Tuesday, December 17th

Good afternoon everyone!

I hope everyone is having a wonderful week. Our break before the new year is getting closer and closer - only 2 more days!

A quick note: re-registration packages were sent home today with the youngest sibling in each family. Remember to have those packages filled in and returned as soon as possible so you can guarantee your spot for the next school year!

A message from the parent guild…

On December 17, 2019, students from Grade 3 to Grade 8 will put on two performances at the St. Jude’s Academy Dome. Our afternoon performance will begin at 1:00 pm, with doors opening at 12:30. Our evening performance will begin at 6:30 pm, with doors opening at 6:15 pm. Seating is on a first come, first serve basis. Please keep in mind that outside food and drinks are not permitted in the Dome.

For our evening performance, families are welcome to take our shuttle from St. Jude’s to the Dome and back. Shuttles will begin running from 6:00 pm until 7:00 pm. Please meet in the main office.

We encourage all families to come bundled up to stay warm and cozy for the entire show. The students and teachers have put a tremendous amount of work into their performances and kindly ask that all families stay and enjoy the show until the end.

A few quick reminders:

·      Tomorrow is a Day 6.

·      Aftercare invoices for the month of November have come out and were due Sunday, December 15^th, 2019. Any questions can be directed to Ms. Chiappetta at echiappetta@stjudesacademy.com

·      Ski trip forms and waivers were due back. They can still be sent in – please have all forms back before the break.

·      The hot lunch site is now open for January. Please do not order lunch on January 16^th and 22^nd as we have scheduled trips.

Inquiry into Math – Today, we started our new unit. We started by reviewing mean, median, and mode.

Mean: The sum of all the numbers in a given set divided by the total number of numbers in that set. 

Median: The middle number in a number set when the number set is arranged from smallest to largest. If there are two middle numbers, the median is the mean of the two middle numbers.

Mode: The number that occurs most often. There can be more than one mode or no mode at all.

Example: Find the mean, median, and mode of this number set: 7, 13, 10, 12, 14, 8, 9, 7, 11, 6.

First organize all the numbers from smallest to largest:

6, 7, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14

Mean: 

6 + 7 + 7 + 8 + 9 + 10 + 11 + 12 + 13 + 14 = 97

There are 10 numbers in the set so we divide the sum by 10. à 97 ÷ 10 = 9.7

The mean is 9.7

Median:

6, 7, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14

9 + 10 = 19, 19 ÷ 2 = 9.5

The median is 9.5

Mode:

6, 7, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14

7 occurs most often, so 7 is the mode.

After this, we talked about collecting data.

We reviewed a few definitions…

·      Data is plural (The data are…).

·      A single piece of information is called datum.

·      Primary data is information that a person collects themselves.

·      Secondary data is information obtained at a library or using the Internet.

Asking a question in a way that is meant to sway the opinions of others is called bias.

Example: Mr. Conte goes to bed at 10 p.m. and is always tired. Do you think he should go to bed earlier?

By telling the respondent that Mr. Conte is always tired, you sway their opinion toward ‘yes’.

The question should be modified to say “Do you think a 10 p.m. bedtime is good for adults?” or “What time should an adult go to bed?”

After this, we took up our questions.

We had lunch, and then went straight into preparing for the Christmas Concert and doing our first performance. We will have our second one tonight at 6:30 p.m.

In between performances we worked on our Powtoons.

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