WaterFest Update

Looks like the 5's are having a great time at the water festival !

WATER FESTIVAL VISIT THURSDAY

The grade 5's will be visiting the Water Festival at Heritage Park on Thursday. We will be going rain or shine. They will need their lunch, some spare change (optional old fashioned candy store) and they will definitely  have to dress for the weather. This event goes forward rain or shine and they are outside all day. I would suggest an extra t-shirt, suntan lotion and a hat if it gets hot. We still need some volunteers if parents are available.

COSMIC FIREWORKS THIS WEEKEND!!

 Brand new meteor shower making debut early Saturday, may wow sky-gazers in US and Canada

FITS RIGHT IN WITH OUR LIVE NASA SIMULCAST TODAY

FOLLOW THE LINK TO A BRIEF ARTICLE EXPLAINING WHEN TO LOOK UP IN THE SKIES!!

LIVE SIMULCAST FROM A CANADIAN ASTRONAUT

We have a very exciting event planned for today! We are part of a live simulcast presentation and talk by  Dr. Mary Ellen Weber,  A NASA Astronaut. We brainstormed questions that students were curious about and submitted them to the simulcast moderator. Hopefully they use some of our questions for Dr. Weber. See below for a short biography and some information regarding the groups putting this event together

SCIENCE QUIZ TUESDAY

We are approximately half way through the units on Matter (grade 5) and Space (grade 6).  We are going to have a test on Tuesday May 20th.

AREAS OF FOCUS FOR GRADE 6

• BE ABLE TO DESCRIBE AND EXPLAIN THE PHASES OF THE MOON
• BE ABLE TO DESCRIBE AND EXPLAIN THE SIMILARITIES AND DIFFERENCES BETWEEN A LUNAR AND SOLAR ECLIPSE (BE ABLE TO DRAW A DIAGRAM)
• BE ABLE TO EXPLAIN WHY WE HAVE SEASONS AND HOW THEY ARE RELATED TO THE POSITION OF THE EARTH AND SUN ( BE ABLE TO DRAW A DIAGRAM)
• BE ABLE TO EXPLAIN HOW THE INTERACTION OF THE SUN, MOON AND EARTH CAUSE TIDES ON EARTH
• KNOW THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A COMET, METEOROID AND AN ASTEROID

AREAS OF FOCUS FOR GRADE 5

• DESCRIBE THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN REVERSIBLE AND NON-REVERSIBLE CHANGES---ALSO BE ABLE TO PICK OUT EXAMPLES OF EACH
• WE DID SEVERAL EXPERIMENTS IN CLASS--MAKE SURE YOU REMEMBER THE OUTCOMES AND WHAT WE LEARNED EX. ANTACID IN WATER, PENNIES IN VINEGAR, 
• MAKE SURE YOU KNOW WHAT CLUES CAN TELL YOU IF THERE IS A NON-REVERSABLE CHANGE (COLOUR, SOMETHING NEW PRODUCED)
• KNOW 3 STATES OF MATTER AND THEY'RE CHARACTERISITCS (SHAPE, VOLUME CHANGES FOR EACH STATE)
• KNOW CONDENSATION, EVAPORATION SIMILARITIES, DIFFERENCES AND EXAMPLES OF EACH

Hands on Science

We had some special guests today from the University of Windsor. The grade 5's were using their knowledge of Matter and Material science to solve a criminal mystery!! The grade 6's were designing and building their very own Planetary Lander--just like the Curiosity Rover on mars.

FULLY ALIVE FAMILY LETTER

A letter went home along with a copy of our Fully Alive student textbook. We would like parents to read over the letter with their child and take some time to go through the textbook together. There is a signature line at the bottom of the letter that needs to be signed and returned to school. I would appreciate all the letters returned by May 20th. If you have any concerns or questions please do not hesitate to call.

Thank you for your continued support.
Mr.Franca

BOY!! Do we EVER need to talk!

My son Christopher is in grade 8 and my daughter Sarah is in grade 6. We are in the process of getting my son a phone for a graduation present and my daughter owns an Ipod. I, like all of you, read the papers and watch the news at night. It seems that every day some teen or pre-teen is getting themselves in serious trouble with social media. Our board and we as educators are trying to figure out our way through all of this crazy maze of Tumblr, Snapchat, Instagram etc.etc. etc.!! We are going to focus on these issues through Education Week. I am including a letter that is going to be posted on the school blog over the next day or two. Please read it over and give me a call if you have any questions or concerns.

Dear Parents,

The Windsor-Essex Catholic District School Board recently launched a series of awareness newsletters entitled, “We Need To Talk” (Parent Series).  The intent of the newsletters was to provide you, as parents and guardians, with key information that you can use on a daily basis to assist us in doing all we can to make internet use a safe and useful tool for learning.  These newsletters are still located on our school blog as well as the Board Website.

As an entire Board, we will collectively launch the “We Need To Talk” (Student Series) this month which will focus on Cyber Bullying, Sexting, and Profile Protection; with students in Grades 4-8 taking part in a system wide, three-part series on internet safety.  The information covered will be made available to you on our School/Class website.

All of our lessons and conversations with your children are rooted in and explained from a Catholic perspective.  We believe this is foundational in all that we do on a daily basis.  Moreover, we believe it is crucial to not ‘sugar coat’ the discussion nor the potential consequences possible with the inappropriate use of technology.  These consequences have the potential to bring a life-altering impact to all those involved.

Let us engage our children with love and respect. In so doing, we will promote self-confidence and self- respect. These are the two critical components to the well being of our children. We trust that you will agree and that you will join us in this most important venture.

Topics:

Cyberbullying Adult Tools Come with Adult Consequences

Sexting You Can’t Unsend

Online Responsibility You Post it, You Own it

Video Resources:

https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B4vLnKI6wPt_dEVIZmdIUUJNekU&usp=sharing

Parent Presentation:

On Monday, June 2 at 7 p.m. Paul Davis (http://socialnetworkingsafety.net/sample-page/) will be speaking to a ‘parents only’ audience in the Auditorium at Holy Names Secondary. This is a very informative and impactful presentation that you are all highly encouraged to attend.  All are welcome.

Hands on Discovery!

The grade 5's were doing their best Science Sleuthing today. They had to perform some tests on a variety of materials. The goal was to determine the make up of a mystery material by comparing it to the reaction of some known material. Tomorrow we will go over our observations and hopefully crack the case of The Mysterious Powder-powder-powderrr (echo for effect!!)

WOW!! Recognizing Excellence

Truly a special day today! Hailee, matthew, Helena and Joey were recognized today at the WOW assembly for the great work they are doing in their Literature Circle. Also, Serafina and Isaac received their prizes for the Young Authors Writing Contest. Their original written work was chosen from all other grade five and six students in the Windsor area. Congrats to all our winners!