The Ultimate Grade 7 Blog

A super fun start to the week! We started this morning with a group problem-solving activity in Math. Each group was given the task to plan a trip to the Zoo. They were given a certain amount of time and using fractions had to figure out how long they should spend visiting each animal. Students continued to work on the graphic organizer for their short story in Language. Afterwards, we continued to work on sculpting their Kaiju for the Operation: Kaiju assignment in Art. This afternoon we were celebrating three birthdays today in class! We had snacks and students took turns playing in a Super Smash Bros and Mario Kart tournament. Some students also played an epic game of Risk, while others attempted to stay alive while playing Exploding Kittens! Homework: Language: Finish completing the short story graphic organizer. The graphic organizer is due on Wednesday, February 1st.  Science: Finish questions on Pure Substances and Mixtures - pg. 14-17  

A productive end to the week! This morning during Math work continued with our matchstick challenges and then played some Math games based on fractions. For Language, we tried out our first Oreo challenge. Students had to describe in steps, using as much detail as possible, how they eat an Oreo. We then, as a class, attempted to eat an Oreo following a couple of students' directions. We will be continuing this activity every Friday. Afterwards, we continue to work on our graphic organizer for the short story assignment. For Gym, students continued to participate in various Tchoukball drills.  After lunch, for Science, students independently worked on demonstrating their understanding of mixtures and pure substances. We ended the day with a FLEX period where students got to work on any unfinished assignments. We also announced the winners of the "Gross Me Out" contest! Our first-place winner went to Jade, second place went to Adam and third place was a tie, going to both E...

For a snowy day, we got a lot done! We had a few students absent today, so for Math, we started with more problem-solving questions and then moved on to trying to solve some match stick brain teasers. For Language, students began working on their graphic organizer for their short story writing assignment. We continued to work on sculpting our Kaiju monsters in Art for the Operation: Kaiju assignment. For History, we read over and discussed the different taxes that were forced on the Thirteen Colonies after the Seven Years' War ended. These new taxes caused a lot of upset and eventually will lead to the American Revolution. We ended the day with a FLEX period where students got to work on any unfinished assignments. Homework: Language: Finish the "Tell Me A Story #1" and the "Oreo" descriptive writing activities. Both are due tomorrow. History: Read over the Key Terms and Tax Increases for the American Revolution. The videos below will help with the readings. ...

Lots of energy for a Wednesday! This morning during Math students got into groups for more problem-solving. Afterwards, we continued exploring repeated addition by multiplying fractions. For Language, we read our last "Gross Me Out" creative writing response.  We then worked on a descriptive writing activity about how to eat an Oreo. For Gym we warmed up by playing "Rock, Paper, Scissors, Tchouk" and then practised playing "Off the Net" and "Tchouk is on Fire". After lunch for Science, we looked at what is a pure substance and what is a mixture, where students had to give examples for both. We ended the day with a FLEX period where students got to work on any unfinished assignments. Homework: Math: Finish questions 1-6 on pg. 85-86 in the Math workbook. Language: Finish writing "Tell Me A Story # 1". It is due tomorrow. Science: Finish questions on what is a pure substance and what is a mixture - pg. 13-14

It was a busy Tuesday! This morning for Math we learned how you think of multiplying fractions as repeated addition. Students drew a picture of each multiplication question as repeated addition to show their answers. They also learned that they can multiply a whole number by the numerator to get their answer. For Language, we started a new creative writing exercise called "Tell Me A Story". For this exercise, students were shown an image and they had to come up with some kind of narrative about what they think is going on in the picture. Each image for "Tell Me A Story" will be posted in the blog, for students who still need to work on the assignment. Afterwards for Art, students continued sculpting their Kaiju creations based on their sketches for the Operation: Kaiju art activity. After lunch, for History, we finished our discussion on the three different Acts (laws) passed by the British parliament (The Treaty of Paris, The Royal Proclamation, and The Quebec Act)...

A great start to the week! We started this morning in Math with some group problem-solving. Working in groups, students were given a word problem using fractions that they needed to solve. Afterwards, each group was given a chance to explain the process they used to get the answer to the question. We had some more "Gross Me Out" presentations today in Language. Students continue to read their descriptions of the vilest things they could imagine, trying to gross out their teachers. For Gym, we reviewed the rules and terminology for Tchoukball. Afterwards, students practised in centers playing "Off the Wall" and "Tchouk is on Fire". For Science, we looked at the difference between pure substances and mixtures. Students learned that matter can be a pure substance or a mixture. Pure substances can be elements or compounds, while mixtures are substances that one physically combines, but can sometimes be separated into their original components. We ended the day...

It was a great end to the week! This morning in Math, we continued subtracting fractions with different denominators by creating equivalent fractions. Today in Language, students shared their "Gross Me Out" writing assignment. Students took turns describing the grossest thing that they could imagine, competing to see who could gross out their teachers the most. We will be continuing our "gross-out" contest on Monday. Afterwards for Art, students continued sculpting their Kaiju creations based on their sketches for the Operation: Kaiju art activity. For History, we continued exploring the Quebec Act, this time looking at how this act affected and upset English settlers living along the East coast of the United States. We had a great class discussion on how the Quebec Act will become one of the early causes of the American Revolution. We ended the day by joining the Grade 4 class in celebrating the Chinese New Year. Students got to celebrate by making paper lanterns, ...

A solid Thursday for learning! This morning during Math we learned how to subtract fractions using our fraction strips as aids. Today was the last day to work on our "Gross Me Out" assignment for Language. Students spent the period writing the grosses thing that they could imagine and then worked on editing, using an editing checklist. Afterwards, for Gym, students started their Tchoukball unit where they are working on their throwing and catching skills, as well as, developing offence and defence strategies. Today, students participated in numerous drills to develop these skills. For Science, students learned about the different states of matter (solids, liquids, gases) and that all matter is capable of changing from one state to another. We then learned that the particles (atoms) in matter react when changing states. We ended the day with a FLEX period where students got to work on any unfinished assignments. Homework: Math: Finish questions 1-4 on pg. 81-82 in the Math wor...

Another busy, but productive Wednesday! This morning in Math we continued with adding fractions. This time students learned that they can write a fraction that is greater than one as a mixed number.  We took a double period for Art, as students began sculpting the Kaiju that they had designed. After lunch for History, we looked at the Quebec Act of 1774. We had a great class discussion about how the Quebec Act helped mend relations between the French settlers and the British, by giving religious freedom to allow French settlers to continue practising Roman Catholicism and reintroducing French Civil Law. However, this Act did cause an upset with the English settlers and becomes the seed to ignite the American Revolution. We ended the day with Language where students continued to work on and start to edit their "Gross Me Out" writing assignment. Homework: Math: Finish questions 4-6 on pg. 79-80. Science: Finish questions on Matter - pg. 6-7 History: Finish questions 1-2 on the ...

This Tuesday was full of smiles! This morning during Math we learned how to add fractions with different denominators. Students learned how to find a common denominator for unlike fractions by finding their lowest common multiple. For Language, we started our next descriptive creative writing activity called "Gross Me Out!" For this activity, students must describe the grosses thing they can imagine, using their five senses.  We started a new unit in Gym. Today students learned the rules for how to play Tchoukball. After lunch, we continued in Science learning about "matter" and how it is made up of atoms and molecules. We ended the day with a FLEX period where students got to work on any unfinished assignments. Homework: Math: Finish questions 1-3 on pg. 78-79 in the Math workbook. Language: Have an idea ready for the "Gross Me Out" writing assignment. Science: Finish questions on Matter - pg. 6-7 History: Finish questions on the Proclamation of 1763. Art...

The energy was high for a Monday! This morning we continued adding fractions using our fractions strips as aids to help solve the equations. For Language, students read their descriptions of their favourite pencil and then the rest of the class had to guess which pencil belonged to them. Afterwards for Art, we continued working on the design for our Kaiju sculpture. Students will start using the air-dry class on Wednesday to create their giant monster! After lunch, we continued with our lesson on the Proclamation of 1763. We ended the day with a FLEX period where students got to work on any unfinished assignments. Homework: Math: Finish questions 3-5 on pg. 76-77 in the Math workbook. Language: Finish the description for the "My Pencil" writing activity. (For those students who were absent today) Science: Finish question on What is Chemistry? - pg. 4  History: Finish questions on the Proclamation of 1763. Art: Finish the sketch of the Kaiju design. Remember that the sketch ne...

A bit of a snow day for a Friday! It was a small class today due to the weather. Instead of doing our usual classwork, we spent the day watching nature documentaries and playing educational games. We started the morning figuring out some matchstick challenges and afterwards played some different math games. We did a bit of work on practising our last descriptive writing activity but got distracted watching a documentary about the secret lives of cats. After the documentary, we played an epic game of pairs in badminton. When we came in from lunch, students practised portrait drawing or worked on their Kaiju art assignment. The kids chose to watch another beautiful and inspiring documentary called My Octopus Teacher , while they worked on their art. We ended the day by playing some football in the snow! Homework: Math: Finish questions 1-2 on pg. 76-77 in the Math workbook. Language: Finish the description for the "My Pencil" writing activity.  Science: Finish question on What ...

A snowy Thursday for some creative classroom work! This morning during Math we continued using our fraction strips to help us add fractions. This time students learned how to use fraction strips combined with a number line when the sum of the fraction is greater than one whole. We started Language with each group from yesterday reading their description of Preston Street. For their next creative writing task, students are learning how to describe a character. For this writing activity, students had to pick their favourite pencil and describe it with as much detail as possible. This writing activity will be used for a game tomorrow where students will see if they can identify each other's pencils based on the descriptions written. Afterwards for Art, students continued designing their own Kaiju for our Operation: Kaiju activity. Once students have finished sketching and colouring their Kaiju, they will sculpt it out of air-dry clay. For History, we learned about the Royal Proclamati...

Where did Wednesday go?! This morning during Math we learned how to model fractions using fraction strips. Students modelled how to add or subtract fractions by aligning two fraction strips and then finding a single strip that has the same length as the answer. As students found different fraction strips that fit under their equation for the answer, they were also able to demonstrate equivalent fractions. We took a walk down to Preston Street for our next writing activity in Language. For this exercise in describing a setting, students worked in groups where each member was in charge of observing Preston Street, using one of their senses. When we got back to Heritage, each group member collaborated in writing a description of Preston Street by writing about what they observed using either sight, smell, sound, or touch. For Science, we learn about what is chemistry and what is matter. We had a great class discussion about the three states of matter. We ended the day with a FLEX period w...

It was a fun day of learning! We continued using our fraction strips during Math. Students used different fraction strips to demonstrate equivalent fractions. We then used pattern blocks to aid in adding and subtracting different fraction equations. After reviewing descriptive writing in Language, we went back outside for another chilly writing prompt. This time students had to describe the feeling of having snow melting down their backs, making sure to also describe the physical sensations of how melting snow affected their backs. For a chilly writing prompt, the students were full of smiles! We started our next activity in Art called Operation: Kaiju. Students were introduced to the Godzilla Monsterverse, where we examined different giant monsters and their abilities. We also discussed how in our world, radiation can affect the growth rate of certain animals (e.g. catfish found around Chernobyl). For this project, students will be designing and sculpting their own Kaiju (giant monste...

Happy New Year! It was a productive first day back after the holiday break!  For Math, we continued our introduction to fractions with students colouring and cutting out their fraction strips. Students will then be comparing the different size fraction strips to see how they fit within each other. The fraction strips will also be used to assist students with their comprehension of different fraction equations. During Language, we started our next unit on Short Story writing. Today we looked at descriptive writing and using our 5 senses (sight, sound, smell, touch and taste). After giving some verbal descriptions of objects in the class, we then went outside for our first writing activity. While outside students each held onto a handful of snow for as long as they could. Afterwards, they had to write a paragraph describing what it felt like holding the snow. For Gym, we played an epic game of Boom City! After lunch, we started our introduction to our new unit in Science on Pure Subs...