Blog entry by Gr.7/8 Boys

The first month of junior high has been interesting.  Many of us have reconnected with old friends from last year and have welcomed a number of new students to our classroom.  Our first language arts assignment was to tell our personal story of the first week of school using only pictures, which was harder to do than you would think.  During the first week of school we worked on a  grade level assessment and, when it was complete, we began our first novel study on the book “The Outsiders”.  In addition to our novel study, each of us has chosen our own book to read during choice reading time several times a cycle.  New to our junior high this year is something called Genius Hour which takes place every Day 5 afternoon.  During this time we are designing and creating our own projects and have the freedom to explore any subject we are passionate about.  For example, one student is working on a project on the evolution of video games, another is working on radios and how they have improved over the years, while still another is exploring the behavioural evolution of wolves.  Some of the students are working on improving their skills in things like sketching and landscape art.   Many of us have chosen our topics and have developed our “driving questions” to guide our research.  The next step is to determine and locate the sources we will need to research our topics and then we will be ready to put together our “elevator pitches.”  Stay tuned for more information on this in the months ahead!   Overall the first month in language arts has been eventful and successful!