May 3rd, Woo Hoo!

This is the first night in many weeks that I don't have any meetings or obligations after school...feels strange but I'll get over it :)
I was so exhausted last night that I went early to bed and just read. I'm enjoying a novel right now called The Help which is set in 1960's Jackson (Mississippi). It is one of those books that transports me to a different world and I am really enjoying it.
 Enough about me...

Today was an energizing day at school so I feel better tonight already- boy, the sun sure makes a difference to the positive energy that's generated by people, doesn't it?

Homework
Same as yesterday
Thanks for all the novel assignments I am doing my best to keep up with the flow (be careful what you wish for!!) so
Novel study: today the last activities for the novel were handed out due May 13th- there will be class time but it is a good idea to follow up at home and prep the drafts or complete already started activities
Socials journal- travelogue- rough draft- we'll be doing good draft at computer lab tomorrow
Science 3 phases of matter report

Reminders- quite a few it seems...
Remember the UBC letters of permission for the survey- due Friday
Come prepared for track and field for our Phys. Ed. time
Sign up for track and field team tomorrow at lunch
Hot lunch this Friday for those who ordered
Scholastic Book Fair until May 5th
School newsletter home today- remember to return the coupon for 'pizza with the principal'
Don Ross Open House Wednesday, May 11th 6-8pm

Coming soon Camp information and commitment letter for all grade 6 and 7 students

General Day
House Keeping- appealed for assistance in keeping away the fruit flies and other spring critters by requesting that students drain their drink boxes before recycling them and throw out garbage (and bits of uneaten snacks) instead of storing food items in their desks!!!

After the success with the discussion yesterday I thought I'd put up the Federal election results but it wasn't quite the same!
I asked a few pertinent questions to blank stares and a few mumbles of who is the leader of each party but generally it was a bit flat and uninspired. However, as I pointed out some history was made in Canadian Politics- a Green Party member from BC was elected to the House of Commons and the people of Canada have finally decided the political regionalism of the Block Quebecois (which in my humble opinion has tried to undermine national politics long enough) was over. The NDP are the official opposition and the Conservatives get to saty as the majority governement 167 seats.
Not exactly riviting information for 12 year olds!

Novel time next- I distributed the final activities: two creative and two written activites are expected to be chosen from a list of 16 possible assignments which have been created to appeal to the most reluctant readers and writers. Half of the choices are partner oriented or can be completed independently.
The student had time to read through them and decide which they were interested in completing.

Band

Math- Putting Pythagorus to work
Real life and pythagorus theorum- measure twice, cut once
carpentry- you have to build a wheel chair ramp at the front entrance to the school. How long does it need to be and how much wood is needed? Cost? What happens if you are not accurate in measurement? Cost?
construction- you are asked to build a sloping wall on one side of a tool shed so that it can store wood. Is this feasible? How long is the slope? How much wood might it hold?
city planning: if students walking to school are likely to walk diagonally through the park, how much would it cost to create a perimeter walking path and a diagonal path?

These are just some of the questions we tackled today- it's kind of cool to know that the ancient formula still has so much life and it also shows my students how much ancient Greek knowledge is still with us AND how much math is used in everyday jobs and probelms solving. We did a good job thinking about the pitfalls and fun of building and engineering and we agreed that accuracy was not optional in real life- every error is a cost in the industry and every cost is a financial consideration or a company reputation!

Family Groups:
We did a family groups puzzle - word search together today- it was very pleasant and nice to visit my awesome group The Pink Panthers

DEAR time - Excellent today :) Yeah
P.S. Congratualtions to Zac on winning the free choice book draw for the April reading log :)

Socials-  we took time today to get our day three trip to the Acropolis written up in rough copy and tomorrow we will complete it at the computer lab. We reviewed the spelling of the four main buildings and the difference of what's left of the monuments today versus what it might have looked like and functioned as in the ancient days. Very much a recap of yesterday really.

Phys Ed
Sprints today outside. The students seemed to enjoy running around like mad. We palyed a Sprint game that I read about in an 'old' (I mean published in 1997!!) track and field manual and it was fun. The students line up and get ready to sprint, one student (a 'hungry bear') stands halfway down the field and calls the name of a classmate who calls a number between 5 and 15- all students must sprint forward that number of runs. At any given time the 'hungry bear' can just turn on the particpants who must sprint back to the goal posts or the edge of the field to be safe. If they get tagged, they stay and help the hungry bear catch the remaining sprinters. It's like an intermediate version of what's the time Mr Wolf.
Great game for monitoring running form and sprinting.

3pm Dismissal
Nice evening. Enjoy the sunshine
Mrs. J.