Weekly update:

A huge welcome back to all grades!  fun packed, fast-paced and constructive week is already nearly over and I thought I would let everyone know what is going on in the classroom.

Grade 5:

Langauge Arts:
Over the last four days we have spent time building out sense of community and team work through a variety of games such as 'Swamp Cross' and 'Mine Field'

Everyone now has a locker, agenda and has organized all of their equipment. The focus for next week is being on time and prepared for all lessons, use the agenda correctly and have this signed everyday.

Art:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t5mGeR4AQdM

The first lessons are all about getting away from the idea ' I cant draw so I'm no good at art!'

Grade 6:

Language Arts:

In literacy this week we began the unit,  'Your Choices'. In this unit students will explore personal choices they can make. Topics include media and body image, babysitting, self-esteem. food allergies, hunger and safety in the outdoors.
* The reading strategy of finding important ideas
* summarizing important information 
* Cause and effect text pattern
* Paragraph construction
* dictionary skills, specific nouns, personal and object pronouns, homophones, simple, compound and complex sentences

"What could I do at home to help?"

* Read magazine articles or watch TV ads related to body image. Talk about how realistic they are, and whether they give a negative or positive message about real people. 
* Help your child write a detailed plan about an activity they must undertake including equipment required and necessities
* Surf the net for information about healthy eating and good dietary habits.

During our novel study period we have only just begun to look at our book, 'Mrs Frisby and the Rats of Nimh' The group very maturely discussed the reasons behind and the pros and cons of animal testing in relationship to the novel.



Grade 7:

In our first unit, 'Step Up' students read about people who have the courage to 'step up' and take action during times of need. 

* Making connections to our own personal experiences, text they have read in the world around them.
* developing ideas as we write
* Effective listening
* recognizing purpose and audience in text
* sequence text patterning
* we will also explore, verb tenses, adverb clauses and present participles.

Here are some ways that you can help support your child at home:

* Share a story about you, or someone you know taking a stand against injustice.
* Watch a TV show or even movie about issues at a global scale, global warming, racism etc
* List you personal heroes and explain why you admire them
* Together research a hero such as Gandhi or Terry Fox
* Watch the evening news together
* Together decide on an issue you can tackle together


We have also begun our novel studies in to 'Anne Frank, Diary of  young girl'; so far discussing the rise of the Nazi party and the Holocaust.


Grade 8:

Developing from grade 7 the group have begun our unit, 'Global Citizens'. We will consider some current global issues and what it means to be part of a larger global community. Students will read about various topics, issues of money; trade; industrialization; world population; child labour and peacemaking.

We learn:

* text/life connections
* producing larger written answers through developed notes
* Ellipses, quotation marks, active and passive voice and adjectives.


Developing these ideas at home, you could:

* Read or watch global issues, war, world poverty or deforestation.
* Encourage reading of newspapers during the week.

The students have also been given their new novel study 'The lord of the Flies', discussing the author William Golding and his background.