Friday April 5th

I was so excited to get a comment from a parent that I all but forget how to reply but as I get into this post, I think I remember that I have to go to the post that the comment was published on to reply- so I'll try it after this post tonight. Thank you for reading the Blog and keeping up to date with the life and times of our busy classroom.

Homework
Ch1 Chapter review from MathLinks 7 on transformations- have more in but a number of students planned to complete it this weekend.
Read your novels please up to the end of chapter 10 if you can!

Reminders
Due to a number of students being away, the signing of the grad silkscreens will be offered on two separate occasions next week
Parent survey letters were sent home yesterday for the parents of grade sevens
popcorn will be offered on Tuesday
The First nations Cultural program will get underway in our classes next week

Our day...
Band class was first thing and today Ms. Sorban taught the students some Flamenco dance moves- next Friday afternoon we have a performance by Flamenco dancers.

Science Ch 4 review on the three states of matter and qualitative/quantitative properties
The review was open-book, cloze (fill in the blanks) with page references for each section. The vocabulary in the chapter glossary was used in a crossword puzzle. Students worked very productively this morning and some even managed to compelte both activites.

Math 7
Introduction to the Geometry Unit (MathLinks 7 chapters 3 and 8)
To start things off today we did a couple of pre-test quizzes on the students knowledge and memory of geometry. There were 14 multiple choice questions for lines and line segments and 12 for angles. The students completed the quizzes independently and we switched papers and marked each other's today- the results will be used to inform my unit planning and help me be clear about what the students know and need to review or learn. The results of these quizzes are NOT used for assessment purposes- planning only. Interesting results the average mark (estimate only) seems to be around 50-60%.
The rest of the time we worked on completing the Ch 1 review (set for homework) and those complete the review worked on a Geometry vocabulary word search.

Silent Reading
offered a number of options today for those who needed or wanted time to work on science, math, novel and or reading- good use of time during today's session. Impressive for a Friday!
[It is actually a pleasant time for them- they don't need to listen to me yapping, they get to work on something of their choice without interruption and work gets done- what's not to like?]

Computer session
Today we played a couple of different games for 'social change'
Free Rice is a UNESCO initiative that offers students a chance to answer questions to test their knowledge on a number of levelled academic areas (math, French, vocubulary etc.) and every correct answer puts grains of rice into the bowl which becomes a  rice donation for a third world country at the end of the day. I was plesantly surprised about how keen the students were on this and how proud of their rice grain count they were. It is such a neat concept.
Another that some played (some stayed with Free Rice)
 was called Third World Farmer which is a simulation game that gives the students a chance to see how complex running a farm in a third world country can be. They are given the chance to plant crops, make some money, keep their family healthy and deal with various disasters of crops and social upset like war or theft. Some students do very well negotiating all the different responsibilities. The first time I played the game my poor family of 4 all died because I didn't realize that I had to keep them healthy and buy medicine!! I was kicked off the game! Game Over you died! Great. If you have a minute check it out (warning it is addictive).

Art and a catch up time - on Fridays as I have a number of students with their mentors I offer a chance to decide what needs completing or work on the art project- some beautiful marked butterflies have emerged :)

I read a chapter of  Dear George Clooney our class novel- in which the girls are getting ready to 'spy' on mom's date with Dudley who has the unfortunate last name of Weiner (pronounced Veener) but the students get a laugh from the connotation.

Clean up and prepare for dismissal
Have a good weekend.
Mrs. J.