Hi Grade 5 and 6 Parents,

Exciting times are ahead with several fun and important events coming up for our students. Here’s what you need to know:

Bake Sale – Tuesday: We are thrilled to announce that the Kindness Crew will be hosting a bake sale supporting the library on Tuesday. All items will be priced at $1, and students will have the opportunity to purchase goodies throughout the day. If you’re planning to contribute treats, please drop them off in the lobby before school. For those bringing trays, please ensure your name is clearly labeled so we can return them to you. Thank you for your support!

Shorts Reminder: A friendly reminder for our girls that shorts worn on non-uniform days must be longer than the tips of their fingers when their arms are at their sides.

Bible Memory Verse – Psalm 95:4: “In his hand are the depths of the earth, and the mountain peaks belong to him.” This verse reminds us of God’s sovereignty over all creation. It teaches us that we can trust in God’s power and wisdom, knowing that He holds everything in His hands.

Track Meet – Thursday: Our Track Meet is fast approaching! For those going on the bus, the bus/shuttle will be departing at approximately 7:00 am and returning around 3:45 pm, depending on traffic. Please ensure your child is prepared for the weather, as a little rain is expected. Students should bring hats, appropriate clothing, snacks and lunches, water bottles, and sunscreen. We are also still looking for helpers if you have some time to join us.

Star Wars Day – May 6: May the Force be with you! One of my favourite days of the year and one of the few times my wife allows me to wear my Star Wars outfit!! Star Wars Day is coming up on May 6, and we encourage students to come dressed as their favorite Star Wars or superhero character. Students should not bring plastic play weapons to school.

Poetry Unit – We are in the midst of our poetry unit learning to analyze poems and write a variety of free verse poems. Our latest poem was a type of free verse poetry called Pieces and Parts. Students wrote a noun, a verb and an adjective on one stickie each and posted them on the wall of the classroom. Once all the contributions were in, students were put into groups of 3 and challenged to use those words (plus additional prepositions, articles, adverbs and “to be” verbs) to create a poem that made sense. It was a a lot of fun seeing creativity at work! To help with the creativity, I brought in some cut up donuts (Pieces and Parts!) to enjoy. The completed “nonsense” poems were lots of fun to read! I have put some samples below:

 

One of the poems we read recently was a bit of a surprise to students. It was a heartwarming poem written by Kobe Bryant about his career in basketball. After reading the poem, the students all were a little choked up with the emotional depth of the poem especially after learning that he had written it before his death in a tragic accident. Using the poem, we worked re-reading the poem several times to look for words, phrases and anything we noticed about the style of the poem. Then we worked on analyzing who the narrator was and what we knew about the speaker, the setting of the poem and the mood the author was trying to convey. Finally we wrote a summary of the poem and an explanation of what the poet was trying to teach us and a picture showing what the poem looked like to us.

Here is a neat video I found of the poem:

Thank you for your continued support and involvement in our school community.