November 24

The week of November 25th – 29th, 2019

Greetings on the beginning of this last week of November –

Only four weeks left until the holidays and we have a lot to do in R7A. Mr. Catahan, teacher candidate, will be joining us full-time next week until close to the end of January. He will be working with the class on media literacy and guided reading. He will also be team teaching with me in Geography as the students work through their natural disaster projects and head into learning about Canada’s natural resources. In Visual Art, this week, we will be starting a brand new artistic process, planning and then creating our own morning star mandalas.

Image result for morning star alex janvier

Please ask your children to show you Google Classroom for the Geography project and Language Arts resources and assignments.

We had a wonderful field trip to the Museum of History on Friday. The students who attended were amazing and seemed to enjoy our tour of the Grand Hall,  learning about the Pacific Northwest Coast peoples, seeing beautiful art and walking through and interacting with the Canadian History Hall. Here are a few shots. Hajara will be creating a slide show based on all of the photos she took. I think many of the students would love to return to the museum – there is so much to see and experience. Thanks again to Taurean’s mom for coming and helping us out. We had many volunteers as the U of O Faculty of Education History class students were with us.

Hope you all had a chance to get outside and enjoy the beautiful sun and “warmer” air.

Ms Swail

November 17

The week of November 18th – 22nd, 2019

Good evening R7A families – 

This blog will be brief as we are still carrying on many of the activities scheduled for last week. With the snow day and a short week, everything is (almost) sliding forward into this week.

The number one item is our field trip to the Museum of History on Friday, November 22nd. Please, please sign and return the permission form with the $5 fee by tomorrow. Thank you to Taurean’s mom for volunteering. It will be a full, wonderful day. As the students and I discussed, this is a great opportunity in a beautiful museum. Considerate and mature behaviour (on my part too!) is essential. We are representing ourselves, the R7A class and Vincent Massey. Students should bring a snack and lunch and water. We will be having a scavenger hunt and will be touring with Mr. Catahan’s History class.

It was good to meet the families who came on Thursday evening and Friday morning for interviews. Those of you who wanted a phone interview – I will call you this week.

Temperatures are promised to be a bit more temperate this week but students should all be bringing and wearing hats, gloves and outdoor boots.

Here is a link to the Museum of Science and Technology on St. Laurent Blvd., literally minutes from the school.  There is an exhibit on Women involved with STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) https://ingeniumcanada.org/cstm.  What a great inspiration for our young women!

Have an excellent week,

Ms Swail

November 10

The week of November 11th – 15th, 2019

 Dear R7A Families –

Tomorrow is Remembrance Day. The grade 5-8 Remembrance Day ceremony will be held at 11:45 am in the large gym. Parents and families are welcome. Our class is performing a recitation of the poem, “First They Came”. They will do this with meaning, respect and emotion, I know. I am inserting a link to a youtube video in which Leonard Cohen recites John McCrae’s famous poem, “In Flanders Fields”.

Later in the week, on Thursday at 1:15, the Late Harvest committee headed by Tesha, will be hosting an R7A potluck to celebrate autumn, harvest and our Canadian indigenous traditions. I will be sending out an e-mail tomorrow indicating what the committee requires in terms of food. It is an expectation that most of the class bring something for the potluck.

On Thursday and Friday, we are holding parent-teacher interviews in the large gym. I will be there from 4:30 – 7:00 on Thursday afternoon/evening, and from 8:30 – 11:00 on Friday morning. All Intermediate teachers will be in the gym. The interviews are designed to be brief. If you have a more serious issue or concern to talk about, may I suggest you contact the subject teacher(s). I have already met with many of you, and would be happy to see you again, preferably with the R7A student as the interview is about them. Please review the progress report and comment and sign the return sheet with the envelope.

There will be no school on Friday.

Photo retake day is on Wednesday. The student must bring in their original photo envelope. I wonder if Albert Einstein ever did photo retakes?!

Image result for einstein hair

All this week, Ms Shiau and I will be meeting and conferencing with R7A students about their reading and writing strengths and areas for improvement. Please, please, please, ensure your child has the time and develops the habit of reading every day. Reading daily strengthens language skills and fluency. It also expands our general knowledge and helps us become stronger thinkers. This is an incredible time for students in grade 7 – their brains are in a second, accelerated state of growth and need to be fed and encouraged. The Scholastic Book Reading Fair will be held in the library for VM students during interview times and on Thursday during school time. I will make sure the students get to the book fair.

On Friday, November 22nd, our whole class and the grade 7s from R7/8 will be going to the Canadian Museum of History to learn about Canadian indigenous culture and contributions and walk through the incredible History Hall. It will be a day-long field trip. We will be travelling by school bus, and we will be touring with a class of second-year education students from a University of Ottawa History class. Going on the field trip will be dependent on behaviour at school. We need to trust that our students will be on task and will be able to enjoy this opportunity. I would like to thank Mme Deschenes for finding funding for the school bus, and Ms Davies for contributing ISST money toward admission fees. Because of their generousity, the field trip fee will be only $5.00 per child. Volunteers pay no admission. Students will bring their lunches and we will try to get outside to see the Ottawa River and the back of Parliament Hill. Field trip forms will go home tomorrow.

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Enjoy your week. I hope to see many of you later this week. Here are some photos from a weekend hike in the Gatineau Hills concluding with a stop at the beautiful Mackenzie King estate.

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Ms Swail

November 3

The week of November 4th – 8th, 2019

Dear R7A families – 

Hold on to your hats, it looks like November is here !!!!!!!!! (exclamation points in the wind)

 

Image result for person in hat struggling in wind

Tomorrow and Tuesday, we have a visiting artist who will be working with a number of classes including R7A. They will be integrating visual art with geography. The students will be working on paper topography sculpture reliefs. I am really looking forward to this activity. Here is a neat image I found when searching for examples of paper topography.

Image result for topography paper reliefs

There will be a Remembrance Day ceremony on Monday, November 11th and you are all invited. Please e-mail me if you are interested and I can confirm a time for the Junior/Intermediate assembly. I have decided our class will present a brief poem called “First They Came”. It is a poem about reluctance to speak up and is highly related to many of the world’s conflicts, past and present. Please take a look.

https://www.hmd.org.uk/resource/first-they-came-by-pastor-martin-niemoller/

PLEASE return all of the information-verification forms the children brought home last week.

Progress reports will be sent home on Thursday this week. Please take some quiet time with your R7A student to discuss the progress report, particularly the learning skills section. As you know, it is really important that the student reflect on their term and carefully review and talk about what their teachers are saying and recommending. Interviews will happen next week with more information coming.

As for reflections, here are two of the photos I took this weekend before hauling my kayak out of the water until next year. The lake was strangely still after the high winds and storm, and the reflections were magical.

 

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FINAL FOOD DRIVE ITEMS CAN BE SENT IN TOMORROW AND TUESDAY. THANK YOU.

 

Ms Swail