Wednesday May 12th

There must be a full moon coming up- I can sense it in my students' general unrest!!

Homework
$$ for grad hoodies
find out what you can about aspartame (see science demonstration today)
Bike Rodeo tomorrow if you wish to participate bring your bike and helmet
Reminder to parents from the staff at Don Ross Secondary- there is an open house on Thursday evening May 13th from 6-8pm- a flyer was sent home with the grade sevens today
Mr. Parker distributed the permission slips for this season's mountain biking sessions today

FYI
BLUE spirit day and popcorn sale this Friday May 14th
If you wish to purchase a portrait the due date is May 18th (next Tuesday)

General Day
We began the day with a K-W-L chart about the holocaust (the topic of our latest novel)
K-W-L charts allow students (and teachers) to determine what is known generally about a given topic and allow discussion to focus on what we want to learn after we look at what we know.
The activity lasted until recess and was engaging and thorough. I was impressed with the students' knowledge about the holocaust and Germany's role in the second world war. I tried to fill in some of the speculative facts about Hitler and cautioned students to remember that, while there are many movies that have depicted different incidents that almost all of them are subject to director's interpretation and may not be the actual factual history.

The students asked the following questions for W= want to know
Why were the Jewish people singled out in Europe?
Why did people stand by and let it happen?
Which countries sided with Hitler and why?
Why did the Jewish people not fight back?
Great questions for 12 year olds don't you think? There are experts around the world still trying to answer these questions.
We talked briefly about the role of media and use of propaganda to spread information to a country's people to create fear and instill deep misunderstanding and distrust of others.

We completed the session with a journal entry about what kind of role they think that they might have been capable of if they had lived during this time. Would they possibly be capable of sacrificing their own well-being to resist or assist others, would they prefer to look after themselves and their families and just 'turn a blind eye' as long as they were safe or would they want to run away or do as many did and take drastic measures to escape?

You could have heard a pin drop during the writing- I look forward to reading the entries- it is a question I have posed to myself many times- just what would I have done back then?

after recess we did a worksheet that looked at using our knowledge of angles in practical ways building a play house and trying to figure out what angles would be needed to complete a roof, a look at trusses in bridges and a bit of a confusing example about a stained glass design.

Just before lunch we looked at the similarities and differences between a mini Coke can and a diet Coke can. I was setting up a demonstration experiment for the afternoon.

after lunch (and practise for long jump & shot put for track and field) we did a DEAR quiet reading time.
We analysed sugar and compared it to artificial sweetner.
I set up the demonstration experiment and we looked at the amount of sugar in a mini Coke (28g) - that's approximately 9 little bags of sugar and the difference in density of a mini diet coke which uses aspartame (less dense). We hypothesised which would float and which would sink with the knowledge of the mass of the cans. The result was that both floated (air and CO2 in the cans) but the mini diet coke was definitely lighter and therefore more 'acrobatic' in the water. We discovered that aspartame was first introduced as a chemical for ulcer medication and not as a sweetener. We have some more work to do on its other properties but all the research that has been done suggests that it is healthier for our bodies to use (within reason!!) natural sugar than articficial sweetener and that drinking diet pop is not recommended. Of course consuming too much high sugar pop is not good either so once again an old adage comes to mind"everything in moderation".

We had the opportunity to visit Mrs. Fanzega's grade 4 science fair.

We completed the day with a sketching challenge - a famous Greek statue (the Discus Thrower) had been 'chunked' into separate squares- the challenge was for the students to sketch just the lines in each individual box and try to complete the statue as a whole. Some really made a great effort others got a bit silly. There were some weird looking discus throwers!!

A flyer reminding parents about the open house at Don Ross was given to all grade sevens at the end of the day.
Dismissal

Have a good evening.
Mrs. J.