Bring in Those Pennies!

Last week at our WOW assembly a group of grade seven leaders challenged the rest of the school to continue to bring in pennies for our Social Justice Club's penny campaign.  They are trying to help people in Haiti have better access to clean drinking water.  How many can you bring?

Literacy Workstations

These students are listening to a
selection from our literacy resource
while practising reading strategies
and word study work

We are in the middle of our current round of literacy workstations.  At these stations, students work in small groups to practise literacy stills.  Some activities are completed in groups, others are individual.  This enables me to do guided reading with a small group of students.  Check it out!

These students are working with the teacher at the guided reading table.

These students work at the vocabulary workstation,
specifically creating words with prefixes and using them in a
sentence.

These students are working at the
word study workstation, practising
conjunctions, prefixes, and suffixes.

These students work at the science workstation, completing
a graphic organizer about the ten forms of energy

These students work at the social studies workstation,
completing a graphic organizer about the European
influence on the First Nations people.

What Are the Chances?

Teamwork, record keeping, accountable talk, and MATH IS FUN!

The Gold and Rocks experiment

Our latest unit of study in math is probability (Unit 11).  We have jumped over unit 9 and 10 for the time being because fractions, decimals, and percent are fresh in our minds after completing unit 8, so I thought it was logical to work on probability where all of these skills are needed.  This is a very short unit, so the students were already told to expect an evaluation as early as late next week or the beginning of May.  That does depend on their level of understanding to some degree.  On Wednesday we reviewed probability terms, and related them to benchmark fractions.  We then converted the fractions to decimals and percents.  Other than the decimals and percents, this was a review, but this seemed like new knowledge to most of the class.  I encourage everyone to review the anchor charts that have been added to the Anchor Chart Library page of this site.  It would be extra beneficial if parents could review with their children also.  Just because there might not be homework does not mean that they cannot review the concepts. What is the difference between experimental and theoretical probability?

Experimental Probability

Good News!

 Congratulations to the following students who are this week's Good News ticket winners:  Adam and Julia B.  I wonder what the theoretical probability was for their chances of winning?  We will calculate that on Monday.  Stay tuned.

Congratulations are also extended to the grade one students and teachers who organized the bake sale fundraiser for Tree Canada.  They raised $476.50.  That's a lot of baked good and coins to "lumber" over!  Check out this link to see that they are all about!
http://treecanada.ca/en/

Health Homework Assigned

Today each student was given there own copy of "Drug Safety:  Smart Choices for Life".  This was provided by the WECDSB in conjunction with our VIP program and it also matches with a portion of our Health curriculum.  The homework, which is due Thursday May 2, is to watch the enclosed DVD with one or both of your parents.  The video is broken into seven sections which last from 2 to 6 minutes each, so it doesn't have to be watched all in one sitting.  After completing the viewing, have your parents sign the label in your agenda.  It is also recommended that your parents read part four of the book because it was designed for them. Bring your book back to school on Thursday because it is a resource that we will be using in class daily.  HAPPY VIEWING!

Please do not forget the return the math test signed, and the SWYK for unit 8 signed from this week.

WOW Winners!

Congratulations to this month's WOW winners!  David, Mallory, and Serena are being recognized for their marked improvement in the quality of their written work.  Keep up the good work!

Happy Anniversary BLOG!

Yesterday was the first year anniversary of the existence of my blog.  Although this website was created in September 2011, the blog was added seven months later.  In addition, Google Analytics has been monitoring the activity on this site for the last year.  I am happy to report that as of the time this was posted, I have received hits from EVERY CONTINENT OF THE WORLD except Antarctica.  The 4277 hits can be traced to 171 cities in 33 countries all over the world.  That is rather amazing when you think about it.  The world truly is getting smaller every day!  Thank you to my loyal followers.
                                

Beautiful Brochures

As I mentioned in an earlier blog, our brochures are proudly displayed in the hallway outside of the Learning Pit.  We were fortunate enough to be allowed to print them out in colour.  It sure changes the presentation!  Check them out.  Now each student has now chosen a hero, is researching their life and contribution to society, and is writing a biography about them.  Ask your child who they have chosen.

Look at what my camera found!  These two lovely gentlemen requested that their picture be taken and posted on our blog.  We are grateful for the work that both Mr. Oliveria and M LeBlanc do for us!

  

Happy Earth Day!

Knowledgeable Grade One Students!

Our class participated in a few Earth Day activities today.  We visited the bake and trivia sale hosted by the grade one classes.

Treats with an Earth Day theme

Selective Shoppers

So Many Choices!

Delicious Treats

De-lightful Cakes

We also ventured to Curry Park with Mr. Kennette's grade 6/7 class to do an Earth Day clean up.

Nice Temperatures

Beautiful Sunshine

Team Work!

Super Socialization!

Fun Times!

Gallery Walk!

Our class finally finished our health brochures so we decided to have a gallery walk so that we could share our work and receive feedback from our peers.  This was also an opportunity to learn about a new topic.  The students are very proud of their creations, and they are hanging on the "WOW Guardians!" bulletin board outside of the Learning Pit.

Good News

  Congratulations to this week's Good News ticket winners:  Thomas, David, and Caroline!  Keep up the great work!

Here are a few reminders for this week's activities:

• Bake Sale and Answer Sale on Monday!  The grade ones are raining money in honour of Earth Day.  Bring your loonies and buy one or two treats OR ask questions and receive the answer for a donation.
• Please continue to bring your pennies!  The Social Justice Club is collecting pennies for their causes.
• Please bring your dance/gym rubrics back to school signed on Monday.  They were returned on Thursday.
• I will be accepting the song suggestions for our next dance on Monday and Tuesday for my approval.  Don't forget that this dance is two minutes long and must incorporate the use of props.
• Since Monday is Earth Day, we will spend some time cleaning up Curry Park.  Please dress appropriately - no crocks, flip flops and/or sandals.

Real-Life Math

Mentors in Action

Justify your Ideas!

We have been consolidating our learning by using our knowledge of fractions, decimals, and percent to solve real-life math problems in groups.  We are also making our thinking visible by recording all of our work.  That makes great math communication!

Share the Workload!

Sharing Ideas!

Thinking!

Recording is Important!

Accountable Talk!

Great Collaboration!

Working with Ratios

For the last couple of days we have been learning about and working with ratios (a special type of fraction).  We have used manipulatives, worked in pairs, and discovered that it is rather easy.  Be sure to check out the new anchor charts on the Anchor Chart Library page.

Using Two-Coloured Counters

Group Work is Collaboration!

It is important to be able to justify your thinking!

Dancing with the St. Gabriel Stars!

Today all of the rest of the groups presented their original choreographed dances, one minute in length, to a song of their choice.  Check them out!

Estimating Percents in Math

Today we continued our work with percentages by extending it to find estimates.  Although the concept is not difficult, the students found some aspects of this challenging.  This really does require them using their schema from prior lessons.  Here are some hints:

• make sure to change a percentage to an equivalent fraction with a denominator of 100  (25%= 25 )                                        
•                                                         100
• when you are trying to make an equivalent fraction, sometimes it is not possible to use the denominator of 100, so instead you need to find the simplest form of the fraction first              (75%= 75 = 3 )
•             100  4
• when asked to find a percentage of an amount or a group of things, that number becomes the denominator in the new fraction you are trying to make since it is the amount in the whole group
•  see the new anchor chart on the Anchor Chart Library page of this website

Dance!

This week we will finally present our dances!  We have had to show much patience due to all of the interruption in the regular schedule!  One group presented on Friday, but the rest will present on Wednesday!  Check out the video of Julia, Julia, Raven, and Maddy presenting!

Did you vote today?

Deskercise

On Friday the Holy Names High School Leadership students worked with us.  They taught us some new games.  Check it out!