We’ve been so busy that somehow two weeks flew by, so this is our ten great things from the past two weeks.

1. We went to see Beauty and the Beast at Charles Best.  “It was awesome!” “It was so good!”  “They had great props and set and very very cool.”  As you can see, we were very impressed with the presentation.  Kudos to the cast and crew.

2. Some students attended a session on Friday at Evergreen called Clay 2013. Students had the chance to see works by the Members of the Fraser Valley Potters Guild (FVPG).  This is annual juried exhibition including burnished pit-fired earthenware, raku, electric, gas and wood-fired stoneware and electric-fired crystalline porcelains. We designed and built a vase or a pot inspired by natural forms. We used two techniques coil and slab work.

3. In PE, we have gotten back onto our schedule after several weeks of interruptions and weather delays.  Students are doing a mini-unit on football and then on badminton.  Students were able to self-select the unit they wanted to start with and they will have the opportunity to do the second unit in a couple of weeks.  Several students have been excited to learn the rules of football and several other students have been thrilled to have more time playing badminton.

4. Zooming in with Ms. Trieu – Ms. Abbot’s class completed a couple of lessons with Ms. Trieu on non-fiction reading comprehension.  We learned the zooming in strategy from “Reading Power”  by Adrienne Gear.  Ms. Trieu brought in newspapers in different languages and we had to look at the layout and features of the paper to try to figure out what the stories were about.  Some of the features that we noticed were heading and subtitles, blod face type, underlined, pictures and visuals, captions, coloured text and information in chunks.  We explained what we learned to Ms. Moody’s class and designed our own textbook pages for the countries we are representing for the Model UN.

5. Ms. Abbot and Ms. Moody have introduced the Model UN topics for this year.  We are looking at Internation Migration, Gender and Science, Sustainable Tourism and Access to Medication. Students were randomly assigned countries based on the issue/topic they were interested in.  Each student is working with a partner and has developed a textbook page about their country.  Students brainstormed a list of topics to be included on the page and Ms. Abbot added the expectations for text features.

6. Ms. Moody loves her hockey.  We are all thinking about changes that NHL teams might need to make to reach to salary cap for next year, so she designed a project – Hockey Data Analysis.  We each are the GM for a NHL team and we are looking at the regular season stats for our teams.  “This is real life and real statistics,” said a student.

7. Throughout the past several weeks, Ms. Moody and Ms. Abbot have been introducing us to different types of poetry and different poetic devices.  We looked at free verse this week and had a chance to try our hand at writing.  We are collection our works onto a website, the MACC Journal of Writing.  The website will be available and public soon.

8. Ms. Moody’s class has been working on science.  We did a lab on density and buoyancy.  “We learned that if they are more dense, they are less buoyant,” said Maggie and Christine.  “We floated balls, pennies, onions in water, coke, orange juice,” they said.

9. We finished up designing our own country set in an extreme environment.  We presented in continent groups based on where we set our country.  This let us demonstrate some of the alliances we formed with other countries and trade relationships.

10.  Ms. Abbot and Ms. Moody are teaching several students in small groups to focus in on specific units and concepts that students need to master before the end of the school year.  Our groupings have been shuffled, so some of us are working in a different classroom right now or with some different students.

It’s been a very busy week!  There is much excitement as projects wind up and new ones begin.

1) Our Odyssey of the Mind teams competed last Saturday and did very well in competition.  Our two grade 6/7 teams both received silver medals.  And our grade 8 team won gold and is eligible for World Finals at Michigan State University. The Tumble-wood team won the OMER award and were nominated by the problem judges for overcoming set-backs and challenges and persevering through their performance.  The team demonstrated lots of team work and positive attitude to continue after their balsa wood structure did not hold the crusher plate.  (We will be uploading pictures and videos of the competitions soon).

2) We had two presentations for Student Vote.  Students will have the opportunity to vote in a parallel election on May 13th.  The BC NDP and BC Liberal candidates in our schools riding came to speak with us and we asked them some tough questions.  See our blog post about their presentations.

3)  We also got outside and enjoyed the sunshine.  In PE this week, we challenges each other (Div 17 vs Div 18 and Grade 6s vs Grade 7s) in exciting games of California Kick-Ball.  I anticipate a re-match on the next sunny day.

4) This week we had the opportunity to speak with incoming grade 5 parents and students at the Grade 5 Parent Night.  Many MACC students offered tours of the school and several of our grade 7’s presented some of their projects from the past year.  The students also shared what was helpful to know as an incoming student and answered questions about the transition for elementary to middle and to MACC.  Thank you to Chiara, Emma, Corra, Maddie, Connor, Liam, Christine, Makenna, Natalie, Jennifer, Eunice and Tara.

5) This week Explorations Report Cards went home.  In our current classes we are in Home Ec and Art.  In Home Ec, we did food labs for apple muffins and cookies.  In Art, we start the class with daily doodles and are working on textured landscapes.

6) At the Evergreen Cultural Centre this week we painted and created poems.  The exhibit was on Pierre Coupey.  He was a writer that followed his dreams to become a painter.  He now incorporates poetry into his paintings.  This was a fun and amazing experience! http://bit.ly/186HGJG

7) Over the past month, students have been desiging a country that has a government, flag, anthem, economic system and their place in the global community.  The countries had their own identity, allies and enemies in the global community and had to be self-sustaining.  The country was required to be located in an extreme environment: deep water, desert, polar, volcanoes, outer space or caves.

8) Ms. Abbot’s class had a government quiz on the three levels of government in Canada.  We have had several lessons about government structures in Canada and before our quiz we played a Canadian Government Jeopardy game.

9) Today we watched a video made by two students in Hillcrest.  The video showed about how people can cyber-bully and how they can hide behind the internet.  We did a Facebook questionnaire about our usage.  “I thought the video was a good idea and they are trying to raise awareness about cyber-bullying,” said Mark.

10) Strong Kids continued this week and students had the opportunity to continue to develop awareness about their feelings and discussed and did role plays about ways to handle anger.

 

Our students and teachers came back to class well rested and full of stories of adventures and revitalization.

1. On Tuesday, both classes started the Strong Kids program with facilitator Karen. All grade 6/7 students at Hillcrest are participating in the program this spring.  The Strong Kids program is designed for teaching social and emotional skills, promoting resilience, strengthening assets, and increasing coping skills of children and adolescents.

2. In preparation for Model UN and our provincial election, we are going to look at the basics of running a country.  Students were assigned a new project this week – “Build Your Own Country in an Extreme Environment.”  Students  will create some of the basic components for a sustainable society in an extreme environment (space, desert, ocean, caves, volcano or polar region).  This week students have been staking out their identities and should now have a country name; determined the country population; country flag, motto and anthem; map of where in the world the country is located.  We expect that these tasks will be finished in draft form.  All students have a green project outline and timeline.  Please ask them to share it with you, so you can see the scope and timeline for this assignment.

3. Fitness Fun!  We started the next PE term with a 12 minute run and a circuit.  Students ran a marked course of the grass field for 12 minutes.  They were encouraged to set a run – walk pace that was comfortable, either running the sides and walking the ends of the field or running half and walking half.  Ms. Moody reviewed the purpose of the walking as a rest time to help improve their fitness and endurance.  Students will have the opportunity to improve the number of times they ran around the field and we will have them run it again later in the term.  The fitness circuit was a new circuit for the students and switched up some of the cardio, leg, arm and core stations.  Sarah,  Christopher, Leah and Makenna loved the sprinting station.  Natalie liked doing the aligator.

4. We are participating in the Student Vote this year.  We are encouraging students to listen to news and find out who is running in their riding.  Students will have the opportunity to examine each parties platform.

5. A Math Contest is coming up on April 17th.  Students was had the chance to work through a practice test this week.  If students are interested in looking at some more practice questions to prepare, grade 7’s should look at the Euler contests and grade 6’s should look at the Pythagoras contests.

6. In Language Arts, we are reviewing some reading comprehension strategies and working on creative writing.  Students will have the opportunity to submit writing to the Middle School Journal of Writing (deadline is April 19th).  We will have limited access to computers prior to the deadline, so revisions and editing will likely need to be completed at home.

7. Rugby practice started … Ms. Abbot and Ms. Moody watched the many smiling faces squeak down the hallway wet and muddy.  About 50 students were out for the first practice and we have a parent volunteer coaching the girls (approx 20 girls have signed up so far!)  Mr. Geddes and Mr. Meagher (Mr. Holbrook’s Aussie exchange teacher) are coaching this year.  Students are still able to come out if they would like to participate in this awesome sporting opportunity.

8. In Explorations, students is Art are painting their clay projects and learning water colour painting techniques and students in Dramus are starting their hiphop songs on Mixcraft.  There is one more week in this explorations term and on April 15th students will begin the final explorations term.

9.  Upcoming learning opportunities – Both MACC 6/7 classes have been registered to participate in the Physics Day – Amusement Park Science at Playland.  Students received a permission form on Thursday and we will be needing parent drivers and parent volunteers.  We have two upcoming Art Workshops at Evergreen.  The first is a morning session looking at the works of Pierre Coupey, an important figure in the Vancouver Art Scene, has been a practicing writer, printmaker and painter since the early 1960s. In the exhibition, we focus on his large scale abstract paintings from the last three decades as well as the influence that his poetry has had on his visual work.  Students will create a short poem inspired by the works of Pierre Coupey which will then be layered onto the surface of their own acrylic abstract painting. They will use techniques found in Coupey’s paintings such as distressing and scratching into the thick surface of the paint. The second session – Members of the Fraser Valley Potters Guild (FVPG) will display their diverse ceramics in this annual juried exhibition including burnished pit-fired earthenware, raku, electric, gas and wood-fired stoneware and electric-fired crystalline porcelains. Students will design and build an incredible vase or pot inspired by natural forms. The pieces will be created using various techniques such as coil and slab work.  Both Evergreen sessions are limited to 30 students.  We will require parent drivers for both of these sessions.

10. Year End Learning and Team Celebrations – Our final year end project this year will be our Model UN and the students will be working with members of the Model UN Club from Charles Best to prepare and they will receive more information at the end of April.  The Yellow Team in planning a swim at Spani Pool and a team BBQ during the last weeks of school and all grade 6/7’s at Hillcrest will be participating in a school based activity day.  Ms. Abbot and Ms. Moody had tentatively planned a picnic and kayaking day at Rocky Point Park as a MACC year end wrap up but as other activities have been scheduled throughout the year, we are seeking feedback from families to assess the interest of the kids and the affordability for families. 

We are looking forward to a busy and engaging term 3.  If you have any questions, please feel free to contact either of us.

 

 

School days have been busy, busy, busy.

1. Today is our last day with Mr. Buhler as a student teacher.  He is off to finish off some course work at SFU this summer and we hope to see him back in the district as a TTOC in the near future.  It has been a pleasure having him work with us in MACC and we have learned a lot from him.   Mr. Buhler rewarded the grade 7 math class today with a waffle party – how else would you conclude a unit on graphing using a 4 quadrant Cartisan plane?  Yummy!  Mr. & Mrs. Buhler are also expecting their first baby in early April.  Both classes have made a guess about whether they will be having a boy or a girl and had more yummy treats (blue & pink cupcakes).  The students surprised him with a baby gift and some of his favourite candies.

2. “On March 14^th, 2013, a group of MACC students with the supervision of adults went to the Poirier Library to attend a presentation set up by Eric Walters.  Eric Walters talked about his books such as his book: “Run” which is about thirteen year old Winston MacDonald who meets Terry Fox and his best friend, Doug Alward. Winston runs with Terry across Canada which seems like an impossible feat, but Winston is determined to finish it with Terry and Doug. The question is, can they? (Disclaimer: This story is NOT true) Eric Walters has confirmed that all money that comes from the book “Run”, will be given to the Terry Fox Foundation. Currently, Eric Walters has raised about 14 million dollars more for the Terry Fox Foundation and “Run” is his best worldwide seller. Eric Walters told the group of children about what his “nice” thoughts were about the popular book, “Twilight”. He told us that there was a astonishing amount of racism such as all the good people are white skinned and glow in the moon light, but all the bad people have black skin and fade in the moon light. Almost all the bad people are called, “Mr. Black”. He also told us that Edward sleeps at the corner of a room without them noticing, that’s not creepy at ALL! Eric Walters also owns a orphanage and told us that you could donate and he would guaranteed that he shows what he did with your money. I I hope we do something like this  again.”  by Ted                                                                                                                         

3. We held our MACC science fair on March 1st.  Here are some of our projects:

4. Both classes have finished up their final assignments for the novel studies this term.  If you have copies of the novels at home, please send them back to school after Spring Break.

5. Last Friday, we also had an assembly to kick off Wheel to Heal.  Kaitlyn Herbst (Global BC) and Chelsea Hobbis (Sonic) hyped the ride and we have had our initial sign up.  We are looking forward to having many students and members of our school community participate.  Ms. Abbot, Mr. Van Hove, Ms. McMillan and others will be participating this year.  More information is available http://wheeltoheal.ca/ 

6. Last Friday ended our 3 sessions of yoga with Jessica.  We completed 3 – 30 minutes sessions learning some basic and intermediate poses.  Students have requested another set of sessions after Spring Break – whether or not we book another session is to be determined.

7. “On March 8^th, 2013, a band called ‘Speed Control’ came to our school and performed many songs for us. ‘Speed Control’ is a rock group from Yukon, Canada, and is made up of three members: Graeme Peters and his brother, Jody Peters, and their friend Ian March. When they visited, they performed several covers of different famous rock songs, as well as a few of their own songs. I don’t quite remember the names of all the songs, but they did perform their own song ‘Tent City’, and songs by Bryan Adams, Nirvana, Johnny Cash, Journey, and several other bands and artists. It was quite an experience, having an actual band come to your school and perform, with the huge speakers and all! I would suggest that if your ears are sensitive, wear ear buds or headphones to help block the sound out a little bit. Having ‘Speed Control’ visit our school and perform totally beat two more blocks of work!” by Tara

8. Over the past several weeks both classes have been studying the rock cycle and Earth’s Crust.  Ms. Abbot’s class had Grade 8 Nick come in and present about some of the rocks and minerals he has collected.  He shared a wealth of information and expertise.  Both classes have done identification labs looking at various rocks and minerals.  We ended off this week with a science quiz… look forward to seeing the quiz scores come home shortly.

9. We have been watching a series of Planet Earth dvds in preparation for a project we will be starting after Spring Break.  Students have been exposed to various environments and ecosystems – they have been asked to pay close attention and think about which one they may like to spend some more time learning about.

10. On Thursday we got to spend the afternoon with Ms. Trieu in the library for a Reading Party.  Reading Party = lots of reading, different books, comfy chairs and hot chocolate!  Thank you Ms. Trieu.

Please have a safe and enjoyable Spring Break – we look forward to seeing you all back in April!

 

1. We were please to see so many parents and students on Thursday evening for theStudent Led Conferences. The students worked hard to prepare their work folders to share with you.
2. On Thursday we had an Improv Performance.  Evan, Elisa, Maggie and Mr. Buhler got called up to participate.  Vanessa said, “the best part was when they got the students involved – Mr. Buhler was funny too.”
3. Ms. Abbot’s class presented examples of sedimentary, metamorphic and igenous rocks from a country in South America, North America, Africa or Asia.  We added many new rock formations and natural wonders to our travel lists.
4. This year MACC 6/7 did not present in the school public speaking festival.  Students have been required to demonstrate oral language skills through a variety of assignments and projects.  We did have the opportunity to listen to our school speeches and congratulate Matt from MACC 8 for a job well done on his speech about using paper instead of a computer. 
5. Pink Shirt Day is coming up next week – we are hoping that most of the class will wear pink in recognition of anti-bullying campaigns.
6. Science Fair projects are DONE!  or almost done, in some cases.  Student may refine and polish projects for next Friday.  Students will be presenting their projects in the library from 1:15-2:30pm on March 1st.  Parents are welcome to come in and view the projects. Grade 7 & 8 students have the opportunity to qualify to participate in the Greater Vancouver Regional Science Fair at UBC in April.
7. In Dramus, students are learning the guitar.  They have learned Rockin’ Robin, The Peanut Song, and many many more.
8. In Art, student just finished their Sailors Valentines and are starting their clay projects.
9. In French, all MACC students are continuing to work with our French Language support Mamedy.  He always brings games and activities to make speaking French and learning vocabulary much more fun.  Ms. Abbot’s class is learning a song in French.  Details are posted in the Div 17 Forum on Edmodo.
10. Basketball and Wrestling seasons are well underway and many students are participating on these teams.  Rehearsals for the Spring Drama Production continue.  The Table Tennis Club is running after school twice a week. It’s a busy school.

 

Wow!  We are already into February… and January has flown by….

1. Ski and Snowboard Club is underway and many students are participating in the lessons and time on Cypress Mountain.  “The first day of snowboarding is hard, but by the second time you have improved a lot,” said Eunice.  “At first, I thought it might be so-so then I realized how good the snow was and I love the conditions,” said Mason.

2. Mr. Buhler challenged the grade 7 math class to figure out a complex sonobe ball.  The folding caught on like wild fire and now grade 6, 7 and 8’s are folding.

3. Grade 6/7’s worked on Passion Projects this Friday.  Student projects include drawing, developing a multi-server network, blogging about Minecraft and many, many more.  The was such focus this afternoon that the offer of some time outside was largely ignored and students remained focused for the whole afternoon.

4. In PE, the girls started basketball with Mr. Buhler and the boys started table tennis with Ms. Abbot.

5. Grade 7’s finished the FSA this week completing assessments in numeracy, reading comprehension and writing.

6. Grade 6’s continued working on Intensities and Overexcitabilities by becoming an expert on one of the areas and then presenting it to the rest of the class.  More clips of the presentations will be uploaded shortly, but here is a short look at Psychomotor Intensity

7. Both 6/7 classes watched a documentary of the history of the world in 90 minutes which spawned a rich discussion about human development, human origins, and human labour.

8. Ms. Abbot’s class submitted their first monthly reading assignments and she is looking forward to reading the summaries, Top 10 Lists and comics of the novels that her class has read this month.

9. Both classes continue to work with Mamady in French (once a week).  Ms. Moody’s class is preparing skits and Ms. Abbot’s class won a game using their oral French skills.

10. On Monday, the next Explorations term started – students are now in Dramus or Art.  Report cards from the previous terms’ explorations class will be coming home next week.

 

1. Mr. Buhler (student teacher from SFU) is back with Div 18 and he is now teaching full time.  He is teaching Math 7, Humanities and Science with Ms. Moody’s class, and PE.  Ms. Moody is continuing to work with the grade 6/7’s on their Science Fair projects and with her class in French.

2. Div 17 & 18 are very fortunate to have a French Language Monitor helping once a week in our classes.  Mamady will be working with Ms. Moody’s class on Mondays and Ms. Abbot’s class on Wednesdays.  He is supporting the oral language component of the French curriculum.  Students reviewed introducing themselves, their family and their interests and then had a chance to play pictionary en francais.

3. Half of the MACC 6/7 students signed up for a two session workshop on Physical Theatre at Evergreen Cultural Centre.  Students learned some basic techniques and then went back this Friday to share skits and then revise their skits.  Students will be writing a blog post about the workshops.

4. Last Friday, the grade 8’s presented a Medieval Feast.  The grade 6/7’s had the chance to observe part of the feast.  The students enjoyed seeing the grade 8’s dancing and acting in their roles.  Some of the highlights were seeing some of the grade 8 MACC students piping, being jesters and puppeteers, and dancing.

5. Currently in PE students are split by gender.  The girls have finished two weeks playing table tennis and the boys have finished two weeks of basketball.  Next week, boys will begin table tennis and girls will begin basketball.

6. The Explorations term finished on Friday – students will be starting their new classes on Monday.  Dramus will go to Art; Tech Ed will go to Dramus. Some Tech Ed projects are viewable here.

7. In HCE, grade 6’s have started a unit exploring overexcitabilities (based on research by Dabrowski).  “Dabrowski’s work has become of great interest to educators concerned with the social and emotional development of gifted students. It has been my experience that helping gifted middle school students understand his concept of overexcitabilities gives them increased insight into their personality traits and reassures them that they are not alone in some of their feelings and reactions,” explains Cindy Strickland. A great list of resources is available here.

8. Last week, grade 6/7’s went to Vanier Park and the HR MacMillan Planetarium.  Please see the two student blog posts about our day here and here.

9. Next week, remember that Wednesday is a Spirit Day.  Students are encouraged to wear any sports jersey that they may have whether it is a local sports team they play on or professional sports team.  If you don’t have a jersey, wear your favourite teams colours.

10.  As we are still in the cold and flu season, we are encouraging students to wash their hands frequently and to sneeze or cough into their elbow and not their hands.  If your son or daughter might need tissues because of a runny nose or Spring hayfever, please send a box of tissues to school with them.

 

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.