Mrs. Winch's Grade 7/8 Class

Our class is participating in the J to J book challenge, where each student has challenged themselves to read a specific number of books between the months of January and June.  Each number is their own and it is an individual challenge, not a competition.  During this time each student will be responsible for reviewing 5 of their books, at least one a month, on their blog sites.  Please read them and comment.  Stay tuned for my first review.

Our box of books has arrived in Rockville Centre, New York!  The teacher there was astounded at the number of books our class sent to her class.  She was very excited to unpack the box and the most amazing thing she found was the letters our class sent to her class.  She has read them all and thought they were wonderful.  She is going to share them with her class, and the great news is that her class will be able to respond to the letters and write back to us.  I am very excited to see what they have to say after they have had the opportunity to look at all the letters and the books.  This looks like it might be the start of something cool!.  Stay tuned for further developments.

I have a teacher acquaintance in New York state who has just started her teaching career.  She wants to set up a classroom library to encourage her students to get interested in reading.  Unfortunately her Board does not support new teachers with funds for classroom libraries and as a new teacher she really does not have the funds herself to purchase books to do this.  She asked her teacher friends for ideas and assistance in setting up this library. 

I was totally amazed at the response she received from teachers around the country.  Many people have purchased items for her libraryand are sending them to her.  I have an extensive class library that I have collected over the years and in doing so have many duplicates.  I decided to send my duplicate copies and was culling my library the other day when my students questioned my actions.  When I told them what I was doing and why, many of them asked if they could contribute as well.  Students brought in many books from their own collections.  As a class, we decided to write to the class and try to get to know them a little. 

I am touched that my students are willing to reach out to another class that they don’t know and help them.  I am very interested to see how this will turn out and if the class will answer our letters.  Stay tuned to see what might happen next.

This past week at school we have been focusing on our reading groups and the books that we have been reading.  I am reading Chu Ju’s House.  So far I dont like the book too much.  It is well written but it is not the kind of genre that I like and it is also too easy to read.  This past week we also started three projects and they are all due on Monday.  There is our cell as a factory which is where we have to make a diagram of a factory and state parts of the factory which funtions are similar with organelles of the plant and animal cells. There is also a french project.  We have to interview someone in the class in french and then have to write it into a real interview.  Lastly, we have a math data project where we have to survey people on a topic of your choice and then make at least two graphs showing the same data.  I am doing a circle graph and a bar graph.

Today was Remembrance Day and we held our traditional Remembrance Day Assembly in the gym.  This year we changed the recess times around so that we could have our two minutes of silence right at 11:00.  Every class contributed a wreath they had made and had two representatives place the wreath at the front of the gym under a photo of a cenotaph.  The wreaths were all different but looked very effective at the front of the room.  There was a poem by the grade 3 class called In Flanders Field and there were two songs about Peace sung by the primary classes.  Our Vice Principal read out the roll call of all the people who are connected to our school in some way and who have or are now serving in the armed forces.  It is difficult to remain quiet and serious during this ceremony and I am very proud of my class who managed to demonstrate exemplary behaviour during this solemn occasion.

In addition to our service, many classes contributed some very effective art work around the school and in the gym.  The intermediate division wrote poems and created various art works to be part of our Courage showcase in the front foyer.  This was very effective and went well with the many artifacts, pictures and books that help us remember the courage of the people who fought in various wars for our freedom.  Many classes used this as a talking point for various Remembrance Day activities they were doing in their classrooms. 

Welcome to our new class blog. This year we have been using a number of new and exciting things connected with information technology in the classroom. Our class blog will be another addition to our arsenal. Students will be blogging about their experiences in the classroom, about books they are reading, games they have learned or new ways of finding out information. The sky is the limit.  Everyone should get in the habit of blogging at least once a week on something they have done in the class that week. Students should also get into the habit of commenting on other blogs on the site.  This program will be an iintregal part of communication within the classroom in terms of writing, reading and internet presence. I hope you enjoy this activity.