Merci et Bienvenue!

This week is bittersweet for me because though we as a school prepare for the excitement of Christmas and holidays (and baby's arrival) it is sadly my last week with the students. I want to take this time to thank the parents and the St-Gemma community for a wonderful 2016. To the grade 6 students in particular I must say a huge thank you because they have been taking very good care of me (not letting me carry anything, offering me chairs, making sure I eat and drink enough). They are an incredibly kind group and I know they will have a successful rest of their year.

Conversely, I am very happy and excited to announce that Mme Longchamps will be taking over for me after Christmas break. Mme Longchamps is currently completing an LTO at nearby St-Thomas Moore in Kindergarten. Though K to 6 is going to be a big change, Mme Longchamps has taught high school before so she knows quite a bit about where are grade 6s are headed and how to prepare them best. She is very excited to meet the students and get started in the New year!

Foire des héritages

With electricity finished we are moving on to our first social studies unit; Canadian identity and heritage. For this unit, students will study a group or person who has made a significant contribution to Canada's heritage and/or identity. Students will present their projects in a heritage fair in a similar format to a science fair. We will invite parents and the rest of the school to come and visit our fair (most likely at the end of January date TBD).

Unmaker fair

We had a blast yesterday! We took apart computers, old cell phones, keyboards, remote control cars, a stereo and a hair dryer. We learned a lot about how electronics work...particularly how systems are closed or opened with buttons or other devices and how this makes the device perform different actions. We learned how heat is produced in a hair dryer. We even got to learn about the components of computers like the fan, the hard drive etc. A huge thank you to everyone who sent in their broken electronics, gloves and tools. Additionaly a big thank you to A.M.'s Dad who supported us in our tinkering.

Unmaker fair postponed

Due to possible inclement weather we will postpone our Unmaker fair till next Tuesday.

Unmaker fair update

We will be holding our unmaker fair on Tuesday November 29th in the afternoon.

We would love to have some parent volunteers to help take apart our electronics. Let me know in your child's agenda if you can come volunteer for part or all of the afternoon.

Also, we will be looking to borrow some tools and work gloves on the day of. If you can lend us some please send them in with your students. Make sure to label with tape so we know what belongs to who.

L'électrcité

We are starting our second science unit this week, electricity and electrical components. For the next few weeks the class will work in shifts on  two separate learning goals or projects.

1. Students will read about static electricity, simple circuits and safety while doing a few hand on experiments such as constructing simple circuits with a few components. 

2. Students will prepare for a debate where they will have to prove that their type of electric (hydro, geothermic, solar, fossil fuels, etc.) is best (cheaper, better for the environment etc.) 

Here is our electricity padlet with videos, links and curriculum expectations. 

Évaluation biodiversité

In their science folder students have a received feedback and an evaluation on the caractère progression we co-created. Three important things to mention about these assessments:

1. While I normally make it a priority to communicate in French to students I wrote the feedback in English so parents and guardians could also read the feedback and have a good idea of how they are doing and where to go next.

2. While we created the caractère progression together, the original progression is not age or grade specific. Thus, very few students will have achieved the highest level of achievement. This does not mean that they didn't get a level 4 or their project. For our purpose, we were aiming more for the 2nd or 3rd row.

3. You will find no grades. I do this because the students tend to fixate on the grade and the really useful feedback falls on deaf ears. You and your student should be able to tell by the feedback whether they demonstrated deep or vast learning. For many of the students the next step we will be working on is collaboration (more to come on this subject!)