Our Trip to the McCord Museum of Canadian History

Many thanks to Isabelle Bouffard and Cecile Gruber for accompanying us on our field trip!

Update on Activities Old and New

Scaryside Academy
In October, some of the grade 6 and grade 5 students acted in a Halloween play, Scaryside Academy: “You Are What You Eat,” that our lovely secretary Mrs. Hodak wrote in honor of Halloween. The people who acted in this play did a great job. The characters were Ms. Crabtree the teacher (Leila), Wendy the witch (Alyssa), Frankie Frankenstein (Meagan), Vinnie the vampire (Samuel), Greta the ghost (Laurence), Wally the wolf (Daren) and Scott the skeleton (Jacob). In this comedy, Ms. Crabtree organised an operation to know what Vinnie had been eating these past few days. They operated on Vinnie and when someone pulled out a skipping rope they found out that he had been skipping a few meals! This play was the best play we have ever seen.
Written by: Leila & Jessie

Cross-country on October 8th
On October 8th Grade 6 students Sam, Jonathan, William, Jacob, Jacob, Gabriel, Juliano, Leila, Naomie, Justine, and Alicia went to Lennoxville for a 1.9 kilometre running competition. They had lots of fun and laughter. Most of the athletes were close to having an award but had an entertaining and amusing day just the same. The race was longer than what was practiced at school but most people finished before 30th position. When not running, team-mates were tremendously encouraging and the runners appreciated it greatly. Martin, their Phys. Ed. Teacher, was also vastly encouraging and trained them well.
By Samuel and Alicia

Winter Concert
On December 16th, D.E.S held a wonderful Winter Concert. Each class performed different songs and executed the songs in an enjoyable way. Grade six and kindergarten began with “The Twelve Cats of Christmas,” and “Must be Santa.” Grade six followed with “The Cherry Tree Carol,” “Fa la la la la,” and ended the concert with “ A Soalin’” bringing many audience members to tears. Grade six even had musicians who accompanied on different parts of the songs (Laurence on the piano and Leila on the guitar). The students practiced hard and it was worth it.

New Low in Underfunded Schools

Irish children told to bring loo roll to school to save costs



Telegraph.co.uk URL below
Published: 7:00AM BST 07 Oct 2009
Children at an Irish primary school have been asked to bring their own lavatory roll in order to help save money.

Pupils at a St John's girls' national school were asked to bring their own supplies of toilet roll Photo: GETTY

Pupils at a St John's girls' national school, in Carrigaline, in the southern county of Cork, were asked to bring their own supplies in one of the starkest examples yet of the death of Ireland's "Celtic Tiger" economy.

Catherine O'Neill, the school's principal, said, in a letter to parents: "From time to time we will request your daughter to bring in a toilet roll to her class teacher. These rolls will be specifically for your daughter's class and will be dispensed by the class teacher."

She said the measure had been taken in order to save money in the face of education funding cuts.

"We are endeavouring to trim down expenses and ensure we use our grants towards [educational needs]," she wrote.

Irish parents are already struggling to buy schoolbooks and uniforms in the face of a deep recession.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/ireland/6267269/Irish-children-told-to-bring-loo-roll-to-school-to-save-costs.html

* Private toilet paper manufacturers stepped into the breach. While their well-publicized generosity is no-doubt appreciated, it doesn't address the real issue.

Must be Santa

One of our songs for the Winter Concert will be the Raffi version of "Must Be Santa."

Here are the words for students who would like to practice
Must be Santa

Who’s got a beard that’s long and white?
Santa’s got a beard that’s long and white
Who comes around on a special night?
Santa comes around on a special night
Special night, beard that’s white-
Must be Santa, must be Santa, must be Santa Santa Claus

Who’s got boots and a suit of red?
Santa’s got boots and a suit of red
Who wears a long cap on his head?
Santa wears a long cap on his head.
Cap on head, suit that’s red,
Special night, beard that’s white-
Must be Santa, must be Santa, must be Santa Santa Claus

Who’s got a big red cherry nose?
Santa’s got a big red cherry nose
Who laughs this way, “ho ho ho.”
Santa laughs this way, “ho ho ho.”

Ho ho ho, cherry nose,
Cap on head, suit that’s red,
Special night, beard that’s white-
Must be Santa, must be Santa, must be Santa Santa Claus

Who very soon will come our way?
Santa very soon will come our way?
Eight little reindeer pull his sleigh,
Santa’s little reindeer pull his sleigh,

Reindeer sleigh, come our way,
Ho ho ho, cherry nose,
Cap on head, suit that’s red,
Special night, beard that’s white-
Must be Santa, must be Santa, must be Santa Santa Claus
Must be Santa, must be Santa, must be Santa Santa Claus

Early next week I hope to post catch-up new from the class about the Bake Sale, the Green Apple Grant, the Concert and our field trip. Check back soon! In the meantime, enjoy the weekend.
Ms Napier

Have a Wonderful Day with Your Guest Teacher!

Good Morning, Grade Six!

This is what I am doing today.



This is what all teachers do when we aren't with you. We call it workshops (wink wink).

And on ped. days we run up and down the halls in our socks chewing gum. I shouldn't tell all our secrets, but hey, you won't tell, will you?

Seriously, though.

In all the excitement Friday I forgot to mention that I will be at a workshop today. I was too caught up in the discussion of tokenism, sexism, electoral tampering, what scientists know and might not know about gender differences, what we mean by representational government, and what we learn from the election process. What a day!

Today I am in Magog learning more about the "6+1 Traits of Writing" form Lynn Senecal, the mastermind behind the Soundprints program. She is an excellent, erudite speaker and I always enjoy her workshops. I know that I will come back to class feeling like this (see picture above) and just full of great ideas to help us all write more and better.


You, my little liebchens, will have a great day with Mrs Jacinthe. I hope to hear you were all wunderbar.
See you tomorrow!
Ms Napier

PS extra points to those who figure out the vocab.
Sidenote - this post is intended to be droll, not facetious or flippant

Disposable to Reusable: Green Apple Grants

Good News!
Our class was awarded a $1000 grant for a proposal made to Metro Groceries Green Apple Grant Program to fund an environmental project at our school. This project, based on our work and study of the problem of waste, will seek to eliminate disposable tableware at our school.
We are very grateful to have the collaboration of the Parent Participation Organization in carrying out this project, with whom we have been exchanging letters since September in an effort to find ecological solutions for our school. Metro, with this grant, has given us $1 000 to fund the project and develop educational presentations for our school community.
The next step for us is to elaborate a plan for carrying out our ideas. Hopefully, the students talk to you at home about this exciting project and how they are becoming responsible citizens working to improve their community.

My Fire Fighter Story

October 1st, 2009

!!!!! Fire fighters more than just putting out fires!!!!!


Hi my name is dots, I am a firehouse dog. I help by sniffing stuff and find clues. I am a big help to fire fighters. Everyone knows that fire fighters put out fires. They might put out a forest fire they might put out a fire caught in a building or a fire in a car. They risk their lives to save us from injury or burning buildings. But that’s not all.
-Fire fighters respond to medical emergencies and motor vehicle accidents, they come to car accidents if there is something needed.
-They make fire safety practices for schools and shops (ect.) and they teach the public about fire preventions. By doing this they help to save peoples lives, just talking to them.
-They have conducting inspections, rescue operations and they emergency patient care.
-They respond to emergency hazardous material situations.
-They donate stuff and they create contests. They give Halloween candy all that by showing the example and being safe. Helping people is leadership. Being a fire fighter is a big job and it is a dangerous job at the same time.

From: Drummonville Elementary School
By: Chelsy Gill