Hi everyone,

It's hard to believe that June is already upon us!

Students have an Algebra assessment tomorrow (Monday) and on Friday, they received a review package. Here are the solutions to those pages:

This Thursday is our Grad Trip - parents are reminded to review safety expectations with their child(ren) with regards to how to act when in busy public areas. We want to reinforce safety on this trip, then fun :)

Also, students have been asked to send in baby photos for a presentation at Graduation.  These WILL be returned to you.  If you wish to send them in a digital format, please email them to sskelton@scdsb.on.ca.

Thank you!  Hope you have a great start to June!
Miss Skelton :)

Snow-vember

Hi everyone,

What a snowy week we've had!  I hope everyone is staying toasty and warm! A special thanks goes out to all families who have made it in to see us for conferences - it was great to touch base with you!  If you haven't had a conference yet and would like to schedule one, please contact Miss Skelton or Mrs. Davis.

Some of our students enjoying the first big snowfall!

Earlier this week, we postponed the Data Management assessment (Friday) to make sure that students had more time to review.  They will be writing it tomorrow. We've spent the last couple of days preparing for the assessment, which will include:
- mean, median, and mode (measures of central tendency)
- scatterplots
- histograms

Next Wednesday, the students have a History assignment about Louis Riel due.  For this assignment, they will likely need to have a fair bit of access to computers, as the assignment is on Bitstrips.  Please see the assignment that students were given for details.

Next Friday, students will have a Science assessment.  This is a unit test and the following will be included on the test:
- characteristics of living things
- plant and animal cells
- organelles and their functions
- unicellular organisms (specifically, amoeba, paramecium, and euglena)
- cell organization (cells -> tissue -> organs -> organ systems) - this is basically a brief summary of their Organ System Research project
- prokaryotes

Some unicellular humour!

We will be continuing to review various study tips over the next several days in order to prepare students for these assessments.  Please encourage your child to review his or her Science, and to make time for his or her History prior to the night before.

Some helping hints to effective studying!

There are a couple of Fieldcrest fundraisers coming up.  On November 24th and 25th, Don Cherry's will be donating 10% of proceeds to Fieldcrest.  They will be open for lunch and dinner on both days.  If you'd like to make a reservation for the Fieldcrest Fundraiser, please e-mail Don Cherry's at eric.fex1@gmail.com or nikkikim_6@hotmail.com.  You can also make reservations at the restaurant. For more information, please contact us at the school at (905)778-2010.

Have a great night!
Miss Skelton :)

Last week of October... already!

Hi everyone,

This is going to be a long post, so get comfy!

Last week, we were busy here at FES.  On Friday, we had a couple of visits:

Mr. Shank from BDHS visited during our middle block with some grade 9 students to speak to our grade 8s about their upcoming year in high school. There will be a "Grade 8 Day" at BDHS on November 5th, and on that day students will be visiting the high school and participating in a variety of activities and classes.  They will do a simulated rotary, see some performances, and play some get to know you games with other grade 8 students from our region.  If you have any questions, please let me know!

We also had a visit from Constable Rob Enright and Special Constable Karen Markus to talk to students about responsible technology use.  More information can be found on our Tech page.

Please be aware of the following dates and assignments/events:

Tuesday, October 28 - AM recess - Intermediate Girls Basketball tryouts
                                    - History tests should be signed and returned

Wednesday, October 29 - rough draft of their fairy tale character monologue due for Miss Skelton's students in Drama; Mrs. Davis's students will have theirs due on Monday, November 3.

Thursday, October 30 - Language Assessment - more information to come
                                      - Deadline for all citrus orders - for more information, please contact Miss Skelton or Mrs. Davis

Friday, October 31 - Math Test (angles and angle relationships) - reminder for students to visit Gizmos and complete the Angle Relationships activity (students have their login and password information)
                                  - Dance-a-thon!!  All paperwork and donations are due.  Permission can NOT be given over the phone, and students will not be permitted phone calls.  All forms and money will be accepted throughout the course of the week.

Wednesday, November 5 - BDHS visit - students will be heading to Bradford District High School to participate in a mock-rotary and meet some of their potential grade 9 teachers.

As usual, there will be more added soon!

Hope you enjoyed the weekend,
Miss Skelton

Studying Tips

Hi everyone,

We've been discussing studying tips in class.  These tips will help students as they prepare for upcoming assessments, and as they prepare for entering grade 9.  This list is by no means exhaustive, and students may come up with their own study strategies that work.  Hopefully this gets them moving on the right track!

Studying Tips from Miss Skelton

Have a great weekend!
Miss Skelton :)

Math Test - Squares and Square Roots

Hi everyone,

Students received last week's Math test back today - I'm asking that they are signed and returned as soon as possible.

Next Tuesday, we will be having a math assessment on squares and square roots.  Students have a double number line in their notebooks to help them with estimating square roots of numbers that are not perfect squares.
Because Grade 8s will have their picture day on Tuesday, October 7 as well, the test may be postponed until the 8th (but please don't EXPECT this!).

The following will be on the test:
- perfect squares
- finding squares and square roots of perfect squares up to 144
- using the double number line to estimate the square root of a number that is NOT a perfect square
- applying squares and square roots to multi-step problems

Check out what we did in Science today!  Fun fun!  http://grade8falcons.blogspot.ca/p/science.html

Have a great night!
Miss Skelton :)

In October...

Hi everyone,

Thank you again to those who attended Meet-the-Teacher night!  What a great way to end September :)

I am continuing to work on getting last week's math tests marked - thank you for your patience!  Typically the turnaround time with assessments will be significantly shorter.

In the upcoming month, we have several things going on (with more to be added to the list as the month progresses!):

Wednesday, October 1 to Friday, October 3 - Book Fair
Thursday, October 2 - We Day - we have several students going!
Tuesday, October 7 - Math assessment - squares and square roots AND French vocabulary quiz
Wednesday, October 8 - Flag Football - we have several students going to this, too!
Thursday, October 9 - Character assembly (9:30-10:30 am for grades 4-8)
Monday, October  13 - Thanksgiving holiday
Thursday, October 23 - HPV immunization needles for our female grade 8 students - there will be two more dates in the new year, as this needle is given three times.  Paperwork will be coming home soon.
Friday, October 24 - Technology Talk with our community officers, Cst Rob Enwright and Spec Cst Karen Markus.  The discussion will be surrounding appropriate and safe use of cellphones, social media, and the Internet.
Monday, October 27 - PA Day - students can sleep in!

We will add more in further blog posts, but this should get us started for this month!

Miss Skelton :)

Math Assessment - Prime Numbers, GCF, LCM, etc.

Hi everyone,

Our students have a Math test tomorrow on the following:
- Vocabulary (multiple choice)
- Prime and Composite Numbers
- Divisibility Rules
- Prime Factorization, Factor Trees
- Greatest Common Factor
- Lowest Common Multiple

There will not be word problems on this assessment, however in the future, word problems will be a regular part of assessments.

Students have a glossary in the back of their notebooks.  They are responsible for knowing what the vocab words mean, however they will not be asked to define the words.  There will be a multiple choice section of the test to indicate their understanding of the vocabulary.  Beyond that, if questions include any of the vocabulary words, it is expected that students know what they mean.

Our Word Wall/Vocabulary for this Math unit

This Khan Academy video is useful to help with divisibility and prime factorization:
https://www.khanacademy.org/math/pre-algebra/factors-multiples/prime_factorization/v/prime-factorization

This one is helpful for explaining Greatest Common Factor:
https://www.khanacademy.org/math/pre-algebra/factors-multiples/greatest_common_divisor/v/greatest-common-divisor

And last but not least, Lowest Common Multiple:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D6yHKOYJiso

*these videos help to clarify the concept, but students should be comfortable using the factor tree (prime factorization) to determine GCF and LCM

Please take a bit of time tonight to review concepts with students.  There will be no "rewrite" opportunities for students, as there are many opportunities for them to demonstrate their learning throughout the course of the upcoming units.

Thanks!  Have a great night,
Miss Skelton :)