We have been keeping busy this month, trying to take our minds off this cold weather that won’t seem to leave us alone! Our class has started a bunch of new projects and activities across all subject areas.  We are working tediously at our Ancient Egypt Scrapbooks, researching all aspects of this fascinating civilization – we can’t wait to see the finished products.  We are also reading a new novel, Thirteen Reasons Why, by Jay Asher. This novel has peaked our interests so much that we get often get carried away and spend a really long time reading it as a class! It has also generated numerous conversations that are critical to grade 8, like bullying, self-esteem and taking responsibility for ones’ actions.  We are also studying The Book of Awesome, by Neil Pasricha. This book reminds us that the best things in life are free! It also helps us remember that despite the overwhelming amount of negativity we sometimes hear about, there are some really awesome things around us, we just need someone to point them out to us! Our class is writing our very own Book of Awesome, with our own ideas of what awesome feels like! Something else awesome our class is participating in at the moment is an engaging challenge through Destination Imagination. This program focuses on four very important skills students need to develop and practice. These skills are collaboration, communication, critical thinking and creativity. Through this program students learn how to better use all these skills.  The challenge we are working on currently is called “Card-iology”, students are responsible for building the lightest yet strongest structure out of only playing cards and glue. They are working in groups to complete this challenge and they also must come up with a story to accompany their structure, with props! It has been an exciting opportunity for students to challenge themselves to work collaboratively, and creatively while thinking critically and communicating with their group members. We are really looking forward to testing out our structures!

We learned about a new program our division is using called Destination Imagination on Friday. This program helps students become better at the '4 C's' in which employers see most important when hiring. These 4 C's are: Collaboration, Creativity, Creative Thinking and Communication. On Friday we worked in groups to complete 2 tasks from Destination Imagination. Our first task was to build the tallest free standing building using only Styrofoam cups and plates as well as plastic forks.  The second challenge was to create costumes and props along with a skit for people who are sick in the hospital. The catch was that they could only use newspaper. Students worked really hard at these challenges and they really used the 4 C's effectively throughout. We look forward to our next challenge using Destination Imagination!!

 

 

 

 

 

Happy New Year!! Welcome back to a very chilly start to the second half of our school year.  Thank goodness the cold is giving us a break over the next few days.  It's really important that everyone comes to school dressed properly. Unless it is -27 students are expected to go outside, so make sure students have proper jackets, toques, mittens, etc!

Our class has been really busy lately. We have been working diligently on our Media projects and students are currently making their own commercials for fictitious products. We are really looking forward to seeing the finished products next week! We are also beginning our new novel in ELA, Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher. This novel deals with some really important messages, bullying being one of them. The novel is about a young girl who commits suicide, partly because she was bullied in school. I have sent home a letter regarding the novel and I have also attached it in "important notes and outlines".  We are reading the novel as a class every day and I look forward to the class discussions that will emerge!

Math has taken us into Ratio, Rates and Proportional Reasoning. We have noticed that this concept is very similar to Percents, Fractions and Decimals.  We have been solving some real-life problems in regards to Ratio and Rate, we are really beginning to understand these concepts!

In Social Studies we are beginning to learn about Ancient Egypt.  So far we have been reading up about his ancient civilization. We look forward to learning more about the famous pyramids, pharaohs and their unique style of writing!

Science has us studying the world of Fluids. We are learning about the properties of a fluid, the viscosity of different fluids and flow rate. We look forward to doing experiments to learn even more!