LEARNING FROM HOME -> WEEK 4!

Hi Everyone!

I hope this finds you and your “Family Bubble” all doing well. We are adding so many new words to our daily vocabulary these days. I am sure you all have a very clear understanding for pandemic, virus, unprecedented, “flattening the curve”, “social distancing”, and many more words related to our current situation. Though it is difficult, we, as a province, are doing much better than many others. Hang in there! Things do seem to be improving in New Brunswick.

This week I am adding some reading materials for you. I have registered all my students with an online resource called Currents4Kids. To access this site, you will need to use an assigned username and password which I have. Send me an email (karen.coughlan@nbed.nb.ca) and I will give them to you.

Once you login to the site, I want you to:

1) Read the article titled "Hubble Telescope: Window into a Hidden Universe"

2) When you finish reading, answer the "On-the-Lines" quiz questions. You will have 2 chances to get them right. You can see your results, and a copy is available for me to see too.

3) Next try the "Between-the-Lines" quiz.

4) In the "Respond to This Story" section, choose ONE of the questions and answer it in the "Response" box. When you have finished typing your answer, click "Review", and I will receive your answer.

5) The "Find Out More" section provides opportunities for you to view more information about the Hubble Telescope through articles, pictures, and interactive programs. Take a look at this and see what else you can learn.

Please continue to read other materials of interest to you from whatever sources are available to you – books, magazines, newspapers, online articles, etc… The Choice Board writing assignments are available as well. You may continue to send these to me. I love reading your writing!

Remember to maintain social distancing (2 metres), wash your hands thoroughly and often, and wear a mask (or other covering over you nose and mouth) when in public areas. Parks are open but playgrounds are not.

Have a good week and STAY SAFE!

Mrs. C.

Hi Everyone,

I have enjoyed reading the assignments you have sent to me. Some of you have been very creative! I will be responding to you about these later today.

Some general things to focus on with your writing this week, would be paragraphing, capitalization, and punctuation. Remember some of the mini-lessons we did.

You need to start a new paragraph when there is a change in place or a passage of time. You also use a new paragraph every time there is a new person speaking when writing dialogue.

All proper nouns (names of people, places and important things and events) begin with capital letters. The first word in a sentence also begins with a capital letter.

A sentence (a complete thought) ends with a period, exclamation mark or question mark. Use a comma between items if you are listing three or more things. (There are other comma rules, but we will worry about them later.) Use quotation marks (“  “) around the words that someone is saying.

Here is an exercise to help you focus on capital letters and end marks (.!?). Use a red pen or marker and circle or highlight the end marks. Next, use a blue pen or marker and circle or highlight all the capital letters. There should be a blue mark AFTER every red mark. If you don’t have many red or blue marks, then you may want to try reading your writing aloud to help identify the end of your sentences.

For this week, you may continue to select writing assignments from the Choice Board I posted last week. I will be changing this next week.

I know some of you may be having a difficult time finding reading materials at home. I have found some online resources. I will attach them in a Word Document above. You may have to create an account in order to use them, but they are free. Have your parent help you with this. Many online educational resources are being offered free of charge until the end of June. You may find more. If I find any others, I will post them here.

Please send me an email if you have questions or concerns. We are using your feedback to help plan for future assignments. There is a link to my email address from the ‘Staff’ tab above.

Hope you are enjoying some time outside while practicing social distancing. Stay safe.

Mrs. C.

Here are some possible writing topics for the next few days. Stay safe everyone!

asd-n.nbed.nb.ca/other/covid-19

Dear Students and Parents/Guardians,                           March 16^th, 2020

Some of you may be wondering if there are any assignments that you can be working on while at home for the next few days. At this time, teachers are being instructed not to give out assignments. However, we are also being asked to check our emails frequently. This situation is being described as ‘fluid’ and ‘unprecedented’. This means that the situation is changing day by day, hour by hour. You can expect that there will be updates over the next two weeks.

I would encourage my students to continue to read every day. “People who read, do succeed.” You have heard me say this many times.

All three classes (6K, 7C, and 6T) have been reading class novels (Restart by Gordan Korman, Refugee by Alan Gratz, and The Hand of Robin Squires by Joan Clark). I did find an online audio version of Refugee (https://tokybook.com/refugee-audiobook/). If I locate the others, I will post the links for you. We had begun to discuss “End of Novel” Projects before this unexpected school closure.I am planning (at this point) to continue with this when we return to school. I hope to have these ready for our 'School Showcase' at the end of the year. There are many choices and outlines for Creative Book Reports to be found online. I have a general rubric for this and am leaving it quite open for students to choose what works for them – visual art, music, PowerPoint, written report, posters. Students were going to be given some class time to work on these, but much of it would be done outside of class.

There is an opportunity for some real-life (authentic) writing during this experience. Journaling about their thoughts and feelings is a way of keeping up with their writing skills. This is an 'unprecedented' event, and history in the making. I was speaking with another teacher yesterday and said that we will have lots for our students to talk about, think about, reflect and write about. This will be something that they will remember. Although they may not see the value in writing about their daily activities now, the importance of documenting what they are doing or not doing, thinking, feeling, or questioning during this very unusual situation, may be of interest and/or value later.

There are many websites that have educational resources that are free and easy to access. Scholastic Canada (www.scholastic.ca) has added some additional materials about Covid-19 and a link titled “Learn at Home” where there are many materials for students of all ages, on various topics and at adjustable reading levels. These are going to be added to daily.

I will post additional information as needed, and as communications from our Minister of Education changes to reflect what is happening in the province, the country and the world.

Please contact me through email at any time if you have questions or concerns. I will be working from home as instructed and checking my emails frequently.

Please take care and follow the guidelines from our health authorities. Hope to see you soon.

Karen Coughlan

An apology to my 6K students -> End of Novel Projects are due next Wednesday, June 5, and not tomorrow. If you have them ready, then you may bring them in tomorrow.

Sorry for the 'mix-up'.

Mrs. Coughlan

Reminder - end of novel project is due June 5th! You are to work on this at home.