Hill Junior School: Weekly Parent Information

Literacy/ Social Science

This week's task for the grade 7/8s was completing the final concluding paragraph. The student will continue to edit their creations. Almost all of the students took the offer to meet one-on-on over Zoom to go over their essays. Students are reminded to have their questions ready! I'm all available next week for support and to make this a writing piece you're proud of.  The 7/8's finished the week getting together via HouseParty after a student request during a Zoom check in. What a nice feeling to be able to still connect with pals.  Both classes joined a Zoom check-in to review the letters that they worked on last week. Students were posed the question: How does knowing your audience impact your writing? I hope you were able to mail these letters to make someone's day.  The grade 5/6s have started The Hunger Games. Students are succumbing to the suspense of the chapter endings and are being pulled to the next. They were asked to use their imagination after reading/listening to the first five chapters, to devise their own Hunger Games strategy. Some students considered great details such as water and edible forest plants, their own size and strength, as well as to consider allies.

Math/ Science For this upcoming week we will be having class via Zoom on Monday, Tuesday & Friday and check-ins on Wednesday & Thursday. Our Zoom classes on Monday, Tuesday & Friday will resemble a regular class where we will be doing most of our learning and our check in days will be full of homework checks and questions.  Grade 5/6s This past week the class began analyzing patterns and developing different approaches when finding the pattern rules. We were also introduced to tables of values and learned how these charts can be a great tool to help us find a patterns pattern rule. In Science, the class discussed as a group the nature of space and how matter exists and behaves within it. We learned about matter and how it makes up everything and everyone while focusing on its role in space. Next week, we will be learning more specifically about our solar system and how the sun impacts its surrounding planets. In Math, we will be focusing on variables and using our tables of values to help us find unknown or missing values within given patterns.  Grade 7/8s This past week the class brainstormed the difference between patterning & algebra at the beginning of the week and then moved towards understanding the difference between an equation and an expression. This week the class also focused on finding pattern rules from number sequences and deriving an algebraic expression from a table of values. In Science, the class explored the topic of water scientifically and thought about how its matter behaves/changes with their understanding of particle theory. Next week, the class will exploring the water cycle and will be introduced to the importance of watersheds. In Math, the class will be practicing deriving algebraic expressions from table of values for specific models or patterns.  French Grade 5/6s As always, this week was tons of fun and productive with with the young guns! We continued a famous French person project where they have to research and eventually present the person they have chosen. We will be jumping into phase two this week. I'm looking forward to seeing what the students have come up with. They're a creative and fun group to work with. Looking forward to next week! Grade 7/8  We continued our reading comprehension. We also had small group meetings to check in, discuss our well being, and perform a self reflection. Looking forward to a great week! Physical Education and Health This past week our goal was to continue to build a positive relationship with physical activity. One of the key tenants of the Canadian Long Term Athlete Development model is engagement in physical activities for life. This refers to an individual taking personal responsibility for physical literacy by freely choosing to be active on a regular basis and involves prioritizing and sustaining involvement in a range of meaningful and personally challenging activities, as an integral part of one's lifestyle (https://sportforlife.ca/physical-literacy/). On Wednesday, students were given freedom to choose how they were going to be active and then on Thursday they built their own at-home obstacle course. It is always great and entertaining to see what the students come up with and how they get others in their house involved. This week with the Grade 5/6 students we will continue to build our foundational movement patterns and skill. With the Grade 7/8s we will explore different types of training and challenge their ability to perform the push, squat, lunge, lift and pull patterns.

Important Dates: Friday, June 12th, 2020- Final day of instruction in the Junior School Have a great week!  Sincerely,  Courtney McCracken, Jake Cook, Drazen Glisic, Luc Magnan, Tory Merrill