Ms. Bearse's Site

We’re learning all about stress reduction, relaxation, and where to turn for help if we need it.  It’s important to pay attention to your self care, as well as your academics and extra curricular activities.  Emma Jane is the school’s adolescent care worker, and she is here to help!

we use the words “lemons” “cat” “turtle” “elephant” “fence” “mud” to remind us of several stretches and ways to relax our major muscle groups.

We also learned about how our feelings, thoughts and behaviours are linked.  We can have more control over our feelings if we change our behaviour and change our thought patterns.

Today we used pipe cleaners (30cm) to make rectangles with the same perimeter.  We made different rectangles and calculated the areas of each.  The biggest areas were found within the sauares.  The closer a rectangle gets to being a square, the bigger the area it contains.

We compared our results in small groups

And posted our work on the wall.

We extended the idea by trying different shapes with a 30 cm perimeter to try to find a shape that can hold more than a square.

We planted our bean sprouts today. We’re going to measure them to watch how fast they grow each day.

Looks like we’ll be planting these on Monday!

Today we investigated with m&ms. We counted them, dumped them and ate all the ones with ms visible. We counted them, dumped them again and again ate the ones with ms visible.

We plotted the data and noticed it was different from anything we’ve seen before!  It’s not linear, and it’s not quadratic. This is “something else” which will be explored more in grade 11. We had a look on desmos to play with different functions to see if we could make one that is similar.

We are working on more than just math skills in our class.  We put our heads together to brainstorm what we can do to demonstrate our learning skills in class.  All our ideas are now on posters at the front of our room.

They’re sprouting!

Our investigation today used two different kinds of non-stretch cords.  One is thin (hemp) and the other is thick (rainbow cord).  The length was recorded then knots tied.  The situation was modelled by a table of values, a graph, and finally equations of the lines of best fit.

How many unique handshakes are there in our class of 33?

we modelled the situation with a table and graph, and someone even found an equation to use as well!  This is our introduction to quadratic data.

We started off the term by planting beans!  We started by estimating the percent that would germinate and expressing that as a decimal and percent also.

We counted out the beans, wrapped them in paper towel, put them in water, then sealed them in a sandwich bag and put them on the window ledge.  We will check them daily.