Good afternoon everyone!
I hope everyone is having a great week so far.
The workload in Grade 6 is beginning to pick up. Students will have homework every day in math and now in novel study as well. We will do our best to complete work during school, but where it is not possible, it will go home.
A few quick reminders:
· Tomorrow is a Day 5.
· For anyone who ordered Hot Lunch, payments were due on the 13thof September.
· Science Fair money ($15) due this last Monday (letter must be signed, and shoeboxes brought in).
· The hot lunch site is open for the month of October and will close on Wednesday, September 25that 3:00 p.m. The special for October will be pancakes with vanilla cream and syrup (optional).
· Fall Fundraiser forms are due tomorrow for those participating in the events next week. Each event is $2.
· Forms were sent home for our golf trip coming up on October 2ndand are due back this Friday (this fee is covered by the athletic fees paid).
Inquiry into Language – This morning, we started our day with our novel study. We discussed literature circles and what everyone will be responsible for. There are 5 roles that will be rotated on a daily basis in each group and everyone will be doing each role 4 times. The roles are: discussion director, literary luminary, connector, illustrator/mapper, and word wizard.
1. The discussion director comes up with insightful questions that will fuel discussion in the group.
2. The literary luminary chooses important passages for the group to read and discuss.
3. The connector makes connections between their own lives and the book (i.e. movies, other books they’ve read, real events, the current UOI, etc.)
4. The illustrator/mapper creates an illustration (i.e. comic, picture, mind map, etc.) based on what they felt during the chapter for the group to discuss.
5. The word wizard chooses 3 words that were interesting or new for everyone to discuss as a group.
After we discussed this, we moved on to reading the prologue (The Instructions). In their groups, students began to discuss important sentences, words, and phrases from this section. They will complete a self-reflection regarding what they think will happen in this novel.
French – After this, we had French with Mme. Stella, which you can read about on her blog (https://stjudesfrench-stella.blogspot.com).
Gym – After recess and lunch, the students had gym with Mr. Orr, which you can read about on his blog (http://tysonorr.blogspot.com).
Inquiry into Energy – After gym, we continued our inquiry into energy by taking a look at series and parallel circuits.
A series circuit is a circuit where the electricity only has one path to flow. For example, a battery connected to a light bulb, then a second light bulb, and then a connection back to the battery. In this series, if the connection is broken in one spot, the electricity can no longer flow.
In a parallel circuit, there is more than one path for the electricity to flow. For example, a battery connected to a wire, then the end of that wire connected to two wires: one connects to a light bulb, and one to another light bulb. This connection is made on both ends. In this instance, the electricity can flow in more than one path, so even if one light goes out or becomes disconnected, the other light will stay on!
Inquiry into Math – Students began the math period by reviewing their answers from yesterday’s homework.
After this, we began an inquiry into squares and square roots. We looked at the chart below to determine that any number that has only two factors is prime, and with more than two factors (but an even number of factors) is composite, and any with more than two factors (but an odd number of factors) is composite but is also a square number.
We then reviewed a few terms: dividend– the number being divided, divisor– the number we divide by, and quotient– the final answer.
When the divisor and quotient are the same, the original dividend is a square number. This means that the number is multiplied by itself to receive an answer: 5 x 5 = 52= 25
We can show this by drawing a square. The side lengths are equal and when multiplying the numbers, we receive an answer in square units (___ squared).
As with all operations, squaring numbers has an inverse operation. The opposite is taking the square root. That is when we ask the question, “What number multiplied by itself is equal to this number?”
We will review this tomorrow with a few activities.
Homework:
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
