Hello everyone! April has been a busy, productive month in our Grade 6 classroom! We have had the pleasure of hosting Ms. Wale, a teacher candidate from Lakehead University for the past 5 weeks! I am so proud of all the students for being so welcoming and appreciative of her time with us! They really enjoyed her unit on Fractions with a twist of creativity and integration of the Arts! They worked very hard towards the completion of her culminating task and I am very proud of them! On top of it being Ms. Wale’s last day with us, the class had won their class reward points, so we celebrated with a “make your own sundae” treat and a movie!

I just wanted to provide you with some updates regarding what we are/will be working on in class! We are well into our novel study on Hatchet which is part of our daily guided reading rotation. Students rotate through a total of 5 different stations, each station lasting a period each day. They are given the opportunity to complete any incomplete tasks during our daily independent reading period as well as during an extra period that I give, once they have cycled through all of the stations.  In Writing we are well into our poetry unit and are starting to work towards creating some original free verse poems following the writing process. Students will be asked to present one of their poems to the class, and any students that wish to participate in the junior poetry competition (Tues. May 9th) will have an opportunity to audition. In Math we will be starting our unit on Algebra/Order of Operations after I finish tying up some last pieces of Fractions and Geometry. In Science we are continuing to work on our Space unit and will have some unique artwork on display for next week, as it is part of Education week. We are continuing to work throughout our Social Studies unit on Canada’s global interactions and will be moving into studying NGOs and Canada’s involvement in humanitarian acts around the world. As we are coming into the last few months of Grade 6, I am encouraging students to be independently responsible for keeping track of what needs to be done, in terms of tasks in all subject areas. I do not “assign” homework, however bringing it home to independently complete is always an option, just making sure that it is returned the next day. Again, with use of the agenda it is a great way for students to keep their tasks/dates organized.

In May our school will be administering the EQAO assessment starting on Tuesday, May 23rd continuing on each day of the week and then into the following week. Please know that I am doing my very best to help prepare students to ensure that it is not a stressful period of time and that they feel comfortable and confident in themselves! Again, if you have any question or concerns related to the assessment, please do not hesitate to contact myself or Ms. Kadela.

Thank you all for you ongoing support and cooperation!

Mrs. Sharpe