December 5-9 in the Gifted Class

Posted on December 7, 2011 by mcgaughey

December is well upon us and everyone is getting excited for the start of winter and the holiday season.

Monday was the due date of our points project. I will return the marked projects by next Monday at the latest.

Monday we had our math tests for the patterning and algebra unit. If you still have not completed all assigned tasks, please complete them by Friday.

We are beginning a new math unit this week on numeration. The grade 5s and 6s will be working with addition, subtraction, multiplication and division of whole numbers.

The grade 7s and 8s will be working with addition, subtraction, multiplication and division of fractions and decimals.

We have begun a seasonal novel study.

My Juniors are reading, The Best Christmas Pageant Ever by Barbara Robinson, and I am reading them The Legend of Holly Claus.

The Intermediates are reading the original version of Charles Dicken’s, A Christmas Carol, and comparing it to adaptations in films, television, radio and video games through the last 150 years.

Upcoming Events:

Friday December 9: Winter Sports Spirit Day: Come dressed in clothing representing a winter sport.

Tuesday December 13: Lockdown Practice. A note is going home on December 7 explaining this.

Tuesday December 13: Our class and Mrs. Jaiko’s Class are having a hot dog lunch for winning Trumpour’s Trivia in November.

Wednesday December 14: Mr. McGaughey and the Grade 5’s and 6’s are going to the Junior Math Road Rally at Codrington School. A note is going home on December 7 explaining this.

This Week in Mr. McGaughey’s Class

Posted on November 28, 2011 by mcgaughey

We will be finishing up our Shrek and History of Computing projects by Wednesday. We will be starting a 4 week novel study to take us to the Christmas break.
We had some interruptions in our math clases last week, so the patterning and algebra unit is extended until Friday. Everyone will have a math test on Friday December 2.

Date	Grade 5	Grade 6	Grade 7 Do half of each lettered question. Do Assessment focus first	Grade 8 Do half of each lettered question. Do Assessment focus first
November 16	Nelson Ch 1.1 page 4,5 Number patterns	Nelson Ch 1.1 page 4-6 Writing Pattern Rules	.10.1 page 368-372	10.1 page 420- 422
November 17	Nelson Ch 1.2 page 6,7	Nelson Ch 1.2 page 8-11	10.2 373-377	10.2 423-427
November 21	Nelson Ch 1.3 page 8,9	Nelson Ch 1.3 page 12,13	10.3 378-381	10.3 428-433
November 22	Nelson Ch 1.4 page 12,13	Nelson Ch 1.4 page 14-16	Mid Unit Review 382	Mid Unit Review 434
November 23	Mid Chapter review page 10	Mid Chapter review page 19	10.4 383-386	10.4 435-439
November 28	Nelson Ch 1.5 page 14,15	Nelson Ch 1.5 page 20,21	Unit Review 398-399 Don’t do 400	10.5 440-443
November 29	Nelson Ch 14.2 page 386, 387	Nelson Chapter 1.6 22, 23		MMS 65-68
November 30	Chapter Task page 22	Chapter Task pg 34	Unit Problem pg 402-403	Unit Problem pg 450-451

December 2	Math Test	Math Test,	Math Test,	Math Test,

November 21-25 in Mr. McGaughey’s Class

Posted on November 21, 2011 by mcgaughey

Thanks to my all my students who helped me prepare for my talk, Sharing Stories, Becoming Storytellers, for the K12 Online Conference. You can find a preview of the talk on my teacher blog, Educational Alchemy.

Thanks to everybody who came for their student involved conferences last week. If you were unable to attend, please contact Mr. McGaughey to schedule another time.

We will be having a school assembly on Friday November 25 at 1:40pm.

This is the last full week to work on your points project. Final due date is November 29. Our December unit will be a novel study. Over the course of this week, I will work with both my Junior and Intermediate groups to choose a novel, and determine which activities will help us to cover the expectations of the English and Arts curriculum for their grade. We will begin the novel study on November 29.

Math this week: We are continuing to work on our patterning unit. Math tests for this unit will be around the end of November.

Mathbook pages assigned:

Date	Grade 5	Grade 6	Grade 7 Do half of each lettered question. Do Assessment focus first	Grade 8
November 16	Nelson Ch 1.1 page 4,5 Number patterns	Nelson Ch 1.1 page 4-6 Writing Pattern Rules	. 10.1 page 368-372	10.1 page 420- 422
November 17	Nelson Ch 1.2 page 6,7	Nelson Ch 1.2 page 8-11	10.2 373-377	10.2 423-427
November 21	Nelson Ch 1.3 page 8,9	Nelson Ch 1.3 page 12,13	10.3 378-381	10.3 428-433
November 22	Nelson Ch 1.4 page 12,13	Nelson Ch 1.4 page 14-16	Mid Unit Review 382	Mid Unit Review 424
November 23	Mid Chapter review page 10	Mid Chapter review page 19	10.4 383-386	10.4 435-439
November 24	Nelson Ch 1.5 page 14,15	Nelson Ch 1.5 page 20,21	Unit Review 398-399 Don’t do 400	10.5 440-443

Conference Times and Update- November 17

Posted on November 17, 2011 by mcgaughey

This is just a reminder of your student involved conference times. Each appointment is 15 minutes long. This is your chance to show your parents how well you have been doing in school this year.

Mr. McGaughey
Student Involved Conference Schedule
Thursday November 17, 2011

4:00 Andrew
4:45 Jennifer
5:00 Tommy
5:30 Chase
6:30 Rowan
6:45 Collin
7:00 Trevor
7:15 Dustin

Math: We are working on a patterning and algebra unit until the end of November.

Please finish up these math assignments by Monday.

Grade 5	Grade 6	Grade 7	Grade 8
Nelson Ch 1.1 page 4,5 Number patterns	Nelson Ch 1.1 page 4-6 Writing Pattern Rules	.10.1 page 368-372	10.1 page 420- 422
Nelson Ch 1.2 page 6,7	Nelson Ch 1.2 page 8-11	10.2 373-377	10.2 423-427

Points Project:

We are nearing the end of our points project. It has been great studying satire and parody using the Shrek movies with the Juniors, and examining the history of computers with the Intermediates.

The final day to hand in work for this p roject will be Tuesday November 29. If you have not completed more than 150 points by now, you will have to do alot of homework to catch up.

Next week, we will begin discussing and preparing for a novel study to begin on December 1.

The Gingerbread Man

Posted on November 2, 2011 by mcgaughey

As part of our Shrek unit, this week my grade 5-6 students read two different versions of the Gingerbread Man.
1) The Little Gingerbread Man, By George H. Putnham (1910)
Librivox has a free audio version.
2)The Gingerbread Man, from Sara Cone Bryant: Stories to Tell Children .
Librivox has a free audio version.

Your assignment due Monday November 7, is:

Write a summary retelling of one of the two versions of the story.
Write 1-3 paragraphs comparing the similarities and differences between the two versions of the story and explaining which one is your favorite.
Use pencil crayons to draw a scene from the story.

We will have our literature circle discussion on Monday November 7.

You can read both of the stories after the break.
Continue reading →

This week in our class.

Posted on October 20, 2011 by mcgaughey

We are working on new language arts/ integrated units in our class.
The Junior students are working on a unit about satire and parody based on the Shrek Movies. Here are details of the Shrek Unit.

The intermediate students are in the planning stages for a unit on the History of Computers. We’ll post a unit plan here when we have it ready.

Everyone in our class is working on a unit on Data Management. We have been using data from the recent provincial elections to create and interpret various graphs.

Here is a list of Math assignments for this week.

Grade	October 17	October 18/19	October 20	October 21
5	All Grades: Review Election Sign Survey, Complete Pie Graph of sign Survey Results	All Grades: Data Management Pre Test	2 page 64-66 Broken Line Graphs	3 page 67 Interpreting Circle Graphs
6			2 72-73 Plotting Coordinate Pairs	3 74-76 Line Graphs
7			Math Makes Sense 7 (MMS) p. 169 – 171	MMS 7 p. 169 – 173
8			Math Makes Sense(MMS) p. 187 – 193	MMS p. 184 – 186,

Mr. McGaughey sent home your IEPs yesterday. Please go over them with your parents and return the signed original to school by Tuesday October 25.

Wordles from RUN by Eric Walters

Posted on September 29, 2011 by mcgaughey

We have been reading Run by Eric Walters as a class novel. It is the story about a boy, Winston MacDonald Jr., who travels with his reporter father to meet with Terry Fox early during his cross Canada run. This week my students used Wordle to make word describing the main characters in the story.

Announcing Mr. McGaughey’s Cross Canada Election Sign Survey

Posted on September 27, 2011 by mcgaughey

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Update: Here is the data we have collected so far. Are class is going to proceed to make graphs from our data and make some predictions about the possible outcome of the election. You can download the dataset in Excel format here.

UPDATE: Here is a pie graph we created showing the results of our sign survey.

Teachers: Are you interested in participating in further online collaborative projects with my class? Please fill out this form.

Welcome Back to Mr. McGaughey’s Class

Posted on September 6, 2011 by mcgaughey

Welcome back to Mr. McGaughey’s gifted class at Bayview public school. I had a lovely vacation with my family including a camping trip to the Rockies in Alberta.

Seven students are returning to our class. Our timetable is greatly simplified from last year. The Junior students (Grade 5-6) will be in my classroom (room 128) from 8:55 am -12:05 pm then switch to Mrs. Parliament’s class 111 from 12:05-3:15pm. The Intermediate Students (Grade 7-8) will be in Ms. Young’s class 121 from 8:55 am -12:05 pm then switch to gifted class 128 from 12:05-3:15pm.

Here is a complete schedule for our class. This may be subject to change over the next few weeks. You can click on the picture for a larger view.

Newsletters and annual permission forms for walking trips, computer use, etc… will be going home this afternoon. As soon as all walking permission forms are in we will go for a class frisbee golf trip at Little Lake Park. Watch later this month for a full class newsletter of upcoming events.

June Newsletter

Posted on June 15, 2011 by mcgaughey

Thursday, June 9, 2011

Mr. McGaughey’s Class June Newsletter

Dear Parents:

The year is drawing quickly to a close and there are many activities happening at our school and with our class.

June 14: On Tuesday June 14, Mr. McGaughey has invited the grade 7 Gifted Class students to assist with the area 1 track meet. These four students will need to be dropped off at St. Theresa’s school by 9am and picked up at 3pm. The Grade 4-6 students will remain at the school with their integrated classes.

June 16: Trip to Huron Park to See the Spyglass

The gifted students at Bayview school have been invited to go to Huron Park School with the Bayview Drama Club to see the Huron Park production of The Spyglass on Thursday June 16. We will be leaving the school by bus at 11:00 for an 11:30 performance. We should be back at the school by 1:00pm. for lunch.

While field trips are supervised by the teaching staff, they involve activities beyond those of normal school programs. It is essential that parent/guardians counsel their children on the necessity for extra care and cooperation.

Monday June 27: Frisbee Golf: On Monday June 27, our class is going to make a walking trip to Little Lake Park to play Frisbee Golf. After we are finished Frisbee Golf, we will go to the Dairy Queen or Little Lake Galley, so that interested students can purchase lunch or an ice cream. Remember to bring a lunch or money for lunch. In case of inclement weather, we will go on Tuesday June 28.

Wednesday June 29: After our end of year assembly, our class will share a class pot luck lunch and have some time for board games and video games.

Thanks for a great year,

Mr. McGaughey

[ ] I give permission for my child _________________________ to attend the Spyglass at Huron Park School on Thursday June 16.

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Signature Date

[ ] I give permission for my child _________________________ to go on a walking trip to Little Lake Park to play Frisbee golf on Monday June 27 or Tuesday June 28.