Friday 30 September 2016

Art Lesson - Drawing simple objects

Today we are learning about drawing real life items using basic shapes using a variety of lines and shading techniques. For this activity, we need a pencil and a piece of paper. In order to complete this lesson, you will need to have finished the lesson from last week. If you didn't get a chance to do last week's lesson, please go back and look at it now. Here is the link. Are you ready?

With a partner, watch the video below and try to copy what he is doing. Hand in your work to the teacher when you are finished. If you finish early, try to choose an object in the classroom and draw it using the same techniques. Good luck!

If you are still working on your name design art, please finish that first, before you begin this assignment. Thank you!


Tuesday 27 September 2016

Notes About Field Trip on Thursday

First of all, thank you to all parents who are able to volunteer their time to come with us on our field trip on Thursday to Gatineau Park. We are able to take everyone who volunteered, so thank you so much!

Students in the class asked me to post all of the items they should bring, so here is the list:
  • Running or hiking shoes
  • Long pants
  • Long sleeved shirt
  • Extra socks
  • Hat
  • Reusable water bottle
  • Sunscreen
  • Insect repellent
  • Raincoat
  • Rubber boots (if raining or in case of rain)

Also, please remind your child to leave anything of value or that is electronic at home on Thursday. If lost, these items will be extremely difficult to find. Electronics in the woods with children may not be a great mix either! Please encourage your child to leave these things at home.

We are looking forward to our outing, and learning more about biodiversity in our local area. Thank you once again to everyone!

Monday 26 September 2016

Explicit Pattern Rules

In math class lately we have been learning about developing and using explicit pattern rules to help us find the value of any term in a pattern. For example, if I have a pattern like 1,3,5,7....then how could I find the value of the 87th term?

In order to show this, I first showed the video below. which does an excellent job of explaining the method of developing an explicit pattern rule and the reasoning behind the formula.


While this video is excellent for explaining everything, students sometimes have difficulty remembering all the steps, so I created a shorter version that may help students to create an explicit pattern rule. The key is to remember that they need to multiply by one less than the term number we are looking for. Here is the educreation:


Friday 23 September 2016

Beginning to Learn about drawing shapes in Art

Today we are learning about drawing basic shapes using a variety of lines and shading techniques. For this activity, we need a pencil and a piece of paper. Are you ready?

With a partner, watch the video below and try to copy what he is doing. Hand in your work to the teacher when you are finished. If you finish early, try to choose a basic shape in the classroom and draw it using the same techniques. Good luck!

If you are still working on your name design art, please finish that first, before you begin this assignment. Thank you!

Wednesday 21 September 2016

Solving Equations

In class the grade 6's have been learning how to solve simple algebraic equations. We have learned about the difference between a constant and a variable, and how to use the inverse operation to solve for an unknown variable. Here is an Educreation slide I made to help explain to students how to go about solving for unknown variables. We watched this in class, but it would be very helpful to review at home!


Monday 19 September 2016

Patterns review and solving equations

In our math class last week, we began learning about how to identify and create number patterns. In grade 6 the patterns become much more complicated because they involve two operations to solve the pattern. Students often find these types of patterns to be the most difficult. The trick to solving these is to have students identify a pattern in the differences between the terms. For instance, if the differences in the terms seem to be doubling, then that is a good clue that the first part of the pattern is to multiply by 2. Then they test it in the pattern to figure out the second part of the pattern. Here is a link to a lesson that can help to explain how to find number patterns. Please review this with your child at home so that they can better understand these types of patterns.


Today we began learning about how to solve simple equations, for example x + 9 = 12. For some students this is the first time they have learned about variables. We learn that a variable is simply an unknown number in an equation. We also learn more about what an equation actually is. We teach students that equations are number sentences that have an equal sign and are equal on both sides of the equal sign. For example, 4+2=6 is an equation. 4+2=9 is not an equation. Here is a link to a presentation that I showed the class about solving equations. 


If you have any questions about the subject material, or your child is having difficulty with it in Prodigy, please let me know by writing a note in the agenda. I can work with them independently to better their understanding of this material. 

Wednesday 14 September 2016

Missing Headphones - Need Help!

A student in our class lost a pair of  headphones on Monday, and we have been unable to find them. They are quite valuable and very important to the student. I suspect that they may have been picked up by someone in the course of packing up at the end of the day, and not noticed. If anyone happens to come across them at home, please send them back to the school as we would love to return them to the student.

The headphones are Beats headphones, and they are in a black soft shell case with a red "B" on it. Again, if anyone happens to come across them, we would greatly appreciate them being returned to the school. Thank you!

Another Recursive Pattern!

Here is a recursive pattern that we solved in class. I made a little video to help explain. Please feel free to review this with your child and go through the steps together. It is important that students remember the steps for solving recursive patterns. Here is the example problem and solution:

Tuesday 13 September 2016

Clarification about Time for Back to School BBQ

The time for the Back to School BBQ is from 5PM - 7PM on Thursday, September 15th. Teachers will be in the classes from 5:30 until 7PM. It is a drop-in style of evening, so feel free to come whenever. I am looking forward to meeting everyone!

Image result for bbq clipart

Friday 9 September 2016

Recursive Patterns - Two Step

Today in math we learned about how to determine patterns which have two steps for each term. Please see the link below to view a video that shows how I explained it to the class. Please review this with your child to see if they understand.

Thursday 1 September 2016

Welcome to Grade 6!

It is my pleasure to be teaching your child this year! I look forward to working closely with you and getting to know your child. You are your child's first teacher, and together we can help your child meet the provincial expectations for this year. We will be starting the year by getting to know each other, our individual strengths, interests and needs. The emphasis with students is that effort is more important than ability in achieving success and that a student's "job" is to work hard and try their best.

Please encourage your child to discuss what has gone on at school each day. Set aside 40-50 minutes for homework every night. Most students will have some reading and writing, Prodigy math and some math fact practice. Homework will be written in their agenda books on Fridays. Homework will generally be due on Fridays, so that students have a weekend to complete it if necessary. This homework routine is very important. Homework will be posted on this blog under the "Homework" sidebar on the right, so you may check here if your child has misplaced his/her agenda.

We will be starting the year with a number of "Getting to Know You" activities. In language we will be writing letters to ourselves, learning about how to find facts, main ideas and details in texts, and beginning our center activities. In math, we will begin the year by investigating number patterns, some basic algebra and integers, doing "number talks", and memorizing our basic facts!

In the afternoon class, we will be learning about biodiversity in science and practising following directions and basic movement, strength and flexibility skills in Phys-Ed. In the arts we will begin the year studying visual art.

This year, the Grade 6's will be using a few websites to help facilitate learning. We will be using Google Apps, Kidblog, Xtramath, Prodigy and a number of other applications to demonstrate our learning. We will keep usernames and passwords for these accounts in your child's agenda. A form for the Acceptable Use of Technology is being sent home the first day of school, so please sign and return it as soon as possible. If your child has a chromebook, laptop or tablet, and you are comfortable with him/her bringing it to school, then I would highly encourage students to bring them. Students may use technology to complete many of their assignments in class. For now, please follow our class Twitter account at @MrPouliot. We will be tweeting regularly to update everyone on our learning journey.

Finally, I would like to invite any parent who is interested in getting involved in our class to contact me at the school The more the merrier, and extra hands are ALWAYS welcome!