Drawing Bar Graphs and Line Graphs

Tomorrow (Wednesday) we will be learning how to draw bar graphs and line graphs. Here are a couple of videos to review the process before we do it in class. Take a look to remind yourself of the steps involved.

Bar graphs:

Line Graphs:

Sequencing - Putting Ideas in Order

We have begun our next unit in Language, which is focusing on a skill called Sequencing. This simply means putting ideas in the correct order as they occur in a story or non-fiction work. This is an important skill for readers because it helps develop understanding of a story in a logical way, and it also assist students in retelling events in a manner that is both logical and makes sense.

As part of our sequencing unit, we are reading a novel called "Tuck Everlasting", which is a fiction novel about a family that lives forever. It is a great story for developing our understanding of sequencing, and is also excellent for learning about descriptive writing. We will be practicing both as we read this story as a read aloud in class.

As a shared reading text, we read a script called "The Great Crepe Battle". It is much like the American folktale "John Henry" in which a man battles a machine, except that it is set in a small town in Quebec. We have read the script a number of times, and then we identified all the most important events. I wrote the events on the Smartboard in no specific order, and then asked students to write them down in the correct order from the story. Following this, students are making a comic strip to retell the important events of the story in the correct sequence. We hope to finish these before the Christmas holiday.

We also reviewed this Blendspace lesson about sequencing to learn about what exactly it is. Although it is made for younger students by another teacher, the core ideas of what sequencing is are there. Here is the link:

Blendspace Sequencing Lesson

Here is a Glogster page with practice for sequence of events a well. This is excellent!

Sequence of Events Glog

Field Trip to Museum of Nature January 13th

On January 13, 2015, the grade 6 classes will be going to the Canadian Museum of Nature for a field trip to further our understanding of Biodiversity. The classes will be touring the museum, and participating in a workshop entitled “Our Local Biodiversity”. There is no cost to students as the trip is paid for by student activity fees and parent council funds.

We will be leaving the school at 9:15 AM and returning around 2:15 PM. There is an eating area, so students need to bring a lunch that does not need refrigeration or warming up. There is an area to hang coats, and put boots. Students should bring their indoor shoes as well.

Please return the forms for the field trip by Friday, December 19. We will contact parent volunteers after the Christmas Holidays once we have all the permission forms in. Thank you!

Data Management Unit Begins!

We have just begun our next unit in math, which will be Data Management. In this unit, we will mostly be looking at organizing data into graphs and charts, and using mean, median an mode to help us analyze the data.

Here is a Blendspace lesson that I have started putting together to assist students in learning and studying this material. I will be adding to it throughout the unit, so please check back often!

Data Management Blendspace Lesson

Our first lesson was on interpreting graphs, which is fairly easy for most students to understand. Here is a short presentation that can be used to remind students of our learning:

Interpreting Graphs Grade 6

Jonathan’s Butterfly Wall Fundraiser - December 11th and 12th

On December 11th and 12th, the grade 6 class will be raising funds for a boy named Jonathan Pitre who has a rare skin disease called EB. This disease makes his skin so delicate that it hurts when he’s touched, puts his clothes on, or even eats. When anything brushes his skin it blisters and gets rashes that take along time to go away. Because of this it takes him 2 hours to get ready for bed so he doesn’t get the blisters or rashes. Jonathan’s dream is to see the northern lights because he think it bring him closer to all the people with EB. He also wants to help raise money for EB awareness. The grade 6 students at  St. Anne school are raising money to help Jonathan with his dream by selling origami butterflies for one dollar each. On the 11th and 12th of December students will be going from class to class selling the origami butterflies, which will then be put up on the wall outside the Learning Commons to show support for Jonathan. For more information about Jonathan and his mission, please click here.

We are doing the Hour of Code on Monday!

This Monday, December 8th, our class will be getting together with Mrs. St. Louis' grade 1 class to participate in the Hour of Code. This is an initiative to inspire children to learn computer programming skills at an early age. It is taught using fun, interactive technology using simple lessons for all ages. Here is a handout from the Hour of Code organization:

Hour Of Code Handout

For those interested in trying out some of the coding activities, here is the link to some of the tutorials. 

Hour of Code Tutorials