Have a wonderful holiday!!!

Just a quick note to wish you a very Merry Christmas and joyous and safe holidays!!!!

See you all in the New Year!!

Miss Parkin

Please note!

Can you please bring a BLACK marker to class for tomorrow (Thursday) as well as Monday!!!
Thank you!!

It's coming!!!

Wow! I still cannot believe how quickly Christmas is coming! I hope your preparations are going well, I'm sure everyone is ready for a well-deserved break.

This week we will be continuing with The Iliad. We have now finished our first reading of it and students are working on vocabulary and completing questions about the scenes. We will finish this and then begin on the final project.

Homework: Students must have the matching vocabulary sheet finished for Thursday. They also need to have the fill-in-the-blanks for Scenes 1-7 finished. The rest of the work can be done in class on Thursday. 

The spelling and vocabulary for this week are below. The test will be on Monday which will be our last day of actual classes.

1. wrath: rage, anger, resentment

2. fidelity: being faithful or loyal

3. awestruck: overwhelming feeling of admiration

4. infuriate: to make furious or very angry

5. seer: a person with special insight or knowledge

6. appease: bring to a state of peace or calm

7. vengeance: revenge, desire to inflict injury or harm

8. weary: tired or exhausted

9. fond: to like or feel affection for

10. melee: fight or struggle among several people

11. brood: to worry or be upset about something

12. agony: extreme pain or suffering

Have fun studying! Remember you must have the correct spelling as well as the meaning of the word!

Important dates for next week:

Monday is the Christmas Banquet. Grade 6 students are invited to the dinner and are asked to bring the food item listed under their name. A list is posted on the Middle School bulletin board.
Tuesday is the last day of school before holidays. Students have signed up for a variety of activities. It is important they bring in permission slips as soon as possible.

As always, if you have any questions please feel free to contact me!
Enjoy the snow :)

20 days until Christmas!

Just a quick update today!

This week we are beginning our study of The Iliad. We have already started with pronunciation and identifying different Greek gods and goddesses. We will watch two introductory videos on Tuesday or Thursday and then get into the reading of the play. Each student will be assigned a character to role play as we read through in class.

There is also a fun art project at the end which I am looking forward to!!!

After Christmas we will be starting our novel study of the book The Breadwinner by Deborah Ellis.

This week there will not be any spelling or vocabulary words. I have identified some challenging words from The Iliad however, we will be completing the vocabulary for these as we read through. This means that we will likely have a test next Thursday. I will post the words on the blog once we have discussed them in class!

One last note! Students, remember there is lots of chocolate to be won! Make sure you are following instructions in class and getting to work without reminders. I have lots of green slips I would love to give out! Happy guessing :)

Thanks for reading and enjoy your week :)

Spelling City is ready!!!

I have finally got a Spelling City account set up and kind of understand how to use it :)
Join me in the adventure of figuring it out and getting everything to work properly. If you have suggestions or questions, please let me know!!!

Instructions:
1. Click on the Spelling City link on the right side of the blog page.
2. You will go directly to my homepage.
3. Scroll down to see the different lists, each labelled with the date.
4. Click on the list you want to practice.
5. Have fun with the spelling and vocabulary games!

Thanks for visiting!!!

The first week of Advent!

I hope you all had a wonderful long weekend :)

This is the first week of Advent and we will be starting it off with a school-wide celebration on Monday morning. For the duration of Advent, we will have a short celebration each Monday morning and hopefully also have an Advent wreath in our classroom which we can light each morning.

This week we will be continuing on with myths and the assignment each pair/group has decided to complete.

**Myths will be due Thursday Dec 1, 2011. Many students have already emailed them to me! Thank you for working so hard :)

** Pair/small group assignments will be due the following Thursday (Dec 8, 2011). Students will still have some class time to complete these however, they may need to spend time outside of class as well.

Spelling/vocabulary words for this week are as follows:

1. radiant: shining or bright
2. astonishment: amazement or great surprise
3. nervous: very excited or uneasy
4. cruel: causing pain or distress to others
5. humility: to be humble or modest
6. occupied: to take or fill up
7. extraordinary: beyond what is usual or regular
8. confident: having strong belief
9. withdraw: to go or move back or away
10. tragic: extremely dreadful or terrible
**The test will be on Thursday for Gr 6 English and French students!

To encourage students to practice these words at home, I am setting up an account with Spelling City. There is already a link on the right side of the main blog page. I should have the password set up by tomorrow so students can sign in and do different activities with the lists I have posted!

Please check back soon for more info on this!

Wishing you a wonderful and less windy week!!!

It's a short week!!!

*Please note, this Friday is a PD day therefore the students do not have school! Enjoy your long weekend!!!

For the past 2 weeks or so we have been working on our Tales: Heroes, Deeds and Wonders unit. The students have defined what a myth is and have read many examples from a variety of countries. They are also working on writing their own myths. We will have a little bit more time this week and then the myths will be due. The students have been so creative and I am very excited to read them!

Students are also working on a project which they are designing themselves. In pairs or small groups they read a selection titled "The River that Went to the Sky". As they read through they had to identify ear appealing phrases as well as phrases that create images. They will use these identified phrases to create a simplified sequence of events. They are in the planning stages right now and the due date has yet to be determined.

Please remind your child (only grade 6 English for this week) to practice the spelling and vocabulary words we identified last week. This week's test will be on Thursday.

The words are: universal, awakened, disturbed, instrument, survivor, threatened, desperate, fascinating, destroyed and associated.

Let's have a great week!!!

Welcome to the Grade 6 blog!!!! Check out all the fun stuff we are doing!

Thanks for checking in, remember to come back often!

I am excited to get this blog up and running to keep you posted on what is going on in our classroom. I have been with the students for about 3 weeks now and we are falling into routines and building great relationships!

The plan is to update the blog every week (probably Friday or over the weekend) with class content, homework, in-class assignments and any special events. Please check when you can and feel free to comment on posts. You can also contact me at the school (403-627-3488) or through email (nicole.parkin@holyspirit.ab.ca) if you have any questions!

I look forward to a great year together!