Monthly Math Game

A little late, but here it is - the math game for February. A math game you can play at home with only a deck of cards. I sent a paper copy home with all students too but you can refer here if the paper copy gets misplaced.
Have fun!

Current Writing Expectations

Today we completed our rubrics for our current writing expectations. Posted in our classroom, all students are now aware of the expectations for opinion writing. You can refer to these when practicing any writing at home, as well.
Today we created interesting introductions that grab the reader's attention. We also worked on elaborating on the details of our writing - why our item won best in show!
It's important to remember that writing an entire piece of writing is difficult to complete all in one sitting. Many our our finished products are worked on over 4-5 days. This provides students enough time to collaborate with their peers and work on expanding their ideas without becoming frustrated with the mechanics of writing.




We also continued with our arctic exploration today. We reviewed the Inuit artifacts that were introduced to us at the Glenbow Museum. We talked about what each item was made of, how it was use, and who used it.
What do you think these are??

Stop that leak!!!!

Children brainstormed ways to fix a leaky cup today in our Science exploration on what kids a materials make good containers for liquids.

As scientists, we used our background knowledge about what materials absorb liquids and which materials repel liquids.   We looked at our "paper test" we did last month where we explored what paper, paint adhered to best.  Since the paint did not absorb into the tinfoil or the wax paper, some kids choose them to line their cup.  One group, placed their cup inside a bigger plastic cup, while another group decided to put raincoat material on the bottom.  Mrs. Wacker thought that plastercine would be a good barrier, but after only a minute the water penetrated through and started leaking.  We quickly discovered paper and even cardstock quickly got very weak when wet and started to leak.  The tinfoil looked at first like a good container, but it leaked during the lunch hour.   We also discussed the purpose of a cup and some other considerations we needed to account for, like cleanliness and function.  We thought of containers we use in our daily life and what materials they are made of and how they are used and what some of their pros and cons are.

-metal water bottle: study and waterproof but heavy and expensive to make

-dixie cup:   light, cheap and waterproof due to waxy coating but not very sturdy (good for single use)

-glass cup: waterproof but fragile and can be dangerous if broken 

-plastic water bottles: pretty inexpensive and durable...probably why there are so many!

-styrofoam cup:  inexpensive, waterproof, insulated....but not great for the environment, that is why coffee shops do not use them very often.  Starbucks uses coated paper cups to be more environmentally friendly. 

-ceramics cups: heavy and fragile....need to have glazing on them to be waterproof.   

To clean up our mess, Mrs. Wacker enlisted the help of her hairdryer.  The children thought this was kinda crazy.  (We talked about how "unexpected behaviours", like using a hair dryer at school, can put us in the yellow zone and make us very excited or even silly.)   We took some calming breaths, then discussed how the heat and blowing air of a hair drying can help evaporate the liquid water to water vapour.  We disucssed how we use hair dryers, clothes dryer, fans and even clothes lines to help us speed the process of drying things.  

We also had a chance to finish our Arctic Monoprints.  Today we were able to borrow some rollers, which helped us apply the paint more smoothly and evenly on our printing blocks.  They look fantastic!  

Arctic explorations

Today we carried on from our field trip at the Glenbow with some Inuit inspired art.  Printmaking is a form of art which is currently very popular in the Arctic, especially in the Cape Dorsett area.  The Inuit people have been carving bones, and tusks for thousands of years, but have only been introduced to print making since around the 50s.   Inuit prints often depict their daily life or arctic animals. 

Our class created a monoprint to represent Arctic culture. We created a reduction style art block made from Styrofoam.  The art block can be used repeatedly, however a monoprint is a single impression made from a reprintable block.

We also looked at other artists like Andy Warhol, who use the concept of repetition, printing an image multiple times.  In this picture, Warhol has repeated an IDENTICAL image of his face only altering the colours.   

We also added some different shaped rocks to our inukshuk centre.  The children found the first set of rocks challenging to build with.  The new rocks were described as flatter and thinner and easier to stack.  

During Montessori work period and morning meeting we have been talking about the characteristics of shapes.  Children are noticing attributes like:

-the number of sides

-the number of corners

-the length of sides (all sides are the same length in regular polygons) 

-the types of angles (acute, obtuse, right-angled)

-the relationships between the sides (parallel sides, divergent lines)

During our explorations we are less worried with remembering the names of particular shapes, but learning the concept that shapes can be described by their attributes.  

Kids are making interesting discoveries, that shapes can have more than one name. 

For example a square can be called many things.  It is: 

-a rectangle

-a quadrilateral

-a four sided figure

-a polygon

-parallelogram.... 

For some kids a square is a square, because it has four sides. For others, they are also deciding it is because all the corners have right angles.  Others have noticed that all its sides are the same length.  The closer children examine the shapes, they discover the attributes that make it different from other shapes.  (A square is a rectangle, but a rectangle is not a square because its sides are not all the same length).  What shapes are around your house? What do you notice about them?

                                                                                                            

Glenbow Museum

Today we learned how to slow down, look deeply and read the vocabulary of art - line, shape and colour - in one of Glenbow's many art galleries. Using all of their senses, students collaborated in small groups to create a floor collage using materials that support their exploration and understanding of these concepts. Students were given a word and had to create a masterpiece that expressed that feeling. Here are the examples of the floor collages that we made:
Thrilling


Beautiful


Happy


Playful


Scary



Today we explored Inuit culture through discussions about food, clothing, shelter, animals, beliefs and values. Using authentic Inuit artifacts, students investigated and came to conclusions about what these objects are, how they were made and what they were used for. Here are the objects: 
Have these discussions at home too, see if you can determine what they are and what they're made of. Each group only had a chance to investigate one object. We will continue the exploration on Friday.

FIELD TRIP TOMORROW

Please remember we're going to the Glenbow Museum tomorrow. It is a regularly scheduled day; our bus leaves the school at 9:15am and arrives back around 2:45pm so there is no need for special planning.

Please ensure your child has a packed lunch and water bottle for the day!

Writing Process

   

We are working through our writing process to develop an opinion report. Today students had the chance to read through some exemplars and order them according to our report card expectations - Level 1, 2, 3, or 4. Then they looked at the success criteria and matched it to each specific exemplar. These exemplars and success criteria will be referred to often and posted in the classroom so students can ensure they are doing their best work and know how to achieve each level.

 

As the second part of our writing process today, students shared their 3 reasons that their one item wins best in show. Talking and drawing are such an integral part of writing at this stage. Our first opinion report will be very guided and include alot of talking to partners, groups, and the whole class. This helps students develop their ideas and elaborate on the details to improve their writing.
Continuing these conversations at home will also help them think of better ideas or elaborate on their already developed ideas.