This week flew by, so here are some of the highlights:

1. Ms. Abbot and Ms. Moody introduced our new literature circle books.  We are continuing to explore the theme of conflict and oppression.  The books were selected because of their examples of conflict with self and conflict with others.  Many of the books are set in history and are reflecting the experience of children in conflict.  There are more than 10 titles to choose from.
2. Students explored modern history through some education raps. Students designed time lines to explore major events between 1900-1995.  We will be re-visiting some of the history of some of the major conflicts over the next week – specifically looking at the World Wars.
3. Trick or Treat!  Wednesday was a very exciting day with costumes and pumpkins.  See our previous post about Pumpkin Math` and some of our costumes.  Students also had the opportunity to participate in the 1st school dance of the year at lunch on Wednesday.
4. There has been a Food Drive at Hillcrest to support Share in the Tri-Cities.  Our classes set an ambitious goal of 200 items of food.  We came very close to our goal and collected 171 items!  We can top up our donations early next week, so let’s see if we can meet our goal.
5. On Friday students had the chance to teach their classmates how to play their geography games from their recent projects.  There were several amazing and innovative games developed.
6. Student are continuing to work on their Science Fair project topics.  Ms. Moody continued the work with the grade 6/7’s this afternoon.  Coquitlam MACC will be holding a district science fair on March 1st 2013.  Students will be receiving more information about the science fair over the next week.
7. Next week many of our students will be participating in the Remembrance Day Assembly on Wednesday morning.  Students are participating in the bands and choirs, as candle lighters and as a piper.
8. Next week (Wednesday – Saturday) Ms Moody is attending the AMLE/NMSA (Middle Level Educators) Conference in Portland.  We look forward to hearing about the what she learns.
9. Next week is a short week – school is in session Monday to Wednesday.  Thursday is a professional development day and Friday is a school closure day.
10. The first Explorations term will end next week.  Students are working on completing there assignments and projects for there explorations courses.

Have an excellent weekend and remember to set back your clocks on Saturday evening.