Week of December 12-16, 2011

Friday HW
1.  Math Unit 4 unit Test on Wednesday December 21.
2.  Novel study quiz on the last half of the novels on Tuesday December 20.
3.  Book report reading.  Most of the class have said their books are finished.  I will provide some in-class time next week with an eye towards avoiding any sort of holiday homework.  We have had several in-class powerpoint periods and I am seeing many presentations that are at, or beyond, the halfway point.  Well done! 
4.  We have collected 56 food items so far for the food drive.  Thank you to
C. H. for his generous 23 item donation today.  Wow!  I did use this as an opportunity to challenge out class to seize the junior school lead.  We can do it!

Wednesday HW
1.  Math Quizzes 3 and 4 on Thursday December 15.
2.  Toy Drive items.
3.  Band and Strings concert tonight.
4.  Tomorrow is the long-awaited gum day from our Terry Fox Challenge.  Students should refrain from gum chewing during gym or French classes.  I asked the class to show some self regulation when it comes to how much is being chewed and to consider using sugar free gum for part or all of the day. 

Tuesday HW
1.  Math Quizzes 3 and 4 on Thursday December 15.  These cover the remainder of the Unit Four material.
2.  Math HW book pages 66-67.
3.  Novel Study quizzes on first half of the book on Wednesday December 14.
4.  Toy Drive items -- we now have three items for our two gift boxes.
5.  Food drive items.  The students have contributed quite a number of items.  Thanks!
Today I returned a diagnostic Math activity on multiplying and dividing decimals in word problems.  Each student has received a individual meeting and discussion about his/her work and a copy of my suggested strategy for the each solution.  Most students do not explain their work in clear, direct sentences and often they omit number sentence work altogether.  No students submitted what might be evaluated at the level 4 grade for these two problems.  Students should use the feedback to help study for the quizzes and apply this style to all future Math activities in any unit this year.
Our class Christmas event will have to be modified somewhat from my original plans due to a range of scheduled school activities and policies that would impact dates and food content.  We will have an afternoon film and game time on Friday December 23.  I will bring some carrot sticks and dip and some healthy choice microwave popcorn.  The students should bring along drinks and other snacks that have some healthy eating component to reflect the TDSB compliance with provincial guidelines to healthy food choices in schools.  No soda pop please.  From our school directive:
"80% of food/beverages are healthy options and generally have higher levels of essential nutrients and lower amounts of fat, sugar and/or sodium. 20% may have slightly higher amounts of fat, sugar, and/or sodium.

For more information please visit the ministry website: www.ontario.ca/healthyschools"

Monday HW
1.  Math HW book pages 64-65.  Long division style only -- no short division.
2.  Math Text book pages 153-54 # 1 to 6.  The class worked on this on Thursday with the substitute teacher and again with me today.
3.  Math quizzes 3 and 4 on Thursday December 15.  Several students will be away next week and I would like to get the final unit assessment done before they leave.  There is a junior concert on Wednesday night which about half of the class is attending.  Preplanning to study will be important for this group.
4.  Novel study quiz on the first half of the novel on Wednesday, December 14.
5.  Food Drive items.
6.  Toy Drive items.
7.  Book Fair starts tomorrow.  Junior classes can go to the fair in the Library at PM recesses for the rest of this week.
Today's homework club was host to five boys, who worked mainly on the Social Studies powerpoint and Bitstrips activities for French class -- well done! 
We had a word problem diagnostic in Math class on multiplying and dividing decimals.  I am finding that most students have difficulty organizing a structured solution, recording the number sentence work and writing a sentence that uses words from the problem.  A smaller subset have great difficulty writing neatly and clearly enough, leaving proper spacing to read the work.  This may be a problem linked to haste or to ability, but it is hard to tell.  I looked over the diagnostic and gave each student a model solution sheet for each problem as a guide.  Please look over your child's response and compare it to an exemplary model.  Word problem performance on tests are significant area of separation between level 3 and 4.