Hello R7A Families –

Well, January has blown and heaved and snowed and sneezed and here we are with just a few days left. Hope you all stayed upright on our dangerous sidewalks and roads. My dog walks this weekend looked like a cross between Mr. Bean and Cirque du Soleil.

The Intermediate yard is definitely a skating rink right now. Our students really need to be wearing boots with treads to keep safe. Please reinforce this at home.

We started our GEOGRAPHY presentations last week and so far I am very impressed with the students’ summaries and actual presentations. A video of a tsunami sweeping through a Japanese city made a dramatic impression. This week, the presentations will conclude. Next week, we will start our unit on Natural Resources and will build expert groups so we can all share information. 

In LITERACY, guided reading continues. We are making a very concerted effort to build reading and comprehension skills so that our class becomes stronger in their reading skills. So far, the students seem to be enjoying their groups and activities. We will finish watching the wonderful movie, “Inside Out” and will be doing discussion and comprehension activities. This unit ties in nicely with Mr. Marcus’ health class and current school presentations on mental health. January 31st is Bell’s “Let’s Talk” Day, a national day dedicated to a better understanding of mental health.  Here is a link to Canadian 6-time Olympian, Clara Hughes’ piece on her own struggles with depression: https://letstalk.bell.ca/en/our-initiatives/team/clara-hughes

I am determined that we will be finished with landforms and shading in VISUAL ARTS so we can move on to another project!

Thanks for all of the ski trip forms. Remember, all tubers must have a hockey helmet. We have some at school but I have been told they are not in great repair. If your child can bring or borrow a helmet, that would be very good. We will be leaving at 8 AM on February 21, so everyone has to be at school by 7:45. 

On a more serious note, the other R7A teachers, Mme Deschênes, Ms Small and I have been working with a number of students on their behaviour inside and outside of class. We are working on strategies for self-regulation, respect for others and their learning and personal goals. Please talk to your children about the importance of conducting themselves with kindness and dignity all through the school day.

Have a wonderful Groundhog Day on Friday!

And here’s to the end of January with a funny New Yorker cover calendar:

Ms Swail

 

Good morning everyone,

It’s a snowy start to a four-day week here at V.M.. Friday is a PA Day when we teachers sit down and work on our term one report cards, and your children sleep in!

Ski Trip – by now, you will know ( I hope) that the Intermediate Division has a ski trip to Edelweiss in Quebec on February 21st. Students can ski, snowboard or tube. There are many forms to sign. The ski trip package was given out last week and I asked for all forms to be in by Monday (today) if possible (grade 7 teacher approach), although Wednesday is the official date. Please ensure the forms are in by Wednesday as we have to pre-order rental equipment.

Literacy – our ongoing unit right now is the teenage brain and viewing, discussing and writing about the animated film, “Inside Out”. We have been assessing fluency and reading comprehension in guided reading activity time. Book and movie reviews happen on Friday mornings. Vocabulary Assignment #5 was due on Friday, February 19th. The next assignment will be on Google Classroom this Friday, February 26th.

If you are interested in viewing the CBC documentary, “Surviving the Teenage Brain”, here is the link. http://www.cbc.ca/natureofthings/episodes//surviving-the-teenage-brain

Geography – this week, R7A students will be presenting their projects on natural disasters. They will be assessed on content, thoroughness and their oral communication skills. All of the students have been following the project checklist and working on their summarizing skills for presentations.

Visual Arts – we are finishing our shading/shadowing project. Our next activity may involve math and photography. Ms Kadoura and I are working on this initiative.

Sports – here are the sports announcements that were posted today:

🏀All intermediate girls interested in trying out for the basketball team in room 222 first recess. Please come ready for recess, as it will be a brief meeting regarding tryouts for this week.🏀 Tryouts: Tuesday 3:15 pm – 4:30 pm and Thursday 7:30 am – 8:25 am (PA Day Friday!!)

Last boys basketball tryouts today in the large gym at 3pm. If you did not come last Wed, please attend today.

Ever skated through a forest? Gatineau Park now has a 3 km skating loop. Here is the link: https://www.patinageenforet.com/

Have a very good week. Remember, no school on Friday!

Ms Swail

 

Happy New Year R7A families,

We successfully got through our first week of school in 2018, with temperatures spanning from +9 to – 28 on Friday night. It was good to see (almost) everyone back. This week we did lots of work on the natural disasters geography project and I am impressed by the students’ perseverance and focus. What a winter we are experiencing. Please make sure that your children – however reluctantly – wear proper winter footwear, hats and gloves.

In Literacy, we are continuing guided reading. Ms Austin, Ms Davies and I will be assessing the students for reading comprehension and fluency this coming week. Another vocabulary assignment (#5) has been posted on Google Classroom and is due on Friday, January 19th. Students should be working on this assignment all week. We are also starting a brand new media literacy unit on the film “Inside Out”, a wonderful movie about adolescent emotions. In this unit, we will be touching on teenage brain development and behaviour and focusing on comprehension and the use of techniques in film-making. Oral presentations are now focused on book and film reviews.

In Geography, we are wrapping up our natural disasters projects. Presentations will begin early in the week. We have been coaching the students on strengthening their presentation skills and have encouraged all to create summary cue cards so they are not reading directly from the page while presenting. After our natural disasters unit, we will be moving onto the second half of grade 7 Geography – Natural Resources. More on that later.

This past week, we had an interactive presentation with CHEO’s Youthnet which focuses on mental health issues and strategies. Our students participated really well with lots of insights and questions. We learned about how closely mental health is linked to physical health and how important it is to understand that we all have thoughts, emotions and feelings. We will be having another session with Youthnet and their young representatives next week. On January 23rd, all grade 7 students will learn about the ROH’s pro-active program, EIP, and your children will be invited to put forward their names to participate in a discussion group. Forms will be coming home, if your child is interested. As well, in February, VM will be implementing part-time guidance counselling. I will have more on that later.

In Visual Art, we are now learning about shading and shadowing in the creation of pieces based on real-life photos of landforms. Our display board outside room 201 is now full of your children’s beautiful adaptations of Alex Janvier’s “Morningstar”.

       

If you are interested in butterflies and wanting to get your head (and whole body!) out of the polar vortex, the Museum of Nature has a wonderful exhibit on butterflies.

https://nature.ca/en/plan-your-visit/what-see-do/our-exhibitions/butterflies-flight

Keep warm,

Heather Swail