Welcome to our last week of school before the winter (Christmas) vacation. I can hardly believe that we are nearly finished the 2011 part of the school year!
We had a decent and productive Monday even if some of us are feeling a little 'heady' and hyper and I had to repeat myself several times!!
We had a bit of a different morning ...
Homework
Math 7 I have asked students to make an effort to complete the worksheet which we distributed in class regarding transformations in a graph (a slide, a reflection AND a translation). A handful managed to get it done in class
Research for socials projects (modern day country Gr 6 and ancient civilization grade 7)
Reminders
Band instruments for tomorrow- both classes are practicing together Gr 6/7
Wednesday skiing in the Callaghan Valley please be prepared for a day outdoors (see the list sent home for specific gear needed)
General Day
We started today with a whole school assembly which was a nice way to begin this week. The Gr 2 song was so sweet, "Don't laugh at me", that it brought a tear to my eye.
Back in class I returned the Spelling Test #2 to students and I am happy to report that the results were much better than last week's list #1. I have also realized that the redone tests MUST be on a different day because of the 10 redone tests only 3 improved which means that the redo needs a specific time to itself NOT on the same day as the weekly test (conflict of study?). I live and learn a little every day!
The students also opted NOT to have a spelling test this week and I agreed that we will pick up the testing of the word sets in the new year. No test this Thursday.
Next we had a bit of fun with the return of our letters to Santa which were replied to by the students at the High School (hope we haven't ruined anyone's illusions of Christmas!). The high school students did a great job answering all the teen aged requests for unicorns and Ferraris not to forget the KFC- one of the elves is going to forward a note on my students' behalf to the new mayor of Squamish for a new KFC outlet (like we need it back!). :) They (the high school elves) even sent seasons greetings to me from the North Pole of the high school. Many thanks- I miss you too, Sparkle Fluffy Paws. lol
We completed a 'test' run for the reading program we are undertaking in the new year. I shared the starting sets (groups) and ensured the 'levels' were 'mixed' up so that students have a more difficult time trying to figure out who starts where (which inevitably happens despite all my efforts). We read, completed a set of comprehension questions, a vocabulary section and a language (grammatical) set of questions about the reading selection. Questions are all in the context of the reading selection and are very thorough.
Math 7 Transformations in the Cartesian Graph
completed and reviewed (correct) together the worksheet on Rotations 10.3
Once completed we moved onto an activity that put the skills we have been working on all together and asks the students to plot points of an original quadrilateral, complete a slide (translation),a mirror image in the x-axis (reflection) and finally to plot the new point of a rotation (turn) of the original figure around the turn point of the graph's origin.
Being rotationally impaired, I relied heavily on my tracing paper manipulatives and my talented mind's eye students to help keep me on the correct side of the graph. Thank you for realizing that the rotation was of the original image (my bad, I had the points of the reflection and not the original, that's my story and I'm sticking to it!).
Thank-you to all the brave students who took the chalk and came to the front to mark the board with your ideas of the correct rotations. I love that you are willing to "move it, move it" in Math class :)
Try to complete the worksheet BUT don't let it frustrate you- we will go over it tomorrow. Remember it is okay to try it and get it 'all messed up' that was we can see when we go over it where we are losing perspective!!
Silent Reading- mostly silent- mostly reading!
Social Studies
Class was far too noisy for brain work to be effective. I found myself having to re-focus everyone and get them back to the productive use of time. I have been able to check that all students have textual access to the resources they need. However, it is a bit like 'spinning plates' as I do my 'rounds' and try to keep the 'usual suspects' on-task. I am encouraged to see the use of the mini-note taking sheets as they allow me to quickly assess if the student is on the right track with the information that is being noted! So far so good- we are still mainly at the gathering research information stage.
Computer session was next to complement the research for either socials or science- power point presentations for the science activity and research information for the socials project. Most students are using this time wisely and productively but there are always a few who could be smarter about the use of time!!
Back in class we reviewed our last week work, activities and work for home. We cleaned off our desks and I tried very hard to read a chapter of the novel, Word Nerd, but I didn't get very far before the bell for the end of our day.
Dismissal
Have a great night. More fun at school tomorrow.
Mrs.J.
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