• On Monday the grade 6/7 MACC Classes had a presenter from SFU, who talked about brain activity and neuroscience. Dr John McDonald & Grad Student Greg Christie showed students a live EEG and OEG and explained some about how they would begin to analyze brain activity.  Students were engaged and fascinated – ask your son or daughter about some of the questions that were discussed. 
• We tried to get the students to stretch their understanding of Empires, on Tuesday students watched a documentary called “Memoir of Japan: A Secret Empire” – students were asked to analyse the information in the movie with the concepts they already knew from their projects. 
•  Grade 7/8 students have continued to work on their nutrition projects in Health and Career Ed (HCE).  Students have completed a 7 Day Food Journal and are know analyzing the amount of fibre, sodium, sugar, carbs and protein they ate for breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks.  
• Grade 6’s had another session with Ms. Moss (District Teacher) and discussed Superflex (a social thinking program).  The students discussed the “Team of Unthinkables” and learned strategies that can help develop better self-awareness and self-monitoring skills. 
• Grade 8’s toured the high school in their catchment to learn about the programs offered in grade 9.  Many of the applications for specialized programs are already due and we look forward to hearing where the grade 8’s will be for secondary school.
• MACC Clubs Day registration was due on Thursday, you son or daughter will receive an email shortly informing them about which session they are registered for and any additional information they might need for the day.
• Extra-curricular activities are on the go at Hillcrest – right now we have: basketball teams, a table tennis club, a wrestling team, a Ski and Snowboard Club, Whistler Ski Trips, intramurals, Spirit Squad and Yearbook Club. 
• Ms Moody has a unique opportunity for up to 30 of our students to participate in at the the Inspiration Garden at Town Centre.  Students will be working throughout the spring with a buddy class from Walton Elementary in the garden.  There will be lessons, work time in the gardens, and journaling.  Students have been asked to let Ms. Moody know if they are interested in participating.
• MACC 6/7 will also be organizing the Hillcrest Candy Grams for Valentines Day.  Students will have the opportunity to show leadership in advertising (posters and announcements), making the candy grams and selling them at lunch times.  Students will be working on this project over the next two weeks.
• Hope you had a great Pro-D Day on Friday – Ms. Moody and I took the opportunity to learn from other gifted teachers in the district and to network with colleagues about personalized learning.

And even though it was a short week, we still have a lot to talk about… stay tuned for this weeks update.

A cold and snowy week brings us through the mid-January stretch.  Here are some highlights from our week:

1. What a great way to end a snowy week!  PJ Day was a big hit!  The MACC classes showed their school spirit by coming dressed in PJs, bathrobes, slippers with their teddy bears and blankies on Friday.
2. Emotions and intensity is running high.  Over the past week, we have noticed the stress level among some of the students is very high.  We are working with students to talk about coping strategies and ways to manage tasks and commitments.  SENG is an excellent organizations that specializes in the Social/Emotional Development of Gifted Students – here are two articles that may be of interest: Tips for Parents of Intense Children and Developing a Feeling Vocabulary. 
3. The Monday & Wednesday HCE class is working through the Friends for Life Program and was exploring the role that positive and negative self-talk has on feelings and behaviour.
4. Grade 6’s had the opportunity to work with Mrs. Moss, District Teacher, on the Incredible 5 Point Scale.  The 5 Point Scale is a strategy that has been used with autistic students with success and is an effective  strategy to help student develop an awareness of their stress level and what helps them to manage their stress.  Grade 6’s all developed their own 5 point scale this week and learned some good activities for brain breaks when they are working.
5. The next tasks for the Empires Project are due early next week.  Students have had 4-6 blocks of work time with access to the library and computers this week.
6. To finish our Classic Literature Circle study, students wrote an in class essay on why the Classics have stood the test of time and why we should remember the Classics.  Students will bring home copies of their writing with the BC Performance Standard Rubric for Writing within the next couple of weeks.  This is the same assessment tool that we have used for all the literature circle responses on Edmodo.
7. Math 7 & 8 students have had more structured lessons on topics related to Geometry over the past three weeks and will continue for one more unit.  Ms. Moody and I have found that these topics are more difficult and new concepts for most students, so we prefer to provide more direct instruction to the class in larger groups.  Students in Math 7 wrote the Circle & Area unit test on Thursday and Friday and Grade 8 Math students will write their unit test on Monday.
8. Several students have completed the requirements for Math 7 over the past week and will move into the Math 8 class on Monday.  Congratulations and keep up the good work habits! 
9. All students wrote the Caribou Math contest on Wednesday.  We write math contests in MACC to provide students with the opportunity for enrichment and extension.  Several of the students have placed very well in the national standings and we recognize their ability to write math contests!  The Caribou Math contest is an opportunity through Brock University and occurs several times throughout the year.  The Caribou Math website offers puzzles of the day and several math games.
10. Reminder that there are several upcoming dates listed on our class calendar please check it for most recent updates and events!

This week seemed to go by very quickly.  Here are the highlights from this week.

1. Mrs. Simcox finished her two week practicum with our classes.  She returns to UBC next week and we’ll see her after Spring Break. 
2. Grade 6’s worked on a ecology unit with her and have learned about: niches, producers, consumers, decomposers, the food chain and many others.
3. MACC Clubs Day was announced.  The first ever MACC Clubs Day is happening on February 10th at various locations.  Students have received a brochure with the registration details.  Sign up for the sessions – by clicking here.
4. Grade 7’s have started an integrated HCE (Health and Career Ed) and Math project on Nutrition.  They need to create a food log for 7 days and record the nutritional information for their meals and snacks. 
5. Grade 6/7’s will be starting a new Math project on Friday mornings.  Students will be working on a data analysis and statistics project based on Newpaper information on weather, stocks and sports.  Students started working through some calculations with some examples in class today.  The full assignment outline and criteria will be handed out next Friday.
6. We had a Fire Drill.  Our first one of 2012, and we were fortunate to have it when it was not raining this week.  Students were reminded about procedures and expectations, if we were to be in an emergency situation.
7. Grade 8’s participated in the Hillcrestshire Medieval Feast.  After two weeks of learning, planning and preparing, the multi-purpose room became the re-enactment of this delicious meal.
8. PE continues this term in last block and students are currently participating in basketball and table tennis units.
9. Today students had the option to attend a lesson on blogging.  Many students are blogging as a part of their passion projects and we reviewed many of the functions and features of edublogs and set up some new MACC bloggers.
10. There are two weeks left in this Explorations cycle.  Double check with your student to make sure they are on track to complete any assignments or projects.

Have a great weekend!

Happy New Year and Welcome Back! 

1. Our First Ever Winter Activity was a huge hit!   Photos and a student perscpective will be posted soon.  We spent the day snowtubing and show shoeing on Cypress.  The morning snowtube group attempted to break the record of the most tube ‘rafted’ together coming down the hill, however with the fresh snow the afternoon group became groomers for the runs and may have come closer to the record.  Thank you to all the parents who drove and participated!  Your support makes these trips possible!

2. Empires Project due dates have been announced for the grade 7’s – please ask your son or daugther about these.  Students are working on a total of 4 tasks about different types and characteristics of Empires. 

3. We welcomed back Mrs Simcox, our teacher candidate from UBC.  She is working with us for two weeks and then will be back in March.  She is currently teaching the grade 6’s  an integrated language art and science unit.

4. Students have started a new unit in Health and Career Education (HCE) and watched “The Future of Food” this week.  We have begun the conversation about patenting seeds, Mosanto, genetically modified foods and some of the legal issues that have happened over the past 10-15 years.

5. Literature Circles are on hold for the first two weeks of January.  Please ask your son or daughter to show you their feedback on the first 4 responses.  We’ll revisit the responses and have more mini-lessons on pre-writing and proofreading.

6. For January, Math 7 & 8 are being taught in a more structured lesson format.  Ms. Abbot & Ms. Moody are teaching the geometry units and the concepts in these units are new concepts that students have not likely encountered and are more hands on than other units.  Students will be able to return to self-paced math, when the geometry units are completed. 

7. Grade 6/7’s are reading selected chapters from David Suzuki’s “Sacred Balance”.  They are learning strategies for reading non-fiction and exploring Suzuki’s perspective on sustainability through the topics of air, water, soil and energy.  The chapters are going to be challenging for students to read and understand and they will need to use graphic organizers and other strategies to work through the chapters.  This will be hard for some of the students who have always been able to quickly read a passage and fully understand it.

8. Do you know which Exploration your son or daughter is in this term?  Students are currently in the second exploration class for this year and each class is doing exciting projects.

9. Information Nights for TALONS and IB happened this week for Grade 8 students.  Application information is now available and deadlines are approaching.  Please check on the google calendar for upcoming dates for Honors Exams, School Visits, Application Deadlines etc ….   

10. Edmodo is back up and running after a Winter Holiday Break.  Please ask your son or daughter to show you how we use this online tool in our classes.  If you would like to set up a parent account, please email Ms. Abbot for your parent code.