Hello everyone,
Just a few reminders today:

Homework for math:
Grade 7 1-10 of the unit review
Grade 6 1 all of the first lesson of unit 3

There is a family advent liturgy tonight at 6:30 at St. Anne Parish. Our class does not have a role in the mass, but are welcome to attend. We made the table decorations in the parish hall, so please admire the students' work if you are in attendance.

We will have our school Christmas lunch on Wednesday. Our class is responsible for bringing coleslaw. Your child needs to either bring dressing or a bag of cabbage. (They should know which one was assigned to them.)

We have early dismissal on Friday at 2:15.

Have a great night everyone!

Art from our class

Tomorrow the students will perform their debates on sustainable energy. Here is a link to some websites I found for students to get information from. Scroll to the bottom and you will find 6-7 websites. The David Suzuki stuff is probably the most reliable.
We worked on a lot of art today. It looks fantastic. Stop by and have a peak if you can. We have it on display outside Mr. Horner's room again, and just outside our own room. I will try to post some pictures tonight.

There is a note going home today about the salad for the Christmas meal that our school will be having on December 20th.
The grade six students have to complete the pre-test in math for Monday. The test will be Wednesday, December 11th.
We still don't have all of the library forms returned. Monday will be the last day to accept forms as I will be taking them to the library that day - we just can't wait any longer.
Here is a sneak peak of the art that we are creating with the recycled junk. I can't wait to see what the students create!

Hello Parents,
Today we worked on our debate arguments for our inquiry into sustainable energy. The students are in groups of 3 or 4 and are working on arguments for the following resolutions:
Be it resolved that __________ energy is the future. In the blank space, students are inserting one of the following energies: wind, solar, geothermal, or hydro.
We have been researching these energies and Mr. Horner has taught the students the elements of debate. We will continue to work on our arguments tomorrow and into next week. We plan to have our debates on Friday, December 14th, Parents are welcome to attend. There will be 4 debates that will run throughout the day. We have not set up a schedule for our debate tournament, but when we do, that information will be sent home.
We also worked on squishy circuits today. The students were excited and highly engaged. Here is a link to the squishy circuit website. You can go there to see what we were doing - today we learned about series circuits. As well, many students asked where I got the battery packs and light bulbs (LEDs). I bought them at the squishy circuit website - they even sell kits that have 25 LEDs, a battery pack, a motor, and two buzzers. The kits are $25, which might make a fun Christmas gift for enthusiastic children. (Just a thought - I don't make royalties off of their sales. :) Click here to go to their website.
Today we discussed possible fundraisers for Christmas. Since the student suggestions were all over the map, and they couldn't agree on what they were interested in, AND because we are just wrapping up our Art Auction, which raised $285 - $200 of which will be donated to the Saskatoon Food Bank, I have made an executive decision to just keep it simple. If you are able to, please send nonperishable food items to be included in the Christmas food hampers.
As well, we are responsible for bringing coleslaw for the school wide potluck lunch before Christmas. Some students were asked to bring a bag of coleslaw mix, and other students were asked to bring a bottle of dressing. Closer to the date I'll have students write a reminder in their day planners.
The grade six students have a math test coming up next week. It may be Tuesday, but we have a little more work to do before we can set an exact date. We will do the practice test tomorrow.
On Tuesday, Mr. Scott came to helped us with our appliance activity. Our class, along with the 5/6 class opened up appliances and electronics. Thank you to Mr. Scott for being willing to come and give us such great information. The students loved the experience. A few switches for the appliances found their way into our squishy circuit exploration today - it was really cool!
Have a great night everyone!

Sledding tomorrow - need to bring outdoor clothing and something to slide on.
Grade 7 students need to finish their math lesson.
We took apart the appliances and electronics today. All tools will be sent home today.

The grade 6 students have math homework today. They must complete the two page photocopied worksheet for Monday. Most students had completed the assignment or were close to completing it.

Students need to bring a tool for Monday. (see Thursday's post to see a the picture linked to the request.)

Please send toilet paper tubes, buttons, and ribbon to school next if you can.

Don't forget to send back the note from our room parent - thanks to those of you who already have.

Have a great weekend.

Hello Parents,
Today we started the first theme of Fully Alive. Here is a link to the parent note explaining what the first unit is about. We will follow the grade six program. The division requires that in combined grade classrooms, the Fully Alive program taught is from the younger of the two grades. Most of our grade seven students followed the grade five program last year.

Next week we will take apart the electronic/appliance "junk" in our hallway. We have an electrician coming to help us with our exploration. Thank you to Mrs. W. for arranging this for us. We will need tools to take apart the appliances. If you have a multi-tip screwdriver (not even really sure what they are called), please send it with your child. We can label them with masking tape, and return them as soon as we are done with the exploration.


We need toilet paper tubs for a craft for the advent mass. If you have buttons or ribbon that you can send, that would be great too. Here and here are links to the projects we will be making. We'd like to start on these projects next week, so if you have anything to send, please send it anytime before next Wednesday.

Our room parent sent a note home with all children in our class asking for parent e-mail contact information. She'd like to send out group e-mails and would like to have your contact information sent back soon. If you did not receive a note, please let me know and I can make sure you get another.

Library applications forms need to be returned tomorrow. I'd like to take the forms to the library and book our trip as soon as possible.

Thanks everyone,
Have a good night.

Today we learned about the dewy decimal system in the library, and Mrs. Gerwing showed us how to access magazine articles and information from the school destiny website. I will post a link to the site later tonight. I also wanted to remind parents to fill out and return the library applications forms as soon as possible.
The grade six students had math homework today.
Have a great night everyone.

Thank you to all of the parents and students who were willing to try something new during our three-way conferences. It was nice to meet you all and get to speak to you about your children and the journey they are on.
I also wanted to remind the students that they needed to finish their electricity journal yesterday, and return it to school on Monday.
There is also no school tomorrow as it is a professional learning day for teachers.
Have a great night everyone.

Today the students brought home a handout to go over with their parents. It's information about the 16 Habits of Mind, and it's intended for parents to read before the three-way-conferences. We will be using this information to form the conversation at our three-way-conferences, so it is important for parents to be familiar with the information before their child's conference.

There will be no school on Thursday or Friday this week.

Grade six students had homework in math today.

This was sent home yesterday, Tuesday, November 20th:
 Three-way-conference Guide for Parents

Hello parents,
 Today I sent home a note about the book fair, and an application for borrowing from the public library.
As well, I forgot that tomorrow our class will be walking to BJM High School to watch a play. We have to leave the school around 12:15 to be able to be ready for the play to start at 12:45. Please make sure your child has a lunch at school tomorrow, or that they can be back at the school by 12:10. We will return to the school around 3pm and dismiss at the regular time.

I tried to send a group email out to everyone using the email addresses supplied to the school. I had many of them returned as undeliverable. I'm not sure what the problem is, but I may be asking some of you for your email addresses again.

Have a great night everyone.

Ms. G

Yesterday portfolios were sent home. There was also a note included from me, as well as information about your three-way conference time. If you need to change your conference time, please call the school office to arrange a time that works better for you. Please look over the portfolio with your child, and return it to school on Monday, November 19th. We need it back at school at add a few things to it before our conferences on Wednesday and Thursday.

If your child has not finished their book-in-a-bag report, they must complete it this weekend. We have started presentations, and want to wrap this project up on Monday and Tuesday next week.

Have a great weekend everyone.

The book-in-a bag project was due last week. There are a few students who are not done yet, and I asked them to have it finished for tomorrow.
The grade 7 students have questions 1 and 2 due for homework in math.
A few students had a venn diagram due from science today.
Portfolios will be sent home tomorrow. Please view then, and send them back to school on Monday.
Have a great night everyone!

The students received the draft of their persuasive writing essays back yesterday after I evaluated them. Yesterday we started to learn the skills of revision and editing. They students will be given time over the next 2 days to work on their polished essay. The final copy of the essay is due Thursday, November 8th.

We have been working on a book report called book-in-a-bag. We will continue to work on it over the next few days. The tentative due date is November 9th.

The art auction has been extended until after the three-way conferences to give parents a change to see the art.  Watch for details in the newsletter.

We had a great day at the pool this afternoon. All students were well behaved, and I was proud of them.
 
Tomorrow is Halloween, and students can dress in costume for the afternoon.
We will also attend the dance in our gym.

There is no homework for tomorrow.

Have a great night everyone.
-Ms. Gallays

Hello everyone,
Today I sent home a permission slip to go swimming. The students worked to earn a swim afternoon, and we are going to Lakeview Civic Centre tomorrow. Each child must have a signed permission slip to be able to come along, so please make sure to sign it and send it back for tomorrow.
The rough copy of the five paragraph essay was due today. If there are students who have not completed it for tomorrow, they can have more time to finish it at the pool tomorrow. I can even sit with them and help them get it done.
There is a word-a-day quiz tomorrow. The quiz will be on the ten vocabulary words we have taken this year. There will be 10 matching questions and 10 fill in the blank questions.

The good copy of the persuasive essay will be due on Thursday, November 1st, unless we run out of class time to do our editing and revising. I just noticed that we have swimming Tuesday afternoon, and a dance Wednesday afternoon, so we may have to make the due date Friday. I will keep you posted.

Have a good night everyone!

Art auction and other information

Hello everyone.
I have to apologize for not updating you on the status of our art auction. We will run it next week and have Friday, November 2nd be the last day.
I have been working very hard to get the ArtsSmarts grant completed for November 1st. It's a very time consuming grant, but it's worth $7500 for our school if we are successful. I am so excited about what we have planned that I can hardly stand it. The draw back of applying for this grant is that you have to complete the entire idea for the grant, and then wait to see if you are accepted. Needless to say, I hope to be back to my regular self after this work is completed.

For next week:
Monday presentations are due for the Human Rights unit.
Tuesday we have a word-a-day quiz and the typed rough copy of the persuasive essay is due.
We will also go swimming on Tuesday afternoon. Watch for a newsletter and permission form on Monday.
Thursday the good copy of the persuasive essay is due.

Have a great weekend everyone!

A mid-month check in...

Hello All,
I have to apologize for leaving this blank for so many days in a row. I've been all consumed with an ArtSmarts grant application that I've been working on for our class.

Yesterday was a very busy day. We had students coming and going from Teen Aid presentations, and working busily on their crayon art. There is a lot of great art coming along, and the some kids are in love with the melting wax process.

The students have probably mentioned that this will be for an art auction. I'm hoping that we can re-coup the cost of the art supplies and then make around 1-2 dollars per art piece to donate to an organization that helps increase the standard of living for people... children...(?).... We still have to decide where we want to donate to, but I did wanted to give you an idea of what we're doing.

The art auction will be a silent auction. Our crayon canvases will be on display in the main hallway around the kindergarten room. We will have sheets of paper on tables allowing people to write in their bid for whichever art piece they'd like to win. I think most of the students are planning to buy their own art, and the idea that someone else might buy it, isn't really a concern to them. I still need to prep them for the fact that someone besides them may want to purchase their art, and that they should try to be okay with that.

We will start putting the art up on Monday. It will be on display all week. We will put out the auction pages on Wednesday, and leave them out until Friday, October 26 at 3:00. At that point, we'll call the auction closed and contact the highest bidders.

If you have any questions or concerns about the auction, please contact me.

As for homework:
The grade 6 class will start work on the "show what you know" lesson today. It's the last lesson of unit 1. The students must complete all of the questions for Monday, at which time we will correct the questions, and do last minute preparations for the test. The test will be on Tuesday, October 23rd.

We have also been working on our persuasive essays. The rough draft will be due on Wednesday, October 24th. They essay should be 5 paragraphs long and include: an introduction with a theses, 3 supporting paragraphs, and a closing paragraph. We've spent a lot of time going over the structure of the essay, so hopefully the students are confident in what they are doing.

We will take time on Thursday and Friday to do the revisions and edits to the essay, and good copies will be due on Tuesday, October 29th. The students will need to submit a paper copy along with their rough draft. They will also need an electronic version that they will upload to a blog that I will loan them for the year. This blog will be their blog to use, but their name and anything that identifies them will not be included in the blog. I will have the ability to control and monitor their use of the blog. I have the blogs linked to my school email account, which means that when the students post or comment, I get email notifications sent to my smart phone. It's really a fast and convenient way to monitor the blog usage. I will send you more info about the class blogs next week.

At the end of October, we will be wrapping up our unit on Human Rights, and moving into a new inquiry unit on electricity and sustainability called: Will we have enough energy? Thank you to Mrs. Wheaton for all of her help with obtaining old appliances for the class. She has rounded up a plethora of old appliances for us to take apart and investigate. I can hardly wait!

Have a great weekend everyone. I will be at a convention today, and won't see your children until Monday.
-Jen Gallays

Homework for today:

Persuasive writing:
First Draft of the introductory paragraph with thesis statement is due tomorrow. We have been working on this in class for the last week. I broke down the thesis statement into parts and showed them today how to write their introduction. They should have a "hook" in their intro - something that grabs the reader. We worked a lot on imagery. I asked them to put their thesis statement at the end of their paragraph.

Math:
Grade six students have questions 1-4 page 31 and 32 due for homework for tomorrow.
They will also have a math test next week - likely on Friday, October 19th.

Notes:
Movie Night notes were sent home today.

Pizza lunch forms were sent home today and are due back for October 18th.

Have a great night everyone!

Wanted: An expert (A.K.A. an electritian)

Hello again everyone,
I am looking for an electrician that can come into our classroom to assist us with our electricity project. What I've imagined is that we will have our expert circulate while we take apart our appliances and identify the "electrical parts". The expert could let the children know if their identifications are correct, and answer questions that the children have. Later in the unit, I am hoping to have children build something electrical - maybe potato lights and clocks? If we could have an expert come and help us trouble shot that day, that would be so helpful. I'm not very knowledgeable about electricity, and if we encounter any problems, I'm not sure I'll be that helpful with the trouble shooting.
So this would be low key - no presentations, no being put on the spot. We just need someone that can come and assist us with our learning. If you think that you can help, and you have an electrical background, please let me know. I'm sort of aiming to have kids take apart the appliances on October 24th in the morning.
You can contact me through email: jgallays@gscs.sk.ca or by phone: 659-8100.
Thanks,
Ms. Gallays

Wanted: Old Appliances

Hello everyone,
In the next few weeks we will wrap up our first inquiry unit. The next inquiry based unit will have a science theme and will focus on electricity and energy conservation. I'm hoping to round up enough toasters and small appliances to allow the children to work in groups of two to disassemble them and look at the wires and circuits. So far, I have 4 appliances and need to acquire 9 or 10 more. If you have an old unused, even broken appliance at home, please send it to school with your child. I'd also appreciate it if you could mention this project to friends and relatives - maybe they'd have old appliances that they were going to be getting rid of, and could give it to us for this project.
Thanks so much for your help!
Ms. Gallays

Here are a few things that I forgot to add to the blog yesterday.
The grade six students have math homework. They are to complete questions 1-4 for Tuesday. (I know - homework on a long weekend is obnoxious - most of them were done already.)

Grade 7 students have a math test on Thursday, October 11th.

There are a couple of girls in the classroom who are selling Girl Guide cookies. They are $5 a box, and if anyone is interested, please send money with your child next week.

I also added the class schedule to the blog. Please follow the link on the side of this page. Click on "assignments and handouts".

Note that band is on Tuesday and Friday every week. Please have your child bring their band instrument to school on those days.

 Happy Thanksgiving everyone. I hope you all have a wonderful weekend, and get to spend time with family and loved ones.

The classroom is buzzing with excitement. The children have been busy creating their cardboard creations. It's exciting to see their enthusiasm and passion. We did not do day planner today as they did not have homework. However, I did forget to tell them that their school picture orders are due tomorrow.
Have a great night everyone.

The Global Cardboard Challenge

Hello Parents and Guardians,
We have signed up to participate in the Global Cardboard Challenge. I've included links to the website and other important information below.
The event has been planned by the Imagination Foundation, and to learn more about what we're doing, please use this link to visit their website:
Imagination Foundation
Starting Monday, our class will start planning and building cardboard creations. A list of possible building supplies can be found here:
Supply List
If you have any of these supplies, please send them to school with your child on Monday.
If you'd like to attend the event, please sign up at:
http://www.imagination.is/37155/the_6_7_cardboard_inquiry?recruiter_id=37155
 
As well, below are two videos that were shown to the class today. They do a great job of explaining what led to this event, and why people around the world are joining it.





Another thing that students may want to look at over the weekend are Rube Goldberg Silly Machines. They can find cartoons and videos of these creations, and maybe even some inspiration.
Have a great weekend everyone!

Hello parents:
Several notes went home again today. The notes included:
XtraMath (Please have your child sign up - they should be able to link their old account to our new classroom. If you have problems with this, let me know.)
The school newsletter was sent out today.
School photos were sent home. Orders are due back on October 3rd.
There was also a letter that was sent home today on white paper. I did not get a very good look at it, but I think it asked for people to declare if they are a visible minority.

Math homework
Grade 6: Page 14 and 15 Questions 1-4 were assigned today. They are to be completed for tomorrow.
Grade 7: Questions 1-6 due for tomorrow.

We did a lot of inquiry today. Students set up a questions yesterday. I reviewed their questions today and helped them tweak them. They researched child slavery, child labor, child soldiers, or people or organizations trying to stop these atrocities. Your children may have questions about what they have seen and read today, and parents may want to ask their children what they learned, and how they feel about it. If you have concerns or questions, please feel free to call or email me.

Have a great night everyone.

Several Newsletters were sent home today. They were the following:
Zoo club letter (members only)
Immunization letter (grade 6 only)
Parent Council letter
UofS Research letter

Grade 7 students have math homework - Questions 1 and 2 due tomorrow

Inquiry: Students have to come up with a BIG QUESTION for tomorrow. The theme is Human Rights Violations.

Have a great night everyone!

Homework: Friday, September 21st

The grade six students have math homework. They are to complete questions 1a-d page 14.

Information about the magazine campaign was sent home today.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Homework: Thursday, September 20th

Phys. Ed. clothes are needed for tomorrow.

The grade 6 students will have band tomorrow. It is likely that the grade 7 students will not have band due to an assembly.

The "during" sheet from the before/during/after activity was due the other day. Some students have not handed this sheet in, and must complete it and hand it in tomorrow.

Hot lunch order forms are due tomorrow.

Have a great night everyone!

Homework Tuesday, September 18th

Today the students worked on the "during" part of a before/during/after assignment which will reflect their learning and understanding of Human Rights. The during sheet is due tomorrow.

Math: The grade 7 students have homework today. I already erased the board, but I believe that they had to do questions 1 - 5.

Reminder: Tonight is Meet the Teacher Night -come and go between 6:30 and 8:00.

Monday, September 17th

Today we played three different games of dodge-ball in the gym. We played with no rules, with rules that only some people had to follow, and with rules that everyone had to follow. When we came back to class we began work on an open-mind portrait. The purpose of the portrait is to show who each child was feeling during our phys.ed. time today. This relates to our inquiry unit on human rights.

The open-mind portrait is due tomorrow.

Tomorrow is meet the teacher night between 6:30 and 8:00. I look forward to meeting many of you at this come and go function.

Have a great night everyone.

PS - the assignments and rubrics for this week and last have been posted in the assignment sections. If you're interested in seeing anything, follow the link.   right here -->

Friday, September 14

Due for Monday:
Rights: What are they? (sheet we worked on in class)
Viewing Guide (Response to the Human Rights videos)

Phys. Ed. - change of clothing and deodorant needed for Monday.

Monday is picture day!

Hot lunch forms were sent home today. They are due back Friday, September 21st.

Have a great weekend everyone!

The new teacher...

September Hello