It's really hard to believe that the end of September is upon us! One month of school has flown by! Our class has been really busy in all areas. We are right into the novel, The Hunger Games and have been doing many activities related to the book. We look forward to learning more about Katniss and Peeta. It's really important that students keep on top of assignments and hand them in when they are due. It's easy to fall behind and we don't want that to happen.  We have dived deep into the world of cells in Science recently, we are learning about what cells are made of and what things are made of cells. Our first experiment in class was a huge success, students worked cooperatively to solve a scientific problem.  Social Studies has us turning into archaeologists - we are creating our own site map for people to discover hundreds of years from now. Students have to come up with 10 artifacts that would be found in their site and carefully describe them. Time flies when you're having fun - that's certainly the case in our classroom.
All the grade 8s travelled to Camp Arnes on Thursday, September 26th for some team-building activities. It was a great day! All the activities we completed involved working together cooperatively. We did some initiative tasks which included climbing through ropes and getting out of 'jail', we climbed high ropes and played human foosball! It was a fantastic day of working together, making new friends and having fun!!! Check out the photos below!

It's been a fantastic start to the year so far! We have been keeping very busy in our classroom with new projects popping up in every subject. Math has us reviewing past concepts, important to remember that the 'Summer's over' Review is due Tuesday.  In Social Studies we began discussing how and why history is important! In Science we discussed the scientific method - which is the basis for our grade 8 science concepts. In ELA we began reading The Hunger Games, students should be up to chapter 5 by Monday. This book has already sparked some great conversations.  We look forward to reading more!
Today was our annual Terry Fox Run at school, our class spent some time watching a documentary on Terry Fox and we spoke about how inspirational he was. Our class also discussed the many positive characteristics Terry possessed and that he was truly a hero. It was great to see everyone participating in the walk today and many wore their new school shirts!
The grade 8s are taking a field trip on September 26th to Camp Arnes. This trip is a way to kick off the year in a positive way, build relationships and to work at some team-building skills! All letters and permission forms went home today. Please bring back your signed permission form, along with $12 before September 24th!
Don't forget, next Friday, September 20th is the first of our 2 day long Strong Beginnings here at DGJMS. All forms have went out to students, so everyone should know their scheduled time to come to the school on either September 20th or September 23rd.
Have a great weekend!!!