Good afternoon everyone!
I hope that everyone is having a great week so far. We have been super busy in Grade 6.
A few quick reminders:
· Tomorrow is a Day 6 (we do not have gym tomorrow as Mr. Orr is absent).
· For anyone who ordered Hot Lunch, payments are due on the 13thof September (next Friday).
· BBQ forms and payments should be returned by this Friday, September 13th.
· Terry Fox letters and pledge forms were sent home last week. We are hoping to raise $5000 as a school by next Friday, September 13th, which is the day of our Terry Fox run!
· Science Fair money ($15) due next Monday (letter must be signed, and shoeboxes brought in).
Inquiry into Math – Today, we started with our math drills – we filled in a multiplication chart from 1 – 12. Being able to multiply small numbers is a fundamental concept in mathematics as it supports all other strands that we will study. This will be a major focus for the year. Students are expected to be able to multiply their small numbers very quickly. We will be continually working on developing this skill. I strongly encourage students to practice this skill every day by using flash cards or by just reciting them out loud before bed. It takes only a few minutes, but all but guarantees their success.
After this, we began taking up our homework from yesterday for rounding and multiplying by 10, 100, and 1000. This concept is a review of what was learned last year. This review continued today and will continue tomorrow. On Thursday, we will be getting into newer concepts and will be switching our focus to solving problems.
Music – Then, we had music with Mr. Oliver, which you can read about on his blog (https://mrolivermusicclass.blogspot.com).
French – Then, we had French with Mme. Stella, which you can read about on her blog (https://stjudesfrench-stella.blogspot.com).
Inquiry into Energy – After recess and lunch, we went into our inquiry into energy! We had a quick discussion about Luigi Galvani and Alessandro Volta and their contributions to what we know about electricity. As a refresher from yesterday:
To cite using MLA format:
Last name, First name.“Title.” Publisher. Date of publication. Website. Date Accessed.
For example using the site we accessed yesterday:
Rogers, Chris Dennison. “What is the effects of overusing energy?” SF Gate, Hearst Newspaper,
9 Sept 2019.
And here are the websites to the information about Galvani and Volta:
After this, we started talking about notetaking and why it is so important to take notes. Here is the link to the site we used:
We talked about how to take good notes and what we actually need to write versus what we already know. The site above has great in-depth information, but there are a few key items:
· Don’t write everything – You cannot possibly write everything you hear, so focus on the important points.
· Use colours/symbols – Use colours (highlighters) or symbols (star) to help you in guiding your note taking. (i.e. I place a star next to something I don’t understand).
· Be prepared – If you can read a chapter to get ahead, do it!
· Review your notes often – Make a habit of reviewing the previous day’s notes before going to the next day’s lesson.
The students have a fantastic resource in their duotangs on how to make good notes.
Once we finished this, we started a video to learn about the different forms that we encounter energy in. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XiNx7YBnM-s) All energy can be classified as potential energy or kinetic energy. We then had a discussion with examples of: elastic energy, sound energy, heat/thermal energy, nuclear energy, magnetic energy, light energy, mechanical energy, gravitational energy, and chemical energy. Everyone had such brilliant and insightful questions and I look forward to unpacking them all and really diving into how we see energy in our world.
Finally, we had a discussion on starting our electricity timeline. We are making our first 2 entries (Galvani and Volta). Every entry should have:
· Scientist’s name
· When the scientist lived (year born – year died)
· Contributions to science (succinctly described)
· Illustration (optional)
Students were told that we have a UOI test on Wednesday, October 2nd.
Today, we focussed on strategies for adding, subtracting, and multiplying larger numbers using mental math. Here is what we covered:
For addition:
452 + 197
Since 200 is a more friendly number, we round there.
197 + 3 = 200
452 + 200 = 652
We added 3 to the original number, which means we need to take 3 away from the answer.
652 – 3 = 649
Therefore, 452 + 197 = 649
For subtraction:
649 – 197
Since 200 is a more friendly number, we round there.
197 + 3 = 200
649 – 200 = 449
We started with 197 but subtracted 200. This means we subtracted 3 too many, so we have to add 3 back!
449 + 3 = 452
Therefore, 649 – 197 = 452
For multiplication:
98 x 99
For this question, we are trying to multiply the number 98 a total of 99 times. However, these numbers are difficult, so we round to a friendly number.
99Ã 100
98 x 100 = 9800
The problem is, we were only supposed to multiply 98 a total of 99 times, but we did it 100 times. That means we need to subtract 98 a total of 1 time.
9800 – 98
98 + 2 = 100
9800 – 100 = 9700
9700 + 2 – 9702
Therefore, 98 x 99 = 9702
Some of these strategies were new, and some were old. They are not the basis of this entire unit, but they will help us in all units going forward. They will be reviewed throughout the year.
And that’s it for today! Tomorrow, we will continue with more mental math strategies with a specific focus on divisibility rules.
Homework:
· Galvani and Volta questions # 2 & 4 (one paragraph each) (due tomorrow)
· First two entries on timeline (due tomorrow)
· Mental math worksheet (due tomorrow)
· 5 similes including original sentences (due tomorrow)
· Learner profile poster (due Tuesday)
· BBQ Forms due Friday
· Terry Fox run on Friday
· Science Fair money and form due Monday
We do our best to complete UOI and Language work in class. In the event this is not possible, it will go home for homework.
As always, please feel free to email me with any questions.
Mr. Conte
