Friday December 6, 2019 - Week in Review

Dear Grade 6A Parents,

We kicked off the school week with an amazing presentation from NASA researcher Miguel Castillo.  Mr. Castillo spoke to the students about his work with NASA on the Orion Spacecraft, intended to carry astronauts beyond earth's orbit.   He also answered questions ranging from "what do astronauts eat in space" to "how long would it take to fly to Mars".  Mr. Castillo is also an author and specialist of holistic medicine and was featured in a 2016 TEDx talk https://youtu.be/xGZd8Mv7IR0 

We have been looking at how to measure and build triangles and quadrilaterals, but following a series of instructions.  The class, in general, found this to be challenging work and we will continue to review the strategies and steps to correctly creating these shapes.

Add elaborate detail to the essential characters, settings, and objects in our story writing has been the focus this week.  We learned that adding too much detail can be distracting to the reader and actually take away from the quality of our writing and instead we should focus on "showing" instead of "telling" when adding description.  We will be continuing this work next week.

Have a great weekend,
Mr. Cull

Quizzes/ Tests
-Measurement and Geometry quiz on Monday, December 16th (Pg 75 to 88 and Pg 93 to 112 to review)
-The Trees and Forest unit test was handed back today.  Ask your child what their mark was out of /54
-Marks for the Provincial Government quiz were released to the students in their school Gmail accounts.  Ask your child how they did out of 28 marks

Homework
-Math homework - Finish the constructing angels and quadrilaterals sheet
-Two additional math questions went home today.  They are due back next Wednesday

The Show Must Go On Performance
A performance by grade four, five, and six students
Cast A Wednesday, December 11th - Doors open at 6:15PM
Cast B Thursday, December 12th - Doors open at 6:15PM
Admission: Free

All students in grades four, five and six have signed up for one of the following groups. Ask your child if they have been assigned to Cast A (Wednesday, December 11th Performance) or Cast B (Thursday, December 12th performance). Students in non-performing groups are not required to attend the night of the performances.

Performing Groups:
Acting
Dance
Choir
Instruments
Comedy
Non-Performing Groups
Art (set design and posters)
Video Production.

Story Synopsis
In The Show Must Go On, student actors perform as teachers in the school.
After spending months perfecting the three-act musical Cats, the Simons Valley Drama club is forced to come up with a new plan. Cats is unexpectedly canceled, but the Junior Tony Award judge is scheduled to come in just a few days to watch the school’s performance. Since Mr. Snow was a young boy, he has always dreamed of winning the Junior Tony Award - The top prize a school can win for its theatrical performance. He informs the Drama Club that they must come up with a new plan.

The teachers realize they won’t have time to put together another full three-act musical, and everyone has a different idea of what to do. Mrs. Blyth and Mrs. Boulanger want the students to perform a dance routine. Mrs. Reeve and Mrs. Fuller think the students should sing choir style. Mrs. Sinden and Mrs. Moncrieff think that playing musical instruments is the way to go. Mrs. Neumiller wants the students to perform her original creation entitled “The Neumiller Special”

Can the Simons Valley School Drama Club get on the same page and win the Junior Tony Award? Find out December 11th and 12th as Simons Valley School presents The Show Must Go On.

SVS Christmas Hampers
The Christmas season is upon us! It is a time many families look forward to the gathering of family and friends, the sharing of gifts and a warm meal. Unfortunately, not all families are able to participate in many of these activities which most of us take for granted.

In previous years, the SVS staff and community have had the pleasure of being able to help some of our SVS families during this time. We will again be supporting a few of our families by providing them with gift cards. The most asked for are to SuperStore and Walmart but any card will be accepted.

You can show your support by purchasing a gift card and dropping it off at the office by Friday, December 13th. We will then distribute the cards to the families in the last week of school. Thank you for your generosity and care.

The Martian Movie
To kick off our next science unit (Sky Science), we would like to show the movie the Martian (2015), during the last week of school before break. One of NASA's next major missions will be to Mars and this movie accurately demonstrates many of the challenges facing astronauts. All of the teachers have seen the movie and there is some swearing and other scenes that parents want to be aware of. Please read the link below as it outlines these.

https://www.commonsensemedia.org/movie-reviews/the-martian

Please let us know if you do not want your child to watch this movie and we will make other arrangments for them.

Calgary Food Bank
From now until December 17th we will be collecting non-perishable food for the Calgary Food Bank.  Foodbank boxes are now placed around the school to accept any and all donations.

Don't Forget
-Headphones: please bring an extra set of headphones to school if you have them
-Don't forget to return or renew your overdue library books

Forms
-No forms due at this time

Upcoming Events
December 11: The Show Must Go On (Cast A)
December 12: The Show Must Go On (Cast B)
December 19: Last Day of classes
January 7: Classes Resume
January 15: Colonel Irvine Jr High Daytime Tour
January 15: Colonel Irvine Jr High Evening Open House (6:30 pm to 8:00 pm)

Website
Don't forget to check out our class website for grade 6 resources
https://sites.google.com/educbe.ca/grade6svs/home