Month: September 2015

Ms. D’s Calendar

Please see attached in Notices and Forms a copy of our class schedule. You will note that the schedule has large periods for UNIT WORK, and this is because those are our large, open times reserved for unit work related to the integrated subjects of science, socials, language arts, art, and sometimes math or French. Schedule is always subject to change, as sometimes we have special events, holidays, or unfinished class activities or projects that may mean changing a subject to a different time.

Library Exchange Day (bring your books in for this day) TUESDAYS

MUSIC Thursdays and Fridays after lunch

PE IN GYM Tuesdays and Thursdays end of the day

COMPUTER LAB TIME (if needed) Mondays and Tuesdays after recess

Friday Fun!

Hope everyone is enjoying the weekend despite the rain, although I think the rain is lovely given how dry our summer was. Since I am originally from Alaska, I enjoy the cold and wet! So, today, I broke out my new boots and wool hat!

Speaking of rain…please make sure your child gets some rain boots or a change of shoes. It can be a good idea so they can change after outside breaks. Otherwise, our portable area will become a big mess during the day.

Friday was an energetic day full of activity! First, we reviewed the digestive system. I had asked each child to think about the journey of a cheerio through their digestive system as part of Thursday night’s homework. In the morning, everyone worked in small groups to show me their understanding of digestion. By showing, I mean that they were given 15 minutes to prepare a quick dramatic skit, using their bodies and words, to show the journey of the cheerio. Afterwards, each group presented to the class, and we discussed their understandings or any details that could be added along the way.

Then, we began working on a two-part art project. It is important students gain a sense of the elements and principles of art, and our focus at the moment is LINE. We also had opportunities to discuss COLOUR as a review of art they may have had in the past. We are each making a nine-panel display that will be made up of different pieces we created on Friday. Students chose either all warm or cool colours for the activity and completed six stations designed to experiment with different media and line: 1. Find a quote and write it in handwriting on black rectangular paper using chalk, 2. Use oil pastels to make a lined pattern, 3. Cut paper of all different types into lines and glue it in a pattern on another rectangular sheet, 4. Paint large swirls using acrylic paint, 5. Make black circle pattern prints using cups and black acrylic paint, and 6. Make interesting lines on paper using chalk and then smear it using fingers or tissue. Using our math and measurement skills, we will be taking these papers and cutting them to make a larger display of evenly spaced squares. Our classroom is quickly taking shape with the decoration provided by student work!

After recess, we had a math assessment. The students in MACC 4/5 have all come to the class with differing levels of math, and it is important I know exactly where to begin or where curriculum may need to be reviewed. To this end, both Mr. Rodgers in the MACC 6/7 class and I have been using some short math assessments. These are not for marks and are only for the purposes of ensuring I am focusing my efforts in the right place! If the math assessment for the current grade level is passed, I will ask students to take the next levels, taking note of where improvement or review is needed.

Many students have strong computational math skills; however, understanding math vocabulary or using applied math in problem solving is more challenging. We will focus on both computational and applied learning, while trying to find common project work that can be done by all students at varying levels. While sometimes students will need some independent math to learn new skills at their specific level, my hope is that we will all be able to work together on project work that can involve everyone’s level of math strength. It will take time to investigate strengths and areas to focus on together, as I explained to the students.

After lunch, students had MUSIC! They have music on Thursdays and Fridays directly after lunch. On Thursdays, it is with Ms. Hetrick, and on Fridays, it is with Mr. Wilson. The two music teachers will both be working together closely to provide a dynamic music program.

On Fridays, we will often have OPEN CHOICE TIME. This time will be sometimes dedicated to open, community-building time, during which students will have a choice of many different activities to do with partners or by themselves. As the year progresses, this time will also be our SPECIAL PROJECT time, during which students will be working on an independent, more self-directed passion project. This Friday, students were involved in active games of chess and Blokus (Ms. DeTerra enjoyed Blokus, too, as it is a fun tetris-like math game!), drawing in small groups, working on some marble mazes constructed with materials in the classroom, putting together a human anatomy 3D model, reading, writing, or working on experiments from our Body Stations Packet. It was also Max’s birthday, so thank you Max for bringing in cupcakes for everyone! Happy Birthday!

HOMEWORK and IMPORTANT NEWS:

  • Read the article on the respiratory system from the Body Systems packet and finish labeling that system (many have this done already.) Be able to explain how the respiratory system works for Monday.
  • Read 20 minutes and continue Reading Around the World.
  • Look over the yellow student verification form sent home, and if there are errors, please send back to school with corrections. A large packet was sent out on Friday from the school with forms that need to be completed and returned.
  • Terry Fox is on Sept. 30th at 2:00 PM, and starting next week, the school will begin collecting donations toward the Terry Fox Foundation for cancer research. The suggested donation is to send at least a loonie.
  • I sent out Scholastic Orders, but if your child didn’t take one, I have more copies in the classroom. Orders for this month are due at the end of next week.
  • The parent information night for MACC has had to be changed once again due to the Carnival and also in response to parent concerns about attending. We apologize for the inconvenience. I will put a separate post regarding this, but it will now be on October 8th at 6:00 PM. That said, please stop by during my office hours or ask to make an appointment if you need any clarification or explanation of how I do things in class.

Have a great weekend!

Investigating the heart and our building skills!

Today we started the day by checking in on our homework, as students become accustomed to Ms. DeTerra’s check system for assessment. Our main focus today was understanding the flow of the blood through the heart. Students were given a variety of materials, including clay, straws, foil and popsicle sticks, to build a model that would show their understanding of the heart’s blood flow and four chambers. Another focus was learning group work skills essential to cooperative work environments. We discussed how this is an essential skill for many of the professions students said they would like to pursue when they wrote me in their personal letters last week.

After recess, we worked on the definition of a good question. Are there bad questions? What kinds of questions are google-able and easy to answer with a yes or no? Which questions are deeper, require more thought, and may ask us to look for information in more than one resource?

To practice our questioning, we did the question formulation technique. Students were placed in groups of three and given a piece of blank paper. We discussed that during the brainstorm, several rules must be followed. 1. There are no bad questions and all questions are good. (no judgement of questions.) 2. As questions are written for the brainstorm, no commentary can be given to indicate that a question is “great,” “excellent,” or “silly.” Again, no judgement and no value can be given to the question. 3. All questions should be written down — anything that comes to mind, no matter of its format or who says it in the group. And all group members can write at the same time, as there is not an assigned “writer” or “recorder.” 4. All questions should be written verbatim as they are said. We discussed how these rules are designed to help us practice not having a filter for our own questions, as we tend to judge what we will say before it even leaves our lips, and it may have been valuable toward the discussion!

Students were given the focus statement “Boundaries are a necessary part of recess time at a school.” They then had 10 minutes to fill a page with questions related to the statement. Afterwards, they had to review their questions to see if any of the things written needed re-wording to actually be considered a question. Finally, they sorted their questions by labelling them with O or C — O for Open-Ended and C for Closed. Students defined open-ended questions as those requiring more thought, deeper discussion, or more than one answer. Closed questions are those whose answer is found in one resource and may have a quick yes/no answer. We will be using this technique, among others, as we find questions that guide our studies throughout the year.

For the afternoon, we had MUSIC and PE. Music folders are purple duotangs, and these folders will most likely always be kept in Ms. Hetrick’s music classroom during the year. We will always have PE on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons in the gym from 2:15-3:00, which means students will end their day in the gym and be walking back from there as the bell rings. It also means that students have the option of changing into gym strip, as some students go directly home and may want to change there.

Homework: Please read the digestive sheets from the body works packet and answer the questions and label the parts of that system. Tomorrow, be prepared to explain what would happen to a cheerio from the moment you eat it to the time it passes from your body (what is left of it, anyway!) Students received agendas today. Parents should sign them daily so we know you have seen the homework; however, if parents need to communicate with Ms. DeTerra, it is better to email me directly versus relying on the agenda.

HAPPY Friday tomorrow! and Happy Birthday, Max!

Talking About Personal Choices

As our unit focuses on personal choices, we brainstormed the types of personal choices that can have an impact on our health. The students suggested sleep, eating, healthy food, hygiene, exercises, stress levels, and more. Afterwards, we divided into groups to take on a math challenge. Each group was given the task of making a graph to represent certain information about the class, as related to all of the students’ personal choices. For many students, this was a review, and it allowed Ms. DeTerra to see what they knew about: graph making, types of graphs, gathering data, making a survey, and communicating information visually in a clear manner. Those students who understood how to do so added percentages to their graphs, and some groups worked with Ms. D to convert their data to percentages. The activity allowed us to begin exploring personal choices and provided a snapshot of strengths as regards the computations and processes behind data collection.

Our next project for art was designed to learn about students strengths, passions and interests. We also discussed the idea of abstract versus realistic or literal art messages. Ms. DeTerra provided a large number of materials and discussed how they could be used to make 2D and 3D collages on paper. Students were encouraged to find abstract ways to represent themselves or their interests. Some converted the piece of paper into a mini marble maze. One student had a trampoline and a book built on her paper. Others had fun making creations with hot glue guns. Ms. DeTerra enjoyed watching students use their creative thinking skills with alternative materials and posted them in the classroom to see.

Finally, we continued working on our body systems packet, finishing experiments from yesterday. HOMEWORK tonight, if it is not done already from class time, is to finish reading the three pages of Kids Health on the Circulatory System, answer the quick questions about the circulatory system, and then label the heart. Many students are done with this already.

Agendas are coming! We have them, but we are waiting for a notice from the office regarding payment, as there is a small fee for them. Thank you for your patience. See everyone tomorrow!

More on the human body!

Today we had another great day! First we started to get ourselves organized for work by getting our binder and journal systems set up. Students have binders for three things, and these binders typically stay in class. One is blue (the unit work), one is red (for math and other stand alone work), and the last is black (our portfolios.) Students also have a red journal booklet for writing and a blue booklet as an art journal. We went over criteria together for the writing journal and Ms. DeTerra introduced her pie writing starters, which students chose from to receive writing prompts today. The art journal will be for doodling and also for trying out art techniques before using them in larger projects.

For the afternoon session, we did some human body stations in small groups. Students rotated between different tasks designed to learn about the different human systems, whether it was labeling anatomy, reading about the systems, measuring their breathing rate, determining the length of the whole digestion system, or discovering their lung capacity using water. Please ask your child to tell you about the lung capacity experiment today!

Homework: All students have been asked to bring something in related to our unit to share. This can be an internet article they print, a link to an article they send to me in email, a book from home that has something related to the unit, a past project, or anything else they can brainstorm that may be related. I look forward to seeing what they bring in!

Talk with students about assessment

Many of the students have asked, “What is different between MACC and a regular class?” In my opinion, one of the things that will be different is that in MACC, students will have more input into their own learning environment. For example, students were encouraged to share essential agreements around behaviours that will provide them with an effective learning community. Today, they were also asked to think about what it means to be a good contributor to a MACC class.

We discussed how activities are more rich when active participation happens. How will we measure this active participation in MACC?

Students were given a rubric with the letter grades A, B, C+, C and C-. We discussed what those letter grades generally mean, based upon students’ past experiences or what they have heard.

Then, I asked them to draft on a blank rubric what participation would look like at the “A” or “B” level. In groups they came up with measurable criteria, and then we shared the criteria aloud. I recorded their responses and collected their drafts, which I will use to make a rubric on participation. This rubric will apply to all subjects and MACC 4/5 activities, and I will ask students to do self-assessments, based on their criteria and mine, as we continue during the term.

Learning how to assess your own performance is an important, lifelong skill, and students will be encouraged to answer their own question when they say, “Is this good enough?” or “Is this what you want?” I often answer by saying, “Does it fit the criteria?” or “What do you think based on what we agreed would be quality work?”

Beginning our first unit!

Today, we began our first unit of inquiry, and Ms. DeTerra introduced the focus statement to students:

Our personal choices play a role in the interconnected system of the human body.                            

For the next six weeks, we will go in depth into this unit, combining activities across the disciplines. This will be an inquiry into:

  • The systems of the body and how they work together
  • Diseases and how they impact our community
  • How the body defends itself against disease
  • The factors and strategies that contribute to healthy immunity and well-being

Our first activity today was a pre-assessment of students’ prior knowledge on human anatomy. Working in groups of three, one student lay down on a large sheet of paper while the other students traced him or her. Then, the students worked together, without looking in books, to draw everything they would be able to see in an x-ray of the body, labelling the parts along the way. Students had fun drawing together, and it was an excellent opportunity for Ms. D to see their group work skills and knowledge of our body’s inner workings!

In art today, we focused on the use of LINE, as we will be spending some time going through the elements and principles of art. Using LINES, students created zentangles on bookmarks to help with our book loan system in class. Also, they created 3D drawings of their forearm and hand. We will be doing other art related to both elements and principles, as well as the human anatomy and drawing during this unit.

For homework, students were asked to check out the blog. Ms. D encourages all parents and students to begin looking for books or articles online, in the newspaper, and in magazines, related to our unit. Please bring these things in! Students can share anything they find with the class briefly, and Ms. D will post printed articles in the classroom for sharing with everyone. You can also send Ms. DeTerra links to articles by replying to this blog post, and I will add them to the section Articles of Interest under Body Works, our first unit web list.

Essential Agreements

During the last week, MACC 4/5 students discussed the difference between rules and agreements.

Rules are things that are hard line statements designed to ensure our health and safety, and they are usually set before we even arrive at a place. For example, Suncrest has some rules designed to make things run smoothly such as walk on the right side of the hallway, don’t talk while making transitions between classes and stay within the boundaries during recess time. In our classroom, we have a few rules set by Ms. DeTerra such as no hats, gum, toys, and food during classtime, and raising your hand to speak during discussions.

Agreements are different, because with those, we all have some input and come to consensus about what the behaviour in a great learning environment should be. Through discussion and input, students are agreeing to a set of behaviours they know will help us have a positive year. Students brainstormed in small groups ideas for agreements and then shared them with another small group. One person was then nominated between the two small groups to share the best agreements from the list with the whole class. We now have a draft set of essential agreements on our whiteboard, and we hope to revisit and reword as needed during the coming week.

Ask your child about our agreements and how we use them in class!

Reading Around the World!

By now, your child should have shown you their green READING AROUND THE WORLD folder! As homework, I asked them to have you sign the letter at the front (in the top corner is fine) explaining the program so everyone understands how it works. Some quick pointers about this program designed to help students read a variety of fiction and non-fiction resources during the year:

  • When a student finishes an entry, they need to record it on the reading log, and then either a parent or teacher can sign in the teacher comment box.
  • If you run out of reading log sheets, ask Ms. D. She has more that you can add.
  • When you finish a continent in its entirety, please show Ms. D, and she will verify it is complete. Then, you get to choose a prize from the prize box.
  • When all continents are complete, then you get a free lunch with Ms. D that will be provided at the end of the year in June.
  • Students can read in any language. If you have Chinese or French books at home, for example, please use them!
  • All items read should be resources the student read THIS YEAR, not before coming into MACC.
  • If a prompt is specific, such as “Kiribati: read an online article about how this island is sinking”, then, you need to read an article about how the island is sinking. But, if it is not specific, such as “Maldives: read any mystery book” then you can read any mystery book, long or short, easy or hard, your choice. It doesn’t have to be a mystery book related to the country.
  • Don’t fill in the reading log entry until you are done with the book or resource. This is a year-long program, and you have lots of time to complete it, so even if the book is long, you need to finish it first. Some of the items on the list are quite short, so that will save you time, too.
  • This program’s purpose is fun and reading. Participation is expected, but I am not marking students on how many books they read or what they read. The purpose is to get us reading from a variety of resources throughout the year.
  • If you have trouble finding a book under a specific country, let me know!

Thank you for your support of the program, and please email me at andrea.deterra@sd41.bc.ca if you have questions.

End of a great first week!

Thank you everyone for a great first week! We completed a variety of activities designed to build community and explore our strengths.

Wednesday, students built fantastic marble roller coasters out of foam tubes (insulation tubes for pipes from Rona split in half), masking tape and items from the classroom. After a quick lesson on roller coaster physics, our classroom space became a giant display of 8 different roller coaster designs. I was impressed with everyone’s creating thinking and group work skills!

On Thursday, we worked on paper rockets! Each student used paper, tape and critical thinking to build tube rockets, each one labeled with their WISH for what they hope to get out of MACC for the year. We then went outside and launched them using the power of air and Ms. DeTerra’s PVC rocket launcher tube, designed with the help of MAKE Magazine.

On both days, we had opportunities to get to know students in other classes, both younger buddies in grades one and two, as well as peers in grades four and five. With the younger students, we participated in the whole school brainstorm around what it means to be CARING of self, school, environment and others. We also learned how to make ORIGAMI CRANES. We did this in honour of the 70th Anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. Ms. DeTerra explained the legend of Sadako and the Thousand Cranes, which is related to the bombing and an ancient Japanese legend. Please look for it at the library, as it is an excellent book to read at the grade 4/5 level. Ms. DeTerra was impressed with how many origami experts we have in MACC 4/5 and appreciated their help with teaching other students. Perhaps we should have an origami club this year? With peers in grades four and five, we also played open games such as chess, blokus, chinese checkers and more to make new friends.

On Friday, we did some abstract art around our names, mainly designed to let Ms. DeTerra know something about our critical and creative thinking skills. These are now posted in the classroom, and we look forward to having more art to build our classroom community and decorate our learning environment. Students were introduced to our year-long MACC reading program Reading Around the World, and they were asked to bring home their green folders for parents to see and sign for the weekend. Finally, there was a giant Capture the Flag game between all grades 5-7 out on the fields.

Already, MACC students are making new friends, which is wonderful to see. Ms. DeTerra sent each student a personal letter during the week, and they responded on Friday with their own letters, which will give Ms. D more information about their learning styles, likes and dislikes, and personalities.

Just a reminder!!! If you have not turned in the parent questionnaire, please do get it in as soon as possible. If any child has not turned in their personal letter or brought their supplies, please do so on Monday. Next week, we will discuss more about our first UNIT of the year, and we will also receive agendas to take home. Thank you for a great week!!

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