Last Week Coming Up!!

Wow!! Here we are…the last week of school! We have one more P.A.T. and then nothing but smooth sailing. Our trip to the Legislature is Monday the 22nd, then we have the Year Ender coming up on Wednesday the 24th. Friday the students get to go hang out with the Junior High for the morning. We still need volunteers for the day on Wednesday, so if you can help, please contact me or indicate that you can help on the field trip form.

A reminder, report cards will be handed out at the end of the day Friday the 26th. If you have an outstanding library book make sure to return your book or you will not recieve your report card. As well, if you are not going to be around on the friday, make sure you make arrangements to pick it up or have your report card mailed out.

DVD Movie Soul Sessions

Well, the Soul Sessions 08-09 DVD finally hit the shelves this past weekend. I hope everyone had a blast watching it. It was a lot of fun to make. Thanks to all the students and the cast of thousands who made the movies come to life. It just keeps getting better every year.

Thank You to All Patrollers!

Our year end party wrapped up another successful patrol season with no major injuries – YES! Thank you to all the patrollers who helped out this past year. Hope you enjoyed the pizza and pop!

Penny Carnival

First off, I would like to say that the grade 6 class did an amazing job hosting the penny carnival. It was a long, hot day, but the 6’ers managed to keep on keeping on and get it done! I am very proud of them. From all accounts, the kids had a blast!

As I was leaving on Friday, I asked Mrs. Reitsma for an update on how much we had raised…roughly $450.00!! WOW! All of that will be going to the Jasper Place Wellness Centre.

Now all we need are a few volunteers to help roll all of the remaining pennies…any takers? Leave a comment if you would like to help on Monday! 🙂

Two More Field Trips! Yay!

Well, we are awaiting approval for two more field trips. The first will be to the Alberta Aviation Museum at the municipal airport. It fits with our Flight unit. The next field trip will be to the Alberta Legislature on June 22nd. This one fits in with our Social Studies provincial gov’t section.

Finally, we are hoping to organize a final day party for the kids. Details to follow…

Constable Frattin

Constable Celia Frattin, our D.A.R.E. officer, returned to the school to revisit some of the concepts we went or at the beginning of the year. She focused on bullying and cyberbullying with the students and reminded them about the current Edmonton Anti-Bullying bylaw in place to protect kids who have become the target of harassment. Thanks Celia!

Here is an excerpt on the bylaw from CTV news:

Edmonton passes landmark anti-bullying bylaw

Canadian Press  

EDMONTON — Edmonton became the first Canadian city Tuesday to make bullying illegal and fine tormentors a minimum of $250.

Supporters say they hope the new bylaw will make young people think twice before threatening and intimidating anyone. “It won’t deter everybody, but hopefully it will have an effect on some students,” said Coun. Jane Batty, chair of the community services board that put forth the issue. “Bullying just can’t be accepted in this day and age and we need to put a stop to it in any way that we can,” Batty said.

Several Canadian teens have either died or committed suicide due to bullying by their peers.

Reena Virk, 14, of Victoria, died after being beaten by teenagers in November 1997.

Edmonton police, backed by both separate and public school boards, approached civic politicians to add harassment to the list of offences already covered by the city’s public places bylaw.

“Up to 70 per cent of the complaints in our schools are bullying-related,” said Const. Dan Williams, a school resource officer at St. Joseph Catholic High School, who proposed the idea.

Police are unable to deal with assaults, gang violence and harassment until it escalates into a criminal matter. Williams said he hopes the new bylaw will enable them to quash bullying before it goes too far.

“We’ve had lots of interest from all across the country, from other municipalities, from other police agencies and school boards asking for information about our proposal to city council,” Batty said.

The bylaw is geared towards students and affects anyone under the age of 18 who is threatened. Bullying is defined as a person who communicates with someone in a way that makes the person feel harassed; the comment, threat or action is made in a public place and the threats are repeated.

Virus Attack?

It would seem that the students in Edmonton Christian West may have been hit by an MSN virus that has been running amok on some computers. If you suspect that your computer has an MSN virus, here is a link to help you get rid of the pest…

MSN Virus Remover

Hope this helps some of you out. Remember, don’t give your password out to anyone. Additionally, if you get a message or email from someone telling you to click on a link…just don’t unless you know for sure they sent it, or you were expecting it. 🙂

Arrrrghhhh…

Sigh…we have had a few setbacks on the Evidence and Investigation quiz. We could not secure a lab time with the scheduling around Volunteer Tea. However, when I loaded up the exam on the computer, all of the images were missing. Now I know it was really disappointing to the students, but I have decided to postpone the exam until Monday the 25th – the students were visibly shaken by this announcement and almost reduced to tears…it was a sad day.

Hockey Playoffs! :)

Oh, don’t forget to watch some hockey in and around your homework and studying…there have been some dynamite games going on and you wouldn’t want to miss the Ovechkin vs. Crosby matchup…no sir…

Enjoy!!

Another Field Trip!

Hello all! I happen to enjoy going on field trips more towards the end of the year when it is warm outside…so, we have another (in a long line) of field trips coming up. 

We will be going to the Art Gallery of Alberta on May 15th for the day. If you are interested in volunteering, please contact me via email, or indicate it on your field trip form. The form will be going home on May 11th-ish.

Upcoming Field Trip

We will be attending a musical (Born to Worship) at West Edmonton Christian Assembly next Monday, May 4th starring Hugh Jackman. Please ensure your field trip form is signed as you will not be able to attend without one. 😦

Auction Basket Update!

We have raised over $100 for our auction basket! WOW! Thanks to all who donated.

The auction is almost upon us. A special thank you to Jane’s mother, Mrs. Anderson who is purchasing the goods and arranging the basket – we really appreciate it! If you have any further donations, please bring them into class and we will try to get them into the basket if we can.

Interviewing a Representative.

We have been studying what makes for strong representatives in the various organizations we find in Alberta. Two organizations we have been studying are the ACFA and the MNA – ask your kids what the acronyms mean! To help solidify the importance of representatives to our lives, we will be interviewing an actual representative of an organization in Alberta. There are a few steps involved that you may want to help out with:

1.  Decide on an Alberta organization of interest.
2.  Come up with 5 questions (MAX) to ask – they should NOT be YES/NO type questions.
3.  Conduct the interview: 

•  
  • Write out your questions and record your answers, or print out e-mail responses.
  • At the end, review your information to make sure it is correct and you have the answers you need.
  • Be polite, and thank the person for helping you.

Help your child out in finding out why representatives are so important to the fabric of our community.

Remember to read your social Studies and make NOTES for your upcoming unit exam!

Hello all, just a friendly reminder to read pages 162-169 by highlighting key information and summarizing each paragraph in your own words.

Summerize, Analyze, Internalize and Synthesize! Mr. Iampen SAIS so…

🙂

Errors in the Math Section of the Grade 6 PARENT GUIDE TO P.A.T.’s

Hello! I just received a notice from the Director of Achievement Testing with Alberta Learning. Apparently, there are a few wrong answers in the Parent Guide to P.A.T.’s:
Questions 6 & 8 are INCORRECT.
The CORRECT answers are as follows – [6. B] & [8. C]
Oooops…I guess even the government is wrong from time to time, eh?