Mrs Leah – 2023/24

Happy rainy Friday! This week we continued to find our stride with our weekly work load and starting our subject lessons.

In Math we continued to look at negative and positive numbers adding and subtracting, multiplying and dividing. We reviewed lowest common multiples and highest common factors as well as square and cubes. We will finish up next week before jumping into our next unit on expressions and formulae.

Clauses were our grammar focus this week. We looked at independent and depend clauses and how they work together in compound, complex, and compound-complex sentence types. Our writing focus was on compare and contrasts non-fiction texts. We analyzed a text together in class, then students worked independently on their own.

In History we are looking at the ancient Mesopotamian civilizations and their contributions to the modern world. We are using the GRAPES acronym; geography, religion, achievements, politics, economy, and society to hit on all the key features of the civilizations we will look at. This will help us make comparisons later! Geography class complemented our lesson as we located the regions of ancient civilizations on a map. We will continue to look at the empires of the fertile crescent next week!

Inputs and outputs were the theme of ICT; we looked at various digital devices and what ways we interact with and receive responses. This will continue to be our theme as we look at how we can input instructions into our computers to have them produce the desired outcome programming a game.

Science saw us looking at the parts of animal and plant cells. We identified and labeled the organelles and their functions. We are taking a lot of detailed notes in class and I encourage all my students to take their notebooks home to review and study. (Just be sure to bring them back Monday!) It’s a lot of information, but it will come together as we start taking a look at real cells on slides!

This week for homework there is some reading comprehension with written answers, a cut/paste matching independent and dependent clauses, and some math that complement what we covered this past week. There is no digital homework this week – I would like to incorporate more, but not everyone is submitting it, so until we work out the kinks, paper it is.

Mr. Green also has an art task for every student; the butterfly template should be decorated and returned by Friday September 22nd.

Have a lovely weekend and see you Monday,

Mrs. Leah

This week we have been finding our rhythm in school work and teamwork. Students have been assigned numerous tasks, many of an independent nature to check in on their prior knowledge and capabilities.

In math we worked with integers adding and subtracting, as well as multiplying and dividing. What to do with positives and negatives can be tricky, but as the week progressed progress was made.

In English we looked at 4 more sentence types; interrogative, exclamatory, imperative, and declarative. Students identified these sentence types, rewrote sentences to create each sentence type, and wrote their own. Grammar is very nuanced, but understanding the structure of English help’s us use it more effectively!

Students also looked at problem-solution non-fiction articles and summarized such a text on both a 5 W’s template and wrote a summary paragraph. On Friday they submitted a summary of a problem and solution they choose and did a bit of research on. I can see that we will need to review identifying and understanding the importance of who-what-where-when-why/how questions in reading comprehension and writing summaries, so we will be practicing more this term.

In IMYC everyone focused intently on creating a presentation for the school’s Friday assembly. The task required students to use the information they learned from our Brainwave lessons last week coupled with some research on a topic of their choice in relation to the adolescents brain, teaching, learning, or wellness. I was paying close attention to not only the presentations, but group dynamics, teamwork, self-agency, and of course prior skill sets. Everyone did great and I look forward to facilitating more student-led projects.

Homework is a bit lighter this week: there are two math sheets, a reading comprehension online, and an article to be broken down into the 5’s and the problem-solution identified. I have also sent home some classwork, please note our marking system of green for great and pink for think. In class work is not necessarily graded, but it is checked so students can see what they need to revisit. I also encourage everyone to keep maintenance of their learning portfolio, which can be done at home too, if so desired.

Have a wonderful Weekend!

Mrs. Leah

We made it through the first full week!

Everyone has been getting along well and acclimating back to school routines and expectations.

In math we undertook a special project to estimate and calculate how many centimeters of bookshelves we need in the new school. We measured our current books and using the information from our furniture website determined what and how many shelves we need to order. We had measures, recorders, floor plan scalers and drafters, website researchers, and calculators all working together to determine the needs for the new school – excellent work everyone!

Our focus in English this week was reviewing grammar elements that should be familiar to middle grades students; parts of speech, sentence types, figurative language, and phrase types. This is a lot of information so we took notes to use as reference in the future. We also reviewed non-fiction text features which will be important for future writing assignments.

This week and next we are deep diving into our IMYC Brainwave unit. We covered the 6 needs of the teenage brain according to the IMYC by investigating how we learn and remember, the anatomy and physiology of the brain and neurons, the influence of peers, importance of agency, and why the adolescents brain is wired for risk. It was a lot of material but I am very pleased at how engaged everyone stayed !

For PE we team up with Mr. Morgan’s class for a bigger and more varied group dynamic. This week students worked together to plan obstacle courses, build them, and of course run through them! It was a lot of fun and it was great to see the amount of energy and teamwork went into the activity.

For homework this week I sent various math worksheets that review GFC, LCM, as well as an intro to integers page, and a multiplication crossword just for fun. Most of this should be review from previous years as we will start our unit officially on Monday. I have also included a sentence structures worksheet and the template to summarize an article. There are two digital assignments of similar nature: a link to an article on ‘Readworks’ with reading comprehension questions, and a choice of three articles to choose, read one article and summarize the main ideas. (This is what the planning template is for). The final summary should be written in paragraph form on either paper or typed on a Google Doc. The links for the digital homework are on each students Google Classroom page. Please be sure to click submit to the teacher once finished!

Homework is due each Friday, so September 8th.

Thank you to the parents who could attend Thursday’s meet the teacher time! It was nice to see/meet you and talk about class. The general consensus was more homework is welcome, so we will work on fine tuning the amount that is fair to everyone the next few weeks.

Have a wonderful albeit wet weeked,

Mrs. Leah

Hello parents,

This Thursday, August 31st, there is the meet the teacher meeting at 10:30am.

Come to the classroom to say hello, meet other families, and discuss what we will be doing this term in class. I am happy to answer any questions as well!

If you are unable to come, I am always available via email, please don’t hesitate to reach out.

-Mrs. Leah

Happy Friday!

What a wonderful two days we’ve had; old friends were happy to see each other and new friends are already integrated into class as if they have always been here. It is really nice to see everyone get along well and jump right into school work and activities.

We went over school rules and expectations, reviewed our core values, set up learning portfolios, and even snuck in some writing and reading assessments to get us ready for next week.

I sent home a school calendar and the class schedule by student request, starting next week I will send a bit of weekend homework.

As it is so hot and humid out, please remember to bring a water bottle! Also, we have PE on Tuesday and Friday; a PE shirt or a spare shirt to change if we get really sweaty helps keep the rest of the day comfortable. Ladies, be sure to bring a hair tie on those days too!

Have a wonderful weekend and know I am really looking forward to working with everyone this school year!

Mrs. Leah

Are you ready?

The pencils have been sharpened and the laptops charged, all we need is you!

I can’t wait to meet you/see you again,

Mrs. Leah