Thursday, Feb 1st is “Grad” Picture Day for Gr 6 in the morning - retake day is tentatively set for March 2nd
On March 1st there will be a Sacred Heart Transition meeting for parents at Sacred Heart school starting at 7pm
This week…..
Math
We have been working hard on collecting data and creating the appropriate graphs to represent the data, with a focus on the importance of scale. With all our data collection we have crossed over into measurement and will be looking more closely at determining which unit of measurement is more effective in a certain situation and how/when you have to convert units to determine results.
Literacy
We continue to look at non-fiction texts and working on our comprehensive skills of determining important ideas, especially when reading online content. In our Free Writing time students will choose a form of writing they wish to bring through the writing process. We will also be looking at some EQAO reading this week and look at exemplars to moderate responses (level them) to help further develop success criteria and bump up our reading responses.
Mr. Fresque was in again this week and helped us with the concept of Mind Mapping- students recognized right away other ways they can use this strategy in their day to day life/school life in order to accomplish tasks. We soon will be working on our presentation to Ms. White to gain approval for our upcoming business venture.
Mrs. M was also in and shared with us other strategies to help reduce and deal with stress in our lives. Check out the video she shared with us...
This week:
Monday: Homework posted
Wednesday: Liturgy of the Word/ News Report due
Thursday: Photo Day/ K of C Free Throw Competition
Typical greeting for students as they arrive- this helps to practice their independent work and organizational skills. Students move through the list independently at their own pace with the goal of completing required elements within the agreed upon timeline
This past week Math: we looked at online sources for data and collected discrete and continuous data with a connection to the Census at School by Statistics Canada- students had fun measuring themselves and comparing things like their height, how long they are on a bus to school etc to other gr 6 students across Canada. Students conducted their own experiments as well to practice the skill of collecting data. Here is a link to the experiments conducted.
We looked into the difference between line and broken line graphs and determining when we should use them and discovered it is dependent on the type of data you are wishing to represent (discrete/continuous). This week we continue to practice taking data and graphing it with a real focus on the importance of scale and looking at graph selection ( bar vs line vs pictorial etc). Literacy: We reviewed the criteria for News reports as well as nonfiction texts such as websites, as we began our research into Charities our class would like to support through the Entrepreneurial Adventure.
Students practiced their presentation skills as well as they presented their research to the class and Mr. Fresque. Our class took a vote and we have a chosen charity- it will be announced shortly :) Mr. Fresque will be visiting again on Thursday to help students work through the next phase of our project- students are developing prototypes! The class voted to produce bookmarks to sell and raise funds to support awareness and charities regarding Food Insecurity. This week students will think about the audience for their product and look at different themes/genres they wish to develop for the bookmarks. They then will create a prototype to present to the class this week. Lois M returns to our class again this week to help us with our Social Emotional Learning journey and help further develop our skills in self-regulation. This week: Maker Mobile from Ottawa U will be visiting all grades Monday: Homework will be posted in Hapara Wednesday: Spirit Day: Silly Socks SEL guest speaker Friday: PD day no school for students
I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas holiday with family and friends.
We have jumped right back into our routines, minus our Snow day on Thursday :) and have been keen to continue on with our learning in Gr 6!
Mr. Fresque was in this past week to help continue us on our Entrepreneurial Adventure and he will continue to come in weekly for the next few months.
As I am sure you are all aware our new Principal Ms. White has joined our St. Philip Community. She is quickly making new friends with all our students and is excited to be getting to know everyone! Be sure to drop by her office and say hello if you get a chance and follow our school on Twitter @StPhilipocsb, as she is posting our school learning and happenings regularly!
We had a presentation from Ontario Hydro to help us learn more about electrical safety. Students are given the opportunity to win a tablet by entering a contest to show what they learned. Students just have to go to the following website which contains resources and the link to the contest; Hydro Ottawa
Fern from Ottawa Hydro
This week we also had a guest in our class, Lois Malazdrewicz, who shared with us about SEL- Social Emotional Learning and ways we can self-reregulate. She helped students realize that stress is normal and something we all experience. She taught us that one way to help with our self-regulation is to recognize the signs and indicators we feel in our bodies when we experience stress.
This wonderful learning opportunity has been provided by our school board for every grade 6 student to help support their transition into Gr 7 next year. Lois will be joining us once again this month to continue our learing.
Math & Literacy Homework will be posted on Hapara Workspace for Monday. We continue on with our Genre reading schedule- you will see more details on Hapara.
Math
I have posted a copy of a Gr 6 Math text for students/parents to have access if they wish to further review ideas/concepts with students- it can be found in student’s Hapara Workspace. As well, if you wish you can also visit the EQAO site as it has many resources for home use as well.
We have started inquiring into data management and students have been introduced to one of our overall learning goals/big ideas/concepts around data management: collect and organize discrete or continuous primary data and secondary data and display the data using charts and graphs, including continuous line graphs.
We have begun looking at different ways to collect data. We have inquired into surveys and determining if our questions are fair or create a bias in the data. We will begin to look at using databases and electronic media to gather evidence like the Census At School Website created by Statistics Canada. From there we will move towards conducting our own experiments to collect data.
We have been using the platform Pear Deck in our math routine which is an interactive tool (can be found on the student portal) that allows students to post and view responses by classmates to questions posed. This platform creates great math discussion and supports students learning of concepts while providing them an opportunity to practice their mathematical process expectations. As it allows them to apply their mathematical communication, reflection/reasoning, and proving skills. See below what Pear Deck is all about-
If your student has their own Chromebook or other device and have your permission they are encouraged to bring them to school everyday. Students will be responsible for their own devices and have been reminded of the tech agreements they signed at the beginning of the year; understanding that technology at school is for learning purposes only and must been done under teacher/adult supervision. Of course, if your student is unable to bring a device or forgets theirs, no worries, as students will have access to shared technology in the classroom.
Literacy
We continue with daily reading/writing. We are turning our literary focus onto non-fiction resources/texts as we help develop our comprehensive skills of determining important ideas and analyzing texts we read. This will help support us as we continue on our Entrepreneurial Adventure journey with Mr. Fresque. He has now challenged us with researching potential charities that we feel we want to support through our project. As our focus is helping to create awareness and possibly funds for the issue of Food Insecurity in the North, students will be able to use these developing literacy skills to help determine the right charity to best serve our goal. We also continue in our writing skills to reflect on our writing strengths and needs, develop goals for improvement and work on our proofreading and publishing skills.
Upcoming This Week:
Mass was postponed due to the Snow day last week. When a new day/time has been secured I will let you know.
Monday: Parent Council Meeting Snowshoes are here all week
Mr. Fresque was in again this week and helped us with the concept of Mind Mapping- students recognized right away other ways they can use this strategy in their day to day life/school life in order to accomplish tasks. We soon will be working on our presentation to Ms. White to gain approval for our upcoming business venture.
Mr. Fresque will be visiting again on Thursday to help students work through the next phase of our project- students are developing prototypes! The class voted to produce bookmarks to sell and raise funds to support awareness and charities regarding Food Insecurity. This week students will think about the audience for their product and look at different themes/genres they wish to develop for the bookmarks. They then will create a prototype to present to the class this week.
