Nothing greater!

It's 9:00am and the halls are quiet. I'm not quite sure where the year has gone.

As I look around my boxed-up classroom, it astounds me to think how much learning and growing we did this year together as a team. Through ups and downs, we set goals, celebrated successes, worked hard, had fun, learned and shared some hard lessons, collaborated with our peers, shared lots of laughs, set new standards for ourselves, planned surprises, set out on field trip adventures and
truly grew into our roles as great Gators.

And, because this blog was created for and truly belongs to you, the students, I am signing off by letting your words share what this year has meant to you. I will truly miss each and every one of you and wish you nothing but happiness, success and a bit of dancin' fun, too! :)

See you later, Golden Gators!
XO,
Mme Careen

*********************************************************************************
My favourite part about this year was bottle rockets. - Tanner

Mme Careen in a magnificent teacher. - Jay C.

Funky Fish! - Deanna

Quand Spiderman était trouvé dans la classe. - Josh

Mme Careen always makes me feel better. I love all the fun things we do in class. Like when we did Just Dance for the first time. - Mackenzie

I loved it when we went to Festival de Voyageur. It was really fun! - Brooklyn

My favourite part of Mme Careen's class was when we did activities in class. When we did bottle rockets, the pumpkins and the rain drops and flowers. - Gabrielle

Just Dance :) - Shae

My favourite time this year was the Math class with Mrs. K because me and Rowen had fun trying to solve the cube problem. - Peridon

I think that my favourite moment in the year was the Christmas party, even though I wasn't there for it. I love seeing all the pictures of everyone, especially the cake I brought. - Paityn

My favourite part of this year was bottle rockets. - Bren

My favourite times with Mme Careen are when we did Science experiments, Just Dance and so much more. I had a wonderful time in Mme Careen's class and don't want her to leave. - Sydney

When our class got to go to Festival du Voyageur, parce que c'était amusant d'aller et voir les choses et apprendre un peu des voyageurs. - Rowen #35

My favourite memory was the field trip and we all got wet! - Carlos

It hurts to know that one of my favourite teachers is leaving to Ness next year. Mme Careen has taught me so much about Science, Math and French and helped me realize that I am very good at these subjects. She made Science interesting and my favourite subject. I'm going to miss you so much Mme Careen. Please come and visit! - Madi

My favourite part of school was when we got to outside and throw the frisbee. We had to yell the word "Bernoulli." - Easton #37

My favourite parts of the 2015-16 school year are the monthly photos. I like looking at the first few photos and looking at the difference between now and then. - Gracie

I love when we were at the aviation museum and we learned about aviation. - Dylan

I loved how Mme Careen let us do Just Dance as brain breaks. - Anas

Funky Fish. I like trains. - Jay B.

My favourite memory with Mme Careen is when we threw a surprise party for Mme Champagne. We all worked together. It was awesome. - Leya

This year was insane, like insane and was probably my favourite school year yet. We learned so much and had so many cool and amazing moments. - Sebastian

I'm going to miss all the teachers that are going to Ness next year. - Piper

I remember on the first day of school I made a paper airplane and Dylan took it and threw it. It got stuck between two boxes on the shelf and it is still there today! Thank you Mme Careen for the best year yet! - Matthew

Mme Careen, you inspired me to do better in school and never stop believing because there is always hope around the corner. - Anna

Mme Careen, thank you for always being there for me when I needed you. I think the best part was bottle rockets and meeting such sweet friends. Thank you for everything. - Allana

Happy Last Day!

We had a great time celebrating our last morning together.
Games, dancing, music, snacks and our classroom book!
Here are some pictures of our celebration!

 Playing Twister!

We are all tangled up!

Just Dance-ing!

Over Under - Boys vs Girls!

Human Knots!

And, of course, one last class photo!

We sure are one great group!

Thanks for a great party, everyone! :)

Monday, Monday

We had a great time together this morning working in different teams to complete different challenges.

Q-bitz Challenge!

 Paper chains challenge, June edition.

Throw in a few Just Dances and a freezie and we can call it a morning!

One more day to go! See you then! :)

3,2,1 Blast-Off!

We came, we built, we launched!

We saw a whole range of rocket designs today and, once we got the launcher figured out, had a great time seeing them all fly up into the air! Certainly a fun way to kick-off the weekend!

Enjoy the sunshine! :)

Oops! One more picture...

Forgot to add this one to our earlier post.
A few more stops on our Exchange walking tour.
Enjoy! :)

What a fun day!

We certainly had beautiful weather for our Exchange/St. Boniface trip!
We learned so much on our walking tour and enjoyed some jazzy music during lunch.
After walking over to St.Boniface, we set-off to take pictures on our photo scavenger hunt and ended the day at Provencher Park, where some of us got a little wet...

Thanks for a great day, Gators!
See you tomorrow for bottle-rocket fun! :)

This n' That!

Our time together is winding down, but we have lots of fun learning in store from now until June 28!

1. Final Roots Lesson!
Mlle Bees came to see us for our final Roots of Empathy lesson this morning. We shared what we learned and we each got our very own printed certificate! Look at us!

Un GRAND merci to Mlle Bees for being such a wonderful Roots teacher! We had a great year together!

2. Field Trip!
A reminder that we are headed off on our field trip tomorrow! Please dress according to the weather and be sure to wear comfortable walking shoes and bring a water bottle! Students were also asked today to bring a photo-taking device that they'll use during our photo scavenger hunt in the afternoon. One device per group is required and all of the same school division technology-use guidelines will apply.

3. Bottle Rockets!
We will be building and launching bottle rockets Friday morning! All 6F students will be completing this activity together as a large group so students will have the opportunity to work with friends from other academic sections if they choose. Each group needs a minimum of 1 2L plastic bottle in order to construct their rocket. We have a few extras at school, but certainly not enough to provide one for each group, so please, please send in any 2L bottles you may have! Basic supplies such as tape, scissors and construction paper will available for students to use. Groups wanting anything extra special for their rockets (cones, cardboard fins, a parachute, etc.) are asked to bring it to school with them Friday morning.
In class this morning we watched a series of 3 videos giving a few tips on how to build a great bottle rocket. The video can be viewed again by clicking HERE.

4. Party?
The idea of having a classroom party to celebrate the end of the school year was brought up again today in class. We are very eager and excited to play games and bring in a few snacks to share as a class! We decided Tuesday after our final school-wide assembly would be a good time to celebrate! Students were asked to think a bit more about what they would like our farewell party to look like and we will come together again Friday morning (before heading off to make bottle rockets) to make plans.

5. Class book!
Our class book has been compiled and it looks great! We had a chance to see it all together on Mme Careen's iPad this morning before she handed it in. We can't wait to see the printed version! More news on our book to come soon!

Phew! That's it for now!
Have a great Wednesday! :)

Happy Monday!

We spent most of morning in the gym celebrating our great Gator athletes, but did have a chance to do some Science learning period 4.
After a quick flight review, we headed outside to play Bernoulli frisbee! What is Bernoulli frisbee? It's SUPER easy and fun, too! Each time you toss a frisbee to a friend, you yell out "Bernoulli!" or "high pressure!" or "lift!" or any other word related to Bernoulli's Principle.

Where's the Science in that? A frisbee is a great example of a flying "aircraft" that shows how having a rounded upper edge produces faster moving air which in turn creates an area of low pressure. The slower-moving air underneath the disc creates a zone of high pressure. High pressure will always  move to a zone of low pressure, thus pushing the frisbee up.
This is how LIFT - the force responsible for flight - is created!

And that's the week!

Un grand merci to everyone for all of their great work this week!
We covered a lot and finished Term 3 with a bang!

A few reminders for next week:

MONDAY
Spirit Week Day: Gator Gear!
* Sports Awards in the morning (likely periods 1 and 2), and Grade 5 Transition visit in the afternoon.
* Permission forms and payment for our Exchange/St.Boniface trip are due!
* In class, we will be voting on the title for our classroom book and taking a class picture to put on the last page.

TUESDAY
Spirit Week Day: Twin, Triplets, Teams!
* Preview of our classroom book before it's sent off to be printed!
* Spending some time with Bernoulli outside (weather permitting)!
* Challenging ourselves with a Mental Math review.

WEDNESDAY
Spirit Week Day: PJs!
* A sneak peek of what we'll be up to on Friday morning! Be sure to have your 2L plastic bottles ready!

THURSDAY
Spirit Week Day: Just Beachy!
* Field Trip Day! Hooray! Remember to bring a lunch, water bottle and comfortable walking shoes! Please be sure to dress for the weather; we are heading out rain or shine!

FRIDAY
Spirit Week Day: Grade Colour Day! (Grade 6s wear blue, Grade 7s wear black, Grade 8s wear grey).
* All 6F classes will be working together on a Science-based activity in the morning! Be sure to have your 2L pop bottles, scissors, tape, glue and any extra-special items you may require!
* Final locker clean-out to take place Period 8.


Have a great weekend, everyone! :)

So long, Wednesday!

We could not have packed more into 3 periods if we tried! Did we ever work hard today!

Our classroom book is on its way to completion! Students made final corrections to their texts and exported their book page into Showbie. We've started putting everyone's pages in storybook order and will work on compiling everything into one book tomorrow. We will also do a final vote for our book title and create a cover for it. It's so exciting to see it all come together!

We also worked hard on our open-book assessments in Math and Science. Some of us were able to finish, many of us are still working, and that's ok! We will have time to finish up our work tomorrow morning in class.

Mme Careen will also be posting one final list of who is still missing work and she will be in her room the entire lunch period for any students who need to get their assignments handed in! This list will include students who were away yesterday and missed our design process activity in Science. Many came today at lunch and got a great start. This is one Mme Careen's favourite design activities we do all year, so she finds it super exciting to see all of the design creativity happening!

It is also important to note that we will be saying goodbye to our beloved iPads tomorrow morning. We will be running on our GatorAid time schedule. Students will be staying in homerooms for the first part of the morning to follow end-of-year iPad hand-in procedures, and will then head off to class - without their iPad! - to experience learning circa. 2012! :)

Looking forward to a busy last day of Term 3 tomorrow!
Have a great afternoon! :)

P.S. I have just realized that this is blog post #100! Wow! I cannot believe we have shared so much of our learning! We have certainly accomplished a lot together this year and will no doubt add more memories before our final farewells! It has been wonderful having you all following us on our incredible Grade 6 journey! :)

And then there was Tuesday...

We spent our morning designing and testing an aircraft made up of only one straw and two strips of paper! After each test flight, we had to sketch our prototype and write down what went well and what we wanted to change/modify in order for it to fly better on its next test flight.

Many of us also came in over lunch to get caught up on missing work and we are now all one step closer to being up-to-date with our Term 3 work!

The plan for Wednesday:

Period 1: We will be making final corrections to our story texts and will be doing the final export so that Mme Careen can start compiling our story pages in one complete book! (*Any students who do not yet have their text typed into Book Creator will not be able to participate in this process with us during class and will need to come in over the noon hour to do so. Our iPads are being turned in Thursday morning, so this must ABSOLUTELY be done tomorrow)!

Period 2: We will be completing an independent, open-book Math assessment on fractions, decimals and percents. The assessment will include direct calculations and 2 word-based problems.

Period 3: We will be completing an independent, open-book Science assessment that will touch on the following concepts: how a hot-air balloon can flies, animal adaptations of flight, propulsion methods of flying objects, Bernoulli's principle and the 4 forces of flight.

*For both open-book assessments, students will have access to any information CURRENTLY IN THEIR OWN BINDER. All questions they will be asked to complete will be taken directly from their notes, activities we have done in class and classroom discussions. If they have been actively participating in class over the past 3 weeks, they will have everything they need to be successful. :)

This is A LOT to accomplish in one morning! Please know that, with the exception of their written story text for Français, students will have the opportunity to finish and review their assessments in class Thursday morning, with additional time also being given over noon hour if need be.

This IS this final countdown, mes amis. Two jam-packed days left! We can do, 6F4 team!

Have a great evening! :)

Monday down, three more days to go!

We worked so hard this morning and got so much done! What a great start to the week!

In Mathé, we reviewed fractions, decimals and percents and in Science we looked at how Bernoulli's Principle can be applied in everyday life before getting to work on our lab reports.

In Français, we did a listening activity, finished reading and answering questions for an informative text, "La technologie" and many more of us submitted our storybook texts in Showbie!
Our class book is almost complete!

Important reminders:

* Mathé "resolution de problème" sheets and Science lab reports are due tomorrow (Tuesday)!

* Any students still needing to complete and submit their storybook text to Showbie MUST do so by end of day tomorrow (Tuesday). NO exceptions! 

* A complete list of missing Term 3 work will be compiled by tomorrow. Students on the "hit list" will be asked to stay in over the noon hour to get caught up!

Thank you for all of your support! :)

SO MUCH LEARNING!

We had a jam-packed week of learning last week and this coming week promises to be just as busy!
Here is a run-down of what we were up to... and what we will be up to... in all three subjects!
Let's go!

MATHÉ
We finished reviewing how to change improper fractions to mixed number fractions and vice versa. From there we jumped right into converting fractions into decimals and percents. If you were away at some point this week, this great Math Antics video will give you a good overview of what you missed. (Psst! Even if you were in class, feel free to click on the above link for a great concept review!)
We tackled another mental math strategy involving the multiplication of decimal numbers and then got to work on our last problem-solving questions of the term, using the feedback from our previous assignment to help us produce our best work yet!
Coming up this week: Our problem-solving sheets are due Tuesday and we will be completing an in-class assessment on fractions as well as one for mental math.

SCIENCE
We have been learning all about Bernoulli's Principle this week and how it relates to flight. Rapid moving air creates low pressure and slower moving air creates a high pressure zone. High pressure will always move towards low pressure, thus creating LIFT! We explored this principle in class through different activities, such as trying to remove a ping pong ball from a funnel. Check out
THIS GREAT VIDEO for more examples of where we see Bernoulli's Principle at play.
We also tested Bernoulli's Principle in a hands-on lab activity where we used a small cup, water and two straws to re-create a spray bottle. It was messy but it sure was fun!
Coming up this week: We will finish and hand-in our lab reports, complete an in-class design process activity using straws and paper strips (so fun!) as well as complete an in-class open-book written assessment on all things Flight.

FRANÇAIS
This past week we completed an assessment on ER, IR and RE verbs. We also had to correct the mistakes in a text that Mme Careen created for us. We continued working on our written texts for our classroom book and had to submit a screen shot of our final, edited text in Showbie. We also completed a listening comprehension activity about hockey and started our last reading comprehension assessment during our library period.
*Attention, mes amis! There is still a LARGE group of students who have not yet submitted a screen shot of their story text to Showbie. This was due on Friday and it is SO important that is gets completed ASAP! We cannot have a classroom book if not everyone in our class is represented!*
Coming up this week:  We will be completing one more listening activity in class and finishing our reading comprehension assignment. We will also have the chance to add colours and pictures and make final editing changes to our "Malédiction" text before exporting our work to be compiled with the other students' texts. If all goes well, we'll be able to see a printed copy of our book before the end of the year!

A SPECIAL NOTE ABOUT ALL OF THE ABOVE-MENTIONED ASSESSMENTS:
*This week is going to be even busier than the last! Any students that have missed or that will be missing any assignments and/or assessments due to absences will be asked to come in before school (if possible) or over a lunch hour to complete the required tasks. This is to ensure that the data being used to complete the upcoming Term 3 report cards is as current and up-to-date as possible. It is SO important that students are accurately recognized for all of the hard work they've put in over the entire school year, so thank you, in advance, for encouraging your child to get all of their work handed in and getting them ready for a jam-packed week of using their brains!
Your continued support is always very much appreciated!
Thank you! :)

P.S. Have you heard? We're going on a field trip! Hooray! We are headed downtown to the Exchange and then onto St. Boniface for fun day of learning! Mark your calendars - rain or shine - for Thursday, June 23. Permission slips went home on Tuesday this past week and are due back by Monday, June 20th (but the sooner the better!). The cost of $10 can be paid to the school using the new SchoolCash online system. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me at the school!

Au revoir bébé Arlo et maman Sarah!

We were so happy to have bébé Arlo and maman Sarah visit us today!

Bébé Arlo has changed so much since we first met him back in the fall! He is so much bigger and has gone from not being able to sit up on his own to holding maman Sarah's fingers and walking around on the green blanket!

He is always so smiley and so happy to see us!

Today's visit was bittersweet because it was our last baby visit for our Roots of Empathy program this year. We presented Arlo and maman Sarah with 2 gifts; a photo book with pictures from all of our visits this year and a Wish Tree. For the Wish Tree ,we each wrote a wish for bébé Arlo's future on a leaf and Mlle Bees glued all the leaves onto a tree painting (that she painted herself!) so that bébé Arlo would have a special keepsake of his time with us!

Bébé Arlo and maman Sarah also each got a special certificate of participation for being Roots of Empathy teachers! We certainly learned a lot from bébé Arlo this year. We are so glad that they shared their time with us! 

À la prochaine, Arlo! Tu nous manqueras!

Current and upcoming concepts and assessments

Term 3 is quickly coming to an end and we have still have so much learning to do!

Here's what's happening in Room 17 these days:

Mathé

We are working on converting improper fractions to mixed numbers and will be starting on decimal numbers and percents early next week. We are also learning our last few Mental Math concepts and tackling a few more problem-solving type questions, too.

Science

We are continuing to explore the Air and Flight unit and have just finished looking at flight adaptations of animals and how the force 'lift' (la portance) can be created. 

Here are links to 2 short YouTube videos about pterosaurs and their flight adaptions:

Pterosaurs: Adapted for Flight

Clash of the Dinosaurs 

We will start learning more about Bernoulli's Principle next week and will also complete our Term 3 Design Process activity in class!

Français

We have been working hard at conjugating ER, IR and RE verbs and have also been working as a class and in pairs to correct silly, short, grammar-mistake-laden paragraphs that Mme Careen creates to make our brains hurt! All of these tasks will help us as we continue editing our personal story page for our class book that we will publish by the end of the year.

Important reminders:

1) Mme Careen is still missing quite a few "Expérience #2 : Est-ce que l'air a une masse?" assignments. (The activity where we pumped air into a bottle and weighed it to determine is air has a mass). We need to get these in ASAP!

2) Our most recent Math problem-solving sheet was due in class today. If we weren't finished, we need to ensure it is handed in by Monday so that we may receive feedback and suggestions before completing the final 2 problem-solving questions of the year.

3) Math, Math, Math! We will be moving through quite a few concepts in the next 1 1/2 weeks.

(Psst... that's a mixed number... what is the improper fraction? 1 1/2 = ?? )  

A 5-minute nightly review of new concepts taught will ensure we feel confident in class the following day! Thanks for your support!

4) We will be completing a short quiz on ER, IR and RE verbs in class on Tuesday. We may use our folded, verb "cheat sheet" for the assessment if it arrives to class with us...  no sharing of cheat sheets will be allowed! We will also complete a "correction de fautes" activity much like the ones we've been doing in class. We will have access to an online dictionary and bescherelle for this task.

A note from Mme Careen:

It is so important to keep working hard in order to finish the year strong so that you each have a true sense of accomplishment for all of the learning you have done this year! I know that it's soooo very hard to stay inside and focus on school when it's beautiful, sunny and warm outside most evenings. It's the homestretch, mes amis! A few more weeks and you'll be done! So, rest up this weekend and get ready... We are full speed ahead come Monday! 

I believe in you and know you can do it! :)