As Evan says, “one of the best things about being back at school is seeing friends you didn’t see over the back and hearing about New Years parties and the holidays.” It has been great to be back and hearing about the adventures and excitement of each of the students holidays. We are feeling re-energized and re-charged for 2013 and are looking forward to the next 6 months.
1. In HCE this week, the grade 6’s made posters about “What Giftness is?” and “Myths about Giftedness.” Ted says, “it was really interesting to see what other people thought giftedness was and what the myths were…” The grade 7’s continued on the same theme and reviewed the characteristics of giftedness and looked at some specific social emotional characteristics based on the writings of Annemarie Roeper.
2. In Tech Ed, students are working in Sketch Up and have had the chance to create lots of cool items. “I’ve made a fence and pool. I am currently working on a chair,” says Liam. In Dramus, students are working in Mixcraft and are making a rock music themed project. “We are making a short piece of music in the rock music genre and mine is done and we are going to learn how to convert it to mp3 and then we can share them,” says Ted.
3. In Ms. Abbot’s class, we are doing monthly reading assignments on any novel of our choice. We are going to have time to read each day in silent reading and then we have the choice of 10 different activities to complete on the novel.
4. Both Ms Abbot and Ms Moody have started creative writing programs in their classes. Ms. Abbot’s class is starting Writers Workshop and Ms. Moody’s class is working through the 6 Traits of Writing. Students will have the chance to write in class, choosing different genres and audiences. Students will be expected to take several drafts through editing and revision stages. They will also need to publish a specific number of works throughout the term.
5. We’ve been warming back up in Math…. grade 7’s have been working on Calkins’ “Mastering the Basics” and grade 6’s have been reviewing mental math strategies for basic computations.
6. Students had the opportunity to try the EPIC Yellow BEEP test again on Thursday. Ms. Moody and Ms. Abbot were very impressed by the improvement in the scores. Most students we able to improve there Fall BEEP test.
7. We are continuing with our theme of conflict and oppression this term and started to look at the geography of Africa. All students are working on completing a map and are studying for a quiz. We have included resources of Edmodo on Africa geography for students.
8. Students are continuing their science experiments and research. Our MACC Science Fair is fast approaching. Students will be presenting on March 1st with the other MACC students from CItadel Middle and Kwayhquitlum Middle.
9. We also introduced Passion Projects today. Even though, a few have already been working on them at home, we spend some time sharing information about our Passion Project Expo last year and some of the projects our grade 7 & 8’s have done. Please check out our Passion Project page and our post from about last years’ Passion Project Expo.
10. Basketball, table tennis, wrestling teams are all underway and student practice schedules are available on the school website. The school drama production cast is rehearsing and we are looking forward to seeing the presentation before Spring Break.