Friday, 25 January 2019

January 21st to 25th




Math





Here is our estimation challenge of the week:

Square Tiles: What is too high? What is too low? What is your estimate?

In math this week, the Grade 6's focused on learning about order of operations (BEDMAS). Ask me why mathematicians created BEDMAS and how you use it.

Grade 5's reviewed 2 digit by 2 digit multiplication using personal strategies and problem solving with multiplication. Next week we will take a look at division strategies. 


Language Arts

Our school police officer, Constable Rich visited us to discuss digital and online safety. He had many great tips for keeping ourselves safe when playing games, using social media and texting.

We also started reading in our book club groups this week. Ask me what book my group has chosen to read. 

We continued work on our photography project ,focusing on leading lines, rule of thirds and filling the frame. We are using photography to show our understanding of our Despereaux vocabulary. Ask me how this picture shows someone not conforming (just like Despereaux).






We have finished up our author research reports. Remember this work is overdue if you have not sat down to edit with Mrs. Kis. Next week we start on our independent book projects!

Social


We have been learning about the differences between a dictatorship and democracy.  We have created a name for our "country" (Fourteenia) and a flag.  The students are in the process of getting passports and will need to use them to visit other "countries" in the school.  Our classroom will start running as a dictatorship and shortly we will switch to a democratic system.  This will allow students some authentic experiences and allow them to see the difference in different types of governments.







French

We have been learning about La Maison en Français (the house). Ask me about some locations in the house.

Other

We read with our Grade 1 and 2 buddies today. They taught us a new trick...it is called "Flashlight Reading". We had fun listening to our buddies read us their descriptive paragraphs. 









Reminder

There is No School this Friday February 1st, 2019. 

Saturday, 19 January 2019

January 14th to 18th

Welcome to 
Room 14's 










Math

Thanks to Aditya for our Estimation 180 challenge of the week:

If there are 100 popcorn kernels in the bowl on the left, how many are on the right?

What's too high? What's too low? What is your guess?

This week, we continued working on the concept of integers where we talked about positive and negative feelings and how you would graph those feelings. We also worked with integers on a number line.

We did quite a bit of problem solving this week. Parents, see if you can challenge yourselves to complete the problems.

 Count out 22 toothpicks or popsicle sticks. How many squares can you make with the toothpicks? Notice in the photo that the squares 'share' a side with one or more other squares. We noticed that it made a difference if our squares were in a line or in another arrangement.





We also focused a lot of time on this very interesting problem:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ADR7dUoVh_c

Parents, do you have an hour or so to spare to figure it out? We can give you some hints if it will help.

L.A.

This week, we organized our author research information into paragraphs and typed them up on Google Docs. We focused on using indents, capitals, punctuation and using connecting words in our reports.

We also planned out our book projects to share some of our favorite books. We are looking forward to creating our maps, comic strips, dioramas and other exciting projects!

We have started another new art and language arts project where we are using photography to show our understanding of our Tale of Despereaux vocabulary words. 

Science

This week we explored magnets and magnetic properties, as well as the connection to electricity. We read an article called How Magnets and Electricity are Related. We worked on pulling out important information and are learning how we can use highlighters to help us go back and recall that information. We also participated in an experiment where we tested if objects were magnetic or if they were not magnetic. We discussed the different properties of the materials and noted similarities and differences. 

Social

We have begun our investigation into different types of government by looking at democracy and dictatorship. Next week, the Grade 5 and 6 rooms will become our own "countries". We have begun designing flags to represent us. We are required to have an animal and different colours. We have to be able to explain why we picked the items we did and what they represent. 



Other

Branton School French Immersion Open house Feb 7th at 7pm 

TSN

We had our first session of our second round of TSN. Ask me about what I am doing.




Indoor Fun

The weather has been chilly this week. We had fun exploring different games and activities with our friends. 






Art

Our optical illusion art is almost done. Below are a couple that are up in the hallway.



Friday, 11 January 2019

January 8-11

Weekly Update
Room 14

Math

Thank you Caleb for our Estimation 180 challenge this week:


This is a stack of paper.


Guess HOW MANY ! Papers are in the stack.

Guess what’s too Low?_________

Guess what’s too high? _________

What’s your answer?    __________

In math this week we focused on the problem solving strategy of acting out a problem. Ask me how I solved this problem:

Jill has a pair of black pants and a pair of brown pants. She has a white sweater, a yellow sweater and a green sweater. She always wears black boots. How many different outfits can she wear if each outfit consists of a pair of pants, a top and a pair of shoes?

We also learned about integers this week. Integers include positive and negative whole numbers and 0. We practiced putting temperature and elevation integers in order. 

Check out this site for lots of great math games:

https://nrich.maths.org/9413/page/0

Math interactives:

https://nrich.maths.org/9415

L.A.

We worked on our book review for the Tale of Despereaux, including character development and the climax and resolution of the problem. We will finish up our published copy next week.


Rick Riordan
JK Rowling
J.K. Rowling


We also focused on our author research for our book project. We wanted to find out about the life stories of our authors and what inspired them to become writers. Remember that our research should be just about completed. Next week we will work on writing our report in paragraphs which include connecting words. 

Science

We learned about some influential people who impacted electricity. These are the five inventors we discussed:
1. Alessandro Volta 
2. Alexander Graham Bell
3. Thomas Edison 
4. Benjamin Franklin
5. Nikola Tesla







We explored snap circuits. 









Other

Art


We have been working on Op art . Op art is short for 'optical art'. The word optical is used to describe things that relate to how we see. Have you seen an optical illusion before? Op art works in a similar way. Artists use shapes, colours and patterns in special ways to create images that look as if they are moving or blurring. Op art started in the 1960s.






Buddies


We explored ourselves as learners and then interviewed our little buddies about their learning. Ask me about my strengths and areas of growth.







TSN 

We will be starting next week. Ask me what I picked for my top 4 choices.


June 17-21

Welcome to Room 14! It was another busy week. We had our last PAT on Monday. We finished up lots of bits of work and started a major ...