Welcome to the 2014-15 school year. We cannot believe that we are already two weeks in…. it has been so busy.
1. We had our first assembly and met all the new staff at the school. We also had the chance to watch the LipDub 2014, which was made by the grade 8’s last year.
2. All of us made Identity Bags. We shared them with Ms. Ruhr so she could get to know us better. One identity bag had a piece of spaghetti because the student is Italian, a copy of the “Hunger Games” because it was the first book she was obessed with, and a picture of her lacrosse team. Another students’ bag had 3 Lego Minifigures, a medal for a competition, a piano theory book and a souvenir from a summer trip.
3. Explorations started. We are in Home Ec and Tech Ed. In Home Ec, we made strawberry blender drinks, apple muffins, and crepes. In Tech Ed, we are making a basketball hoop toy. We’ve finished the base and started the backboard.
4. This year, we are reading “Wonder” by RJ Palacio. It is a story of a boy entering middle school after being homeschooled. The story is told from the boy’s perspective, his sister’s perspective and 2 of his friends perspectives. We are also learning about precepts. One of the one’s we discussed this week was “Our deeds are our monuments.”
5. Math classes are all underway. Ms. Abbot is working with Math 6, Mr. Wiskar is working with Math 7 and Ms. Ruhr is working with Math 8+. Grade 6’s are working on Patterns and Input/Output machines. We learned about the Fibonacci sequence today. Grade 7’s are working through “Mastering the Basics.”
6. Best thing so far about middle school according to our grade 6’s:
- level of math and participation in everything…
- lockers… lockers…. lockers…
- cooking in Home Ec, we loved the apple muffins…
- woodwork…
- extreme chaos in the hallways…
- ummmm….
- everything!
- I like everything, especially explorations.
- Explorations!
- and awesome teachers.
7. French class has started and Mme. Ruhr is reviewing vocabulary and concepts from last year(s) with the grade 7 and 8’s. Mme. Abbot’s grade 6 class is learning about la pizza. Ask your grade 6 about their favourite pizza topping and they should be able to tell you en francais.
8. Grade 7/8 PE class today was “Sweatin’ to the Oldies” … rocking Fitness Friday old school with Richard Simmons. Grade 6’s have completed their first beep test and fitness circuit. They are all really looking forward to starting volleyball next week.
9. Back in May, the then grade 5, 6, and 7’s worked together to brainstorm topics that they are interested in exploring this year. From the topics, we synthesized the ideas into a theme for the year. This years’ theme will be “Cycles & Systems”. The first set of questions will focus on development. Some of the questions the students asked were: what did our local community look like 100 years ago? how have demographics changed? what is urbanization? and how is urbanization impacting the Tri-Cities? how has society changed? what is the community plan for the next 10 years? next 20 years? how will we address issues such as homelessness? how have interactions with First Nations in the Tri-Cities shaped the community? As we look at these questions, we are also going to investigate the environmental aspects of development in the Tri-Cities including the ecosystems of rivers and creeks.
10. Our first set of trips to learn in the community will be to the Port Moody Museum to learning about “Industry and Burrard Inlet” and then we will be spending 3 days at the Noon’s Creek Hatchery learning about the life cycle of salmon and the environmental cycles in the immediate area. Permission forms have been handed out, please check with your student to see the details.