Sept. 28th

Squares and spirals everywhere!

Today's summaries:

Math Div 4: Half block. We marked and reviewed the exercises. You were told to look at your errors and to think about why you made them. "Because I am no good at Math" was not an accepted answer. Reasons like: "I forgot to multiply" "I was thinking about Perimeter and not Area" allow you to correct your thinking and to grow.

S.S. Div 3: You were introduced to the Personal History Project. The project is included on the S.S. link to Unit 1; scroll to the bottom of the page. Then, you were given time to work on both the personal history project background work and the test. To be continued Monday.

English Div 5: Grade 8s you were to finish annotating Chapter 2. Grade 7s you were to submit a "raw" writing sample, so that I can assess your writing fluency and base writing skills so I know what to help you to improve.

You had a Fire Drill as mandated by code and you watched "Narnia" in the neighbourhood while drawing characters from the film for a Narnia Nook.

(I went home sick at lunch. I am going to bed...now!)
Today's word is: perfect

Wednesday, Sept 27th

Here are the summaries for the day:

English Div 5: Grade 8s, you were given a short lesson on annotating text and Chapter 2 of LotF for practice. You were asked to identify: interesting/shocking text (!) question the text (?) quotes that resonated with you (") , and new vocabulary words (voc). Grade 7s, you began to write a writing sample where you imagined what you would do on a boat that was in high seas. This is in preparation for reading the books in the Island series.

Social Studies Div 3 and 4: You wrote a test on primary and secondary source information. I will give you another block for this.

Math Div 4: You played our multiplication rehearsal game. Then, you were given time to complete the pages on squaring numbers and perfect squares. When you were finished, you were invited to try some art by fusing Fibonacci's sequence with perfect squares to draw a beautiful, artistic, yet mathematical spiral.

The word is: nature.

Tuesday, September 26th

Today's summaries:

English Div 5: Trapped on a Deserted Island -- the class was given the scenario that both the characters in LOTF and in the Island series find themselves in, they are stuck on a deserted island...a dessert island is somewhere I would love to be stuck. This was an in class activity and we will discuss the group findings next class.

Math Div 4: You were given multiplication practice through a game. Then, you were introduced to the concept of perfect squares and squaring numbers. You were given a handout with exercises. We will be working on this in class tomorrow. I will have a challenge set for students who have mastered the concept.

English Div 4: You went to the library to take out books. Then, you read the rest of LOTF Chapter 1. You finished with the Trapped on a Deserted Island activity. How would you and your classmates cope on a deserted island without adults? What parallels would you see with unsupervised time in your day to day activities?

Today's word is the answer to this question: What type of island were the boys trapped on?

Beach Day

A great day at the beach for all of our Grade 8s. It was very interesting how I could get you to gather by blowing the conch...verrrrry interesting.

Today's word is the word that Golding uses for glasses.

This first week of Fall, September 25th to 29th

Monday is beach day and it looks like we are going to be doing it up WET coast style so bring your boots and rain gear.

This week in my courses:

English Div 4 :we will finish Chapter 1 of LOTF. Then, you will read and reflect on Chapters 2 and 3; of course, if you want, you can use a headset to listen to the online narrator read the story as you read. We will look at the plot thus far, the characters and map out the island.

English Div 5: We will be welcoming 5 new grade 7 students to our class. I have taught a split 7/8 English class before at Journey. Grading expectations were different, but the 7s engaged in shared lessons and activities with the Grade 8s that address both curriculums. I will make these differences clear to the students as we go along.  Presently, the grade 8s are reading Lord of the Flies as a class book study so that I can model literary analysis before we set into Literature Circles. I am thinking that I would like to do a contrasting book study with the Grade 7s because of the nature of this book; there is a disturbing ending where the characters in the book become violent with one another. It is an excellent study of the uglier side of human nature, but it might be a bit much for Grade 7s to understand fully given their age. So, this week book Grade 7s and 8s will be reading, analyzing what they read, reflecting on it, and writing about it. I am looking forward to it!  

Social Studies: You have a "Think About It" quiz on Primary and Secondary Sources of historical information this Wednesday. I am hoping to move on to our first inquiry unit on the Vikings by the end of the week.

Math: We will continue to work with area models. Then we will look at perfect squares (not Mrs Bridal!) and square roots. Again, this is all leading to an investigation of Pythagorean Theorem.

Today's word is under this photo:

stormy

Thursday and Friday, Sept. 21st and 22nd

Yesterday was Terry's day and you made it count. Students and staff pulled together to raise what seems to be adding up to a lot of money for a great cause.
Thanks to all your parents and guardians for coming out to meet us. Please welcome your parent to come by to meet us, if they were unable to last night. Our door is open.
Bring your Exploratory forms back on Monday. They were sent out today.

Today's notes:

Math Div 4: You were given a test of terms. You were also introduced to the idea of growth mindset which we will be getting into later.

English Div 4: We looked at adjectives and characterization. You took notes on Piggy, Ralph, and Jack, the main characters in Lord of the Flies.

English Div 5: We got through the first and longest chapter of LOTF. The time point is 53:13. You were to focus on character descriptions and to look for foreshadowing around Jack's character.

Social Studies Div 4: You completed the worksheet on Primary and Secondary Source information. We looked at newly recovered primary source history from off the coast of Belgium, a WW1 Submarine. http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-41318195

BEACH DAY MONDAY!

Wednesday, Sept 20th

Bring in your Toonies for Terry tomorrow.
Bring in your permission forms for Beach Day.

A summary of my classes:

English Div 5 and Photo Day: Fire Drill yesterday, photo day today. So, we were able to listen to Lord of the Flies to 36:46/pg. 31 of the pdf file. More importantly, we have been introduced to all the major characters in this story.

Social Studies Div 3 and 4: You have a "Think About It" or Test on Wednesday, Sept. 27. The topic: primary and secondary sources of information. Today you reviewed the pros and cons of each type and were handed out a review sheet.

Math Div 4: We looked into Area in preparation for Pythagorean Theorem. The link to the lesson is on the right hand side under Math.

Terry didn't win his battle with cancer, but thanks to his legacy many kids are alive today because of research that he has funded with his cause.


Today's word: legacy