Monday, April 8th

 I hate feeling like I have a balloon for a head on a beautiful day like today! I have not been able to shake this heavy cold and something tells me it might be related to the recent work on the tooth (root canal) that gets completed this Friday! I feel meh!

Today was a different kind of Monday- it started slow and quiet and ended up with ten minutes in the sun at the end of the day just to get the students out of the stuffy classroom.

Homework
nothing new
novel - read it up to end of chapter 10
still waiting for some Ch1 review for Math7

Reminders
popcorn for sale Tuesday
letters from the McCreary institute regarding the survey home tonight (grade 7's only)
Wednesday math after school from 3:15-4pm concept: balancing equations
Wednesday School nurse visits grade six HPV vaccinations 9:15am
Friday flamenco presentation 1:30pm

Our day...
language arts:
Homonyms/homophones- quick review of proper use of some of the most commonly misused and activity which we completed switched papers for and marked together

Poem: I Will Never Completely Grow Up by Sara Britton
A heart warming poem about the things that keep us young at heart...

"I am a Care Bear girl, Princess of Power girl, and not a size two,
 Abercrombie model.
Legos have never died, and a make-believe world lies outside of the box of the TV and PlayStation,
The times might catch up with me but I will never completely grow up."

We started this poem by sharing (well some of us did because it takes a great deal of trust) the things that we have had forever from out childhood games and toys that we would not ever want to part with- many baby blankets came up in the list, some broken items like first hockey sticks and stuffies, lego bins and tea sets. I have a small teddy bear called Pinkie who is no longer pink after 52 years but that I cherish.
Using a formula or a poem frame I encouraged the students to put their own words into the formula and see if they could create or encapsulate what it is that they will never 'give up' allowing them a certain treasured
memory about what keeps us from completely 'growing up'.
It was a challenge for some and others were reluctant to share but it will take a bit of trust and more poem thinking and writing and soon they will want their poems to be read and shared. Patience...Grasshopper!
Maybe there will be some to share on our Celebration of Learning.

Half an hour for novel time- may have to revisit the choice of activities for some students who prefer to have some guidelines that are more predictable! That's okay too.

Math 7 the geometry unit starting with the patterns and angles of perpendicular and intersecting lines. The students did a good solid job of finding the equal and opposite angles in the intersecting lines and today realized that if one angle is given the others can be provided (without the use of a protractor) by using the properties of the lines and angle patterns- equal and opposite. :)

silent reading

socials tribes - creating a culture- democracy in action choosing tribes and creating names of the group cultures. Students did a good job of this activity. I wasn't sure how it would work out on a Monday afternoon when I wasn't feeling as much energy as usual- thanks to Kim for her expert help.

Science text work- Ch 4 review (started Friday) this got a little noisy- it is difficult when some students are completed and others need more help and a quiet working atmosphere to concentrate- I tried to get the handful of students who had finished to assist with the students who were having a more difficult time but it wasn't the greatest set up and things got a little too noisy. Work did get done but it was difficult to keep up with everyone. Maybe too late in the day.

The students cleaned up a bit earlier than usual as I thought it was a nice way to end the day by getting into the fresh air for ten minutes and letting them use the climbing structure outside- they seemed to enjoy that very much- everyone else had the same idea it seems.

Anyway....another Monday bites the dust...
Have a nice evening.
Mrs. J.