February
Week of February 26th
Hello parents!
Here is your update for this week.
Social Studies
- This week, we will be focusing on three of the city states of the Italian Renaissance: Florence, Venice, and Genoa (Gênes in French). We’re starting with learning about the post-plague urbanization, and what sets a city-state apart from a regular city. Following this, we’ll look at each of the three cities in a bit more detail. Students from 8-1 should already be done their notes about the growth of cities (as they had Social this morning) and students from 8-2 will finish those up tomorrow.
French Language Arts
- This week, students should be working on finishing up the writing of their oral presentations, talking about events from their past using their passé composé verbs. As students are writing, I’m colour coding their verbs (yellow for regular, green for irregular, and purple for DR MRS VANDERTRAMP), and I’m also indicating whether or not the verbs are conjugated properly. If not, students should go back and make some corrections. Our goal is to finish writing the bulk of the presentations this week, so that students have next week to practice their presentation out loud next week.
Wednesday – Pink Shirt Day
- Wednesday is Pink Shirt Day, and we’ll be joining the students from Cochrane High and Elizabeth Barrett for a tri-school-site photo out in the field at the start of Period 4.
Have a great week!
Katt
Week of February 12th
Hello parents!
Here is your update for this week.
Social Studies
- We are beginning this week with some review of everything we’ve covered so far in the Renaissance unit: some general information, the Silk Road, the Crusades, the influence of Islam on European culture, the feudal system, and the bubonic plague. Students will be given a study document with guiding questions and class time to prepare, and then we’ll write a quiz on this material on Thursday. Students who will not be there on Thursday should arrange to write the quiz beforehand (if possible), as it will be a long time between now and the end of our break.
- In PowerSchool, you should notice that the status of each of the three plague journals has been indicated as either collected, incomplete, or missing. If your child’s work was incomplete or missing as of the Friday deadline, they should finish it by the end of this week and let me know when the work is done. Otherwise, the marks will remain as-is. I’ve started marking the completed work, and will update that online as soon as I can.
French Language Arts
- With the plague journals and verb practice out of the way, our writing focus will now be on preparing oral presentation using past tense verbs to describe stories from their past that students would like to share with their classmates. I have suggested that students choose one over-arching main topic (ex – family vacations) and then three sub-topics (ex – trip to Medicine Hat, camping in Banff, trip to Mexico), and they have been provided with a template to structure their introduction. Another example could be main topic (ex – camping trip to Banff) with sub-topics that are more specific (ex – driving out there and setting up, what you did during the trip, packing up and driving home).
- Tomorrow, students will be given a formal assignment handout and they will begin to write their presentations in Google Classroom. As the students write, I will be colour-coding their verbs and indicating whether or not they are conjugated correctly; students should edit their verbs as they go to ensure that regular, irregular, and DR MRS VANDERTRAMP verbs are all correct by the time they’re done.
Reminder – short week, February break
- As a reminder, students have classes from Monday to Thursday this week, and then they have Friday and all of next week off. Classes will resume as normal on Monday, February 26th
Reminder – Telus Spark field trip forms online
- Please check School Cash Online to sign the permission form and pay the fee for the 8-1 and 8-2 field trip to Telus Spark on March 12th. We still require two more parent volunteers, please let me know if you’re able to join us for the day
Casino – Volunteers and backup volunteers needed
- Please see the following message from our Fundraising society:
Our casino dates are this week, and we still need YOUR help. Manachaban fundraising is volunteering at the ACE BLACKFOOT CASINO (4040 Blackfoot Trl SE, Calgary, AB) this week on WEDNESDAY FEBRUARY 14 and THURSDAY FEBRUARY 15.
We need 1 more daytime position filled (11am-7pm) on Wednesday and then we REALLY need to have a list of back-ups that we can call on only if needed last minute due to a cancellation for all shifts.
PLEASE go into the form and fill in your back-up availability (there is section near the bottom for this) OR you can email Joy at manachaban.fundraising@gmail.com with your name, phone number and shift availability.
CASINO SIGN UP - https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1SVR3iA7IAilIoW-rrelRXP7fL6kmZ3MfamtZBt_ZXi4/edit#gid=0
Thank you to everyone who has filled in positions, this is the opportunity for our school to earn approximately $60 000 to go towards lots of initiatives that will help enrich your students school experience.
Have a great week, enjoy the break, and you’ll hear from me again on the 26th!
Katt
Notice of Field Trip - Sent February 6th
Hello parents!
On School Cash Online, you will soon notice a payment and permission form for an upcoming field trip to TELUS Spark.
On March 12, 2024, Mme Paskov and I will be taking the students from 8-1 and 8-2 to TELUS Spark for the day. In the morning, they will explore the temporary Leonardo da Vinci exhibit as part of our Social Studies unit on the Renaissance. We’ll have some time for lunch, and then in the afternoon, students will participate in the “Action Reaction Contraption” lab as part of their Science unit on Mechanics. We will return to the school on time for the regular dismissal time.
The cost for this trip is $21 and includes bussing, general admission, and the cost of the lab.
We will require four parent volunteers for the day, so if you’re willing and able to help out, please get in touch and let us know.
Thanks so much!
Katt
Week of February 5th
Hello parents!
Here is your update for the week.
French Language Arts
- After having made the “maison d’être” project last week to learn the 16 “DR MRS VANDERTRAMP” verbs that are conjugated differently in the past tense, we will now begin to work on these conjugations. At times, students then start to get confused with the regular and irregular verbs, so we’ll do a lot of practice to keep the two sorted. Finally, we’ll be ready to start preparing an oral presentation, though that will largely be our focus next week.
Social Studies
- Our focus this week is to complete the bubonic plague journals. By now, students should be done their first journal, and we’ll use our Social Studies classes this week to finish up journals 2 and 3. Like with journal 1, we’ve done some brainstorming as a class and students have guiding questions to help frame what they need to cover. These journals are due Friday at the end of the school day.
Update – Morning Break
- Following some behavioural concerns due, in part, to a lot of pent-up energy, our school is shifting our morning break to a morning recess during which students are encouraged to go outside for a quick break. They can still eat their snack, but will no longer be doing so in their homeroom classes. Our supervision schedule has been adjusted to ensure that students will still be properly supervised, and they should be prepared to head out both in the morning and at lunch recess. If, for whatever reason, students are not able to go outside, they may sit in the hallway around the perimeter of our library, where we will also have supervision.
Have a great week!
Katt
