Learning Update for the Week of February 4

Reminders: 

• Thursday, February 6-Grade 7 Open Houses at both Branton and Senator Patrick Burns Junior High Schools 
• Artist in Residency form and payment due ASAP
• Wednesday, February 19- is Spring Picture day for individual photos.
• Wednesday, February 26 from 6:00-8:00 is the Grade 5/6 student exhibition evening. All students are required to attend to showcase the whole group and each class' work. Some students are doing additional parts as determined by the artist and teachers. Thank you in advance for supporting this work and ensuring your child is prepared for the individual and final evening performances (more information to come). 
• Return Report card envelopes to the classroom.

English Language Arts:

The students are working with the artist, Kris Demeanor to develop their speaking voice and craft the script for their spoken word piece to share with the class and ultimately with the whole school and learning community. Again, this work is connected to their novel study, "The Sky is Falling" The due date for the students' novel study work was on Monday. The work began in early December up to the past week. Here is an exemplar from the journal work assignment:

ELA Writing:

Students are working on organizing their ideas to plan a narrative story. This week's focus is to get the ideas down in an organized format, ensure all elements make sense and are connected to the story's initial problem or challenge. Together we share these ideas with each other to help inspire and may borrow from each other for future stories. By the end of the week, each student should have a series of story maps that could be developed into a fully composed story. Many students have shared some amazing story ideas from using different perspectives to addressing challenges in realistic yet unique ways to even considering weaving a theme or message in their story.

Science: 

Our class has begun our next unit, Sky Science. Review the unit learning outcomes on the Science subject page. Each student has been provided the list of unit vocabulary to determine definitions and understand for the unit work. Due to the nature of some of the observations, students have been given a Moon Tracker sheet to record and identify the moon phases every evening. This tracker should be returned each day for discussion and check in.  I encourage you to go out in the night sky to view together, can you point out some things that you have learned over time or experience around the constellations, what you know about the moon or the sun? Ask your child to tell you more about what they have learned to help develop their vocabulary and their ability to explain their thinking using the appropriate vocabulary. Throughout the unit, there will be links added to the subject page for videos and extra practice or extension activities.