Wednesday, May 29, 2013

I wanted to add these two bits of information about events at AMG:

Some examples of 1 Point Perspective Art.  There are a few more examples which still need to be photographed and uploaded.

Tuesday, May 28, 2013

This will most likely be my last post for the week, unless I blog from the camp near Orillia.  I will be absent for three days.

Today was about completing some outstanding projects.  I have a short video and some shots of the presenters.

There are a few more things I would like to add, but I can't do that now.

No formal homework has been assigned.  4/11 Grade 8s in the class will be on this camping trip.  The remaining students will be with Ms. Seguire in Room 50 and follow a slightly modified schedule.

Have a good evening.

Monday, May 27, 2012

I was absent on Friday and officiating a Toronto District School Board Track and Field meet.

On Friday, time was spent concluding some Art assignments and preparing for today and tomorrow's Book Talk.  This is the Success Criteria chart we created for the class:

I am going to upload the 12 X Tranormal projects that were submitted.  3 students did not complete them, in spite of the tremendous amount of time provided to them.

Thursday, May 23, 2013

Here are 2 recipes, found by Mrs. Machado, for making clay and Play Dough at home.  This may help some students create some things for their diorama.

Zachary was the last student in the class to complete his Show and Tell:

Tia and Ellis do some in class review of plotting points on the grid.  This activity will completed this afternoon, along with some map reading skills.

For one of the exercises, I had a fictional question about the path of a Tornado.  From this, we made a connection by looking at some images from the recent, tragic storm outside of Oklahoma City.  We noted the similarity between the Math activity and an image I found on the BBC news website.  In addition, we extended our understanding by researching the absolute location of Oklahoma City.

To understand why an absolute location is either North, South, East, or West, it is important to understand where the hemispheres are:

HOMEWORK:
- Final dictation + work due for Unit 14
- Short Quiz on plotting on a 4 quadrant grid
- Book Talks begin on May 27 and run through May 28
- Diorama for Book Talk due on June 3

Wednesday, May 22, 2013

We are now working in all 4 coordinates of a Cartesian grid.  During the morning we did a touch of review (I will post a review narrated by John) before moving into discussing the bigger picture.

Here is an audio recording, by me, with Bishop doing the Math:

  So, during Library, instead of doing a Reading Response, I decided to extend their understanding of this new understanding by posting some links to some fun games.  The link to the direct Library page is this:  http://amgfun.blogspot.ca/2013/05/post-number-2-following-up-on.html

Here are some of the images of the games they played:

  Here is my second sample of the Reading Response I did.  It is only a rehearsal:

AND, for the Diorama, created by Bishop!

  

A link to some ideas on things we should consider giving up in order to be happy:
 http://worldobserveronline.com/2012/04/25/15-things-you-should-give-up-to-be-happy/

Tuesday, May 21, 2013

This is sort of a last minute post about a student film festival at PCI.

Mr. Rodriguez sent home a sheet for Grade 8 students regarding the transition to high school.

Specific program for Central Tech students

The Spelling homework went home for Unit 14.  Some students have already completed it, but they have until Friday to complete it.  I went through each question today and answered any that students may have had.

I have been holding off on the homework lately to allow students the space to prepare for the upcoming Book Talk assignment.  I have gone through and re-designed the assignment and provided the class with a guide to allow them to do one step at a time.

As I did last week, I will model another example of the Book Talk, including this planning chart, to help the students prepare. 

Friday, May 17, 2013

A very short entry.

Earlier this week, today, and on Tuesday, Progress Reports will be going home giving you a snapshot of how things have been going for your son or daughter in Room 52.  I would like to ask you to sign and return these forms once you have seen them and talked about it.  Here are the two pieces of paper that will be going home:

Tracking Chart for assignment and homework

Progress Report

Homework:  Book Talk (presentations begin on May 28)

Have a great long weekend.

Thursday, May 16, 2013

This is the audio and video file, I think, of the model Book Talk I did on Lois Lowry's The Giver.  I will see if it works.  At the point of trying to upload this video, I don't think it is going to happen and it may not appear.  If you don't see it, I was not successful with uploading it.



Here is an image of a very smart student who doesn't always apply himself to the best of his abilities:

The work we were doing had to do with coordinates.

There will be a short quiz on this tomorrow.

We took this same skill and applied it to some map reading skills.  Here is a handout that we went through together.





 

































Ariane volunteered to go to the front of the class to locate where she thought Toronto might be.

Over the next week, we will be doing some more map reading work and then moving on to look at the other quadrants in the Coordinate grid.  To illustrate the way the x and y axis works is like a number line.  This will make more sense once we look at little more at negative and positive numbers.  One of the best ways to illustrate integers is to use a thermometer.

When it is warm, the temperatures are +, but when it cools down, the temperatures can be in the -.

 HOMEWORK:

- record definition of Prime Meridian and Equator into Geography notebook
- Quiz on coordinate points on grid (quadrant one)
Have a pleasant evening.