The beautiful weather is upon us! As the year winds down, there is still quite a bit of work to cover. In ELA we are currently exploring poetry. Students have been working with descriptive, narrative and lyrical forms. We are studying “Rates, Ratios and Proportions” in math. In social studies, we have begun exploring government structures and symbols. Finally, in science, the students just finished their “Heat and Temperature” unit. They will be soon be moving on the their “Earth’s Crust and Resources” unit. Along with the beautiful weather comes track and field practices. It has been great to see many of the Grade 7s taking advantage of the opportunity. We are very lucky to have coaches and supervisors with such enthusiasm and knowledge. The Grade 7s will be heading out on their year end trip to Blue Mountain on June 16. While there, they will have the opportunity to zip line, challenge the high ropes, and to compete in group challenges. This is always a popular trip. It allows students to have fun and to challenge themselves. I will require chaperones (3), but am asking that we hold off on volunteering just yet. Once I have put the information and permission forms together, I will send a request out for chaperones. As always, please feel free to contact me at the school should you have any questions or concerns.

We have had a busy start to May! There are a lot of events happening around the school and in our classes. In Science, we are working the construction of our cardboard boats for the upcoming races. In Social Studies, we are spending time perfecting our business plans for the Business Fair we are hosting at the end of the month. In Math, we are creating board games to review the concepts we have studied so far this year. In ELA, we are finishing up our novel study of The Boy in the Striped Pajamas. Industrial Arts has us busy constructing our paddles and in Home Economics we are getting ready to sew our PJ pants. We are looking forward to all of the fun things happening around our school this month!

The Grade 9’s have been busy enjoying the lovely weather May has had to offer. Many of the students are taking part in track and field this year and a big congratulations is in order for the students that took part in the provincial winning drama program this year! They have been focusing on poetry in ELA class and are working to create their own collections. Social has them learning about the wealth, roles and the social structure of ancient civilizations. Mr. Herman is teaching the students about fractals in math class and the students are enthused by the math without numbers! Reproduction is the topic in Science class with Mrs. Prakash and they are honing their archery skills in PE with Mr. Cory. They are continuing to learn about welding and small engines in IA with Mr. Tyndall and they are just wrapping up the breakfast unit in Home Ec. with Mrs. Wilson. They have been working with musicals in Art class and have focused on Wizard of Oz, and Oliver and Company. The students have also been excited about the fast approaching annual camping trip and have been busy in their planning. That’s all for the Grade 9’s in the month of May!

May? How did that happen? A special congratulations to our Provincial Championship Drama squad! Two years in a row! Well, the grade 10’s are starting to feel the crunch. They’ve just wrapped up Exponents and Powers in Math, and Badminton in Wellness. In ELA they continue to work on their personalized curricula. They’ve been studying wildlife habitats in Wildlife Management. It’s been “Vive la France!” in Social as they study the French Revolution. In CAD, they’re wrapping up their main floor plans and starting outside elevations. And finally, there have been a variety of soups being experimented with in Foods! Have a great week!

It is a busy time of year and we continue to work hard and prepare for the end of our grade 11 year. ELA/ History 20: We are investigating the Cold War. PAA 20: We are exploring cultural food from around the world. Construction 20: We are building a variety of sheds. Work Placement 20: We are evaluating simple and compound principle and relating to credit card use. Pre-Calculus 20: We are simplifying/ radicals. Solving radical equations Health Science 20: We are investigating the skeletal system, sports injuries and Xrays Physical Science 20: We have just begun the chemistry portion of this class. We are well into ionic and covalent formula writing. Forensics 20: We are just finishing criminal profiling. Good luck to all the Track and Field Athletes!

Welcome to May! With graduation right around the corner, the grade 12 students are nearing the completion of their secondary school careers. As the students are looking forward to the big day, they also continue to have their course work to think about. In ELA, the students are studying texts that address social responsibility and promote social action. As a part of this unit of study, the students are creating a presentation on a global issue of concern. They will present their projects in June. The grade 12 students will also be playing the role of teacher as they plan a reading lesson to share with our kindergarten students. The grade 12s are to use the reading activity to teach our kindergarteners a valuable social lesson.

Wow! Time is just flying in the Grade 1/2 room! We can’t believe that the break is nearly here. We have been doing lots in our classroom the last little while, and will be switching over to lots of subjects in the coming weeks. Both the grade 1/2’s were working hard in Math learning about Measurement, and have now finished their units. We will be moving on to Geometry this week. In Language Arts we have almost finished up our Unit on Fairy Tales, and will soon be moving on to Poetry. We have done a lot of reading and discussion on our feelings and how they effect our decision making processes, and the way they can effect those around us. In Social Studies we have been continuing our learning on Families, Traditions and Celebrations. Currently we have been talking about cultural diversity, and will be trying out a few foods from different cultures. On February 8th, we celebrated the 100th day of school with many fun activities. We brainstormed 100 words we knew, performed 100 acts of kindness, and also did some reading, writing, and math all with 100 as our theme. The kids dressed up as if they were ‘100’ years old, and looked great! It was a good day! We would also like to send out a big thank you to the parents who were able to come out and help tie skates on Friday. It was a huge help, and made the afternoon run so smoothly. We really appreciate it. Thank you!

This month the grade 3’s have been busy writing stories with detail. We have also continued to work on paragraph writing and will be able to write 3 detailed paragraphs by the end of this month! We have been working on making inferences while we read, and will soon be practicing how to read with expression. In science we continue to mend to the garden with our Kinderpartners and we are also learning about forces and magnetism. We have been combining our social studies and art to learn and create artwork of how climate effects the environments and societies of different places around the world. The 3’s have also been learning about spirituality and what makes up their inner spirit or soul. We found our spirit animals and are finishing up our ‘heart maps’ using pictures and words to describe what we are like on the inside. In math we are finally finishing up our addition and subtraction unit. We will begin our new unit on fractions after the February break! We look forward to this warm weather and will hopefully be able to take some of our learning outside in the coming weeks! Mrs. McCubbing & The Grade Threes