Month: January 2016

Hello Everyone,

I hope everyone had a good Friday. Sorry for not being there today and earlier this week, but both my family and I are dealing with a flu like bug. Make sure you all get lots of sleep, eat well, take your vitamin C, and wash hands, as this is going around!

I look forward to seeing you next week as we start our new unit. More details on this in my next post! We have had great discussions about skyscrapers and the math thinking involved in making them, and next week we will do some building activities, work with protractors, create scale drawings, and practice measurement. By the way, if any of you have a ruler or measuring tape that you would be willing to bring to school and use, it will help us, as this will mean we could have individual measuring tools rather than sharing.

In the meantime, I hope you all had a chance to finish some presentations today, and I know Mr. Fraser will leave great notes for me about your presentation skills. For those who didn’t get to go this week, because of all our activities around hip hop and FSA testing, don’t worry, we will have you complete all presentations on Monday.

Have a good weekend!

Ms. D

Hello Everyone,

Today, we continued our presentations on machines and started our debates about video games. Not only did students show some excellent thinking, they also did a good job presenting in front of the class. After each presentation, the group had an opportunity to give positive feedback and constructive criticism, thinking about what kind of feedback and words they would like to hear if someone commented on their own presentations. Overall, everyone was very generative and helpful with their comments.

Some students need to take greater care with time management and homework, as there were still some students who did not have their presentations, speeches, or math done today. I had them conference with me briefly, and I asked each of them to think about what would help. Is it the amount of activities at home? Is it the way they use their time in class? What words and questions could have been used to communicate that homework was too difficult or help was needed? I have left a brief note in agendas if there was something not quite done today so you can all have a discussion at home about what would work best.

We continued with our FSA Practice, and all grade four students have done a practice eFSA field test for both reading comprehension and numeracy. On Thursday morning, starting at 9AM, they will do the live test in the computer lab.

Students had time to practice the Caribou Test if they are participating, and we will do the live competition tomorrow morning in the computer lab from 9-10:30 AM. If anyone misses that time, then a make up can be arranged, but the test must be taken, without exception, at the school, before 3PM on Thursday. It has to be done at Suncrest, as the Caribou organization reads the IP address registered for our school.

We also worked on our zentangle tree project, which I hope will result in a quality piece of art in watercolour and fine liner, with an emphasis on line, shape/form, and watercolour wash.

Finally, we continued working on skyscrapers in math, marking homework through page 9 and then giving time in class to work on pages 10-13. We are working on how to evaluate and choose the best site for our skyscraper using math skills of area, perimeter, coordinates, and more. Anything from pp. 10-13 not completed is the homework for tonight.

Have a great night! PAC meeting on January 13th, and a white notice went home about this today. Pizza orders are due on January 15th, Friday.

Hello Everyone!

Great job, everyone, on your hip hop presentation! You all had some great energy and did well with the choreography. We have a lot of rhythm in our group!

Today, in between hip hop dress rehearsals, FSA practice, Caribou Test practice, and the actual performance, we began hearing student presentations about the machines and inventions that have made the greatest impact on mankind. Everyone practiced their listening skills as great audience members, as well as the ability to give and receive both positive feedback and constructive criticism from peers. Tomorrow we will continue the presentations. If anyone has not finished working on their PPT or Prezi, they have made arrangements with me to do so, as we will not have further class time.

We will be doing the Caribou Math Test on Wednesday morning 9-10:30 AM. Please don’t be late on that day so we can go immediately to the computer lab. Also, I recommend practicing ahead of the test. There is a specific interactive puzzle you may want to try ahead of time so you are familiar with it. The tests run January 13th and 14th, with results posted Thursday evening.

For Math, please have your Skyscrapers packet finished through page 9.

If you have completed your Prezi, please send me a link to it via email at andrea.deterra@sd41.bc.ca. If you have done a PPT, please either print the slides or turn it in via USB to me so I can download it to my computer. Your notes, commentary, and rubric (with highlighted parts by you to evaluate yourself) are due to the inbox after presenting.

Please practice your debate speeches aloud for tomorrow, as we will begin debating then.

Have a great night!

Happy Friday Everybody! (This first week back has felt long, I think!)

The last three days, we have focused on an area of the Learner Profile called BALANCED. I have challenged everyone (we even put it in the agenda so we wouldn’t forget) to find a way to be balanced. What does that mean? It means finding a way to feel relaxed, calm, and happy by doing something you want to do, outside of work and school. It means having a balance between the things you HAVE to do and the things you WANT or NEED to do for your mental health. When we are balanced and take this time, research shows we are able to do better academically and feel better about ourselves, as well. Ms. D likes to read, and so I feel most balanced when I take personal time each night to dive into a fantasy world or lose myself in a novel of historical fiction. I do this as the reward for myself after a long day of work. How do you reward yourself? How do you use this to help motivate you to get through your work? I look forward to hearing from everyone how you tried to find balance this weekend.

Also of interest is the Technology Conference going on this weekend in Arizona called C.E.S. Check out their website for information on new tech gadgets for 2016!

If you have not completed your Power Point / Prezi, then please take some time to finish it up. If you have not finished your two debate speeches for positive and negative, please take time to finish these, as well. Some of us are ready to begin practicing saying the presentation on machines out loud. We will have time for a few people to present on Monday.

HIP HOP DETAILS FOR MONDAY: Monday is a busy day of a hip hop dress rehearsal as a whole school between recess and lunch. Then, after lunch, parents are welcome to join us in the gym for the presentation of all divisions’ dances. Please wear black and white clothing for Monday morning.

FSA TESTING: For grade fours, we will begin working on this Monday. Please read the notice provided.

PIZZA ORDERS: These are due Friday, January 15th

CARIBOU TEST:  The next test is on January 13th and 14th –we will be doing it in the computer lab on Wednesday, January 13th, 9-10:30 AM. This is optional, but for those participating, you may want to go online and practice.

NOTICE: Refugee Drive notice sent home, yellow. Thank you for your contributions.

MATH:  If you have any time, be browsing for ideas by looking at images online of buildings around the world. What will your skyscraper look like?

Have a great, BALANCED, fun, and restful weekend!

Ms. D

Today we had another session of hip hop, worked on our debates and presentations, had our first music class of 2016, and then worked on geometry related to measurement and skyscrapers.

As a reminder to everyone about homework and managing work time at home:

• We often have bigger projects we are working on, and I give as much time as I can to work on these during class. It is important to use the class time well so you are not left with too much homework.
• If you are working at home, be realistic about how much you can do in a night. If you have lots of activities on a night, then maybe you won’t be able to do as much on a project that night.
• If you have lots of activities after school, make sure you talk together about being balanced and ensuring there is enough time for everything. Activities are fun! If you know you have them, though, plan ahead and use your down time, as well as the time in class, wisely.
• Make sure you are getting enough sleep so you can be well rested and then use the time in class well, when your brain is fresh.
• And if it is too much, or you are having difficulty of any kind, please use your skills as a good communicator. Come and talk to Ms. D about what you could do to manage things better. Maybe you misunderstood the assignment. Maybe there are easier ways to do what you are doing. Maybe if you communicate about needing more time, Ms. D can adjust the schedule and work with you so the work can be completed.

It is always my intention that projects are fun. Some of us like to put A LOT of time into our projects! While typically I would say 60 minutes is enough for homework in a night, with MACC students this could be limiting, depending on how passionate you are about a topic. If you aren’t getting enough sleep, though, and are regularly spending more than 60 minutes a night (not including reading or homework from other activities), then let’s talk about it together.

Our goal for Monday: Be able to start debating (meaning positive and negative speeches would need to be done) and present our machines slideshows. No more class time on these items after our session tomorrow.

Math Homework: Many of you have done it already, but page 6 and 7 in the Skyscrapers booklet I gave you can be done on the same piece of lined paper. We had a great discussion today about shapes, edges, vertices, and more. Does a cone have a vertex? If it isn’t a vertex, then what is the part at the top called? How many faces does a cylinder actually have? As we continue working on our skyscraper math, I invite you to look at pictures of buildings around the world for ideas and/or share any wonderings and findings you make online about the math, architecture, and engineering involved.

Check out the 21 tallest buildings in the world according to Popular Science Magazine

FSA Notice went home for grade fours today. Parents, please read and let us know if you have any questions. We will be doing this testing in class over the next two weeks.

Hip Hop Clothing: Students need black and white clothing for their outfits during the performance on Monday.

Thank you and have a great night!

Today we started talking geometry by playing a Battleship game! Why Battleship? Because this game involves the use of coordinates, which allowed us to talk about the x axis, y axis, how to write coordinates (x,y), quadrants, and number lines. While having fun, we used some math skills that can be helpful for other geometry activities.

Our geometry unit will involve a lot of measurement! To this end, we started today by reviewing measurement of time, as well as finding all the different ways someone can express the time of day. How do we express time in words, fractions, in analog form, in digital form, using military 2400 clocks, etc.? A great question came up — Why do we use the abbreviations A.M. and P.M. after the times? Also, why does Europe use a different way to tell time than we do in Canada? I challenged students to look up these times at home and bring in the answers tomorrow.

Finally, I gave everyone the first handout on Skyscrapers, and the homework is to read the first page and then do page 2 using lined paper. If you want to work ahead, you can, but I will give time in class to do the exercises in this packet, as well.

Debate speeches, positive and negative, are hopefully done by EOD on Thursday. More time for these in the morning, but some on the negative speech has been assigned for homework.

The machines PPT/Prezi hopefully will be complete by EOD Friday. More time for these tomorrow, but you may want to look it over at home.

Have a great evening! More hip hop tomorrow morning, so try to be on time and ready to roll to the gym.

Hello Everyone,

Sometimes in class, we diverge from our normal subject matter and talk about things that come up in conversation. These tangents are often great learning moments, and today was not an exception.

While Ms. D is not particularly political, students were talking about Donald Trump and laughing about some of the things he has been saying, as he is frequently in the news, and it brought forward an opportunity to talk about what it means to talk intelligently and with respect for other people. I read a portion of a magazine article that, while humorous and well written, also made it clear how politicians can use words incorrectly to gain attention.

I asked the class to reflect on and identify words they have heard being used incorrectly to refer to people and/or people’s faiths and backgrounds. Many of these words are not inappropriate and can be found in formal conversation or some of the articles they read online; however, when used incorrectly, words can be very hurtful.

In our future units, we will touch upon social studies topics that relate to our diversity as Canadians, to the many differences and similarities within our families, traditions, and backgrounds, and to the ways in which we create tolerance and acceptance for all types of people. In our class, we keep working toward a better understanding of how to be caring, open-minded, reflective, principled, and knowledgeable thinkers and communicators — because these characteristics allow us to function well as a community and lead to better success in our future lives, no matter what career or personal experiences we may pursue.

I encourage you to talk about these things as they come up, especially given students are going to be spending more time online as they get older, reading higher-level articles. They need these discussions to better understand what they are reading and the words they are using aloud in conversation.

Good evening!

Today we started hip hop dancing, found new books in the library, prepared for our debate on video games by writing speeches, worked on our machines slideshow presentation, and discussed the beginnings of our new math unit.

Hip Hop will continue Wednesday – Friday mornings. On Monday we have an afternoon performance of what students have been working on at 1:30 PM and parents are welcome. Our class is performing as a group along with other divisions in the school.

Today we assigned debate team partners, reviewed debate vocabulary (as it has involved learning and using a lot of new words like opposition, proposition, counter-arguments, affirmative, resolution, etc.), and talked about how a debate speech is like writing a mini 5 paragraph essay. Team members discussed the evidence they each collected and then decided how each person would write about the positive and negative sides of our debate resolution.

I provided a handout that has an explanation of debate and a general outline of what debate speeches look like — this was NOT to fill out, but was to give us a starting point for what these speeches can look like. Each student is making two, 3-minute speeches, one for positive and one for negative. They will include an introduction that talks about what they believe in (whether for or against the resolution) and the 3-4 main reasons why, some paragraphs that detail evidence for each of the 3-4 reasons, and then a closing statement to sum it all up. For tomorrow: Everyone will show Ms. D their 16 pieces of evidence for a check in tomorrow morning after Hip Hop. I have also asked that they try to make a draft of the positive side speech tonight. Our debates will hopefully begin on Thursday. Depending on time, students may only get to debate on one side or the other, and they will not know which side until it is time to debate. I am handing out a rubric for the speaking tomorrow, and we brainstormed criteria for success together today.

Machines Powerpoints and Prezi Presentations should be wrapped up by Friday. Included in this assignment is a slideshow showing how a machine of their choice had an impact on human society, research notes, sources used, and commentary written down that they will use to make the presentation. The presentation should have around 10 slides, but can have more, with no more than 25. Three slides detail machine’s history, who made it, and how it works. Seven slides would have specific reasons why this machine had an impact. Some students have put more time into explaining the machine versus showing how the machine has had an impact, so I went around today and gave feedback so adjustments can be made before turning it in. Students have a rubric to refer to for this project.

In MATH we are going to be looking at geometry — area, volume, shapes, vertices, faces, angles, etc. We will be looking at this by designing our own skyscrapers, as well as by using the standard curriculum approach so key ideas are covered or expanded upon for those who are advanced in math. The unit will have a project and a final test, both of which will receive marks. The first assignment today: Look up the top ten tallest skyscrapers in the world. First 5 people to arrive with this correct list tomorrow morning can get a prize.

Several students found some great zentangle designs online, so please respond to this blog post with links to the ones you like! That way your classmates can try them, too!

Have a great night!

Ms. D

Hello again! Happy New Year!

We started today by checking in, sharing stories from the break, and writing a brief journal entry called N.E.W.S. This meant telling me:

1. New things you learned or did over the break
2. Everything you did over the break (a list)
3. Wonderings you have (over the break or since last term)
4. Something you want to do or plan to do in term two or the new year

Following this, Ms. D shared some new resources she found over the holidays and read the book The Perfect Square by Michael Hall. As a creative thinking activity, students were given a square of their own to cut up, manipulate, tear, poke, crumple, or divide in any way they wanted to make something new on another sheet of paper. Our simple squares became volcano scenes, flowers, skyscrapers, monsters, and more.

After play time outside in the snow for recess, we continued talking about our debate. Our debate resolution is: Video games are a benefit to children. We defined our terms, such that video games can be any interactive game played on a console, mobile device, television or computer; benefit means a help or making what was existing before better; and children means anyone under the age of 19.

Some students need to do some adjustment to their evidence collection for the debate, as they did not include a source, they don’t have long enough quotes, or they only have evidence to help one side of the debate. Everyone should have evidence that will help them on either side, as they do not know which side they will debate in class. I will ask everyone to turn this in tomorrow at end of day. Tonight, they have been asked to prepare a debate speech outline for the positive and negative sides. For the positive side, this means writing, “I believe in the resolution that video games are a benefit to children because….” and then writing 4-5 point-form, main arguments they would make that support the resolution. For the negative side, they will write, “I disagree with the resolution that video games are a benefit to children because….” and then writing 4-5 point-form, main arguments that would support that statement. In class, we will begin to write the speeches to go with those outlines.

Tomorrow, we will have time to work on our PPT presentations. Please bring any USB that may have work on it done at home, if anyone was working on it over the break.

We began an art project today that will involve the elements of shape and form, watercolour, zentangle, drawing/sketching, and geometry. Students sketched the outlines of bare trees surrounding the school, and I have asked them to do another sketch of a tree they can find near their home. We also practiced doing some zentangle designs, and they should look up zentangle on google to try one more pattern independently before tomorrow. This project will take some time, but the end result will be some beautiful trees incorporating multiple art skills (and science skills, as we will be using the power of observation to enhance our drawing.)

Hip Hop starts tomorrow and runs Tuesday – Friday at 8:55 AM – 9:45 AM. Please be on time to school. If you haven’t brought the yellow notice, please bring it in ASAP tomorrow. If anyone has chosen not to participate or does not have their notice tomorrow, then I will provide an alternate activity at that time, as we have to go to the gym as a whole class.

Thank you, and have a great evening! Welcome back!

Happy New Year, everyone!

First of all, thank you to everyone for their gifts and holiday wishes before we went to break. A big thank you to all of you from both myself and my family.

Second, I look forward to seeing you all on Monday. Please remember these things as we get back on track:

• Report Card Envelope – if you haven’t brought it in, please bring it to school signed.
• Library Books – make sure you can find them all in anticipation of Tuesday library
• Hip Hop – This optional activity starts this week, and so payment and yellow notices must come in Monday. If you are not participating, then please let me know. We are doing this as a whole class along with all other classes at the school.
• USB STICK – please ensure you bring this to school Monday as we will continue making our machines PPT or start practicing with presenting them.
• Warm Clothes – dress for cold outside days!! Also consider having a PE strip or clothes on PE days that allows for being outside. If it is not raining, we may be outside for PE or daily walks and/or runs.

Look forward to seeing you Monday! Have a good rest of the weekend, get some good sleep, and get outside in the sunshine!

Ms. D