Classroom Adventures

December 14-18

This week has been very, very busy! The students were sent home with a note for confirmation and a form to fill out for the church earlier this week. If you would like your child to receive the sacrament of confirmation, please look over those letters and the church dates.

Thank you all for your support over the past 4 months! It is hard to believe we have already been in school for 4 months! Have a wonderful holiday break. Stay safe and I will see you all in the new year!

Metric Conversion - Kilometers, Meters, Centimeters, Millimeter

December 7th - December 11th Day Plans

Monday, November 30, 2020

Here is what we have been working on in the classroom on Thursday and Friday. We are having a brief check in this morning to see how we are at drawing different viewpoints. If your child needs extra work on this topic, sheets will be sent home to review.

Last week, we continued to work on Media and how it is used in advertisements. Ask your child what the terms "ethos" "pathos" and "logos" are used in advertisements. Also, ask them how they used at least one of these techniques in their advertisement for their chocolate/candy bar!!

We are going to move into persuasive writing and writing from different points of view. We have a very exciting Christmas themed writing coming up that we will be working on beginning next week.

As always, have a look at your child's Google Drive or Hapara to find samples of their writing. We are really working on editing our work and giving ourselves constructive feedback for the next piece of writing. This is a very important concept for showing growth as a writer.

This week is the first week of Advent. We will be discussing Advent as a class and using an online advent calendar to incorporate Art into our day to day activities. Here is today's video for reflection.

Tuesday, November 24, 2020

It is hard to believe we are coming to the end of November already! We have been working very hard in class. Our focus for this week is using our transformation (translations, rotations, reflections) knowledge and our coordinate graphing skills in problem solving. Here is what we are working on today.

I have included a video on coordinate graphing on a 4 quadrant graph. The 4 quadrant graphing is new to Grade 6 this year. It includes positive and negative numbers (integers). We have looked at where integers sit on horizontal (x axis) and vertical (y axis) lines.

Common mistakes for coordinate graphing is that students find the first number on the Y axis rather than the X axis. Always make sure you are finding the first coordinate on the horizontal line.

Language:

This week we are looking at advertisements vs images and target audiences. We will also look at how colour is used in media. All the media pages are linked into the Hapara Workspace.

Our Outline for the Week (Nov 16 - 20)

Math - We are finishing up rotations and now going to look at coordinate graphing. The 4 quadrant graphing is new to grade 6 this year. We are going to go over how to read coordinates such as (-3, 3) and how to plot the points on the grid. Stay tuned for some videos on this.

Language - We are working on Kindness Stations for most of this week. These tasks are independent tasks and during this time I am pulling students to read with me. This will allow us to focus on comprehension, fluency and self correction.

Science - We have started working the Flight unit in science. We are reviewing the 4 forces of flight and how they affect planes and flying objects.

Tomorrow, Thursday, November 12, 2020 is picture day. Bring your smile !!

IMPORTANT DATES TO REMEMBER
- THURSDAY NOV 12,2020 - PICTURE DAY

-THURSDAY NOV 12, 2020 - INTERVIEW NIGHT (SEE THE FORM FROM LAST WEEK)

-FRIDAY NOV 13, 2020 - PD DAY

Today we looked at reflex angles. These are angles that are larger than 180. Here are some videos about drawing reflex angles. Some calculations have to be made before drawing the angle.

Some important information is that a circle is 360 degrees. If you have a reflex angle, you take the amount away from 360 to give you the smaller angle and draw that angle instead.

Monday, October 19, 2020

I am currently marking some assessments from our patterning unit. We will review the assessment as a class and make corrections to our errors tomorrow. This is how we learn from our mistakes!

This week, we are beginning a geometry unit which will focus on geometric properties, lines of symmetry, rotational symmetry and coordinate graphing (4 quadrants). Stay tuned for some more updates!

Check out your child's writing from last week. It should be found in the Language folder in their Google Drive. We did a recount piece of writing and a reading response from our read aloud book.

Science - Invasive Species Wanted Poster

This is due on Friday. Some students are not done and will be bringing it home to complete. The project can be found in last weeks Hapara Workspace.

Food Drive!

We are collection some canned food items! If you have any extra items lying around the house and you are interested in donating, send them in with your child. We already received a number of items and our class pile is growing! Keep it up Grade 6's!!

Change of Shoes!

Please send your child with a change of shoes, one for indoor and one for outdoor activities. The weather is changing and it is sometimes wet in the morning. Since this year we have to stay in cohort zones (sometimes in grassy areas), we do not have the option of going onto the pavement. The students will be able to store their outdoor shoes in the cubby area.

Thank you!

Explicit Pattern Rule

October 7th, 2020

Language:

Below are some examples of recount writing. The colours have been added to show how the writing it organized. We have begun writing a recount on our weekend. We are using the whole writing process - brainstorming, drafting, editing, revising and publishing our final draft. This will allow us to edit our work and give feedback to others. This editing and feedback process will probably happen on Monday, as we are waiting for everyone to finish their quality piece of writing.

We are doing a reading comprehension task this week. You can find this reading and quesitons on Hapara.

Math:

We are continuing to work on patterning. The last two days have been focused on graphing a pattern and reading patterns for pattern rules. When we went to graph our patterns we needed to do a quick review on the use of a scale. Ask your child how important the scale is and what a good scale looks like! In addition, we have done several problem solving questions. You can find all of these questions on Hapara Workspace labelled October 5 - 9.

Health:

We have been working on healthy eating, hunger and thirst cues, sometimes and always snacks. As a class we had many discussions about healthy eating. They are working on a task on the Hapara Workspace called "Healthy Eating" where they compare two types of food or drinks using nutrient facts. Ask your child which of their foods were a better choice.

Religion:

We are learning about God's creations and how important they are. We, as people, are one of God's amazing creations! We are learning about how we are all unique and have our own talents.

We are also going to be linking this to Biodiversity and sustaining our beautiful world.

Library Book!

On Friday, we spent some time exploring and using the Library online resource to order some books! Each student ordered a book and it was delivered within an hour!! These books will be used for two weeks and then we will return them and get new ones! How awesome is the online site for ordering books?!!

Students who still have books from last year, please return them on Monday, October 5,2020!

September 28 - October 2

Math: We have been finishing up a quick number sense unit that focused on place value, representing numbers, comparing numbers, ordering numbers and rounding numbers to the nearest hundred thousand to get an estimate. In addition, we looked at justifying where we place whole numbers on a number line by using "benchmark numbers".

We have begun on next unit, which is patterning! Below is a quick overview of different types of patterns and some patterning questions that we did as a class.

It is important to note that math is comprised of different sections:

Knowledge and understanding: Does your child know how to complete the task? Example:Can your child tell you the place value?

Application: Can your child use place value to determine which number is greater? Does your child know when to use different concepts? Example: Can they compare hundred thousands?

Problem Solving: Can your child use learned skills and concepts and apply them to problems? This is the most difficult for most students.

Communication: Can your child explain their thinking process? Can your child show their thinking on paper? Can your child explain their thinking to the teacher.

Patterning, has a big focus on applying patterns, problem solving and communicating the pattern rule.

September 17th, 2020

Today we had our first fire alarm drill. Since we are practicing social distancing, our class did a practice fire drill two times. The first one was a class practice and the second one was a practice with a couple other classes.

Math:

We are working on rounding! We looked at how to round numbers to the hundred thousand place value.

Language:

We are starting to look at making connections. Tomorrow we will begin by looking at text-to-self connections.

Science:

We started looking at biodiversity. We watched a short video about what biodiversity is and how the Earth is full of a variety of species and animals. We learned about the first kingdom - The Animal Kingdom. Through discussion, we identified that some animals have vertebrates and invertebrates. Ask your child what the difference between vertebrates and invertebrates is.

Here is a schedule for the week of what we are doing in the classroom. I will upload the plan on Monday morning for the entire week ahead. This should give you a good idea of what we are doing in class.

September 14-18, 2020

Language

Writing: Proper paragraph writing with main ideas and supporting details

We will be reviewing transition words, how to construct a well-written paragraph, and the use of examples in our writing. The first project we will be doing is a paragraph on our favourite thing (sport, season, food, activity, etc.). We will be reviewing and using the writing process (brainstorming, drafting, editing, revising). This assignment can be found in the Hapara Workspace called September - Writing and Reading Comprehension.

Reading: Making connections to texts/media

We will be discussing what a good connection is to a text. In Grade 6, the focus is on connecting to a characters feelings and situation. Our goal is to avoid simple connections such as " He has a pink shirt and I have a pink shirt." More information about making connections will come.

Math

Math Focus: Whole Numbers

Our focus for the next two weeks will be around ordering and comparing whole numbers by demonstrating place value, rounding whole numbers and representing numbers on a number line. Daily work will be uploaded, and informative sheets will be linked so that you can follow along from home.

Science:

The first week of school we talked about scientists. We discussed words that came to mind when we thought of scientists, we described what scientists looks like by using a padlet to share our ideas. As a class we then looked at examples of real life scientists - coming from a variety of backgrounds with a variety of skills. It is evident that anyone can be a scientist!

This week we will begin with the Biodiversity unit. Stay tuned for more information.

Physical Education:

We will begin with fitness building games and soccer. For health, we will focus on healthy eating.

Religion:

We will be looking at how to be a digital citizen.