Activities & Assignments Week of April 14th, Post #2 of 3

Hello Everyone,

Here is an update of activities for the week of April 14th.

I would like you to do something from EACH category, EACH day. Having a structure to your day is important for your health. Take a deep breath, find a comfortable spot, and find an activity you like to do.

You don’t have to do activities in this order, you don’t have to do all activities marked “OPTIONAL”, and your schedule can be designed to suit your family. Please just choose something from each category list (or use activities from your own family’s choices) and commit to a chunk of time to do each category during your day.

NEED TO DO assignments are required, and they will be explained more on the blog or in MS Teams on the assignments tab. The due dates in MS Teams help provide structure and so you stay on track with the rest of the class, but you can turn in things beyond the deadline because we all have different schedules going on at home.

I hope this helps structure your time this week! Please let me know if you have questions.

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MAKER HOUR (60 minutes)
Do something creative! Make something new! Take a picture to document work!

Need to Do:

• Last Week: Finish photography and e-port assignments from last week.
• Podcasts: We will be working on PODCASTS together. But, before we do, I want you to listen to all of these examples of Podcasts and answer the question, “What is a podcast?” There is a list on the web link of podcasts to listen to, and it also talks about how podcasts are made. I also want you to watch 3 videos from Story Corps online. What do you notice about these online stories? I will put more detailed questions for you to answer and submit in MS Teams Assignments.
• Photography Challenge #1: We will be doing a series of photography challenges to learn about being a super-awesome photographer. The first challenge is Pretend You Are a Dog. More on this in a blog post and in MS Teams Assignments.

Optional Choices:

• Watch video on Divergent Thinking Challenge. Make a list of what you could make with these items. Build some of them if you have the materials. If you don’t have one of the materials, feel free to use something from your house supplies.
• Sign up for one of Canada’s Learning Code Live Workshops to learn about coding on a variety of topics.
• Watch the video from the Article on Smithsonian Quarantined Couple Builds Art Museum for Their Gerbils. Make a miniature art museum for our gerbils to visit.
• Make Bannock, a traditional aboriginal dish. Read about it here and try the Metis recipe. This website has other aboriginal learning opportunities, as well.
• Draw, doodle, sketch, or scribble!
• Fold origami
• Work on a puzzle or create your own: Draw or paint a picture. Glue it to the cardboard from a box. Print and use an online template to cut out the pieces.)
• Do one of the Exploratorium’s Science Snacks Design Challenges
• Practice calligraphy, learn some hand lettering enhancements, or try designing your own font
• Get creative with Blender, a free, open-source 3D computer graphics software application to develop animations, visual effects, games, and physics simulations.
• Try  knitting, sewing, crocheting, felting, needlepoint, or embroidery.
• Explore tutorials in Microsoft’s MakeCode Arcade. These step-by-step guides show how to modify and create simple games using drag-and-drop code blocks.
• Make a song or beat using this super-fun visual sequencer. If you come up with something you really like, download it and save it!
• Try different photography techniques with a phone camera (when you have a decent collection, choose your favorites and hold your own gallery debut!)
• Like cooking? And science? Do a Gassy Eggs experiment with only raw eggs, heat, ice, and observations! You can do this in combination with making a meal!
• Make a mini model of your home (extra challenge, make it to scale). You could measure the area and perimeter of each room, as a review from last math unit.
• Create and decorate a salt dough sculpture
• Make a terrarium mini garden
• Make a bird feeder
• Help make the world a greener place by making seed balls
• Do Lunch Doodles with the author/illustrator Mo Willems who wrote the book Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus among many other picture books for kids
• Create a cartoon
• Make a marble roller coaster out of found objects in the house
• Make prints using paint and found objects
• Read about and create a 5 Clue Video Challenge for us
• Make a puppet show and present it to your family or us
• Create a website, blog, art journal
• Do SCRATCH online or find something on Code.org to do coding
• Do Tynker coding for free
• Bake something
• Do a Science-U science activity at home
• Make a newsletter for your home
• Do napkin folding for your home
• Do the Getty Museum Art Challenge — Read about it here.
• Grow some plants from food scraps. See how here. or on this website too!
• Create something from the MAKE Magazine Maker Project Library (most materials can be found in the home)
• Make instruments from things in your home
• Find, pick and dissect a flower to learn its parts
• Make paper airplanes that fly very far.
• Exploratorium California Science Snacks with home supplies.
• Do edible science projects.
• Do a fun science experiment creation using office supplies.
• Make a homemade weather measurement instrument
• Watch a GEERING UP UBC Engineers Science Activity online, which is live streamed at 11AM every weekday.
• Visit Ms. Fletcher’s Music Blog for ideas about making music!!

FITNESS HOUR (60 Minutes) 
Get moving, get some exercise, get your heart pumping!

Need to Do:

• Listen to this news story on BBC about a football player in Africa and finish your shoe workout that was assigned last week. Try to get a video of it and post a link to the video in an e-port entry.
• Part of fitness is also monitoring your MENTAL HEALTH. What are you doing to help keep your spirits up? I use the app CALM. Ask your parents for help to get the app for free. If you can’t, then find a quiet space, put on some nice music, look at a pleasant image, and do some deep breathing to calm yourself. It is good to do this at the beginning and the end of your day.

Optional Choices:

• If you can’t get outside, follow along with Ultimate 20 Minute Full Body Workout for Kids on Youtube
• Use YMCA Health and Fitness Videos for options of different workouts!
• Complete the Name Work Out (To change things up, use a random word generator, pick a random word from a book or the dictionary, or have a parent/sibling give you a word and work out according to the word)
• Create a circuit that incorporates at least five activities, Do each activity 10 times. Repeat the circuit at least 3 times. (Don’t forget to warm up before physical activity! This will help you do exercises properly and help prevent injury. You can run in place, do air punches and kicks, or some jumping jacks.)
• Or, if you can’t go out, go walking a mile on YouTube with Alana
• Create your own fitness routine
• Do Just Dance on video games or YouTube
• Look up Fit with Frank videos to do a fitness routine in the home
• Do Pilates for Beginners (was recommended by my daughter’s dance instructor)
• Do the New York City Ballet Warm Up Level 1 if you like dance
• Do Yoga for Kids for beginners, shorter class with basic poses
• Do Yoga for Kids for a bit longer class
• Do the Scientific 7 Minute Workout from the NY Times
• Go for a bike ride outside with someone in your family
• Use the Healthy Living 25 Ways to Get Moving At Home
• Face Time or Zoom with a friend while doing a workout. Do it together! Just need two devices.

INDIE READING (30 minutes) 
Reading, preferably offline but if you are out of books and need to go online, at least not news or current events articles.

Need to Do:

• Read 30 minutes each day!

Optional Choices:

• Go on to EPIC and read books from the class assignments list.
• As you read, make a list of words you don’t know in a notebook and look them up later. Practice them by writing a short story/poem of your own which uses theses new words!
• Read in another language
• Build a fort with a blanket over a table or chairs and do some reading under it
• On Amazon.ca, if you have the Kindle App, there are lots of free books to read
• With a library card, use online resources for Burnaby/Vancouver Public Libraries
• Use Audible for free right now to listen to tons of online audible stories.
• Use the Burnaby School District’s Tumblebooks Account to access books online. Press the ebooks tab at the top. I sent you an email about how to access this, as you need a user ID and password.
• Higher Level Reading — Project Gutenberg free ebooks
• Open Library — has non-fiction and fiction options, some great for IP!
• Need a break from reading, but love words? Complete a word search or a crossword puzzle.

SERVICE (30 minutes) 
Clean and help! Be social and connect with others and keep them company. Help the people in your family feel good. Play! Be kind! Find ways to help everyone in your family and community feel better during this stressful time!

Need to Do:

• Make art for your window that somehow thanks the people in your community who do amazing things for us while we are in self-isolation. You could thank your parents, essential-service workers, grocery store workers, nurses, doctors, fire fighters, police officers, electricians, water and waste management workers, and more. Be specific about who you are thanking and for what. You can make hearts (which is what many people are doing), rainbows, or other positive images. Put the thank yous facing outwards on your window and then take a picture of them in the window to put on your e-port. Ms. D is going to do this, too, and I will post a picture by end of week.
• Make connection with someone from the class. Have a ZOOM meeting if your parents are okay with it, talk to one another on Facetime, if your parents are okay with it, or use any other way to get in touch. Play a game together — for example, one person can have a chess board, and the other person can tell them where to move the pieces. Or, play a board game that way. Find a way to connect!

Optional Choices:

• Play a pen and paper game with a family member (ex. dots and boxes, sprouts, 24, battleships, Go-Maku, Boggle, etc.)
• Play a card game with a family member (or as a whole family!)
• Look through old photo albums together and share memories
• Play Charades or use the Heads Up app
• Have an untimed Iron Chef contest with the whole family. Choose an ingredient, and everyone makes a different dish.
• Prepare a mini lesson and teach someone something you’ve recently learned
• Participate in the 7PM NOISE outside, done by the community to say thank you to our first responders and healthcare workers!
• Make a homemade gift for members of your family, and learn how to wrap them using Furoshiki, the art of Japanese gift wrapping
• Prepare a musical performance to share with your family after dinner.
• Organize a family game activity.
• Play a round of Rock-Paper-Scissors-Stretch with a family member
• Create a dinner night, with fancy napkins, table, outfits, menus, decorations, etc. so when you can’t go out, there is something fun to do at home.
• Make a shopping list for the family
• Unload or load the dishwasher
• Sweep or vacuum the house
• Call a grandparent, family member, or friend to help them feel connected during this time of isolation
• Help with the laundry — loading, folding, putting things away
• Dust the house or blinds
• Clean windows
• Help with the garbage, recycling, or compost runs
• Clean off counters
• Wipe doorknobs and high-touch spaces with cleaner
• Take care of a pet
• Clean the toilet
• Organize recycling
• Watch your younger sibling so your parents can have a break
• Make a dinner for your family so they have a break from it!

GENIUS HOUR (60 minutes) 
Learn something new and document your learning in some way.

Need to Do:

• IP:  Review websites provided by Ms. Ho on the blog and take notes in Class Notebook or a shared One Drive document with Ms. D so I can see your notes. If you have already seen the websites, I still would like to see your notes so far for IP either in Class Notebook or a document.
• IP:  Look at this document and make sure you understand how to cite your sources for your project bibliography. Do the practice examples they give you. If you are using Easy Bib, you still need to ensure your bibliography has correct format and lists resources correctly. Each type of resources (book, website, etc.) is cited in a different way.
• DIGITAL CITIZENS!:  The Burnaby School District has provided a Digital Web Quest to talk about digital citizenship. Finish this, and there will be a digital citizenship quiz posted in MS Teams for you to do by the end of the week.
• CRITICAL THINKING/INQUIRY:  From last week, finish Can You Believe It on the Exploratorium’s website and find seven questions you should ask yourself when reading scientific claims (such as those about COVID-19 in the news.) Post the questions in MS Teams in a new MS Word document.
• TYPING: If you don’t have access to All the Right Type or need your user ID and password, please contact Ms. D. We will work toward finishing all the typing levels by June 10th. Given how much work we are doing on the computer, typing is a great skill to have!

Optional Choices:

• Go to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s All About Birds Parents and Their Young Course. The link is to a slideshow and series of videos related to bird reproduction (for grades 4/5) which is going on right now outside for the spring months. Click through the slides for videos, questions, and activities to do. If you want to do the more advanced version, here is the slideshow for grades 6-8.
• Watch the YouTube Channel Global Weirding about a variety of climate change topics.
• Watch PBS Digital Studios episodes on variety of science topics such as whether or not Pluto is a planet.
• Here are 10 Things to do With NASA at home related to space.
• Learn Bird Sounds and Calls from around the world.
• Read about New Migration Science on the Cornell Lab of Ornithology All About Birds website, along with many other articles about birds you may see during the spring.
• Watch NEST CAMS — these are a variety of web cams showing nests of birds from around the world and at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. It is fun to watch, and it is spring, so there is some activity! Explore their resources about birds.
• Listen to an episode of the PODCAST  Book Club for Kids
• Listen to an episode of PODCAST Tumble: Science Podcast for Kids
• Listen to an episode of PODCAST But Why?
• Listen to an episode of PODCAST NPR Wow in the World
• Listen to PODCAST about debate for kids and families Smash Boom Best
• Listen to PODCAST Forever Ago (a history show which explores the origin of just one thing — like sandwiches, video games, clocks and more — while teaching listeners to think critically about history.)
• Interested in science? Check out Radio Lab for Kids!
• Listen to episodes of Everyday Einstein Quick and Dirty Tips for Science Topics
• Learn about Animation Pixar in a Box on Khan Academy
• Play Chess online with Masters
• Watch any of the Numberphile math videos on higher math topics
• Learn how to Beat Box, creating new sounds with your lips
• Many of you had questions about COVID-19, and some of you had some misunderstandings. Explore the science of the virus, so you can better understand by doing activities on Exploratorium.
• Watch live jellyfish, whales, penguins, and more on Georgia Aquarium’s webcams. (or animals at San Diego Zoo, the Monterrey Bay Aquarium, the Houston Zoo, or Zoo Atlanta).
  • Pick a favorite animal and research it. Create a fact sheet about it.
  • Research an animal’s habitat. Create a mini habitat.
• Travel the globe and visit one of twelve world renowned museums from the comfort of your home
  • Choose a favorite painting/sculpture and create a copycat piece of art.
  • Research an artist.
  • Choose a piece of art. Write about it. Describe it. Explain why you chose it and how it makes you feel.
• Use Google Earth to travel to a different city & country. Explore Street View.
  • Plan a trip to a new destination. What would you do, see, eat?
  • Make a travel brochure for the destination you visited.
  • Write a postcard from that destination. Include details about the place and what you can see there.

UNIT, NUMERACY, LITERACY HOUR (60 minutes)
Specific learning opportunities at grade level or connected to our unit.

Need to Do:

• RSVP for a small-group meeting with classmates to discuss topics related to our unit. Look for the email to come from Ms. D this week.
• LITERACY – Pen Pal:  Respond to the pen pal letter you received by answering questions and responding to stories. Copy Ms. D on your email response.
• LITERACY – Invent a Sport:  To practice more of our creative writing, use of higher vocabulary, and descriptive detail, write about an invented sport during the time of social distancing. Watch this video prompt. You can collaborate with others, or do it on your own. Post your writing on your e-port with a picture showing you playing a part of the game. See assignment on the blog/MS Teams.
• LITERACY-Tell the Story of Lost Shoes:  To practice creative writing, watch this video prompt and write about the untold story of your lost shoes.
• SCIENCE – Microscopic Things: Finish Science Snacks on the San Francisco Exploratorium’s website and do the activity called Life Size to understand the size of microscopic things. If you can’t print out the handout, just make a list of your own of the items on the handout using scrap pieces of paper.
• MATH – Financial Literacy, Making a Budget:  Do the assignment on MS Teams about the Class Library Budget.
• MATH – Critical Thinking Window Data:  Do the Outside Your Window activity on You Cubed, and post a picture in an e-port of your window observations and visual representations.
• UNIT – Socials/Science, Resources:  Look for resources in your house, which will be explained on the blog and in MS Teams assignments.
• UNIT – Socials/Science/LA:  Read assigned pages in the Geology book on EPIC and answer questions, which can be found in MS Teams under Assignments.

Optional Choices:

• Do a MATH WALK — people all over the US and Canada have been using chalk to put challenges out on the sidewalk. On this website, you can see some of them. Click on any one of them for more information and math challenges.
• Play Math PRODIGY using a class account. Please see email for sign up information to be part of the class. If you already have an account, use class code.
• Do some Real World Figuring at Yummy Math — my favourite is the Peeps activity.
• Work on old math contests (Gauss, Pascal, Kangaroo, CPECCA, etc.)
• Re-live the Apollo 13 mission in real time on this interactive website.
• Speaking of Peeps, if you have any of those marshmallow treats, here’s a fun experiment about peeps and the speed of light — -please ask parents for help.
• Do some math puzzles and games at Pickle Math
• Try math puzzles at Mathigon
• Look at Oxford Grammar’s 16 Tenses of English. Write a funny example for each verb tense and label the one you are using. You can also see the TED-Ed talk on tenses, which is a bit more complex, but funnier.
• Try these Math challenges that are word problems using a variety of math operations: Between the Numbers.  You may need a calculator! I have the answers for the first set and can ask the author for the rest, as she is on my Twitter Feed.
• Watch UBC Geering Up Videos Doing Science on a LIVE STREAM every day at 11:00 AM. You can also see previous videos if you miss one.
• Use the grade 4/5 Resources on the Burnaby School District’s Continuing Learning Website for literacy, numeracy, or ADST
• Play or create math games using cards.
• Play math games or do literacy activities with dice.
• Make a graph of something — for example, which birds come to visit your backyard, or the objects everyone owns in the house, or make a graph by collecting information from friends online.
• Write something using a picture prompt on The Learning Network, NY Times
• Make a 15 second Word of the Day Video and share it (NY Times)
• Do a Math Activity on YouCubed Home Activities, Stanford University
• Do the Weekly Waterloo Math Challenges by Grade then check answers later
• We talked about blood types in our first unit — try out this module to learn about blood typing and how they match up patients. Fun game!
• Practice your online research speed skills. Do the Google a Day challenge.
• Learn Math Card Tricks with Professor Liljedahl at SFU
• Do the Missing Square Problem on YouTube
• WIRED Math Lessons from University of Waterloo for Grades 7-10, so better for those who are strong at math
• Learn about the Math Behind Your GPS
• Use other general online math and literacy learning RESOURCES from the Burnaby School District’s Continuing Learning Site.

Questions? Email me!

With kindness,

Ms. D