Welcome to the sunshine. We are well into our photography residency with Lindsay Nichols and are enjoying taking photographs and learning different techniques.  This residency will continue for 3 more lessons, into the month of May. You can check out her webpage to find out more about Ms. Lindsay, and see some of her professional work. 

Important Dates

Wed, May 3 - Hats On! For Mental Health Day

Friday, May 5 - PD Day - No School

 May 9, 16 & 23 (Tuesdays) and May 11, 18, & 25 (Thursdays) - Photography Residency

Mon, May 22 - Victoria Day - No School

Tues, May 30 & Wed May 31 - School Play

Telus Spark Field Trip

Good News! Our trip has been rescheduled for Monday, June 19th. 

Volunteers - please confirm your availability with your child’s teacher. 

We would love to have the maximum number of volunteers at this field trip to give the students the best experience possible. If you are no longer available to volunteer, please let your child’s teacher know.  At the same time, if you have security clearance and would like to volunteer, please let your child’s teacher know.

Next Year COMPS

Next year at Lakeshore School, our Grade 6 students will explore Complementary Courses in a rotating wheel similar to this year, which will include Music, Drama, Culinary Arts, Art, Digital Media, Engineering & Construction, and Fashion & Textiles. This means your future Gr. 6 student will not need to select any Complementary Courses for the 2023-24 school year, however a General COMP Course Fee may apply.  Here is the link for you to further explore COMPS at Lakeshore.

Language Arts

We are wrapping up our March Madness book competition with the final challenge beginning over the next week. Students have worked hard on tasks linked to their chosen novels. Students designed original book covers, wrote a proper book report, and interviewed characters from their books with thoughtful questions and revealing answers from the characters. Students did well, sharing their understanding of the book through their writing of these interviews. We are gearing towards the end, with the designing of book trailers.  Let’s see who our grand winners are.

We will then head into a class novel study, City of Ember, and begin some creative writing work to round out the year. We continue to practice reading comprehension skills through the Read Theory website and working with various non-fiction texts within our Social Studies research. 

Social Studies

Working our way through the different histories (yes, multiple) of Canada, students have been examining the stories of different newcomer cultural groups, where they came from and how that impacted their identity as new Canadians. They researched the stories of various villages and towns across Canada and how their cultural identity could be seen in the physical structure of buildings, infrastructure and its impact on important historical events. Many students deeply enjoyed learning the stories of their own cultural past with lots of great resources and videos available. The video series ’A Scattering of Seeds: The Creation of Canada' is a great collection of of stories about different groups and individuals as they worked to start a new life here in Canada. Statistics Canada has also shared a great video, “Welcome to Canada: 150 Years of Immigration”, which is a kid friendly look at the numbers of people that came from all over the world. Lastly, students are welcome to explore the Newcomer Web Links that have been collected.

Having finished this, students will begin looking at the story of the NWMP (North-West Mounted Police), the predecessor of today’s RCMP. Their story is a clear parallel with the expansion of Canada into the prairies, the settlement of the west, the establishment of law/order while also being emblematic of the intentional assimilation and destruction of indigenous ways of life. Students will explore a brief history of the force, the recruitment of its officers, the role of the media in building the image/legacy of the Mounties and then how they were deployed with the use of the new-fangled technology known as the steam engine on the Canadian Pacific Railroad.

From there we will continue the hiSTORIES of Canadian Confederation and how Canada grew as a nation, the importance of the Famous Five in redefining the roles and rights for Canadian women and then the impact of the World Wars on Canada’s growth as a country.

Math

In math, we have finished investigating equivalent, improper, and mixed fractions.  We have begun to explore decimals.  Through this unit, students relate fractions to decimals, demonstrate understanding of decimals and place value to the thousandths place, and add and subtract decimals (to thousandths). By the end of this unit, your child should be able to compare & order decimals (to thousandths), estimate sums and differences, and calculate them accurately, and solve problems involving addition and subtraction of decimals. 

Science

Our final unit will be Weather Watch! Students will learn about weather phenomena and the methods used for weather study. We will learn to measure temperatures, wind speed and direction, the amounts of rain and snow, and the amount and types of cloud cover. We will look at how weather is predicted and finally learn what the bizarro symbols on a weather map mean. In studying causes and patterns of air movements, students will learn about the effects of uneven heating and cooling, and discover the same patterns of air movement in indoor environments as are found outdoors. They also learn about human actions that can affect weather and climate and study the design and testing of clothing used as protection against the weather. Students are encouraged to view any/all the Weather StudyJams! videos here or explore the Weather Web Links page.