Concert still a GO!

It may be a snow day but it is still a SHOW day! We realize that the buses are cancelled and this can cause problems for some people but the decision as made to go ahead with the concert. Our class is performing in the second show (which starts at 10:05am). The show will last until about 11:00 or so. A reminder that students who are leaving with their parents after the show need to sign out at the main office. For all those who can make it, please remember that our costume is PJs and a santa hat (boys are to wear a shirt and tie on top). For those who can't make it, I will post a video of our dress rehearsal performance in the upcoming days.

Students are also asked to take all of their things home over the holidays - including indoor shoes - so that the coatroom and classroom can get cleaned well (and that those with shoes that are too small can get replaced).

Also, items from the lost and found are displayed on tables near the gym. Parents who are coming to watch the show are encouraged to peruse the items with their child in a a search for lost articles. Items not claimed will be donated to those in need.

Finally, if I do not get to see you before the break I want to wish you all a happy and safe Christmas holiday. I have thoroughly enjoyed this first part of the year and am looking forward to the remaining months working with our amazing students!

Christmas Concert - Friday (am)

Dress rehearsal tomorrow during period 1 and 2..... but, more importantly, the big performance is Friday during period two (starting around 10:00). Students are asked to wear the following "costumes" for the performance (Friday), they do not need to wear them tomorrow for the school rehearsal.

BOYS

• shirt and tie
• pajama bottoms
• Santa hat (optional)

GIRLS

• pajamas
• Santa hat (optional)

The students were excellent in rehearsal today and I am hoping that many of the parents will be able to attend the concert. As for academics, if students have completed their Census at Schools project, their podcast, and their literature circle package (and reading the novel) then they are "free" to enjoy their Christmas break with no additional work - other than Math Reflex and reading of course. :)

Final Literature Circle Meeting tomorrow (am)

Tomorrow (Wednesday), is our final literature circle. Students should be done their novel and have completed the literature circle package in preparation for their meeting.

Graphs DUE tomorrow - Wednesday (am)

Each student (even those working in pairs) must hand in their own copy of a pictograph, bar graph, and line graph for their chosen data. Today in class we were working towards designing criteria for these graphs.

As a reminder to students:

• the pictograph is for the class data only
• the bar graph is to compare the class and Canadian (and South African) data
• the line graph is to show the Canadian data over the years

For the bar and line graph, students should be including a legend to indicate which set of data (e.g. class, Canadian) is represented.

click HERE for the success criteria for pictographs

1. click HERE for the success criteria for bar and line graphs

Snow Day - things to work on at home (am)

Due to the freezing rain, all buses are cancelled. The schools will remain open. If students are staying in their homes today, here are three things that they could be working on (in addition to cleaning the house and making supper):

1) Prep for Wednesday's final literature circle meeting

Our final meeting for our December book clubs is this Wednesday. Students should have completed their book by this time. Students are required to complete the literature circle meeting package before each meeting. Some students have not completed this is past and have showed up to their meeting empty handed. This is not to be happening - all students are to be prepared for their discussion. Today would be a good day for students to curl up and complete this reading as due to the snow day and advent liturgy, no class time will be made available for them to do this.

2) Work on graphs for Census at Schools project

On Friday, we discussed pictographs and would have been starting on bar and line graphs today. I plan to print out the introduction and data table this morning (students were aware that this would be happening). At home, students should be making, a very least, a pictograph for the class data (e.g. frequencies). If they have additional time they can start on the bar and line graphs. A reminder that the pictograph is for the CLASS data (i.e. frequency of each choice), the bar graph should be a double (or triple if including South African data) that compares the CLASS and CANADIAN data, and the line graph should be of the CANADIAN data over time. 

Here are some helpful resources for making the graphs:

- find a checklist of things to include in a quality pictograph HERE

- find a checklist of things to include in a quality bar and line graph HERE

3) Play Math Reflex

It's a great day to become more fluent in math facts. Students are encouraged to play Math Reflex at some point today to continue working towards 100% fluency.

Drive safe.

Math Tests sent home (am)

Today, the math test on data terms and collection was sent home in the math assessment duotang. We did not complete the analysis for this test, but I am asking students who would like clarification on any of the questions to speak to me on Monday.

Christmas Song (am)

In preparation for the upcoming Christmas concert (Friday, December 21), our morning class is prepping the the song "12 and a half days of Christmas". Some students requested some resources that they could use at home to help them practice.

Students can download/access the following below:
1) Copy of the lyrics
2) Link to YouTube video
3) Listen to the Africa part (I used Audacity to make a Karaoke version - we will use this on Monday)

We will be practicing the whole song next week so a little weekend practice would be very helpful.

Forms of Energy Poster (pm)

After a great dodgeball game versus Mme. Helbecque's grade 6 immersion class, we began our electricity unit. As the grade 5s just finished a unit on energy, they are also included in this activity.

In order to explore several different forms of energy and how those forms can be converted to or from electrical energy, students are creating a poster for one of the forms of energy.

The poster should include:
- the name of the form of energy prominently located on the poster
- a brief definition (one or two sentences) maximum of the energy form (this is to be written in the student's own words)
- a picture which shows the chosen energy form and how it can be converted to or from electrical energy (for example, if doing solar energy, do not just draw the Sun... the students needs to draw the Sun with its solar rays hitting a solar panel and being converted to electrical energy)

I will also be looking to see if the students' posters:
- are neat and organized
- contain no spelling or grammatical errors
- include colour
- have the information organized in a way that it is easy to read

Today, we started the rough copies and I am asking that students arrive to class tomorrow with their rough copies completed so that we can work on the good copies in class. These posters will be displayed in the classroom so that students can refer to them throughout the unit.

Math Test - tomorrow! (am)

Tomorrow, the grade sixes will be writing a math quiz on data terminology and collecting data. Concepts the students should be proficient in include:

• primary versus secondary data (know definitions and examples)
• qualitative versus quantitative data (know definitions and examples)
• discrete versus continuous data (know definitions and examples)
• collecting data in tally charts and frequency tables
• converting from a fraction to percent

Today, students were given a practice test today (download a new copy HERE).... students are encouraged to check their answers to this practice test HERE.

Busy Day! (am)

Wow - what a busy day! Trying to get caught up on things from the snow day and trying to finish up some units before Christmas break. The grade six students (am) should be working on three things at home tonight:
- continue their reading and logging any vocabulary and questions they may need clarified in the literature circle package (our next meeting is Thursday and several students were NOT prepared last time - I am expecting all to be ready to share their thoughts).
- finish their data tables (e.g. class, Canadian) that we started in class today. We will be using this data to construct pictographs, bar graphs, and line graphs starting tomorrow
- continue with Math Reflex... we are going for 100% fluency! So far Sam, Louis, and Jared have reached this target! Congrats boys!

Snow Day - buses cancelled (am)

Due to the freezing rain, the buses have been cancelled for all schools in Ottawa. The schools will remain open; however, if students are staying home today, here are three things that they could work on.

1) Get their readings completed for their literature circle. Most groups have assigned themselves around 100 pages which are to be read for Thursday's book club meeting. Students could use the day to complete some (or all) of this reading. Once done, they are to start filling out the literature circle package in preparation for their Thursday meeting.

2) Compile data for the Census at School project. See previous post about this.

3) Play Math Reflex. Several students are reaching 100% fluency with this program. Others are not even 50% as of yet. Students are encouraged to continue playing this 3 times per week to ensure math fluency.

Take care on the roads today.

Call for Alice pictures (pm)

I don't know how I could have been more proud of the students in the Alice in Wonderland production. In total, the cast performed the show three times for over 400 people! I am hoping that parents were able to get some good pictures! I am also hoping that those parental photographers would be able to send me some pictures so that I can create a gallery of the show (having to deal with the audio and visual aspects of the play, I couldn't take pictures myself!).

Pictures from the play can be sent via email to ian.fischer@ocsb.ca

Thanks in advance!

Data, Data, Data! (am)

On Friday, students were introduced to using a spreadsheet to organize data. Each student received a copy of the class data (via google docs) and were asked to play around with the functions (e.g. taking an average, sorting) of the application. As part of our math project, students are to organize the data for their specific question into a frequency table.

We will also be looking at the Canadian data over the past several years. Students will be asked to organize the historical data (results) from their specific survey question. Some questions go back all the way to 2003 and others are relatively new. The date written beside the question (on the project outline) refers to the first year the question was asked.

Finally, some of the students have been asked to look at data from South Africa. They will have to create a frequency table for the South African data.

We will be using the netbooks on Monday to collect all of the above data but students are encouraged to get a jump on this by working over the weekend to collect some of the data (e.g. class data) into a table.

Here are some links to the data and to some helpful templates:
- find a helpful template (word doc) to help organize the data HERE
- access the class data (spreadsheet) HERE
- access the Canadian data through the links HERE
- access the South African data (spreadsheet) HERE

Please note that the Google documents in the links above must be saved "as a copy" before students can edit the data. To do this, the student must be logged into their google account, and then go to "File" and "Make a copy".

Literature Circle Meeting #1 - tomorrow! (am)

Our first circle meeting for our book clubs will be tomorrow. Students were to have read the assigned chapters and to complete the literature circle package for this first portion of the book. We will be having the meeting during period one.

Survey Introduction DUE tomorrow! (am)

The first part of our survey project is due tomorrow (Friday). Students are to have written (or typed) an introduction to their survey question. The introduction should include:
- the question that they will be investigating in the project
- the possible choices (if any) that were offered on the survey
- a prediction and supporting explanation of the most popular and least popular choice from the class data
- a prediction and supporting explanation of the most popular and least popular choice from the Canadian data
- a prediction and supporting explanation of the most popular and least popular choice from the South African data (only for those questions which have SA data)

We will be hanging our introduction up in the hallway so students are advised to write neatly or to type out their responses.

Alice - dress rehearsal tomorrow! (pm)

Today's final "no audience" performance went very well. Some students are still a little shaky on their lines and should be reviewing these on a daily basis. Tomorrow, during period four (as soon as the Lacrosse team returns) we will be performing the play for three junior classes. This will serve as our dress rehearsal. A reminder to parents wanting to come watch the play that we will be having two performances on Friday, December 7.

Performance #1 will begin at 12:20pm.

Performance #2 will begin at 1:50pm.

Parents are encouraged to get their 15 minutes before show time so that they can get a seat before the classes come. Check out the picture from today's rehearsal!

Complete Online Survey! (am)

Students that did not complete the Census at Schools survey in class today due to iPOD issues are to complete the survey before math class tomorrow (period 2). Click HERE to access the survey. The class code is 550 and the password is holyred.

Students who do not complete the survey tonight are to complete it during first recess tomorrow.

Census at Schools Analysis Project (am)

Over the final weeks before Christmas, the grade six students will be choosing ONE question from the Census at School questionnaire. They will be looking at the class results as well as comparing this to Canadian and in some cases, South African results. By the end of the this project, students will have the follow SIX items in their analysis:
1) An introduction outlining the question and their predictions
2) A frequency table of the class results and a table showing Canadian results over the past several years
3) A pictograph of the class results
4) A double bar graph which shows how our class results compare to Canadian results
5) A line graph which shows the Canadian results over time
6) A conclusion which comments on the results and on the validity of their initial predictions

As students progress through this project, criteria for each of the items will be developed and posted. While in the school, look at our data wall which will show the project in action!

Deadlines for each of the components of the project are as follows:
- December 7 = Introduction and predictions
- December 11 = Data tables
- December 14 = Pictograph of class results
- December 17 = Double bar graph of Class versus Canadian results
- December 18 = Line graph of Canadian results over time
- December 19 = Conclusion and reflections on the data

To view possible topics and download the project outline, click HERE.

December Book Club (am)

For the next three weeks, the grade 6 students will be involved in one of seven book clubs. Each club has 3-4 members who will be reading the same book and who will be meeting up three times to discuss the book, questions they may have, and vocabulary that challenged them.

The book list for the December book club is:

1) City of Ember

2) Hana's Suitcase

3) The Breadwinner

4) Wonder

5) Chomp

6) Holes

7) The Westing Game

Students will have time in class to complete a portion of their assigned reading but will have to ensure that their reading (and the completion of the lesson package) is completed before each of the circle meetings. There will be three circle meetings in which the students will join up with their book club members:

1) Friday, December 7

2) Thursday, December 13

3) Wednesday, December 19

At each of the meetings, students will take on one of four roles: director, vocabulary, questioner, or summarizer. To download a copy of the lesson package, click HERE (this package is adapted from Laura Candler's resources for literature circles).

Great Ways to Start the Christmas Season

Are you looking for some great ways to ring in the Christmas season? Here three suggestions to get you singing "Joy to the World" (theoretically)....

1. Volunteer at the Kanata Food Cupboard - an open session for anyone who can help sort and pack the non-perishable items at the Kanata Food Cupboard. A number of Holy Redeemer staff members will also be there with their families. 
2. Ottawa Tree Farm (Fallowfield Road) - Free hot chocolate, horse drawn sleigh rides, bonfires and marshmallow roasting, and a huge selection of both cut-your-own and pre-cut trees (I went with my family on Saturday and had a great time!)
3. Bethel Church "The Gift of Christmas" (Fisher Ave) - Eight shows (two matinees) available to attend. The admission is by donation only and you will not be disappointed. Several excellent musical numbers and the show topped off with a huge "singing" Christmas tree of lights. 

Some Upcoming Events

With the Advent season upon us, there are a ton of events happening at Holy Redeemer. Here is a list of some upcoming news items:

1. December News and Calendar have been posted on the school website (under News & Links)
2. The Advent Food Train begins on Monday, December 3 - please help us fill the train with non-perishable items (have students place the items in their class' box in the front hall)
3. Water Bottle orders are due by Friday, December 7 for those wishing to purchase one
4. The Grade 5/6 (pm) will be performing Alice in Wonderland on Friday, December 7 (Performance #1: 12:20 pm - 1:15 pm; Performance #2: 1:50 pm - 2:45 pm)
5. On December 20, we will be having a bake sale to help support the Grade 6 trip to St. Brigid
6. The School Christmas Concert will be on Friday, December 21 (Grades 1-3 @8:40; Grades 4-6 @10:05)