Wednesday Sept 23rd

Where do the days go?

It seems school is over so quickly this week. Time is flying by...

Today we discussed and examined the novel's chapters 8-10 for clues and information that the author is using to push the story forward and create some suspense. The intention is to assist the students in ideas for writing the second response. The students predictions are very accurate and their interest seems to be growing. I challenged them to 15 minutes of quiet work time for those completed the reading. Some started on their reader response #2. For those who needed to read, they were given the class time to get to the end of chapter 10. I was not surprised that they handled 25 minutes of quiet work time in class. Fantastic progress.

We practised a fire drill this morning and it was very well done- the grade 6/7 really stayed calm and were role models for the primary classes. Thanks guys and gals. I am very proud of you all.

After a worksheet for French using phonetic sounds to identify French words (Quel est le mot?) we finally got around to marking the Math text scavenger Hunts (gr7) while the grade sixes finished the puzzle review skills sheet from earlier this week. I finshed with a puzzle of squares asking the students to find as many as they could in a four by four square. I was sure there are 40 but we came up 4 short so I need to find my master for that one and review the correct answer tomorrow. It was funny to hear the students say that this wasn't math!! I will be using all sorts of conceptual puzzles to expand their geometric and mathematical thinking this year. What is math?

Girl's volleyball sign up, a school newspaper meeting with Mrs. Cardiff and Cross country practise for the meet at Valleycliffe tomorrow made for a busy lunch hour for some.

Afternoon with the hot classroom I decided to try the partner activity I abandoned yesterday out in the shade of the trail around the school. It started out well and was productive but some took advantage of being outdoors and managed to get a little loud and silly - we discussed it a s a group. The point of the activity was to get the students talking to each other, moving together and discussing some topics that ranged from what they would do with an unexpected $100 to whether or not they thought hunting was a worthwhile activity. Many students reported back that they learned different points of view and some new information about the peers that they partnered with (we switched partners approx 7 times). It was also nice to be outside. We'll do it again another day with different topics. It is a good activity for getting students to talk to peers they might not normally discuss or think about these topics with.

For art we have started a Manga (Japanese style) drawing/technique project. Some student are talented in this form already and are a source of inspiration for others in class. One student brought in his sister's art work in this technique to share and provide ideas for the class. Most students are really interested. Some are not too confident with the style or their art skills so I will be providing every student with a beginners booklet of ideas to try out step by step- some are tracing which is a beginning, however, I will be encouraging them to try freehand for the project. I like to allow students to keep an Art Portfolio where they can store and return to different activities throughout the year. Some find art a soothing activity and if they have something that is not necessarily a class lesson, they can add it to their bank of work and pick the best of their work for assessment.

Planners and clean up finished the day. We had a good day together.

Homework
Read to end of chapter 10 in novel to begin reader's response #2 in class
Unit 1 spelling test tomorrow morning - study
complete life map for tomorrow

Reminders
Milk program forms and payment
$$$ for planners, Camp Summit, Cross Country Season transportation
Cross Country Meet at Valleycliffe after school tomorrow
Potluck in gym tomorrow evening 6-7:30pm
Mrs Kubin will be my TOC for math tomorrow. I will be attending an in-school workshop for teachers on managing behaviour (mine and the students!! lol)

Hope to see you there. Mrs. J.
Have a wonderful evening. Can you believe how nice it is? Love it :)