Thursday Oct 17th

I will be very grateful when I get over this head cold completely as I have found my patience to be waning as the day goes along!!

Anyhoo ...tonight we have the WE day participants (three grade sevens from this class as well as others from all grade seven classes in our school) spend the night together on the gymnasium floor at HSSS with other students from our area (my days of thinking that would be fun are LONG gone!! So thank-you to the teachers who are going to be making that happen!) At 6am on Friday morning they will be making their way to Vancouver to join the other students around our province participating in the WE day celebrations at B.C. Place (Is it still called that?)

Tomorrow we will be live streaming it so the students in class can see some of the action and talking about action good luck and another opportunity to live stream as Kiarrah steps onto the ice at 10:50am Friday for her skating competition. We'll be tuning in - knock their socks off, Kiarrah (skates off?).

Reminders
and home practice

Friday spell test for Unit 3 will go ahead
did not redo the Unit 2 today (see the explanation of the crazy afternoon and you may understand why...) will need to find a better time and many people are away tomorrow so Friday is not suitable either!
Also cancelled the Friday Math 7 quiz - have agreed next Tuesday is better (Mondays are not great for quizzes either!)

Sent home the photograph proofs with your children tonight - if you would like to order the due date for the payment and order choice is Tuesday Oct 22nd (no obligation to purchase) there is a spot to check if you would prefer to have a re-take on the front of the envelope.

Hot lunch orders are due for Oct 21st (Monday)

Next week Friday Oct 25th is a provincial professional day- no school

Our day

Daily French- answering basic questions
Needed to wake a few bodies up this morning- "Hello, there...class has started."

spelling prep for tomorrow's test- after this unit I will be looking at a challenge list, the regular (one that we are using now) and an alternate for students struggling with spelling.

May I remind students and parents that spelling on a test is one of those isolated skills that some students are very good at and with which others have real difficulty. It is an opportunity for struggling students to see if a study strategy and actual prep for a test helps them - some can not be successful with isolated spelling for many different reasons. So the alternative lists are to provide a measure of success for some and a challenge for others. It takes a bit of time to determine who needs what but I am getting closer.
The other spelling skills are connected to written use and correct syntax as well as vocubulary development and understanding grammatical function.
The tests are one aspect of a complex set of skills needed to develop lanaguage and understanding.

Started reading chapter 7 Touching Spirit Bear (haven't completed the chapter yet)

Band class

Math 7
continuing with dividing decimals (review the steps and continue with examples).
The question was asked today why we alter the divisor to divide with a decimal. This gave me the opportunity to show the students on the overhead the website called DR. Math Forum (Drexel univ) and where they can find access to a library resource of math answers to questions just like this one.
We looked it up and found in FAQ an answer stating the fact that you cannot divide by 0 and that in a nutshell the inverse operation of division is multiplication SO ...if you multiply the divisor (to get rid of the decimal point and make it a whole number) then you must balance the dividend by moving the decimal point the same number of places (therefore multiplying it by the same number).
Talking about it can be confusing so pratice, practice and more practice is necessary to actually grasp the concept- I am happy the students are asking such questions.

quiz cancelled for tomorrow - more practice needed


Read to self
record

Ell with Mrs. Jensen (working with the ESL students getting the survey completed)

SL with Mrs. Brant

Survey for the Communities Health project
which I must say if I have a personal choice next year or whenever they want to run it again I think
(my opinion is not the opinion of the SBO or school admin. per se- just my opinion!)
we, as parents, should refuse to complete it until the proponents of the survey produce a more Canadian and grade friendly version- the questions and content were highly Americanized and the students basically got fed up answering the nature of questions which were very specific about things of absolutely no interest or age appropriate health related topics for 11 and 12 year old kids. Sheesh. There has to be a better way to get information about health needs than this!
As I said - my opinion!Might get me into trouble but oh well it had to be said...

After this the students were very antsy and the sun was shining so we headed out for a game of Flag Tag - although it took longer than I thought to get all the flag tag belts on to bodies. However, everyone had a healthy run in the sun and I spent time untangling the flag tag belts- welcome to the jungle...

back in class we reviewed the reminders and home pratice for the planners and I began a chapter of Word Nerd that again did not get completed and before I knew it the day was done- another one bites the dust- help me, it is going way too fast.
I want to slow time down a little

Have a healthy evening
Mrs. J.