Monday, 10 Sept.

We began the day by creating name tags so Mr. Marshall doesn't have to say, "Hey, you."  Next, we had our first band class with Mr. Grice.  I erred in not sending home the notice alerting parents to the Wednesday, September 12 instrument rental night from 4:00-6:30 p.m.  Both grades 6 and 7 students will be talking band this year.

Next we participated in a series of experiential "games" all designed as metaphors for our lives as learners.  After the "spider web" we discussed how trust, communication, leadership and teamwork came to play.  After lunch, we did some more activities but their debrief will occur tomorrow morning.

We also introduced ourselves to XtraMath, an interactive non-profit website designed to help students gain mastery of their basic addition, subtraction, multiplication and division arithmetic facts.  Mr. Marshall sent most students home with a letter for parents/guardians explaining the introduction of this program; those who didn't get one will have one tomorrow.  We'll be doing some XtraMath in class, but most students would benefit from at least one ten-minute daily session at home when possible (we can try to do more at school if Internet access is not available at home).  The program is individualized so students will not do needless drills of facts they've already mastered.

Planners are now available for $7.00.  All students are asked to buy one. Tomorrow we'll have our first English and math lessons.

Check out the very short parents' and students' videos explaining the XtraMath concept.
https://www.xtramath.org/

Feel free to contact me by e-mail whenever you would like to have my ear - it's the best way to get a quick response: jmarshall@sd46.bc.ca