Hello and welcome to another Friday entry. The good energy and momentum we built in camp is continuing in our classes this week and it is exciting to see what is being accomplished.
In language arts this week we spent a lot of time looking at the structure of a letter and also how to understand how people communicate themselves, through the story "Mr. Henshaw." The kids worked on answering questions related to what occurred in the story and imagining how the characters might respond to each other based on what they read. It was a neat exploration, and I am looking forward to seeing the complete responses.
In social studies, we spent a lot of time talking about rights, freedoms and responsibilities. We looked at why rights and responsibilities need to balance each other, how they are important in a democratic society and what freedoms are fundamental and protected. We are starting a bit of an exploration of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms as well, and should get deeper into it next week.
In Science we spent a great deal of time looking at the parts of trees and how trees fit into the ecosystem of earth. Also, we had a quiz, which helped us to understand what we are or are not understanding. The kids this week also suggested building a small forest in the class room (out of recycled materials) to help them demonstrate their knowledge. So, if you have any ideas on the best ways to build trees without cutting down other trees to make materials, we are willing to have your suggestions to guide us. I personally am looking forward to helping the kids create this, to allow their strengths to shine through.
In CE, we started the week with a powerful chapel with Allison Springer speaking to us. We then moved through our memory verses and started to explore the New Testament, structure and books. It is very encouraging to be able to look at what we believe in school and I am glad we can be here to challenge each other to understand why we believe.
I wish you a very lovely weekend, even if we don't get the sunshine we have come to expect this past month. All the best, and please continue to stay in touch with anything you need to know about.
Friday, September 30, 2011
Friday, September 23, 2011
Week 2
Well, another week has come and gone! This week certainly felt more like a whirlwind, considering that there was no school (for the kids) on Monday and we had a fabulous day out at Chestermere on Friday. I have included some pictures that you can access on the right.
We are beginning to move forward in all subjects, now that we have our routines and schedules down. The movement from room to room is beginning to go much better too. In LA we looked at a novel excerpt called "Jeremy and Sarah" about two kids who are sent to their aunt's for the summer when their father gets sick. It deals with some issues around emotions, honesty and dealing with others and led to some good discussion of what the students in the room thought of the particular situations in the story and how they related to their own life. We also wrapped up our first composition, which was supposed to be handed in by Friday (though I expect to see some coming in next week too).
In Science we began working on the different parts of trees, identifying the parts of a water cycle (and how trees are part of that cycle) and looking at how nutrients are cycled through different parts of the ecosystem. We are also having a quick quiz on what we have learned so far next Wednesday. I don't doubt that everyone will do a great job on it.
Social studies we started to learn about the concepts of Freedom, Representation, Equity and Justice - four foundational concepts that will guide our inquiries into the processes of democracy in Canada and throughout history. These are big, abstract ideas and we will make sure we revisit them often. Additionally, the students have been working on a textbook project with Mrs. Hazelton which was also to have been completed and handed in .
In CE this week we only had time to go over our verses, having missed our regular class due to Camp Chestermere. But we had a gripping, inspiring movie shown to us about the struggles children in East Central Africa face with the threat of abduction and enslavement in the rebel army which is fighting in Congo, Uganda and Sudan. Invisible Children challenged the kids to look into the world and see how they, as one person with the power of Christ, can change the world. It was an excellent presentation and led to good discussions back in our class.
And of course who can forget Chestermere. You likely have heard all the stories by now, so I don't need to go into specific details, but it was a fantastic day. The weather could not have been better (there seems to be a trend as far as our outdoor activities and weather so far this year!) and the kids had a very challenging and enjoyable time. Our speaker, Allison, will be around the school at various points this year, working with the kids to recognise their potential to shape their school environment for God's good purposes. And we did a lot more community building this day as well, making it, all-in-all, another excellent experience for our group.
Thanks so much for partnering with us in this journey and please continue to keep us up to date on what we need to know. And we promise to do the same from our end. Have a great weekend!
We are beginning to move forward in all subjects, now that we have our routines and schedules down. The movement from room to room is beginning to go much better too. In LA we looked at a novel excerpt called "Jeremy and Sarah" about two kids who are sent to their aunt's for the summer when their father gets sick. It deals with some issues around emotions, honesty and dealing with others and led to some good discussion of what the students in the room thought of the particular situations in the story and how they related to their own life. We also wrapped up our first composition, which was supposed to be handed in by Friday (though I expect to see some coming in next week too).
In Science we began working on the different parts of trees, identifying the parts of a water cycle (and how trees are part of that cycle) and looking at how nutrients are cycled through different parts of the ecosystem. We are also having a quick quiz on what we have learned so far next Wednesday. I don't doubt that everyone will do a great job on it.
Social studies we started to learn about the concepts of Freedom, Representation, Equity and Justice - four foundational concepts that will guide our inquiries into the processes of democracy in Canada and throughout history. These are big, abstract ideas and we will make sure we revisit them often. Additionally, the students have been working on a textbook project with Mrs. Hazelton which was also to have been completed and handed in .
In CE this week we only had time to go over our verses, having missed our regular class due to Camp Chestermere. But we had a gripping, inspiring movie shown to us about the struggles children in East Central Africa face with the threat of abduction and enslavement in the rebel army which is fighting in Congo, Uganda and Sudan. Invisible Children challenged the kids to look into the world and see how they, as one person with the power of Christ, can change the world. It was an excellent presentation and led to good discussions back in our class.
And of course who can forget Chestermere. You likely have heard all the stories by now, so I don't need to go into specific details, but it was a fantastic day. The weather could not have been better (there seems to be a trend as far as our outdoor activities and weather so far this year!) and the kids had a very challenging and enjoyable time. Our speaker, Allison, will be around the school at various points this year, working with the kids to recognise their potential to shape their school environment for God's good purposes. And we did a lot more community building this day as well, making it, all-in-all, another excellent experience for our group.
Thanks so much for partnering with us in this journey and please continue to keep us up to date on what we need to know. And we promise to do the same from our end. Have a great weekend!
Friday, September 16, 2011
Welcome!
Welcome to grade 6! For those of you families who are returning this year, welcome back to the grade 6 experience, and for those of you who are new to grade 6, you are in for a great year.
This is the first post in my weekly updates on what is happening in grade 6, and the reason I do it, is that it is great way for me to put out information to families that can be accessed at any time which is convenient for you. Generally I update it every Friday (though I do do the occasional Saturday update!) and I try to give a flavour of what the week was like in my classroom. Feel free to drop by here anytime, and I may even be able to include some pictures or video.
This week was a rollercoaster mixed with a whirling dervish of activities. I was so impressed with how well the kids have begun to adjust to the demands of our schedule and figuring out where they need to be, when they need to be there. The schedule and how to navigate it to find our classes occupied the majority of our first couple of days. We were able to begin to introduce subjects as well, for which Science, CE, and composition/reading being the main ones kids saw me.
In Science we began to explore what defines a tree, and then started looking at the parts of a tree too. I am hoping to get quite a bit further, including identifying the nutrient cycle and food chains next week. For now though, the kids simply need to finish off their title pages by Tuesday.
In CE, the kids were given all the memory verses they will be learning this year. We also talked about ways they can work with their natural strengths to best learn these verses every week. I definitely encouraged all of the kids to keep the verses somewhere that they do their work regularly, so they can look at the verses a little bit every day. Verse tests will be on either Wednesday or Thursday and make up the bulk of their mark in CE this year. I have also put out the challenge to memorise the 66 books of the bible in the correct order as a bonus "verse", so don't be surprised if you see your child working on that as well. Finally, we identified Matt 22:37-40 as the foundation for what we are doing this year in CE. I encourage you to look it up and discuss with your child why this verse is so important for Christ-followers to remember.
LA was a blast this week. We identified the things we want to achieve in our learning and started down that path. There was no assignments due, but we did create a composition in class called "My Memories of Grade 6". This was essentially the kids looking forward to June, imagining how their year went and describing how they reached their goals as if they had already done it. We will refine these pieces over the next week and then I can maybe post them when done. We also had our first book exchange of the year, started to re-familiarise ourselves with the library routines and look forward every Thursday having all our books in and avoiding any fines for late returns.
In Social Studies, our week centred on looking at the processes of democracy and decision-making. We learned about Autocracy, Oligarchy and Democracy as the three main categories of how groups of people have decided to guide the decision-making for themselves. We also finished up the Pro & Con debate on the use of cell phones that was begun the previous week at camp.
Finally, I want to thank you all of you who came out on Thursday night, for taking the time meet me and see where it is your child is learning. I so look forward to seeing the families of the people I spend so much time with during the week. If you didn't get a chance to come in, the please, come see me another time. And I am always available by e-mail too (quinn.barreth@pallisersd.ab.ca).
I want to wish you a great long weekend (again? already? ;-D) and look forward to updating you on our week next Friday.
This is the first post in my weekly updates on what is happening in grade 6, and the reason I do it, is that it is great way for me to put out information to families that can be accessed at any time which is convenient for you. Generally I update it every Friday (though I do do the occasional Saturday update!) and I try to give a flavour of what the week was like in my classroom. Feel free to drop by here anytime, and I may even be able to include some pictures or video.
This week was a rollercoaster mixed with a whirling dervish of activities. I was so impressed with how well the kids have begun to adjust to the demands of our schedule and figuring out where they need to be, when they need to be there. The schedule and how to navigate it to find our classes occupied the majority of our first couple of days. We were able to begin to introduce subjects as well, for which Science, CE, and composition/reading being the main ones kids saw me.
In Science we began to explore what defines a tree, and then started looking at the parts of a tree too. I am hoping to get quite a bit further, including identifying the nutrient cycle and food chains next week. For now though, the kids simply need to finish off their title pages by Tuesday.
In CE, the kids were given all the memory verses they will be learning this year. We also talked about ways they can work with their natural strengths to best learn these verses every week. I definitely encouraged all of the kids to keep the verses somewhere that they do their work regularly, so they can look at the verses a little bit every day. Verse tests will be on either Wednesday or Thursday and make up the bulk of their mark in CE this year. I have also put out the challenge to memorise the 66 books of the bible in the correct order as a bonus "verse", so don't be surprised if you see your child working on that as well. Finally, we identified Matt 22:37-40 as the foundation for what we are doing this year in CE. I encourage you to look it up and discuss with your child why this verse is so important for Christ-followers to remember.
LA was a blast this week. We identified the things we want to achieve in our learning and started down that path. There was no assignments due, but we did create a composition in class called "My Memories of Grade 6". This was essentially the kids looking forward to June, imagining how their year went and describing how they reached their goals as if they had already done it. We will refine these pieces over the next week and then I can maybe post them when done. We also had our first book exchange of the year, started to re-familiarise ourselves with the library routines and look forward every Thursday having all our books in and avoiding any fines for late returns.
In Social Studies, our week centred on looking at the processes of democracy and decision-making. We learned about Autocracy, Oligarchy and Democracy as the three main categories of how groups of people have decided to guide the decision-making for themselves. We also finished up the Pro & Con debate on the use of cell phones that was begun the previous week at camp.
Finally, I want to thank you all of you who came out on Thursday night, for taking the time meet me and see where it is your child is learning. I so look forward to seeing the families of the people I spend so much time with during the week. If you didn't get a chance to come in, the please, come see me another time. And I am always available by e-mail too (quinn.barreth@pallisersd.ab.ca).
I want to wish you a great long weekend (again? already? ;-D) and look forward to updating you on our week next Friday.
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