daw.com - January 26

We are moving along in our Wellness unit and it is time to start thinking about Puberty which is part of this unit.  There is a parent meeting on Friday February 9th from 8:30-9:30 in the morning.  It will be held in the MPR.  This meeting will involve a doctor who will cover the topic with the parents and then the teachers will review the material we will cover in class.  If you are unable to make this meeting but still have questions, please feel free to contact me with the questions and I will answer them for you.  While it is a time of concern for parents and students, it is an important time in the life of a student and the more they understand the better off they are for life.

Our writing unit has seen us move toward our final drafts.  This first FANTASY piece is called A Day at the Beach where I supplied the setting for the short story and the students did the rest.  We looked at some of the components of a good fantasy story and also at something called the Hero's Journey as students studied what was needed for their story.  I have set a date of next Friday for the final draft to be handed in.

In math we are currently multiplying whole numbers by fractions and we move on evaluating expressions with parenthesis and also word problems with operations in fractions.  This last part is something I have been putting strong emphasis on in class as I feel it is something the entire class needs to be stronger at.  If a problem cannot be converted to a mathematical equation, then the problem has not been understood.  It is not unusual at all that problems have more numbers in them than are needed for a solution.

Next week we will have our China-Link activities for our unit in wellness.  This involves being in the cooking lab twice, learning Tai-Chi, participating in flower arranging, calligraphy and the Chinese Tea Ceremony as well as some other activities that relate both to China and our wellness unit.  Every year we do this it is a highlight for the students.  Look forward to some interesting conversations about this.

We are approaching Chinese New Year and I know that many people travel for this holiday.  If you need to pull your student out early or come back late please let me know so I can plan accordingly.  Just an email is all I need.  Thank-you in advance for this.

That is all for this week.  If you have any questions or concerns please feel free to contact me and I will gladly set up a time to meet with you.