Thursday 30 April 2015

What We Learned Today...April 30th


The scene at our Month End Assembly today!
Faith Presentation:
As soon as the students arrived this morning we quickly took attendance then boarded the bus for our Faith Presentation at Miller Comprehensive High School. The presentation was led by Brett Ullman who engaged and challenged the students to connect their Faith to the world they live in.He covered many topics throughout his presentation but the three most prominent were Faith, Media and Culture. If you would like to learn more about Brett you can visit his website: http://speaking.brettullman.com/

Arts. Ed: We ended up getting back from the Faith presentation a little earlier than expected and the students were able to have a shortened Arts. Ed class with Ms. Postma.  Over the the course of the period the students had the opportunity to rehearse their songs before they presented their renditions of "Hot Cross Buns" to the rest of the class.

Religion: After lunch we had a half hour period of Religion and the students continued to work on their Gifts of the Holy Spirit assignment.

Grade 8 Math: Students had the entire hour today to finish up their 8.5 handouts and study for their Quiz tomorrow.  

Month End Assembly: During the last hour of the day we had our usual Month End Assembly in the gym and we were able to showcase our amazing "Bus Approved" video that we recorded last week. We also took some time to recognize all of our amazing badminton players for a well played season!

Upcoming Due Dates & Homework

Genius Hour:
Start thinking about how you are going to present what you learned. (Final Product)

Grade 8 Math: 
8.4 handouts are overdue
Unit 8 Quiz Tomorrow

Career Ed: 
Reality Check Reflection and Bar Graph assignments are overdue

Science:
Cells Unit Exam is on Friday, May 1st
If you would like to use our jeopardy game from yesterday's class to study from, please click the following link: https://jeopardylabs.com/play/cells2198

Grade 6 Science:
If you would like to study from the jeopardy game from today's class please click the following link:

Reminders:

-Grade 7/8's will be at Miller Tomorrow Morning for a special Faith Presentation.

-Grade 8's please remember to email Ms. Zenuk your recreation photos. B.zenuk@rcsd.ca

Wednesday 29 April 2015

What We Learned Today...April 29th

Dedicated students reading The Lorax!

ELA: We started out the day with an AR period from 9:00 to 9:30 before moving on to a group discussion about the problems students found when watching "The Lorax".  Students identified various problems that occurred in the film such as "clear-cutting trees" or "pollution" and then were tasked with writing down the causes and consequence for each problem.  We also spent some time discussing the parallels between the issues in the movie/book and those in the real world and the consequences that can occur from the decisions we make.

Career Ed: Now that the students have finished up their monthly budgets, we talked a little bit about vacations and the different aspects that you need to keep in mind when planning a trip.  Students then began planning their own vacations, but had to keep a careful eye on the amount of money they wanted to spend because they needed to have enough money in their savings after a year to spend.  Students who didn't have enough money for a vacation needed to go back and recalculate their budget in order to order to ensure they could take some kind of trip.

Religion: After lunch we got right back into our assignment on the Seven Gifts of the Holy Spirt and the students spent the entire period working on this.

Grade 8 Math: Over the hour students worked on finishing up their 8.5 textbook assignment before beginning the handout.  We also spent a little bit of time going over the key concepts for 8.5 as our quiz is approaching quickly (Friday).

Upcoming Due Dates & Homework

Genius Hour:
Start thinking about how you are going to present what you learned. (Final Product)

Grade 8 Math: 
8.4 handouts are overdue
Unit 8 Quiz on Friday

Career Ed: 
Reality Check Reflection and Bar Graph assignments are due tomorrow

Science:
Cells Unit Exam is on Friday, May 1st
If you would like to use our jeopardy game from yesterday's class to study from, please click the following link: https://jeopardylabs.com/play/cells2198

Grade 6 Science:
If you would like to study from the jeopardy game from today's class please click the following link:

Reminders:

-Grade 7/8's will be at Miller Tomorrow Morning for a special Faith Presentation.

-Grade 8's please remember to email Ms. Zenuk your recreation photos. B.zenuk@rcsd.ca

Tuesday 28 April 2015

What We Learned Today...April 28th

Working hard on the Gifts of the Holy Spirit Assignment!


ELA: We started out our day by watching the second half of the movie, "The Lorax".  Tomorrow we will be reviewing the choices that were made in the film as well as the problems/consequences that occurred as a result.
We completed the movie at 10:00 so the students were given a twenty minute period for AR.  Students, don't forget that you get a ballot for every point you earn now, which really increases your odds of winning one of the six fantastic prizes!

Career Ed: Students finished up their "Reality Check" budgeting assignment and then worked on a short graphing assignment as well as a reflection.  Unfortunately if students have not finished the online "Reality" assignment, they will need to do this for homework as we need to move on to the next concept tomorrow.

French: Ms. Bachiu stopped by and the students learned about irregular verbs and how to conjugate them.

Religion: During the last hour of the day we learned about the Seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit and the students were tasked with a short writing assignment reflecting on each of the Seven Gifts. Since we ran out of time today, we will finish up this assignment during Religion tomorrow.


Upcoming Due Dates & Homework

Genius Hour:
Start thinking about how you are going to present what you learned. (Final Product)

Grade 8 Math: 
8.4 handout needs to be turned in tomorrow
Unit 8 Quiz on Friday

Science:
Cells Unit Exam is on Friday, May 1st
If you would like to use our jeopardy game from yesterday's class to study from, please click the following link: https://jeopardylabs.com/play/cells2198

Reminders:

-Grade 7/8's will be at Miller Thursday Morning for a special Faith Presentation.

-Grade 8's please remember to email Ms. Zenuk your recreation photos. B.zenuk@rcsd.ca

Monday 27 April 2015

What We Learned Today...April 27th

Deep in thought during our Quizizz game!


ELA: This morning we kicked off our week by watching the first half of the movie, "The Lorax".  The students were tasked with writing down the various issues they find as they view the movie.  We will be using these issues for an important lesson after we finish watching the movie.

Career Ed: The students continued to work on their "Reality Check" assignment on the Real Game. This has been a particularly great assignment for the students as they have learned a lot about the importance of budgeting and financial planning.  My favourite part from this activity has definitely been the look on each students face when they saw the deductions on their pay stubs as well as the mortgage payments for the houses they chose!  Priceless!

Grade 8 Math: We started out the class with a short quiz on Socrative before the students began work on the textbook assignment for 8.5.  Integers and BEDMAS will be the focus of our next few classes as it is typically one of the harder concepts in grade 8 math.

Science: With our unit exam on Cells, approaching quickly (May 1st), we spent the last hour of the day reviewing the key terms and concepts from the unit.  Students reviewed these concepts by playing a quick trivia game on quizizz.com then getting into groups for a good old fashioned game of jeopardy.

If you would like to use our jeopardy game from today's class to study from, please click the following link: https://jeopardylabs.com/play/cells2198

Upcoming Due Dates & Homework

Genius Hour:
Start thinking about how you are going to present what you learned. (Final Product)

Grade 8 Math: 
8.4 handout is due on Tuesday
Unit 8 Quiz on Friday

Social Studies:
Colonization Skills assignment is overdue

Science:
Cells Unit Exam is on Friday, May 1st

Reminders:

-Cookie Dough order forms are due tomorrow

-Grade 7/8's will be at Miller Thursday Morning for a special Faith Presentation.

-Grade 8's please remember to email Ms. Zenuk your recreation photos. B.zenuk@rcsd.ca

Friday 24 April 2015

What We Learned Today...April 24th

Unfortunately I was away this morning but the students were fortunate to have Mr. Fense in our classroom as a guest teacher.  Over the course of the morning the students worked on the following assignments: AR reading, Genius Hour blog posts and research, "After Work" and "Reality Check" on the realgameonline.ca.  

Now for the afternoon:

Science: After lunch we spent the half hour period reviewing the key terms we've learned throughout our unit and students were given an overview of their unit exam.

Grade 8 Math: Yesterday the students flew through the 8.2 assignment so we officially moved on to 8.4 which deals with Dividing Integers.  The students also completed this task quite quickly so I have asked the students to view the 8.5 video for Monday so we have more time to work on this concept as it is typically the hardest part of our unit on Integers.

Filming with Kindergartens: During the last hour of the day we headed to the gym with our p.m. Little Buddies and finished recording our video for the month end assembly.

Have a great weekend!

Upcoming Due Dates & Homework

Genius Hour:
Start thinking about how you are going to present what you learned. (Final Product)

Grade 8 Math: 
8.2 handout due on Monday
8.4 handout is due on Tuesday
Watch 8.5 video for Monday's class

Social Studies:
Colonization Skills assignment is due on Monday

Science:
Cells Unit Exam is on Friday, May 1st

Career Ed:
Miller Response is overdue

Reminders:

-Cookie Dough order forms are due on April 27

-Track forms are due on Monday, April 27th

-Grade 8's please remember to email Ms. Zenuk your recreation photos. B.zenuk@rcsd.ca

Thursday 23 April 2015

What We Learned Today...April 23rd


Playing Music in Arts. Ed


ELA: This morning we started out our day with AR from 9:00 to 9:30.  Our classroom has been doing an awesome job reading this month! It's been hard keeping up with the AR tickets as students have been testing like crazy.  Great job everyone!    After AR we officially kicked off our Environmental Unit by discussing the statement, "The choices I make influence others" as well as the idea that one person can make a difference.  We then read the children's book, The Lorax by Dr. Seuss together and talked about Dr. Seuss' message and why this book was selected to begin our unit.

Science: After lunch we continued where we left off yesterday by learning about different Organ Systems and how they work together to keep us alive.  We then reviewed some of the key terms from our unit and students were given an outline for their Unit Exam next week.

Grade 8 Math: Before we started working on our 8.2 assignments, students wrote a brief quiz on Socrative to see how well they understood the concepts from the video on Integers.  We then spent the rest of the class working on the 8.2 handout.

Video with Kindergartens: During the last hour of the day we headed to gym and joined our little buddies in filming our SWPBS video for the month end assembly.


Upcoming Due Dates & Homework

Genius Hour:
Work on blog post at home if you are behind

Grade 8 Math: 
8.2 handout due on Monday
Watch 8.4 video for tomorrow's class

Religion:
Part Four and Service Hours are overdue

Reminders:

-Cookie Dough order forms are due on April 27

-Grade 8's please remember to email Ms. Zenuk your recreation photos. B.zenuk@rcsd.ca

Tuesday 21 April 2015

What We Learned Today...April 21st

Ms. Tillman giving her fantastic presentation!


ELA: Today we started out our day by writing our final RAD exams.  Since these exams are quite long, we spent the first hour of the day as well as the period after Phys. Ed writing them.  Students who still need to finish, will have the entire ELA period tomorrow to complete them.

Science Presentation: After lunch the students were fortunate to join the Grade 6 class for a special presentation about sharks.  We were joined by Ms. Tillman, who in addition to being a fantastic substitute teacher, is also a Marine Biologist and led the presentation. She shared her knowledge of sharks as well as the dangers facing them with our two classes.  Students also got the opportunity to try on some of her scuba diving gear so they could get a little taste of what it is like to be a Marine Biologist.  A special thank you to Ms. Tillman for taking the time out of her busy schedule to join us today!

Social Studies: During the last hour of the day the students got into their Colonization Simulation groups and the European groups each formed an alliance with one of the First Nations tribes.  Together in their new groups, they worked together to look at different skills (such as hunting, fishing, sewing etc.) and decide which group would have taught the skill historically.

Upcoming Due Dates & Homework

Genius Hour:
Work on blog post at home if you are behind

Grade 8 Math: 
All unit 6 assignments are overdue.
-8.1 video needs to be watched for tomorrow's class

Religion:
Part Four and Service Hours are overdue

Reminders:

-Remember to bring sunglasses and hat tomorrow for our Bus Rap video!

-Cookie Dough order forms are due on April 27

-Grade 8's please remember to email Ms. Zenuk your recreation photos. B.zenuk@rcsd.ca

Friday 17 April 2015

What We Learned Today...April 17th



Today we were very fortunate to have the opportunity to travel to Miller Comprehensive High School for a Practical and Applied Arts Day.  The students spent their day learning about the arts and getting first hand experience in many of the areas of PAA.  Below you can see a picture timeline of our fantastic day today!

We started out the day with a tour led by the wonderful Ms. Wilton of Miller's Makerspace as well as their Wellness Fitness area.

Checking out the Makerspace!

Then we headed to the gym and participated in an awesome Yoga class led by Ms. Lewis.




After all our hard work at yoga we took a snack break before the students headed to the different classes they signed up for.  

Cooking





Cosmetology


Getting their nails done.
Nails after hair curling!


Photography


Once students finished up with their classes we had lunch and then headed to the Construction and Welding classes.


Welding:

Posing in their welding gear!




Trying out the amazing virtual welder!



Construction:
Learning how to make a Bird House
Starting to piece it together!


Drilling the birds door!


Then we boarded the bus and headed back to Deshaye and took a second to pose for a picture with our Bird Houses and Welding souvenirs!



We would like to say thank you again to the countless staff members and students at Miller Comprehensive High School for preparing such an amazing day for us.   We couldn't have asked for a better way to spend our day!  
Thank you!




Thursday 16 April 2015

What We Learned Today...April 16th


ELA: This morning we spent the class working through the remainder of our practice RAD tests.  We will go through these practice tests on Monday so students will be ready to take the real thing shortly after.

Phys. Ed: Mr. Fuchs led the students to the gym and the students participated in a fantastic game called Yo-Yo.

Arts. Ed: Ms. Postma stopped by for Arts. Ed and the students continued to work on their movie trailer assignments.

Mass at Christ the King: After lunch we headed outside for our walk to our Easter mass at Christ the King.  A special thank you to Ms. Hopfauf 'sand Ms. La's classrooms for preparing such a wonderful celebration!

Upcoming Due Dates & Homework

Genius Hour:
Keep up with your projects at home if you are falling behind.

Grade 8 Math: 
6.6 Handout is overdue
Unit 6 Exam is on Monday, April 20th

Religion:
Part Four and Service Hours are due Tomorrow, April 17th

Reminders:

- We are spending the day at Miller Comprehensive High School tomorrow for a Practical and Applied Arts day.  Remember to bring your gym shoes and wear something comfortable for our mini yoga class.

-Grade 8's please remember to email Ms. Zenuk your recreation photos. B.zenuk@rcsd.ca

-We are still accepting donations for our Lenten Charity group, Chalice.  As a school system, we are sponsoring children in Haiti as well as the Philippines.  If you would like to donate please feel free to send any dollar amount with your child to school over the next two weeks.


Wednesday 15 April 2015

What We Learned Today...April 15th

Mystery Skyping this afternoon!

ELA: This morning we dove right back into our practice RAD's by finishing up the Main Idea's and began looking at Making Inferences, Making Connections and Reading Comprehension Strategies.  We have really taken our time going through this practice RAD and I feel it has been time well spent as it was over seven months ago that the students wrote the first one and only a few weeks away before we write the final one.

Career Education: Students picked up where they left off on Monday by continuing to work on budgeting their time before working on a brief reflection.

Mystery Skype: We were fortunate today to have the opportunity to participate in another Mystery Skype with an unknown classroom.  The students worked incredibly well together and using their logical reasoning skills, were able to discover the classroom we were skyping against was from Lincoln, Main in the United States.

Grade 8 Math: Students wrote their Unit 6 Quizzes and then worked on their Unit Review and Practice Test.  We also took some time to go through their corrected quizzes at the end of class so they would be able to study from them.

Upcoming Due Dates & Homework

Genius Hour:
Keep up with your projects at home if you are falling behind.

Grade 8 Math: 
6.6 Handout is overdue
Unit 6 Exam is on Monday, April 20th

Religion:
Part Four and Service Hours are due on Friday, April 17th

Reminders:

-We are still accepting donations for our Lenten Charity group, Chalice.  As a school system, we are sponsoring children in Haiti as well as the Philippines.  If you would like to donate please feel free to send any dollar amount with your child to school over the next two weeks.

Tuesday 14 April 2015

What We Learned Today...April 14th

ELA: We started out our morning with the practice RAD tests we were working on yesterday and finished up the section on text features and worked on identifying the main ideas and supporting details.

Genius Hour: Students had the period to research their projects as well as work on their first blog post update.

Science: After lunch we continued where we left off yesterday by learning about the four types of tissue in the human body.  We also began to look at Organ Systems and how they work together to make our bodies function.

Assembly/Social Studies: During the last hour of the day we headed to the gym for a special assembly to kick off our Cookie Dough drive.  Once we were done, we headed back to the classroom and students had the opportunity to spent a few minutes working on their Camp Planning for our Colonization Simulation.

Upcoming Due Dates & Homework

Genius Hour:
Keep up with your projects at home if you are falling behind.

Grade 8 Math: 
6.6 Handout is due Tomorrow, April 15th
Unit 6 Quiz is Tomorrow, April 15th
Unit 6 Exam is on Monday, April 20th

Religion:
Part Four and Service Hours are due on Friday, April 17th

Reminders:

-We are still accepting donations for our Lenten Charity group, Chalice.  As a school system, we are sponsoring children in Haiti as well as the Philippines.  If you would like to donate please feel free to send any dollar amount with your child to school over the next two weeks.

Monday 13 April 2015

What We Learned Today...April 13th

The French interrogating a member of the Algonquian Tribe

Career Ed: This morning we started out the day with Career Education and the students began to learn about time management in their simulated futures.  They were tasked with examining the jobs they were assigned and then use this information to budget their time each week.  Some areas they had to budget their time in were: work, sleep, transportation, meals, shopping, errands etc.

ELA: With the end of the year approaching fast we took some time to prepare for our upcoming RAD by working together through a practice exam.  Over the period we reviewed what Text Features are and began to explore some of them in the article, "Secrets of the Spirit Bear".

Science: After lunch we had Science and quickly reviewed the layout of a cell as well as Diffusion and Osmosis.  We then began to learn about the four different types of Tissue in our bodies.

Grade 8 Math: Students continued to where they left off before the break by working on their 6.6 handouts before beginning their Unit Review and Practice Test.  We also took the some to go through the outlines for the Unit Quiz (on Wednesday) and the Unit Exam (On Monday).

Social Studies: During the last hour of the day students go into their Colonization Simulation groups and began planning what their camps will look like.

Upcoming Due Dates & Homework

Genius Hour:
Keep up with your projects at home if you are falling behind.

Grade 8 Math: 
6.6 Handout is due on Wednesday, April 15th
Unit 6 Quiz is on Wednesday, April 15th
Unit 6 Exam is on Monday, April 20th

Religion:
Part Four and Service Hours are due on Friday, April 17th

Reminders:

-We are still accepting donations for our Lenten Charity group, Chalice.  As a school system, we are sponsoring children in Haiti as well as the Philippines.  If you would like to donate please feel free to send any dollar amount with your child to school over the next two weeks.

Thursday 2 April 2015

What We Learned Today...April 2nd

Drinking a cup of "wine" (grape juice) during our Seder Meal

Religion: Today we were very fortunate to have Mr. Meyers join us this morning for a special Seder Meal prepared by Mr. Meyers. We were very fortunate to have him come visit today as he taught the students all about the Jewish Passover and how it connects to our faith as Catholics through the sharing of this meal. The Seder meal consisted of numerous parts: Grape Juice (Symbolize Wine), Parsley, Apple Chunks, Horseradish and Unleavened bread. If you would like to read more about a Seder Meal please click on the hyper-link above.

AR Party: After Arts. Ed as well as after our liturgy in the afternoon we celebrated reaching our AR goals by watching the movie Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.

Liturgy: Shortly after lunch we headed down the gym for a special Holy Thursday Liturgy.  A big thank you to Ms. Olsen and Ms. Baliko-Phonsavatdy for preparing such a wonderful liturgy!

Here are some more pictures from our Seder meal this morning:









Upcoming Due Dates & Homework

Genius Hour:
If you have any spare time over the break you can work on your Genius Hour projects!

Grade 8 Math: 
We will have an exam after the break so it may be a good idea to do a little studying or extra practice before we come back.

Reminders:

-We are currently taking donations for our Lenten Charity group, Chalice.  As a school system, we are sponsoring children in Haiti as well as the Philippines.  If you would like to donate please feel free to send any dollar amount with your child to school over the next two weeks.