It's Been A While...

Hello again,
Glad to be back posting. I had been waiting for some consent to photograph slips to be able to post the photos below of our wonderful trip to the Canadian Railway Museum ~ Exporail in St-Constant, Qc.

It was a wonderful visit and I would like to thank our fabulous guide, Caroline, who worked to so hard to balance the mechanical and historical information and make sure the students learned as much as they could about how the railway changed Canada.

A Commonsense Approach to Homework

Homework is an important part of your child’s education. It allows them the opportunity to review concepts and strategies learned in class, and helps them learn to plan their time outside the classroom. For the parent, it is an opportunity to see what the child is learning at school, to review and clarify ideas with the student, and to gage how well their child has understood.

In cycle three, your child will have approximately forty-five minutes of homework and studying each week-night. This will include the math pages, revising math concepts (such as multiplication), working on English homework, studying French verbs and vocabulary, and revising texts.

Most assignments and lessons are given over many days so that families can have multiple nights to complete the work. Given that many students have extra-curricular activities, parents should review the homework on Monday and plan how it will be completed during the week. Some nights the student may have to choose what to focus on: if a text is due the next day, that may take priority, and math pages need to be completed before we move on to more challenging concepts. Never is a large amount of work given and expected to return completed for the next day.

While it may seem like an obvious statement, homework is to be done at home. The same way parents supervise the completion of other chores, parents need to make sure their child completes their homework. Given that homework is not done in my presence, I rely on parents to ensure that it is completed. I do not give punishments at school for something that was or was not done when I was not present. Teachers would not be expected to give a detention to a child who did not make her bed, because that is a home responsibility. The same can be said for homework. I do not control how the student uses their time after 2:45. That is the role of the parent.

It is my experience that parents generally value schoolwork and want to help their child succeed. Therefore, to make sure homework gets done, we use the agenda and the homework blog to make sure families know what has to be done. Then if work is not completed I take the following steps:

1) the first time work is not done, I write a note in the agenda informing you the work is not done. At this point most parents make sure the work gets competed and investigate why the assignment is incomplete.

2) the second time the work it not done, the student and I call home to inform parents there is a problem and to enlist their help getting the work done.

3) the third time homework is incomplete, parents need to come to school to meet with me to discuss the situation. We discuss why the work is not done and find solutions such as modifying expectations or planning schedules. If the problem is one of the child refusing to do the work, we may seek the outside help of a psycho-educator or social worker to help families solve the problem.

If for some reason your child is unable to complete the work on a given night (unexpected company, family emergency, unforeseen circumstances) please write me a note stating that you know the homework is not done, and letting me know when it will be completed. In this way I know that the student has informed the parent they had work that needed to be done.

I thank you for your help with homework, and for taking the time to support your child in his or her learning.

Kathy Napier

Welcome to a New School Year!

Hello Families,

It is a pleasure to be working with you and your child this year. I have every confidence that we will have an enjoyable and productive year and that by working together we can help your child continue to experience academic success.


In the month of September, please sign your child's agenda nightly. This will help them get into the habit of showing you the work they have to do and will acquaint you with your child's homework, workbooks and assignments. Using the link to the right you can access a list of the current homework, helpful if students forget agendas or miss school.

For the first term, we will be working on the following units:

Math: Number Sense (read, writing, comparing, adding and subtracting large numbers)

English Language Arts: self-expressive and descriptive writing; punctuation and paragraphing; beginning of the leveled reading program

Social Science: Geography of central Canada; review of French Society circa 1745 and the fall of the French regime; study of Canada circa 1820 and the changes that came about after the Loyalist influx

Over the next few weeks, as your child adjusts to a new teacher, a new class and a different workload, please feel free to contact me with any questions or concerns you may have.

Warm regards,
Kathy Napier

June is Here!

Hello Families,

Has the countdown begun in your house?

At school, things are gearing up for the end of the year. Today we finish our Language Arts exam, the Math exam is finished by Thursday and the Inuit and Micmac projects are due (test next Monday). As well, the preparations for graduation are getting under way. It promises to be a very busy time in the grade six class!

In case you had not noticed, I have added a page for the calendar to the blog. Important dates are listed above and you can access the page by clicking the link under the blog title.

Have a wonderful week!
Kathy Napier

Field Games Day: Permission Slip

Hello Families,
Just a quick note to ask that you remind your child to bring back the permission form for the Field Games Day trip this coming Thursday.

We will be leaving right away, will need to bring a lunch, water bottle, snacks, good shoes, sunscreen and a coat if it is cool.

Students, please remind each other to bring back the form!

Have a lovely and safe Victoria Day long weekend,
Kathy Napier

The end of another week (also known as one week closer to grad) and Special Visitors

Hello families,

Well, it was another big week here, and I hope you're giving your kids the Flintstones vitamins because from here on out there are only big weeks with many projects, exams and trips. It promises to be hectic and fun, but very hard work, and in my experience keeping 12-year-olds busy (very, very busy) is half the battle.

What battle, do you ask?

Oh, the ongoing battle against hormones and backtalk, arguments and obstinacy (which is a word, but I had to check), sloppy work, bad manners and lack of motivation. But I know I don't have to tell you this. From what I hear, this battle is being fought on all fronts.

Keeping myself ready for this is also what sometimes keeps me from acknowledging, daily, how your children are really great people. Really great people who care deeply about others and their world, who are critical thinkers and who have come a long, long way in the year and eight months we have been together.

I'm tearing up and losing my focus here. Ahem.

We had two special visitors this week. The first was the lovely Kat Usher, Naturalist from the EarthValues Institute in Montreal who came to give her annual presentation to the students. This year's theme was "Colour My World." She is a wonderful speaker and I was sorry to have been out sick that day and miss her talk.

I was also sorry since every time I am sick h-e-double-hockey-sticks seems to break out with the kids' behaviour and I come back to problems. If you heard from me Thursday you know what I mean (if you didn't, your child wasn't involved :).


Our second visitor arrived Thursday morning and was a surprise for the kids. Just in case your own loving 12yr old was less than communicative and forthcoming this week, you should know that I asked an agent of the Surete du Quebec to come and speak to them about drugs. If they didn't give it to you, you should go riffling through their bookbags for the information document for parents about kids and drugs (after hearing what he had to say, perhaps you should riffle through their things regularly). The students had excellent questions and Agent Jutras was a very experienced speaker who handled the information with just enough detail to (hopefully) scare them away from drugs and pushers. It is a good time to reopen a dialogue with your child about the whole subject.

Thank you for your help and support this week, and as we move into the Math and English Exams next week please continue to keep your child as well-rested as possible.

Enjoy the weekend, and Happy Mother's Day to everyone!

Kathy
PS - to let me know you have been here, please click on on the the boxes and/or leave me a comment. it lets me know I am talking to more than just my one-and-only blog-follower

EDITED TO ADD-Hey! I have readers! Thank you for clicking below (and I fixed the typos)! It is great to know I am not writing to myself here, people!

Websites for Studying

Hello all,

These are a few sites which can provide guided practice of some of the math skills we are reviewing in class. Students should use them to study as they are self-correcting and can give rapid feedback on skills and understanding.

http://www.oswego.org/ocsd-web/games/BillyBug/bugcoord.html
Coordinate geometry

http://teams.lacoe.edu/documentation/classrooms/amy/geometry/6-8/activities/quad_quest/quad_quest.html
Quadrilaterals

http://www.innovationslearning.co.uk/subjects/maths/activities/year6/angles/game.asp
angles

http://www.crickweb.co.uk/assets/resources/flash.php?&file=triangles
triangles

http://cemc2.math.uwaterloo.ca/mathfrog/english/kidz/div5.shtml
long division

http://www.mathplayground.com/fractions_mixed.html
mixed numbers

http://cemc2.math.uwaterloo.ca/mathfrog/english/kidz/order.shtml
order of operations

http://cemc2.math.uwaterloo.ca/mathfrog/english/kidz/decMulti6.shtml
decimal multiplication