June 19 - 23

Happy second last week of Grade 6!

National Indigenous Peoples Day was this week on Wednesday June 21. As it's National Indigenous History Month, we thought it was the perfect time to read the book Turtle Island: The Story of North America's First People by by Eldon Yellowhorn and Kathy Lowinger. As we read the book, we drew images, symbols, or wrote facts or words that spoke to us. 

We also learned about Winter Counts. 

Our Winter Count Challenge:

For today, we would like you to consider your past year, from the time grade 5 ended until now. Start by brainstorming a list of important life events during that period of time. They could be personal events, school events, or both.

Once you have a brainstormed a list of significant events, please create a visual journal page for your Winter Count. Remember, The Blackfoot people typically drew the most significant event in the centre and other events spiralled outward. Words were not included on the Winter Count so the pictures must depict each event clearly. 

Here are some examples of our works in progress:

We look forward to seeing you on Wednesday at the Grade 6 Farewell at 12:30!

June 12 - 16

 Wow! We are almost at the end of grade 6! Our P.A.T.s resume next week, starting on Tuesday. If you would like to review some of the topics in preparation for the tests, please look to Google Classroom. There is a topic titled 'PAT Review'. 

Here you will find all of our science and social studies study guides. Also, there is a topic called Extra Math and Math Review. These are helpful topics to help solidify the concepts we have covered this year. 

Minecraft Success!

Grade 6 Wellness: Character Development:  Exploration of life opportunities and virtues develops resilience and personal talents and promotes lifelong learning.

Grade 6 Social Studies: Analyze how individuals, groups, and associations within a community impact decision making of local governments.

Grade 6 Social Studies: Understand how the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms protect people in Canadian society. 

In grade 6, students participated in the City of Calgary Level up 2.0: Achievement Unlocked 

Minecraft Challenge. This project began at the beginning of March.

The challenge was to design a site that demonstrated economic resilience, climate resilience, and social resilience. The designs must be vibrant and sustainable. We worked hard to learn what those things mean. We needed to know what was important in our city so we looked through the City of Calgary Council’s Strategic Direction, 2023-2026 document. This was hard work but we couldn’t start designing until we knew what city council was looking for.

After we gathered all the background information we needed, it was time to start brainstorming some of the features for our builds. 

Finally, we were ready to use Minecraft to build our designs. It was tricky at first because there were some technical problems. We worked together, and persevered, and came up with solutions to our tech issues. Some students became experts and they helped other groups when they ran into problems. 

We spent a long time building! We had to make sure we were meeting all the criteria. After our builds were complete, we wrote scripts and created videos explaining our designs.

The Division 2 teachers met to look at all the designs created by grade 4, 5, and 6 students. We could only submit two designs to the City of Calgary for judging. It was so hard to choose because all the builds were so amazing. Finally the two the teachers decided to send were:  Green Line Build, by Matthew, Grace, Fallon, Olive, Olivia, and Fallon and Fort Calgary Build, by Eleanor

Not long after submitting, we got an email letting us know that the Green Line build we submitted was chosen as a finalist!  The awards ceremony was held virtually on June 14, 2023. This is when we found out that Matthew, Grace, Fallon, Olive, Olivia, and Ella were the winners for Division 2!

We are so proud of everyone who participated in the Minecraft Challenge this year! We had so many great ideas and the builds were fabulous!

June 5 - 9

 Science

I can conduct tests of a model parachute design, and identify design changes to improve the effectiveness of the design. 

This week we learned all about parachutes. We first learned the parts of a parachute, including the vent, canopy, and suspension wires. Then came building! We had a lot of fun designing, testing, and changing our models. 

May 29 - June 2

 Science - Air and Aerodynamics 

I can identify adaptations that enable birds and insects to fly

This week, we have been looking at flight in nature. We have been researching specific adaptations that allow birds and insects to fly. We were also asked to look into a non-example. In order words, we researched a bird that can't fly. We created a Google Slide presentation of our information! Please ask your child to show you their presentation on Google Classroom or through their Google Drive. If this is not completed, please have your child work on this for homework. Have a great weekend!

May 22 - 26

Over the last 2 weeks, the grade 6 students have been working hard, researching party platforms for the upcoming provincial election. In groups of 2 to 3, students examined their chosen political party's stance on important issues such as safety, environment, healthcare, economy, etc. They created a poster that included what they felt was the most relevant issues to present to the class. On Friday, we then participated in the Student Vote. 

 

May 14 - 19

 The Grade 6 students have been working hard on another Minecraft project over the last 2 weeks. We have been reading the book A World Below by Wesley King. Our job has been to recreate the underground world as we remember it from the book. A few key places are: the Mystery Room, Queens Chamber, river, mushroom forest, the Forbidden Lake, and the town Medianoche. 

Have a great long weekend!