Monday Dec 14th, 2009

Students seemed to be both very excited and very tired today!!

There is (will be) no new homework this week.
I would like to encourage the students who have not returned the report cards(2), the goal sheets (2) the last novel (1) and the Quadra forms to do so asap (possibly before the vacation?)
There is also some incomplete math and science work from students who have missed classes.

Over the upcoming Christmas vacation, I will be emphasizing that students do research and reading for their social studies project for which they have an extensive plan (outline). Reading a book or two would be another good use of brain cells :)
All grade sevens have now decided which ancient civilization they will be working on and researching: 7 have chosen Ancient Egypt, 6 Ancient India, 5 Ancient China, 3 Mayan civilization, 2 Ancient Japan and 1 the Aztec civilization.
The grade six students have decided to look at the modern day countries of Ukraine, Italy, Ireland, Japan and India.

General Day

I returned the spelling tests from last Thursday (Unit 11) and the journal entries which were very thoughtful and well done. Instead of a spelling test, we have agreed to take our spelling unit words from units 1-11 and have a spelling bee in class on Thursday for some prizes that I will provide for the top three.

SRA reading kit time- some students had a very difficullt time focussing on their reading cards and defended their behaviour with the "It's boring" battle cry- sorry, but not everything in life will be entertaining especially when you are trying to build your basic skills!!

French: Quelle heure est-il?
We continued to work through the methods and phrases for telling the time in French.

Music practice with Mrs McPhee (AM) for the concert Wednesday

Math review of the coordinate plane skills that we have been busy with for the part two weeks. Students seemed to do quite well with the overview. I will be doing a test tomorrow using the same or similar assignments.

Dear time after lunch- some need a reminder that reading time is for reading- although today we decided it would be okay to finish math (there was only a half hour after music).

transitions from subject to subject continue to be a challenge due to general chit chat and slow following of directions- I'm finding it time consuming to provide personal invitations to students who are not on the same page as others (and there are a few!!)

Social studies today gave us the opportunity to introduce, explain and work through the THIEVES strategy for content area information- this strategy is of great use for research and information from content area text (socials, history, science and non-fiction)
T= titles H=headings I= Illustrations (pictures and captions, photographs etc.) E= every first sentence V= visuals (diagrams, charts, flow charts etc.) E= end of chapter questions (if included) and S= chapter summary.
We worked together through a chapter of the textbook on Mespotamia and the students experienced firsthand how this method can save time, provide basic and main idea information and be useful for research of the like they are undertaking for their projects. Of course, more in depth reading and specific note taking for more detail needs to be done once the basic information is gathered. Using this startegy also helps a student or reader discover quite quickly whether a particular book has the information that they need.
Next we spent some time at computers gathering information for the class research time that will be provided for their socials projects during the rest of the week. I'll do a progress check Thursday just to ensure time is being used wisely.
Time to pack up and head home already.

It's going to be a busy but (hopefully) quick week.
See everyone tomorrow. Mrs. J.