LA CLASSE DE NATHALIE
  • Welcome
  • Division 3 Info
    • Back to school info
    • Rules & Responsibility
  • Contact me
  • Newsletter
  • About Mme Nathalie

October 3rd Newsletter

10/3/2020

0 Comments

 
Dear Division 2 families,

Here's a brief update of our learning activities from last week:

Orange Shirt Day

I was absent this Wednesday for Orange Shirt Day but, with our substitute teacher Mariko, students learned and reflected about the history and Residential schools and the impact that they have had on Indigenous Peoples in Canada. We began discussing this topic on Tuesday and students were making interesting connections with cultural differences, racism, the Black Lives Matter movement,  and other current events. We will continue to discuss these important questions in class this year. 

Digital Citizenship

On Thursday, during our library time with Susan, we discussed a few books on the topic of digital citizenship. On Friday, Jesse Miller (Mediated Reality) gave us an interesting presentation on this topic. He made the point that we are telling a story when we share information about ourselves on social media. We learned the importance of sharing with care, and learned about of the potential consequences of sharing too much information about ourselves on social media. We were also reminded to always ask our parents for permission before sharing any personal information online. Jesse gave us some resources to explore as a class and with our families over the coming months, including:
  • Media Smarts: Canada's Center for Digital and Media Literacy;
  • Commonsense.org.
He will be back with more interesting presentations to help us become informed digital citizens in the months to come. 

Health & Wellness, Food Studies and Gardening

One of our main topics this week was healthy eating habits. We discussed some basic principles to healthy eating, such as:
  • choosing food that is whole and fresh when possible, as opposed to highly processed food;
  • eating a variety of nutrient-rich food (food containing vitamins, minerals, fibre, healthy fats, protein, etc).
We were beginning to think about where the energy in food comes from when a student exclaimed: "So, when we eat cow, we really eat grass !?!"

​This Aha moment got us to learn how
 plants, through photosynthesis, transform light energy (from the sun) into chemical energy, and how this chemical energy is made available to animals and humans throughout the food chain. 
​
Picture
Image source: https://plantcellbiology.masters.grkraj.org/html/ Plant_Cell_Biochemistry_And_Metabolism6-Plant_Cell_Energy_transductions2-Photosynthesis.htm
Picture
Image source: http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/Biology/enercyc.html
​For a more hands-on approach to healthy eating, we spent some time harvesting and processing crops from the school garden, for eating and preserving purposes. 

Students processed the garlic and onions that were harvested during the summer. They also harvested parsnips, prepared oven-baked parsnip fries and learned how to dehydrate onions to make onion powder. Some students helped harvest compost from the schools' vermicompost bins to amend the garden soil with rich organic matter. On Friday, many students helped harvest beans for storage (dried beans).

During our food preparation activities, we followed the Provincial COVID-19 Health & Safety guidelines for Food Studies (p.29 of document) and, as an extra precaution, students were required to wear a mask (mask were provided to students who didn't have their own.
Picture
Garlic crop
Picture
Onions for storage
Picture
Delicious oven-baked parsnip fries
Picture
Students cut and dehydrated onions
Picture
Dehydrated onions: we will turn them into onion powder next week!
Picture
Part of the bean harvest, hung to dry in the classroom.
Picture
3 types of dried beans harvested.

French, Positive Personal Identity, Diversity and Inclusion

Our next French song for this year, Cosmo (by Soprano) is all about celebrating diversity and being inclusive to all. The chorus "Montre-toi comme tu es, Ce soir est un jour de paix" invites the audience to show themselves as they are, everyone being welcome in the spirit of peace.
As we work with this song over the next couple of weeks, we will be exploring themes such as diversity, inclusion, positive personal identity and self-esteem.

On Friday, we started to think about the meaning of the lyrics "Montre-toi comme tu es" (Show yourself as you are) with an art activity: Inner/Outer-Self Portraits. Half the portrait shows how we look to others on the outside and the other half represents how we view ourselves/feel from the inside. Here are some examples of our work (many students are still working on this project):
Picture
Picture
Picture

French Grammar

We are beginning to study French grammar by reviewing how to conjugate verbs in the present tense. We are learning to use a game called Verbathon, where students will work together in teams to sort verb cards as fast and as accurately as possible. Students will have homework to help them study and practice at home. We will soon begin to play the game as a way to learn verbs in a playful and cooperative way. 
Picture

I hope these updates help you feel connected to what we are doing in class!  Feel free to comment below or ask any questions!

Also, please don't hesitate to contact me at any point if you wish to discuss your child's learning.

Sincerely,

​Nathalie
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Nathalie

    Here are some news about what is happening in our Grade 6/7 class

    Archives

    February 2021
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    April 2020
    January 2020
    October 2019
    September 2019
    January 2019
    October 2018
    September 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

Division 2

Resources
Blog
Back to School Info

Mme Nathalie

About Me
​
Contact

Useful Links

École  Cobble Hill Elementary
ECH Code of conduct
School District No 79
ECH OwnCloud
​Scholastic Book Club
© COPYRIGHT 2015. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.