Friday 24 March 2017

Problem-solving Challenge!


One of our goals in Term 3 is to work on our problem-solving skills. This includes: deciphering and understanding new vocabulary in a word problem, trying and applying different problem-solving strategies and showing our work in a detailed and organized way.

We will be working hard on these skills in class as we continue using open-ended, "Thinking Classroom"
types of problems while working in randomized groups at the white boards.

In addition, students will also have the added challenge of solving word problems on their own, too!

Introducing: PDLS and POW!


What is PDLS? Each week, a new word problem will be posted in class, on the back bulletin board next to all of our problem-solving strategies. When students are finished their class work, they can take a copy of the current week's question to work on. When the question is complete (they have showed and explained their work and clearly stated their answer) they may hand it in in exchange for a ballot they can place into the PDLS ballot box. 


Looking for another way to fit even more problem-solving into your day?!
Look no further than POW! 
POW (Problem of the Week) works the same way as PDLS, except: 
1) The question is in English
2) You will link up online to the fabulous Mr. J. Bodnar's blog over at Golden Gate to find your weekly question. 
Download/print the question, solve it and hand it in (to Mme Careen) for yet another PDLS ballot. 
To easily access POW!, simply click on the MATHÉMATIQUES page found on the right-hand side menu
under the "6F3 INFO" heading.

At the end of each month, we will pull names from the PDLS ballot box for amazingly useful prizes! Wow! 
The more problems solved, the better your chance of winning!

Get your pencils sharpened and put those thinking caps on!
You've totally got this!

Thursday 23 March 2017

Félicitations Expo Sciences Participants!


Congratulations to: Aurora, Courtney, Nina, Sofia, Ebony and Pablo
who all presented projects at this year's Expo Sciences.
All students worked hard on their projects and presented with confidence to the judges.
Bravo à tous! Nous sommes fiers de vous!


Wednesday 22 March 2017

A fun new Math game!


*A Special Note*
Hi families! With the busyness of Term 2 ending, I've fallen a bit behind on blog posts! My apologies! :)
We've been keeping busy, learning new things everyday... and here is a backlog of posts to prove it!
Thank you for your patience! Happy reading! :)

*****

Tuesday, March 14

Check out this great new multiplication Math game we played in class today!
All you need is a deck of cards, "jetons," and two dice (we used one 10-sided die and one 6-sided die, but you could use whatever you have on hand)!


Ask me all about it!
🎲What a great way to practice our basic facts! 🎲

Expérience #2 - Does air have a mass?


Wednesday, March 15

We put all of those donated 2L pop bottles to work today to complete Expérience #2!
Working with a partner, we attached a pump to a 2L pop bottle and pumped air into our bottle (25 pumps at a time) to see if the mass of the bottle would change.


We wrote all of our measurements in our data table and answered questions specific to the experiment.
Does air have a mass? Ask me to find out!

A note from Mme Buckwold


Mme Buckwold is often dropping by our classroom to see what we are up to!

On one of her more recent visits, she left us a nice note on our white board.
(We were busy writing a critical thinking text in Français and she didn't want to disturb us).


Her words were very kind and celebrated all of our wonderful work we currently have on display in our classroom!

Félicitations les élèves!
Way to go Room 208! :)

Happy St. Patrick's Day!


Monday, March 20

We were all at home on St. Patrick's Day this year, but that didn't keep up from celebrating on Monday
when we got back to school!


After finishing our St. Patrick's-themed Math sheet, we each got a scoop of Lucky Charms to snack on while we moved on to the next activity!
What a lucky way to kick off the week!

WISE Presentation


Wednesday, March 22

We were very happy to welcome Mme M. to our classroom today!
Mme M. from WISE came to teach us about Electricity!

We learned the vocabulary and symbols for the different parts of an electric circuit and then we got to work!


We used snap circuit boards to make series and parallel circuits to light up a lightbulb and run the motor of a fan.


We then used a battery, an elastic, safety pins, wire and a magnet to create a motor.


The last part of the presentation was VERY cool! Mme M. used a Tesla coil to light up a lightbulb!
Ask me about conductors and insulators and how knowing the difference will keep you from getting shocked!

💡 Merci Mme M. for such a fun, interactive presentation! 💡

(And now you're caught up in the blogging backlog! Thanks for reading!)

Wednesday 15 March 2017

Spirit Week!


Spring Break is almost here and we're counting down the days with a whole lotta spirit!
Get your outfits ready!

Monday: Green Day!
🌷 Tuesday: Spring Fling! 🌷
♞ Wednesday: Knights Day! ♞
🐥 Thursday: Animal Day! 🐒
💤 Friday: PJ Day! 💤𐂫

Tuesday 14 March 2017

Pi Day and a new Math game!


Happy March 14! Happy Pi Day!

We started our Pi Day by reading this book:


Then, we watched this fun Math Bites video!
How many digits of Pi do you know?

We continued celebrating Pi(e) in Français by responding to two critical thinking questions:

"Ma tarte préférée est ____ parce que" ( ____ pie is my favourite type of pie because...)
"Un souvenir que j'associe avec la tarte est..." (One memory I associate with pie is...)
It was so great to hear everyone's story and the wide range of preferred pie flavours!

We ended our morning together learning and playing a new multiplication Math game!
Be sure to ask me how to play! So fun! :)



P.S. Don't forget about our math quiz tomorrow! And, we're still on the hunt for more 2L pop bottles!
Please send in any you may have; we're hoping to use them tomorrow!

Monday 13 March 2017

Upcoming Math Assessment


We will be writing a short Math assessment ("quiz") in class on Wednesday.
The assessment will include questions on both positive
and negative integers (les nombres entiers) and the order of operations (PEDMAS).

We have been working hard and practicing these concepts in many different ways in class.
Here are a few ways to review the content at home:

Remember these videos? Check them out again as a refresher!

Math Antics - Negative Numbers

Math Antics - Order of Operations

Playing these games can also help!

Integer Football

Order of operations (funbrain.com)

Order of operations (Mr.Nussbaum)

Happy reviewing! :)

Nos buts!


We've worked really hard writing and representing our goals for our Grade 6 school year.
Please take a look at our Inspiration Boards (Tableaux d'inspiration)!









Wednesday 8 March 2017

Information coming home today!


Two sheets from The Parent Network - Ness Middle School's parent council - will be coming home today. 
The first, which is blue, details their plans for Staff Appreciation Week (merci!) from March 20-24. 
The second, which is a white package, is for a special lunch for Friday, March 24 and Friday, April 28!
Please ask your students for these papers. 
Merci, The Parent Network! :)

Tuesday 7 March 2017

What a great evening of learning!


Thank you to everyone who braved the blowy, wintry weather to make it out to parent conferences this evening!
It was wonderful to see all the sharing of learning in our classroom space!



Have a nice night!
❆ Stay warm! ❆

See you this evening!


Everything is ready to go!


We can't wait to share our learning with you! :)

Monday 6 March 2017

You're invited!


Looking forward to seeing you all tomorrow (Tuesday) evening at our Term 2 student-led conferences!
No need to sign up! Stop by anytime between 4:00 - 7:00 to see what we've been learning in class!


Friday 3 March 2017

Order of operations!


Put your thinking caps on and solve these expressions:

1.   2 + 5 x 3
2.   10 - 3 x 3
3.   3 x 8 - 7 x 2
4.   9 + 9 3

Did you get the following answers?

1. 17   2. 1   3. 10   4. 12

These same questions sure had us thinking earlier this week! 

To help us all arrive at the same answer, we've added a new skill to our Math arsenal: PEDMAS!
The acronym PEDMAS helps us remember the order of operations 
when we are evaluating a Math expression or equation.

After starting with a short lesson, we practiced our skills by working in groups at the white boards.
Using four 4s, we used the order of operations to create equations that would equal each number from 0 to 10.
For example: 
0 = 4 - 4 + 4 - 4   
1 = 4 + 4  4 - 4 
and so on...


We sure had to think hard. This is not as easy as it sounds!

Want to learn more about PEDMAS? Check out this great Math Antics video to become an expert!

We'll continue practicing in class over the next few days so we're ready to show you what we can do at
Student Led Conferences next week!