Thursday Oct 14th

The rain has arrived- here comes fall. Oh boy...

I must apologize for the confusion about the parent-meeting evening. I will be sending a newsletter home tomorrow to clarify and provide the date and time for the parent meeting. I received 13 (of 27) Parent Evening forms back and two dates had an equal number of votes. The only thing I think that would accommodate MOST of you would be to offer TWO evenings. That way if you can't make it to one, you can always try the other.
On Monday October 18th, from 5-6pm, I will be available to meet with the parents who can make it that night. Please note this is NOT a parent-teacher interview- it is a meeting of  parents with me (the classroom teacher) for you to hear about the message your children are hearing so we can all be on the same page this year.
The second day I will make myself available is Wednesday October 27th from 5-6pm for the parents who can attend that evening .It will be a repeat of the Monday meeting. Hopefully this will catch the majority of parents of grade sevens. I want to take you all to the computer lab and show you what's available on-line to help and assist and be 'on top of' your children's learning this year.

Homework Tonight
Spelling Test #4 tomorrow (extra day due to Monday holiday)
Extra night for all those who forgot the math worksheet (powers and scientific notation)
Last day tomorrow for The Giver Ch 6-10
Sent home - a picture package for next Thursday Oct 21st

General Day
Problem solving activity first thing today to deal with our Phys. Ed. classes. It was productive but the real test will be in the application of the intent. I shared the grade seven learning outcomes and we all had personal input into the creation of a 'rubric' or guide for performance. I will create a document from the activity to help students know how they can improve their individual and class experience in Phys. Ed.

Music was next- today was Mrs. McPhee's last class as she is officially on Mat leave tomorrow. We wish her all the best.

In L. Arts- we followed up the Chilean miner story which we wrote about yesterday- we all read an on-line newspaper article (released on sympatico.ca) and we then brainstormed from the perspective of either a miner or a family member what they might have been thinking and feeling. We didn't have time today but we will be creating a unique 'perspective' poem from the students' thoughts.

DEAR time was much better :)
Personal Planning A Class Act- I shared the personal and group activities that are going well and improving and on the flip side looked (very quickly) at a list of personal and class responsibilities that we are 'minimally meeting' !!!!
Socials - we looked at the hypotheses that archaeologists make when they are analysing artifacts and in groups of three today the students examined the 'artifact' bones (remains) of a bear and a coyote. We used the hypothesis that the bones all belonged to one animal but on further analysis the students concluded correctly that there was enough eveidence to suggest that there were two different types of animal bones represented. I'll follow the analysis up tomorrow. Some interesting 'educated guesses'. The BIG IDEA was to have the students experience the speculation that archaeologists go through to determine the importance of artifacts.
Art- completion of Remembrance day posters.

Dismissal came fast. The girls' did very well at their volleyball games after school. Thank-you to the parents who were very patient with me as I tried to explain the parent-meeting confusion to several parents who thought they were coming to a parent -teacher meeting!!
Have a nice evening.
Mrs. J.