Firstly, thank you so much for your constant support as we muddle our way through this job action. It's no fun at all, but I think what we're fighting for us worth it. Divide a math period by the number of kids in a junior class (or primary even) and it's clear that we're not able to be as effective as we would like to be. On Monday, Dewson parents supported us on the street with visits, coffee and so many pastries. We truly appreciate your support and your added voice. Hopefully this will be over soon... leaving by 3:45 is the absolute worst!
This week, we are working on writing our drafts of our fictional stories. Some students may be bringing this home from time to time so that we can keep this project moving along. We are also keeping up with our Club de Lecture and independent reading. By now, all students should have completed all their questions for their first Club de Lecture book and are just waiting to meet with me. If they are not done, they should show me when it is (ASAP) so that they can improve their mark for completion. Many students have been more successful using their new hard-copy reading log. By now, we should have at least 8 short entries completed, likely more.
We are doing a good job helping our reading buddies, showing our enthusiasm and working on modelling beginning reading skills such as pointing to each word.
Mme Gaudreault is enjoying working with our class and students are now working on a final video presentation for her. We are getting lots of extra time with her this week in order to finish this up.
In English, we have been working for some time on a reading, writing and media project based on the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. I think I mentioned this before the holidays. Students should now be ready to hand in a summary of the article as well as a paragraph outlining their personal opinion about this issue. We are working with partners to complete compelling posters to raise awareness about this issue. They are looking fantastic!
In math, this week we are focusing on 3D geometry. We are reviewing pyramids and prisms and making sure we can recognize them by their nets and create/draw nets for solids. The math homework this week is a little review of what we started with a couple weeks ago in this geometry unit. Next week we will have our review, pretest and test.
We have been VERY busy in science, doing a TON of experiments in both grades. The grade 6s, currently studying flight, have been experimenting with the concepts of air pressure and the Bernoulli principle. We've done a couple experiments that show how moving air creates an area of low pressure, in comparison to the still air surrounding. If the moving air is on top of an object (see paper in mouth pic) and there is higher pressure underneath, the conditions are right for lift... Take Off!! Please ask about this and the other experiments we've done recently.
The grade 5s, currently studying forces acting on structures, have just had a double class in order to do a big bridge building project. Not just your Popsicle stick and glue bridge like in grade 3. This time, we had wood, skewers, nails, hammers, saws, hot glue and hand drill and much more. The groups did a great job and were very safe with the tools and materials. We have at least one suspension bridge and two truss bridges in the mix. We will test these with a load of 500g and with the force of wind from a fan. We will also attempt to describe how the forces of compression and tension are working in our bridges. During our half day class, we also experimented with pulleys to reduce the effort force needed to move heavy loads. Groups tried to build compound systems that would reduce the effort force needed by half or more (measured using a Newton spring scale that we learned to use last week).
Because of time, we are doing mostly in-class group work for these units, but I will shortly be assigning each grade one research question to work on independently and they will be writing a news article in response. This will be posted on Google Classrooms and due in mid to late February. You might have noticed in the To-Do section of this blog, a few important science dates. I believe Feb. 5 and 28 are for grade 5s, and March 6 is for grade 6s. These are days when we will have special guests and activities and it would be preferable to not book appointments for these afternoons. Thanks!
In art, we have completed our Inuit Printmaking project and the prints turned out wonderfully. I've shown some artsy friends who are quite impressed! Already students have been able to bring one print and their stencil home (they can use it again!), but the most successful print by each artist stayed on our bulletin board.
With this done, we have started a new drama project which we are excited about. Did I mention this? Jean de La Fontaine was a 17th Century French poet who wrote many famous fables (e.g., The Tortoise and the Hare) based on real issues and personalities. In partners or small groups, we will be acting out 8 of these fables. Each actor has been assigned a role and has a script. We will have to rehearse and memorize, of course, but we are also responsible for reading the actual fable and trying to uncover the moral or lesson to be learned, and figure out who our animal characters represent (for example, the lion often represents the king). We should be ready to present our fables pretty soon.
Ok, that's all I can think of for now!
Take good care,
Tamara