Gr 1

In grade 1, we are continuing our unit on the treaty promises made between the Aboriginals and European settlers. This is our kwl board. The children have learned a lot. 

Last week was the full week of teaching for our student teachers from the university. The grade 1s completed Circle books that looked at the importance of the circle in aboriginal culture. They are currently on display outside of my classroom if you would like to take a look!

After Easter break, we will be creating mini dioramas depicting the signing of the treaties. Look for them on display near the end of April. This will the the culminating project in our treaties unit, and then we will begin our final social studies unit of the year: Our Needs. This will look at our social, emotional, physical, intellectual and spiritual needs.

In Phys Ed, we will be focussing on rhythm and dance during April. 

Have a restful Easter!

Mrs. Redpath

Interviews

Just a reminder that I will be at the school today from 3:30-5:15 and available to meet with you. If today doesn't work, email me and we can set up a time before or after school Mon-Wed in the next couple weeks. If you are looking for me today, I will be in Dan Gallays room from 3:30-4:30, and Tara Schecks room from 4:30-5:15. If you would like to meet with me, you can find me there! 

Mrs. Redpath

K, 1, 2/3 and 7

Dear Parents,

As we come up to 3-way conferences tomorrow and Friday, it is a time to celebrate the learning of our students, as well as ask any questions or address concerns that you might have. My work days are Mon-Wed, but I will also be available at the school this Thursday from 3:30-5:15pm. If you wish to meet with me then, or to schedule a meeting for a later date, you may email me. There is a contact field on this blog, or you can email me at zredpath@gscs.sk.ca. 

Alternately, you may call the school and leave a message with Mrs. K at the office, and I will return your call as soon as possible. I am often not in my room (teaching Phys Ed), so leaving a message with Mrs. K is usually better than transferring to my extension.

Mrs. Redpath

Gr 7 unit exam

As a major heads up, the science unit exam for chemistry will be Monday April 27th. That is over a months notice. There is a lot to review, so this should give ample time for studying. There will still be another lab report before then. Also, any extra credit assignments need to be turned in on the date of the unit exam.

Gr 7 rewrite

The science quiz rewrite is tomorrow. Here are the answers to the practice sheet (notice the corrections). 

Gr 7

The science quiz last week had mixed results with some students doing very well and many receiving 1s and 2s. Ask you child how they did. I have offered students with 1s and 2s to take a retest this Wednesday, as well as to meet with them to reteach the concepts as needed. There are a few students who have chosen not to retest despite poor scores. If you are concerned that this might be your child, you can ask them or email me directly and I can let you know how they did. 

Lab report due date has been extended to tomorrow. 

We will be continuing our robot art project on Wednesday. Several students were lacking materials today despite having more than a week notice. They are to bring boxes or other discarded items to fashion into a robot prototype. They will have an hour and a half on Wednesday in addition to the hour today, and then unfinished projects will be homework. Due date to follow. 

As always, please contact me with any questions or concerns :)

Mrs. Redpath

Gr 7

Lab report due tomorrow 

Gr 7

Reminder that lab reports are due Monday. This was assigned 10 days early and there are no excuses for late assignments in this case. All students were assigned a group and can get the data from group members if they were absent on either or both days of the potash experiment. Specific expectations are on my whiteboard on the right hand side, or ask a classmate.

Mrs. Redpath

Gr 7 science quiz tomorrow

Remember, tomorrow is our science quiz on metric conversions and classifying matter. There will be 10 questions for each of the two topics. Afterwards we will be making Bohr models of atoms. Hope you all had fun on the ski trip today :) 

-Mrs. Redpath 

Gr 7 metric conversions practice answers

Above are the answers to the new practice sheet for next Wednesday's quiz. 

Below are the answers for the sheets we corrected in class yesterday: 

The quiz will be 10 metric conversion questions and 10 classifying matter questions. Make sure you understand HOW to classify matter, don't just memorize the answers above. If you do not understand, ask a classmate or email me. The key for solutions vs mechanical mixtures is that in a solution, the added substance has DISSOLVED, while in a mechanical mixture, the components have not dissolved, but are just mixed.

K and gr 1

Check out the fabulous leprechauns by our grade ones, courtesy of our teacher candidate Ms. Haynes! Students chose from Orange, red or brown for the beards, and then drew their own hats and faces. There are some pretty funny little guys up there, including one with a unibrow! Pop in to the school and take a peak! 

Hanging from the ceiling you will see Pots O Gold by the kindergarteners. They cut out the pots, glued on the coins, and constructed a rainbow paper chain. This was a second project on Color theory for the kindergarteners. They can name the primary and secondary colors. To the left you can see the color and texture tiles displayed on a color wheel. The kindergarteners build letters from plastercine, while the grade 1s experimented with texture by composing an assortment of random objects. 

What creative kiddos :)

Gr 7

Science- the unit exams were overall well-done. This was an inquiry unit, culminating in student presentations. As such, a significant portion of the learning took place while listening to the presentations, with teacher clarification when needed. The class will receive their marks on Wednesday, as I am away at a pd tomorrow. Any student concerned with their mark may speak with me regarding extra credit assignments. We have started our chemistry unit as of current. It is a little more challenging. Let me know if your son or daughter needs extra practice with any of the skills. I am always willing to send home extra practice. Additionally, there are 3 extra credit papers already provided to bolster the marks of students who may struggle with math and/or formal testing. There will be a unit quiz in about 2 weeks. I will post more on that next week. 

Art- our next art project will be a color-mixing assignment with paints. I am blocking off an entire week (3 hours) for this project, and as such we will not be doing for a couple of weeks to make up the time in science. Each student needs to bring an 8x8 inch Color print-out of an image that they would like to use for the painting project.

Gr 1

The grade ones completed an art project for Valentine's Day in which they had samples to work from and tracers, but no assistance in how to actually go about constructing the animals:

They worked very hard on these, and I am very pleased with the problem solving they were able to accomplish. They also named their creatures! Come see what your son our daughter made, outside of my classroom. 

We are about the wrap up our social studies unit on Rules and Resposibilities. Some topics covered include rules and responsibilities at home, school, at play, the environment, and helping the less fortunate. 

After the break we will begin a unit called: "A Treaty is a Promise"

This unit begins by introducing students to the ways of life of First Nations people pre-contact, and follows some history up to the point of the signing of the Treaties. We will tak about the relationship between European explorers and the aboriginal tribes, and assess the fairness of the Treaties. If you have any questions or concerns, please don't hesitate to contact me. You can reach me at the school Mon-Wed by phone or drop in and chat! The Treaty units that we teach in each grade are very important in addressing racism in our society. It is especially relevant in Saskatoon with our sharply rising aboriginal population. We want to create understanding and awareness in our students, always emphasizing kindness and inclusion. 

Gr 2/3

As the final project for our Structures unit, the gr 2/3s are constructing a multi-level model tower. Each table group gets to choose what to have on their level, and then we will be demonstrating methods of joinery and reflecting on what we have learned about strength, stability, and symmetry. I expect the final project to be displayed in the library around the beginning of March. Their work so far has been enthusiastic and creative :) stay tuned for updates! 

Gr 7

Science presentations wrapped up yesterday, concluding our unit with a team trivia review game. I saw several very good projects, and most students were very knowledgable on their topic. Thank you for your presentation efforts! The Tuesday after the break will be our unit exam. Please study the notes you took during the presentations. The exam may also include any information covered in our review game yesterday (except the spelling and non-science questions), as well as anything we discussed during the question and answer portion of the presentations. Thanks, also, to those who stayed to help clean my room at the end of the day :) our caretaker is injured and so we have to do a little more upkeep ourselves. 

If you wish to view some of the science projects, they are on display in the library. A few are still in my classroom.

Additionally, the music response posters were due yesterday. What excellent work! About half of them reflect a great deal of time invested, and almost all were submitted on time. I am waiting for 3 more. Come check them out in the hallway by the Gr 8 classroom. Half are on display now and the rest will be up after the break. Here is a preview:

See you for Chemistry after the break!

Staff appreciation week

Thank you to everyone who worked so hard to make the school a beautiful and welcoming place for us this week :) the level of effort is truly amazing and I know that I, for one, feel very appreciated :) check out some pics below: 

Drawing Club

 

Gr 7

We began science presentations this week with a music video, a couple posters, rice-crispie model of Pangaea, and model volcano. We will continue presenting next Monday. 

Art posters are due this tuesday coming up. The few I have received early are exceptional and will look great in the hallway. 

Here is a snippet of Megan's. 

Our unit exam in science will be right after February break. The students will have notes and a unit review to study on their week off. 

Gr 1

The gr 1s are working on assembling animals made only of hearts. They have many choices and were also allowed to make an animal of their choice (one not shown as a sample). Here is Jenessys fox. They are also naming their animals, so come on into the school and look for our animals display next week!

We are also continuing with the questions How are we all Connected, in our social studies unit on Rules and Responsibilities. Next week we will be talking about helping the less fortunate. 

Kindergarten

The kindergartens made these heart penguins this week in art. Aren't they adorable? Skills includes tracing, cutting, gluing and placement. They were given no help tracing and cutting, and had a sample to look at when assembling. The kindergartens are also studying penguins in an inquiry unit in science with Mrs. Ready. 

Gr 7 science project due tomorrow

A final reminder that the science projects are due tomorrow. 

Gr 7

The science projects are due Monday Feb 2nd. Art posters due Tuesday Feb 3rd. This leaves about a week until due. 

Gr 1

The grade ones just finished excellent still life drawings in oil pastel! 

The above are by Cohen and Gabriella. We are talking about how rules and responsibilities connect us in relationships at home and school. This is our third unit in Social Studies. 

Kindergarten

The kindergartens have a Dog Drawing display in the hallway. These were step by step teacher-led drawings. No teacher help was given on the paper. They did fantastically! 

We are wrapping up gymnastics in pe. Special thumbs up to Francesca, Libby and Cayle for excellent speed in our sprints. 

Gr 7

Science- before Christmas we had a Soils quiz that went well. Most students scored a 3 or 4. Congrats to Erika, Megan and Amber for the top scores on this quiz. Students are currently busy at work on an inquiry project on a question of their choice. We will wrap up research today and begin planning our finished products. Students will present their projects beginning on February 2nd.

All students have the rubric for this project as a part of the research package if you wish to look at it. 

Art- we have begun a music response assignment. Students are created posters to represent the mood and meaning of a chosen song. These will be finished in the beginning of February. I will post them on the blog then.

Gr 2/3

We have wrapped up our Solids and Liquids unit. Here are some poems we wrote out about liquids: 

We are now exploring Structure and Motion. This unit included ideas like relative position, friction, methods of joinery, and stable sturdy buildings.

Please send any empty cereal or cracker boxes to school. In February we will be building our own stable structures to meet student chosen criteria. 

In gym we are working on gymnastics skills, including balances, rotations, extensions and falls. We are also working on sprints. 

Gr 1

Pe- the grade 1s are working on gymnastics skills, including balances, rotations, jumping and falling from knees. 

Art- last week we looked at symmetry: 

Today we learned how to draw cats and birds. We are working on a drawing unit this month.

Social Studies- we have begun a unit titled Rules and Responsibilities which will look at why we have rules, and the various responsibilities we have towards others to stay safe and healthy. 

These are the ideas the gr 1s generated about where we have rules, who makes and enforces rules, and consequences of breaking some rules.

Drawing club

We are in the second week of drawing club. Here is some work that our students have done. The first photo shows our gr 2/3 club, and the second is gr 4 and up! 

Thanks to all the wonderful students who have so much fun! Drawing club goes until the end of February.