Mr. Smith's Grade 7EFI Blog

School Council Parent Education seminars…

Dylan Smith — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 00:42:42 +0000

Please be advised that WOM School Council is inviting members and friends of our school community to attend an upcoming seminar in their Parent Education Series. The keynote speaker will be a representative of the Western Ottawa Community Resource Centre.

TOPICS:
“Self esteem, Self confidence: Helping our children find the power within them”
“Students and stress: organization skills and homework help”

WHEN: Thursday, Jan 26, 6:30-8:30

WHERE: W.O. Mitchell E.S., 80 SteepleChase Dr.

Register to attend by email at seminarseries@womschoolcouncil.com
Childcare is available. Please let Council organizers know when registering if you will need childcare.

Happy Holidays!

Dylan Smith — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 21:00:22 +0000

What a great day today… A few assignments had to be submitted, and a Math lesson was had, but, for the most part, students simply enjoyed cooperative activities, character education recognitions, sharing holiday plans and traditions, singing, dancing, the company of friends, and much laughter.

I would like to wish a joyous and restful holiday to the families of EF7B and EF7C students. See you in 2012!
Dylan Smith

Current assignments- Language

Dylan Smith — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 23:40:08 +0000

A cluster of small assignments themed on a recent viewing of the Academy Award-winning animated feature Wall-E has been posted at the request of students.

Click here for the task card: WALL-E Task Card
Click here for the Nelson reading assignment: Confessions of a Gamer

Math Unit – 2-D Measurement

Dylan Smith — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 13:30:32 +0000

These instructional videos relate to our current Math unit re 2-D Measurement (Ch.5 in our Nelson text).

1. Finding the area of a trapezoid.
This video will help students with conceptual understanding and calculation:
http://bit.ly/txdVSx

Our Technology Blog is now online!

Dylan Smith — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 21:00:49 +0000

Parents, students, relatives, and family friends are invited to visit our new Technology blog. The blog features student opinion pieces on aspects of technology and it went online at 4pm earlier today. The reasoning and communication skill is very high, so please take the time to read a few student postings and offer a thoughtful comment or two in response. Go to: http://womtech.wordpress.com

Reminder: Blog post due tomorrow

Dylan Smith — Sun, 27 Nov 2011 19:05:05 +0000

This message is a polite reminder to students and parents that the blog assignment described in a recent post (see below) is due tomorrow at 4 pm. Students are required to compose an opinion piece on a technology-related topic that is informative, persuasive, entertaining, and no more than 1024 characters in length.

Blog post assignment

Dylan Smith — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 09:35:35 +0000

Students in both classes are asked to email their blog post writing assignment to me before 4 p.m. on Monday, November 28. The assignment organizer outlines all assignment requirements and can be downloaded here: Blog post assignment

A special Technology blog has been prepared so that student work can be displayed and shared over a period of several days. Beginning at 4 p.m. on Wednesday, November 30, this blog will be published on the Internet in a safely limited fashion and for a limited time so that students may read and interact with the opinion pieces posted by their classmates.

Radio script assignment

Dylan Smith — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 09:30:40 +0000

An exciting new assignment was unveiled this week as part of our Technology unit. Posing as creative whiz-kid executives, students will work in teams of two or three to found a technology company, then write a radio script to advertise their flagship product. This assignment will be completed in school (presentation date is Dec. 1), but is posted here for everyone’s information at Radio Script assignment along with the anchor chart that students helped to create: Anchor Chart for Radio Script

New Patterning Math unit

Dylan Smith — Sun, 06 Nov 2011 12:35:04 +0000

Our third Math unit is “Patterns and Relationships” (Chapter 4 in the Nelson text, beginning on page 119). Last year’s students found this unit to be an uncomplicated extension of concepts and skills introduced in earlier grades. For me, the single most important Grade 7 idea in this unit is precisely captured in Example 2 on page 130. The two blue charts we see in that example clearly distinguish Grade 6 thinking versus Grade 7 thinking. Seventh graders are expected to grow increasingly proficient at finding the rule that describes how the term number and the term value are related. This key skill is re-visited throughout high school and post-secondary Math/Science.

Exploration activities for this unit can be found at the Nelson site: www.math7.nelson.com/studentcentre/studtryout.html#ch4

Reminder: Photo retakes

Dylan Smith — Sun, 06 Nov 2011 12:32:02 +0000

Parents and students are reminded that photo re-takes are scheduled for Thursday the 10th.