jan 21 language, science, music, geography

Language

Creating & Describing a Character 
(Protagonist/Hero – Antagonist/Villain)

At the heart of any story is a character that engages your interest, your love or your total dislike.  Your job is to describe a tv, movie or book character of your choice.

Prewriting (generating ideas)

• Name of Character

• Describe the character’s physical appearance.

(hair, eyes, skin, clothes, unusual features, and anything else that makes the character unique)

• Describe the character’s personality.

(Does he/she have a sense of humor? Is he/she serious? Is he/she kind? Does he/she have strong feelings about anything?)

• Describe the way the character speaks.

(Does he/she speak in an unusual way? Does he/she speak at a fast or slow pace? Does he/she listen to others?)

• Describe how the character thinks.

(Is there any change in the way the character thinks? Does he/she analyze events or think about them as little as possible?)

• Does the character change? (have any situations or challenges faced by the character changed their personality?)

• List the different roles the character plays in the lives of the people around him.

(Is the character a son, daughter, husband, wife, best friend, policeman, teacher, etc.?)

Draft (ideas to sentences/paragraphs) written in 1st person point of view:

Do you know who I am?  I am the Victor Newman, the self-made billionaire and business tycoon.  Not many know that I was born Christian Miller.  After my father walked out on the family and my mother abandoned me at an orphanage where I had to fend for myself, I renamed myself with the intention of starting a new life and being victorious in all my endeavors.  From then on, I vowed to myself that no one would ever defeat me and bring me down again.

Eventually I got myself a solid education and started working in the corporate world of high finance where I established a name and reputation for myself.  Some say I’m ruthless or call me the black knight - they just have no idea what it takes to build a company from the ground up with your own sweat.

No problem, whether big or small, can faze me – I control everything and everyone around me.  My word is the law.  No one dares to challenge me or they will face my wrath.  I am to be respected and feared.  Join me in the boxing ring at the Genoa City Athletic Club and you’ll soon understand. 

I will do as I please; I always have and I always will.  I will not conform or give into what you want of me.   No one takes me on.  I will crush them and leave them penniless.

The great Victor Newman has spoken, you got that Billy boy?  

Science

Separating Solutions by Evaporation

Purpose: to remove salt from a salt-water solution by evaporation (liquid to gas); the experiment will simulate cave stalactites, in which dripping water evaporates leaving behind mineral solutes.

Hypothesis: if I hang a string that has been soaked in a saturated salt-water solution between two cups 1/2 full of epsom salts solution, then I think after a week….

Observations:

Day #	JPEG Picture	Description

Analysis:

A,B,C pg.68 text

Conclusion:

What did you learn about separating solutions?


Instrumental Music

• fill in reflection for playing test
• get rubric

Geography

• continue working on your environment/ecosystems Prezi

jan 18 math quiz & hmrk corrections

Chapter 3 Questions (Breadwinner)

*Due: Wednesday

CHAPTER 3

RE-TELL:

Parvana and her mother go to the prison to bail out the father / husband. The guards beat Parvana and her mother with sticks.

Questions:

1.  What does the author want to convey (tell us) by showing that the soldiers beat up Parvana, Nooria and her mother?

2.  What is important about Parvana, as a woman, having the courage to do what she did?

Chapter 2 Breadwinner questions

CHAPTER 2  - reflection questions

[1] What do the books symbolize?

[2] How does education and knowledge change the way we think about society?

[1]

·      Rebellion

·      That the father knows what needs to be done in order to improve the society; Books are a symbol of being knowledgeable; the soldiers are described as ‘thugs’ and uneducated.

·      Importance of education and knowledge in changing our society; garbage & pollution, being critical of what’s around us. There are always things to change.

·      Freedom àthe knowledge in the books allows Parvana to be free

 [2]

·      Knowing the deeper issues (for adults) and not just focusing on the little details. 

jan 17 lang, math & geo reminders

Chapter 1 Follow-up

Parvana seems to be loyal and caring towards her father by helping him to the marketplace even though women are supposed to remain inside, not talk and be virtually invisible. We feel empathy toward Parvana because of the unfair treatment of girls and women in that place and time. She’s brave, and seems to have a strong and confident personality and positive attitude.

Her family seems to be close-knit and positive in spite of living in war and ruins; find beauty in their country

Under the Taliban militia control and with constant bombings life is far from what many would consider normal and just. Girls and women are not allowed to leave their homes and do not receive education. They do not have the same privileges or rights as we do.

The mood is saddening, shocking: their home has been tremendously downsized to one single room; war is making them poorer by the day; father hurt by bomb while teaching; mother fired from radio station; the selling of prosthetic legs in the marketplace is unbelieveable.

Disgusted, a sense of injustice, insecurity, emphathy for characters, sadness, we feel like we wouldn’t fit there, admiration for characters, anger, author creates this mood.  

Chapter 2 reflection questions (for tomorrow):

What do the hidden books symbolize? How can education and knowledge change the way you think about society?

Complete math workbook 6.4

Continue working on your geography prezi

integers 6.1 corrections & hmwrk

geography big ideas environment & ecosystems

U4 Geography Environment pg. 74-78  Big Ideas

The environment is everything that is on, in, or surrounding the Earth.

Everyone takes in oxygen and puts out carbon dioxide into the air.

The environment is made up of 4 parts: the atmosphere (air), the hydrosphere (water), the lithosphere (Earth’s crust), and the biosphere (all living things).

The atmosphere allows us to breathe; it shields us from the direct rays of the Sun; it supplies water to the land; it provides plants the nitrogen/carbon dioxide needed to grow.

The hydrosphere takes up almost 70%  of the Earth’s surface; it includes the oceans, lakes, rivers, and the frozen polar ice caps; our oceans supply most of the precipitation that falls on land.

The lithosphere is the Earth’s crust or surface and is up to 50 kilometres thick made up of rocks and soils that allow us to grow crops and provides us with natural resources like metals, oils and natural gas.

The biosphere is the part of Earth where plants, animals and people live.

Air is made up of nitrogen, oxygen and carbon dioxide.

The ozone layer high up in the stratosphere of our atmosphere blocks out much of the harmful ultra violet (UV) light from the Sun which can cause skin cancer.  

Our ozone protection weakens when we use air conditioners, spray cans or refrigerators  because chemicals like chlorine, fluorine and hydrocarbons are released into the atmosphere.

When we burn fossil fuels like oil and gas we release carbon dioxide into the atmosphere; this causes higher temperatures and changes to Earth systems – this called the greenhouse effect.

U4 Geography: Ecosystems Big Ideas pg.81-89

An ecosystem is a balanced arrangement of plants and animals in their surrounding physical environment.  

All parts of an ecosystem are related to each other and depend  on each other.

People, plants and animals are biotic or living elements in an ecosystem.

Water and rock are abiotic or non-living elements in an ecosystem.

A tropical rain forest, a coniferous forest or the tundra are all biomes or vegetation regions in an ecosystem.

All plants and animals in an ecosystem are struggling to survive.

The food pyramid in an ecosystem is made up of consumers, namely: omnivores (plant/meat eaters), carnivores (meat eaters), herbivores (plant eaters), and producers and decomposers that break down dead plant/animal matter and return nutrients to the soil.

Plants are producers – they make their own food by using solar energy to change water and carbon dioxide into a kind of sugar they use as food for growth – this process is called photosyntheis.

Changing any 1 part of an ecosystem changes the whole - it impacts the entire ecosystem.

If a species no longer exists anywhere on Earth because i.e. people, pollution, predators or disease have affected the balance of nature, then that species is said to be extinct.

The way humans interact with the environment affects our well-being now and in the future.  We are all responsible for looking after the environment, just like Aboriginal peoples have known for centuries how important it is to preserve the environment for future generations.

Environment & Ecosystems Mini Prezi Team Task

What are we doing to go-green, to protect and preserve our city's environment and ecosystems?

Feel free to explore any of the suggestions listed below OR any topic of your choice from this particular chapter.  Please let me know what your focus will be - explore an environmental issue that truly interests you.

·         LAND: With every new residential, commercial and industrial development that expands Toronto, a city becomes an artificial ecosystem – what was there before? what is there now? What’s natural? What’s artificial? Find some real examples of the effects of urbanization. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z9AZfwfyATI  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wPqfGQTPqEU  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BYwZiiORYG8

  Land contamination Toronto Star articles:

http://www.yourhome.ca/homes/article/856342

http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/education/article/1220470--contaminated-soil-found-at-toronto-school
http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/article/1292869--old-oaks-face-the-axe-a-major-loss-to-the-city-s-ecosystem

·         AIR: What have vehicle emissions (cars, trucks, trains, planes) done to our city’s air quality? Why does the weather channel talk about smog advisory & air quality index particularly in the summer months?  What does our province do to control emissions?

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rr7T37Y1cwc

a

Air quality issues in Toronto:
http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/article/521720---good-air-never-gets-downtown
http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/article/931177--air-quality-carbon-emissions-improve-in-gta-report-card

·         WATER: Where and how many water filtration plants do we have in Toronto? How and what do our treatment plants filter out of our water? What steps are taken? (See separation of mechanical mixtures in your science text pg.64-65)
http://www.thestar.com/news/insight/article/1022104--lake-of-shame-ontario-s-pollution-problem
http://prezi.com/nlp7bpbzlmyj/lake-ontarios-pollution-problem/

·GARBAGE: Where does our garbage go? Land fill? Burnt? Trucked out of the city? How much is our city recycling? Do Torontonians litter? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZaDemRzJ10   

Recycling issues in Toronto:

http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/article/1146393--toronto-recycling-what-does-it-take-to-get-citizens-to-recycle-properly
http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/article/1142892--20-of-toronto-s-garbage-recycling-winds-up-in-landfill
http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/article/1263589---recycled-glass-out-of-sight-it-may-end-up-in-landfill-or-polluting-someone-else-s-air
http://www.thestar.com/opinion/editorials/article/1106500--time-for-businesses-to-recycle-the-packaging

Helpful link

http://www.toronto.ca/planning/environment/pdf/gds_discussionpaper_2.pdf

fyi

Great job today on your science lab and math experiment (Vice Principal Graham was impressed with your teamwork skills) - if you have not completed/emailed both write-ups, kindly do so this week.  I am still waiting on a number of outstanding novel study plot diagram prezis - email your link, thank you.

Tomorrow we will attempt some still life art sketches (with pencil, charcoal, pencil crayon, pastel) of a variety of objects with a focus on light, shadow and symmetry.

I will bring in some objects including latte glass/mug, utility scissors, napkin holder, colander, cup/saucer/spoon, selection of kitchen utensils, small pot with handles, pair of shoes.

If you're set on something in particular, bring it in - if not, feel free to select anything from my objects to sketch.

Tomorrow, we also welcome teacher candidate Ms. Dziuba and we will be extra nice and courteous during her 3 week stay ;)

 

small steps plot diagram prezi rubric

Criteria	Level 1	Level 2	Level 3	Level 4
Exposition ·        Title, author, genre, setting ·        Protagonist, antagonist, supporting characters ·        Personality profiles ·        Main conflict
Rising Action ·        Sequence of key events building up to climax in chronological order
Turning Point ·        Key event that changes plot and drives it to climax
Climax ·        Key action scene, high point in plot
Falling Action ·        Key events in chronological that take place following the climax
Resolution ·        Tying up the plot & conflict
Theme ·        Lessons to be learned & personal impressions

heads up jan 15 science & math mini experiments

Science 3.4 Mini Lab 2 pg.64-66 

Separating Environmental Mixture of Oil & Water

Purpose: 

In this experiment I will investigate different methods of removing oil from water.

Hypothesis:

If I use cotton balls to soak up the oil, then I think…

If I use a medicine dropper to suck up the oil, then I think…

If I use a straw to move the oil to one corner, then I think…

If I use drops of detergent to the oil, then I think…

Observations:

Treatment	Results
Separating using cotton balls
Separating using medicine dropper
Separating using straw
Separating using detergent

Analysis:

A & B text pg.66

Conclusion:

What did you learn about separating oil from water?

What environmental impact would an oil spill in the ocean have?

How accurate was your hypothesis?

I will bring in all the necessary materials for the above mini lab

6.2 integer experiment: adding positive and negative integers text pg.190-191

Toss #	Result H or T	Point Value H= +1 T= -1	Total Score
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20

Paul’s first 5 tosses were (-1) + (-1) + 1 + 1 + 1 with a total score of 1 since the dotted line on his graph begins at (-1) and ends at +1 after 5 tosses.

My first 5 tosses were ________________________ with a total score of _____ since the dotted line on my graph begins at ____ and ends at ____ after 5 tosses.

After 20 tosses, Paul’s final score is ______.

After 20 tosses, my final score is _______.

Our results are similar because…

Our results are different because…

I noticed that when the value of the toss is +1 the total score…

I noticed that when the value of the toss was -1 the total score…

If I repeated the experiment with 50 coin tosses then I think the greatest possible total score would be…

If I repeated the experiment with 50 coin tosses then I think the least possible total score would be…