparation and presentation periods alternate on Day 6, period 3.

For the first presentation, we chose one of the five Research options. We prepared a short oral presentation, fulfilling all of the criteria (listed on the page we have in our binder). Our presentations this time were mostly in the form of speeches, but they can also take on various other forms: a poster, a puppet play, a song, a poem, a painting, a PowerPoint, a movie, etc. - the possibilities are endless!

Leading up to the first presentation, we discussed what we should keep in mind while making an oral presentation to the class and Mme Careen wrote all of our ideas down on chart paper. Our list includes: keeping eye contact with the audience, having a confident stance while at the front of the room, projecting our voice and speaking at a good pace with expression.

Now that we have all presented, we will review as a class what went well and what we should work on for our next set of presentations. Our next CFOO work period will be next week - Wednesday, October 25, with the next set of presentations following on Thursday, November 2.

*****

Agenda Items:
1. Process and Design (Science) project - Monday, October 23.
2. No school Friday.

Tuesday Agenda Items

1. Calcul mental assessment tomorrow (Wednesday).
2. Process and Design (Science) project. - due Monday, October 23*

*We are creating our own planet and the group of extra-terrestrials that live there! Once our planet population is created, we will design a dichotomous key (clé dichotomique) to organize them into groups/subgroups. We can present our final project however we would like; in the form of a book, a poster, a maquette, etc. 

The project was assigned and explained in class on Thursday, October 12. 

We have already had 3 periods of class time to work on the rough copy of our project.

Our final projects are due at school Monday, October 23.

(Presentations of our projects to the class will begin this day).

Mme Careen will be in her room over the lunch hour on Wednesday and Thursday of this week for any students wanting a place to work on their projects.

Monday Agenda Items!

Happy Monday, everyone!

Agenda times for today:

1) CFOO presentations tomorrow (Tuesday)!
2) Calcul mental assessment "Cut and Paste Zeros" - Wednesday
3) Process and design (Science) project - due Monday, October 23.

Have a great week! :)

Happy Friday!

What a great week of learning!

In Math we put movement and multiples together to create our very own PPCM Samba. While the class counted to 100, each group member had to do a specific movement on the multiple of their choice. When all four group members did their movement together for the first time, the group's PPCM was revealed!

To finish off on morning on Friday, we did a Friday the 13th Fun Challenge. In "Amazing Race" style, students could work solo or with a partner to complete a series of Friday the 13th themed questions. Challenges included Math questions using the number 13 and a vocabulary matching game with different phobias and their definitions. It was a bit lou and crazy in Room 208, but all in good Friday fun!

***

Agenda items:
1. Section B - Calcul mental - due Monday.
2. CFOO présentation - Tuesday
3. Process and Design (Science) project - due Monday, October 23.

Have a great weekend! :)

Agenda Items

 Agenda items for Thursday.

1. October Scholastic orders - due tomorrow
2. Calcul Mental Section B - due Monday
3. Process and Design project (Science) - due Monday, October 23.
(Project was introduced to students in class today. More info will posted to the blog soon).

Agenda items

1. Library tomorrow.
2. Calcul mental Section A - due tomorrow
3. 4 to 5 goals for the school year - tomorrow.
(*Have main goals ready so that we can start writing our action plans in class tomorrow).
4. October Scholastic orders - due Friday.

Off to a busy start!

Happy Tuesday, everyone!

We are back after our long Thanksgiving weekend and didn't waste anytime getting straight to work!

In Math this morning we worked through two word problems that could be solved using our knowledge of multiples and the "ppcm." We will look at more every day applications of multiples throughout the week.

We also worked on our next mental math strategy, which is quite similar to our strategy from last week ("Cutting and Pasting Zeros") except now we are multiplying larger numbers.

We then got to work in groups to plan the "choreography" for our PPCM Sambas!

Please ask me what multiple I'll be representing and what movement I've chosen to do!

We ended our morning in Science with another sorting activity. This time we worked independently to sort dried beans. We started off all together to create a word bank on the board that we could refer to during our work time. The words we came up with described the size, colour, shape and texture of the beans.

Mme Careen collected our sheets once we were done and will read over each of our classification keys to decide what our next steps in Science will be.

*****

Agenda items:

1. Section A - Calcul Mental - due Thursday.

2. Library - Thursday

3. October Scholastic orders - due Friday.

Have a great week! :)

A great week of learning!

Happy Friday, everyone!

Here's a quick peek at a couple of things that kept us busy learning this week!

We worked together at the white boards in randomized groups to solve word problems 

using our knowledge of multiples.

Again, working in groups, we created a classification key to organize a bag of buttons. Before we started, we brainstormed a list of helpful button-related vocabulary words that we could use when sorting our objets.

In Français, we took some time to reflect on things we are thankful for. Using the sentence starter,
"Je suis reconnaissant(e) pour..." (I am thankful for...) we wrote 8 - 10 sentences that would then be turned
into a special pumpkin craftivity!

To create our pumpkins, we followed a set of instructions that Mme Careen posted on the board; we had to read through the instructions on our own and/or ask a classmate to help us.
Working together, we each created our own "citrouille de reconnaissance!"

We made sure to take time to celebrate the morning's accomplishments (and each other!) by posing for our October picture!

And of course, there is always time for a bit of silliness, too!

Have a great weekend!
Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Monday!

We worked well this morning, practicing multiples in Math and reviewing our Terry Fox article in Français.
It's going to be great week! :)

*****
Agenda items:

1) Evaluation Calcul Mental: mercredi
2) October Scholastics: due October 13
3) Picture orders: due October 10
4) Library tomorrow (Tuesday!)