The Week of October 12, 2015

We've worked hard to put closure on term one by finishing our required assignments, collecting your first term PIN folders, and scheduling our parent/teacher/student conferences.  Your final grades are averaged and can be found on PowerSchool.  A report card will be printed and sent home October 16.  Now that we've tied the first term up in a neat little bow, let's move onto term 2!

Your first math lesson of the second term will involve plotting numbers on number lines.  This is an exciting time, because it may prove to be the first time you've encountered negative numbers in school!  We will be focusing primarily on two concepts associated with negative numbers:  absolute value and opposite numbers.  Here is a brief overview (click to enlarge) and video:

Opposite Numbers (Click to Enlarge)

Absolute Value (Click to Enlarge)

Absolute Value Video

You will have homework to complete Tuesday and Wednesday evening, and a quiz Thursday.  Since we are off Monday, it is important that you are spending sufficient time in your math studies preparing for the quiz.  Since it is a short week, you will NOT have a math journal to complete.

You will notice that our science shelf looks a lot different than it did before you left for the weekend! It is now showcasing materials associated with our new domain of study: oceanography!  We will start our studies of Earth's oceans by diving below the surface and exploring undersea topography.  After our initial lesson, please complete the following choice sheet to guide your research.  It is due next Friday.

GO FISH

You will have a vocabulary quiz this Friday on the following undersea topography words:

The Ocean Floor Vocabulary

We will spend a lot of time over the next two weeks talking about the landforms found under the ocean's surface.  Here is a quick overview of the landforms we will study.  You can use this guide to help you prepare for your undersea topography test that will take place next Friday.

The Ocean Floor

This week is the first week of parent/teacher/student conferences.  I am looking forward to meeting with everyone and discussing all that we have been doing this first term at Ellis.  If you forget when your conference has been scheduled for (or if you need to reschedule), please contact me as soon as possible.

Tutorial will continue this week on Wednesday.  We will NOT have tutorial the week of October 19th because I will be in Montessori Certification classes after school each day.  I can't wait to share with you all I learn as I work towards my certification!

Enjoy your long weekend!

Mr. Trent