DARE Graduation

Just a reminder, that the Grade 6 DARE Graduation will be taking place this Friday at 9:15. All parents and family members are welcome to attend the festivities, which will take place in the fitness room.

News and Notes for March

Howdy everyone, just some news and notes for the month of March.

1. We're starting a novel study in class starting this week. There are two different novels being read and both are about the Underground Railroad. This will be read gradually as we complete various activities about the novels. I'm asking students to read up to Chapter 3 over the March Break.

2. The students received a writing assignment  this week, which asks them to create a newspaper article about the Senior boys or girls basketball team at River Oaks. I'm hoping they can have a lot of fun with this, especially the investigative journalist aspect of it. It's due on April 1st (no joke).

3. Lastly, you won't be able to contact me over the March Break because I'll be in the Caribbean (on a cruise).

Hope everyone has a safe and happy March Break.

Skating

The Grade 6's will be going on two skating trips to River Oaks Recreation Center in the month of February.

We are going on Monday, February 7th, and Monday, February 14th. From 11:00am to 12:00 pm on both days.

It is a walking trip and there is no cost.

You will be getting the permission forms this Tuesday, so look for those in your child's backpack.

Please make sure that proper outdoor clothing attire is worn because the rink can get rather chilly. Also, all children need to have a CSA approved helmet to go on the ice.

If you don't have skates and/or a helmet, please let me know on the permission form so that I can try and ask around to accommodate your son/daughter.

Welcome Back

I hope everyone had a good holidays and ate lots and lots of food.

As we get back into the swing of things, I just wanted to take the time to inform you of some of the things that will be coming up in the New Year.

Language
We'll be starting a bunch of things in the next month or so in relation to language. We're starting a reading comprehension unit that will have us examine and challenge the way we read by making predictions and empathizing with characters or situations. We'll also be working on improving our descriptive writing, both in the way that we respond to questions and in the way we free write. Lastly, at some point in the near future, we'll be starting a novel study that's related to Black History Month and the Underground Railroad.

Math
Our next math unit will be on geometry, as we learn how to measure angles, classify figures, construct figures, and work with three dimensional nets. After that, we'll dive in to working with decimals.

Social Studies
We're nearly done our focus on Canada and it's connections to the world. To close out the unit, we'll start to focus on more of the economic side of things and examine the concept of an economy and the world's financial structure. Then we'll transition to First Nations and European Explorers.

Phys. Ed.
We're going to be starting a short unit on dance, which will have the students create their own piece (in groups) around a specific theme. Then we'll start a short unit on indoor ball games, where we'll play things like European Handball, Indoor Soccer, Rugby/Basketball (yes it's a combo of the two). Then we'll move on to a large unit of Basketball.

Health
Starting this week, the students will begin the D.A.R.E. program, where a police officer (Officer Scott) will come in once a week to instruct the students on drug awareness and prevention. This will last until May or so.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays

Just wanted to say the first part of the school year has been a blast and I'm very grateful for having such an amazing class.

Hope everyone has a tremendous Christmas (and a Happy Holidays)!

Also, thank you all so much for the wonderful gifts.

See you in the New Year. Don't eat too much.

Tchoukball

This week in Phys. Ed. we have started playing a new game called Tchoukball. It's a fantastic ball oriented game from Sweden. It's HUGE in Europe and is only just starting to catch on in Canada.

Here's a clip to give you an idea.




We'll be playing tchoukball until the Christmas break. After the break, the school will also have tchoukball intramurals during the nutrition breaks.

Movember Donations to End Prostate Cancer

So the month of Movember (November) is almost over. That means it will soon be time to wave goodbye to my moustache. But before the month is out, it's never too late to donate to a good cause.

Just in case you missed the original post on here about Movember, the month formerly known as November is a moustache growing charity event held during November each year that raises funds and awareness for prostate cancer research. This year, the Halton District School Board has decided to sign up and create a team of mustachio'd male teachers in order to help raise money for prostate cancer awareness. I've decided to be one of those (in case you didn't notice on parent/teacher interview night).

Remember, in 2010 tragically more than 4,400 men will die as a direct result of prostate cancer. And 1 and 6 men will develop prostate cancer in their life time. Pretty alarming statistics.

If you want to donate, go to the following link

Thanks!