Adding Fractions and Ring of Fire

Announcements:

• Sign up for Parent-Teacher Interviews began Monday Nov. 26 - Interviews are December 6th 
• Sexual Health is being taught by guests from the Sexual Health Centre for 7-4 next week. 

Math:

Today students reviewed divisibility rules and using factors to reduce fractions. They also learned how to add fractions with like denominators using visual models.

In the next couple of weeks we will continue learning to add and subtract fractions with like and unlike denominators and mixed numbers.

Science:

Students continue to study sudden earth events and plotting coordinates of earthquakes and volcanoes on the Pacific Rim map in order to get a good sense of the location of the Ring of Fire and the Pacific Plate.

Equivalent Fractions and Sudden Earth Events

Announcements:

• Sign up for Parent-Teacher Interviews began Monday Nov. 26 - Interviews are December 6th 
• Sexual Health is being taught by guests from the Sexual Health Centre for 7-3 this week and 7-4 next week

Math:

We are building foundational skills in order to be able to add and subtract fractions with like and unlike denominators and mixed fractions. This week we have been focussing on:

1. using factors (specifically the GCF - Greatest Common Factor) to reduce fractions
2. modeling using pattern blocks and strips putting fractions in lowest terms (reducing, simplifying)
3. modeling equivalent fractions *** if students missed the assignment they can click this link and give modelling equivalent fractions a try
4. generating multiples by skip counting or using multiplication tables and calculating the LCM (Lowest Common Multiple) - this will be used for finding common denominators

Science:

Students continue to study the theories of Continental Drift and Plate Tectonics. 

Next week they will do an Oreo Cookie experiment to better understand the types of plate boundaries. 

They are also learning about sudden earth events such as earthquakes and volcanoes. There are Bill Nye videos for both of these concepts (linked to the terms in the sentence before) that will help students who miss classes this week get a better understanding. 

Today students are plotting earthquakes and volcanoes on a world map to get a better sense of the location of the earth plates and the ring of fire. (Note: if you are doing this from home some of the coordinates are less than 100 East and won't be able to be mapped)

During this project they will also learn how to plot longitude and latitude coordinates which is a good link to the coordinates portion of the Math curriculum.

Fractions and Continental Drift

Announcements:

• There is NO SCHOOL Thursday and Friday this week (Nov. 22 & 23)
• Sign up for Parent-Teacher Interviews will begin Monday Nov. 26 - Interviews are December 6th 

Math:

Monday students had the opportunity to write a divisibility and factoring assessment after reviewing both concepts and watching a Khan Academy video on how to organize factors to avoid forgetting any. These assessments were graded and handed back today.  

Students also learned why numbers cannot be divided by zero.

Today we introduced Fractions and students worked with pattern blocks to determine the numerator and denominator using different shapes and wholes.
 

Science:

Earlier in the week students worked on their earth's layers visual journal pages.
This project needs to include a title, diagram of the earth's layers (layers labelled) and five points per layer (crust, mantle, outer core, inner core) in their own words.

Due: Monday, November 26th (Any incomplete word posters are also due)

Today we watched Continents Adrift to introduce the theories of Continental Drift and Plate Tectonics.
Tomorrow: students will write 10 multiple choice questions to assess their comprehension of this video.

Modelling Planet Earth

Fun Friday:

Students worked diligently and had a lot of fun building and labeling their Planet Earth Models

Next week in Science:

Students will learn about the layers  of the Earth in greater detail and will design a visual journal page to show and communicate their understanding.

They will also explore theories of crust movement and continent formation.

Factors and Layers of the Earth

Math:

Students are learning to use Divisibility Rules to determine the factors, common factors and the greatest common factor (GCF) of numbers.

A)     Factor: numbers we can multiply together to get another number                       OR                       a whole number that will divide exactly into a number without leaving a remainder.                E.g. Factors of 24 are 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, 12, 24 (1 x 24 = 24, 2 x 12 = 24, 3 x 8 = 24, …) B)     Common factor: when we find the factors of tow or more numbers, and then find some factors are the                                  same (“common”), then they are “common factors.”  C)     Greatest Common Factor (GCF): simply the largest of the common factors.

Science:

Students continue to measure the rate at which their ecosystem grass is growing as well as making observations about their snails and the overall ecosystem environment.

They have also begun the Planet Earth Unit and have considered what they already know about earth and what they would like to know. Tomorrow they will go deeper into this topic by exploring the Layers of the Earth.

Friday we will build models of the Earth's layers! This is a lot of fun!

Divisibility Rules and Planet Earth

Math:

After writing the Decimals Unit Assessment on Wednesday, students began learning Divisibility Rules. These help students understand factors of numbers and reduce fractions.

See presentation attached for more information on divisibility rules.

Science:

Students' Ecosystems Research Projects are marked. They will receive a rubric with comments tomorrow. Marks can be viewed on Power School.

New Unit, Planet Earth, begins tomorrow.

Students will brainstorm why it is important to study the earth?. Hopefully this will generate conversation about many things and will help them feel connected to the new topic.




Some ideas that might arise from this discussion about understanding the earth include:

1.    Valuable Resources found in the earth

2.    Understanding the evolution of our environment 

3.    Minimize our risk from earthquakes, volcanoes, and storms (natural disasters)

4.    How and why earth’s climate has changed in the past (natural and human caused climate change)

5.    Human Impact – avoid changes in the future (e.g. fracking)

6.    Use our knowledge of this planet to understand the solar system

7.   What do humans need to survive on this planet? Is Mars a viable alternative?

8.   More ...

Decimals Unit Assessment Tomorrow

Math:

Students have been reviewing decimal concepts this week in preparation for their assessment tomorrow. Today they worked on decimal division estimation.

Tomorrow's assessment will include:

• front-end and relative size (rounding) estimation
• decimal order of operations
• decimal operations (adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing)
• decimal word problems

Practice Questions:

Estimation

1. Using front-end estimation 0.238 is approximately 0.2. Estimate 0.568 using front-end estimation.

2. Which number is closer to 73.6     a) 73    or    b)74

3. Round 67.894 to the nearest hundredth

4. Round 67.894 to the nearest tenth

5. What is the sum of 56.2 + 612.1 using front-end estimation?

6. What is the sum of 56.2 + 612.1 rounding the the greatest place value?

BEDMAS (order of operations) 

7. 2 + 2 x 2 - 2 / 2                       Note: / means divide

8. 4.5 / 3 x (5.3 - 3.2) 

9. 9.4 + (1.5 + 6.5) x 6.7 - 4.5

Word Problems

10. Sandy spent $39.46 on groceries at a store. The cashier gave her $1.46 in change from a $50 bill. How much change should the cashier have given Sandy?

11. Jack bought 8 drill bits for $1.22 each, 10 washers for $0.11 each, and 2 hammer for $4.59 each.

a) estimate the total cost and then calculate it exactly. 

b) how much was his change from $50?

For more similar word problems go to this link

d 2 hammers for $4.59 each.

a.

Estimate the total cost. Then calculate it exactly.

Remember:

• know/don't know (identify the key details and what the problem is asking)
• equation(s)
• solve
• sentence (not needed on multiple choice test)

Science:

Today students read about snails using information from this website http://www.kiddyhouse.com/Snails/

They discussed key ideas and answered questions about snails.

Tomorrow students will begin learning vocabulary for the upcoming Planet Earth Unit.

Repeating and Terminating Decimals & Ecosystems

Announcements:

• Much fun was had at Halloween!!!
• The Remembrance Day Ceremony will be held on Friday, November 9th. There are opportunities for students to read poetry and participate in the ceremony. If this interests you come see me on Monday.

Math:

This week we continued to focus on division. 

Students learned to model decimal division on number lines. 

They also learned how to convert fractions to decimals using division and the difference between repeating decimals and terminating decimals. 


Science:

We continued to work on our pop bottle ecosystems. We added biotic factors including snails, aquatic plants, and we planted grass seeds.

Students were extremely interested in the snails. They had many questions about the snails including:

• How many different kinds of snails are there?
• Do they get cold?
• What do they eat?
• What kind of animal are they? (family? order?)
• Do snails mate and how?
• Do snails have skeletons?
• What do baby snails look like?
• AND MANY MORE ...

Next week we will read information about snails and answer some of their questions.

We also watched Dr. Seuss's "The Lorax" movie and talked about the themes and feelings that arose from watching this movie with a scientific lens and a concern for the world's ecosystems. Students seemed to find the movie inspiring and motivating and got the sense that one person could make a really big impact. We compared the movie to the video we watched about the beach in Mumbai. We will continue to explore how we can individually, as a class, and as a school community make a positive environmental impact.