Tis' the season to catch up

So much has happened in 7B since my last post. I apologize that it has been such a long time. Life and work became very busy and I found myself not having enough time in the day to write a post. We have been busy in class finishing up three units of study and starting three new ones.

In math the students finished up their divisibility unit and we began looking at fractions, creating equivalent fractions, place value fractions, finding common denominators, converting improper fractions to mix numbers and mixed numbers to improper fractions, adding and subtracting fractions and adding and subtracting mixed numbers. We just started looking at converting fractions into decimals and putting that decimal into percentage.

In our math problem solving class the students have started to plan and will be filming next class a how-to math video. Each group picked an outcome (concept) from the curriculum and had to plan how to teach someone through video. Once they are done I am planning on sharing them with you! Before starting we watched a few math how to videos from the YouTube channel Schmoop.

In Language Arts we finished up our mystery unit with the students writing original mystery stories. We have now started with our novel study. The class is reading Camp X by Canadian author Eric Walters. This is a great adventure story about to young Ontario boys during 1942 who stumble upon a secret government training camp. This story is a historical fiction and Camp X is an actual place that was one of the most important spy training camps for World War II. It is believed that Ian Fleming, author of the James Bond series, took his personal experiences from training at Camp X for inspiration for his world famous series! The kids are really enjoying the book and I love to see them discover a part of Canadian history in a fun and adventurous way. By the end of the novel students will create a book trailer for the book.

 

Video about Camp X

In Social Studies we started a new unit looking at globalization and how that effects the world, sweat shops, and how technology effects globalization. Currently, the students are researching "The Good, the Bad & the Ugly Brands" of our world. Each student chose a brand that they wanted to learn more about, within their research they had to find how the company treats their employees most specifically in third world countries where the labor has been outsourced. As well as looking at a brand students also found an organization that is fighting for labor rights in these countries. The students will put the information that they have found into a multimedia presentation that they will present to the class.

In Science we have had a special guest for the last month, Miss Unruh, an intern that has been teaching at our school since September. She has been teaching in the high school end for the most of her time, but wanted to experience a middle year classroom. She has been teaching the students about mixtures and solutions, chemistry. Students have completed a few labs and are learning about the particle theory.

We have also continued to blog. Friday mornings have become our blogging class. As well as, every Friday students also blog throughout the week in our classroom.

There are only three weeks left of school until Christmas holidays. I can't believe how fast this year is going. Something new this year is that the last day before break, December 20 it will be a regular school day with regular dismissal time. We will enjoy the traditional turkey dinner though, yum yum!

Math Talk!

Students in 7B have been focusing one math class a cycle on math communication. This focus is linked to the schools math LIP goal. We have looked at filling in the missing details of an "And Then" story and practiced justifying our answers. Last problem solving class we did some math talking. Students were split into groups and given a sheet with 4 word problems. They had to work in their groups to figure out the problem, but there was a catch; limited pencil and paper work! Students were required to talk through their thinking, strategies, and answers with using formal math language (using sum instead of answer in an addition question). They were only allowed to use a pencil and paper if they needed to do the "math" (algorithm) and couldn't do it in their heads. Before going off on their own we practiced and I model what I was hoping to hear and see. Talk everything out loud, even if it doesn't make sense. Tell your partner what you are thinking.
I was very pleased at listening in on their conversations and how they worked together to come up with an answer. One group was finished ahead of time so I asked them to record their solutions. Here is what they came up with.

Question 1:
A total of 32 students are going on a field trip. Each student must pay $4.75 for travel and $5.50 for dining. How much money should the teacher collect for the trip?

 

  

 

 

Question 2:

The restaurant has 6 tables with 4 seats each, 10 tables with 2 seats each, and 4 tables with 6 seats each. If half the seats in the restaurant were taken, how many seats were taken?

 

Question 3:

There are 496 cases of tennis balls at the store. Each case contains 24 tennis cans. Each can contains 3 balls. How many balls are at the store?

 



 

 

Question 4:

A bus stops at the corner of Elm Street and Oak Street every half hour between 9am and 3 pm and every 15 minutes between 3pm and 6pm. How many times will a bus stop at the corner between 9am and 6pm?

 



 

Second week is in the books!

The school year already seems to be flying by. I guess time flies when you're having fun!

 

Students research and presented their first group project last week in ELA. Each group researched about a category of "7 Wonders".

 

    7 Wonders of the Ancient World 

 

 

 

   7 Wonders of the Modern World

 

7 Wonders of Canada by CBC

 

          7 Wonders of Saskatchewan by CBC

 

7 Natural Wonders of Canada

 

 

The kids had a great time learning about each wonder in their category and they all did a fantastic job teaching the class about them!

 

 

One of our math classes has been put aside to specifically work on the school's math LIP goal with increasing students math communication skills. This week students learned why it is so important to add justification to their writing, especially when they are explaining a thought. To practice this students had to take a familiar story that had all the details taken out and add their own details. We called it the "Little Red Riding Hood And Then" story. Take a look at what the students had to work with.

 

 

In Social Studies we started to look at different types of map projections. To introduce students to this we watch an episode of "Where on Earth is Carmen Sandiego?" After a few notes students created their own "Where on Earth is Carmen Sandiego?" route that they will have a fellow student try to catch Carmen.

 

 

In Science students read about what all living things need to survive. They are now creating a virtual terrarium with an ecosystem of their choice.



 

Great 1st Week. Onto Week 2.

 What a great first week I had with my new class of grade 7s! We spent the first day going over paper work, them making stars and filling out interest inventories, setting up personal blogs and jumping into the grade seven curriculum. The students really enjoyed setting up their own blogs and practicing with writing about what they did this summer. Each student in 7B is required to write reflective blogs each week on their learning. I am really excited to get to see their perspectives of what they are learning!

We started our ecosystems unit in Science and went out to explore the different species in the schoolyard. It was such a beautiful day to get some fresh air and take a close look at what is growing and living in our back yard.

In Language Arts we started to talk about mysteries. I am reading the class Eric Walters The Mystery of the Money Pit each morning. It is a great book written by a Canadian author. By the end of the unit students will all write an original mystery. Such suspense!!

 

 

In Social Studies we have started to look at maps and the information they can tell us.

 

Lastly, in Math we have started to look at divisibility rules. These rules are a quick was to know if a number is divisible by 2,3,4,5,6,8,9 or 10. This week we practiced our long division skills. Do you remember how to do long division? Try these questions.

 

 

 

 

 



Welcome 7B Grey Wolves!

Welcome to grade 7. I hope you are all really excited to start a new year (I know it was hard to get out of bed and get to school today, but it will get better). This marks the third year of the 7B Grey Wolves. If you noticed on the door your name is on a wolf paw print and at the back of the room there is a grey wolf with the title "wolf pack". This will be your name for the winter games in February.

 

 

Throughout the year you will be learning about a variety of different things such as: mixtures and solutions in science, facial reconstruction in ELA, globalization in social studies and divisibility in math. I hope that you will enjoy and find interesting most of the topics we discuss in class.

 

Within the 7B classroom environment I ask for students to help one another out and be civil to each other. 7B's classroom is a safe place to learn, ask questions and even make mistakes. We encourage each other to do our best and respect each member in the class (including educational assistants, substitute teachers and myself).

 

All of your hard work  in and outside of class, along with, having a positive attitude and showing respect, helps you get a ticket on the train to Winnipeg. This is an annual trip (21st year) where we travel by train to Winnipeg, explore Lower Fort Garry, take in a baseball game and maybe go to the zoo or museum. (check out my previous post to see what we did last year). It is a really fun trip that involves staying in a hotel room for two nights. You don't want to miss it.

 



 

Along with posts that will (hopefully) be updated regularly (I am also a student working on my graduate degree and a mom) about what we are doing in class or about a great project students have completed. There is also a Google calendar that will have due dates for assignments and other important dates. This way if you forgot to write it down in your agenda it is only a few clicks away. I also encourage 7B parents to check the blog periodically so they can see what we are up to in class.

 

I would like to say one last time, welcome to grade 7!

Winnipeg

On Thursday, June 19, 28 grade 7 students and 4 chaperones boarded a bus at 9:30 and headed to Melville. When we got to Melville we had a quick lunch and bought a few snacks and were on our way to the train station. This is were we encountered our first mishap. Our bus died on the side of the road a few blocks away from the station. We unloaded the bus and walked to the station. We then had to wait for the train that was an hour late.

 Once we finally boarded the train the kids were so excited. We we officially off on the 20th annual grade 7 Winnipeg trip. This kids really enjoyed sitting in the dome car where you can sit on top of the car and have a panoramic view of the scenery. After an eight hour train ride we were finally in Winnipeg. When coming into the city we could see the storm outside. We were a little worried that we would have to walk to the hotel in pouring rain. Thank goodness that it stopped in time for us to walk the few blocks to the hotel. After getting everyone settled we ordered pizza and had supper at 11pm Manitoba time. Then it was off to bed and lights out. 

Friday morning we woke up to blue skies and sunshine. After a continental breakfast we loaded up a charter bus and were off to the zoo. We sat and listened to a storyteller for about a half an hour and then were taken on a tour of the zoo to see some of the animals that were in the stories we heard. Although, the zoo is under construction we had a great time checking out all of the animals. 

After out time at the zoo we hopped back on to our bus and drove 45 minutes to the historic site Lower Fort Garry. The tour guides met us at the bus and whisked us away to 1850 where we toured the buildings and learned how Treaty 1 was made and signed. The students got to do a simulation activity where they were put into three different groups: the plains people, the forest people and the new comers. Students got to trade and negotiate a treaty. This is such a great tour because all of the interpreters are dressed in period costumes and play roles of actual people that lived at the fort in 1850. 

After our two hour tour we went back to the hotel to rest before the ball game. We lucked out because of the down pour on Thursday there was a double header on Friday. We had to hurry to leave because  the game started at 6 instead of 7. We got to the game and spent 5 hours hanging out, eating ball park food and enjoying watching two ball games. 

After a very long day of walking and fresh air the kids were out like a light. 

Saturday morning we checked out of the hotel, walked to the train station to store our bags and the walked to The Forks market. The kids enjoyed exploring all of the shops and buying a few souvenirs. 

After a quick visit we were back at the train station and boarding the train to take us back to Melville. 

On the train students were excited to hear that there would be a musical performance by one of the passengers, Chris Ho. They all went back to the dome car to enjoy an acoustic performance. He was really great with them. He allowed the kids to video tape his performance and at the end he gave out a few CDs and autographed the "barf" bags (actually they are garbage bags) the kids got from the train. 

 

Video of Chris getting the students to sing along with him.

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B8bucgfJ-t6gS1cyNWZxTksxcWc/edit?usp=sharing

 

 

 http://www.chrishomusic.com/

 

 

We arrived back in Kamsack just after 6pm. All the students had a great time and were exhausted. I was happy with how the students represented our school, town and province. Another Winnipeg trip is now in the books! Until next year.

Highway Cleanup

Attention students and parents. Our second and last day for highway cleanup is Thursday June 6 starting after school. We will be finishing the last 7kms of our 13kms. If there are any parents that can come out and help, your help will be much appreciated.

Check me for Ticks

So the grade 7s ventured out to highway 5 heading east to Madge Lake for highway cleanup. Our students are raising money for their Winnipeg trip. We left the school at around 3:30 and walked to the starting point. There was about 15 students and 4 parents plus myself and Mrs. Holodniuk involved. The students broke up into 2 groups and each picked a kilometer at a time on both sides of the highway and then they would leap frog to the next kilometer.

I was the unofficial garbage man and bringer of juice boxes. Driving back and forth in my husbands "Darth Vader" dodge ram (Yeah his license plate says DRTHVDR)

 I could see the kids working hard picking up all of the garbage from last year's passerby's with their bright orange safety vests. When checking on the groups I would pick up garbage off of the side of the road that the kids would drag up from the ditch, I put the road signs up and handed out new garbage bags. I never once walked down into the ditches and yet I found myself covered in ticks. Gross! I grew up four hours north west of here and we didn't have ticks, I think they are starting to migrate up that way now. Anyways, I had a couple of freak outs, not really being good with bugs in the first place, but there is just something really creepy about these little black discs with legs that you can't kill. There was a few times I felt something on the back on my neck and sure enough it was a tick. I learnt very quickly to check myself for ticks every time I got back into the truck. Too bad I couldn't use the force to get rid of this little pests. During this whole experience all I could think of was Brad Paisley's song "Ticks".


The ticks unfortunately were the least of my worries. I was quite shocked that there are so many drivers on that highway that do not obey road signs. Even though there were signs saying "Workers present" and "60 speed limit, fines tripled". People wouldn't slow down. I guess 60kms is just too slow when you are in a hurry. I was so frustrated when I was driving back out after getting rid of a load of garbage bags and I was passed twice in the 60km stretch of highway, that I rolled down my window and honked at the drivers and waved my arm at them. I guess people don't know how to read. I don't care if it is students, emergency vehicles, highway workers, tow trucks ect. if there is a sign then SLOW DOWN. The RCMP were finally able to make it out and they did patrol the 3km section for us and they had to stop quite a few cars for speeding. Maybe these people will now be more observant of road signs. (sorry for the rant but this concerns me)
So after 6kms of picking on both sides of the highway the grade 7s went home. It took the group about four hours. We will have to do one more day afterschool to finish the job so we can get paid.
When I got home at around 8:30 I found that I had a stowaway on my leg. Yep, my creepy little friend Tick wanted to come home with me. This is the first time I have ever had a tick bite and I will admit I had another small freak out, which my 4 year old son thought was quite hilarious.
After our first day out for highway cleanup I think the kids and parents did a great job in getting half of our section of highway done. Thank you again to the parents who helped out, we appreciate it. We will have another day in the near future to finish up the cleanup.

 

Let it Rain

Highway cleanup is cancelled today due to rain.

photo taken from flickr

On the way to Winnipeg

This year the grade sevens will continue the tradition and travel to Winnipeg by train for the 20th year!! On our trip we will visit Lower Fort Garry, the Zoo, a baseball game and the Forks. In order to afford this trip students will be involved in highway cleanup tomorrow and Wednesday. Each student should bring work gloves, bug spray, bottle of water, appropriate footwear and dress for the weather. This fundraiser will be added to the two grants that Ms. Veregin was able to get for us this year to help subsidize this trip.

Kid comedy and Mad Libs

Today in LA class the students had a few laughs with watching Kid Snippets by Bored Shorts TV. It was a great way for students to see how you can make situations funny by just changing one small thing. Kid Snippets are short videos where they ask young children to explain a situation. This by itself is cute but not overly funny. The makers of these shorts then take adult actors and act out and lip sych the children's words. By changing the actors the situation turns hilarious. After watching the snippets we talked about Mad Libs. The students filled out an already made one and read them out loud infront of the class. They could see that by changing a few important words in the letter made the letter funny. They are now working on creating their own Mad Lib where they will switch with a partner tomorrow. I have linked the Kid Snippets to the side of my blog for you to enjoy.

It's Your Turn to Assess

Now that you have completed your post about a famous comedian, you will peer assess each other’s posts. You are required to assess at least 5 posts using the following checklist. When commenting on a blog you need to have more than: “that’s good”, “cool”, “wow”, “neat”… A good comment is written in complete sentences and has some constructive criticism or specific mention about parts of the post. For example: “I really liked how you described the comedians early life. You did a very good job painting a vivid picture of the comedians life. I really enjoyed your choice of youtube clip. You did forget to mention about the comedians accomplishments. If you would have included this it would have helped to give the reader the whole picture.”
Check list:

• youtube clip
• picture
• title
• description of their early life
• accomplishments
• what type of work they do
• original writing (no copy and pasting)

Famous Comedian

                                                               Picture borrowed from  http://www.therosevillatavern.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/Comedy1.jpg

This week the grade sevens are trying something new. A paperless assignment. Students assignment was handed to them via there blogs and they will be creating a research blog post on a famous comedian, where they will have to include a written biography, a youtube clip, picture and anything else to make their post unique. Some of the comedians students chose are: Adam Sandler, Ellen DeGeneres, Wil Smith, Eddie Murphy, Seth McFarlene, Steve Martin, and Seth Meyers.

Moccasin Making

On April 29th and 30th both grade 7 classes learned how to sew and bead moccasins. My mom was kind enough to drive from Prince Albert, 3 and a half hours away, to teach us. It was interesting to have my mom in the classroom with me. She has never seen me teach and I was a little nervous to have her here. She was also nervous about talking in front of so many people, but she did an amazing job. The two of us with the help of the master mind of this project, Andrea, put in 10 hours over the weekend just cutting and getting the materials ready for the students. She also put in hours on Sunday and Monday night sewing a pair of moccasins for the school's principal. She also taught me how to bead and sew before we started teaching the students. I really enjoyed this part the best because I got to spend some quality time with my mom.
Being involved with this project was quite an experience to have almost 40 students learning this intricate art. We started with learning how to bead and each student was able to pick a design and colors of beads. At the beginning students found this task frustrating trying to get the beads to stay straight and to create their chosen design.
At the end of two days two students completely had their moccasins made, fur and all. There were quite a few students who only have to sew fur on to have a finished pair. These students are staying in at lunch time with me to work on their moccasins.

I would like to thank all the students for their hard work during this project, Andrea for getting grants from SIGA and Saskatchewan Lotteries Community Grant, the other teachers and EAs who helped out and especially my Mom for working so hard. This may just become a tradition!

 

 

Voices through the Ages - Language Arts

The grade sevens just finished up their Language Arts unit "Voices through the Ages". We looked at a variety of ancient cultures such as: Ancient Egypt, Aztec, Mayan, and student choice culture. Students learned about the process of mummification, the ice man, ancient languages and forensic facial reconstruction. Some of the assignments students worked on were writing about a life event in Mayan hieroglyphs and pictographs and creating a facial reconstruction for a person from an ancient culture using paper mâché. I think the students really enjoyed this unit and this is one of my favourite Language Arts units to teach.
Take a look at a few of the students creations.

Welcome to my new blog!

I am very excited to finally have my blog up and running. After going to my first SSLA (Saskatchewan School Library Association) and listening to Andrea Hernandez  and all the wonderful blogging/digital profolio work she does at her school in Jacksonville, Florida, I was inspired. I came home from the conference excited to start both blogging myself and getting my grade seven students involved.
Yesterday, I introduced my students to blogging and they loved it! We are going to use our class blogs as a way to communicate what they are learning in school and to show some of their work.
Currently, my students are writing about mocassin making that happened on April 29th and 30th, what they learned about ancient civilizations in Language Arts, and Geometry in math.
Some of my students also created their own Voki, which they thought was really cool.
I hope that my students continue to enjoy created and developing their blogs for the last two months of school.