Tuesday, January 7th first week back

Lots of rain today but I will take that anytime over -43 cold before the wind chill factor!!
Yeah for the wet coast :)

Reminders
Spelling last test on the first handout unit 4 & challenge 'H' words for Thursday. Jan 9th

Social studies research or note taking on the radar - we are spending time in class and today at computers but it is a good idea to keep an idea of progress and perhaps complete one of the components at home.
Due date: officially, Monday, January 27th but I have what I refer to as a 'rolling' date to hand in the project meaning that some might hand it in on the Friday 24th or Monday 27th after the weekend or at least by the end of the week (Friday, Jan. 31st is a professional development day). I would like the projects completed by the end of the month but will be unable to assess them all at once so over the week is good for everyone.

Our day

Band class
during which I managed to undertake a major stealth operation and with the blessings of Mrs. B cleaned out the relevant texts from the non-fiction section for my students to have access to them in class for their social studies project research

Social studies time for choosing resources relevant to projects and reading, note taking and making decisions about project components. I ask the students to consider tackling just one component at a
time so it is not overwhelming. Each section is specific to a topic (like culture, government or natural
environment and a couple of paragraphs are all that will be needed to explained the main ideas.

We are working on the art of taking notes and using resources well.

Math 7 pre-algebra writing expressions and recognizing like terms
FYI used the last 15 minutes of math class today to introduce an FSA style reading activity which will be followed up tomorrow

Read to self
Students are also using this time to access the 'drop in ' centre if they need it or want to complete an activity
Apparently Kobe won the draw in November so we re drew today and Taylor is the new recipient of the scholastic book coupon

Computer session for social studies projects time for word processing of the morning's notes or finding information not available in book resources.

Organize a new seating plan for the next two weeks - I organized the desks after school

New read aloud- students voted and chose a book called Safe House which is set in Northern Ireland and is a story about a young man on the run from the political forces that targeted his parents. I read the first chapter and could tell that the students were not too sure about it. Sometimes you can tell a book is the right one - this one we will have to re visit and maybe revote tomorrow.

Dismissal

Back to curling tonight- wish me luck.
Have a good night
Mrs. J.