Inquiring Minds Want to Know, February 3rd Update

Hello Everyone,

Please read the notice regarding our field trip on February 26th, Friday. You can find it here if you did not receive one.

Today we began by reading some articles out of the book Inquiry: A Guide to 21st Century Learning. This is a grade 4/5 level book that I use to help students break down the skills they need to do inquiry and research things they want to know more about. The first section was on listening skills. What does active listening look like?

  • Be positive
  • Make eye contact & use active listening body language
  • Listen for signal words
  • Think about what is being said
  • Take brief notes (but focus on listening more)
  • Write down questions and ask them at an appropriate time
  • Review the speaker’s message after listening to ensure you understood
  • Avoid poor listening habits such as daydreaming or giving up on a speaker’s ideas. Hear them out.

Thank you to Peter’s mom who came in today for 30 minutes to talk about her experience emigrating from Syria and to explain her work as a consultant helping people to immigrate into Canada. This provided us with a great opportunity to use listening and interviewing skills.

The second article from the book was about Taking Notes and Citing Sources. For science, each student will choose an animal that migrates and learn more about it. They will be using the iPad app Puppet Pals to make a mini presentation about that information. In preparation, students were asked to research the answers to these questions we brainstormed together (put your research with each question in your notes and include a source!):

  • How does the animal migrate?
  • Where does it live and travel when migrating (migration route)?
  • Why does it migrate?
  • What “cues” or tells it to migrate?
  • What biomes does it live in?
  • What does it look like?
  • What is the animal’s scientific name?
  • What is the animal’s diet?
  • What type of animal is it? (mammal, reptile, etc.)
  • Five AWESOME facts about the animal that we would not already know.

We will be performing our Reader’s Theatre on Friday, so please make sure you bring any costume or prop items before then. Tonight, scripts are going home so everyone can practice lines. They don’t have to be memorized, just well rehearsed.

Scholastic Orders due Friday, February 5th.

Tuning In Article Reflections due Friday, February 12th.