#HClass22 Blog - "I think we ate too many Pringles" - September 18, 2022

 Classroom Quote of the week:

"I think we ate too many Pringles" - heard from a group working on their Pringle Challenge

Quote/Theme for the week

Introduction ~

This week, we wrote the blog as a class. We just finished the book Hank Zipzer: Niagara Falls, Or Does It? In it, the main character, Hank, struggles to write an essay; however, it is obvious to the reader that all the information is in his head. We realized that his biggest mistake was trying to start writing without preparing to write. So, we looked at the Thinking Stems Strategy to organize our plans for this blog. 

The Rose ~

We took a trip to the park for a long outdoor gym period. While the weather is good, we want to make the most of it. We started with a 1 km run to prepare for Cross-Country and then broke into groups. Some of us played basketball, some of us hit the playground equipment and some of us wandered beneath the sun socializing.

Play is learning - Giving ourselves permission to be a little ridiculous

The Thorn ~

Some of the Grade 7s took a chance and tried out for the school soccer team. However, there were a lot of Grade 8s. Consequently, it seems unlikely that many Grade 7s will make the team. We talked about accepting defeat graciously and we know that, next year, we will be the Grade 8s.

The Bud ~

We introduced our first drama activity. It is a math challenge with a dramatic performance at the end that allows actors to be a little “over the top” with their performances. We didn’t have much time to work on it last week, so we are looking forward to it this week. Look for pictures next week.

Mathematical Mentions ~ Data Management & Probability

We continued to dig deep into data management. We are comfortable finding measures of central tendency (mean, median, mode, range). Now we are learning to make predictions and assessments using the data. We also started doing Solvemoji problems as a warm-up to algebraic thinking. Can you solve the problems below?

Literacy Leanings ~ Nouns & Read Aloud

As we mentioned above, we finished the short novel, Hank Zipzer: Niagara Falls, or does it?  We also watched the first episode of the television series that was made in England, using the book series as the source material. We worked in groups with a Venn diagram to do a comparison of the two series. When we took a vote, half the class liked the book better and half enjoyed the television episode.

In Word Study, we looked at nouns. We are now comfortable with all noun types - common, proper, concrete and abstract. Next up, pronouns.

Science/STEM Challenge

STEM is an acronym for Science, Technology, Engineering and Math. We tried our first STEM challenge. In groups, we tried to create a circle using only Pringles Chips. We had some success with the task, but a lot of success with the laughter and the chip eating. In the end, we learned a little bit about how structures can stand. Later this year, we will use this knowledge in our Form and Function Unit.

Thanks for reading…next week, we have our first class blogger, as Anvi takes over!

#HClass22

*All student pictures have been posted with permission