Mock Trial - The Case of the Stolen iPod

Today, the grade six students participated in a Mock Trial, R vs. Quirky the Alien. Our guest experts, Ashley and Julie from the Young Lawyers Division of the Bar Association were their to guide us through the experience and give advice to all involved. The jury came back with the verdict of "not guilty".

Students are reminded to complete the mock trial reflection on KidBlogs by Friday of this week. Check out the picture gallery (including the sketches by our sketch artist)!

Important Upcoming Dates

Here are some important dates to add to your calendar. We ask that you avoid scheduling any appointments for your son or daughter on these dates.We thank you very much for cooperation. 

Tuesday, May 14- Both Gr. 6 classes will head to Holy Trinity for a tour. This will take up both morning periods. 

Tuesday, May 28  - EQAO Language Assessment
Wednesday, May 29 - EQAO Language Assessment
Thursday, May 30 - EQAO Language Assessment
Friday, May 31 - EQAO Language Assessment
Tuesday, June 4 - EQAO Math Assessment
Wednesday, June 5 - EQAO Math Assessment
All EQAO testing will be done during the morning periods. 

Thursday, June 13 - Gr. 6 Class Trip to St. Brigid
Students will leave school shortly before 9am and will return to school around 7pm.

Tuesday, June 25 - Grade 6 Leaving Ceremony 12:30 pm 

Mock Trial - Monday (am)

Today, students participated in a "hot seat" activity and a persuasive writing task for casting, followed by
character sketches that included name, background story, job, and thoughts about the trial. Based on student requests and on their performance today, students will be taking on the following roles in Monday's mock trial:

• Quirky – Noah
• Zirky – Camryn
• Mr. Jones – Hayden
• Mrs. Smith – Tara
• Constable Chen – Cole
• Mr. Noodles – Jared
• Crown prosecutors - Emma, Adam, and Zack
• Defence lawyers - Ben, Reid, and Matthew
• Court clerk – Louis
• Jury - Aaron, Bailey, Haley, Lucas, Brianna, Mieke, and Carlos
• Bailiff - Michael
• Sketch artists – Marlee and Sam

Students should read through the information below and be familiar with their role before Monday's class:

• Introduction to case
• Statements from defendant and others involved
• Tasks for court case

Cleaning up the Capital (am) - MONDAY!

Tomorrow (Monday), our school will be participating in "Cleaning up the Capital". During period two, classes will be assigned to different parts of our school yard and our community and will be cleaning up garbage and yard waste. Students are welcome to bring in a rake to help out!

Final day for Space Station building (pm)

Monday is our last day for building the space stations. Students should be ensuring that they bring any required materials to school on Monday to complete the building.

Rant like Rick videos (am)

Over the past two weeks, students have been working on researching, writing, and recording a persuasive essay on a topic of their choice. We used Rick Mercer's snow day rant as our starting point and students were asked to create their own "Rick Rant". This was our first attempt using iMovie and the students quickly learned the program and were able to shoot the videos and publish a final product in just a couple of periods.

Check out the students' rants in the links below:

Space Station - building tomorrow! (pm)

Tomorrow the grade six science students will begin building their space stations. Students have been bringing in materials throughout the week but all materials need to be at school tomorrow (Friday). As students are relying on all group members to bring in their assigned materials, I am hoping that all students will make this a priority.

ShowMe Proportional Reasoning Learning Goals

For our upcoming test for proportional reasoning, the students were asked to demonstrate their understanding of our learning goals using the ShowMe app. The students were given 30 minutes from planning to publication. They had to plan their "storyboard", script and then create the presentation. I am SUPER proud of how well the students did considering this was the first time they used the app.

The goals for the unit are:

• I can write ratios in a variety of forms and simplify them when necessary. I can explain how order matters when writing a ratio.
• I can recognize that ratios appear in a variety of different contexts; part-to-whole, part-to-part, and rates.
• I can identify a rate and can calculate unit rates in order to solve real-world problems.
• I can demonstrate how a percent is a ratio of a number to 100.
• I can compare fractions, decimals, and percents using a number line.

The videos below are a selection of our ShowMe presentations:

Proportional Reasoning Test - Wednesday (am)

On Wednesday, the grade 6s will be writing their unit test on proportional reasoning. The topics include: ratios, rates, fractions, decimals, and percents. Today, we went over rates and ratios. Students have been sent home with questions for the remaining topics. We will take these up tomorrow during class.

To view the complete list of review questions that were handed out to the students, click HERE.

To view the notebook lesson that we completed today, click HERE.

Tomorrow, we will be using the iPads to create ShowMe tutorials of each of our five learning goals for this unit. I will post these tomorrow after school.

Enjoy the sunshine!

Persuasive Writing Drafts - DUE Monday! (am)

Wow - a snow day in April... funny how the concept of a snow day is how the persuasive writing unit was introduced (view Rick Mercer's Snow Day rant). The rough draft of the student's persuasive writing is DUE on Monday. Many students have submitted their essays already but everyone is encouraged to check their work this weekend and make changes if necessary. Miss McCabe has been making notes, comments, and suggestions for improvement on students' essays so students should be fixing up these revisions before Monday as well.

Finally, students should be using the persuasive writing checklist while drafting their work. This is the checklist we will be using to grade their papers. Happy persuading!

Need an Empty Can (am)

The symbol in grade six religion is the lantern. In the next couple of weeks, we will be working on building our own unique lanterns. These will be used at our leaving ceremony and during our final walk. Students are asked to bring in a clean, empty can (soup size or larger) by FRIDAY of this week.

Fraction Quiz - Monday (am)

The grade 6 class (am) will be writing a short concept quiz on fractions this coming Monday. Topics include representing fractions, equivalent fractions, reducing fractions to lowest terms, converting between mixed numbers and improper fractions, and comparing and ordering fractions.

Today, students were given a package of practice questions that they can work on at home. In addition, if students would like some extra practice the following is a list of online games to help develop the concepts:

1. Representing Fractions
2. Melvin's Match (representing)
3. Fraction Flags (representating)
4. Improper Fractions and Mixed Numbers
5. Fraction Frenzy (equivalents)
6. Reduce Fraction Shoot
7. Comparing Fractions
8. Dirt Bike Comparing Fractions
9. Ordering Fractions
10. Ordering Decimals