Tuesday January 31, 2012

Wow, January is already over.  The month has just flown by, with the students this week starting their new explorations class.

PE- today the students split themselves into 2 groups, with 1/2 staying inside for 2 days with Ms. Waring, and the rest trying out cross country skiing with Mr. Martin.  A special thanks to the students of Green Team that spent a few hours last week reorganizing the skis and boots and poles into buckets and making it easier for everyone to find the right sizes.

 

 

Science- According to the reviews this week, Mr. Martin is due for a nasty hair cut.  Any students who get 100% on the test tomorrow and/or Thursday will become "nice" barbers (I hope)  Eyebrows and eyelashes are off limits, but the rest if fair game!  Don't forget to study the KMT, Changes of State, Density problems, Metric system, chapter 4 definitions, evidence of physical and chemical changes.

Parent Helpers- Thanks to the 3 parents who have agreed to bake some treats for the Valentines dance, and the to 1-2 parents who agreed to help with the concession.  We really need more helpers, especially for counting the money from ticket sales on the afternoon of the dance.

Socials- Mr. Martin's class should be done 4-5 of the illustrations and writeups for the transiton of early man from Hunter Gatherer to farmers to city dwellers.  We are finished watching all the videos for it.  If they missed an episode, they can go to http://documentarystorm.com/stories-of-the-stone-age/3/

Sunday January 29 2012

Just a reminder to both classes that there is a Science test this week.  Likely Wednesday for one class, and Thursday for the other.  As an added incentive, anyone with 100% gets to give Mr. Martin a spring haircut.  Caution, with the little hair that I have left, the "bald man" is going to get very picky on the answers.  All students should be able to
-recite the Kinetic Molecular Theory
-be able to explain density, miniscus, and chapter 4 vocab
-be able to draw and label the changes from solid, to liquid, to gas

T-Shirts: be sure to let your homeroom teacher know if you want a Green Gecko team T-shirt.  We'd like to get the orders in late this week.

Wednesday January 25, 2012

Math 7- The boys will have a test on chapter 3 on Monday.  They should be working on the chapter 3 review for homework tonight

Science- We did a pre-test for chapter 4 today in Mr. Martin's room.  Next Wednesday we will have a test on the KMT, density, changes of state, and chapter 4 definitions.

English- students in Mr. Martin's class should be 80% done reading their individual novel.  Today they had a choice of working on their novel study, or continuing with the Memoire details.  For the Memoires, I asked them to make a movie in their head, and break their story up into chapters.  They were to draw simple images or put down quick notes for each of the chapters/scenes for their Memoir

Socials- In Mr. Martin's class we watched more of our video series on early man.  We are at the point of man first learning to smelter copper, and use it to improve their lives.

Dance- we will be hosting the Valentines dance on Feb 14th.  Please watch for notices to come home this week asking for parent help

Fun Day- we have secured Feb 27 as our Green Team fun day.  We will go skating in the morning, then over to the Centenial hall for a movie and lunch, and then finish off the day with Improv acting.  Any parents wishing to join us, please let one of the teachers know.

Monday January 23, 2012

Math 7- All the boys should have thier quiz returned now.  We have 2 sections to finish, and then they will have a test on chapter 3.

Science- Both classes have now been introduced, or re-introduced to the Kinetic Molecular Theory.  They made up an eight point pneumonic to help remember all the parts of the KMT in the specific order.  Mr. Martin has returned/marked all of the posters and projects for the Ecosystem projects, except for those who worked in Powerpoint.  Mr. Martin's class has four questions on physical and chemical changes for homework for Wednesday

English-Mr. Martin's class is starting to work on Memoirs.  Today they were assigned to brainstorm the points for their story, and come up with a "so what", an ending/reason for their story.

FSA's- The grade 7's in Green team will be pulled out by admin this week to write their FSA exams

PVSS- Grade 8's will be heading to PVSS on Friday of this week to get a chance to learn more about their class choices for next year.  We are going this week because the students at PVSS will not be in attendance due to the change of semester starting next Monday.

Thursday January 19, 2012

Math 7- The boys had a chance to look at their own tests.  For those that were away, they worked on it while the class went over the solutions.  This should come home Friday or Monday.  Mr. Martin wants to comment on areas of concern on the quiz, and then get parents to look at the results

Science- Mdm Wocknitz' class spent today working on chapter 5 vocab, and taking notes on the Particle Model of Matter

PE- The girls did leg wrestling, medicine ball wrestling. The boys played badminton.  Friday is a "fun Friday", where the students get to pick the topic....not surprisingly, they chose dodgeball.

English- Mr. Martin's class had 3 choices to work on this afternoon, Health and Career Ed drug posters, English projects, or the Social Studies illustrated history.

Socials- 2 of the Illustrated History drawings/text are due Friday

Dance-Green Team will be hosting the Valentines dance, so we will be looking for parent help in counting ticket money, as well as helping in the concession.  We will decide tomorrow if we will have the dance on Feb 10 (Friday) or the 14th (Tuesday)

T shirts-Diana's monogramming has given us a price list for team T-Shirts, with the logo designed by Mr. Davidson, a green team parent. We will be sending home a letter next week to find out exactly how many T-shirts to order.  We won't know the final price until we have a committed number of purchases.

   

Quantity

12-24               25-48                   49-72               73-99               100-250

$12.85             $10.40                  $9.25               $8.75               $8.20  EACH

Prices do not include HST

Wednesday January 18, 2012

Math 7- The boys had a quiz on the 1st half of chapter 3.  I will send them home likely on Friday.

Math 7-girls - The girls have their Unit 2 tests and were asked to take them home to be signed.  I have received only 5!!  We are working on Unit 3 now.

English- Mr. Martin's class starting brainstorming ideas for their "memoirs".  This will be a multi week project.

Socials-The Mr. Martin's class should have completed the first 2 of the "Illustrated History" pictures and writeups.  If they only give 1 sentence about the image, they should be looking for a level 2.  Multiple sentences and descriptions should warrant a level 3 to 4.  In the end, they will have 10 illustrations and writeups about the transition from Hunter Gatherer to the first cities.

PVSS Orientation-  Next week, the grade 8's will get their chance to go to PVSS to explore all their options for course selections for grade 9

Science- both classes spent last week and the first of this week working on graphing their results of measuring temperature of ice to boiling water.  This week we are starting to make notes on the Particle Model of Matter, which tries to explain what happens to the particles that allows them to change from a solid, to liquid, to gas

PE- the boys will be having day 2 of badminton Tuesday, and the girls will have day 2 of wrestling on the stage.  The girls will be trying to get the medicine ball over a certain line starting from a kneeling position, with the ball 1/2 way between 2 people.

Health and Career Education
Both classes have now finished watching "Through a Blue Lens" and I think most were hit by the seriousness of drug addiction.  They are currently working on researching a specific drug, the effects of addiction and how it is viewed by the media.  This will go on a poster we will put up in the school!
DUE DATES:
* research completed by Friday, January 20 (some may need the weekend, but our lab time is done at school)
* POSTER (answers to questions, diagrams/graphs/images etc..., bibliography on a separate paper) to be complete Thursday, January 26
* PRESENTATIONS will begin Tuesday, January 31!

Tuesday, January 17

English: This week in Miss. McFarland's English class we are working on questioning while we read.  We discussed how good readers question before, during and after reading and identified the features that make a good "thinking" question.  We read a first nations story about a young boy who takes an interesting journey after being thrown from his boat while fishing out at sea. Students asked many thoughtful questions throughout the story. We will be continuing with various questioning activities throughout the week, including a mock interview with a character from our novel.

Socials: This week in Miss. McFarland's Socials we are working on two ongoing projects.  Students are continuing to work on their Illustrated History that we started last week.  We also started doing research for a debate on the proposed Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipeline.  Students were assigned as either for or against the proposal and are required to research the arguments and evidence for their position.  Students will then debate the issue at the end of next week.  This is a great opportunity for students to investigate a current event!

Friday January 13, 2012

Thanks to all parents that have sent in their signed copy of the Cathie Peters results, as well as signed and returned the incomplete English assignment lists.  Please ask your son/daughter if you are not sure if you received one, or simply email Mr. Martin

Thanks to all those families that supported the Food Drive just before Christmas.  In our January assembly yesterday, Ms. Roylance and Mr. Martin settled their outstanding bet.  Their students made a side bet between the classes that the class who collected the most cans would get the chance to shove a pie in the face of the loosing teacher.  The cans collected were within 1-2 of each other, so the two teachers called it a tie.  Mr. Martin also managed to involve Mr. Findlay in the pie extravaganza (which he knew nothing of being involved), and the results were this...

Math 7- the boys are at a mid unit review, and will have a quiz on the first half of this chapter, likely on Tuesday

English-Mr. Martin's class should be about 25% of the way through their independent novel reading.

Good luck to all those Basketball players who are in tournaments this weekend.

Wednesday January 11 2012

English:  Mr. Martin's class is working on Independent Novel Studies.  On the list of Handouts is a sheet with all the possible project ideas.  We are aiming for the novels to be done by early February, but I don't want to rush the great work I know they can produce.

English: Miss. McFarland's class is continuing to read Touching Spirit Bear.  Students have been working on their Fakebook pages as we progress through the novel.  We are also working on some reading comprehension skills.  The reading assessment that students completed prior to the holidays identified some areas of weakness, so we will be practicing these specific skills over the remainder of the school year.

Socials:Miss. McFarland's students are working on an Illustrated History that outlines the events that lead up to the first empires. This assignments requires students to analyze particular developments in world history and determine their importance.

Several students have not returned their signed assessments that were sent home before the holidays.  Studetns should have brought home an assessment of their Neanderthal story and a reading assessment.  If you have not seen these please ask your son or daughter.

Dance Gala:  Today, all the 7's and 8's went to PVSS to watch the wonderful presentation

Notices:  Mr. Martin is waiting for several signed notices from parents in regards to the Cathie Peters Reading assessment results, and Incomplete English assignments from the novel Touching Spirit Bear.  Please contact Mr. Martin if you are not sure if your child received one.

Ice Fishing?:  One of the Winter fun activities the Green Team has chosen to persue is a day at Gardom Lake to participate in several snow activities (no date yet....NO SNOW!) We are hoping to introduce the students to ice fishing.  If any parents, aunts, uncles, grandparents enjoy ice fishing, we'd love to have them along to assist us.  More information will follow once we get more snow.

Monday January 9, 2011

Explorations:  As Green team only has 2 classes, we didn't switch our explorations class when the rest of the school did in November/December.  At the end of January those students that were in Music Explorations will switch to Tech, and vise versa

English:  Mr. Martin has now marked all the final assignments from the novel "Touching Spirit Bear".  Some students will have a letter going home today to explain which of the final 3 assignments they are missing.  They should have completed the set of questions from Chapter 14-20, written a letter to Circle Justice taking on the role of Peter's parents and asking Circle Justice for help for their son, and turned in the Fakebook assignment with 15 posts and 10 comments.  In Mr. Martin's class, the students have just picked their own novel for an independent novel study.  We discussed over 20 different end of novel ideas that they can choose to do and present to the class after the novel is done (approximately 5 minute presentation in early to mid February)

Dance Gala: A reminder to all students that all grade 7-8 Len Wood students are walking over to PVSS on Wednesday morning for the annual PVSS Dance Gala presentation.

Winter Rec/Fun Day: Green team has decided to spend a day locally at the Centenial hall some time in late January/ early February.  While there, we will watch a movie connected to our English, Socials, or Science theme, some students will try curling, and all the students will get a chance to participate in Improvisational comedy.  A possible second choice would be spending a day at Gardom Lake, with ice fishing, snow events, and a sliding hill.  The cost for Gardom lake would be approximately $10 per student, and there would be no cost for Centenial Hall.

January 4, 2012

Welcome back to the Blog everyone!  I trust that everyone is well rested after your two weeks with your kids at home.

Math 7: The boys are working on mulitplying decimals using base 10 blocks.  They have a worksheet to start tonight, and will be working on it tomorrow.

Science- we looked at how a Plasma TV works, and introduced how to convert back and forth within the Metric system

English- Mr. Martin is still missing several "fakebook" assignments, and some of the end of novel questions from our last novel, Touching Spirit Bear.  We started talking about our next independent novel study, and several options for their presentation about the novel.  We are at the planning stages for this major assignment, and the students should be starting a NEW novel that they haven't read yet.  We are looking at a list of approximately 20 ideas, that they will have to pick several to work on for their presentation.  There will be more information coming on Friday.

Cultural Presentation-today we had the "Human Statues" come and present their musical talents this afternoon.