New Unit: Solving the Conundrum! December 2020

Hello Everyone!

We are now done with our first unit on STRUCTURE, although we will continue to talk about some of the things we were learning about. For example, we are going to do in-class presentations about Your World, and I am looking forward to seeing the different planets we can go visit! We will also continue working on our math games, which are not due until the day before break. Finally, we will keep practicing our writing skills, looking at structure of sentences, using transition words, and organizing our ideas into solid paragraphs.

Everyone did a great job this term, whether it was creating mixed media art through quilling and other new techniques, building towers in critical-thinking challenges, learning about animal adaptations, discussing how form follows function, learning how to use Book Creator, making speeches, doing experiments, making a planet…… Wow! We did a lot! Congratulations to all of Division 5 for their hard work.

Now it is time to move on to a new unit, which will last through the beginning of February.

Title:  Solving the Conundrum

Key Concepts: Perspective, Problem-solving

Unit Focus Statement:

Problem solving involves careful observation, critical thinking, and consideration of multiple perspectives.

An Inquiry Into:

  • Tools for problem solving (consensus building, “7 Norms of Collaboration”, the “Ladder of Inference)
  • Math and Science used in forensics to solve crimes
  • Problem solving in math, which will include discussions about proportionate reasoning
  • Elements of a good story, perspective taking in writing, and writing a mystery
  • Using perspective to make art, and using art to find perspective
  • Ethics
  • Human rights (Personal, Children, Aboriginal, International)
  • Why racism and discrimination happen
  • Past discrimination in Canada (Japanese Internment, Chinese Head Tax, Residential Schools, Komagata Maru)
  • Reparation and Reconciliation

Some (But Not All!) of Our Upcoming Activities:

  • Crime Scene Investigation experiments
  • Hour of Code and Ozobots week of Dec. 7th
  • Burnaby Art Gallery Virtual Workshop on Dec. 8th, First Nations’ Collections
  • Discussion of ethics through pictures books, followed by class debates around hard questions
  • Discussion about culture, our own identities, and how those things colour our beliefs about the world, and our perspective
  • My Culture Presentations Week of Dec. 14th
  • Writing a mystery story!
  • Reading and discussion of My Name is Seepeetza
  • Looking at the UN Declaration of Human Rights and Convention on the Rights of a Child, and comparing it to the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms
  • and more!

More to come as we start to unpack the unit! Stay tuned on Twitter to see some of the things we are doing in class and talk at home about some of the hard questions we bring up during the unit.

Have a good week!

Ms. D