Thursday Dec 9th

It would be nice to get out of school before it is too dark to see my vehicle in the parking lot- that's my goal!!

Homework due tomorrow
Math Rotation worksheet 10.3- I would like students to make every effort to complete it to the best of their ability - I will be going over it tomorrow in class and we will look at the rotation exercises together
there is nothing else new just some overdue assignments that I am soon cutting loose- no work = no assessement and we'll start fresh for the New Year

Heads up
A PAC thank-you and request for Dec 15th went home today for baking

NEXT WEEK
On Monday there will be a Math review of the Transformations unit that we have been studying for the last three weeks and with Christmas concert and year end clelebrations, there will be no additional academic homework during the last week before the break.
I will, however, be encouraging students to continue to work on their socials projects and read the novel Tuck Everlasting next week and during the Christmas break.
On Tuesday we will be rehearsing for the concert
On Wednesday it is our dress rehearsal starting at 9am (if you can't make the evening you are welcome to come watch it then) and the annual Christmas concert starts at 6:30pm
On Thursday we will be celebrating the year end with a class afternoon "party" I have asked the students to sign up to bring one thing for approx. 5 people- there are 28 of us so if everyone choses one item there will be enough for the class to have three or four items each. I will be offering all students who would like some hot chocolate with candy canes and mini marshmallows and some whole wheat Tostido chips.
We are conducting a Secret Santa (although for some it was too much for them to keep the classmate's name they drew secret for more than 10 seconds!! excitement?) We have drawn names and each student will spend up to $5 on a christmas gift for a classmate. We discussed some possibilities and I will provided a list for students tomorrow for anyone shopping on the weekend.
On Friday we will get things ready for the New Year- clean out desks and do some arts and crafts projects. We may be doing some carolling in the gym like we have done in past years but sometimes the day before the break is one that unfolds unpredictably :)

General Day
Another productive morning :)
Spelling Unit 11- this is the last test before the break- we are also going to re-visit the 'redo' of spelling tests in the new year as the students who are being offered a chance to improve their original mark are not studying for the redo tests- so that blows the intention of a redo and I'd rather put the time to something more productive!! I'll keep you posted with the student opinion.

French- Winter Vocabulary review- les mois du l'hiver, le temps, les vetements and the accessories of winter. Oral pronunciation, recognition and round the class participation- I am finding if I make French 20-25minutes and really go,go,go with it - it is over before the students know what happened. Love it!! Better than the afternoon time slot for this group of students.

Music/Band

Math
Rotations- the trickiest of all three Tranformation skills especially for those (like me) who have visual-spatial issues!! The vocabulary or 'codes' need to be understood first. We learned what the Math vocab. meant and everybody particpated in a class activity doing the same thing so they could encourage and help each other. For example if you were asked to
"rotate figure ABCD 270 degrees ccw so that the image rotation is in the IV quadrant" would you know what to do ???
(it asks for the shape with points ABCD to be turned from its original appearance in the first quadrant of the graph 3/4 counter clockwise so that the new image appears in the fourth quadrant). Each quadrant is 90 degrees.
 Ask your son or daughter because that's what we learned to do in Math  today. I have set the practise worksheet for homework and we will check it tomorrow. They did a fabulous job for such a tricky skill.

Third indoor lunch in a row!!

Afternoon DEAR time- not bad

Personal Planning organization for the Secret Santa and the class year-end celebration. As I mentioned above, even after explaining the importance of not telling anyone whose name was drawn, it was only seconds into the draw that there were students who were unable to keep it secret, Then the call went up to do it again... NO, NO, NO, HO, HO, HO. Deal with the spirit of the random draw- no redo.:)

Socials
Some class research time for the ancient civilizations projects - too noisy- some students were having a difficult time behaving themselves during a time for class reading and notetaking. Before students start to use any other sources I encourage them to exhaust the information available in the textbook first.

Art / Fine Arts
Perhaps it was the wrong time of the day to try the Christmas song- the students were 'squirrly' enough to begin with but then the Royal Hudson Steam engine came by and you would think that the students had never seen it before; although I didn't mind really because it is pretty spectacular to see the steam train blast its way through the intersection parallel to the school. It does too like the Polar Express. What's not to like?

Anyway I digress and that was the rest of the afternoon- trying to sing (not very loudly) trying to move forward on an art activity and trying to get ready for going home and ensuring everyone had the instrument that belonged to him/her.
3pm dismissal- it's getting drak and I am still here!!
Bye for now.
Mrs. J.