Ruth King Division 2

Hello!

Sorry about the last minute post, a busy weekend preparing for student conferences on Thursday.

In Language arts, we started our novel study on residential schools. Each student had chosen one or two books about the residential school experience. We are collecting information to discuss and share our thoughts about the residential school experience.

In math, we started fractions, and looked at what makes fractions equivalent. We worked on a couple of activities, dicovering that 1/2 is the same as 3/6 and 7/14. We have a quiz on Monday, ordering and writing reactions.

In science we finished off our powerpoints, they will be ready for viewing at the student led conferences. We also finished our human body cutouts, each showing a different human body system.

In social studies, we looked at different levels of government, and who is in charge of what. We created symbol maps to show which level of government is in charge of what, such as the federal being in charge of currency and military, the provincial government for education and healthcare, and municipal government for garbage, sewer, water, and libraries.

In French, we finished our Olympic Games board, with completing the Canadian Paralympics medal count.

Next week we will continue our novel study, getting more quotes from the books. We will look at comparing fractions with decimals, and ordering decimals. Dive deeper into our levels of government with a Venn diagram news paper sort, and have a quiz on Wednesday. Show off our powerpoints to the class, and try out peer reviewing and assessment.

Thursday is student led conferences! Come by between 1130 to 1230, and 430 to 630, to see what we have been learning about. Hopefully see you then!

Hello!

We finished our last week of school before Spring Break with a bang.

In Math, we built 3D model shapes of different prisms, and then looked at distinguishing them by their atributes.

In Language Arts, we finish typing off our poems, and started assembling our poetry booklets.

In Science, we played jeopardy to help us study for our human body test. Most of the students did very well, and have a general idea about how the human body works, including its organ systems.

In Social Studies, we had our Family Heritage fair, showcasing and presenting our trifolds to the community. It was interesting to learn about the unique family backgrounds we all have, and students were able to connect and learn from each other about all the different cultures.

We took a small field trip to Spencer on Thursday, watching a performance from their band and percussion group. The students had a blast, and got a taste of what middle school will be like.

On Friday, the students were able to watch the movie “Wonder” as a celebration on finishing the book. It took the class a while, but they finally manage to finish the book.

When we return to school in April, we will be finishing our work with shapes by having a bridge building competition. We will hopefully finish our poetry booklets, so we can perform a poetry jam. The sooner we wrap poetry up, the sooner we can start looking into graphic novels. We will be finalizing our Canadian Timeline, and posting it on the side wall, to display all the learning and research we have done. And in science, we will be starting an inquiry project on the human body, researching why something is the way that it is. I informed everyone on Thursday, to get them starting to think about the human body, and come up with a wonder.

Have a great spring break, and see you in two weeks.

Hello!

A busy week this week, with lots of learning.

In Language arts, we learned about limerick and riddle poems, in preparation for St. Patrick’s day. The challenge was to combine using our descriptive language with different rhyming schemes. Some of the examples were pretty entertaining.

In math, we used grocery flyers to create meal plans, using a $60 budget. Some students managed to stretch their meals, saving themselves a lot of their money. We finished off our money unit with a game of The Price is Right. Students started with $1000. They would estimate how much an item is worth, subtract their estimate from the actual price, and with their difference, subtract that from their $1000. Based off some poor estimates, and after 18 rounds, many students were in the negatives by the end of the game, yet were able to continue using their budget financial system, showing they could efficively use a budget. Congrats to our 3 winners, spend your points wisely.

In social studies, most students finished their timeline post. We will be creating our timeline after spring break, with students sharing their research.

In science, we discussed the skeletal and muscular system, learning about the purpose of each. We created human hands using straw bones and string tendons, showing how muscles word to move our body.

In french, we concluded our coverage of the Olympic games by creating a medal count display board outside our room.

We also celebrated the Olympics with going curling! They were a little hesitant at the beginning, but by the end, no one wanted to leave. A great experience, and something unique to try out. Thank you again to the Victoria curling society.

Next week we will learn about onomatopoeias and using sounds to create break line poetry. We will look at quadrilaterals and the different characteristics that separate them in Math. I’m science, we will look at the human uninary system, and start reviewing our human body systems. And we will be typing up our heritage information, so start bringing those tri-folds in!

Report cards should be going out next week. Heritage fair is wednesday, March 14th, in the afternoon. Have a good weekend, and see you Monday.

Hello!

Seeing a lot more work on our family heritage projects this week. The booklet is due next week, so let’s get those last few pages completed. I will be sending emails home on Wednesday if the booklet hasn’t been handed in yet.

In Language Arts, we learned about haiku poems, the use of syllables to limit our word choice. Once we made a couple of haikus, we tried our hand at origami animals. A slow start, but they started getting it by Friday afternoon.

In math, we finished our volume and capacity unit learning about how to calculate volume by multiplying the dimensions of length, width and height. We also worked with estimating capacities and converting ml to L.

In social studies, we worked on our timeline posts with most of the students completing their first timeline post. Using the chrome books, we have been researching different aspects of Canada and Canadian identity. With one timeline post completed, we have two more to go.

In science, we learned about the respiratory system discussing how and why we breath. We learned that the diaphragm controls our breathing, and how the alveoli transfers oxygen for carbon dioxide.

In French, we finished learning about Le Carnaval de Quebec by completing a brochure to showcase the events.

We also started looking at French sports, following along with the Winter Olympics and Canadians involvement.

Next week, we will be looking at a couple more types of poems in language arts, look into money and buying and selling in math, the circulatory system in science, more Canadian history in social studies, and continue our Olympic coverage in French.

Saturday in our bottle drive, so hopefully see you tomorrow! And keep working on your heritage booklets.

Have a good weekend!

Hello!

February is kindness month for Ruth King, and to kick off the activities, our class participated in an Erase Meanness project throughout the week. As a class we have been working on sharing kindness and building positive relationships with each other. We started the week with a discussion about meanness, and on Thursday the students came into the classroom with a powerful message on our side board.

After sharing some personal stories about the negative comments we all go through, it came down to how we as individuals want to be remembered by our peers. Do we want to be remembered as saying mean things and teasing one another, or do we want to be remembered for our kind acts.

Throughout the next day, students came up to the board to erase the mean words, and replace them with kind words that they want to be remembered for. It was a very positive experience and message for the students.

In the future, as a class, we will be helping those who are choosing to express themselves in negative ways, by asking them how they want to be remembered by their peers this year.

In Language Arts this week we started our poetry unit, by first discussing what the class thought poetry is.

An expression of emotion, and a way to play with language, were the two central themes to what poetry is. Throughout the week we worked on 3 types of poems, an acrostic story about an animal, a VIP poem about someone important in our lives, and a rainbow simile poem, portraying what each colour looks, smells, tastes, feels, or sounds like.

In math we looked at perimeter and area of rectangles, and how to calculate both perimeter and area. We discovered that a rectangle’s perimeter can change, while the area may stay the same, and vice versa, thus why it is important to understand and calculate both. We will be having a small measurement, perimeter, and area quiz next week on Tuesday.

In social studies we continued our timeline projects. Most of the students had completed their group dates, and a couple have started researching their individuals dates. So far it is pretty informative. As a class we have started researching residential schools, and this week we looked at the first residential school in Canada, the Mowhawk Institute. As a class we created a post.

In science we started looking at the human body by completing a KWL activity, discussing what we Know about the human body, and what we Wonder about it. We also looked at how cells are the building blocks of life, how they form together to create tissue, how that tisue creates organs with specific jobs to do, and how certain organs form a system that keep orgaisms alive.

In French we continued working on our Carnaval de Quebec brochures, researching more about the Carnaval, and starting our rough drafts. On Monday we should be finishing our rough drafts, and starting our good copies.

In art we finished our Jackson Pollock marvel paintings. They are displayed outside our classroom.

Next week we will be continuing poetry in language arts, looking at metaphors. In math we will finish off area, and look into volume of objects. In social studies we will continue our timeline posts about Canada. In science we will look into the digestive system, and the organs involved. In French we will finish our brochures and start looking into sports.

A notice went home this week about a bottle drive happening February 17th in the Ruth King parking lot. We are looking for volunteers to help out, either with sorting or collecting, so we can raise enough money to take everyone to Camp Thunderbird as our year end trip. We are hoping to raise enough so we won’t have to ask for funds from parents. If we are unsuccessful, parents may be asked to cover some of the costs, so let’s try and raise as much as we can!

Also I sent emails out Friday night to some student who were not as far as they should be with their heritage project. Next week students should have researched their country or origin, and if possible discussed how their family imigrated into Canada. By Monday I would like to know which country each student is planning on doing, so as I can help them organise their research using their Google accounts.

Have a good weekend, and see you all monday!