What a great week 3!

This week in Language, we began typing our reports. Although our D2L drop boxes and our Microsoft accounts are not ready to go just yet, the 6/7s impressed me with their computer skills. We practiced saving on the H drive. Students should practice typing on a site such as Dance Mat in order to improve on typing skills. We are still sharing and making connections to our seven page novel study.

In Math we went over Greatest Common Factor as well as the Lowest Common Multiple and there will be a quiz on Tuesday.

I always love Curriculum Night. An opportunity for parents and guardians to take a peek into the world of their children as students. My goal for this blog is to do the same thing - just virtually! As promised, here is the presentation I shared with those in attendance. Please let me know in your child's agenda if you would like a hard copy sent home.




Coming up next week in Science:

• Grade 8s have a fluids quiz, check D2L
• Grade 7s will beging coding the particle theory on Scratch. Don't forget to get your accounts with your parents permission. Safety Poster assignments should go home on the Friday File.

Please continue to check Twitter for other updates!

Week 2 in review.

This week in Language we started digging deeper into making connections. After the students completed their "7 page book report," we began sharing and making connections to the books being discussed. This will keep us busy until October 2nd when we being The Global Read Aloud. I'm currently assessing and giving descriptive feedback on connections, predictions and questions as well as listening skills and oral communication. They were also taught to make jot notes onto stickies while they read or listen.

In Math, we continue to work on input/output machines. Since quizzes are formative assessments, I return them to the students with feedback and I show them how to show their thinking at the next level. The patterning unit will probably only last until the end of the week. We have gone over the four part problem solving model and students are expected to use it and apply it. We will probably have another quiz on Thursday and possibly an Art activity for those early finishers.

In Science the Grade 7s began their poster project. Posters are due on Wednesday September 23rd. The Grade 6s had some discussions around what to consider for the tomatosphere experiment. The Grade 8s blew me away with their fluids investigations. They should perform their experiments Thursday as we will be ready to move on whether they do or not. You can see what we did in Science on our Twitter feed this week.

In Health we continue to discuss digital citizenship. The Grade 6s will begin Bravo next week and the Grade 7s will begin writing/planning/preparing their Health PSA around internet safety. Every class period the group is expected to hand something in and show what was accomplished.

What a great first week back!

I think this has been one of the best first weeks back for me. The students have been eager to learn and take risks in both our homeroom and rotary classes and we had a wonderful week of learning. I will be posting updates here until D2L is up and running for the Sensational Six/Sevens.

Students got to know me and my expectations:

In Math, I wanted to get to know the students as Math learners. I was very impressed with how so many of them applied the four-part problem solving model that they learned last year and we will continue to work with it. The Art activity that we began on Tuesday is due on Monday September 14th.

This is our intro slideshow.

This is our first unit slideshow. We only got as far as working collaboratively on the first problem.

In Language, we reviewed forms of writing and we will begin with reading strategies next week. We wrote newspaper articles about each other, I will hopefully begin to post some of those here once the technology in the school is up and running!

In Religion, we were joined by our ESC friends and we discussed the uniqueness of our names as well as a prayer service to end our week. I feel so blessed to have this wonderful group come together in my room.

New to me this year will be Health. We will begin with Digital Citizenship (lessons will be posted next week) and some discussions around mental health and stress. I would like to start an online discussion forum with the students, we are looking for alternatives to D2L as it may not be up and running just yet. The following forms need to be returned: BYOD (went home Friday) and the purple form (went home on Tuesday) as well as the pink form regarding permissions.

Our leaders of the school, the grade 8s, surely impressed me in Science class this week! We reviewed the big ideas of our first unit and I challenged them to ask one to three questions of each big idea. This is a diagnostic assessment and I hope that I will be able to continue to see growth. Their first challenge: coming up with a lab that investigates the properties of fluids.

Below are the course outlines for each grade. The 7s only had one period of Science and the 6s will begin Science next week. The 7s will be exploring lab equipment and safety while the 6s will begin their first unit: Space! (One of my favourites!). We have our Tomatosphere seeds ready for planting and NASA is eagerly waiting for our results.

Grade 6 Science

Grade 7 Science

Grade 8 Science

Well done everyone I'm looking forward to a wonderful year!