Tuesday, June 27, 2017

Congratulations!

These three kiddos were celebrated at our term 3 celebration assembly for being outstanding knights! Félicitations!

Monday, June 12, 2017

Upcoming field trips....

A reminder that the field trips forms are due this Thursday!

Tuesday, June 20th, 2017
Grade 6 students will have the opportunity to take part in an educational tour of the Exchange District, which will cover curricular outcomes such as the Winnipeg General Strike, a tour of the Moon Rock Exhibit at the science museum, which touches on outcomes in the space unit in the science curricular, and a guided tour of the Confederation Exhibit at the Manitoba Museum, which is part of the grade 6 social studies curriculum.
We will be leaving right after attendance at 9:00 am and returning to the school by 3:15 pm. Students should bring a bag lunch, and be dressed appropriately for the weather.

The cost of the activity is $13.00 per student, which will cover the cost of the tours and the school will be covering the cost of transportation.

Monday, June 26th, 2017

Grade 6 students have the opportunity to go to SilverCity St. Vital Cinemas to see the brand-new movie, Smurfs: The Lost Village, in FRENCH: Les Schtroumpfs: Le village perdu! What a great way to celebrate a year of French learning! We'll be leaving right after attendance at 9:00 a.m. and will return to school by 12:15 p.m. Students should therefore bring a lunch with them on that day, as we'll be eating upon our return and the canteen will be closed.


The cost per student is 11.00$, which includes the movie admission and the bus transportation. Please note that the concession will not be open during our time at the movie theatre.

Book Talk Information

Below you will find the criteria we created as a class to create an effective book talk.  I have also included the link to our "Good Book Talk" video.  I look forward to seeing all the presentations on Thursday!


Friday, June 9, 2017

So much learning!!!

We have been so busy learning over the past few weeks, which means LOTS of big due dates coming up to show understanding of the concepts we've been covering.

Here are some upcoming due dates to keep in mind:

Monday, June 12th
Descriptive Paragraph (en français)
Adjectives are WAY more complicated in French!

Thursday, June 15th
Book Talks
We've been doing SO much reading about the events of WWII, and now we get to share our fave, or least fave book with the class.

Prime Ministers of Canada Twitter/Instagram Project
Could you sum up a prime minister's contributions to Canada in 140 characters or less?  Our kiddos will be attempting just that through Twitter and Instagram! (using an offline template of course:)

Monday, May 15, 2017

Our learning...and some homework

As part of our learning about WWI, we studied varying perspectives about conscription.  Following a "tea party" format, we each received write-ups that presented us with a character, a history and a perspective about conscription.  We had to study and assume the role of our characters as we mingled with each other at a "tea party".  We introduced ourselves and then engaged in conversations about our history and our opinions about conscription. We had to meet at least two other people, and listen to their points of view.  Once we had mingled for a bit, each student had the responsibility of sharing someone else's story and opinion about conscription.  Finally, with the information we learned, and after learning about differing perspectives about conscription, we wrote an persuasive paragraph, supporting our own points of view.
These paragraphs are due tomorrow:)

Wednesday, May 10, 2017

Propaganda Posters WWI

In sciences humaines, we have been learning about WWI. The picture below illustrates our shared write about propaganda posters from WWI, specifically, their audience, purpose and the strategies that the artist used to accomplish his/her purpose. 
Following the shared write, students wrote in groups of two, then independently, about the posters that are illustrated to the right of our shared piece.

We are poets, we are artists...

We have been busy getting in touch with our artistic sides in ELA.  After we finished our book reviews, we were excited to get creative with our writing.  Published pieces are due tomorrow, so stay tuned for more pics!

Tuesday, May 2, 2017

Well April happened....

and we learned SO much!  It has been the craziest month EVER but we are ready to share what we have been up to!

In ELA, we learned about the criteria of a book review by studying reviews done by Kirkus and School Library Review, to name a couple. Once we had read a few mentor texts and noticed what good reviewers did, we began to write a book review for "Freak the Mighty", a class novel that we read in the fall.  We broke down our review into 4 parts: introduction (nugget), summary, evaluation (opinion), closing (the verdict).  We moved from shared write to independent writing for each part of the summary.


We moved from shared write to independent writing for each part of the summary. Students chose a novel to review of the independent write.  After MUCH revising and editing,  students have each published (or almost published) their own reviews which I will be posting to the blog and in our school library so that we encourage (or discourage) our peers to read the texts that
we have been reading.

Here is what we thought of Freak the Mighty:


Book Review: Freak the Mighty
Author: Rodman Philbrick
By: Room 205

A novel as intriguing as it’s title, Freak the Mighty is a powerful and uplifting story of two unlikely heroes who become fast friend despite their very obvious differences.  Max, an abnormally large, dim-witted teenage boy lives with his grandparents, Grim and Gram.  With a father in prison and a deceased mother, Max’s life is anything but a fairytale until Kevin (Freak), a pint-sized genius, moves in next door.  Together, they go on adventures where they embark on quests, “slay dragons”, and return purses to damsels in distress.  With Freak on Max’s shoulders, they become Freak the Mighty and a life-changing friendship is formed.
Readers will find Max and Freak bizarre yet inspiring as author, Rodman Philbrick tells their compelling story of friendship and overcoming adversity in a young adult novel that does not disappoint.  His ability to pain pictures with words brings the characters, and the world they live in to life.  With plot twists, although somewhat predictable, at seemingly every turn of the page, Philbrick is still able to keep his audience at the edge of their seats.  Readers should be aware of some vocabulary, though likely chosen intentionally, may make them feel uncomfortable.
VERDICT: A recommended book for readers who adore adventure and suspense. This novel, despite it’s lack luster cover, should be in every middle school’s library, “and that’s the truth, the whole truth, the unvanquished truth…is how Freak would say it…” (Philbrick, Rodman)

Wednesday, April 5, 2017

Welcome Back!

I hope that everyone had a wonderful spring break!  We have only been back a couple of days but we are already hard at work!
In ELA we have been working at creating a class book review of the novel Freak the Mighty.  As a group, we did a shared write of the summary portion of the book and now students are beginning to write their own based on a book of their choosing.
In FLA, we have continued on with our journey of procedural writing. Students are just finishing up their rough drafts for a procedural writing of their choice based on the class exemplar for slime.

Homework: Both rough drafts will be due tomorrow as we will be working towards revising and editing our work for future publication.  Stay tuned!

Friday, March 24, 2017

Spring Break!!!

Wishing everyone a wonder spring break!

All the kiddos are coming home with a teeny, tiny bit of homework:)

In sciences humaines, students have been asked to present their Memorable Manitoban speech to someone at home.  It's OK if you don't understand a word they say because the purpose is for them to seek feedback about their effectiveness as presenters.
Are they expressive?  Do they use eye contact?  Are they loud enough to be heard?  Are they engaging?
Please give their presentation a listen and give them some constructive feedback about how to be a more effective and engaging speaker.

Thursday, March 23, 2017

Slime is taking over Room 205!

On Tuesday, we put our slime making skills to the test by following a well-researched recipe of basic slime.  We had a lot of fun, and learned a few things about what makes great slime AND about our classmates.

Here's what we learned:
1. We had to follow the directions pretty precisely in order for slime to form.  Some of us added too much water and not enough glue and ended up with clumpy sparkle soup.
2. The recipe we followed created slime that was just "ok".  Even when it did turn out, it was a bit too tough for our liking.
3. We have a lot slime experts in our class!  Our experts tested out some modifications to the recipe we followed.  Their results were better than those who followed the directions precisely.

On Wednesday, we discussed the criteria we believe good slime must have.  We voted for the criteria based on our observations, and by testing out a few different batches of slime that were made by experts and beginners from room 205. With this information, we were ready to begin our writing task: A shared procedural writing piece on how to make slime.



The beginning of our writing journey...

Yesterday, we discussed the criteria of good procedural writing based on what we noticed from a few examples, including the one we used to make our first batches of slime.  Today, we began writing our list of materials based on that criteria. Students will now decide on what they would like to write about, and should come to school tomorrow with some knowledge about the materials they will require for their procedural writing.

Wednesday, March 15, 2017

Tuesday, March 14, 2017

Some more work coming home tonight...

FLA: Summaries of Zamboni are due tomorrow.  Please remember to revise and edit your work.  If you do not have a person to conference with, you should use Bon Patron to help you with grammatical errors if you have access to a device that connects to the internet.

Monday, March 13, 2017

Homework Alert

With report cards quickly approaching, some of the kiddos may be coming home with some homework this week.  Any students who need a bit of extra time to finish their  LES PEES WEES responses, have been asked to work on them at home and turn them in tomorrow.
For any students who still require time to finish their POETIC DEVICES IN MUSIC, LIMERICK, or MEMORABLE MANITOBAN projects, they can come in over lunch any day this week to use the computer lab to catch up.

Thursday, March 9, 2017

Thank you!

Thanks SO much to all the families who came to room 205 to celebrate their little's learning.  It was such a pleasure to meet everyone and to see some familiar faces again.  
A big shout out the families who published a limerick on our bulletin board.  The students were so excited to share their poems with the class the next day.

Tuesday, February 28, 2017

Important Dates

Important dates:
March 3: Atomic Tournament 
March 7: Student-led conferences

Friendly reminder:
Please be sure to send back your bussing forms, payment included, for those who require bussing next year.

It has been forever!

Here's a few pics of all the fun we've been having over the last couple of weeks:

Monday, February 13, 2017

February 10th, 2017

Ie know that they say to never judge a book by it's cover, but that's just what I had the kiddos do in sciences humaines last week.  These pictures appeared early last week on what was once a blank bulletin board, leaving the class a wee bit curious about who these people were, and why they had their pictures up in our class.  
One by one, students were randomly drawn to put their post-it on a picture that interested them.  The catch, there could only be a maximum of two post-its per photo.  Once everyone was chosen, students  had one minute to switch with someone, if both parties were willing.  Some seriously heart warming kindness happened during the switch time, I was very proud of my kiddos.
So, who are these people and what are their pictures doing in our class?  Check in with your littles daily to see the mysteries that they will uncover about some of most influential people in Manitoba, pas and present. 

Wednesday, February 8, 2017

February 8th, 2016

It's been awhile since we last shared what we've been up to in room 205.  So here's the scoop!

This week, we are celebrating KindNESS week. Today was Crazy for Kindess Day.  Check us out!
Room 205 is definitely CRAZY for kindness!  Tomorrow is Team up for Kindness.

In ELA, we are continuing are work as poets, finding and explaining figurative language.  Some of us have started showcasing our knowledge in our iMovie projects. We are SO excited to share what we've learned with you all.

In sciences humaines, we are continuing our hard work on researching Louis Riel.  Today we found something SUPER interesting about the Father of Confederation.  Ask us what our critical research of online media taught us!
In FLA we are continuing to practice our reading strategies through our class novel study of Zamboni.  We are working really hard to remember to justify our thinking, with specific details when responding to our text.

Wednesday, February 1, 2017

February 1, 2017

Happy February to all!  Our class had an incredible January and we are so looking forward to another incredible month of learning together.  

In ELA we are continuing to evaluate song lyrics in music in order to identify and clarify figurative language.  Some of us have begun creating movies to teach others about their learning.
In sciences humaines we are learning how to use a variety of valid sources to research a topic. We are learning this by researching Louis Riel as a class using a variety of media and sticky notes!
In FLA we are reading, Zamboni.  Chapter 2 did not disappoint!  We had some great discussion and are excited to find out what happens next.

Note from Madame Champagne:
A HUGE congratulations to everyone that was involved in the production of James and the Giant Peach.  You were INCREDIBLE! Bravo!
 

Friday, January 27, 2017

January 27th

ELA: Today we shared some of the alliterations we found in song lyrics, then we explored personification in music.  In groups of two, we recorded the personification we found.  Ask us what a personification is!

FLA: Today we read the first chapter in Zamboni.  It was quite interesting and so far, we like it alot!

Sciences Humaines: Today we began to research about Louis Riel.  We started our research by watching a short video clip and reading a graphic novel.  We recorded our findings on a post it note which also included the source.

A big thank you to Miss Ava and her family for the donation to our classroom library!  We are looking forward to organizing all of our books soon and can't wait to add these to our collection!

Thursday, January 26, 2017

Here are the learning goals we are currently working on...


Check out our Haikus


January 27th, 2017

FLA:
Today we started a new novel today in French called, Zamboni.  We continued to practice our reading strategies (Les 4 fantastiques) by using the information provided from the cover, images and vocabulary words to predict what the novel will be about.  We were sure to justify our thinking in our predictions.  We also worked as a team to clarify some new vocabulary words that we will face throughout the novel and added them to our word wall.

ELA:
In ELA, we learned about alliteration and worked in teams to find some in song lyrics. 

IMPORTANT DATES:
The CPR persuasive paragraph is due tomorrow.
James and the Giant Peach permission forms are due Monday. 



Wednesday, January 25, 2017

January 25, 2017

Today we presented our French Haikus.  The presentations were creative and interesting to watch.  We did a great job a speaking with fluency and expression.
In ELA, we continued to speak about similes and metaphors. In small groups, we were able to find poetic devices in song lyrics using the iPads.
In sciences humaines, we finished the good copy of our paragraphs about Glenbow Museum's exhibit of the CPR. For anyone who did not finish in class, they are due on Friday.

A note from Madame:
For all the band students out there, have a great concert tonight!  I thoroughly enjoyed watching your rehearsal today.  Your friends and families are in for a great treat this evening.

Monday, January 23, 2017

January 23rd, 2017

Happy Monday everyone!
We are starting off our week with some seriously learning.  Today we reviewed how to write a paragraph so that we could share our perspectives about the Glenbow Museum's CPR exhibit. In ELA, we started learning about similes by listening to and analyzing song lyrics. We are very excited about learning about more poetic devices through museum. Looks like we'll be having an fun week of learning ahead of us.

Important dates:
Haiku in FLA and ELA are due tomorrow
Le chandail de hockey questions are due tomorrow

As some of us were away playing basketball today, here is what we were up to today:
Here is a link for some other examples of similes in music.  Try and see if you can break each one down by responding to the questions above.

Wednesday, January 18, 2017

January 18th, 2017

We had SO much fun today! In FLA, we watched a short film and answered some questions in order to ensure our understanding. In ELA we wrote a Haiku as a class, then in small groups.  We shared our poems with the class and helped one another by celebrating each other's writing and giving each other feedback for improvement. We are super excited to write our very own tomorrow.

Here's our class Haiku:

The Cucumber

Kitties on YouTube
are frightened by cucumbers!
Veggie or villain?

Ask us what makes this a Haiku!

Tuesday, January 17, 2017

January 17th

Today was a day of finishing up work, and starting new learning adventures.  In FLA, we finished our summaries of, "La soirée d'hockey".  Each group had the opportunity to share their summary and we discussed what we liked and what could be improved on for each one.  We are now watching a video called, "Le chandail d'hockey".  In ELA, we finished our Holiday Bag of Fun presentations and we are now learning how to write a Haiku.  In sciences humaines, we listened to a radio broadcast about Chinese immigrants' contributions to the construction of the CPR.  We discussed opposing points of view about an exhibit at the Glenbow museum. We look forward to another great day of learning tomorrow.

Monday, January 16, 2017

January 16th, 2017

For a Monday, this proved to be a relaxed and interesting day for room 205.  This morning, we continued presenting our Holiday Bag of Fun. All of the presentations were interesting and included a fair amount of detail to support our "stuff". We will finish our presentations tomorrow. In FLA, we continued to practice our readings strategies, specifically summarizing. In sciences humaines, we watched about the CPR and Chinese immigrants followed by a discussion about how about their work and living conditions. It turns out that there was a lot that we didn't know about this part of our history. Overall, we had a great day of learning.

Friday, January 13, 2017

January 13th, 2017

We made it to the end of the first week and we still have smiles on our faces. In French class we started a new short story about a family's love of hockey.  In small groups, we practiced using the new reading strategies that we learned earlier this week: Les 4 fantastiques.  In ELA we started presenting our Holiday Bag of Fun. So far the presentations have been awesome! In sciences humaines we finished answering questions about the CPR.  For those who didn't have time to finish, they can work on it over the weekend. The assignment can be accessed on Showbie. It was a great end to a great first week together.

A note for my awesome students: Thank you SO much for an incredible first week.  You welcomed me with smiles, positive attitudes and open minds from day one.  I feel so lucky to have the opportunity to learn with you this year.  Have a great weekend and I look forward to seeing you all on Monday:)

Thursday, January 12, 2017

January 12th, 2017

Day 4 was pretty cool, in more than one way!  We spent the morning team building, and this afternoon we worked on our Bag of Holiday Fun presentations.  The students that were present today had the chance to practice their presentations using the criteria for a good presentation that we discussed.  The students that were absent will get to watch presentations tomorrow to better understand the criteria we discussed and will be presenting on Monday. In the end, it was a pretty fun day to be at school, even if it was a pretty crazy adventure getting here.

Wednesday, January 11, 2017

January 11th

Day three=yay! (Madi) In French, we finished the short story that we were reading in French and were able to communicate our understanding by writing a summary of the story as a class. We also did a spelling activity with Madame Marcoux. In sciences humaines, we watched a video about the CPR and the contributions made by Chinese-Canadian people. Finally, in ELA, we continued to work on our Bag of Holiday Fun.  We will be practicing our presentations tomorrow and should remember to bring our "stuff" in. Overall, it was an exciting day.

Important dates: Bag of Holiday Fun presentation on Friday, January 13th.
Important event: Happy Birthday to Cyrus!

Tuesday, January 10, 2017

January 10th

 Day 2=fun! (Payton) Today we started reading a book in Français about Maurice Richard called,"Le chandail d'hockey".  We are working on reading strategies such as vocabulary and predictions in order to improve our French reading. In ELA, we read a book of our choice independently then we shared about our reading with our table groups. Next, we continued to work on our Bag of Holiday Fun.Overall, 10 out of 10, we'd do it again. (Cayden H)

Monday, January 9, 2017

January 9th...And so it begins...

Today I had the pleasure of working with some pretty amazing students.  We started off the morning with a little bit of dancing followed by each choosing a song that showed one another our unique tastes in music.  We each chose a song and compiled a playlist that we can now enjoy listening to while we work. We have some pretty fantastic taste! This afternoon, we started working on our Bag of Holiday Fun,  Ask us about it!
Each day, you can look forward to hearing about our learning, on our awesome classroom blog.