Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Week of April 26-29, 2011

Thursday HW
1. Math Quiz on Unit 7, Lessons 5 and 6 on Friday April 29.
2.  Math Text book work page 279 # 1-5.
3.  Math HW book pages 108-109.

Wednesday HW
1.  No HW -- Science Fair from 6 -7 PM.  Math quiz moved to Friday.

Tuesday HW
1.  Math Quiz on Unit 7, Lessons 5 and 6 on Thursday April 28.
2.  Page 12 of the Electricity booklet -- Design Report on the Drawing Machines we made in class today.
3.  Come up with three questions for visitors to your Science project during tomorrow's Science Fair.
4.  Science Fair is tomorrow afternoon and in the evening from 6 to 7 PM when parents are welcome to attend.  Please ensure that your project is ready to demonstrate when I come around to view it.

Monday, April 18, 2011

Week of April 18-22, 2011

Thursday HW
1. Math text pages 272-73 # 1 to 7 for Tuesday.
2. Math HW book pages 106-07 for Tuesday.
3. Quiz on Lessons 5 and 6 (Unit 7) on Thursday April 28.
4.  25 of 34 students have handed back the Camp Wahanowin forms.  We need a bit more participation to continue with our planning.  With hope we will receive a few more positive forms by early next week.  I'll keep the class posted.  Thank you for your patience.
We worked very productively today in class on the Science Fair.  We have one last morning to finish up on Tuesday morning after the holiday.  Most, if not all, students finished their car construction.  What remains for most is the Design Portfolio pages and decorations for the car.  A good amount of preparation would see a student ready to mount the various portfolio pages in class on Tuesday morning and perhaps test a last little bit.  Our Science fair is on Wednesday night April 27 from 6 to 7 PM.  We look forward to seeing everyone that evening.

Wednesday HW
1.  Math text pages 272-73 # 1 to 7 for Tuesday.
2.  Math HW book pages 106-07 for Tuesday.
3.  Quiz on Lessons 5 and 6 (Unit 7) on Thursday April 28.
4.  Wahanowin forms and fee due tomorrow.

Tuesday HW
1.  Camp Wahanowin forms and fees due April 21, 2011.
2.  Vehicle building went well today.  Almost everyone had materials with which to build.  The boys and girls seemed excited and interested in problem solving to make the designs work well.  We will continue tomorrow and for Thursday as well.  Students received a display board today as well, on which they will mount the design process worksheets we are completing in class.  The students are free to decorate the board how they like as long as there is room to display the design sheets in some way.  A title/name for the car is a must.

Monday HW
1.  Math text work page 269 # 1,2,3,4,6.
2.  Math HW book pages 104-105.
3.  We are building vehicles tomorrow morning for 3 periods.  Be sure you have your materials present, including a frame or chassis.  Some ideas for that could be a kleenex box, a one litre milk container, a meat tray or any other rectangular shaped solid.  Round bottles are harder to work with.  I have all the other things students need, including skewers, straws and glue guns.  Electricity materials kits are still available for $10 each.

Monday, April 11, 2011

Week of April 11 to 15, 2011

Thursday HW
1.  Camp Wahanowin forms and fees due on April 21.
2.  Math quiz on Unit 7 Lessons 3 and 4 on Monday April 18.
3.  Electricity materials available now for 10 dollars cash.  We start to build on Monday morning.
Much better homework completion was on display again this morning.  Well done!  As well, I also found dramatic improvement in research note taking for the First Nations PowerPoint yesterday in the computer lab.  Students received another paired period to work on computer research today.  We will have one more school research opportunity before we start to create the presentations using PowerPoint.  Students should consult other sources, including books, if they feel they need more information in any category over the weekend and tonight.

Wednesday HW
1.  Camp Wahanowin forms and fees due on April 21.
2.  Math quiz on Unit 7 Lessons 3 and 4 on Monday April 18.
3.  Persuasive paragraph 4.0:  the mini essay.  Finish the last two body paragraphs and the conclusion using the model I started for you.
4.  Page 3 of the "Tales:  Heroes, Deeds and Wonders" booklet.  This is a rough set of sketches for a larger cartoon representation of an Iroquois creation myth assignment.
Items 3 and 4 were initiated and worked on in class for an additional 20 minutes each.  Today's homework check was much better.  Only 2 of 26 students had not finished the six short persuasive activities for Persuasive Paragraph 3.0.  Let's keep up the good work!

Tuesday HW
1.  Camp Wahanowin forms and fees due on April 21.
2.  Math HW book pages 102-103
3.  Math Quiz on Unit 7 Lessons 3 and 4 on Monday April 18.
4.  Research for your First Nations PowerPoint presentation.  We have had some class time already in the Lab and with the Macbooks in class to fill in these organizers.  After a few more periods, students will use the organizers to complete their Powerpoints.  Internet use will be unavailable at that point in the interests of completing the presentation.
Persuasive writing activities continue.  During today's homework check 13 students of 29 had not completed some or all of the Thesis planner assigned as homework last night.  I'm hoping to see improvement in that rate as the year comes to a close.

Monday HW
1.  Camp Wahanowin forms and feees due on April 21.
2.  Math Unit Seven quiz on lessons 1 and 2 tomorrow.  The topic is Transformations.
3. Math HW book pages 102-103 for Wednesday.
4.  Persuasive Writing 2.0:  Make thesis statements out of topics.  We spent some time today on the idea and formation of a thesis statement.  I am encouraging the students to do two things  -- avoid simple "mad/bad/sad/nice" types of opinions and avoid making simple statements about the topic.  An example is the smoking topic.  A statement is "Smoking kills you", which is factual.  A thesis in a similar vein might be "The costs of smoking are greater than the price on the package."  The better the thesis the easier it is to write and evelop arguments.  We are working toward a five paragraph persuasive essay with a progression of skills.

Monday, April 4, 2011

April 4 - 8, 2011

Friday HW
1.  Constellation project is due in good copy form on Monday April 11.  We spent three additional periods today in class finishing up.  I provided extra resources to the students in class that helped with the "Alternate Myths" and "when/where" portions of the assignment.  These are generally short sections and students were reminded not to leave today without having looked at these resources.
2.  Math Unit 7 Quiz on lessons 1 and 2 (Transformations and Combined Transformations) on Tuesday April 12.
3.  Camp Wahanowin forms and fee due on April 21.

Thursday HW
1. Constellation project is due in good copy form on Monday April 11.
2. Diary of an Astronaut due in booklet on Friday April 8.
3.  Electricity Booklet cover page.
4. Math Unit 7 Quiz on Lessons one and two (Transformations and Combined Transformations) on Tuesday April 12.
5. Jump Rope for Heart pledge envelopes were distributed yesterday.
6.  Camp Wahanowin Trip forms and fees.  Return date is April 21.
Today we had some productive time writing the Diary of an Astronaut and the Constellation Story in class.  We also spent a fair amount of time reviewing Math vocabulary for the geometry unit and correcting our HW books.  7 students had incomplete work on Monday night's pages 98-99 and 6 more did not complete the "Stretch Your Thinking" practice.  It's a good idea to work on these tougher questions, as that type will appear at some point on quizzes and tests.  We also talked through the Wahanowin trip form in class.  Cabin and other information is forthcoming when we have a better grasp of our numbers.  Based on the response during Curriculum Night Ms. Edgar and I received -- no negative feedback, only positive comment from parents -- we proceeded with the booking and approvals process.

Wednesday HW
1.  Constellation project is due in good copy form on Monday April 11.
2.  Diary of an Astronaut due in booklet on Friday April 8.
3.  Book report due on Thursday April 7.
4.  Math Unit 7 Quiz on Lessons one and two (Transformations and Combined Transformations) on Tuesday April 12.
5.  Jump Rope for Heart pledge envelopes were distributed today.
Today we made partner pairs for a Social Studies culminating activity.  Students will have time in class to fill in their own 2 sided organizer using internet resources.  Each partner will hand in their own organizer for evaluation.  Together the partners will use the organizers to build a PowerPoint presentation on their topic which they present together as well.  I hope the students use their new skills from the Planet project to improve the depth and complexity of the PowerPoint and the presentation.  Class time is given for research, but some personal time will also be required.  Books are a very good research source in addition to internet sources.  Remember that Wikipedia has no author and should be used sparingly.  Paraphrasing is also a must to avoid direct copying from another's work.

Tuesday HW
1. Math HW book pages 100-101.
2. Constellation project is due on Monday April 11 in good copy form.
3.  Diary of an Astronaut due on Friday April 8.
4. Book report due on April 7.
5. Earth Rangers toonie needed for presentation. Please bring it in tomorrow.
More than a dozen of each of the last two test packs have not been returned by the due dates (April 1 and March 25) with corrections and a parent signature.  I spent PM recess helping students record this information in their agendas so that they can be returned tomorrow.  It's important that results are shared with parents and returned in a timely way.  Thank you for your cooperation.

Monday HW
1.  Math HW book pages 98-99.  I mistakenly assigned the next two pages on Friday evening.
2.  Math Text pages 254-55 # 1 to 5.  We have worked for nearly two periods on numbers one to three in class.  Students are encouraged to make clear, neat coordinate grids with a ruler, plot the transformations using tracing paper and describe the pransformations thoroughly with these details:  Type, Direction and Amount/Location.
3.  Constellation project is due on Monday April 11 in good copy form.
4.  Book report due on April 7.
5.  Earth Rangers toonie needed for presentation.  Please bring it in tomorrow.