Just before the break

MATH

I want my Math students to work on the question: "805 of my class likes basketball. There are 25 people in my class. How many people like basketball?"

SCIENCE

The students are to create a working model of a periscope. They have created groups, and sometime after the break, they are to build a device that acts as a periscope. They will need at least 2 small mirrors, and whatever other materials they wish... paper towel roll, orange juice box, or whatever.

If they need extra help, p.260 in the text book offers a rough idea. As well, if you google "build periscope", you will find plenty of ways to do it.

You can buy mirrors at Dollarama in Saint John, if you get away over the break. As well, the dollar store here in Grand Harbour may offer some useful materials as well.

If money is an issue about buying mirrors, let me know, and I will make fair arrangements.

Book Talks

The students will be giving another book talk during the first week back after March Break. They had one back in the fall, and this is a copy of the handout I gave back then...

What is a booktalk?

I like to use the analogy of a movie trailer. The purpose of a booktalk is to "sell" the book. You want to give enough of the plot to interest the listeners but you are not giving a summary of the book. You don't want to give away the important parts of the book. You certainly never want to give away the ending. You want to highlight the interesting points. You may want to read certain passages to your listeners. The main purpose of a booktalk is to grab the audience's interest and make them want to read the book.

Here is what I want in a booktalk:
1. Title of the book.
2. Name and biography of the author.
3. Genre (type) of book.
4. Where you located this book and why you chose it.
5. Brief plot summary. Describe what happened in the story. Do not reveal the ending of the book. Instead, make us want to read it!
6. Personal analysis. ( In ten sentences, tell what you thought of the book. Comment on the strengths and weaknesses, or good or bad points of this book. Tell why you would or would not recommend this book to your friend.)

You will be marked on your oral presentation for this book talk.
You may refer to your notes while talking about your book.
Please bring your book to class to be able to show your classmates.

At the end of your presentation, you will be expected to submit your written notes. This is part of your mark. Be creative! Combine the answers to items #1-4 in a creative, interesting and well written opening sentence.

Here’s how you will be assessed:
#1 - 1 point
#2 - 1 point
#3 - 1 point
#4 - 1 point
#5 - 10 points
#6 - 10 points
1 point for showing your book.
5 points for creativity/neatness

Week of February 16

Language Arts

Bone spelling word story tomorrow (Wed)
Spelling test Friday

We will not be doing speeches this year in the middle school, but we will be having more Book Talks, as we did before Christmas. We will have the next round of Book talks on the week after March Break.

Math

Thursday - math quiz - the quiz will be 1 question and will be almost exactly like #8 on p.152 in text.

7 and 8 SS notes

This is for the quiz tomorrow...

Atlantic Canada in the Global Community – Culture

Culture is who and what we are.

There are 5 aspects of culture:
1) Physical environment – the land, the water, and the structures
2) History – origins, immigration, ancestry
3) Social life – interactions with others
4) Economic – employment, spending habits
5) Political – how the society is organized

Culture is divided into 2 categories:
1. Material culture refers to the physical objects,
resources, and spaces that people use to define their culture.
These include homes, neighborhoods, cities, schools, churches,
synagogues, temples, mosques, offices, factories and plants,
tools, means of production, goods and products, stores, and so on.

2. Non-material culture refers to the nonphysical ideas that people
have about their culture, including beliefs, values, rules, norms,
morals, language, organizations, and institutions.

Some elements of culture are:

Recreation Transportation Medicine
Art Beliefs about good and evil Calendars
Community organizations Cooking Co-operative work
Education Folklore Government
Hairstyles Hospitality Housing
Jokes Kinship groups Language
Law Marriage Mealtimes
Music Numbers and Letters Personal names
Religion Sports Tool making
Trade Visiting Fashion

Monday, with no snow days in sight

Hopefully no snow days anyway. It's hard to get work done on weeks with missing days.

Here's the homework:

LANGUAGE ARTS

Spelling test is on Friday. This week's words are trickier than usual. The 1st 5 come directly from our Bone novel study, and the last 5 are qualities of the characters in the book. They are:
injustice
territory
locusts
quiche
comrade
deceptive
abrasive
scheming
optimistic
melodramatic

We are beginning a collaborative project with a Grade 6 class in a school in St Albans, Australia. They are only an hour away from towns destroyed by the wildfires down there. This is our website, where we will do some work together -
http://gmcsgrade7cook.wikispaces.com/

And this is their space, where we will also do some work -
http://www.samps.vic.edu.au/Home.html

As part of this project, students need to write an autobiography, for e-mailing to these other students. (If you have any concerns about privacy issues, please let me know. I don't mind sorting through these issues with any parents with concerns.) This autobiography needs to be completed by Wednesday.

MATH

I gave back last week's math tests, to be signed and brought back. Retakes will be later in the week. Math extra help will be tomorrow afternoon.

This is a website for tomorrow's Math class -
http://illuminations.nctm.org/ActivityDetail.aspx?ID=116

Thursday

Wow! What a load of snow! A snow day really changes plans around.

LANGUAGE ARTS

The Bone questions are now due tomorrow. The students have had over a week to do the 6 questions from Book#1 in their duotangs. Even though we have not completed the book completely, we have done enough for some decent answers to the questions.

The spelling test is tomorrow.

MATH

The test on parallelograms and triangles, originally scheduled for today, is now tomorrow. The questions on p.145-147 in the text are good practice for what I will be asking on the test.

The circle re-test, scheduled for tomorrow, is now on Monday.

Groundhog Day

The rodent says we have 6 more weeks of winter. I can't say I'm surprised.

Here's the homework for the week:

LANGUAGE ARTS
- There are no new spelling words this week, but we will have the test from last week's words on Friday
- Bone #1: Out from Boneville chapter questions are due on Thursday.

MATH
- There will be a test on Thursday on the area of triangles and rectangles. I will be sending home pre-tests as homework, in preparation for this test.
- Circle re-test will be on Friday for those who didn't receive passing grades the first time. I will be offering after-school help tomorrow, Tuesday, and perhaps on Thursday as well.
- As well, for those who need to retake the circle test, I am sending home a one-page worksheet for tomorrow. This is practice for Friday's test.

ART
- "My Life as a Movie" project due Friday