Month: March 2016

How does a system work? – March 31st Update

Hello Everyone!

For tonight:

  • Please spend up to 45 minutes on either finishing your narrative, which is the first priority and is due at end of day tomorrow, or working on Lit Circle. If we need more time to be prepared for Lit Circle, we will talk about it tomorrow and postpone our next meeting.
  • Finish listing resources from yesterday’s assignment – most of you are done.
  • Field Trip Notice — the link should now be live online so you can use the School Pay Online option

Today we discussed SYSTEMS again, looking at the Universal Systems Model. Then, we broke into small groups to answer this question: How does your food get to you? Students brainstormed the various parts of the “system” that brings meals to our plates, and then they made a flow chart to represent the system. When we reflected afterwards about the activity and what was difficult about representing the system, a student said, “We don’t really see all the parts of the systems. So it makes it hard to think about it when you don’t see it.” This is very true! We eat the food, but we don’t get to see the farms where livestock are raised, the plants where food is processed, or the efforts that go into having workers at the grocery store where the food is available for purchase. This unit involves thinking about all the parts of these systems we take for granted.

We followed our inquiry activity with the movie The Story of Stuff, and we discussed how many parts of the consumer system we don’t really see when we are buying new shoes or purchasing electronics. We talked about how we are encouraged to buy things, too, through advertising, peer pressure, and the ever-changing nature of electronics. The video focuses on planned obsolescence, which is designing products so they intentionally do not last too long or will eventually need to be replaced. Not every company does this, but some products are designed that way. Do we always need the next best thing? Do we have too much stuff? What motivates you to purchase something, like your pair of shoes? Why do clothes for children sometimes cost way more than those for men and women? What are the parts of the system that bring us the clothes we wear? Thank you everyone for the great participation and discussion!

Great job Tove, Ella and Adrian, who read their Words Anthology entries at the Celebration of Learning today! Also, great job to Vlad, Sylvia and Emma who all participated in the Reading Club through the Suncrest Library and were recognized at assembly for their efforts!

Have a great evening!

What is a SYSTEM? March 30th Update

Good evening!

Reminders/Homework:

  • Unit Work to prepare for tomorrow’s activities:  15 minutes collecting lists of items in rooms of your house and recording what resources you think are in them
  • Narrative: 15-30 minutes; final draft due end of day Friday, more time to work on this tomorrow and Friday.
  • Notice: Genetics Lab April 22nd. Please pay by April 11th online or via cheque.

Today, before our Literature Circle meeting, we had a great discussion about the roles and responsibilities for group leaders and group members. This includes active listening, being prepared with your assignments before the meeting, making meaningful contributions to discussions, and being open-minded and respectful of others’ points of view. What does active listening look like? How does it help us have a better discussion?

We continued our work on needs and wants by completing a group activity sorting the 10 things we would take with us on a journey to another planet. The items we had to choose from were inspired by the United Nations Rights of a Child document. This was followed by discussion about how satisfying everyone’s needs and wants is a complicated task. Students observed that during this task, many of them had differing opinions about what is a necessary item for survival. We talked about how this is true of the world, as well.

Later, we talked about systems. What is a system? What systems do we know of in the world? What are the parts of a system? We discussed the universal systems model that includes the parts of Input, Output, Process, and Feedback, and then we applied the model to the school, as a system.

We are also going to talk about resources, and so students need to look for resources at home in the rooms of their house. Choose four rooms, record products, and then guess what kinds of resources were used to make those products. Tomorrow, we will analyze the data and see what conclusions we can make about resources used around us.

Finally, we had a game of football, courtesy of Peter and Michael, for PE class. Who is doing the next PE lesson for Monday’s gym class?

Have a great night!

Ms. D

What is a NEED or a WANT? Update for March 29th

Hello Everyone!

Please see this attached parent notice regarding our field trip to the BC Cancer Agency Genetics Lab on April 22nd: Genetics Lab Parent Notice MACC. Paper version to come tomorrow.

Congratulations to Tove, Adrian, and Ella, as all three students had their poetry or prose chosen to be included in the District’s Words Anthology! Great work!

Today we started talking about our new unit focus statement: 

Humans create a variety of systems and tools

to get their needs and wants met.

Our first activity to get us thinking about the unit was called Lost at Sea! We all pretended to be on a yacht in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean that goes down. We have to survive using the few items that remain undamaged from the wreck. We prioritized the 15 items from 1-5, with 1 being the item that would be most important and 15 being the item we could probably do without. Afterwards, we also ranked the list with a partner for comparison. Finally, we checked our answers by what the Coast Guard had to say about the list, to see if we would have survived or not.  Tonight, students have been asked to get parents to rank the items, too! See if you would survive!  The red link above has the survival chart so you can see your results.

We also did some brainstorming about needs and wants. How do you know the difference between needs and wants? Each student was given 10 cards to record the items they think would make them the most happy. In small groups, we organized the cards into needs and wants, and we also discussed which items would cost money versus those that would be free. After much debate, we made a larger chart of needs and wants for the whole class with the cards. Some great questions arose, such as: Is education a need or a want? Do you absolutely need money to survive? Is music free? Do you need freedom to live (versus just being happy)?

We also watched a PBS cartoon called Happiness Stuff to introduce discussion about whether having “stuff” makes you happy or not.

Also today, we had a chance to visit the library, continue work on the final drafts of our immigration narrative, prepare for our next literature circle meeting tomorrow, and begin work on a drawing-collage art project involving nature, line, and composition.

Please remember to bring in LIBRARY BOOKS as there were many overdue books today. Our library day is Tuesday every week.

Please look for the following items that will help us in class:

  • Earbuds: For future research and use of tutorials with sound during class, it is a good idea to have a pair of these, or headphones, that can be stored in your backpack during the day.
  • Transparent Tape: For a future art project, I need as many rolls of transparent packing tape as possible. If you are willing to donate some, please send it to school!
  • PENCILS: Unfortunately, we are almost out of pencils from our supplies collected at the beginning of the year. I am putting out an all-call to students and parents to bring in more if possible.
  • Model Building Supplies: Think about what you will need to make a scale model of your building. Please look for cardboard and other recycling items that would be helpful. Bring in on Thursday if you have items.

For tonight, limit the time spent on individual homework:

  • Do 15 minutes max of editing or writing of final draft narrative (more class time will be given Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. Final Draft due EOD Friday.
  • Do 15-30 minutes max of preparing for Literature Circle meeting tomorrow

Have a great night!

Ms. D

Welcome Back from Spring Break!

Hello Everyone!

Welcome back! I hope you had a relaxing two weeks and did something fun during the break. I look forward to hearing about how you spent the time away.

I have made some updates to the website I hope you enjoy. On the Home Page, you will see a new slider of photos, and our Projects Page has new photos of our Burnaby Art Gallery work and the Reifel Bird Sanctuary trip. We have many more photos than what I was able to post, and I hope some students will help me make a cool slideshow or movie at the end of the year that we can share privately among the community (rather than publicly on a website.)

We will be jumping back into our Literature Circle, so don’t forget to bring your book with you tomorrow if you took it home over the break. We will also finish the final draft of our immigration narratives, so please bring any notes or drafts you have at home so you are ready to work.

As our scale model plans are done for our buildings, we will begin making a real model this week. For Wednesday, please look for any supplies at home you can use to build your model (thin cardboard, stick materials, cups, etc.). Don’t bring anything for Tuesday. We will talk about it tomorrow so you know what kinds of things to use.

We have library tomorrow, so please bring any library books you have read over the break so you can exchange them!

We will be starting our new unit tomorrow, too! If any of your parents have expertise in any of the following areas and would like to talk with us, I need to know asap:

  • Buying and selling products
  • Running/owning an independent business
  • Resources/Resource Management (mining, fishing, water, forestry)
  • Government (regulatory bodies, government-related jobs, etc.)

Also, if you haven’t noticed already, we have been fortunate to receive some new planters with soil at Suncrest, and our class will be in charge of three of the planters. It will be up to us to decide what we would like to do with these, and it is SPRING, so time to think about planting! Please bring any ideas you have. We will be having a class meeting tomorrow to get us started thinking about exciting projects this term.

We will be doing some computer work during this unit, during which it would be VERY HELPFUL for you to have your own headphones or earbuds. Please look at home for a pair, label them with some masking tape at school if you need to, and keep them in your backpack to use during the unit.

Have a great last day of break. See you soon!

Ms. D

Update:March 10,2016

Hi! This is Jonathan doing the blog!

Today, we did a lot of work in class. This is because of the upcoming spring break. Yay!

In the morning,we worked on our scale drawing or our Lit Circle assignment.After that, we had an inside recess because it rained really hard! A group of people played Settlers of Catan in a corner of the room.

After silent reading time, we used laptops work on our personal narrative. We did that from recess to lunch. After lunch we had music. When we returned to class, we watched a video that taught us the basics of football to help with Peter and Michael’s PE lesson from Wednesday, and a video suggested by Tove all about an efficient way to clean the plastics out of the ocean.

We ended the day by doing some reading about DNA and having a fun game of thumb ball as a group!

A reminder for homework: Do 15-30 minutes of drafting your personal narrative; Lit Circle meeting tomorrow (is your assignment ready?), and Read pg.25 of DNA packet if you did not already finish it.

Tomorrow we have free choice and treats! Please bring your treat for tomorrow so we can share during our Friday free choice.

Topic for End of Year project! Ms. D will have her list out and would like you to tell her your topic for the end of year project before we go to break.

Plastic Bags: Please bring a plastic bag if you need it to get all items out of the cloak closet area for the break time, so they can do a thorough cleaning of that area.

Have a great night!

Our Next Unit…. Look for articles… Do you have expertise???

Just to get us thinking for our time together after the break, here is our upcoming new unit. Parents, if you have expertise in, or know of people who we should talk to during our study of, this area, then please contact me!

The unit focus statement will be: Humans create a variety of systems and tools to get their needs and wants met.

We will inquire into:

–Government systems (aboriginal, local, provincial, federal, other countries, etc.)
–Natural resources as related to economy and trade
–Needs, wants, and systems we organize to get our needs and wants met
–How we use scientific information to get our needs and wants met (Rocks/Minerals/Geology)

During the next unit, TUNING IN will be a bit different….

While Ms. D will provide some articles around the unit, I am also asking students to help me find connections between our unit and current events. Each student should be looking for at least two articles (online, newspaper, magazine, etc.) that are connected to ANY of our inquiries into government, natural resources, needs, wants, geology, rocks and minerals, etc. They should start bringing these in when we return from the break. We will post as many as we can under our Articles of Interest Page, and then when Tuning In is done, students will choose from those articles.

Also: If anyone has a Settlers of Catan game at home they would be willing to let us borrow, please let Ms. D know asap. Thank you!

Looking forward to the new unit!

Just for Fun post-Peter

Hi everyone, Peter here. Here is a post on a 5 day challenge by Google against the world champion in a game called Go. Here’s a website on How to play go. The world champion’s name is Lee Sedol, and the name of the robot by Google is called Google Deepmind. Here’s the article, Google Deepmind vs Lee Sedol.

 

Just recently, Google Deepmind won the first match. Lee made a prediction that he will win 5-0( kind of a bad guess).

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