Happy Holidays!!!

Have a wonderful holiday!!! See you on January 10th.

We had a fun end to the week with class vs. class battleship. This was a great way for students to showcase the ships they built and practice their Math skills of plotting points on a coordinate grid.

Today we celebrated the end of 2018 with many fun activities.

Wishing all of you a wonderful holiday!!!

Ms. Bowen

Fractions and Interactive Rock Lab

Announcements:

• Winter break begins after school Friday until Thursday, January 10th, 2019 - Happy Holidays!!

Math:

We have finished the Fractions Unit. Students are practicing their fractions skills using a Jeopardy Game and white boards. From home Khan Academy can be an excellent resource. The skills that will be assessed this week are:

• using divisibility rules to determine factors
• reducing fractions (using greatest common factor - GCF)
• converting improper fractions to mixed numbers
• converting mixed numbers to improper fractions
• comparing and ordering fractions using number lines and common denominators
• adding and subtracting fractions with like denominators
• using multiples to determine common denominators
• adding and subtracting fractions with unlike denominators
• adding and subtracting mixed numbers
• modeling / representing adding and subtracting fractions using number lines, fraction strips, pizza, or pattern blocks

Science:

This week students have begun studying rocks, minerals and the rock cycle by doing an independent research project reading the Interactive Rock Lab.

Students who missed this activity would benefit from taking notes on each of the topics such as three types of rocks, drawing the rock cycle, etc. and completing the interactive activities as well as the quiz at the end.

Weathering and Erosion

Announcements:

• All Science assignments are up to date on Power School and students could see which ones they need to complete 
• Extra help at lunch on Thursday or after school any day

Math:

Today students continued to practice adding fractions with unlike denominators. 

7-4 will have an opportunity to finish their cards (real world fractions experience) on Wednesday. 

All grade 7 fractions outcomes will be taught by the end of this week.

Fractions end of unit assessment next Tuesday, December 18th. 

Science:

Students read about weathering and erosion today. They then had the opportunity to create a visual journal page with the three types of weathering and erosion.

Students will study sudden and gradual earth events the rest of this week. Tomorrow we will read the legend of Napi and the Big Rock and learn about Glacial Erosion.

Friday they will have the opportunity to revisit Plate Tectonics and the geologic activity that takes place at each type of plate boundary during the Oreo Cookie Plate Tectonics lab. 

Adding & Subtracting Fractions and Sudden & Gradual Earth Events

Announcements:

• Students are invited to come at lunch or after school to make up missed work or get extra help
• Anyone who was unable to see us at parent teacher interviews and would like to make an appointment with myself and Mr. Hillier is welcome (call the office or email lebowen@cbe.ab.ca to arrange)

Math:

This week we will continue learning to add and subtract unlike fractions using models and number sentences. 

We will also learn to add and subtract improper fractions and mixed numbers. 

Extra Help:

- Lunchtime or after school tutorials in room 1

- Extra practice worksheets

- Khan Academy videos and practice questions (type the topic in the Search tab - e.g. adding fractions with unlike fractions

Science:

This week we will continue to study Sudden and Gradual Earth Events. 

For example, we will continue exploring earthquakes. Students will learn how to interpret seismic data for Canada. It is surprising to most people living in Calgary that there are frequently earthquakes in Canada. 

This unit teaches students many precision skills that will be helpful in future units and Science courses. The Epicenter plotting activity also introduced students to the Circle and several math concepts and skills that will be used later on in the year.

Last week students mapped earthquakes and volcanoes on the Pacific Rim and recreated the Ring of Fire. This assignment was due last Thursday. Students who have not completed mapping are encouraged to complete this assignment at lunch or after school with teacher support.

The other assignment we completed last week was "Locating the Epicenter of an Earthquake." This assignment was also due last Thursday and students who have not completed this can see Ms. Bowen for extra help. Note: Both assignments are liked to the December 3rd post. 

Comparing Fractions with LCD and Earthquakes

Announcements:

• Sign up for Parent-Teacher Interviews - Interviews are Thursday, December 6th 
• Sexual Health is being taught by guests from the Sexual Health Centre for 7-4 this week

Math:

This week we are focussing on:

Comparing fractions with area models and using the lowest common denominator (LCD)

Ordering fractions from least to greatest 

Adding and Subtracting Fractions with Like and Unlike Denominators using models and various methods of determining the LCD

Science:

This week we continue to study Sudden Earth Events. We watched Bill Nye Earthquakes Video to introduce concepts related to earthquakes and finished plotting coordinates of earthquakes and volcanoes on our Pacific Rim maps.

We also reviewed the parts of a circle and learned to use compasses so that we could triangulate the epicenter of earthquakes. See attached "Finding the Epicenter" assignment.

Both the Mapping assignment and the Finding the Epicenter assignment had cross-curicular outcomes with Mathematics.

Extra Practice:

• There are worksheets for all of the concepts covered in the Fractions Unit available for students to take for extra practice in my classroom
• Students can visit Khan Academy (for example they could search visually adding and subtracting fractions) and type in a topic of their choice for extra practice
• The two most recent Science assignments are linked to this blog entry