Halloween

Happy Halloween

Here are the summaries:

English Div 4 and 5: You told each other scary stories; some had been published, some were local stories passed by word of mouth, and others were personal experiences with spooky noises and all things Halloween. 

Global Simulation: Meet and Greet in costume. You were served food at a banquet for Mars mission candidates and played ice breaker bingo to meet your possible shuttle-mates. Then you played a game of capture the UFO outside. (For those of you wondering what this accomplished: you got to know other grade 8's who will be transitioning to grade 9 and the random class formation of high school with you)

Today's word is skeletal.

Monday, October 30th

Today's summaries:

Math: Mrs. B used musical notes and recipes to play around with fractions. What a great idea? You were given two hand outs to complete in class.

S.S. Div 3 and 4: You worked on your Viking Boats.

English: Div 4 and 5: You read "The Monkey's Paw" as a reader's theatre. Your Lord of the Flies alternate ending is due in rough draft on Wednesday, November 1st. If you are typing it, share it to gbridal@sd62learns.org. If you are writing it, be prepared to re write the good copy.

Today's word is: Money

This week, October 30th to November 3rd

Calendar Notes:

Monday, October 30th is picture day.

Tuesday, October 31st come dressed as your Mars Mission character.

Friday, November 3rd is Commonwealth Swim Field Trip Day (permission forms are due in by Wednesday)

Academic Notes:

English Div 4 and 5: Mrs Bertucci, our student teacher, has some fun lessons planned around Halloween this week. She will also be teaching students how to effectively peer/self proofread and edit their written work, an important skill to develop for the future. 

S.S. Div 3 and 4: You will be building the Viking Longships that you designed and testing them. Will they be able to float? Can they withstand low wind? Can they withstand high wind? (aka Mrs Bridal's Hairdryer)

Math Div 4: Mrs Bertucci will continue to work on your numeracy skills around fractions. The brain has a hard time realizing these little bits because it is used to thinking in whole numbers. All the activities that you have been doing in class have been to break this habit. ;-)

For Science and French check Mrs Abell's awesome blog!

Here is to a great week....hopefully a better Monday than this little dude.

Oct. 27th

Today's summaries:

English Div 4 and 5: You had a chance to work on your story endings in class; a full block was allotted to writing or typing your first draft. You are to finish that draft by Wednesday. Share the document with Mrs Bridal at gbridal@sd62learns.org. You were assigned a role in the spooky Reader's Theatre performance.

S.S. Div 3: Our inquiry question is: How do we know what is important to study in history? Is the Viking civilization worth studying?  I would argue that their superior nautical technology, the Longship, proves that these were a formidable human group. So, to explore their technology you completed a worksheet overview of  Viking longships. Then, you were to brainstorm and craft a design for your own group's Viking boat constructed out of: 7 small popsicle sticks, 1 large popsicle stick, 2 finger lengths of duck tape, 2 sticks of hot glue, two straws, a lump of molding clay, and a section of cardstock paper. We will build your designs on Monday. You can find this engineering challenge on the bottom of the Unit 2 page on the SS link.

Sail off into your weekend....

Oct. 25 and 26

Tonight is the dance:

English Div 4 and 5: You were given a grammar or conventions review; you went over basic sentence structure and some punctuation uses. Then, you were given time to write the rough draft of your ending for your story.

S.S. Div 3: You learned about Viking longships and you began building your Viking boats in teams.

Math Div 4: You have been adding fractions in preparation for multiplying them.

Have fun tonight....the word is FUN

October 24th

Today's summaries:

English Div 5: You discussed Chapter 8 what happened on a literal and symbolic level. Then, Mrs B. assigned the book project: an alternate ending. One of the main themes of this book is exploring what it means to be civilized so your ending should echo this. Given the timing, the change in class composition, and both Mrs Bs' enthusiasm around the dystopian/sci fi theme we can attach to the Mars mission, we are wrapping up our adventure in the classics.That being said, you can choose to finish the book during literacy.

Math Div 4: You reviewed how to find greatest common denominators to solve addition and subtraction questions with fractions. Your homework is increasing your fluency with multiplication facts by either using a deck of cards to drill your facts or playing games on sites like multiplication.com. By grade 8, we expect fluency; anything less, will set you back.

English Div 4. You finished Chapter 7. Then, Mrs B. assigned the book project: an alternate ending. One of the main themes of this book is exploring what it means to be civilized so your ending should echo this. We will not be reading the rest of the book in class given the time constrainst and both Mrs Bs' enthusiasm around the dystopian/sci fi theme we can attach to the Mars mission. We are wrapping up our adventure in the classics. That being said, you can choose to finish the book during literacy.



Today's word is ROVER

October 23rd

William Golding "Lord of the Flies"

Class Summaries:

Math Div 4: You played a Fractions war game where you had to value one fraction against another. It sparked a lot of great discussion about values and fractions.

S.S. Div 3 and 4: You presented your projects to the class.

English Div 5: You read Chapter 8 of Lord of the Flies, a difficult chapter. Mrs B will be discussing this chapter and talking about the final project  tomorrow. Mrs B and Mrs Bridal were speaking after school and they really want to get into the Global Simulation, so they came up with some ways to do that which Mrs B will introduce tomorrow.

English Div 4: You read Chapter 7 of Lord of the Flies. Mrs B will be discussing this chapter and talking about the final project tomorrow. Mrs B and Mrs Bridal were speaking after school and they really want to get into the Global Simulation, so they came up with some ways to do that which Mrs B will introduce tomorrow.

Global Simulation: The passengers met to establish their connections with other characters on the mission. Mrs Abell created a sociogram to represent related groups (by job, by interest, by relationship). We will meet on Wednesday, Literacy to follow up.


Today's word: mission