Researchers!

Today in Science we were deep into researching. This research is building them up and introducing them to finding data and facts online and from books. Eventually the students will pick a living thing to research and they will decide what they want to know about that living thing. They will organize their research into a presentation.
Today they were researching the five different groups of Vertebrates!

Classroom Update From Mrs. McCrea

I have started into my first couple days of my three week teaching block.  I am very excited to see what the students can learn but also bring to our classroom and share their own knowledge and experiences with the classroom.  Here is an update on where we are within the subjects I will be teaching:

In English, we have started a new unit on Fairness. Students will be reading and viewing images, books, videos and biographies surrounding the theme of fairness.  Through this unit students will learn how to organize paragraphs and eventually organize and write their own biographies.  The end goal is that the students will be able to write a biography on someone who has fought for fairness.

In Math, we started a new unit that is called Understanding Numbers. This unit focuses on place value with large numbers (up to the millions), solving word problems, multiples, prime and composite numbers, factors, order of operations, and integers.

In Science, we are learning about Living Things.  Soon we will be starting an inquiry project in which the students will be choosing a living thing that they want to learn about. They will decide what information they want to learn through developing questions about that living thing and organizing how they are going to present their information.  We are practicing how to create good questions and our researching skills in the classroom.

In Health, we have discussed and defined values and personal standards.  Students have recently completed an assignment that challenged them to determine and uncover their values and then set their own personal standards for each of the 5 dimensions of the wellness (physical, psychosocial, social, spiritual and environmental).  We have also discussed that in our lives people face situations that will either challenge or reinforce our personal standards.  The students will create a skit of a situation that will challenge and then reinforce their personal standards.  In the situation that will challenge their personal standards, they have to resolve the challenge in a healthy way through the skit.

Word Work

Here are the 12 class words to study for Monday:

controlling                  excellent                    dependence
residence                   preference                 equipped

preferred                    kidnapped                 appearing

equipment                  excel                          rebellion

Rainbows for Maranda

This afternoon some students spent time creating "Rainbows for Maranda".  Maranda is a 10-year-old girl in Regina who is suffering from an undiagnosed illness.  She happens to love rainbows!  So, joining in with thousands who have already sent rainbows with hopes of brightening Maranda's day, we painted and colored rainbows!

Quizlet

You can follow this link to practice for your Breadwinner test!  Or, follow the invitation I sent to your iGo account so that you can join our class site on Quizlet.  I love this new tool for studying and reviewing!

Tagxedo

Here is the link to Tagxedo.

Malala Yousafzai

In connection to our study of the novel, The Breadwinner, today we discussed the recent attack on 14-year-old activist Malala Yousafzai in Pakistan.  Here is a message and link from Amnesty International:

"The bravest Pakistani schoolgirl of them all!

You can send a special message of support to Malala here: http://bit.ly/TTTXM9

Today, on the first ever International Day of the Girl, we want to highlight Malala Yousafzai, also known as “the girl on the schoolbus”. She was brutally targeted by the Tehreek-e-Taliban as she had spoken out for the right for girls to receive an education. 

As she was on her way to school, a gunman opened fire on her bus, deliberately targeting Malala. In spite of being shot in the head, she survived the attack. 

As the world now watches the slow progress of a young girl who was brave enough to refuse to bow to the sinister threats of the Taliban, hundreds of thousands of schoolgirls in Pakistan watch in thrall as their future and their desires to go to school stand in the balance. Malala’s words can give them strength:

“I have rights. I have the right of education. I have the right to play. I have the right to sing. I have the right to talk. I have the right to go to market. I have the right to speak up.”

What an inspiration."