This past week the grade 5/6s got to go skiing and snowboarding. We had an amazing time with our friends, and picked up some new skills. Everybody had lots of fun learning how to ski or snowboard on steeper hills, going backwards, and doing 360s. Lots of us just started, didn't ski or snowboard in a long time, or continued working on our skills. We loved going up on the chair lift, we had amazing and smart instructors, and our parent volunteers were great at helping us with our equipment and joining us on our runs down the hill. We highly recommend that AFS students go in the future when they get the chance.

Our Slide Show Link- https://calgaryboardofeducation-my.sharepoint.com/personal/sjhurst_cbe_ab_ca/Documents/Attachments/WinSport_2020_blog.m4v

Got to meet an Olympian (a parent volunteer) and see their 2010 Winter Olympics Bronze Medal- 4 Man Bobsleigh- Team Canada

Paul Davis Cyber Expert Talk 

Last Tuesday, intermediate students at Alexander Ferguson took part in a 45 minutes presentation by Paul Davis, a cyber expert.

His presentation was fact-based. We took time today, Friday, to reflect on our learning to see what we retained from the talk. 

Things we did not realize before:

-any person with average technology skills can find a lot of information about you pretty quickly based on images, time stamps, and especially parents discussing and posting vacation plans and locations.

-many people, including young students, find it disrespectful when people use technology around the dinner table. This is a place for conversation. A suggestion is to post a sign on the fridge to remind family members to leave their phones when at the dinner table.

-Having a discussion and making family 'bylaws' around when to use technology and when to leave it alone are a good idea.

-Many people believe that technology is the way of the future, and learning a new language such as coding is a way to prepare for future job opportunities. We can start with Scratch for a year, and then move on to Python or JavaScript for more challenges. This can make you multilingual.

-Instead of having a social media following, we can make our own blogs with parent support. In the future, when someone searches for something we like to participate in, our blog link will come up first, which could lead to business opportunities.

-It is important to do research about an new app, before downloading it. That way we can tell how it is being used positively and negatively. Parents should always be asked by their child if they can download an app first.


Strategies to stay safe online:

-the best way to avoid bullying online at our age, is to delete all social media platforms.
Most media platforms require people to be 13 years old or more, so at our age we are not legally even supposed to be using social media.

-Parents should respect the wishes of their children if they do not want their images and life moments posted online by their parents

-If we do have a social media account, settings should be set to private, and personal information should never be included in your profile

-If you do have a youtube channel, it is very wise to turn off the comment section, to avoid negativity and hostile comments from strangers. This will avoid a lot of emotional pain because comments are unnecessary and the source of so many problems.

-If you have a webcam, or camera on your laptop, cover it with a bandaid to make sure no one can hack your computer and spy on you

-use strong pass codes, and never share them with anyone else, including siblings

-all electronic devices should stay out of the bedroom, and only be used around family like the living room ((technology plus isolation equals getting hurt with poor choices made)

-never respond to cyberbullying, and outsmart the cyberbully by collecting all of the evidence and reporting it

-digital trails and footprints are permanent

-all choices online are of effort and intent, they are not mistakes but poor choices to hurt others

-pictures never disappear even if they are deleted

-parents need to be aware of what children are doing online

-there are online predators that we need to be aware of by protecting ourselves online

-predators like to find kids on platforms, especially Instagram and TikTok, because they prey on how kids are so trusting

-play online games with real people that you know and communicate to only real people who you personally know

Paul Davis may not be our mom or our dad but he is a proven cyber expert and he wanted to share fact-based information with us. Ultimately, decisions are made at home with your family.

This week in art we have been working on a galaxy art project. We looked at the different types of galaxies like Peculiar, Elliptical, Spiral and Irregular. We each chose one type of galaxy for our art piece. The materials we used were black paper, chalk pastels, and white paint. The strategies we used were pointillism, feathering, blending, twisting, and more. We splattered white paint on our end product for the many stars in the galaxies. All the art projects looked beautiful.

This week in Social Studies we learned about what government does. Government provides safety, education, it represents our city, province and country. We learned about the three levels of government including federal, provincial, and municipal. We focused on municipal government this week and the services it provides. Municipal governments provide services including streets and roads, education, bylaws, land services, senior housing and waste and recycling programs. The local government also provides recreational services like City of Calgary pools and parks. The money from the services comes from property taxes, fees, fines, tickets and rentals.

This week in school we started our sky science unit. We learned about four types of galaxies. One of the types of galaxies is called spiral. They look like a twisting array of colours and stars, enveloping a puffy ball of light. Our Milky Way is a spiral galaxy. Elliptical galaxies take the form of a football shape and tend to be very bright. Irregular galaxies are far too small to take a consistent form, they tend to look globular and misformed. Finally, peculiar galaxies can look like anything from the shape of a ring to the shape of a ferris wheel.

In mathematics the grade ⅚’s learned about pattern rules. We learned how to make a pattern using a t-chart and labeling one side input, and the other output. We learned how to make different patterns. Finding patterns tends to be difficult at times, and learning the right strategy can usually be helpful.

In drama we have been learning eye contact games like, “Wink Murder,” which is a game that involves needing to be patient and trust others. In a game called, “Find a Home,” you have to make eye contact with someone else and when make eye contact you switch seats with the person before the person in the middle takes your spot. The games are about patience, control and communication. We learned to build trust with our classmates and confidence with people other than ourselves.

Dear room 10 families, 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.

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.