February completed many different projects and are looking forward to March - HELLOOOOOO MARCH MADNESS (if you know, you know).  Anyways… We spent some time on Pink Shirt Day creating origami hearts with buddy classes and writing kindness pledges. March also marks our official school opening.  We are gearing up for parent teacher conferences and a much deserved Spring Break.

Important Dates

Thursday March 9 - Parent Teacher Interviews 4:00 pm - 7:30 pm

Friday March 10 - Parent Teacher Interviews 8:00 am - 10:00 am

Tuesday March 14 - Pi Day

Monday March 20 - Official School Opening

Friday March 24 - Last day of  classes before Spring break

Fees

Classes 51-54 are now well into their electricity unit and will be building their electric cars soon. Please make sure you have paid for the electric cars. Our photography residency is also coming up in April/May. Please make sure you have paid for this experience as well. All fees can be paid online in PowerSchool or in person at the office.  Thank you for your continued support in providing these important learning experiences.

Language Arts

We continue to practise reading comprehension skills through the ReadTheory website and working with various non-fiction texts within our Social Studies research.  We have been learning about what good readers do while reading, making inferences and making connections to the things we read.  Making inferences through a variety of media such as text, video, and digital media allows students to enhance their comprehension skills through their ability to locate, analyze and connect information. Our focus on inferencing skills allowed students to view and discuss videos, short informational passages, stories, and information from games (such as using clues found within a Minecraft Education Edition experience in "New France” to locate supplies and complete tasks such as building a home).

Social Studies

Students have been learning about the Stories of Canada’s beginnings; focussing on the ways of life in New France, early explorers, and the early Fur Trade leading to the development of the Hudson’s Bay Trading Company (later Hudson’s Bay Department store).  Activities exploring life in New France included a role-playing game simulating survival during the first few seasons of life in the new settlement, a Minecraft world experience simulating the seigneurial system, and a video highlighting life in New France, its beginnings, and its eventual loss in the 7 Year War with Great Britain.  Students also reflected on how stories and legends of the coureurs des bois and voyageurs inform us about Francophone history, culture, and presence throughout Canada.

Math

We just finished our multiplication and division unit and are completing our work with transformations. We’re working with the three types of Transformations (Translations, Rotations and Reflections) which is a lot of fun as we get to throw different types of polygons around in different, random directions. You can also check out some of the class notes (*on my iPad the shapes are lined up on the grid but no matter how I export the notes everything is offset from the grid so my apologies) that the students will be using as well as examples of each kind of transformation here: Translations | Reflections | Rotations. 

With Transformations out of the way, we will then move onto our unit on Fractions and Decimals. We’ll begin reviewing the parts of a fraction (numerator/denominator) and the 3 types of fractions. This will be followed by a look at the ideas of equivalent fractions. Before moving into the relationship between fractions and decimals we’ll explore representing and converting amounts greater than 1 as fractions (mixed numbers and improper fractions). 

On the Math Resources page, if you scroll down to the Fractions & Decimals section there many resources for each of the different concepts, skills and ideas related to fractions. There are tutorial videos, explanations and interactive resources to support each and every concept. With our initial focus on Proper vs Improper Fractions and the ideas of equivalency, the Interactive Fraction Wall is an example of how these interactive and visual resources can make a sometimes challenging concept much easier to understand.

Science

Classes 51-54  are well into the Classroom Chemistry unit, as are 54-58 with Electricity & Magnetism.

Homerooms 51-54 are busy applying their knowledge of how electricity flows and can be harnessed for use in circuits, while also using understanding how series and parallel circuits each have their own advantages and disadvantages. We have built an understanding of materials that either conduct or resist the flow of electricity and begun building our own switches to control the flow.  Following this, we’ll wrap up with a look at magnetism, how magnetism works, how we can harness this powerful force and even create magnets with electricity. Looking ahead into January, students are working towards the skills and knowledge necessary to build their own electric cars - lookout Elon Musk, we’re coming for you. Yes, for those of you wondering, this is an awesome project and we’re stoked to build and then, most importantly, RACE!!! Details to follow. For any and all information or resources on the unit, please explore the links in the Electricity & Magnetism section of the website as well as those shared on the Electricity & Magnetism Web Links page.

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