Happy Monday!

We began the week with an activity called Group Blackjack.
Tell your family what you learned about yourself through this activity.

We also started a new book : The Tiger Rising
We met two main characters - Rob and Sistine.
What do you think we have to learn from these characters?

In math, we are working on similar figures.
Please make sure you understand:
- enlargements/dialations
- center of enlargement
- scale factor

We began our masks!
If you don't have your materials here yet, please be sure to bring them tomorrow.

Congratulations to our grade seven EcoTeam representatives!
You did a great job presenting to Newmarket Council.
I am very proud of you!

Thanks to the Stuart Scott ambassadors at today's  Together We're Better Conference.
You represented our school really well. I am proud.
Now we need to bring this learning back to the school.

Materials for Masks
I'd like to start our mask making on Monday.
Remember the materials we discussed:
- aluminum foil (enough to cover your face three times)
- newspaper - in the bags still!
- flour - a large yogurt container worth

YPT tomorrow
We leave at 8:45 - please don't be late!
Please remember to bring your lunch.
Weather permitting we will be outside in the afternoon be prepared for that with a hat, sunscreen and water to drink.
It's going to be a great day!!!

Welcome to the Wetlands!
As I told you, I did not take pictures that wonderful day - I was a bit busy!
Here are two Facebook pages that have photos from our day. You may have to scroll a bit to find it, but there are great pictures!

https://www.facebook.com/snapdNewmarket

https://www.facebook.com/BobKwapisWard5/

A great morning mapping the wetlands with our nature buddies.
Mrs. U-Ming and I continue to be very proud of your care, kindness and leadership.

Math
We created tessellations today.
Can you describe how to make a shape tessellate?
ie: rotate 90 degrees, shift left two units etc...

I'm back! Thank you for your patience as I was away on some professional development opportunities.

We started the day in a new seating arrangement and familiarizing ourselves with our new group members. While we were doing this we watched a Red-Tailed Hawk hatch! 
Check out the Hawk nest cam at:

http://cams.allaboutbirds.org/channel/16/Red-tailed_Hawks/

Literacy
The final draft of our letters are due Thursday. Those of you who submitted rough drafts over the weekend received feedback as to how to improve. Please continue to refer to the rubric (posted Monday April 16th) as you make sure you are doing your very best job.

Math
We are looking at reductions and enlargements.
Please explain to the folks at home the angle relationships and the side length relationships in reductions and enlargements.

Welcome to the Wetlands!
Thank you to our Eco Team and to everyone who helped our Eco Team!
It was a great afternoon and a glorious day for it.
I don't have any pictures right now, (I know! its really not like me to not have pictures!) but I will post some as I get them.
Thank you to all of our families who came out to support us!

I was very proud of our Genius Hour Fair this morning.
Congratulations!!!

A message from a community member:

Dear teachers and parents:
On occasion, Brainspace magazine publishes articles that require candid, real-life kid opinions. Though Brainspace is distributed across North America, our company is a Newmarket-based and as such, we try to find local kids that would like to be involved. In our upcoming summer issue, we are trying to find kids who’d be willing to answer some of the questions we’ve listed here and maybe even try a barbecued cricket as served at the Ground Burger Bar in Newmarket. We’re hoping to film and photograph someone for our cover as well. The candidates must be between the ages of 9 - 12. If your child is interested, please call us directly at (905)830-4314 and speak with Nicky Middleton. We are aiming to film this on Sunday April 22nd and will schedule the time according to availability for each family.
 Thank you!
Nicky Middleton, Publisher
 (905) 830-4314
brainspacemagazine@bell.net

Ice Storm Day!!!
Only half the class was here so I did not introduce anything new.

Things for this week:
1. Genus Hour Fair is Wednesday!
Please make sure you are ready and your blog is up to date.

2. Your letter. (format will be introduced tomorrow)
Remember you are writing to someone about one of issues that we have been talking about in class (residential schools, water quality issues on Canadian reserves). Tell them your concerns and thoughts on the issue, why you are telling this to them and something you'd like them to do about it. Here is the rubric:

Letter/ Call to Action Name: ____________ 

Theme:	Comments	Level 4	Level 3	Level 2	Level 1
Thinking -​What you say  - persuasive ideas  - Are your ideas explained  and supported with  evidence?  - Is there a call to action  for your reader?
Communication - ​How  you say it  - word choice  - SPG
Knowledge - ​What you  write   -Conventions of a formal  letter - Salutation/closing  -body paragraph(s) etc.
Application - ​The way  you connect it  - Makes connections to  other ideas that help your  audience relate to the  argument   - Is highly persuasive

Hunker down for the weekend and stay safe!!!

Literacy
I handed back a couple of reading/media assessments (Secret Path and Macleans article on Chanie Wenjack). Please share these with your family.

In preparation for our upcoming letter writing assignment, we watched the below clips.
Who will you write you letter to? What do you want to tell them?
For Monday, please decide on your issue, your letter recipient and start to collect support evidence from other sources for your ideas. Please don't begin your letter yet - we will be talking format on Monday.

Our Elephant and Piggy extravaganza was amazing!!!

Well done everyone!

After great debate we have decided on the story we will present for arts night.

I know we will create an amazing piece based on...

One week to our Genius Hour Fair!
Today was our last full genius hour period - although there will be some bits and bobs of work time between now and next Wednesday. I'm looking forward to showing off our genius!
Please make sure you have consulted the rubric - (on the blog Thursday March 29th). Remember - not all things from the rubric need to be evident at the Genius Hour Fair itself - many things I am looking for should be on your blog.

Tomorrow we will have our knowledge building circle around the Grassy Narrows article and the interview with Autumn Peltier. Can you do a bit more research on the state of water quality on First Nations reserves in Canada? This will give you more opportunity to add to the KBC.

Tomorrow we present our dramatic presentations of Elephant and Piggy. Remember! I'm marking you on your vocal clarity and expression as well as facial expression.

Math
Algebra/integers assessments were returned today - share them with your family.
Today we created games that require the use of the Cartesian Plane and ordered pairs.
Tomorrow we will complete and test these games before they are handed in.

Literacy
We have been discussing the water quality issues on Canadian First Nations Reserves.
Please read the two articles that you were given and be prepared to participate in a knowledge building circle on Thursday. Come with questions, wonderings, and things that you have learned. Some further basic internet research would help your participation. The article was written two years ago - how is the situation in Grassy Narrows now?

Outdoor Ed
Today, with the red-winged black birds looking on we created some beautiful natural art.

We started the week with a game called Rooks and Tooks.
Can you tell the folks at home about this?
This game highlighted a few areas to consider in ourselves.
- kindness vs. competition
- cultural differences and how they can lead to miscommunication
- being flexible -willing to change plans

Upcoming dates to remember:
- April 11th - History package due
- April 12th - Drama Elephant and Piggy presentations (clarity of voice, facial expression)
- April 16th - Art Humans of Stuart Scott due.
- April 18 - Genius Hour Fair
- April 23 - Eco Team's Welcome to the Wetlands!

The Owlets have hatched!!!
We have been watching for a while and finally the barred owl, that we have lovingly named Ivy, has welcomed her owlets.
We got a brief look at one of them this morning.
If you want to continue to watch over the weekend, here is the link:

http://cams.allaboutbirds.org/channel/43/Barred_Owls/


Constable Mo from the York Regional Police came to speak to us today.
Talk to your families about our discussions and things you should be thinking about.

HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND!

We had an extended work period this morning and we revisited the discussion of prioritizing upcoming (or overdue) assignments. We are continuing to learn to work on things we should do first as opposed to the things we want to do.

Music playing assessment tomorrow!
Quotles are also due tomorrow - with graphic organizers from book club meetings.

Genius Hour
We are two weeks away from our Genius Hour Fair (which parents are welcome to attend!)
I checked in with each person today and we are in various stages of being ready or on track to be ready. Those of you who are behind - please stick to the plan we discussed today. You can do it!

Secret Path
We watched this together -  and had a great discussion after.
Please complete the reflection sheet for tomorrow.
Share you thoughts with your family at home - perhaps watch it together.

http://secretpath.ca/

Today we had our Rube Goldberg Film Festival! We saw some impressive machines!
We didn't get a chance to talk about the process as we ran out of time. We will talk about it tomorrow.

Also on for tomorrow we will be watching "Secret Path".