Spectacular 6M

JTA  Reports Live from the Curling Arena By: Jeremy    As you have known the last month both grade 6 classes have went to the Fenlands rec center to curl. Our amazing instructors John and Brian have taught us lots of different skills like turning a rock clockwise and counter clockwise. We have played lot's of fun games, but that does not matter now because the grade 6 classes are going head to head in a epic tournament. For the fame the glory and best of all the bragging rights.    The tournament is now over. We had a amazing time and it was so much FUN. It was so much fun that I want join curling now.

Mindful Moments By Keifer Last week we started using stations each morning in order for us to start the day in a mindful way.  There are 6 stations and there are around 1 to 5 people allowed in each station. There is a zen garden, an active one, a puzzle one, a play dough one, a word search one and a 3D puzzle challenge. I like these because I get to start my day by being mindful. My favourite center is the active one because I like to get all my extra energy out. I can do jumping jacks, push ups and wall sits to start my day.   It's good to be mindful because it calms down your brain and helps you think more clearly all day. Mindful means to be in the moment and staying calm. 

We Went Curling! By Harvy This week the grade 6's went curling!  Curling is a sport and the equipment that we use is a rock and a broom.You try to get the rock into the house if you want to get the rock faster you sweep it with the broom.  In the Philippines nobody even knows about curling because the weather is always hot and in one or two weeks the ice will melt easily because of the weather. The sports that are only famous is Basketball, Badminton, Boxing, and Volleyball. I really liked curling because it is really fun but a bit challenging.     I'm really looking forward at getting better at curling mostly at throwing the rock harder and trying to not fall when using the sliders.

A W o r l d of K i n d n e s s By: Iri Make someone smile! It is the day where you are kind to everyone. The day where you make someone's day. Today, November 15th is Kindness day!! In our class, we have been writing kindness notes to teachers and to our classmates. When we came in the classroom and saw those notes on our desks with kind and thoughtful messages, it just made our day. I bet when the teachers saw their messages it made their day too. Being kind isn't very hard. Just one little thing can make someone's day and maybe even your day. Like, holding the door for someone. Or picking up garbage and making less garbage. Or even saying "Thank you". How easy is that! Just one little thing can make a HUGE  difference to the world. November 15th is kindness day but always remember that it's not the only kindness day. Miss Major says EVERY SINGLE DAY is kindness day. Let's work together and make a world full of kindness  💗

Volleyball in Phys Ed By: Shawn We have started by learning how to play volleyball in Phys Ed. In the Philippines we don't play volleyball but we play basketball. This is the first time I am ever playing volleyball. We are learning how to hit the ball correctly and how to pass the ball to other people. Some skills that we learned so far is volley, bump and serve I enjoy our Phys Ed class now because it teaches me all the skills we need to know about volleyball so that I can become a good player. I like working as a team because I like how we cooperate and how we communicate with each other during the game. 

Water Bottle Flipping By: Haruki  Guess what our science experiment was? If you guessed water bottle flipping you are correct! How did just flipping a bottle get so popular? It has become a YouTube sensation. Anyway our science experiment was awesome this week. We did things that we had to do like pick four water bottles that you want to use. Next we had to see how tall, how much liquid it can hold and we had to draw it. Then we decided how much water to put in whether it was half full or one third. We did a couple practice flips then we got started and recorded our flips out of 15, 25, or 50 tosses. After this experiment we found our perfect bottle. We conducted another experiment where we used our perfect bottle and we picked 4 different water levels. We repeated the experiment and recorded our results. We practiced our habits of mind of persisting and striving for accuracy. We learned how to conduct an experiment and had a lot of fun while doing it!

A Spooky Halloween! By: Kenneth We celebrated Halloween at Banff Elementary School. We had a parade in the gym with teachers, students, principals and the parents. We wore costumes like scary monsters, heroes, villains etc. After the parade, we had a party in the classroom.  We ate apple crumble, banana bread, fruit, veggies, chips and salsa. We also played board games, danced to Halloween music and we carved our class pumpkin. Some kids counted how many seeds were in the pumpkin. There was a total of 590 seeds in our medium sized pumpkin! I had a lot of fun celebrating Halloween in our classroom! 

WE Day Adventures By Charly WE Day is a day when people come together and talk about how to be a good citizen and how to contribute to your community. The presenters give everyone ideas on how to make a difference and they said that you should make a difference in your community and in the world. There were singers,speakers and even some dancers. They showed us how to do the we day dance and some other dancers came in, the most famous band was Classified and the coolest speakers were Chris Hadfield, Margaret Trudeau, Rick Hanson and Paula Abdul.  You could also by souvenirs like t-shirts bag and the coolest bracelets the bracelets are hand made by African Mothers and the all stood for different thing the options are food, water, education, and opportunity. The one you bought would go to the fund. For example, if you bought the education bracelet, the money would help a girl go to school in a WE Village in Africa. By going to WE Day I will help the SPCA by collectin

   Fantastic Forest Art      By: Mark                                   For the last two weeks we have been doing art which also involves our work in science. We are learning about trees and forests and that includes producers, decomposers and consumers. Each group has a different responsibility. Landscape is on huge paper where every group adds their art! So far it has been a fun experience for each group. I am excited to see how it looks at the end!

Music Madness By Marshall Well our music lessons have always been exciting. The last few weeks we were able to go on the computers and make are own (or with a partner) electronic music on incredibox! If you don't know what it is go to http://www.incredibox.com. We have created our own mix and we will put it on a c.d for our friends and family to listen to. It is the best music lesson we have ever had! Stay tuned...

The Amazing Water Cycle! By Wyatt The water cycle has many different parts. Ground water forms underground in cracks and spaces in the soil. The roots of trees absorb the water and it evaporates through transpiration. Transpiration is kinda like sweating! Plants lose the water that has been absorbed through the atmosphere. Next, the water vapor collects and forms in the sky. The water vapour cools down and becomes water again which is called condensation. Then water falls from the sky in rain, sleet, snow or hail and this is called precipitation. Finally, the water gets collected in puddles, lakes, rivers, glaciers and oceans. This is the water cycle! We created colourful and fun foldables that is an easy way to see what each step of the water cycle is. We also made a water cycle in a bag that hangs on our classroom window. Everyday, we can observe the water evaporating and the water vapor forming. It was a lot of fun!

Photo Day! By Mischa School picture day is coming up and its pretty special for the grades 6s. It's our last time having school picture day here at BES! School pictures can flow out nice or really, really bad. Most of grade 6 is excited but nervous because next year we are in another school taking pictures somewhere else.  Photo day is Tuesday, October 4th . Some things to remember: -wear nice, clean clothes -do your hair -SMILE!

Upcoming Events By: Anika Terry Fox is a Canadian  hero. He wanted to run all the way around the world to raise money for cancer. Terry Fox wanted to raise this money not only for all the children and people with cancer but for himself because he had bone cancer. Terry Fox did not let this cancer stop him. He went through 16 painful and  draining  months of chemo. He fought and persisted all the way.Terry raced through Canadian towns and cities while people cheered him on. Everyone loved him. Terry had to end his run as the pain and cancer spread in Thunder Bay he could not continue. Every year communities across Canada raise money and run for Terry and other people who have or are battling cancer. BES is challenging every student to bring a toonie for Terry to help support cancer research. Our school will have our assembly to remember Terry on Wednesday, September 28th at 1:00 pm. We will be joining BCHS and running on Thursday,  September, 29 at 10 am. Lets make

September Highlights By: Marshall The weeks went by quickly and so far it has been a blast! Last Friday we had a pajama day because the last few weeks we have proven that we are focused, persistent, and have practiced active listening. Our class has also been working really hard. The celebration was a really fun time (even though we were wearing pajamas). We had a full afternoon of art and music. We even had cupcakes that Miss Major made.  Even though she says she can't bake, they were yum, yum, yum and they were the best!

It has been a busy week of team building, new learning challenges and self regulation activities! Every student has demonstrated curiosity and kindness everyday. I am feeling very lucky to have such a wonderful grade 6 class! Let the adventure begin.   

Hello parents and students of 6M! My name is Natalie Major and this will be my second year teaching Grade 6 at BES. I have been in the Canadian Rockies School Division since 2013.  In 2012 I visited Canmore from Ontario and fell in love with the mountains instantly. The following year I made the move permanently to start my life in the beautiful Bow Valley. I love the active lifestyle that the Rockies has and feel very grateful that I can share my passion  for learning with the Banff community.  I will be using this blog to post updates, assignments and reminders on a regular basis. Please feel free to stop by our room or contact me via email at natalie.major@crps.ca if you have any questions. We will also be using Twitter as a means to open communication between school and home. Please follow us at missmajor9. You will be able to see what your child is doing on a daily basis.  I am looking forward to spending a wonderful 2016-2017 school year watching your child reach

Every two years Mars comes into opposition which is the point when Mars, Earth and the Sun all line up with Earth directly in the middle. This happens once every two years! This spectacular sky event happens on May 22nd. According to Nasa, on May 30th Mars will be approximately 75.3 million kilometres away from Earth...this is the closest it has been to our planet since 2003!   Over the next couple of weeks, have a look at our night sky. The Red Planet will be even brighter than Jupiter!  Sky Science just keeps on giving!

With the end of the year quickly approaching, the Grade 6 classes have a very busy schedule! See our Year End Document for specific dates. Please note that some times are still being updated! 

On Friday, we started our running challenge to the gazebo. Even though it was a bit chilly, everyone did a wonderful job and spirits were high! We will be tracking and graphing our progress over the next few weeks. Our goal is to complete a total of 10 km by the end of the year. Keep up the great running Grade 6!

Here are a couple reminders for the upcoming weeks! Friday, April 22  Earth Day Assembly (parents welcome) Monday, April 25 Sky Science Unit Test Monday, May 9 Nature Explorers In other news... We will be starting our PAT preparation in the upcoming weeks. My goal is to make this as stress free as possible for all students. If you would like to help your child study for the PATs please check the padlet sites for helpful links and games. Feel free to contact me if you have any questions! PAT Schedule Thursday, May 12  Language Arts Part 1: Writing Wednesday, June 15  Language Arts Part 2: Reading Thursday, June 16  Math Friday, June 17  Science Monday, June 20  Social

Today during Math Class we practiced the order of operations. After a few BEDMAS hopscotch rounds we reflected in our journals. A great day of learning in 6M! Check out our Twitter for a video of the Hopscotch Activity!

Today we learned about the phases of the Moon and how long its cycle takes. We used Oreo cookies to help us recognize that the moon phases are regular and predictable. Ask your child to describe the cycle of its phases (beware, they may ask for cookies!) 

Upcoming Events A few reminders for this week: Thursday, February 11-Nature Explorers   We will be practicing our orienteering skills at Cascade Gardens. Please make sure your child is prepared for our Mountain weather! Friday, February 12-Valentines Day Party We will be celebrating Valentines Day at 11:00 am. The students will have the opportunity to exchange cards if they wish.  February 15-19 Family Day and Teacher Convention No school for students.  Tuesday, February 23-Chapter 3 Math Test Please help your child practice their study habits over the break in order to prepare for the upcoming unit test. Helpful resources can be found under the Math Padlet Site.  Enjoy your break everyone!

Today we were very fortunate to have former NHL player Garry Unger visit our class to conduct an interview with one of our Junior Journalists. He spoke to our class briefly and had some very inspirational words about following our dreams and pursuing our passions in life. We are currently in editing mode of our newspaper. Stay tuned! What an exciting day in Grade 6!

Report Card Day! This Friday is report card day! Students will be bringing home their report card for you tonight. This is a new format for everyone in the district. If you have any questions, or comments, please let me know and I would be happy to set up a time discuss! Have a wonderful weekend!

Welcome to our blog! This is a space where parents can stay up to date on our learning and events. It is also a place for students to find assignments and extra practice sheets.  We are very excited to share our class experiences with everyone!