Good afternoon everyone,

I hope you had a wonderful day. Monday is a Day 6 (music and reading buddies). It has been a wonderful, fun and exciting Spring Fundraiser week. Thank you to all of the families who supported SJA in our biggest fundraiser of the year. We look forward to celebrating our success on our roller skating trip, next Friday, April 12^th. Mr. Oliver has sent home a form regarding this years Arts' Night - The Wizard of Oz. For this event, we are providing students with a costume. The cost of the costume is $15. Please return the form and $15 cash no later than Friday, April 12th. 

The Grade 4-8 SJA Spelling Bee Competition is taking place on Tuesday, April 9^th beginning at 9:00 AM for Grade 4 and Grade 5. Grade 6-8 Spelling Bee will begin at 12:00 PM.

We are just shy of meeting our fundraising goal. We have more that half of our class attending the trip on April 12^th. If you would like to re-consider sending your child you can send the money with them Monday. Please note that the trip is not $40, but that the $40 is going towards improving SJA.

Wine and Cheese Social Event - SJA will be holding a wine and cheese for all parents to attend on Friday, April 26th from 6-8 PM. This will be a great time to socialize and hear about what direction SJA will be heading.

Important dates/items:

Monday, April 8 – JK-Grade 3 Spelling Bee

Tuesday, April 9 – Grade 4-8 Spelling Bee

Friday, April 12 – Spring Fundraiser trip to Scooters (11:30-2:00) & The Wizard of Oz $15 cash due

Thursday, April 18 – SITS workshop & Easter Spirit

Friday, April 19-Monday, April 22 – No School – Easter Weekend

Tuesday, April 23 – Rock climbing, bake sale & summer uniforms begin

Wednesday, April 24 – Bake sale & casual day

Tuesday, April 30 – Silent Dance

Unit of Inquiry

Today we examined vertebrates, which are animals with a backbone. Within vertebrates, we have cold-blooded animals, like fish and reptiles, and warm-blooded animals, like birds and mammals. Most mammals can be divided into three main groups – egg-laying, marsupials and placental mammals. Just like we did yesterday, we classified vertebrates!

Biodiversity is another short unit. We will have roughly 3-3.5 weeks of learning and 1/5-2 weeks for our summative, which will be due sometime during the last full week of April. More information to come in the upcoming weeks.

HOMEWORK

-Finish research on the mammal of your choice

Classifying vertebrates!

Inquiry into Mathematics

Today we played on electronics!

Our math test will take place on Thursday, April 11^th. Our next unit will be transformation geometry, which will begin with a pre-assessment on Monday, April 15^th.

Points to remember:

Remember what we do to the denominator we must do to the numerator. If we multiply the denominator by 3, then we must multiply the numerator by 3 as well.

Remember to simplify your fractions and convert improper fractions to mixed numbers.

How to add/subtract fractions - if the fractions have the same denominator, we simply add/subtract the numerators. For example, 1/6 + 4/6 = 5/6 & ¾ - ¼ = 2/4 = 1/2. However, if the denominators are different our first step is to find the lowest common denominator. For example, 1/3 + ½ = 2/6 + 3/6 = 5/6 & 5/6 – ½ = 5/6 – 3/6 = 2/6 = 1/3.

Percents - we want to keep the number 100 in our mind. When changing a fraction to a percent, we use the numerator to help us. For example, 23/100 = 23 percent. If we have a fraction that is over 10, 20 or 25, we need to make it over 100. We will need to multiply 10 by 10, 20 by 5 and 25 by 4. Remember to do the same to the numerator. For example, 6/10 = 60/100 (10 x 10 and 6 x 10) = 60 percent. We also looked at decimals. Remember if it is out of 100, then there will need to be two spots filled in after the decimal point. For example 23/100 = 0.23 and 7/100 = 0.07.

Estimating a percent - remember when we think of percent, we need to think ‘out of 100.’ Here is an example

–> Sylvie has a collection of 197 sports bobbleheads. About 25 percent of them are hockey players. Estimate the number of hockey players.

Step 1) Round 197 to 200.

Step 2) Find 25 percent of 200.

Step 3) Find an equivalent fraction with the denominator 200…25/100 = 50/200 (25 x 2 and 100 x 2). Therefore, 25 percent of 200 is 50.

->Of the 30 students in Larry’s class, 14 of them take the bus. Estimate the percent of the students who take the school bus.

Step 1) Round 14 to 15, which is ½ of 30. Therefore 14 is almost ½ of 30.

Step 2) ½ = 50/100 (percent is out of 100 – 2 x 50 and 1 x 50)

So, almost 50 percent of the students take the bus.

A ratio is a comparison of 2 quantities with the same unit.  A ratio can be used to compare a part of a set to another part of the set or to compare a part of a set to the whole set. For example, there are 9 rabbits; 4 brown and 5 white. The ratio of brown rabbits to white rabbits is 4 to 5. The ratio of 4 to 5 is written as 4:5. This is a part-to-part ratio. An example of a part-to-whole ratio is 4 brown rabbits to 9 whole rabbits, or 4:9, or 4/9.

Equivalent ratios - you can find equivalent ratios by multiplying or dividing the terms of a ratio by the same non-zero number. For example, Kim is planting a border in her garden. She plants 5 marigolds for every 3 geraniums. The ratio of marigolds to geraniums is 5:3. How many geraniums would she need to plant for each number of marigolds 10, 15, and 20? One way to find out is to use a table.

Marigolds	Geraniums	Ratio of Marigolds to Geraniums
5	3	5:3
10	6	10:6
15	9	15:9
20	12	20:12

We went up by 5s for marigolds and by 3s for geraniums. We multiplied 5 x 2, 5 x 3, and 5 x 4 for the marigolds and for the geraniums we multiplied 3 x 2, 3 x 3, 3 x 4.

Therefore, 5:3, 10:6, 15:9, and 20:12 are all equivalent fractions.

A rate is a ratio that compares two items measured in different units. For example, Ramona drew 52 stars in 1 minute. We say that her rate of drawing stars is 52 stars per minute and we write it like 52 stars/minute. Per means ‘for every’ or ‘in every.’

HOMEWORK

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Enjoying our electronic free time and treats!

Inquiry into Language

Today we met in our Hatchet groups and shared our role. We also had our spelling test.

Hatchet Literature Circle - This time we have added two other roles. There will no be a summariser, connector, literary critic, discussion moderator, and word wizard. Each week students will individually read the assigned chapters and complete their role in class. At the end of the week each group will come together and share with their group.

The groups (for sharing) – all work will be done independently:

Group 1 – Vishva, Aarnav, Div, Aanika, and Joshua

Group 2 – Ronit, Emana, Manny, Liliana, and Himmat

Group 3 – Mitansh, Jasmeet, Munira, Chesley, and Elina

Group 4 – Eva, Rajan and Willem

Due dates:

Chapters 1-3 due Friday, March 29^th

Chapters 4-6 due Friday, April 5^th

Chapters 7-9 due Friday, April 12^th

Chapters 10-12 due Thursday, April 18^th

Chapters 13-15 due Friday, April 26^th

Chapters 16-19 will be a culminating activity with due date to be announced.

HOMEWORK

-Sign and return spelling test #25 – wrong words to be written out 5 x

Have a wonderful weekend.  

Love Mrs. Hocevar