Monday September 30th

Apologies that Friday did not get posted- I had completed a quick update before I left on Friday and it seems to have been deleted or lost in space- I have no idea.... technology and I are fairweather friends!

I'll do today first and then try to recall Friday of last week!

Home Practice and RemindersTuesday popcorn day
Band class
Wednesday grade six immunizations
Thursday first spelling test Unit 1 (12 words)
Bring planners to class every day- no planners today : Braedan, Angelo, Hunter and Bobby.

our day
Phys Ed. first thing- cardio day skipping, 'beep run' training and dance moves - some basic get the body moving hip hop type steps to some dance music to get the students all limbered up before we satrted a game of handball
Had a bit of difficulty with the embarrassment factor today but hopefully we will all get over the fact that to move our bodies to dance we actually need to learn to move our hips and feet!!
music helped and once the music was on the 'moves' became more natural :)

Spelling- I have now issued the spelling list for the first part of the school year- I like to generate a list of spelling vocabulary from the students own wrtitng errors and the classic frequently misspelled words we all know and love to hate. Spelling is important to self confidence and wrtiting quality and research shows that strong readers have a larger vocabulary to draw from and take more risks with new vocabulary. This impacts spelling. Today we looked at the classic reasons for weak spelling skills including lack of effort on study of words.

I realize that this list may be too challenging for a few of the students but like to offer the 'challenge' first and see the results of the first couple of tests before I generate an alternative list. First test Thursday this week.
I have offered all students a second list to keep at home so they have it there to study from on Wednesday evening.

Editing skills- need to follow it up tomorrow

Math 7
return the Quiz 2 results from Friday FYI
7/8 - 8/8 5 students
5/8 - 6/8 7 students
4/8 (50%) 2 students
below 4/8 not meeting expectations 7 students
21 students writing
good news two thirds are meeting expectations : 2 minimally, 7 fully and 5 exceding

So, still one third of the students are still struggling with the basic arithmetic of muliplying and dividing- I have placed them into three small groups which I intend provide with some intensive revision of the procedures this week.
Meanwhile we have to move forward (and that folks is the issue with the pace of the curriculum that has to be covered- some students need to take their practice and improve their skills outside of the classroom and there are many opportunities for this on-line but the students themselves have to be motivated to improve or they just get pushed along with the tide and never learn the basic skills)

Started Chapter 2 in the text today- all about different ways of estimating and adding/subtracting decimal numbers. Operations with decimal numbers.

Students worked hard and I was happy to see some effort- I an a bit of a tyrant about showing working and not just writing answers as this is one of the organizational procedures that will be expected at junior high- no working = incomplete answer.

Read to self
after a bit of drama at lunch time, it took a bit longer to settle everyone - it seems that often the things that start as a 'joke' quickly escalate to unhappiness and silly behaviour that can easily be squashed with a bit of self control.
Things quieted down and we managed to get around to some reading time.

Today was the last day for the September reading records- one boy's name and one girl's name will be drawn from the completed records for September and will each receive a $5 coupon for the Scholastic catalogue in October. The new catalogues will be issued once the September order arrives. Next draw will be end of October.

Some students had incomplete records for September having lots of excuses like, "I lost it" or "I forgot to record it"- I make a point of providing time every day after read to self time and the excuses are 'lame' to be honest. October reading record starts tomorrow and will be an account of 14 hours of reading time. Please ask your son or daughter what they do during that reading time in class. 14 hours of reading are an important contribution to improving personal reading.

Social Studies
Ch 1 Global Village (Grade 6) and Ch 1 Connections with the Past (grade 7)
Grade 6 activity to read the first chapter to locate the key words for the main ideas
Grade 7 activity to understand the meaning of the phrase
" the 'roots' of the present are deep in the past"
Both grades drew a tree to visually represent history and we brainstormed and discussed what kinds of civilizations and cultures and movements etc. belonged under the ground providing the roots- what belonged in the tree trunk and what the present (branches and leaves) looked like because of out collective past.
In their own words students said that 'what has happened in history has shaped our world today' and that was the point of the lesson. Our world has been shaped by history. Next we will be looking at the role of cultures, families and who we are.
The book If the World were a Village will be shared tomorrow and we will be following up today's lesson at computers tomorrow.

Art - from Friday (pop-art a la Andy Warhol) a lesson on images started Friday and inspired by Warhol's Cambells soup cans
Chapter 10 of Word Nerd

Planner time- pack up and home
have a dry evening!!
Mrs. J.

Friday Sept. 27th
Science: completed the Planet Earth DVD about the polar bear's plight and impact of changing habitats and economic strife on the animal kingdom
Worked on plans for Friday projects

Math: Quiz # 2, FSA style problem solving interrupted by our first Fire Drill of the school year

Read to self time

computers- good copy of paragraphs from Tuesdays class, research of an animal of interest (Planet Earth's list of endangered species)

Art pop art poster inspired by Andy Warhol

planners and pack up for the week
Hope everyone had a great weekend!