I hope everyone is having a great week.
A few quick reminders:
· Tomorrow is a Day 4 (students will need their gym clothes).
· The hot lunch site is now open for November! The special this month is chicken stir fry, which is available every Friday. Please DO NOT order lunch for Thursday, November 21st as we are going on a field trip that day! The lunch site will close October 30th at 3:00 p.m. and payments will be due by November 6th.
· Aftercare invoices for the month of September have come out and were due Tuesday, October 15th, 2019. Any questions can be directed to Ms. Chiappetta at echiappetta@stjudesacademy.com
· Casual day forms were sent home and should be sent back signed with $20 for anyone participating. These are due by Friday, October 25th, 2019.
· Field Trip permission forms were sent home for our trip to the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum on November 21st. These forms are due next Monday, October 21st and the cost is $27.
Music – Then, we had music, which you can read about on Mr. Oliver’s blog (https://mrolivermusicclass.blogspot.com).
French – After this, we had French with Mme. Stella, which you can read about on her blog (https://stjudesfrench-stella.blogspot.com).
Inquiry into Air – Today, we started by reviewing the scientific method. We looked at the acronym ‘PHEOCA’.
· P – Purpose (or question)
· H – Hypothesis (educated guess)
· E – Experiment (procedures used)
· O – Observation (what you noticed)
· C – Conclusion (is your hypothesis correct)
· A – Application (where do you or could you see examples of what you learned)
Experiments are used to search for cause and effect. Variables are things that can change during an experiment; this can vary during an experiment. An independent variable is one that is changed by the scientist. A dependent variable are the variables the scientist observes to see how they respond to the change made to the independent variable. Controlled variables are quantities that a scientist keeps constant.
A fair test has been conducted when one factor (variable) is being changed at a time while all others are kept the same. A fair comparison can only be made once variables are being controlled and only one is changing at a time.
We did a series of experiments that we will take up tomorrow as a class. These experiments are being used to examine the properties of air, which we will continue to look at tomorrow.
Inquiry into Language – After lunch, we sat in our literature circle groups and had a discussion about chapter seventeen. Every day I will be sitting down with a different group to hear these discussions. A reminder of the roles:
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 literature circles, students began a rough draft of their before midnight poems that they will hand in on Thursday. They will receive feedback so they can rewrite and be ready to present next Thursday. A reminder that Before Midnightpoems should…
· Have a spooky theme
· Use all of the senses (touch, smell, taste, sound, sight)
· Does not rhyme
· Lines can be long or short but can’t go to the next line
· Lines 1-5 count down to midnight (At ‘x’ minutes before midnight)
· Line 6 starts with ‘At midnight’
· Use a time formula pattern
Science Fair – At the end of the day, students worked on their cars for Science Fair.
Homework:
We do our best to complete 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
