New Unit! — Solving the Conundrum, Term 2, 2022-23

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 (the planet everyone has been creating), and I am looking forward to seeing the different planets we can go visit! We will also 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, building towers in critical-thinking challenges, learning about animal adaptations, discussing how form follows function, learning how to use PowerPoint, making an oral presentation, doing experiments, making a planet…… Wow! We did a lot! Congratulations to all of Division 5 for their hard work. I will post a Term One Overview soon, so you can see everything we did.

We have already begun discussing a new unit, which will last through the beginning of February.

Title:  Solving the Conundrum

Key Concepts: Perspective, Problem-solving

Core Competency Focus:  Critical Thinking

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, including 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:

  • Class Culture Party Friday, Dec. 9th
  • You Do the Math Solve a Crime, and Crime Scene Investigation experiments
  • Hour of Code and Ozobots Dec. 5th – Dec. 16th
  • Burnaby Art Gallery Virtual Workshop in January, TBD
  • 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
  • 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
  • Field trip to the Museum of Vancouver to learn about Reconciliation, January 17th, Tuesday

More to come as we start to unpack the unit!

Have a good week!

Ms. D