Thursday Roundup: May 24th!

I have forgotten to post homework on here for the last two days, so here is a quick rundown of what is going on:

1) Language Arts: Students are finishing up the poems they haven't finished (we are almost completely caught up by now!) and when they are done they are assembling them into books. We will be sharing some of our poems on Monday.

2) Socials: We have a final assignment for the unit. Students are to find new uses for the following parts of a car:

• The seats

• The windows

• The steering wheel

• The metal body

• The tires

• The gas tank

• The lights

• The radio/tape/cd player

• The seatbelt

• The mirrors

• The license plate

• The engine

• The windshield wipers

• Anything else you can think of (bonus marks if you do)

3) Personal Planning: I am in the process of putting together a script from the student's work. We will potentially be filming our video on Monday and Tuesday if we are able to finish it.

4) Science: There will be a final test for simple machines on Tuesday. The students have a review sheet to try. If they can answer the questions on that sheet, they should be able to do well on the test...

That's all for now. I will be at the Zone track meet with some students tomorrow so there will not likely be any homework posted.

Thursday Roundup

The last few days have been very busy and thus I have been unable to post the homework, though there was none and is none for the long weekend.

Here is a short bit about where we are in each subject area:

Math: we have just started talking about perimeter and area using geoboards.

Language Arts: We finished our rough copies of Hexaduad poems today. Next week we will be talking about poetry in music and on Monday the 28th we will have a Poetry Cafe for students to read their poetry to their classmates.

Socials: We talked about not making waste and are looking at how we can reuse all the parts of everyday objects when we are finished with them. We will have a big object to work with next week as a final assignment in this unit. I am also in the planning stages of a field trip in June.

Personal Planning: We have begun work on a class video to present all of the information we have learned about smoking and tobacco. We will work on this next week and film it the last two days (the 28th and 29th) I am in the classroom.

Have a great long weekend!

Tuesday Roundup

There was no homework today so here is a quick recap of the day:

Science - we talked about the last simple machine: screws. A screw is a inclined plane wrapped around a core.

Personal Planning: We made something of a plan for our video and assigned roles to everyone. We spent a good amount of time working on the various parts that will be included in the video.

Math: We took up the homework that had been assigned last night on measuring the distance around a circular object.

Socials: We discussed yesterdays lesson about the parts of a buffalo and used that as a starting point to look at wasting and why it's important not to waste. We started an activity where we're taking an everyday object and trying to figure out how we could reuse that object in another way. Next class we will work with a larger object with many parts and the students will prepare a report about how they would use that object's parts.

Personal Planning: Video

We started talking about what we are going to make for our final class project for our Tobacco Unit. We listed all the main ideas that we had to include and we decided that we would do it in a Talk Show format. I will spend some time working out exactly what we will need for the talk show overnight and tomorrow we will be working on this again.

Socials: Parts of the Buffalo

I read a passage from a book today about how the First Nations of the plains used every part of the Buffalo after the hunt. Students listened to write down at least 10 things (many wrote more) that the Buffalo could be used for. We will be using this information in the next few lessons to talk about using our resources wisely. There was no homework for this lesson.

Poetry: Hexaduad Poems

Today we started Hexaduad Poems. A hexaduad poem consists of 6 duads (two lines that rhyme with each other). The students were allowed to pick any topic, provided it was a topic they hadn't used too much in the class already.

Rough copies of these poems are due tomorrow.

Math: Circumference

Today we finished up our work on circumference. Students were to finish questions 1-10 and reflect in their textbooks for homework - this is due tomorrow.

Friday Roundup

Again, there is no homework tonight, so I'll explain what we did in one post tonight:

Math: We worked a little bit today on circumference. We discussed the similarities and differences between perimeter and circumference.

We also had a special performance today: a play called The Boy Who Learned To Fly

I wanted to say a quick Happy Mother's Day to all the mothers, grandmothers, and aunts out there who are a big part of the student's lives. I hope you all have wonderful days on Sunday!

Thursday Roundup

There was no homework today, so I thought I would just do a quick roundup:

PE: we started learning how to do a proper relay exchange

Math: We did a short explore activity to find the distance around a circular object (this lesson will be continued tomorrow)

Drama: We did some games involving blindfolded members of the class being led around an obstacle course by sighted members.

Personal Planning: We talked about advertising and specfically Tobacco advertising.

Language Arts: Instructions

Today I had students work on writing a set of instructions. These instructions are to be as specific as possible and are due tomorrow (Thursday). See this post for more information.

Science: Inclined Planes and Wedges

Today we discussed Inclined Planes and Wedges as our 4th and 5th Simple Machines. An Inclined plane is pretty much a ramp (stairs count as well) and a wedge is like a doorstop. Other examples of wedges include knives, teeth and other cutting tools).

There was no homework for this lesson today.

Socials: Sustainability

We took up work we had done in class regarding sustainability. We had 10 phrases which I had students sort into sustainability, maybe sustainability and not sustainability. We discussed their answers and why they put their answers where they did. Their homework was to come up with two examples: one for sustainability and one for not sustainability.

Math: Estimating and Measuring Using Non-Standard Units

Today we took up the homework from yesterday and I gave them a question for homework: find one use that we have for estimating a length using non-standard units.

The textbook gave the example of estimating how many tables would fit in the hallway, and I gave the example of how many cars could fit in a certain length of a street.

Language Arts: Writing Instructions

Today we started looking at how you would write instructions. I gave the students an example and we worked through it as a class and then I had students talk about a task with a partner. There was no homework for this, but students were to think about what they would write instructions to next class (I gave them a list to choose from):

1. Getting ready for bed.
2. Planting a seed.
3. Cleaning up after dinner.
4. Warming up for a sports practice.
5. Getting ready to go to the beach (and coming home)
6. Going on a trip to Mexico (by airplane)
7. Anything else you want to do (must be approved by me)

Science: Pulleys

Today we talked about pulleys. There are three types of pulleys: Fixed, moveable and combined. We did an experiment as a class to look at the advantages of each type of pulley. Students were to fill out a chart that explains the advantages and disadvantages of each pulley. They are also to come up with 3 examples of pulleys. This work is homework.

Personal Planning: Nicotine Addiction Cycle

Today in personal planning we talked about the Nicotine Addiction cycle. Students were given a mandala to fill out (the outer circle explains the steps of the cycle, the next one has a picture, the third has a feeling - how the person would feel, and the middle circle has the picture of a smoker).

This is to be completed by Thursday.

Language Arts: Desrcriptive Sentences

We worked today on making sentences more descriptive. The example I gave was "I sat at my desk" which I then changed to "I dreamily sat at my huge, wooden, untidy desk." Students were given 10 simple sentences which they were to make more descriptive. This work was to be done for homework if it was not finished.

Math: Estimating and Measuring using non-standard units

Today we estimated and measured using non-standard units. Students had questions #1-4 and reflect on page 317 to do for homework if it wasn't finished in class.

Personal Planning: Tobacco

We finished our plays today on how tobacco affects our ability to breath. Again, the students did quite well on this activity and worked well in their groups.

Drama: Fables

Today we finished up our fables and presented them. The students did a wonderful job and they worked together wonderfully, especially by integrating students who had missed the day when we started the fables.