November
Week of Novemebr 27th
Hello parents!
Here’s your update for this week!
French Language Arts
- This week, we’ll be continuing with our poetry unit. 8-2 will finish up the Hymne à l’amour lesson tomorrow (8-1 mostly finished this up last week), and then both classes will start on our second lesson, La belle et le bad boy. We’ll go through the (many!) lyrics as a class to help understand the story of the poetic lyrics, and then students will complete their work on that particular piece.
Social Studies
- After looking at the initial changes that Japan made at the start of the Meiji period, we’ll explore how they actively took steps to adapt and modernize. We’ll begin by learning about the Iwakura mission (a 20-month long fact-finding trip around the world by 50 of Japan’s top diplomats and 50 of their university students), and then how they continued to change their political system by creating their own constitution inspired by the many nations they visited.
Activettes’ Share Your Christmas – donations still needed, deadline this Friday
- Thank you to those of you who have already sent in either toy donations or food donations. If you are in a position to be able to help out, many more donations are still needed. Items can be brought to school until Friday, at which point the Cochrane Activettes will be coming to the school to pick up anything that was given. If you need to consult the list of what was requested, check the November page here:
- https://manachaban.rockyview.ab.ca/Members/khryciw/weekly-updates-for-8-1-and-8-2
Have a great week!
Katt
Week of November 21st (send November 23rd)
Hello parents!
Sorry for my delay in getting this out to you!
Social Studies
- We started the week with a bit of review, and then today, students wrote the summative quiz about how Japan was forced to end its isolation and how they reacted to this crisis. Next up, we’ll be looking at the political changes that took place, as the emperor took control of the country and they came up with a new form of government. This was introduced to 8-1 today and I’ll do the same with 8-2 tomorrow.
French Language Arts
- By now, everyone should have completed and handed in their Frisson stories. We glued their stories onto construction paper on Tuesday, and I laminated the stories after school. Yesterday, we cut them out and assembled them, and we plan to pop over to École Elizabeth Barrett Elementary School next door early next week to share them with the younger students.
- Next up, we’ll do a mini unit on poetry, analyzing the lyrics of different French songs. We’ll start with a classic Edith Piaf song, Hymne à l’amour, but we’ll also look at the songs of a variety of contemporary artists from different francophone parts of the world.
Reminder – Donations for Activettes Share Your Christmas
- Thank you so much to those of you who have already had a chance to donate either new toys or food items to our Share Your Christmas program. Students from both classes can continue to bring their items to my class for the rest of this week and throughout next week.
Term 2 switch coming up
- Monday, December 4th, will be our last day of Term 1. New options will begin on Tuesday, December 5th. Starting next week, Ms. Yersh will be available to help students switch their options if they’re not happy with their current classes.
Have a great week!
Katt
Quick update - sent November 17th
Hello all!
I just have a few quick things to share with you before next week.
Class Photos on Tuesday
- Students and their teachers will be taking class photos on Tuesday. I do not know the schedule, but each class will be called down by the office throughout the day to take part.
Cochrane Activettes Share Your Christmas campaign
- Each year, Manachaban is happy to contribute to the Cochrane Activettes Share Your Christmas campaign. Different homerooms has been asked to contribute different items. 8-1 has been asked to bring in new and unwrapped gifts for 9-12-year-olds, and 8-2 has been asked to bring in food items (particularly canned meat, tuna, salmon, cereal, pancake mix, syrup, oatmeal, cranberry sauce, coffee, tea, mushroom soup, chunky soup, rice, stuffing mix (Stove-Top), canned fruit, canned pasta sauce, pasta, corn, juice, honey, jam, peanut butter, condiments, granola bars, cookies, and cake mixes).
- Additionally, I’ve let students know that they can contribute cash donations, and I’ll go out before the donation deadline to purchase items with anything they’re able to give.
- Donations must be in by December 1st, and cash donations must be given to me by November 29th so I have time to purchase the items.
Frisson stories due on Tuesday
- Students have been working diligently on their stories over the past several weeks, and our final deadline is approaching. On Tuesday, we’ll put the stories onto construction paper and laminate them, so students must come to school with their completed work and a solid glue stick.
As a final reminder, there are no classes for students on Monday.
Have a great weekend!
Katt
Week of November 13th
Hello parents!
Here is your update for this week.
French Language Arts
- Our big focus this week is on finishing up the good copy of the Frisson stories. Students will have all of their time in French this week to work on this assignment. By Tuesday next week (the 21st), they should come to class with their story all ready to go ton one-sided paper. Then, we’ll use our class that day to glue the papers onto both sides of construction paper, which will then be laminated.
- With this in mind, please check with your child to see if they need a new glue stick (or two). They’ll need this to assemble their story next week, and many from the start of the year are now used up or missing. Thanks so much for your help with this.
Social Studies
- After learning about how Russia, Europe, China, and the United States all influenced Japan into ending it’s period of isolation, we’re now learning about how Japan reacted to this crisis. We’ll look at the different viewpoints that existed at the time and the resulting changes (such as ending the reign of the shogun as head of the government and putting the young emperor Meiji in charge). Students will take notes on this and review both this and the end of isolation prior to writing a quiz.
Reminder – no class next Monday
- Monday, November 20th, is a Professional Learning day for staff, so there are no classes that day. Class will resume as normal the next day.
Have a great week!
Katt
Week of November 6th (sent November 7th)
Hello parents!
Here is your update for this week.
Social Studies
- On Friday (for 8-2) and on Monday (for 8-1), I introduced the information around how Japan’s period of isolation was forced to come to an end with the influence of Russia, a number of European nations, China, and the USA. We illustrated some notes on the board (a photo of which can be found in Google Classroom), and students took notes on the material using their textbook. Although many students have finished these up, they’ll have a bit more time tomorrow to get the work done. Anyone who is already done can have some bonus time for French. On Thursday, we’ll go over the notes, and do a review in preparation for a quiz on the material next week
French Language Arts
- Our focus here continues to be the Frisson story. By now, students should be done their rough copy and done editing their work, both for content (getting feedback from three other students and from myself), and for spelling and grammar (using the BonPatron editing website). Once that’s done, students are putting together their good copy, doing simple illustrations to help the target audience (younger FI students) understand key plot points and any tricky vocabulary words. I have shared a poster with students about my expectations for illustrations; they do NOT need to colour every surface on the page. Instead, the text can be broken up on the page with smaller simple images to show what’s going on.
Remembrance Day Assembly Thursday, no school Friday
- On Thursday morning, our school will be having our Remembrance Day assembly in the gymnasium following the morning break. Classes will start being called down to the gym at 10:50am and we hope to get the ceremony underway around 11. Students may donate to the poppy fund and grab a poppy from the office, and parents are welcome to attend the ceremony. Since Remembrance Day falls on a Saturday this year, there are no classes on Friday, to mark the holiday. Classes resume as normal on Monday.
Have a great week!
Katt
