Snowy Thursday!

Today we began with language and students were given some time to work on their family story graphic organizers that were handed out today. Students worked in pairs and started brainstorming their ideas. They were also given a chance to tell their stories to a partner to get it out and start planning what details needed to be told and what details were not important to the story. Many students were on task and it was nice to see.

In Math we watched a video on rotations and then did a hands-on exploratory worksheet with a partner. Students were armed with a compass, protractor, ruler, scissors and some graph paper. In pairs students researched the relationship between rotating a shape clockwise and counterclockwise 90 degrees. I have attached some instructional videos for reference and students are encouraged to watch the videos for some review as well as to help them clarify their ideas. Coordinate puzzles were due today in class from yesterday and students should have already handed in their 2 scatterplot graph assingments and their histogram assignment by now.

After a blistery cold lunch hour filled with flurries and grade 8's wearing hoodies outside instead of coats we took up attendance and then jumped right into the Science from yesterday. Students were given 5 questions and a worksheet, they must research the Hindenburg and you will find the link below to help you get the answers that you need. This is due next Tuesday, so get it done!
http://www.airships.net/hindenburg/disaster

(click on the links for pictures and the science behind it, there are some cool photos and I found this site really useful!)



To finish off a productive day, we covered a new health/art project concept. The assignment details will be handed out tomorrow as we planned it together but in a nutshell this is the project:
- students must create an informative cartoon image of junk food (hamburger, french fries, Filet-o-Fish)
- on that image they must include relevant and useful health information about the image (calorie count, positives or negatives of eating something like this on a daily basis, fat content, % of sodium, tablespoons of sugar etc.)
- students must have a minimum of 10 pieces of information on their infograph
- the two elements of design we are focusing on are: colour (their image must be appealing and colourful) and space ( the food item MUST be the focus of the poster).

Here are some examples below:

As promised here are some links to help you with your research portion of the project:
Here is a site that lists Canadian restaurant calorie counts, you just have to pick the restaurant from the data base: http://www.calorieking.com/foods/calories-in-fast-food-chains-restaurants_c-Y2lkPTIx.html?bid=1333

Here's the link to the Canada food guide: http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/fn-an/food-guide-aliment/order-commander/eating_well_bien_manger-eng.php

Here's a link to the Heart & Stroke website:http://www.heartandstroke.com/site/c.ikIQLcMWJtE/b.3484315/k.D9C8/Healthy_living__Eating_Well_with_Canadas_Food_Guide.htm

These are just a few, and I will look into more later on next week, but that should be enough to get you started. If any of you find a link that was helpful or geared towards a teen audience if you would post the link in your comment I will add it to the blog.

For tomorrow:
Science lab write up (soft due date)
Jamie Oliver Health write up (soft due date)
Winter Activity Forms & $
Pizza lunch $
Quiz on translations and coordinates ;)

Stay warm and I'll see you tomorrow morning!

Density Chart to do the Science (as promised)