AFS Room 8

Students have been analyzing newspaper articles and learning what makes an excellent piece of functional writing, in class. Over the next two nights, students are asked to complete homework related to what they've been learning in Writer's Workshop. At home, students will need to access Google Drive. They will build a Google Doc that has a three column and five row table. Using the 'child friendly' newspaper article websites that were shared with them through Google Drive earlier this week, students will need to hunt for five articles with excellent headings and subheadings. If an article does not have a subheading, they need to move on, and continue to search for an article with both a heading and subheading. In the table, they will copy the heading, the subheading, and the website link from where they found the article. Homework will look completed when they have five headings with associated subheadings. An extra challenge that was posted to students was to find two

At the end of Friday, we gave each other written compliments. Each student wrote a “warm fuzzy” to each of his/her peers. At the end, everyone had their own page of compliments!

Some students received a note in their agenda today reminding them to complete overdue homework. Please check your child's agenda and encourage them to complete the work. Agenda note: "Your homework assignment is overdue. Your due date has been extended. Please complete the assigned work when you can. Remember, if you are having trouble logging onto readworks.ca, there is a Google Doc with information to help you."

On January 24, celebrate National Compliment Day by going all out with  praise . The power of a compliment is pretty remarkable: either giving or receiving one can boost your happiness and confidence — making  the act  a win-win. You never know when someone could use some good vibes, so spread the positivity by giving someone a reason to smile! (information taken from  https://nationaltoday.com/national-compliment-day/ )

Friday, January 24, 2020 Sharing Assembly The grade 5/6 team will be sharing a slideshow with photographs taken from the last three days at WinSport. Some Room 8 students will be sharing stories from Writer's Workshop, where they incorporated content, organization, voice, word choice, sentence structure and conventions. -Nikolai and Ishaq -Waverly and Grace -Raven and Mine

Social Networking & Online Safety with Paul  Davis  - January 14, 2020 Alexander Ferguson School welcomes parents to join us for a powerful presentation focused on giving parents tools, strategies and facts to empower them to keep their children safe in an ever-increasing online world. We have invited one of Canada's leading internet safety experts,  Paul  Davis , to speak to parents at our school on January 14, 2020 at 6:30 pm. Topics include: Snapchat, Instagram, Facebook, Smartphones and leaving digital trails, Cyberbullying, Texting, Sexting, Online gaming, Online security...and more. Paul  Davis  brings almost 30 years of IT knowledge and expertise to his speaking engagements and has been featured on CTV News, Global TV, Breakfast Television, and CityTV News. Tickets are $10/parent and being sold through: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/social-networking-and-online-safety-with-paul- davis -tickets-86578437437 .

This afternoon the intermediate students at Alexander Ferguson took part in a 45 minutes presentation by Paul Davis, a cyber expert. Tonight, he will be presenting to parents in the Alexander Ferguson school gym at 6:30pm. He will be arriving around 6pm, if parents would like to ask questions or if you have concerns, before he begins his presentation. His presentation is fact-based. Big takeaways from the information presented by Paul Davis to the students this afternoon: -it is very easy to find information about people on any platform -an average tech. person can find out too much information about you with very low effort -you often  have to be 13 years of age to have any form of social media (it is respecting the online rules) -for YouTube, create videos on your parents account and turn off comments (comments are unnecessary and the source of so many problems) -place a bandaid over your webcams on PCs, Chromebooks and Macbooks -technology has no place in your bedroom

Next week's ski program is outdoors. We recommend dressing in layers to allow for multiple options over the course of the day. - snow pants - snow jacket - winter socks for comfortability in ski boots - layered winter clothing - winter gloves - snow goggles or sunglasses - an extra pair of gloves if yours often get wet Students, please leave money and valuables at home since bags are left in the lodge unsupervised.

Skiing fees are now due.  You can make your payment of $100.45 online using your My CBE Account, with cash, or a cheque made out to Alexander Ferguson School.  This fee covers transportation to and from the hill, lessons, equipment rental and lift tickets for three days.  Please contact Kelly in the office if you have any questions, or if you require financial assistance.

Students have been assigned new reading tasks on readworks.org for this week's homework. We spent one class period setting up accounts and learning the program. Each student has been sent the log in steps on a shared Google Doc. If they are having trouble logging in, please direct them to the shared Google Doc that they used in class.

INFORMATION FOR GRADE SIX FAMILIES Bishop Pinkham  1) The Bishop Pinkham presentation at Alexander Ferguson will be on Wednesday, January 8th. The grade six students will attend this presentation before morning recess. 2) The Bishop Pinkham Open House (for students and their families) is on January 16th, starting at 6pm.  Vincent Massey A couple dates have been confirmed for Vincent Massey (exact times are still being worked out): 1) The Vincent Massey  Tour Day is set for Wednesday, February 5 th   in the afternoon. Parents will be responsible for organizing their child's transportation and participation  of this event. 2) The Vincent Massey Open House (for students and their families) is set for Thursday, February 6th.  3) The Vincent Massey presentation at Alexander Ferguson for the grade six students will be after the Open House.