Growth and Development Links!

Hello All!

Just a quick reminder for those of you who are using the information for the Growth and Development links here they are!

Best link for teens (great info and diagrams):
http://www.plannedparenthood.org/info-for-teens/our-bodies-33795.htm

This site is geared towards girls, but is a good site to get information about menstruation:
http://www.ubykotex.com/?WT.mc_id=UKG&WT.srch=1&pkw=kotex+myths

Great reliable site to help you get info about sexual health and decision making:
http://www.sexualityandu.ca/


This link is for our local sexual health clinics in Toronto, there you can get confidential help for any issue you may be having:
http://www.toronto.ca/health/sexualhealth/sh_clinics.htm#marker05


Okay, more updates to follow however this is for you to use in class for research. Have a great night and see you tomorrow!

;)

First Day at the Toronto Island School!!

Today was a great day! We had afternoon program, a great meal and a beautiful night hike!! St. Margaret's was represented so well and the staff here were impressed with us!! Let's keep up the good work everyone!!

More to come tomorrow!

Late Night Posting

Hi All!
   Just a reminder that you have a Science test tomorrow! So study! Please find photos attached below to help you prepare.

Also for language, we're continuing on the Frayer Model, most of you have either - stereotyping, emotions or realistic to analyze and pick apart. So come to school ready to conference and present.

Math - we are collecting primary data and making scatterplot graphs so be ready.

Geography we have some book work, see pictures below.  You have until Wednesday to get this done!  I will be checking this so get it done!

Okay, so late, time for bed! Night!

 

Brown Fountain!

Good evening everyone...we're just about done this week and feels like it's been dragging by with all of these indoor recesses and cold warnings!  Glad that tomorrow is Friday! Living-the-dream!

I'm sorry about not posting about yesterday but as promised everyone has an extension until tomorrow so I am hoping that you are staying on top of your work from this week!

In math we have been analyzing the Candygram data from the Valentine's sales.  So far the presentations have been good to excellent and most of you are getting the hang of being explicit about WHAT it is you're talking about.  A lot of the descriptive feedback that most groups have been getting is that their data is too little and isn't clear enough to the audience OR that graphs and information is not easy to read at a glance (missing labels on x and y axis, no appropriate titles or proper titles for the information you are giving).  Hopefully tomorrow we will finish the 3 outstanding groups and we can move on!

In Language we have been studying Media Literacy vocabulary.  Yesterday we talked about the concept of Questioning Popular Media and watched the clip below.  The journal entry question from yesterday will be posted below too.  We will have a work period tomorrow morning so any outstanding work (especially for the 8's, who have HUGE Science stuff due) will have some time tomorrow.

Today in Language we unpacked the idea of Voice, and I read you "The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs" by A.Wolf and you filled in a worksheet called the Freyer Model to show what you knew about the concept of Voice.  Tomorrow that is due...along with the other journals, and please add as much detail as possible!  Also just a reminder that the SOTM soft due date is tomorrow, so bring that to work on too as I will have the Netbooks for you to use.

This afternoon you had some time to do some research in our computer time for your Health Infographics, and some of you met with me to discuss your concepts for the project.  FYI- Soft due date for the Infographic is: March 5th  Hard due date is: March 21st.  NO EXTENSIONS!!!

You also had gym with Mrs. Nicholson and then French with Mrs. Wong where you got some evaluations back.  I saw that some of you did really well so I am happy to see that.

We ended the day with a quiet work period, some of you read and others worked on outstanding assignments.

AS A REMINDER: GRADE 8'S YOUR 3D CELL IS DUE TOMORROW AND YOU HAVE A SCIENCE SHOW WHERE ALL OF THE SCHOOL WILL BE COMING TO SEE YOUR WORK.  IF YOU DO NOT HAVE A PROJECT TO HAND IN...YOU WILL HAVE TO STAND THERE AND EXPLAIN TO THE SCHOOL WHY YOU ARE NOT DONE! SO PLEASE GET IT DONE!!

Grade 7's, if you have not handed in your BIOME projects to Mrs. Nicholson, then they are way past due.  Get them done and in ASAP!

That's all for now...have a great night! Here's something that makes Lucy and me laugh out loud...we even yell "Alan!" to get each other to smile...so watch and enjoy!

Science Project Time!!

Good evening all!  What a rainy day! I am so glad we didn't have to stay in all day today or I think I would have gone crazy!

This morning we started off with some Data Management.  We discussed the initial sales and our predictions about the different sales in the different divisions.  We noticed in the primary division sales were higher when the teacher was present in the class and when the kids were older.  Which makes perfect sense.  In the junior division class population determined the sales, which means the higher number of students the higher number of sales.  Finally in the intermediate division we decided that most of us were focused on the sales of the candygrams and not the sales in our own class.  Tomorrow we will analyze the next few days of data and see what patterns emerge throughout. 

For language we deconstructed the vocabulary word : Challenge.  We decided that in the media context we are challenged everyday to think about what makes sense to us and what we believe.  You were given a journal to do tonight in French class at the end of the day and you will find the assignment as a picture below in this post.  In addition to the vocabulary discussion we watched a short video...please find it attached.  Re-watch it to help you with your homework, journals are due tomorrow!!

Instead of switching with Mrs. Nicholson's class you were all given time work on your science projects and conference with someone else in the class.  Many of you used this time wisely, and these projects are due tomorrow!! Just a reminder for the 7's you have a vocabulary test tomorrow morning so STUDY!!!

You ended the day off with French, hopefully it all went well!

For tomorrow & this week:
Math- Get ready for Data Managment analysis
Language- Media Monkey/Challenge journal due -- SOTM due Friday!
Science - Grade 8's 2D cell diagram was due today, 3D cell models are due FRIDAY
Art - Still working on Infographics -- research time will be given!

That's all for tonight! Please enjoy the photos of my baby boy too...I thought I'd include them so you could see what he looks like! Night!

Hello All - Long time no talk!

Good evening everyone, just a few reminders for tomorrow:

For Language: We covered how to write a hamburger paragraph...with detail. The focus of our writing was to complete a hamburger paragraph by writing one of your supporting paragraphs for next month's S.O.T.M's using one of the character traits (team player, fair or great goal setter).  I have attached the photo of the note below for your reference.  Tomorrow you are to come to class with a paragraph written to be edited by a peer, and I want to see some of your work!!

For Math: 7's we reviewed how to find the area of a triangle and how to find the area of a parallelogram.  Both were done by doing a worksheet and I worked with some of you so that you got the concept and it seemed that many of you were having success.  Make sure you are done your work for tomorrow...please!

8's we reviewed circumference and I am happy to say that most of you were getting the work.  I worked closely with some of you who were not clear on the basics and by the end I felt good that we were done. Work will be checked tomorrow too!

In Science: Mrs. Nicholson wants the 7s to find the definitions of the words in the photo below.  Please use your time to look them up.  The 8's you have a cool lesson on cells tomorrow.

I have posted the YouTube clips from yesterday...it was fun.  Plus some Shakesperience photos as well.  See you tomorrow!

Science Vocabulary

Hamburger Language Graphic Organizer!

Shakespearience

Insulting each other - Shakespeare Style

The 7/8 girls...playing Hamlet!

J.G., J.H., K.P.J. playing a scene from "Romeo and Juliet!

Quick Homework Reminders!

Hello All!

Just a few reminders for you!

1. MATH - Do you remember p.150, Measurement Chapter

2. LANGUAGE - Bullying piece, brainstorm due tomorrow, I will conference with you tomorrow too and I'll be checking to see that it is done!

3. HISTORY - Research your coin person...get those notes done!

4. SCIENCE - Worksheets for Mrs. Nicholson - 8's cells 7's -ecosystems

5. ART - 2013 posters are past due get them in to me ASAP!

6. HEALTH - PSA brainstorm is due to me tomorrow, get some notes down!

Okay, have a good night and see you tomorrow!
                                  

Tuesday...Just a quick post!

Evening Everyone! I hope all of you had a great afternoon and that you were behaved for the unsuspecting supply teacher while I was at a workshop!  I'm sure that you were all angels! ;)

Today we began the day with our Geometry and Spatial Sense Unit TEST!  Oh the stress! Hopefully all went well for you today and those of you who did not finish, you may finish tomorrow morning!
Tomorrow morning we will begin our measurement unit and cover the learning goals for that unit tomorrow AM!  

We didn't have time for a whole language lesson, but some of you were given the opportunity to do some silent reading.

After lunch you had an opportunity to get into your groups and start brainstorming for your PSA's for health.  I will be marking your notes and looking for your creativity! See some cool PSA's below!

Next you had Science for a double period, some of you did ecosystems and some of you did cells.  Work is due ASAP to Mrs. Nicholson so get it done!

See you all tomorrow! TTYL :)

P.S. - I hope all of the auditions and interviews went well for our Wexford and King applicants! Can't wait to hear your good news! <3

Thursday that is like a Friday!

Wow, I can hardly believe that today is the end of the week. I am feeling tired from this week and I bet that most of you are feeling the same.

This morning we started with math and continued with rotations in the coordinate plane.  If you are unsure of the strategies we used please refer to yesterday's blog post to watch the links.  Homework is in the pictures below please have it done for Monday as I will be checking it.  I also would like to have a test either Monday or Tuesday so please have your questions ready for Monday!

We read to our reading buddies after recess and it was nice to see most of you connecting with the little people from our school reading to them and having your buddies read to you.  We will work with the iPods next week and play around with them. 

After some more math we revisited the Language lesson from yesterday and talked about writing forms.  Many of you had some great ideas and I could see that you had thought about your answers.  Homework for the weekend is a journal response, see picture below.  If your response is less than 12 sentences we have a problem!

We had dental screening today and those of you who were absent will have missed it for this year. 

You ended the day with Mrs.Nicholson, working with the Netbooks and setting up your passwords.  She also had you doing some research online.  Hopefully most of you got your research done and I am looking forward to using the Netbooks next week too!

Okay, that's all for now.  Have a great long weekend and I'll see you on Monday! ;)

                       

Wednesday - The Middle of the WEEK!

So we are halfway done...and it feels good.  Glad that we are getting back into the swing of things and that routines are falling back into place. 

This morning began with a math quiz on Transformations.  It covered the topic of translation and rotation.  Most of you finished before recess, which means good things for me and your understanding.  After the quiz we watched 2 videos on rotation.  See below.

Your homework tonight is to write a journal explaining the rules for rotating an object clockwise and counter clockwise in the coordinate plane.  It is due tomorrow.

For language we covered the topic of Audience.  Who the audiences are for different types of writing.  We also discussed what the relationship was between the purpose for writing and the audience.  We decided that when you have a purpose for writing you must also have the audience in mind so that it is relevant to the person who may be reading the text.  For tomorrow you must bring a list of 15 examples of writing forms (lectures, articles, letters).  We will discuss this in class tomorrow so hopefully you will have some ideas when we begin because half of our literacy period will be devoted to going to reading buddies.

After lunch we discussed our next history project.  Where you will be responsible for creating a collector coin based on a person either from New France - grade 7s or Confederation - grade 8s.  We watched the following videos and will discuss the project more in depth the next day we have History.

For tomorrow you also have the health lecture reflection due.  6 sentences along with your notes from the film.  Please get this done tonight. 

See you tomorrow...it's supposed to get warmer and I'm looking forward to the change from cold to warm! :)

Day Two - So Tired...

I am not sure about any of you but I found that waking up this morning was tougher than yesterday.  Hopefully you're all getting your rest and you're adjusting back to a school schedule and not a holiday schedule. 

Today in Math we continued working on reflections in the coordinate plane.  We did two activity sheets to consolidate our learning from yesterday.  Tomorrow we will begin the day with a brief quiz on transformations and reflections.  Please see the two quick instructional videos below to remind you of these concepts.  Study and hopefully all will work out.  After the quiz we'll start on rotations!  And then my friends we are done this unit!!

For Language we started reviewing the different Purposes for Writing and in your seating groups you brainstormed ideas about "Why people write".  We generated a class list and then reviewed the 11 Key Purposes for Writing.  For homework you are to brainstorm 10 different audiences for writing answering the key idea "Who is this piece of writing for?". 

After lunch we watched the TED talk "What's wrong with the way people eat?" and revisited some ideas about health and healthy eating.  We talked about the lecture and you are all to hand in your jot notes from the lecture in addition to writing a 6-7 sentence response to your reactions about the lecture. Plese revisit the lecture below if you forget some of the points. 

The rest of the afternoon was filled with Science.  I have attached Mrs. Nicholson's notes and you are responsible for a lab report per group. More details to follow but it's due on Thursday.

FYI- We will have to discuss the French computer lab fiasco tomorrow!  I feel a detention is in order. :(

Okay, so that's all for today.  See you tomorrow! :)

First Day Back!

Wow! Two weeks away and I have forgotten how tiring our days are!  Glad to be back with all of you though and happy to hear that most of you had a good break.

For math we learned about reflections on the coordinate plane.  Please review the video below, and do your homework.  See photo below!

For language we reflected on getting a fresh start for the new year and what that meant to all of us.  I had you write a reflection.  See photo below.

After lunch you had computers, gym and French.  I hope all went well.  I heard good things from Mrs. Nicholson and she said that you all cooperated well.

Finally we finished the day with art. You are to create a 2013 themed poster.  Please see the criteria attached!

Okay, that's all.  Have a great night and see you all tomorrow! Oh yes, I almost forgot...something to make you laugh!

Math homework

Art assignment - due next Monday - DAY 2

Journal Reflection

Our ideas from our class discussion about what the New Year means to us!

Student of the Moth!

Wednesday...Almost last day of Presentations!

Woo hoo!  We are almost through the entire grade 7/8 class of presentations for History!  So glad that they are almost done! Hopefully all of you are ready to get back into the swing of things with Mrs. Nicholson and the new Science building project. 

This morning we spent pretty much getting through all of the History presentations.  It was great to see so many of you organized and presenting with such confidence.  We have a few stragglers on Friday to do a re-present and then we're on to a collector coin activity.

Please finish all math for tomorrow as we will revisit it.  Also if you need extra help we will be working in class on translations for one more day. 

A science work period will be given first thing tomorrow, so bring your plans and blueprints and get ready to WORK! 

Okay that's all for now, see you tomorrow! :)

It's a boy!

Good evening to some of you!  Hopefully I will be able to blog at school so that updates can happen.  Please check the blog on a regular basis to see if I have updated it seeing as the computers are slow and posting to FB is difficult. 

This morning we started with "The Inner City Angels" project meet and greet with the artist.  What was amazing to me was the quality and creativity that many of the projects displayed.  I was so impressed with the quality of the artwork from students as young as kindergarten and the end projects were just amazing!  I love it!  So, now I can't wait to see what you all produce!

Next we covered the concept of tranlations (slides).  Please see the video below for a quick review.

Homework tonight is: 7 - p. 234 #3-8   8- p.226+227 A-F, #1-3 & p.228 #4-6

Practice! Practice! Practice!

After lunch you had computers, where many of you printed up last minute corrections for your powerpoints and got some extra images for your posters.  Then you had gym with Mrs. N!

At the end of the day we had our first New France presentation, and congratulations to the only team that was ready in our class on Monday.  Tomorrow we'll focus mostly on Confederation and the grade 8's but 7's be ready for anything!

Okay that's all, a short post! See you in the morning and I hope Lahmar (teehee J.H.!) doesn't kick me too much tonight so I at least get some good sleep.

<3 Ms. K

Monday...the day before my big needle day!

Evening all.  Hope you are all enjoying this mild weather before it gets really cold again.  I think I even saw people playing basketball with t-shirts on?!! You are crazy!

Today we started with coordinates and used the ELMO for the first time!  I was so glad it worked out, and happy that it set up so easily.  On another happy note, many of you got the idea behind the four quadrants and were able to start to comfortably plot points on a grid.  I am looking forward to your artwork for Wednesday and the other pictures are super difficult, so we'll see if you are all pros in the end.

After that we started our bullying unit prompted by the Showdown 2.0 performance on Thursday.  We read a story called "Dear Bully" and I cried while reading the recount of Laurie's bullying experience.  I was glad to hear many of you sharing your ideas and thoughts about Laurie's experience and how she was at peace now with her bully now that she was an adult.  You had a writing response assigned, however the way you wish to respond to the story is up to you.  You may write a journal, a letter to the bully or to Laurie and you may choose write an apology in the voice of a bystander that witnessed Laurie's bullying.  What is most important is that you get your ideas down on paper because your final assignment is going to reflect all of your feelings from the readings this week and your reflections will be a huge resource to you.  The excerpt for tomorrow is a poem, and I know you will like it.

This afternoon, I didn't really see you other than health.  I want you to think about your health journals and the food groups that you may be lacking in or eating too much of.  This will inform how we may approach our PSAs for the younger kids...and if I had your attention you would know that we are going to make films based on our data.

To finish off the day you had gym and Science with Mrs. Nicholson.  You finished off the film and you need to have your notes on machines done.  You also have a project due in French coming up and hopefully you are staying on task for that.

For tomorrow:
Math- mouse coordinate worksheet
Language - Showdown 2.0 journal, Dear Bully written assignment & SOTM
History - Soft due date Thursday! Presentations start next week!
Science - Movie notes
Art - t-shirt design
Health - Ideas for PSAs
French - Research projects

Okay, won't see you tomorrow as I am at my appointment, be good and have a great day. See you Wednesday. :)

Lucy and her friend after they had their faces painted at the Police Christmas Party.  She was a unicorn and her friend was a butterfly! 

Journal from today

Lucy riding a crazy motorcycle at the party on the weekend! 

Tuesday Test Result Day!

Today was another busy day, with lots of work being done.  We started the day with a language work period.  You were all given the opportunity to work on your SOTM's.  We decided that the soft due date would be this Friday and the hard due date was on Monday!  I hope that you are all having an easy time figuring out who you might nominate and I am looking forward to your submissions.  Remind me that tomorrow I should hand you out a sheet to you, to help with some ideas for transition words.  B.C. had it and I photocopied it and it's on my desk ready to go in your language workbooks.

For math we took up the test and many of you have to take them home for signatures.  The corrections and signatures are due tomorrow.  Also please study for the retest tomorrow, this will be your final opportunity to redo your tests if you did not do well. 

After lunch we had a double history period with many of you working on your poster templates and powerpoint presentations.  Template plans are due before you get a board so please get these in to me ASAP!

In French you got time to work on the laptops on your French projects.  Most of you have been put up to the task of researching French places and origins of the language.  I am looking forward to seeing your final products.

At the end of the day you had Dance with Mr. Kidd.  I hope that all went well there and I get to hear all good news about your behaviour.  :)

As promised I have attached the links from Science: 
http://www.msichicago.org/online-science/simple-machines/activities/simple-machines-1/

http://www.edheads.org/activities/simple-machines/index.shtml

For tomorrow:
Math - Tests signed, study for tomorrow
Language - SOTM
Science - links above
History - poster template
Health - food journal tally

See you tomorrow!

Monday...reflect, rotate and transform!

Evening Everyone!  So today was a fresh start with our new math unit on Geometry and Spatial Sense.  I saw many of you accessing your prior knowledge today and trying to remember what an isosceles triangle was and all of that other knowledge in the creases in your brains.  We'll be talking more about this and covering it more in class.

In math today for both the 7s and the 8s it was the Remembering section of your texts, numbers #1-9.  Please try all of the numbers as best you can and we'll revisit it tomorrow.  Also, we need to review the tests from Friday.  Some crazy things going on, you either did really well or not well, there wasn't a lot of between.

In language today we went up to the lab to continue researching your history projects.  Some of you are still not making good use of your time and think that you are "finished" your research portions.  I will meet with all of you tomorrow and we'll see if you have been thorough enough.  I met with Mrs. Nicholson's class today and many of them still were missing data, information and had no clue really what they were supposed to be researching.

After lunch you did a tally of your health journals from last week. You need to look at your Canada's Food Guide suggestions for your ages and then do a tally of your food based on what it suggests.  We will discuss your data next week.  Hopefully some patterns will emerge and we can see where we are not meeting the guidelines to help as a starting point for our PSA's.

Next you had Science, with Mrs. Nicholson.  I should have gotten the links that you looked at today.  I will get them for tomorrow and will post them on the blog.

At the end of the day you had French with Mrs. Wong, and you went up to the computer lab.  I will get the details from Mrs. Wong and post them up here too.

For tomorrow:
Math - 2D Geometry #1-9
Language - SOTM due soon
History - Research projects are due soon
Science - two worksheets for Mrs. Nicholson + Cornell notes for the chapter she specified
Health - Food journal tally
French - Project for Mrs. Wong on French?!
Art - t-shirt design due next art period

Have a good night and I'll see you tomorrow.  Please find the success criteria for the art project attached in the photo below. :)

Thursday....baby day!

Surprise!  I'm pregnant!  So glad to hear that I will be missed at the end of the year. Sorry to let some of you down that I won't be here next year until the end.  However, I am a mother and a teacher and am happy and blessed to be expecting again.  Remember December 17th, is my next ultrasound and I could find out the gender of the baby...will it be a Jahmar or an Ashawntaya?  Who knows!

We started this morning with a math review again.  Please practice tonight on the links below because we have a test tomorrow! 

Grade 7s- Look for adding and subtracting with integers
.http://www.aaamath.com/grade7.htm

Grade 8s - Look for multiplying and dividing integers
http://www.aaamath.com/grade8.htm

We also worked on a cheat sheet for integers that all of you can use next year and beyond.  Don't lose them and please find the picture of the model below.


In English we followed up on the grammar lesson we did yesterday on there, their and they're.  Your job today was to write 15 sentences in total.  5 sentences each - 5 for there, 5 for their and 5 for they're.  There will be a quiz tomorrow!


After lunch you had French with Mrs. Wong.  You are working in the computer lab on something and many of you have outstanding work due to her ASAP.  Please get it done.

Then we had History half in the computer lab and half in class.  You had to write up your plans for your posters and I would like them handed in by Friday (soft due date), Monday (hard due date). 

We ended the day with a library exchange and it was so beautiful outside you might have thought it was spring out there.  Have a great night and I'll see you tomorrow!

For tomorrow:
Math - Study for test, do review, practice games
Language - 15 sentences there, their and they're...quiz tomorrow
Science - check blog from yesterday, it's due Monday
Health - food journals
History - Keep researching

:)

Wednesday - Game Day

Today was another busy day.  We got lots of work done and many of you seem like you need to study more for the test.

We began the day with some math games to prep you all for the test on Friday on Number sense and Numeration.  We had a grade 7 vs. grade 8 tournament of champions and the 8s reigned victorious.  A timbit reward is in their future.  Looking forward to seeing what unfolds tomorrow.  Please use the links below to help you prep for the test.

Grade 7s
http://www.aaastudy.com/g7_65_x3.htm

http://www.aaastudy.com/g76_sux1.htm

Grade 8s
http://www.aaastudy.com/g83f_dx1.htm

http://www.aaastudy.com/g83e_mx1.htm

After recess we did some reading buddies with Mrs. Love's class and I was really impressed with how you all were handling the behaviour of all of the little ones.  I was proud to see you all being so kind to your buddies and I saw some impressive things from all of you.  So great work.

In language we did a grammar lesson on the use of there, their  and they're.  We will work more with this tomorrow and hopefully you all will have a better handle on these concepts when you do more writing.

This afternoon you had Science with Mrs. Nicholson and I have posted the homework below.  It is due on Monday so plan your work so that you can work your plan.

You had gym and French and then it was all over.  What a day!  See you tomorrow.  Practice your math!

Night!