Suggestions for Learning from home K-9

Hello, Ms. Bowen here,

I bet many of you are probably wondering what the plan going forward will be. As of right now, we are waiting for direction from the Calgary Board of Education and we will communicate that information as we get it. I imagine we will know a lot more after the break.

Be sure to take care of yourself and your family over the break and please check the CBE website regularly for updates.

Wishing you all the best and hope to see you soon...

Ms. Bowen

In the meantime, here is a message and link provided to us by the CBE for some online resources, activities, and parent resources that you can access until we know more...

"Children are naturally curious learners and there are opportunities at home to engage their learning. We have created a webpage that offers a variety of educational ideas to support literacy, numeracy and wellness at home for this week. The resources are meant as suggestions only. You may choose to use the links and activities as needed over the next few days as more long-term educational programming is considered."

https://cbe.ab.ca/programs/curriculum/learning-at-home/Pages/6-9.aspx

March 15th

Important Information from Ernest Morrow:
The purpose of teacher blogs is to inform students and their families of day-to-day learning and activities throughout the school year.  We will continue to communicate learning opportunities and will provide links to online learning resources through these blogs.  

Important information related to all school decisions will continue to be emailed to parents/guardians and can also be found on the CBE website (www.cbe.ab.ca).

This week we would have been finishing the Integers Unit in Math and the Planet Earth Unit in Science. Below you will find additional resources that students can access from home.

Math:

We continue to work on adding and subtracting integers pictorially, using integer tiles and number lines, and symbolically. These skills can then be applied to word problem solving.

In class we have been working on eight stations that will help students understand integer concepts and develop their integer skills.

Most students have completed some of these stations last week. Please feel free to work on those you have yet to complete or do extra practice if you feel this is needed. Stations 7 & 8 are a great way to reflect on your understanding and apply your skills.

Station 1: Use a number line: subtraction or addition
Station 2: Integer counters: subtraction using integer chips
Station 3: Row Game
Station 4: The Zero Principle
Station 5: Integer fact families practice
Station 6: Situations involving integers (word problem practice)
Station 7: Making up integer problems
Station 8: "Big Picture" Ideas about integers

Access khanacademy.org to learn more about adding and subtracting integers.

Integer Jeopardy might be a fun way to review key terms and concepts from this unit.

Science:

We are learning about Fossils and the Geologic Time Scale. Feel free to read about Fossils in the Fossils Presentation and watch the two videos on the last slide.

This is the final poster project about the Geologic Time Scale. Click this link for a description of the project requirements. 

March 13th

Announcements:

• 7-3 & 7-4 Field Trip to Military Museum Monday, March 16th is CANCELLED
• Badminton Tryouts are next week - the first one for grade 7 is Monday, March 16th, at 4:20pm
• Thursday, March 19th, is the last day of classes before Spring Break
• Classes will resume on April 6th

Math:

We continue to develop our integer skills. Students have learned several models to demonstrate addition and subtraction of integers including modeling with integer chips and the number line. 

*** Students who have missed class are encouraged to come to lunchtime tutorials on Monday and Wednesday in room 19 or to attend Mustang Drop-in Zone after school in the Learning Commons.

The Integers Unit Assessment will be on Thursday, March 19th

Science:

This week we finished landscape paintings, studied mountain forming principles, and learned about rocks and minerals and mineral identification.

Students did a great job of testing minerals and problem solving to determine which type of mineral they were testing. This was a challenging lab and they problem solved like emerging scientists.



Alberta Mountain Landscape painting was a big success!!!

Students reinforced their understanding of the folding and faulting that forms mountains by observing their images and painting the mountains with as much detail as possible.

Thanks to Ms. Baillargeon for her help with painting technique!!!

They did an amazing job!

The photos included here are a few examples.

March 5th

Announcements:

• March 16th 7-3 & 7-4 have a field trip to the Military Museum
• March 19th is the last day of classes before March Break

Math:

This week we began a new unit. We are studying Integers, a family of numbers that includes negative whole numbers, positive whole numbers and zero.



Students reviewed grade 6 concepts including comparing and ordering integers and placing integers on a number line.

They also did elevator math lesson 1 activities (teacher instructions) to begin understanding how to add and subtract integers.

We will continue to model integer addition and subtraction next week using integer tiles, number lines, and other models.

Science:

We are painting Alberta Rocky Mountain landscapes in water colour tomorrow. To prepare for this students learned how mountains are formed and why the Rocky Mountains are so far inland from the Pacific Plate and North American Plate. Watch the National Geographic video to learn more.

For Mountain Landscape ideas visit the Alberta Mountain Landscapes slideshow or Google Alberta Rocky Mountains and view images.

Virtual Rock Lab

Tuesday, March 3rd, we are using an online lab to learn more about the different types of rocks and the rock cycle.


You will record your learning in a google doc:

Types of Rock and the Rock Cycle

1. Open the doc
2. Make a copy for yourself called "Your Name_Types of Rock and the Rock Cycle"
3. Share the copy with Ms. Bowen using lebowen@educbe.ca
4. Answer all the questions (fill in the blanks as necessary)

The virtual lab is at:

https://archive.learner.org/interactives/rockcycle/index.html

Napi and the Big Rock

We had a special guest in Science today teaching about the Scientific and Indigenous perspectives on how the Okotoks Erratic made its way from Jasper to Okotoks. 

Ms. Harbour's presentation was very infomative. Please take a look if you missed it or would like to revisit the lesson.

Tomorrow students will have more time drawing their comic strips. 

Click the links to:

• read the Napi and the Big Rock Legend
• view the Napi and the Big Rock worksheet

February 25

Announcements:

• Tomorrow (February 26th) is Pink Shirt Day
• Today students had a guest speaker from the Calgary Stampeders speaking about anti-bullying
• Tomorrow Ms. Harbour is our Science guest teaching the scientific and indigenous perspectives about the Okotoks Erratic

Math:

We are reviewing division techniques and concepts and applying these ideas to decimal division.

Students began the week learning about how they can use partial products and area models to show visual solutions to division problems.



Today they learned to apply these concepts to decimals.



Today they reviewed the sevens method using the same decimal division problem as above.


And then we reviewed long division. The only difference between whole number long division and this problem is that you have to move the decimal up to hold the place value.

For problems with decimal divisors the first step is to make the divisor a whole number. Watch this Khan Academy video to better understand Dividing Decimals using long division.

February 21

Announcements:

• Pink Shirt Day is next Wednesday - wear a pink shirt to support anti-bullying
• Decimals Math Assessment Friday, February 28th
• Check Power School to see if you have any outstanding assignments and view marks
• Ring of Fire assignment is due Monday, February 24th

Math:

This week we reviewed different multiplication methods. We started with a visual model. Watch this video to learn about the Area Model of Decimal Multiplication.

We also reviewed the box method, the lattice method, and long multiplication.

Students are encouraged to practice their times tables up to 12x12. We are doing regular mad minutes to help them develop their quick facts.

It is also a good idea for students to do extra computation practice using the method of their choice.

Next week we will:

• review division
• learn strategies for dividing decimals
• go over word problem solving strategies

Science:

Today we watched a video to learn a little bit more about the Ring of Fire. It is a bit above their level but uses much of the science language they have been learning and gives a better understanding of where the ring of fire is and why there are so many earthquakes and volcanoes in this part of the world.

**** Students who did not complete their Epicenters or Ring of Fire assignments have these for homework.

These Earthquake and Volcano assignments are due Monday, February 24th.

February 13

Announcements:

• Have a wonderful Family Day long weekend!!! Happy Valentine's Day!!!
• No School Thursday, Friday or Monday (February 13,14, and 17)
• The Science Vocabulary Quiz Rewrite is scheduled for Wednesday, February 19th - Please study the vocabulary words from February 7 if you plan to rewrite 

Math:

Students who did not complete the Mrs. Flo Wer Problem (called Modeling Decimals Garden in Power School) are encouraged to re-read the question and create a model using a hundreds grid. All flowers should be labelled and written as a decimal and a fraction (in reduced or simplified form).

Here is the problem:

Mrs. Flo Wer is Planting a garden. She wants to follow the plans below:

• Flo wants four-tenths of the garden to be planted with geraniums
• Flo wants fifteen-hundredths of the garden to be planted with marigolds
• Flo wants three-tenths of the garden to be planted with tulips
• Flo wants the remaining sections of the garden to be planted with sunflowers and daisies

We had a lot of fun making never ending cards with our guest Jeanetta on Wednesday. This activity was both fun and taught and refined measurement skills. 

Here are a few examples of what students created:

Next week we will be focused on decimal multiplication. Students are encouraged to practice their times tables (in grade seven we try to build up to 12x12) as this will make long multiplication easier.

Science:

We will continue working on plotting epicenters of earthquakes on Tuesday. We will also learn about the ring of fire and some of the tectonic plates by plotting earthquakes and volcanoes around the pacific plate. This ties in well to math number line bench marking and gives a visual for students to better understand plate tectonics concepts.

Here is a link to the Mapping the Ring of Fire Questions. These questions need to be used alongside the map of the Pacific Rim. Students who miss are welcome to come and get a copy of the assignment.

Happy Valentine's Day!!!

February 7

Announcements:

• No school for Teacher's Convention Thursday (Feb 13), Friday (Feb 14) and Monday (Feb 17 - Family Day)

Math:

This week we continued to work on converting between percent, decimal and fraction and accurately placing these numbers on a number line. Students are becoming quite fluent in these three expressions of number!

Students also had an opportunity to show part of a whole in many forms. They practiced assembling a puzzle and then made their own.

Science:

Next week we are having a vocabulary test.
Here are the words and definitions you will need to know:

• Seismologist - A scientist that studies earthquakes
• Seismograph - A machine or instrument that records and measures the strength of earthquakes
• Seismic Waves - Waves of energy that travel through earth's layers as a result of earthquakes
• Earthquake - a shaking or other movement of part of the earth's surface. It is caused by movement deep within the earth. 
• Bedrock - The solid layer of rock in the earth's surface, found beneath soil, and, or gravel
• Primary Waves - Smaller waves that travel through solid, liquid and gas and warn that an earthquake is coming
• Secondary Waves - Medium sized waves that only travel through solids
• Surface Waves - Largest and most destructive waves, travel on the surface
• Richter Scale - Scale from 1-10 that measures the magnitude of an earthquake
• Magnitude - Size or strength of the earthquake
• Focus - Point underneath the earth's surface where the earthquake begins
• Epicentre - Point on the earth's surface where the earthquake is felt most intensely
• Plate Tectonics - Theory of how the plates move (rock lithosphere on gooey magma asthenosphere)
• Continental Drift - A historical theory where Alfred Wegener explained that the continents were once all together as the supercontinent of Pangaea. He used fossil evidence as well as the shape of continents to prove this theory.
• Plate Boundaries - Place where two tectonic plates are interacting 
• Divergent Boundary - Two plates moving apart - creates volcanoes and the mid-oceanic ridge
• Convergent Boundary - Two plates coming together



• continent-continent convergent boundaries create mountains
• continent-ocean convergent boundaries - the oceanic plate subducts under the continental plate
• Transform Boundary - Two plates moving in opposite directions, often causes earthquakes
• Subduction - Movement of the oceanic plate sideways and downwards into the mantle beneath a neighboring plate
• Lithosphere - The outside rock layer of the earth made of the Crust and Upper Mantle
• Asthenosphere - A part of the Mantle right below the Lithosphere on which the lithosphere moves

Definitions from: https://kids.wordsmyth.net/we/

February 2

Today's date is a palindrome! 02-02-2020
***What is another full date palindrome?

Math:

We will begin the week by working on ordering benchmark fractions on a number line.

Students will also practice converting fractions to percentages and decimals and placing these on a number line.

Tuesday students will have the opportunity to correct their percent word problem quizzes.

We will also work on estimating percentages.

We will end the week with practice adding, subtracting, and multiplying decimals.

Khanacademy.org has some excellent videos and practice questions that will support students in understanding and practicing decimal operations skills.

The videos below may be helpful:
Adding Decimals
Subtracting Decimals
Multiplying Decimals

Science:

This week we will continue to study the theory of Plate Tectonics. Monday and Tuesday we will be doing the Oreo Cookie Lab to understand what happens at plate boundaries in a hands on way. To better understand how the plates are moving watch this video.

Key vocabulary for the Oreo Cookie Lab includes:

• Theory of Plate Tectonics
• Plates
• Crust
• Mantle
• Lithosphere
• Asthenosphere
• Diverging Boundary
• Converging Boundary
• Transform Boundary

January 27

Announcements:

• Half Day Thursday, January 30th
• No School Friday, January 31st
• Parent Teacher Interviews are Thursday, January 30th, from 1-4pm and 5-8pm and Friday January 31st from 10am-2pm
• Bell Let's Talk Mental Health Day Wednesday, January 29th 

Math:

Percent Word Problem Quiz: Wednesday, January 29th

Students are encouraged to do the practice problems we have been working on in class to be well prepared.

When solving:

• identify what you know and what the question is asking
• use the unit square and/or another strategy (e.g equivalent fractions)
• determine the value of one square (1%)
• if you know the whole write it at the top of the 100's grid
• show your calculations and solutions clearly

Here is a sample question from the practice problems:

Science:

We are learning about the theories of Continental Drift and Plate Tectonics. Today we watched Continents Adrift An Introduction to Continental Drift and Plate Tectonics.
For more information watch videos linked to the January 23rd post.

January 23

Announcements:

• Half Day Thursday, January 30th
• No School Friday, January 31st
• Parent Teacher Interviews are Thursday, January 30th, from 1-4pm and 5-8pm and Friday January 31st from 10am-2pm
• I hope today's wrestling meet was successful for those who attended!!!

Math: 

We are working on solving percent problems using the unit square.

A unit square has 100 squares and represents 100% as well as a whole (which could be anything: a pizza, 27 students, ...)
In the example below the whole is 400 people.

Note: When using the unit square always write the whole at the top & always solve for one percent or one small square.

One small square represents 1%.
In the case of 400 people, 1% of 400 is 4 (400/100 = 4).

Example Problem:

1.    Let the unit square represent 400 people. Write this as a title above the unit square.

a.    what does 1 small square represent? Colour in one square (1%) and write in the number of people this represents.

Are you able to figure out the next three questions with the information in the photo above?

b.    what do 5 small squares represent? 

c.    what do 20 small squares represent?  

d.    what part of the unit square would represent 100 people? 40 people? 120 people?  

***Please make sure if you missed today's class that you come see Ms. Bowen or Ms. Schneider!!!

Science:

*** Please hand in your Earth Layers assignment ASAP if you have not already done so!!!
Note: It was due on Thursday, January 23rd

In the next few classes we will be studying the theories of Continental Drift and Plate Tectonics.

A very important scientist, Alfred Wegener, is responsible for much of this understanding. He developed the theory of Continental Drift. To learn more about Continental Drift watch Continental Drift 101 and Plate Tectonics

Questions to Consider:

• What is the name of the supercontinent shown in the before image above?
• What evidence is there for the theory of Continental Drift?

The theory of Plate Tectonics describes the movement of the tectonic plates.

• What happens at convergent, divergent and transform boundaries? 

For another short explanation of Plate Tectonics watch Plate Tectonics Explained

January 21

Announcements:

• Parent Teacher Interviews (Thursday, January 30th, 1-4 and 5-8 & Friday, January 31st, 10-2) sign up starts tomorrow on-line (see school email for the link)
• Students who missed days due to cold weather or illness should see Ms. Bowen or Ms. Schneider for missed work
• Report Cards go home on January 27th

Math: 

We continue to practice converting between percentages, fractions and decimals. This week we will work on solving percent word problems using unit squares. 

Science:

Students are working on a visual journal page depicting the layers of the Earth. 
Earth Layers Visual Journal page is due Thursday, January 23rd, 2020

The poster should include:

• Title
• Diagram of the Earth and its layers
• Each layer labelled (Crust, Mantle, Outer Core, Inner Core)
• Lithosphere and asthenosphere labelled
• Five pieces of information about each layer in their own words

Students are encouraged to get this information from the earth layers video, the textbook p.355, and the earth layers presentation.

Cold Weather Science

What will happen when room temperature water (20 degrees Celcius) or boiling water (100 degrees Celcius) is thrown up in the air in -30 degree Celcius weather?

WARNING: Do not try this at home...boiling water is risky

Thank you to Mr. Moses for showing this to many students today!

We began by making hypotheses...

Note:

• There were three sizes of water streams: thin or narrow, cap width, and frying pan width
• The experiment was done using room temperature first and then boiling water (in all 3 widths)

Here is what it looked like with a frying pan of boiling water.

Who can explain why this happened?

I look forward to more conversation in class tomorrow!

January 13

Announcements:

• Please bring a 1-2 inch binder to class as soon as possible
• Report cards go home January 29th
• Teacher Conferences January 31st (no school)

Math: 

Monday students wrote a pretest for decimals and percent. This will inform our teaching this unit (percent and decimals). We will be working on converting decimals, percent, and fractions using our holiday questionnaire questions. We will also create a tool for remembering how to convert between decimals, fractions and percent.  

Science:

We continued to explore solutions to the world's ocean plastic problem. We watched another Boyan Slat video that further describes his solutions to ocean and river plastic pollution.

Students' tasks:

• Create a what? (facts) /so what? (feelings/impact) /now what? (solutions) table with three points per column
• Write a three paragraph mini essay. Include:
• opening sentence
• paragraph 1 - what? facts about the ocean plastic problem
• paragraph 2 - so what? how does this impact you? what do you feel? why is this important?
• paragraph 3 - now what? what are some solutions to this problem? Think about Boyan Slat and what his company is doing to try to solve this problem. What about the 7 ways to reduce plastic use
• closing/concluding sentence

Plastic Writing Assignment is due Friday, January 17th
- please attach planning table when you hand this in

Happy New Year

Welcome Back! 

Hope you all had a fun winter break!

Announcements:

• If you have a 1-2 inch binder, please bring it tomorrow
• Please look at Power School and bring in any missing assignments
• Ms. Schneider and Ms. Bowen will be teaching classes together until January 24th

Math:

We completed a holiday questionnaire and tallied how many students answered each question with a yes. In the next couple of classes we will be working on converting between percent, decimal, and fractions. 

Next week students will be writing a pretest on decimals and percent. This assessment is not for marks. It is to gather information about what they know entering these two topics.

Science:

We are starting a new unit in Science called Planet Earth. In order to tie concepts from past units into the new year we are starting by studying Boyan Slat's Ocean Cleanup. Tomorrow we will watch a video to learn about some of these ideas. Students will be invited to write about this video as well as other ocean plastic information from before the break.