Google accounts

Last but not least for today, we got signed up for our student Google accounts this week.  Everyone finally got logged in, and we have begun the learning process of sharing files and using the word processor.  The immediate advantage of this tool is that students will be able to work on their files here at school and also at home (in fact, anywhere they have an internet connection!) and not have to worry about saving files on USB thumb drives, etc. Of course, this means no can claim they forgot their work at home!  Students will share their work with me, and that will hopefully cut down on the amount of paper we use, as I can read their work online.  They will also be able to work on common documents with partners and groups.  As we move forward, we will be using the Presentation tool, creating blogs, and getting into the mysterious realm of Glogs, Prezis, Animotos and Voice Threads.  It's a whole new world out there, and I look forward to discovering it with the class!

Here's an updated link to log in to the Google accounts.  It will also appear in the links box to your left.
https://www.google.com/a/ed.amdsb.ca/

Patterning

We have finished our first unit in Number Sense and Numeration, and are now moving on to our Patterning unit. We will be looking at number patterns, and how to develop strategies that allow us to find the value of different term numbers in our patterns through the use of pattern rules and graphs.  If you go here: http://husky67.pbworks.com/Patterning you will find examples and a glossary that explains the meaning of some of the stranger math words like "recursive" and "explicit" pattern rules.  If you are looking for some extra practice, you can try the Nelson website's unit on patterning, which we will be following for most of the unit: http://www.nelsonk8math.com/math6/studentcentre/studentcentre.html.  The Surf for More Math section provides online math games related to the subject, and the Try It Out section has multiple choice practice question related to various lessons from the unit.  You are looking for the Chapter 1: Patterns in Mathematics part of the Nelson site.

Open Reading Responses

Another English focus will be in our reading responses this term.  We are trying to get past the literal level (the information you find directly stated in the text) in our responses, and work on developing deeper answers to the questions by breaking down the question, stating our general (or gist) answers, and then supporting our idea with some info from the text and also from our background knowledge.  Background knowledge might come from our experiences, or things we have read in books or in magazines, or things we have seen on TV, or things we have learned from parents or in class, or things we have found on the internet.  One component of this unit will involve critical media literacy, which means we evaluate the information we find on the internet or TV and decide whether or not it is a credible source of information, and what biases the author might have.We will look at how to best organize our paragraphs, and how to decide which of our ideas best answers the question and is most appropriate to our audience.  For more ideas and examples of what this means, look here: http://husky67.pbworks.com/Reading-Response.

Descriptive Writing

One of the styles of writing we will be focusing on in the next month will be descriptive writing, in both paragraph form and poetry.  Descriptive writing uses the five senses, vivid action words and imagery (similes, metaphors, and personification, for example) to create clear pictures in the reader's head.  We will be developing these skills in stages, but a quick overview that explains what this might look like in paragraph form can be found here: http://husky67.pbworks.com/Descriptive-paragraphs.  Examples of the different styles of poetry can be found here: http://husky67.pbworks.com/Poetry.  It will be a good idea to keep checking in, as we will be adding to these pages as we work together in the next month.  At home, students can look for examples of descriptive writing in the material they read for pleasure, and point them out to parents.  They can also practice their writing skills by describing the world around them.  As an example, we are starting our work by describing a favourite room in the house.

Communitrees

Once again this year,  Holmesville PS is taking thought of those in our community and around the world that are less fortunate than we are.  What will we do for our Christmas project?  What will we do as our international project?  With this in mind, Holmesville is creating a Wish Tree for the Huron County community art project Communitrees (some photos from around the county can be found here).  Our students will be thinking of issues that kids and families face in difficult situations all around the world, like hunger, dirty drinking water, slavery or malaria.  They will be wishing for a solution to these problems, and possibly suggesting some solutions of their own. These wishes will then be put up in a tree in front of our school for the people of the community to read from Thursday September 23rd (in time for our school BBQ and Open House) until Monday September 27th.

Update:
Our school's Communitree was very well received, and Holmesville PS made the national news, as we were featured on the national cbc.ca photo stream, and also the national Culture Days website in their photo stream.  Take a bow, everyone, you're famous!

Classifying Tree Leaves project

Today the Grade 6 students received the instructions for their first Science project.  They will be collecting tree leaves and then classifying them using a tree diagram on a piece of bristol board.  While this project will take some time, the students have been given a month to complete it, and it will be handed in on October 13th.  If the students do a bit at a time, they should be able to complete it easily with proper time management, and with little assistance from parents.  They were given a bunch of information, copies of which can be found here: https://husky67.pbworks.com/Diversity-of-Living-Things. The first deadline is to collect the leaves they will be using by next Tuesday (or at least to identify which leaves they will be using, and collect them soon after). They then need to press them using a book, and to preserve them for use on the bristol board.  A number of options were discussed with the class to achieve this.  Finally, they need to create the tree diagram on the bristol board, and then attach the leaves.  Decoration will be appreciated, but it is the organization of the diagram and leaves that is most important.  It should be clear and easy to understand, and neatly and carefully done.  Samples of past projects are also available here: https://husky67.pbworks.com/Sample-Tree-Leaf-projects.

Spelling Units

We are returning to our spelling texts this year as a way to improve the overall spelling skills of the students.  We have all grown used to spell checkers; however, as the students spend more of their life online, both school-related and otherwise, more of their writing is "live".  In other words, they are typing and sending out their thoughts without the benefit of editing.  This means that it is even more important to try to spell things correctly the first time, as your writing online is part of the image you project to the world.

Spelling units will generally be assigned each Monday, with a period or so of class time to get started.  The lists words should be copied 3 times each in the spelling notebooks, and then there will be a series of questions from the text for the students to complete over the course of the week.  Neatness will be important.  Finally, the dictation will take place on Friday afternoon.  The week's assigned work should be written in to the Notes section of the agenda each week.

This is primarily an independent task for the students to complete over the course of the week.  They will be expected to manage their time appropriately, and not leave everything until the last minute.  Their ability to get their work done without constant reminders from staff and parents will be part of their Learning Skills mark each term.

Grade 6 Math

Make sure you check out the Math 6 part of the Husky 67 wiki at http://husky67.pbworks.com/Math-6. You will find all sorts of information from past math classes, as well as things we are working on this year. Also, at the bottom of the page there is an excellent resource from Nelson Canada, the company that makes our textbooks and workbooks. They have a website at http://www.nelsonk8math.com/math6/studentcentre/studentcentre.html  that is linked to each lesson in the text. The "Surf For Math" section is mostly on-line interactive games related to the topic. The "Try it Out" section usually features multiple choice questions about the topic that get marked on-line. Both of these are excellent for extra practice or extra studying materials before a test. Grade 6 students should give them a try! For example, today's lesson was Chapter 2, Lesson 6 "Reading and Writing Decimal Thousandths" (you can tell what lesson it is at the top of the workbook page that has been assigned for homework).

The Evolution of the Husky 67 Blog

Well, we are a couple of days into the first week of school, and we continue to experiment with our technology.  One of the focuses at Holmesville this year is to be respectful of the environment and to find ways to conserve energy and natural resources.  This blog is one of those efforts: the more information I can put onto the computer, the fewer pages I have to photocopy for people to take home.  I will continue to keep everything as up-to-date as possible, but I may not always put in full posts.  Therefore, the newest feature on this page is a twitter feed (right-hand side) that will put updates including links for small daily homework assignments and reminders from the class and the school.  This should be checked regularly.

I spoke to the students today about the importance of the blog and the wiki when it comes to staying up-to-date with information from the class, and using it to find information.  Unlike last year, you don't need a password to see it, just to comment on it, so as long as you have the web addresses, you are connected.  Sometimes, however, computer access is not an option for homework pages.  I told everyone that if they need a paper printout of things we have had on the computer at school, I can provide that without a problem, as long as they give me enough warning.

That's all for now!

Map of Canada

We will be starting our Geography unit with a short section on working on maps.  We will start with a map of Canada.


Canada Map
Label the provinces and territories and their capitals
Label the capital of Canada
Label the town where you live
Label your three favourite places in Canada
Label the three oceans
Colour most carefully!

The map will be marked using the following checklist:

Map Rubric
Content
did everything assigned
was it correct?

Neatness
colouring
printing
ruler

Accuracy/Spelling
correct locations
correct spelling

Math number sense

With this first math posting, there are some general reminders of expectations with your math work:

Important to remember:
- Write neatly, using pencil for all work done in your notebook
- Organize the work on your page, and space things out neatly
- Show your work, including all of your steps (don't just write down your answer!)
- Check your work
- Communicate your ideas clearly, using appropriate math language and explaining your process
- Homework completion - there will be a small amount of homework assigned in class most days

- Ask questions!

If you go to the Husky 67 wiki, you will see a space for Math in the sidebar.  It is then split up into various strands and topics.  We will be starting the year working on Number Theory.

For the first day:

Try to imagine a million of something.  It has to be a million things that are solid, that you could hold.
ex. a loonie, pencil, textbook, soccer ball, cell phone, iPod, etc.


Now, how much space do you think that would take up?  Would it fill a shoe box?  A refrigerator? A room? A gym? A house? A school?  A town?


Finally, write out in your math book how you came up with your answer.  There are many different ways of finding out how much space a million things takes up, so whichever way you used is fine.  I'm interested in the process you went through to get your answer, so explain your steps, and we'll discuss this tomorrow in class. 

First day back!

The students are returning for their first day of the new school year.  We went through a lot of items today, so here is a reminder of the highlights.  Some of the pieces of paper that went home in binders today include the updated information we have at Holmesville for each of the students in the school (this needs to be checked over, signed and returned right away), a classroom newsletter and a permission form to get everyone signed up for Google accounts for use in the classroom.  These accounts will be arriving soon, and we need to get the permission forms back before the students can log in, so they should be returned in the next couple of days.  We also reviewed the use of the agenda, and expectations for the Grade 6/7 students as members of the class and the larger school community.  Most of this was included in the newsletter.  If it has somehow (already?) disappeared, there is a copy on our class wiki (the link is to your right on this blog).  A reminder also that students need to have running shoes, as we will be starting cross country and soccer right away, a pair of indoor shoes, and something to read for when class work is completed and Mr. Lobb is working with other students.

Reminders of work to be completed in various subjects will be found in the Labels section of the blog to your left.  This will also include some expectations, and often a reminder of where to look on the wiki for checklists, examples and marking schemes such as rubrics.  The two sites (the blog and the wiki) are designed to work together, with periodic updates on the blog, and more permanent information on the wiki.  The wiki also contains copies of class and school newsletters, as well as milk and pizza forms on the sidebar (right side of the wiki).

Hopefully these tools will help with communication to everyone at home, and give parents a better understanding of what is happening in class and at the school.  It should also allow the students to be more independent with their learning, and avoid the "I lost the papers" problem with work completion.

Whew!  That is a lot of talking.  Hope everyone had a great first day!