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.