Drake Tax Receipts

For the families and individuals who donated more than $25 in cash to the Drake Fundraiser, you are eligible for a tax receipt.  Tax receipts were issued for donations made in the form of cheques.  If you would like to take back your cash and provide a cheque, you can, but for this week only.

The following notice went home last week.

Tuesday: Storytelling links and some other notes

In order to keep the students' minds on Storytelling, I thought I would post a few photos to give the students some ideas and inspiration for when they tell there own.  I would like to have the sessions begin by early next week.

Here is the first video selection:

Whoops.  I meant to select another one.  That's okay, the more examples to watch, the better.

Selangor, by the way, is a state in Malaysia, a country located in South East Asia:

http://www.nationsonline.org/oneworld/map/malaysia_map.htm

Here is the other video example from Selangor:

If you take a look at our Success Criteria, you can see some of the presenters have looked at it.  Ha, ha.

Here is another video, still in the realm of Storytelling, which is more like a performance.  This student, Noah St. John, tells a story, a very emotional one, and demonstrates how he engages the audience with a sense of enthusiasm and clarity.  You will also notice that his pace is too quick or too slow.  Enjoy.

Here is a final example of an 81 year old woman who talks about being a storyteller and we see glimpses of her story.

This morning, we will be looking at the New York Times Media/Journal exercise.

http://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/category/lesson-plans/whats-going-on-in-this-picture/

Short Post

The list of games posted last Thursday were explored by the Grade 7s and 8s in the Library today.

I gave the students a sheet to record the name of the three review/game sites they visit and to record what they have learned.  For some some students, they said they learned nothing because they already know everything on a given topic.  They may think they do, but this exercise can be a form of review for them where they might reinforce what they already know by playing an educational game.

Here is an example of a sheet being filled in by one student:

In Grade 5 Math, and in the subsequent years after, students begin to be exposed to formulas for calculating answers.  In the case of the Math we are doing with the Grade 7s, they are doing a review of Grade 5 Measurement by looking at the perimeter of a rectangle (they will then look at the area of the same shape).  On the Promethean Board, after taking up today's homework, I drew an image:

 

More review and practice to come.

For the Grade 8s, we are still dabbling in some angle relationships.  At this point, we are combining are knowledge of Straight and Opposite angles to solve problems like this:

 We will spend a little more time on these relationships before we begin a review and have a test on this.

Spelling homework (from Friday) and a Reading Response (from the weekend) should have been handed in.  I will be checking these two items and adding it to the homework chart.  Even if you are absent from school, you are still responsible for completing and handing in this work.  DON'T BEGIN TERM 2 IN THE HOLE.  Stay on top of your work and ask for help and more time, if you need it!!

No formal homework has been assigned tonight.

 image from:  

 http://www.myclassroomideas.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/Stay-On-Top-Of-Your-Work.jpg

A few images from last week's Drake Fundraising Dance

Thanks for the students from Room 52 who raised just over $145 for the fundraiser last week.  That was awesome work for a worthy cause!  Here are a few shots from the dance, where everyone looked to be having a lot of fun:

Friday, February 21: Games for Grade 7s+ 8s and Youtube tutorials for Grade 8 Geometry

This post will be a work in progress and have information relating to the Math programs of the Grade 7s and 8s.

Based on the Triangle and Quadrilateral exercise from yesterday, here's a cool webpage that demonstrates how the sum of the interior angles of a triangle equal 180 degrees.

http://www.mathwarehouse.com/geometry/triangles/ 

I am having some difficulty uploading this video on Interior and Exterior angles:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQfFm0WIo7c

While looking for games for the Grade 8s to play, I came across this pretty detailed page on  Parallel lines and the angle properties associated with them.
http://www.mathsisfun.com/geometry/parallel-lines.html

This is a video that will go through what is known as Alternate and Corresponding angles.

 

Yet another video.  Grade 8s, if you want to go through a very slow, but informed review of angles (some of the work you will not get to until high school), please have a look at this:

As we work our way to more complex angle relationships, I wanted to upload 2 images of a student using a protractor to measure an angle.  At first, he has the placement incorrect, but then he corrects it, so he comes up with the right answer.

Today, the Grade 8s had a look at Opposite Angles.

 This is building on the work on Supplementary and Complementary angles

We will be returning to the 2 shapes we constructed yesterday.  Here is the sample I did with the correct measurements and totals.

Links for some Mathematical Games 

Grade 7:  There are enough links here to help you review some of the work we have done so far.

This Funbrain website activity is probably the best place to start because you can select the level of difficulty for either Perimeter or Area of both:  http://www.funbrain.com/poly/index.html

Another solid review of Perimeter and Area.  You may either select from Area or Perimeter when you click on the link:  http://www.bgfl.org/bgfl/custom/resources_ftp/client_ftp/ks2/maths/perimeter_and_area/index.html

An Area and Perimeter game that uses a grid.  You can check your answers, once you are done:
http://www.shodor.org/interactivate/activities/ShapeExplorer/

This is a virtual version of the activity we used with Geoboard and elastic bands:
http://nlvm.usu.edu/en/nav/frames_asid_281_g_2_t_4.html

A Geoboard like activity that looks at both area and Perimeter from PBS Kids:  http://pbskids.org/cyberchase/media/games/perimeterarea/perimeterarea.swf

A game that involves an understanding of both Perimeter and Area.  You are in charge of designing the layout for a party:  http://www.mathplayground.com/PartyDesigner/PartyDesigner.html

Grade 8: There are not as many "fun" games for this part of Geometry, but I think you will find the interaction engaging.
 This is an angles game in the spirit of Jeopardy.  You have played a game like this before for another strand of Math:  http://www.math-play.com/Angles-Jeopardy/Angles-Jeopardy.html

Not so much a game, but more of a review of angles:  http://www.ixl.com/math/grade-6/complementary-and-supplementary-angles  
 
This is more of a game concerning Complementary and Supplementary angles:  http://www.lessonpaths.com/learn/i/angles-2/xp-math-math-games-arcade-complementary-and-supplementary-angle-pairs-practice-free

I think Trine will like this game.  It has the word Manga in it!!
http://www.mangahigh.com/en/maths_games/shape/angles/opposite_angles


HOMEWORK
Grade 8 Math:  p. 247 # 3, 4, 5
                         p. 248 # 1, 2, 6, 7

Grade 7 Math:  p. 173 on Perimeter

1 hour of Quiet Reading & Reading Response on a book or article that you read

REMINDER:  The Grade 8 graduation photo is on Monday.  Dress to impress!

Thursday

The Character Chairs have now been completed and the students have received constructive feedback, and marks, on how they have performed.  We will now be turning our attention to performing the stories/Myths on another level in the form of storytelling!

Here is the Success Criteria that we developed together yesterday:

I am going to attempt  to upload a video of Jonathan working through a Math problem from the Promethean Board.  Because it is a large file, it may not upload correctly.

As the Grade 8s continue to work on some Grade 8 level work on angles, I decided to do an activity that would be characterized as constructivitst.  Simply put, it means that students make sense/create/construct their own understanding about something.

So, I will drop a little hint about the correct interior measurements of the shapes the students made.

 The students had to make a triangle and a quadrilateral (a four sided shape).  With a triangle, the interior angles always add up to 360 degrees and with a quadrilateral, the measurements of all angles always total to 360 degrees.  More to come!!

Tomorrow is the last day for the Pizza Lunch money to be brought in:

 I may have already posted this about the upcoming Parent Conference, put on by the TDSB, but I am not sure.  Here it is:

Add caption

Although I have not been posting the images to the website, we usually do the What's Going on in this Picture exercise from the New York Times.  Here is the image we looked at on Tuesday.  We will debrief and find out "what is going on" when we look at the answer, either today or tomorrow.  This exercise is part of our Media Literacy unit of the Language program.

The link for this image, and to find old postings, may be found at:  http://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/02/03/whats-going-on-in-this-picture-feb-3-2014/

Here our some images from our visit to Mr. McLaughlin's room for Reading Buddies.  I will be looking at the journal entries they have been doing with their partners to see if they have been following the Success Criteria for the visits.  Yes, I know, they are only in Kindergarten, but it is important they have a sense of what the activity is supposed to be about and if they don't, they can find out from the teacher!

Here is that Success Criteria chart that Mr. McLaughlin created:

The Grade 7s are doing some review and reinforcement of some key concepts in understanding perimeter.  The students used a Geoboard to create a shape and then counted off the perimeter.  They then had to transfer the shape to their notebook.  Here is the sample I did. 

Geoboard perimeter of 10

Drawing in the notebook.  No unit of measurement is indicated and that is okay, since the Geoboard has no fixed unit of measure.

Here are some students at work:

Homework:

Unit 4 Spelling work + final dictation
Pizza Lunch forms are due tomorrow

Tuesday, February 18, 2014

Here are a sampling of posters from the class.  I say sampling, because a few students decided not to complete this assignment.