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May 2013
Mark your Calendars

Gill-Ville
Character Education:
During the month of April we spent time talking about the THIS IS IT key. THIS IS IT means to make the most of each moment and the best of each situation. Sometimes we have to do things we dont like, but if we just do it, we have more time for the things we enjoy. Congratulations to Andrew, our April Studentof-the-Month winner! During the month of May we will focus on FLEXIBILITY, which means to accept change and make a new plan when things dont work.

http://teachers.wrdsb.ca/GILLK

Jr. Area Comp .

Imagine A Show Trip:
On Tuesday, May 28thwe will use the Grand River Transit System to travel from the Cambridge Centre to Conestoga Mall to see the photos displayed in the WRDSB Imagine A Show event. We will leave the school to walk to the Cambridge Centre when we arrive that morning (weather permitting).

Music Monday Monday, May 6th Pita Pit Lunch Days Mondays, May 6th, 13th, & 27th
Character Ed Assembly

Friday, May 10th Sub Lunch Days Wed., May 1st, 8th, 15th, 22nd, & 29th Little Chefs Cooking Class Monday, May 13th Victoria Day Holiday No School Monday, May 20th
Jump Rope for Heart

Picasso Art:
Students have been learning a little about Pablo Picasso and his abstract and cubism art styles. An image of a computer generated Picasso head was included in our Artist Study posts on their blogs. We also made 3-D versions in class that we are very proud of.

Creative Writing:
We are currently working on an adventure story project involving superhero characters we created using Marvels Create Your Own SuperHero site. Students can visit this site from home to build more characters on their own! http://bit.ly/cVMhZz We will post our stories on our blogs when we are finished!

Friday, May 24th Imagine a Show Trip Tuesday, May 28th PD Day No School Friday, May 31st

Photography Update:
Our skilled photographers carefully selected their favourite shots to submit for the Imagine A Show event. From those images, each student picked one that demonstrated their best photography skills to display in class. We will find out soon if any of our photos were accepted into the show. We eagerly await the results!

Picture It 2013:
Our class has been learning about artist Piet Mondrian, and artist that used squares and primary colours in his work. His work is the inspiration for a collaborative art project our class is involved in. 24 classes in a group are assigned a section of a large art display. Each class colours their part and mails it out to the other group members. We are just beginning to get some pieces in the mail from some classes in the U.S.A. This is a picture of our display as it currently appears. As each part arrives in the mail, we cover up the matching section on our display board. We cant wait to see what it will look like when it is finished!

We kick off our Jump Rope for Heart fundraising efforts on Friday, May 10th. Student can collect sponsors and return their envelopes and money on, or before, the event date on Friday, May 24th. Help support the Heart and Stroke Foundation and earn great prizes for your participation! Get active and improve your own heart health!

Kenya Connection:
We continue to communicate with our friends in Kenya through the Run for Life blog site. They have used the money we sent to them for materials to use in rebuilding parts of their school. We enjoy writing to each other and sharing our learning. We are hoping to get them involved in the Global Art Show project that we are working on as well! We are all very lucky to have this learning partnership.

Habitat Projects:
We have been learning about the different regions in Canada and how the climate, landforms, geography, and animals interact and depend on each other. Students have created a diorama to represent their area that includes at least 3 animals in the food chain and the appropriate landforms found in the region. We will be presenting our projects orally when we are ready.

Grade 6 to Grade 7 Transitions: Radio for Learning:

We are very excited to join a student-run Internet radio station called 105 the Hive! The station is accessed through the Internet and is only used by classes to share their learning on a variety of topics. We will be practicing our speaking skills, focusing on clear, loud voices to talk about our Habitat projects and to read our adventure stories. Once we have learned how to broadcast, our friends in Mr. Grants class will join a broadcast to share their radio commercials that they have prepared. Our kindergarten learning buddies will also join our broadcast to show off their newly acquired reading skills! During the broadcast, listeners can interact with us through the Twitter stream that we will manage at the same time. Follow the #105theHive or #radio4learning hashtags or follow our @Gill_Villeans news feed for interactions during our broadcast times. Families can tune in to listen from home by visiting the 105 the Hive website and pressing play on the player. http://105thehive.org We will send notes home in the planner with the exact dates and times that we will be live on air over the next few weeks. We are hoping to be ready for our first broadcast by the second week of May. Stay tuned for more information about this exciting learning opportunity! Over the next few weeks important information will be coming home regarding next years preparations for our students moving on to grade seven. There will be an opportunity for families to visit the school and a chance for the students to meet the teacher and tour the school. We will also be arranging the Identification and Placement Review Committee (IPRC) meeting and sending your invitation to attend. We look forward to working with you to make the transition from Ryerson to their new placements as positive as possible.

Reading Homework:
As we complete our last few weeks of our repeated reading homework program, the students are setting goals for their reading. They selected a level they hope to achieve by the end of our homework program in the middle of June. In order to reach (or possibly surpass) these goals, its important to read EVERY day for at least 15 minutes. As students become experts on their stories, they move up through the levels faster. Help your child stick to their plan to achieve their desired reading level. After your child reads each week, discuss how they did on their reading skill development. With hard work, we can achieve our goals!