Good afternoon R7A Families –

The weekend brought a snowy start to our first full week in February. I had the opportunity to get to Gatineau Park and had a wonderful cross-country ski in lots of fresh, powdery snow.

In Geography, we are starting our jigsaw working groups on natural resources, specifically, trees, fish and fossil fuels. In jigsaw groups,  a home team will learn and work together to understand a large subject such as natural resources. They are all assigned a specific “expert” group (such as fossil fuels) and they go off and work with this group to learn and bring back summarized information for their home group. As a class, we will decide how we want to develop and present our information. The study of natural resources will touch on environmental, economic and political issues and tie in very nicely with our next area of social studies, History, or “Ourstory” as I call it. Your children will be bringing home their geography project assessments by the end of the week for discussion with you and for your signature. I would like the forms back, please.

     

The cooperative learning strategy known as the “jigsaw” technique helps students create their own learning. Teachers arrange students in groups. Each group member is assigned a different piece of information. Group members then join with members of other groups assigned the same piece of information, and research and/or share ideas about the information. Eventually, students return to their original groups to try to “piece together” a clear picture of the topic at hand. http://www.educationworld.com/

In Literacy, we will be in our guided reading groups, sharpening and strengthening fluency, comprehension and discussion skills. We will be doing some independent reading and preparing for our next unit, which will be based on Canadian indigenous creation stories. Students will be working on key skills such as identifying main ideas, summarizing information and re-telling the story through an 8-frame art project. Given their love of stories and art, this should be fun.

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In Art, we are starting a brand new project, creating an Ottawa-Gatineau silhouette-streetscape composed of the most significant landmarks such as the Peace Tower. This will increase students’ understanding of what is out there in our region and also give them a great opportunity to work together to create a large piece of art.

 

SKI TRIP: Thursday, February 21. 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. 

That’s all for now. Winterlude started on February 2nd and there is a lot going on for families. Check out the link.

Have a very good week.

Ms Swail