Mrs. Drever's Class September 26 - 29

English Language Arts: I can comprehend and make connections between a variety of texts.

Wow! What an incredible week at Library School! In the past few weeks, we have been learning about what a “text” is: novels, comics, paintings, theatre, newspapers, radio, social media…our list never ends! Our definition of text is a tool for messaging, communication, and art.

We met with city planner, Myke Atkinson. He shared with us that a big part of his work is being empathetic and understanding other perspectives to best serve citizens. Decision making can only be made after this important work has been done. Our work as learners follows the same process! We were lucky enough to participate in a chalk art project outside of the Calgary Public Library and the Salvation Army. This art project was designed to make a welcoming space and to bring people together. When we make connections between texts, our knowledge continues to build. 

At Library School we had opportunities to experience a variety of texts:

• The Calgary Story section of the library

• Learning about community news and making a news segment of our own

• Looking at Nature

• Touring the behind the scenes operations at the library

• Visiting Saint Patrick’s Island

• Walking around the East Village and hearing about it’s history

• A lesson about Treaties between First Nations and The Canadian Government

• Seeing the point where the Elbow River meets the Bow (Mohkinstsis)

• Walking through city hall

• Looking at original art

• Filtering online texts for authenticity

Moving forward, we will continue to experience a variety of texts as we learn more about our grade 6 curricular topics. 

Mrs Drever's Class Sept 19 - 22

 ELA - Persuasive Writing 

• I can select the information needed to support a point of view
• I can use note-taking to assist with understanding ideas and information, and focusing topics for investigation

This week, we learned how to annotate a piece of writing. We thoughtfully read articles on the pros and cons of school uniforms. We then went into groups to present a side of this debate. We worked collaboratively to create a compelling argument either in favour of uniforms or against. At the end of the week we wrote an opinion paragraph using the articles we read.   

Mrs. Gordon's Class Sept 19 - 22

English Language Arts

I can comprehend and make connections between a variety of texts.

Wow! What an incredible week at Library School! In the past few weeks, we have been learning about what a “text” is: novels, comics, paintings, theatre, newspapers, radio, social media…our list never ends! Our definition of text is a tool for messaging, communication, and art.

We met with city planner, Myke Atkinson. He shared with us that a big part of his work is being empathetic and understanding other perspectives to best serve citizens. Decision making can only be made after this important work has been done.  Our work as learners follows the same process! When we make connections between texts, our knowledge continues to build. 

At Library School we had opportunities to experience a variety of texts:

• The Calgary Story section of the library

• Listening to Elder Clarence speak

• Learning about community news and making a news segment of our own

• Looking at Nature

• Touring the behind the scenes operations at the library

• Visiting Saint Patrick’s Island

• Walking around the East Village and hearing about it’s history

• A lesson about Treaties between First Nations and The Canadian Government

• Seeing the point where the Elbow River meets the Bow (Mohkinstsis)

• Walking through city hall

• Looking at original art

• Filtering online texts for authenticity

Moving forward, we will continue to experience a variety of texts as we learn more about our grade 6 curricular topics. 

 September 12 - 16

Math - Number Sense I can solve multiplication problems with whole numbers I can solve division problems with whole numbers This week, we reviewed strategies and methods to solve both division and multiplication problems. We worked through a few examples of each method and then practiced the one that worked best for us. Practicing our strategies will help us when we begin multiplying and dividing decimals.         The lattice method for multiplication! Using the standard method for division! Social Studies  I can recognize democratic rights and responsibilities of Canadian citizens (within our grade 6 classroom) This week, we had a group discussion on the definition of rights and responsibilities. We talked about what rights we have as kids and Canadian citizens. We generated a list of both rights and responsibilities we have as Grade 6 students and students of Andrew Sibbald School. We then chose which right or responsibility we would like to illustrate using word art or illustrations with a partner. We have displayed our rights and responsibilities in our classroom

September 6 - 9

 Wow! What an amazing first week of school. We can't believe how dedicated and engaged our grade 6's are. Here is a snapshot of one of our learning activities this week.

English Language Arts Outcomes:

Use paragraph structures in expository and narrative texts. 

Enhance meaning of created texts by using appropriate word choice. 

Identify conventions and use them to assist comprehension.

Personal Narrative Writing

We read Finding Muchness, a picture book by Kobi Yamada, and students took some time to identify themes throughout the story. Some of the themes we came up with as a class are perseverance, generosity, determination, self love, positivity, standing up for what’s right, and happiness. 

Each student thought about one of the themes (or attributes) from the book that resonated with them and used it to write a personal narrative. We used four prompts to divide our writing up into 4 paragraphs: meaning, importance, personal experience, and goals. This helped solidify an understanding of how authors use paragraphs to separate different ideas. 

After the writing process, students read over and edited each other’s writing, focusing on word choice and conventions such as capitalization, periods, and spelling. Students were encouraged to use their spelling strategies, toolboxes, and classroom spelling dictionaries to support appropriate spelling. 

We took some time to think about how we could represent the themes symbolically and created beautiful watercolour paintings to accompany our writing. Next week we will publish the writing and paintings together by displaying them side by side.