MARCH 1, 2011

Awesome work done in Core English! Students in grade 3-6 have completed some fine projects commemorating the Black Inventors. Work will be showcased soon on the stage in the gym. I hope to get it all set up in the next few days for the rest of the school to view. Students in Mme Bell's class have an extension until next Monday, March 9 due to insufficient time given in class to research their inventor.

Last week we began an anti bullying campaign with Pink shirt day. Emma C and Fiona have continued the work through daily announcements about the role of the bystander. We will continue this work at this month's Character Assembly on Friday. Students in the junior grades will be doing an anti-bullying presentation.

Junior grades have been working on poetry and examining poetic techniques used in writing. Mme Bell's class continues to work on the Chapter book Stone Fox. They have been presenting chapter summaries to the class using various presentation techniques. They will continue their work diving into the text more in depth and responding to questions regarding the text using the EASY method of responding to questions.

Primary grades worked on short plays using sight words, as well as continuing their work reading the story of Harriet Tubman. Students then learned a 'Sound Off' song about question words (which I will send home with their homework folders) and they developed a list of questions they still have regarding Minty and the Underground railroad. This week they will continue respond to the text by comparing their life to Minty.

Finally congratulations to Grade 3 students Abby and Tommy for being the first in their division to read and record their reading for over 100 days. These students have been rewarded with the first of the DAK bands. These bands are deliberate acts of kindness bands. They are linked to a website which has a number to register their act online. These students have received 4 bracelets to kick off this initiative. One is for them to keep for their hard work reading and acting as role models to inspire others to read. The other 3 are for them to give away to someone they recognize that is doing a good deed or act of kindness. I have registered the bands at http://www.deliberateactsofkindness.com. This is a website that tracks the bands. Students can register their act of kindness on this site, then the bands can be passed along to someone else. I will continue to reward students throughout the school with these bands and hopefully it will begin a chain of good deeds throughout the school. Watch for these bands on the General Lake community!

Homework

Grade 1 Reading A-Z Printing Worksheet

Grade 2 Reading A-Z Printing Worksheet(spelling words)

Grade 3 Home reading incentive program

Grade 4 Home reading incentive program

Grade 5 Home reading Incentive program

Grade 6 Home reading incentive program

DEADLINE EXTENDED

The deadline for the Black Inventor Project has been extended for Mme Bell's grade 3/4 class, as many students did not have the same amount of time working on the project and accessing the inventor site during class time as the other classes. Most students have chosen their Inventor and if they do not have internet access at home, I will provide time to print off some information to use in their projects. Some students mentioned that some information is limited on several of the inventors so we may need to duplicate several projects.
Some helpful sites include:

http://www.blackinventor.com/
http://inventors.about.com/od/blackinventors/a/black_inventors.htm
Thank you for your patience with this project. I look forward to displaying the students museum in the front entrance of the school.

Poetic Devices Definitions

Poetic Devices

Definitions

Tone

feelings or meanings conveyed in the poem

Not so much what is being said but how it is said

Stanza

a grouping of two or more lines of a poem in terms of length, metrical form, or rhyme scheme.

Provides order and an expectation of closure

Simile

A comparison between two unlike things using like or as.

“My love is like a red rose.”

Metaphor

A comparison between two unlike things without using like or as. Something is something else

The doctor inspected the rash with a vulture's eye.

Personification

Giving human qualities or characteristics to animals or inanimate objects

My shoes are killing me.

Alliteration

Repetition of initial consonant sounds in a group or words close together

Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers.

Assonance

Repetition of a vowel sound

The eagle lived free and easy.

Hyperbole

Overstatement or exaggeration

I will just die if I do not go to the party.

Symbol

On object or idea that stands for something else.

Common symbols for love are roses and hearts. A dove is a symbol for peace.

Onomatopoeia

The use of words which imitate sound

Buzz, tweet, ping

Imagery

Words that appeal to the senses.

Creates vivid mental pictures (sight, smell, taste, touch, and sound).

Speaker

The voice in the poem (not always the poet).

Provides focus.

Oxymoron

a seeming contradiction in two words put together

Jumbo shrimp

February 21, 2011

February 21, 2011

Pink Shirt Day on Wednesday!!

On Wednesday, February 23, 2011 of this week students at General Lake are encouraged to wear something pink for an anti-bullying awareness day. This idea comes from two incredible Nova Scotia high school students and their friends who organized a high school protest in support of a grade 9 boy who was being bullied. They distributed pink t-shirts to all the boys in their school. Here's a part of the Globe and Mail article describing their idea:

“David Shepherd, Travis Price and their teenage friends organized a high-school protest to wear pink in sympathy with a Grade 9 boy who was being bullied…[They] took a stand against bullying when they protested against the harassment of a new Grade 9 student by distributing pink T-shirts to all the boys in their school.

‘I learned that two people can come up with an idea, run with it, and it can do wonders,’ says Mr. Price, 17, who organized the pink protest. ‘Finally, someone stood up for a weaker kid.’

So Mr. Shepherd and some other headed off to a discount store and bought 50 pink tank tops. They sent out message to schoolmates that night, and the next morning they hauled the shirts to school in a plastic bag.

As they stood in the foyer handing out the shirts, the bullied boy walked in. His face spoke volumes. ‘It looked like a huge weight was lifted off his shoulders,’ Mr. Price recalled.

The bullies were never heard from again.”

Congratulations to all the students who participated in the Legions's Public Speaking Event on Sunday February 20, 2011. In the Primary division we were well represented by Skye, Mitchell Jeremy and Keira. In the Junior division we were represented by Tiana, Emma, and Miranda and in the intermediate we were represented by Melora, Annie and Mikayla. Many people commented to me what a great showing General Lake made this year. Special congratulations to Jeremy and Miranda for placing second in their division. Well done General Lake!!

This week the Grade 1 and 2 students are working on their plays, as well as reading the story of Minty: A Story of Young Harriet Tubman by Alan Schroeder.

The grade 3 students have been reading a novel called Stone Fox by John Reynolds Gardiner and they are working on a group presentation of their assigned chapter. Students have chosen a variety of ways to present their work including making models, acting it out, creating a stick pivot animation and making a picture. I am looking forward to seeing the wonderful presentations.

The grade 4, 5,and 6's have been working on an anti-bullying presentation for Wednesday, poetry work, as well as beginning their Black Inventors museum. For the inventor project, at this point most students have an idea of who they will be studying. I will provide computer time for students to print out information about their inventor. The due date is February 28. Students are asked to have a picture of their inventor (if possible), a prop as well as a short write up about their person. I modelled what I expected in class using the streetlight and the inventor Garrett Morgan. I will leave my model on display outside the classroom for students to look closely at. The write up should include who they are, when, where, what they invented, why they invented it. It should be a paragraph including a topic sentence, supporting details and a concluding sentence. I look forward to having the work on display in the school for other students to view.

The criteria for marking will be as follows:

Included an effective, interesting prop and photograph (if possible) 1 2 3 4

Writing includes all details (who what where when and why 1 2 3 4

Overall presentation is visually effective and appealing 1 2 3 4

Grade 4,5,and 6 students will be reading the poem I Rise this week by Maya Angelou and discussing the various poetic devices used in her work. Here's the poem we will be discussing.

I Rise by Maya Angelou

Out of the huts of history's shame

I rise
Up from a past that's rooted in pain
I rise
I'm a black ocean, leaping and wide,
Welling and swelling I bear in the tide.
Leaving behind nights of terror and fear
I rise
Into a daybreak that's wondrously clear
I rise
Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave,
I am the dream and the hope of the slave.
I rise
I rise
I rise.

Homework

Grade 1 Reading Printing

Grade 2 Reading Spelling

Grade 3 Reading at home program Inventor project

Grade 4 Reading at home program Inventor project

Grade 5 Reading at home program Inventor project

Grade 6 Reading at home program Inventor project

Have a great week everyone!

Grade 6 Adventure Stories

The Missing Voice by Mikayla

One day my friend and I went for a walk. Then all of a sudden a door appeared in front of us.

"I wonder where it goes?" said Morgan.

"Maybe we should go through it."

We stepped through the door. First thing we noticed was we were under water. Then a shark was in the nearby distance. The shark said to follow him, so we did!

Right in front of us was a giant palace with sea horses, sharks, sea turtles and fish. Pearl, the Queen of the mermaids, gave us a scroll.
It said, "Please help me! I lost my voice and I can't find it."
So we told the Queen we would help her find it.
So we set out on our journey. We were swimming for hours, then we saw a bright light and heard someone signing. We saw a giant octopus. She had Queen Pearl's voice. Morgan tried to grab it. What a surprise she got it! We swam as fast as we could. Queen Pearl thanked us for finding her voice and she granted us a wish and we were home. The End




Farkles by Sydney

One day My sister, Scribble and I were walking in a tropical forest when we heard a loud roar behind us. We turned around and saw a pink sparkly dinosaur!

"Run!" yelled Scribble.

Scribble and I started running really fast, but the dinosaurs legs were longer than ours and it caught up to us easily.

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" we yelled.
"Shut it, please" yelled the dino.

Then we got quiet. We heard the big roar, but it was coming from the dino's tummy.

"Sorry," said the dinosaur, "I'm very hungry. Do you happen to have something to eat?"

"Nope," said my sister, "We didn't know that we would meet a hungry dino." "Who are you guys, anyway?"

"I'm Doodle," I said.

I'm Scribble." said my sister.

"Cool!" said the dino." "I'm Jube-Jube. Pleased to meet you!"

In the following days Jube-Jube, Scribble, and Doodle became good friends.
The End

The Cookie Saviour by Jada

One day my friend Julia and I went on a walk. We decided to go in the forest. We didn't really know where we were going because we hadn't been there before but we didn't have bread crumbs. We just kept walking. We went pretty far and we were both tired and hungry.

"Julia, do you know the way home?" I said.
"How am I supposed to know?" complained Julia.
"Of course," I said, "All you have been doing is facebooking the whole time!"

"It's not my fault. I'm trying to update my Farm on Farmville!!"
"Whatever!" I said "Let's just try to find our way back home."

"I think we're going the wrong way."said Julia.

"Well , sorry. I didn't bring a map, but there wouldn't be a way of..."

I cut her off. "I know Julia".

It had been hours and we were both tired and hungry.

"Julia...Julia? Julia wake up", I said.

"Huh cookies." said Julia.

"What?" I said.

"I smell cookies!"said Julia.

"Ow!" I screamed, "You bit me!"

"Sorry", said Julia.

"Hey, I see somebody. OVER HERE!!!" we both screamed "It's Taya and Maria!"

"Are you guys lost too? Julia asked.

"Yep, we can't find our way out," said Taya.

"I smell cookies!"said Maria

"I told you," said Julia.

"Follow the scent", said Taya.

"I can see the light," I said.

"Grandma!" Julia and I screamed

"A way out, we found a way out by cookies," said Maria.

"Yum..."said Julia.

"Hi Grandma, we're all starving. Can we have a cookie?" I said.
" Of course but what happened?" said Grandma .

It's a long story" we all said.

And we all fell asleep on our plates of cookies.

THE END



Forest Adventure by Taya

One day Sydney and Jada were walking in the forest and they started to hear noises. They met Julia and Maria. Then it started getting dark as the four friends walked.

Then Jada heard some freaky noises and then she asked Sydney, "Did you just hear that?"

Jada looked around and then Sydney said, "Yes I did!"

The four girls kept on walking through the forest. Maria stopped walking and turned around. Julia said, 'RUN!"

All four of the girls screamed and ran.

Sydney said, "OKAY, I think we can stop running now!"

"But I'm still scared!" Sydney and Jada were very scared!

Then Jada screamed, "Maria!"

Then Maria says, "WHAT??"

Jada said, "CELLPHONE! Where is your cellphone? Call for help!!!!...You do have your phone don't you????"

"Yes..ohh yeah. Who do you want me to call?"

"I don't know call anyone who would know what to do or how to help us!"says Sydney.

Maria says "Okay, well ummmm. How about Erin? She might know."

They are calling Erin. Erin picks up the phone. She says sleepily, "Hello, who is this?"

"It's Maria, Sydney, Jada and Julia", they all say.

Erin says "Okay, well where are you in the forest?"

Jada says, "I don't know!"

Sydney says, "Near a hole!"

"Okay I'm coming!" Erin says.

They hear footsteps.

"Hey! I told you I would be hear soon!"says a familiar voice.

"Thank-you Erin. You came super fast!"

Then Erin saved them. "You know you should have put out bread crumbs!"

"Whatever Erin!" says Sydney.

Then they all walked out of the forest. The End

The Monster Tummy by Erin

Once upon a time Popcorn, the butterfly was flying with her friends in a rain forest. They loved to play tag.

One day they were playing tag and they saw a dinosaur. "We better stay away from that Dino,"said Popcorn.

"Well I don't care," said Jada, "Come over HERE YOU FAT DINO!"

The dino saw and heard Jada and came over and snapped her up in his jaws and as a dessert he snapped up Tub too.

The rest of the butterflies flew away and hid in a hollow log.

"We have to get Tub and Jada back", said Marty.

"Yeah, we should" said Taya.

"So we should feed him something nasty," said Buttercup.

"Good idea", said Popcorn.

So they all went and picked a green mushroom. We took it to the dino and said, "We brought you a green butterfly!"

The dino ate the mushroom. He started to say "this butterfly is nasty, what is...."But he never finished because he started to puke up butterfies. Finally we saw Jada and Tub come out. "Woah, that was nasty." they both said and they rushed off to the river to wash off all the dino puke.
"Well that teaches you not to call a dino fat,"said Popcorn, as they rushed off to find Tub and Jada.




Will you be my friend? by Kyle

Once upon a time there was a twelve year old boy named Mr. K. He's been looking for friends for his whole life. This story started with a walk in the park, and like always Mr. K was looking for a friend.

Then he saw someone leaning on a tree. Mr. K decided to ask him if he wanted to be friends. But right before he was going to ask him, he knew that person.

THAT WAS THE COOLEST PERSON IN HIS SCHOOL! It was Russell.

Mr. K started to shake. It looked like he had guts in his pants. Russell had no interest in being his friend.







Walk in the Woods by Dominic

One day my friends and I went on a walk in the woods. It started getting dark so we headed home.

"It feels like someone is following us", whispered Liam.

"It is just the wind" I replied.

As we walked home Liam and Russell noticed that someone was walking toward us pretty fast! A couple of seconds later he started chasing us.

"Run", I yelled.

We hid for awhile after ditching the man and we left Liam running away from him. When we got home we told our parents and we went looking for Liam.

"Whoops!"I said in my head. After three hours we heard his voice.

"No,no, let me go!"

Liam was in a hut deep in the woods trapped by the hobo.

"Call the cops!"said Mom

No, we shouldn't. He'd probably run away,"I said. to myself and after constantly filing the rope with my Mom's nail file, Liam was free and we ran home!




Spots and Dippie by Zoey

One day Jada, Maria, Sydney and I went to the pink sparkly caves in Africa. We walked into the cave. When we walked in a cheetah jumped out.

"Halt, who goes there? said Sydney.

"My name is Spots," said the cheetah.

Then all of a sudden the cheetah fell through the floor of the cave.

We all looked through the hole and we yelled "SPOTS!".

"MEOW!"yells Spots.

"Oh no, Spots fell down the hole", said Jada.

"Are you okay?" I said.

"Yes," said Spots.

Spots was okay. The girls all jumped down the hole to save Spots.

When they got down there, they saw the most amazing thing ever...

"DINOSAUR! we all yelled.

"AHHHHH HUMANS" yelled the dinosaur.

They ran away. Then Spots ran after the dinosaur and told her to stop.

"What's your name?" said Spots.

"My name is Dippie", said the dinosaur.

"Well, its nice to meet you" said Spots as we caught up to them.

"Hi, Spots, it's good that you made a new friend, but we need to get you out of here," said Sydney.
"I know", said Dippie, "Climb on my back!"

"Okay", we all said.

"Finally home", I said. The End

Park Adventure by Russell

One day my friends and I went on a walk in the park. We saw these guys that were drunk. Kyle got really scared because they started walking towards us. So we ran away and we got lost.
We didn't know where we were. Kyle got so scared he wet himself. The guys that were drunk were catching up to us. So Kyle climbed a tree and waited until the guys walked by. Then we got out and ran the other way which scared me even more.
Then they said that I was drunk but I said no. I called the cops. They were on their way so I made a trap to catch the guys that were drunk because they looked like the robbers that had escaped from jail and were never seen again. I climbed a tree but they saw me, so they were waiting for me at the bottom of the tree. But the cops came and they hit the trap. It was to make them hit a bench and fall down and that's what happened. Then the cops came and took them away. I went home and told my parents what happened. They didn't believe me one bit. I wonder why. The End

February 15, 2011

February 15, 2011

Dear Parents/Guardians
Another great week in the Core English. Students practised and performed their storytelling and speeches. So many students did such a great job. It was a really difficult task to pick only three from each class to participate in our school-wide public speaking events. COngratulations to the following students who will present in the gym on February 16 at 9:30 am: Komal, Gbolu, Lauren, Skye, Breaelle, Emma M, Mitchell St, Rebecca, Tanner, Angelina, Jeremy and Farati.

In the Primary grades 1 and 2 you will notice we have returned to the reading program. You should receive 2 books in your package, along with a different format for recording the reading. I am trying to get the students to think about the strategies they are using during their reading which include sounding it out, looking for smaller words, looking at pictures, and reading on then going back. Students should be able to articulate what they do when they come to a word they don't know. Also the Grades 1 and 2 students have completed all Primer and Pre-primer words. I am sending home a copy of our word wall with all of these words to assist the students when they are creating their stories and sentences in the homework. We are beginning our level 1 words this week in the homework assignments.

Special thanks to Mrs. Kernaghan for volunteering her time to make some new A - Z books. Hopefully the new titles will inspire some of our beginning readers.

Please continue to send in those pennies for the Pennies for Peace as well as your canned tabs for wheelchairs. There is a drop off jar at the front entrance to deposit these items.

February is Black History Month and as part of program the junior students will be creating a mini musuem of artifacts invented by people of African descent. Students chose their inventor/invention this week and next week they will prepare a short write-up about the inventor, as well as some information on the invention. Watch for the framework, as well as the criteria I will use for marking the work. The due date will be the end of February.

Homework
Grade 1 Printing worksheet Reading Program
Grade 2 Printing worksheet Reading Program
Grade 3 Cursive Writing Home Reading Program Black History Invention Project due Feb 28
Grade 4 Cursive Writing Home Reading Program Black History Invention Project due Feb 28
Grade 5 Home Reading Program Black History Invention Project due Feb 28
Grade 6 Home Reading Program Black History Invention Project due Feb 28

February 8, 2011

February 8, 2011

Dear Parents/Guardians,

After much thought and deliberation I have decided to maintain the paper newsletter. Thanks to everyone for their feedback. It's really important for me to be communicating with parents especially in the Core English program. I have the students with me for such a short period of time and many forget a lot of the information or activities. At least with the newsletter and the blog everyone gets two opportunities to peek into the classroom.

This week we are carrying on the work begun by Ms. Bernardin in 'Pennies for Peace', which was founded by Greg Mortenson. For those who may not know, General Lake is collecting pennies to provide educational opportunities for students in Afghanistan and Pakistan. We have/or will be (depending on the class) reading the following books and the students will be/ have been involved in various activities to develop awareness for the cause. I encourage everyone to bring in their pennies. More information about the program is located at http://www.penniesforpeace.org/

A penny in Canada has little worth, but in Pakistan and Afghanistan a penny buys a pencil and opens the door to literacy:

1 penny = one pencil

2 pennies = one eraser

15 pennies = one notebook

$2 or $3 = one teacher’s salary for one day

$20 = one student’s school supplies for one year

$600 = one teacher’s annual salary

$5,000 = support for existing school for one year

$50,000 = one school building and support for up to five years

(Source: Central Asia Institute)

Students in Core English have been busy practising their public speaking. Students in Grades 1 to 3 have been practising and presenting their storytelling. Students in Grade 4 - 6 have prepared a speech on their own individual topic. Official presentations will begin on Friday. Good luck to everyone. Most effective public speakers in the primary division will be asked to present in the gym on February 16 at 9:30. I will let individual parents know if their child is selected. On February 17 the speeches will be presented at 2:40 in the gym. Again I will let individual parents know if their child is selected. Thanks to everyone for their help.

The Peer Mediators have just begun their duties on the kindergarten and primary playground this week. They voted on their name and they are now officially the 'YARD PATROL'. The grade 5 and 6 students are very excited with their new role. Any feedback is welcome as we are always trying to improve. I will be training another group of students after the March break. I already have a huge list of interested applicants. Thanks to everyone for being so enthusiastic and working so hard to learn their mediation skills.

Finally another young group of General Lake leaders have demonstrated initiative by proposing a canned tab collection. The idea was originally proposed by former student (Morgan), then Brianna, Zoey and Mikayla have quickly taken on the cause. Watch for more details, but for now please start collecting your pop tabs. The tabs are converted to money to buy wheelchairs. The girls have investigated this idea and more information will follow. Until then, Save Save Save!

Homework:

Grade 1 (No reading books have been distributed) Printing practice; Storytelling (Something From Nothing)

Grade 2 (No reading books have been distributed) Printing/Spelling practise; Storytelling (Something From Nothing or their own story)

Grade 3 (No reading books have been distributed) Cursive; Storytelling (Individual books)

Grade 4 Cursive; Speeches

Grade 5 Speeches

Grade 6 Speeches

Have a great week!