Thursday, 29 November

Hello all: we began the day with a French lesson on numbers.  We counted forward and backward to twenty and then did some crossword puzzles for the numbers one to ten.  A colleague of mine who teaches French in secondary school has given me a series of fun activities to help with numbers and so we'll work through those for the next few lessons.  After French we had band.

After recess we read for pleasure for 15 minutes and then started math.  We started to do the practice set on subtracting integers using the number line as a follow-up from yesterday's instruction, but it became clear that most students needed to spend more time on this concept before continuing to the questions.  It seems that students get into the most trouble when they are asked to subtract a negative integer because for their whole life they have thought that subtraction makes numbers smaller and all of a sudden they're being told it can also make a number bigger.  There was some frustration and impatience as we reviewed the concepts but slowly more and more began to "see it."  Some are still fuzzy, but that is fine - we'll keep at it.  I explained that it's good to hit the wall from time to time and to experience tension while learning.  The lessons that are tough to conquer are the ones that stick best.  For homework, try to do as many questions from pp. 73 - 75 as you can.

After lunch we did a science lesson that involved reading pp. 28-32, then completing the classification table from question 3 on page 32.  We then went back and answered questions 2 and 4.  This should be completed for homework or during flex time tomorrow.

We also took time to discuss what the class would like to do for the Christmas concert, scheduled for Wednesday, Dec 19th, from 1:00 to 2:45.  Here is the product of our discussion.  We'll have to decide tomorrow what we'd like to pursue.  Thanks, Kiah for having some ideas from which to begin our discussion; and thanks Javen, for facilitating the meeting and Bowen, for acting as scribe.

We ended the day with the first phase of our fitness test.  By the time we did the warm-up, we only had time to run half of the class through the shuttle run (beep test).  We'll do the second half tomorrow.  Congrat.s to the runners and their coaches.  Once we got going things went smoothly.  Tomorrow we need to get started on the warm-up more quickly, with less talking and silliness.

Remember your p.e. strip for the next few days while we work through the fitness testing process.

Although cell phones haven't generally been a problem in our class, I'd like to remind parents that students are expected to have their phones turned off during instructional time.  Please expect your student to check for messages
(1) before 8:45,
(2) during recess from 10:25 to 10:40,
(3) during lunch from 12:00 - 12:40,
(4) or after school at 2:45.
 IF YOU MUST CONTACT YOUR STUDENT URGENTLY DURING INSTRUCTIONAL TIME, PLEASE CALL THE OFFICE AND A MESSAGE WILL BE BROUGHT TO CLASS.  Teachers have been asked to remove phones that go off during instructional time and drop them off with the principal, Mr. Clements, who will contact a parent or guardian.  This is the policy at the secondary schools and so it is good preparation for our students now.