Tree Planting!

Today we planted trees! It was great fun creating a forest across the street from our school. Here's some pics:

Okay, so my lay-out skills are lacking.

Today was also early dismissal, which gave parents a chance to come in between 2:30 and 3:30 to meet with teachers. If you missed me today, we will have 3 more early dismissal days (check the school calender on the School's website). We also have parent-teacher conferences after term 1 report cards go home.

Interim Reports

I'm starting to get emails from parents (thank you!) asking about their child's progress in class. To hopefully save you time emailing all the teachers, I wanted to let you know that Interim Reports are coming home tomorrow (Oct 14). These are quick snapshots of where your child is at right now in their classes. There are no letter grades on these reports, but they will give you an idea about how things are going.

Thursday is an early dismissal day which is time for teachers to meet with parents from 2:30 to 3:30. This is very informal, parents don't have to book appointments, it's just a drop-in. I have to coach a field hockey game at 3:30 so I won't be able to stay late. Please email me if you missed me.

Tree Planting!

I've arranged for my classes to go tree planting with my friend Tyler from the City of Courtenay. The site of the great tree plant is across the street from the school, 5000 trees will go in that area and our wonderful students are going to take part! I can't wait!

BCFNS12 will be planting Wednesday, October 14th
Humanities B/F and D/H will be planting Thursday, October 15th
Interact club will also be planting on Thursday.

This is a crew I took planting last year on Earth Day.

Snow on Mount Washington! Cool!

I hope everyone had a great long weekend! Personally, I ate far too much...time to hit the gym.

Humanities 8
We created maps of Canada, this time we were able to use our atlases and wall maps! They turned out much better than the "puzzle" activity. I didn't assign them for homework, we'll see where everyone is at tomorrow.

BCFNS12
We started our group essay project, which had mixed results. I think that it will turn out well, once we all see it come together on Thursday! Be patient! The only thing you need to have done for Thursday is your "body" paragraph.

Field hockey season...that's my excuse

Here's the rundown from this week:

Tuesday
Humanities 8
We had an Atlas race where students had to find random facts in their atlas. This helped me see who knows how to use an atlas efficiently, who can persist in difficult situations, and who my fierce competitors are! It was fun

FNS12
We reviewed different styles of houses that traditional Aboriginal people used in BC. We began chapter 3 vocabulary and notes (sort of).

Wednesday
Humanities 8
We reviewed our personal world maps, making sure we used the rules of cartography and followed the criteria. These should be done by now and handed in.

FNS12
I taught a new notemaking method called "Power Notes". It was a hit with some students and a disaster for others, but as long as everyone finds a notemaking method that works for them, that's all that counts. I just don't want you copying random sentences out of the textbook!

Thursday
Humanities 8
I got to see today what everyone knows about the map of Canada! We created a map using puzzle pieces of our great country. I heard some fantastic discussions and arguments between students, lots of learning and collaboration took place.

FNS12
I reviewed some material for the test we have today on chapter 2. We also continued with our notes on chapter 3.

Friday
Humanities 8
Today we are having our writers workshop! We are looking at our "Writing Territories", things, places, people, events that we like to write about. We are making a list of at least 20 things we could write about.

FNS12
Today is chapter 2 test...hope you studied. The rest of class time will be for going over chapter 3 stuff so there's no homework for the long weekend.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

World Teachers Day!

Humanities 8
Today we looked at the rules for map making, called "Cartography Rules". Then we began creating a personal world map. We will finish them tomorrow in class.

FNS12
We watched a video "Laxwesa Wa" about fishing on the Fraser River. Lots of good information and points were brought up.

TGIF!

Yay, Friday!

Humanities 8
Today we had our educational "free time"....the kids earned it!
B block had a mini writing lesson on writing territories. It went really well, I'm impressed with the variety of topics that came up, we'll add to this next week.
D block chose to watch a movie...

Assignments that are overdue at this point: comic strips and Geography title pages.

BCFNS12
We had tea time today...I brought in some local herbs/plants and we made tea from them. I think it was a hit! Especially the stinging nettle tea. We might have to have another tea day. We also talked about the traditional uses of these herbs and their medicinal values to aboriginal people.

We also finished the chapter 2 notes, which are due Monday.

Attendance is becoming an issue for some students in FNS12, it's really important that everyone attends each class, you miss so much of the valuable discussions and lessons when you are away.

Have a great weekend everyone, it's going to be a sunny one!