November 27 - December 1

Mrs. Harris and the students are working so hard to prepare to share their learning at the concert this month! This is a talented group and they sound so great! They can't wait to perform for you on December 19. 

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And in the classroom...

I can create narratives that develop setting, plot, and character; I can use suspense, figurative language, and dialogue in story writing; I can enhance personal style and voice through careful selection of words; I can edit writing for spelling, punctuation, and grammar. (Grade 6 ELAL)

This week in grade 6, we began work on our first story of the year. We started by modelling the writing process for the students; looking at a picture for inspiration, creating a plan, and writing a short story. This gave our grade 6 authors the opportunity to learn about organization, vocabulary, and balancing different story writing techniques such as dialogue and description. 

The next step was for the students to choose a picture prompt, begin their own story plan, and start writing! The creative juices were flowing and they worked so hard! We could tell they were engaged in this task as they were asking great, clarifying questions about using punctuation, story ideas, paragraphing, etc.

Next week, we will begin the peer editing process. This will allow our authors a chance to provide and accept feedback on their writing. Taking lots of opportunities to think critically about other people's writing helps develop our own writing skills.

Students has the choice of two different picture prompts for their story. We encouraged them to find something in the picture that could inspire a story, even if it is a small detail like a tree or a sunset.

We used a planning diamond to jot down a rough idea for our stories before we began typing.

Here they are, hard at work! When we use the computer, it makes 

it easier to make quick changes, additions, and corrections.

We have really enjoyed seeing these stories come together as the students continue to learn and develop their writing skills. 

November 20-24

I can describe how local and provincial governments are structured (Grade 6 Social Studies)

I can use geographical thinking in order to understand the relationship among people, events, and issues in the world (Grade 6 Social Studies)

This week we engaged in discussion and reading around our current municipal, provincial, and federal governments. Students started learning about how each level of government has different responsibilities and provides different types of services to citizens. We are starting to develop an understanding of the elected officials and their roles as representatives. Moving forward, we will be learning about what political parties are and how they come into power in the provincial government. 

This information can be a bit confusing so we had the students fill in a chart in order to give them a visual comparison of the three levels of government.

We also used this opportunity to work on our mapping skills. In order to help students connect municipal with city, provincial with provinces and territories, and federal with our country, they spent some time looking at maps of Canada and labelling their own map for their reference. They learned what a compass rose is and we discussed how north is always at the top of a map. 

I can create models of rectangular prisms and calculate volume using hands-on materials or digital applications (Grade 6 Math)

Great News! We worked out our tech glitches and got back to work practicing volume in Minecraft this week. This work really helped solidify an understanding of 3 dimensional objects taking up space as well as gave students the opportunity to practice using the formula for volume (V = Base x Width x Height).

November 13-17

 I can use a formula to calculate the volume of rectangular prisms and solve problems involving volume of rectangular prisms (grade 6 Math)

I can create models of rectangular prisms using hands-on materials or digital applications (grade 6 Math)

We reviewed our previous learning around calculating perimeter and area then used blocks to explore 3 dimensional shapes and figure out how to calculate volume. After this learning, the students described volume as: the amount of space a 3D shape takes up.

We logged into Minecraft Education and started exploring a pre-designed world in order to practice calculating volume. Students discovered that while the formula for volume is Length (Base) X Width X Height, it actually doesn't matter which order you multiply the dimensions. Afterall, L x W x H will yield the exact same answer as W x H x L because of the commutative property of multiplication. We are looking forward to logging back into Minecraft this week to continue this learning because technical difficulties slowed us down a bit.

Offline, students worked on solving a few problems in order to gain a better understanding of volume in real life contexts and to practice using the formula to calculate volume. Using actual cubes in the classroom helped develop an understanding of cubic measurements; if the volume of an object is 24 cm cubed, that means that the identical object can be created using 24 1cm cubes!

We often provide students with different versions of math problems so each student can choose a starting point based on their level of comfort with the problem:

As always, we encourage students to come talk to us if they are confused by a math concept. We are happy to spend extra time working one on one or with small groups of students to provide extra learning or practice around a concept! 

November 6-8

 I can write to inform, explain, describe, or report, for a variety of purposes or audiences (Grade 6 ELAL)

I can apply historical and geographical skills to bring meaning to issues and events (Grade 6 Social Studies)

I can conduct research, organize, interpret, and present findings (Grade 6 Social Studies)

We practiced our research skills by reading about different groups of Canadian Veterans on the Government of Canada Remembrance Day web page. Each student chose a specific Veteran that they wanted to research and took jot notes as they read their biographies on the website. Later, students created Google Slide presentations to present their information. Two of our students even shared information about the Veterans they researched at the Remembrance Day assembly on Wednesday. 

Some student work examples: 

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October 31- November 3

 Outdoor School!

Wellness: Personal well-being is supported through positive relationships built on communication, collaboration, empathy, and respect.

Science: Identify characteristics of at least four trees found in the local environment.

We had a BLAST at Camp Chief Hector this week! Our days were packed with so many activities. We enjoying playing camouflage, building snowmen, Gaga ball, and board games at night. We went on nature walks where we identified common Alberta plants and trees, such as a trembling aspen, spruce, and wild rose plants. We learned how to make a fire in one of the Yurts on the property and even built shelters in the woods. We really enjoyed the economy game. We had to make items to sell in order to get money for infrastructure and we learned about supply and demand. The Predator and Prey game was one of the highlights during our time at Outdoor School. We were assigned different animals and could tag other players based on what animal we were. Some students were plants, moose, deer, or foxes.