Today we enter an incredible season of reflection and gratitude.  Over the next 40 days, our class will be discussing different ways that Christians can participate in and better understand the season of Lent.  Parents, if you are looking for ideas – either personally or as a family – check out the following blog link for ideas.

http://rachelheldevans.com/blog/40-ideas-lent-2013

(You may have to copy and paste the link into your browser, I’m having technical difficulties…)

If you are comfortable sharing what you, or your family, are doing, please share your comments on this post.  The Derksen family is giving up all secular music in our home.  What Christian bands/artists are you listening to?  We need recommendations!  🙂  I wish all of your families an incredible time of reflecting as we remember Jesus’ time of fasting and prayer in the desert, culminating with the mourning of His death and celebration of His resurrection.

On Friday this week in Social Studies we will be discussing the commonly practiced religions in Japan.  If you have a chance to have a family discussion (maybe in the car or at the dinner table) about one or both of the following questions, it would help support our class discussions and learning.

Discussion Question #1:

“Religion is an integral part of Japanese life.  Although it is ever present it does not interfere with everyday life.”

Discussion Question #2:

“The Japanese have tended to mold their religions to fit their way of life more than the reverse.”

(Both questions taken from Cultures of the World – Japan by Shelley, Rex et al.)

As you can tell – these are ‘deep thinking’ questions for grade 6 students and will help develop their critical thinking skills.  Thank you for taking the time to support your child’s education at home.  If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to e-mail me @  mderksen@highroadacademy.com.  Thank you!

Mrs. Derksen

Hi Everyone,

Our class is having a contest to see which student can find the longest palindrome by Wednesday, February 20th.  A palindrome is a word or phrase that can be spelled the same forwards and backwards.  For example:  mom, dad, level, race car, & Stanley Yelnats (the lead character of our novel).  Students may ask anyone they know for ideas, but NO INTERNET SEARCHES are allowed by the student or anyone helping them.  Have fun looking for palindromes and here’s one to get you thinking!

Palindrome comic

On Valentine’s Day the Brazil missions team is having a concession fundraiser at lunch. The following items will be available for purchase.

hot dog $2

chicken strips $3

fries $3

drinks $1

Our Anti-Bullying Assembly went very well today and the grade 6 students did an excellent job of their story reading and reader’s theatre.  As part of our assembly we showed a music video by Mike Tompkins.  Below is the link for the video if you are interested in checking it out.  Remember that all of the sounds in the videos are made from his mouth alone.

Stand Up by Mike Tompkins

Enjoy your long weekend!  Happy Family Day to all!

Hi Everyone,

We just wanted to let you know what’s going on in class right now.

In Science, we’re studying the Classification of Animals.  The cell projects are due on Monday and if any parents want to pop in at 2 pm to see them, please feel free!

In Math, we’re doing a major unit on Multiplication with Decimals.  We noticed that the majority of the students have been struggling with the multiplication process, so we’re going to take a step away from our math-u-see workbooks and make sure that our understanding of the multiplication process with decimals is clearly understood before moving on.  Please see the link below for a step-by-step guide to the multiplication process as we will teach it.

Multiplication Process

Social Studies this term brings us to a look at countries around the world.  We are focusing on the country of Japan and currently the students are creating poster projects about Japanese sports and arts.    It’s amazing the excitement that comes from pictures of sumo wrestlers.  🙂

In Language Arts our writing focus right now is poetry.  The students just completed haiku poems (to link with our Japan unit) and they are on display in the classroom.  In Reading, we are working on our critical thinking skills by creating deep-thinking questions while reading.  We’re learning that strong questions should not always be answered in the book we’re reading, but rather the answers should come from our brains.

Upcoming dates to remember:

Thursday, Jan. 31:   Ski Trip

Friday, Feb. 8:  Pro D Day

Monday, Feb. 11:  Family Day Stat – no school

Enjoy the rest of your week!  Mrs. Derksen & Mrs. Goosen

A huge thank you to all of you, students and parents, for spoiling us this Christmas.   We feel very blessed to have such a great group of grade 6 students to work with and we thank you for your continued support.  Our holidays will be filled with a time of rejuvenation as well as lots of caffeine, yummy treats, and a good book to read, thanks to all of you.  We wish you and your family a wonderful Christmas season filled with lots of joy, peace, hope, and love!  Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!  Mrs. Derksen and Mrs. Goosen

Just a reminder that tomorrow (Friday) is an extra early dismissal.  Pick up time is 10:30am.

Important details about the next week:

Tomorrow:  skating.  Casual clothes allowed.  HELMETS MANDATORY!

Christmas Concert News from Mrs. Mackie:

Well, it’s hard to believe, but our Christmas concert is less than a week away!  Here are a few tidbits of information to help the night go as planned:

– Students may wear their new Highroad colour shirts (the black or red t-shirts) and jeans.  If they choose not to wear their colour shirts, they may wear their uniform shirts with jeans.  Shirts are still available at the student store next to the office.

– Students should arrive at the school no later than 6:30.  There will be cookies, coffee, and cocoa in the church lobby so that students can grab a quick treat before assembling in their classrooms.

Your students have worked so hard on their song selections.  I know they are going to knock your socks off!!  We look forward to seeing you all next Tuesday evening!

Sincerely,  Hannah Mackie

Class Christmas Party:  Thursday, Dec 20th

All students should bring a $5 gift for a gift exchange game.

There will be a sign-up list in the classroom for goodies.  Your child will let you know what he/she is bringing.

Friday, December 21st:

Primary Christmas Production at 9:30.  Our class will go watch the lil ones and then the ENTIRE SCHOOL is dismissed for the day.  Please pick up your children between 10:30 and 10:45. 

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Over the last couple of weeks the list of incomplete assignments has been piling up from students.  I stopped in today and collected some that students had forgotten to hand in, however there are still quite a few students that need to finish the work.  I’ve made a deadline for Thursday, please note that all of this work was due 5+ days ago.  I’ve attached the assignments below this post in case students can’t find their original assignment.  For the maps, labeling information would be the first priority over coloring.  There is a list on the white board in class of who still needs to complete work.  Please pop into the class if you are unsure if your child is on the list.  I know that it is a busy time of year for everyone, however, thank you for your support in ‘pushing through’ for the last couple of weeks before Christmas.  Mrs. Derksen

Big Wave Questions

Big Wave Vocabulary

Japan Map

Pakistan Map

A few things for you to be aware of:

Food Drive:  Begins MONDAY, NOVEMBER 26th until Wed., Dec. 19th.

Needed items include:  canned meat, soup, pasta & sauce, rice, canned fruit/veggies, baked beans, peanut butter, tea, coffee, canned milk.

Please do not send Mr. Noodles, pop or bottled water.

If students want to also go door-to-door in their neighborhood, they must get a Salvation Army button.  See Mrs. Lade in the high school admin office if you’d like one.  $1 deposit for the buttons.

Ice Skating:  Friday, December 14th and Tuesday, January 15th.  Grade 6’s will be on the ice from 10:45-11:45 at Twin Rinks.  HELMETS ARE MANDATORY.  Parents welcome to join us but no room for siblings, sorry!  Permission slips will go home tomorrow.

Ski Trip:  January 31, 2013 for all students in grades 4-6 and their parents.  Registration will take place in December.   Watch for further information.

Don’t forget that next Friday is Crazy Hat Day and a noon dismissal.

Today was an emotionally challenging day for our class.  As most of you have heard, the Brodie’s home had a large house fire yesterday.  David joined us for the first hour of class today and as you can guess, it was very emotional for all of us.  We had an incredible prayer time together with many tears and encouraging words.   Our hearts break for the loss of all of David’s personal items and in the next week we will be putting together a plan on how the grade 6 students can further help him through this challenging time.  For updates on how Highroad Academy is supporting the family and how you can help, check out the “Academy News” section of our school’s website.  Our class, however,  will solely focus on supporting David during this time.  We will let you know next week what we have decided to do as a class.  Thanks for your support and prayers for the Brodie family.

  Today we celebrated United Nations Day in our class.  The actual birthday of the UN was last week on Oct 24th; however, I wasn’t working with the class that day so today we acknowledged it.  Our party started off with an exhilarating ‘Continent’ game outside in the parking lot where I shouted out the name of a country and the students had to race to 1 of 6 ‘continents’ that corresponded with that country.  It was highly entertaining, (especially for me!) and will be a game that we play again I’m sure.  We then returned to class and watched a music/visual performance from Humanitarian Day in August.  It’s a moving video (see link below) and we had a brief discussion after about how all of humanity has a desire to be known and how, in our heart of hearts, we all want to make a difference in this world.  Then the students started an art project called “Many Colored Hands” and it was topped off with a rousing rendition of ‘Happy United Nations Day to You’ and yummy cupcakes baked by yours truly.  🙂  A fun afternoon had by all!

Mrs. Derksen

I Was Here, UN Humanitarian Day Performance