Tuesday February 1st

Beautiful spring-like day :)

Homework
Spelling unit 16 test Thursday
Redo tests Wednesday (tomorrow)
Math- last two pages of the variables worksheet that we started in class today (algebra) Learning Intentions are clear at the bootom of the pages of the booklet
Reminder that tomorrow we are doing the FSA persusive writing section- the Monday activity (see Blog) was followed up with a persuasive writing stucture session today- I have asked students to review their support points tonight.
UBC - 10 students to turn in permission and payment

General Day
Started with an overview of yesterday afternoon's Personal Planning session and asked for one goal for today's general behaviour toward one another- hands off!!! It is like anyhting when you draw attention to it!! Many reminders were needed as this group is very hands on and very into each other's business!!!

My instruction to students was simply to be more aware at what their hands were doing, who they were touching and why. Have to start small!

Word Nerd Ch 18 Ambrose very nearly gets caught in his lie to his mom and poor Cosmo gets completely caught out lying to Amanda- lat's just say she is not impressed with him at all and now Ambrose (of all people) is trying to mend the rift between them (Cosmo and Amanda).

French- a hands on analogue clocks to get the students asking each other Quelle heure est-il?
I marked last week's quiz on the weekend and honestly I wasn't too sure if more practice with the skill of showing time on an analogue clock was needed before adding the French!! So I may have to offer another kick at the l'heure quiz, this time focusing on the French language and NOT on the skill of showing time on a clock face- who knew? These students have pretty much grown up digital!!

Band

Math- reviewed step by step the process of balancing the equations to isolate the variable.
Then we moved onto a booklet which returns to the concept of writing an expression (a mathematical question) from the information given in a word problem.
We need practice going back and forth with these skills as one helps the other. There is some great on-line practice at math sites such as aaamath.com and Math Links 7 site on McGraw Hill Ryerson- even if you were to 'google' basic algebra or introductory pre-algebra you would find a plethora of good on-line sites for more practice.

DEAR time- I have suggested that the students who are behind on their science work use the next couple of DEAR times in the afternoon to get it caught up some are behind by a couple of booklets due to missed classes and, in some cases,  slow work.
A new Reading Record worksheet for classroom reading was distributed today- it is not a choice to complete it- I guess I didn't make that very clear !!
It is a mandatory requirement to complete the reading record after each DEAR time. A half hour a day sure adds up to a significant chuck of time and while it is clear to me who is and is not using the daily reading time well, it is a good reflection for a student to have to be accountable for the time and what was accomplshed!!
Congratulations to Brooke who won the January book draw for a free choice from the TRC catalogue.
The next draw will be at the end of Febrary- there are only 19 reading days in February!!

Next: A review of the persuasive writing structure using the Communication Skills workbook- we read and considered some good samples of persuasive writing - the intention was to back up the activity yesterday. We did a couple of oral examples getting the students to back up opinions with more that "it's fun".
Topic: playing soccer is fun
Answering specifically: why is it fun, what things can you give to persuade someone it's fun, who plays, where is it played, what equipment is needed what aspects of the game make it fun etc.
I especially find my boys are reluctant to give specfiic details like this so the more they can think of the better the support for the opinion.

Phys Ed. Basketball scrimmages were a bit of a disaster today- lots of fouls and silliness among the boys and a bit of drama and visible tiredness among the girls. The girls had a lunch tiome practice and are in the midst of an afternoon game right now againt the Garibaldi Highlands. Once I'm dome with the blog, I'll go see how it's going.
I stopped the basketball and finished Phys. Ed. with a realxation/breathing session that managed to successfully pull, everyone off the roof and cool them down enough that we could return to class calm and sane!!

Art decisions completed the day 11 have opted to do Rotation art for the art show and the rest have opted for landscape- needed to go over the procedure for watercolour paint use before we break it out tomorrow!!
Some pieces are looking good - the majority of the Egyptian profiles are done now. You can just imagine 29 pre-teens and paint in a limited space!!

3pm Dismissal
good luck to the girl's basketball team
See you Wednesday
Mrs. J.