I hope you’ve all had a wonderful weekend and are enjoying the snow. Today, we began term two. We have a lot of work to get done before the Christmas break!
The St. Jude’s Senior Basketball team has their first game tomorrow – everyone is invited to watch. Please see the flyer below for details:
We looked at how many JK & SK students it would take to build our basketball team!
A few quick reminders:
· Tomorrow is a Day 1.
· Aftercare invoices for the month of November have come out and are due Sunday, December 15th, 2019. Any questions can be directed to Ms. Chiappetta at echiappetta@stjudesacademy.com
· Pick-a-Time forms have been sent home with instructions on how to sign up for a time to meet during student-led conferences taking place this Thursday, December 5th. The site went live last Thursday at 10:00 a.m.
Inquiry into Math – We started the day by learning how to multiply decimals.
We started by reviewing how to multiply two numbers – 48 X 79. First you round and estimate and then you actually multiply.
48 à 50 & 79 à 80
50 x 80 = 5 x 10 x 8 x 10 = 5 x 8 x 100 = 40 x 100 = 4000
So, 48 x 79 is about 4000.
5
48
x79
432
+3360 ß Ensure students remember to add the 0 when moving down a line.
3792
This is a reasonable answer since 3792 is close to 4000.
Multiplying decimals follow a lot of the same steps.
First round and estimate.
4.8 à 5 & 7.9 à 8
5 x 8 = 40
So, 4.8 x 7.9 is about 40.
We remove the decimals and multiply regularly.
5
48
x79
432
+3360 ß Ensure students remember to add the 0 when moving down a line.
3792
Now, we have to add the decimal back. We have 5 choices of answers:
0.3792
3.792
37.92
379.2
3792
Since 37.92 is closest to our estimate of 40, this is the correct answer.
We also learned a trick – the amount of decimal places in the factors is equal to the amount of decimal places in the factor. Since 4.8 & 7.9 each have one decimal place, the final answer (37.92) will have a total of two decimal places (1+1=2).
After this, we did a word problem to show our understanding.
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 Language – Today, we started our second novel study of the year, Tuck Everlasting. This story tells us about a family, the Tucks, who discover a fountain that supplies water that makes you live forever. We read the prologue as a class and began discussing the book and what we can expect to see.
We reviewed what makes a good answer. You start by answering with the question and you must provide detail. For example:
What do we have after French every day?
Every day after French, we have recess from 11-11:30.
For today, students will read chapters one and two and complete the activities.
Inquiry into Explorers – We started our new unit of inquiry today. We started off by saying what we know about explorers and what we want to know about explorers and recording them on our KWL chart.
After this, we looked at the transdisciplinary theme, central idea, lines of inquiry, and key concepts for our unit and discussed various projects we will be completing throughout.
Next, we asked a big question – “Who were the first peoples to reach the American continent?” and how they got there. This is going to be a big question that we revisit throughout the unit.
After this, we discussed how we will be reflecting on different Aboriginal perspectives on “Canadian Identity” and we will be creating a visual representation using the student identities for our class. We discussed and described what a Canadian identity is. Students are asked to go home tonight and discuss this with their families.
Students completed a diagnostic assessment for what they know about explorers.
Students should be listening to our songs and rehearsing for Christmas Concert nightly. Here are the links for the song for our Christmas Concert song:
And the finale song:
Homework:
We do our best to complete work in class. In the event this is not possible, it will go home for homework. For math, students are given math homework, extra practice (optional), and a challenge question (optional).
As always, please feel free to email me with any questions.
Mr. Conte
