Category: General Update

Tomorrow at 9:15 we will have a Celebration of Learning and Sing a Long in the gym. Our class will be performing a quick handbell song. Parents are always welcome to these Celebrations.

Friday, we have our Pancake Breakfast in the morning along with a group class photo with Santa. Then, we have a fun time planned with a holiday party, movie, and gift exchange!

Before we leave for break, our goal is to work on formal debate speeches, our machines research and notes, and to finish our French. We will also spend more time on coding and talk briefly about our plan for after the break. The machines slide presentations will likely be completed in the two days we return to school, and then everyone will share them aloud. Ask your child if they have the rubric for this project they can show you.

Today, we created special random notes of kindness and scattered them in places throughout the school for other students to find. Please ask your child about the TED talk we watched that provided the inspiration for this.

Have a great night!

Hello Everyone!

Getting close to the end! Four days left! Ms. D is continuing her own countdown — 11 days until Christmas!

Today we had a great time walking to the movie in good weather, and when we came back, we had some extra time outside after lunch, along with the rest of the intermediate classes. Then we were able to spend the last hour and a half of the day working on our debate evidence, machines presentation, and French quizzes.

We found out today that Michael’s winter art was chosen as a winner in the Burnaby Art Contest, and his painting is going to be on the Christmas Cards being used by the City of Burnaby! Congratulations, Michael!! All of the grade fours who participated in this contest were given a special packet to say thank you from the City of Burnaby. Good job, everyone!

Tomorrow, Ms. D is away just for the morning, collaborating with the other MACC 4/5 teacher in the District. The morning will be filled with Library time (so don’t forget your books!) and time to work on research and presentations. I will see you at 1:00 PM to continue the day. Have a good morning!

Please remember to be thinking about your Secret Santa and White Elephant contributions, as well as the food or item you agreed to bring to the party on Friday. Looking forward to our last, community-building day together before the new year!

Hi All!

Just a reminder for Monday as regards the movie at Metrotown:

• Please be on time; we are leaving promptly after school begins.
• Do not bring money to buy snacks, please.
• Bring a good snack with you that can be carried in a pocket (examples: juice box, crackers, veggies) Please have them in a disposable bag vs a container that could get lost.
• We will all be walking. We cannot meet you at the movie theatre, as this is a school group walking event.
• Rain or shine, please dress with appropriate coats and shoes.
• We will be back by 1PM and have our full lunch then.

Homework:

• 16 pieces of evidence completed for Monday for debating (most have at least finished 10 pieces from the class time we had today)
• Secret Santa and White Elephant gifts, bring by Dec. 18 or sooner
• Research for Machines PPT Presentation. We went over criteria together today, and a full rubric will be provided on Monday afternoon.

Upcoming events:

• Movie on Dec. 14th
• Sing Along 9:15 Thursday Dec. 17th
• Pancake Breakfast, Class Party, PJ Day on Dec. 18th

Thank you and have a great weekend!

Hello Everyone,

Some great holiday events are coming up! On Friday, December 18th, our last day of school, we will be having a Pancake Breakfast, and our division will be eating away from 9:30-9:55 AM. It is also a pajama day for the entire school! Students can come in their pajamas, and everyone is allowed to bring a stuffie if they want (stuffies are to be kept in our classroom at all times to protect them, thanks!)

Also on our last day, we will have a Holiday Party as a class. We have each committed to bring something, and in today’s agenda we wrote what we volunteered to bring. If that item is a problem, please let us know!

Everyone received their name for a Secret Santa gift today! You can bring these in any time before Dec. 18th, and on that day, we will open them together. The idea is to make something for the person or if you buy something, to not spend more than $5. We made a list of fun suggestions on the board. The class voted on this as an event they wanted to do.

Another event for that day, during our party, is a movie and White Elephant gift exchange. Students are asked, if they are able, to find something that is still usable and hygienic, but that they no longer want (for example, a toy they don’t want, or bunches of random lego, or a book, etc.). It is to be wrapped, and then we will be sitting in a circle, drawing numbers, and each choosing a gift to unwrap; however, these gifts can be stolen! The purpose of the game is to see which gift you will end up with, and we talked about how you may end up walking away with something you might not want, but that this is what makes the game funny and fun! Ms. D has also committed to participate. If anyone has difficulty with finding something, no worries, as you can talk to Ms. D and we will find something in her stash for you to add to the tree. This is to be fun, not something that is hard to do. I even have wrapping paper if you need it!

Homework tonight is: Tuning In due tomorrow, 8 pieces of evidence for our video games debate done on the evidence sheets, and research ideas/facts for your presentation on the machine or technology you believe has had the most impact on society.

Also, I know many of the students are nervous about their first report card. We have talked many times about what an A, B or C means. An “A” is really going above and beyond, and a B is a great mark! It is not to be expected that everyone will get all As in every area, and at the same time, no one has a horrible report card for term one, and everyone did very well, overall! The marks given involved work we did, the participation rubric you all have seen, and also student input, as they evaluated themselves in each area of acacemics and the learner profile. Sometimes everyone is very hard on themselves, using language to criticize themselves harshly, and they really want to do well for everyone. Sometimes they tell me they are terrible at something, and we talk about how it is important to re-word that thinking and say, “I am challenged in that area, but with work, I can get it.” Sometimes we talk about how being good at things does take practice, and that everyone has different strengths they bring to our fabulous MACC group. We also talk about how stress around school is often counter productive, resulting in learning being associated with negative feelings. Everyone has worked very hard and contributed to our learning, and I have enjoyed working with each and every student. I know everyone has become more aware of themselves during term one, and that each person is working on specific areas of growth. I look forward to helping each of them with their goals in term two!

Have a great evening!

Hello everyone,

Tonight will be a quick post. Our homework from today’s activities is as follows:

Write a page of pro and cons arguments, using a T-chart, for our debate on whether or not children should spend as much time as they do on video games.

Using the evidence pages I passed out in class, find four pieces of evidence to support either side of our debate, pro or con. There are two sides to the sheet, but I am only asking you to find four for now. I will be asking you to do more tomorrow.

Think about the machine/technology/human invention you have chosen to research and present on for our final project of this unit. You can do additional research if you would like, but I am giving more time in class tomorrow. I gave a handout today explaining the project. You will be: making a tech slide presentation, minimum 10 slides, making commentary and adding pictures, and presenting the slideshow. I want to see your written commentary, either in the presentation (such as PowerPoint notes) or on a separate paper. I also want to see your research notes and sources of information. So, please write down where you get the info from. The presentation will be due Friday, December 18th. Presentations will be made after break, though, as we may need more time to get to that part.

Tuning In is due on Friday

Green pancake breakfast notice!
Have a great night!

Good evening,

Students were so enthusiastic about coding yesterday that we had many requests to continue today, so given it is Computer Science Week, and it is nice to see everyone so excited, we had more time in the morning to continue projects from Code.org, Scratch, or other programs.

This was followed by Library time. Just a reminder to ensure all books come back every Tuesday. At Suncrest, students are allowed to keep their library books over the break; however, next Tuesday, all books should still come in as per the regular system.

We also had time today to discuss the difference between casual debate through class discussion and a formal debate. We will be doing a formal debate for our unit around the topic of video games and whether or not students should be playing them as much as they do. While a discussion debate allows students to comment on either side of the issue, a formal debate requires students to take on specific roles, either supporting a resolution or arguing against it. A discussion debate will allow students to comment openly or even ask questions about the topic; however, a formal debate will require them to do research, find facts, and support a particular position. For homework, I have asked everyone to look for facts and evidence to support or argue against the long hours students spend playing video games, and then tomorrow, we will discuss the format of the debate and organize our facts in preparation for polite arguing!

Also, as we end our unit on machines and technology soon, we began talking about our end project. Students will be choosing an invention, machine, or technology that is man made to research, and the item must be something they believe has had the most impact, positive or negative, on human society. Then, they will use technology to create a presentation with at least 10 slides, with commentary and pictures, that will prove their point. We began today by looking at the presentation tool Prezi, which offers a more dynamic format than Power Point, but with some of the same tools. Students have been told they can use Prezi, Power Point, and any other slide presentation technology app, such as Slide Shark or Haiku Deck, which can be used on the iPad as well as the laptops. Our goal will be to finish and present these before break.

Finally, we worked on a super top-secret Christmas item for art in preparation for the holidays. More on that one later…..much later…..as in, the 25th.

Please return all blue movie notices and white BAG notices. The PAC is still looking for parent volunteers for the pancake breakfast next week. A notice about this will go home tomorrow. We are doing Secret Santa as a class, so more to come on this later. We also have plans to do a holiday party on the Friday before break. Lots of events going on next week, so make sure you look at the calendar! Hope you are all enjoying the holiday!

Good evening, everyone!

I was really impressed with the work begun yesterday on technology timelines, which will help us see the changes in types of technology over time. We talked today about how these changes are related to the Engineering Design Process that we were using when making Rube Goldberg machines. Things keep changing and people keep adapting technology over time to suit their needs! If anyone needs some time on these tomorrow, we can have a short period in the morning to finish.

Today we marked math work from Distance, Rate, and Time worksheets. We also talked about time conversions in these problems, which involved changing minutes to hours, fractions to decimals, and decimals to fractions. We talked about how it is important to better understand math vocabulary to truly understand the concepts behind math computations. For example, we made synonyms for the word “decimal” and understood it to mean a part, piece, portion, section, or fraction (among other words) of a whole number. For those students who want an advanced math challenge, I provided the University of Waterloo’s advanced word problems on Distance, Rate and Time. For all students, I provided a practice sheet on adding, subtracting, multiplying and converting decimals, which is appropriate for learning and review in the grade 4 and 5 curriculum. This work is being done in class for now. If anyone is having difficulty with decimals and fractions as we talk together, I have posted some websites for practice and review under Articles of Interest in the Math Section.

After music class today, we had time to discuss our new TUNING IN articles. Five articles from our Articles of Interest page under Machines should be read and reflected upon by December 11th, Friday. Parents, if you can also please take a moment to reflect with your child, it helps for them to see and to read your perspective, as well. I provided sheets for the reflections in their yellow duotangs. Please document the name of the article, the website it is from, and the author of the article, using the format I showed you in class.

Finally, some other notes:

• The Burnaby Art Gallery Workshop notice is due by Dec. 11th. Please bring them in ASAP so they don’t get lost during this busy holiday season.
• The Movie at Metropolis activity for Dec. 14th Monday blue notice went home today, and please pay and bring back asap. Thank you!
• The 12 Days of Christmas written assignment is due tomorrow and we will be sharing them aloud in class. Tomorrow we will also do the skits which keep getting delayed!
• Sentence Detective Packets need to be either finished or just reviewed. They were assigned yesterday in class, but I saw many errors upon my return. I have asked students to review them again. We really need to work on run-on sentences, transition words, and making complex sentences through conjunctions.
• Please comment on the posts I made on the blog about your favourite book and what you think about tech etiquette, as this will be our topic of discussion tomorrow.
• Tomorrow Henry’s Dad, Lei, is going to come and speak to us about his work as an engineer! Thank you for volunteering to come in and share your work and Power Point presentation!

Have a good night! Look for Ms. D to wear button #21 tomorrow!  🙂

Thank you to everyone who helped set up and decorate the tree in our classroom! It looks lovely with all of the great ornaments you made all over it! So far, we have made yarn stars, mini trees, and paper flower loops. What’s next? Some of you have posted a few ideas for us to consider. I have another idea for next week, but we will keep that art idea secret, as you might want to give it to your parents…..(shhh!)

Everyone had the morning yesterday to build and to experiment with a mini fuel cell car. We learned about how electrolysis works, splitting the water into the parts of Hydrogen and Oxygen. Some of us are interested in the higher chemistry aspects, which I can go over on Friday; however, my hope is that everyone was able to at least see how we turned a liquid into a gas and used the various states of matter to power a car. I find it fun how you can actually “see” the Hydrogen and Oxygen gases, which are invisible to us, as they make the syringes we used with the car move! Hopefully you had a chance to watch the videos I posted, and we will experiment more with the cars on Friday, as I will put them out as an option during free choice for those who are interested in continuing.

In our class meeting earlier this week, we nominated a committee for our holiday party. Just a reminder that this committee needs to meet on their own time at recess or lunch break times to discuss, as on Friday we will look forward to hearing your ideas. The class also voted to do a Secret Santa. We are encouraging the gifts for this to be made; however, if you do want to purchase something for your person, then there is a hard limit of $5, as it is the thought that counts.

During French time yesterday, I discussed with everyone that we will continue with French-Games.Net, with another 10 sections of your choice; however, our project for this time will be different. We will be doing a dialogue with a partner using vocabulary we learned, which we will work on after we complete some more sections on the web. For this reason, please practice the pronunciation on the sections you do, as they do tell you how to pronounce the words in the lessons sections. You will still need to report the sections done to Ms. D for recording.

We will be continuing with more articles for Tuning In, however, rather than us killing trees with the articles, this time I have posted a variety on the blog for you to choose from. Please see the Articles of Interest page under Machines to choose five articles. Some of the links only have videos, and I have told everyone to do articles rather than videos, with the exception of The Story of Stuff. On Thursday, I will provide you with five of the article reflection sheets, plus one extra in case you need it. Then you have until next Friday to take a look at the articles and respond. I will provide some time in class, but some will need to be done at home.

Today I am away, but I am asking you to focus on making a timeline of a certain type of technology so we can discuss more deeply how technology has changed over time. Another thing we will be doing is having a debate (which we will discuss the format for) about whether technology has been a good thing or a bad thing for humans. A debate will require you to gather facts in advance, so you are ready to argue one side or the other using FACTS, not just your personal opinion.

Check the calendar for the school for other events coming up for the holidays!

Also, for those of you doing Reading Around the World, I have a bunch of prizes I would love to give away. So far Sophia has finished two continents and Max has finished one. Many people are reading and recording their books; however, not as many have checked in to say they have finished a continent. Make sure you check in! Remember, if you are having trouble figuring out what to read according to the list, ask Ms. D. It is more important to just read, read, read, and to build vocabulary than it is to finish any particular “list.” Many books fit the requirements. There are also many new books that were just added to our class collection, and Ms. Ho has bought a variety of new books in the school library you are reading. Make sure to record what you read!

Have a good day!

Hello everyone,

Today we finished our Rube Goldberg contraptions, and I was very much impressed with the way everyone worked together in a small space, creating complex machines designed to do simple tasks. Overall, there was a lot of creativity and thinking going on in Division 5! We have now cleaned up the evidence and are ready to move on to new things.

Tonight’s homework is to take the three days of Rube Goldberg journal entries, edit them, make them neat for Ms. D to read, and ensure there is a full picture of your contraption labeled with the simple machines used. Also, please end with two paragraphs telling me what you learned from the experience or what you might try around this Rube Goldberg idea in the future. Due tomorrow, please.

If you have not turned in our mini research worksheet on a “Greatest Invention”, please submit to the inbox as it is now overdue.

Your marks for your speeches, both for the written portion and the speaking (which are separate marks), will be given to you tomorrow. Overall, you did a great job, and I was impressed by the variety of topics! Please have Mom and Dad sign the French PowerPoint marks and Math Project marks if you have not done so already. These assignments should be brought back to class, as we put them in our portfolios as a record of our learning over the year.

We had a great Celebration of Learning assembly as a whole school today. We have these once a month to share learning from the classroom and community. We had reminders about making sure we use the crosswalk safely in front of the school. There will be a Food Bank Drive soon, so look for posters and a box to appear in our classroom soon for donations. If you are participating in the Math Genius program, there was not a draw for November, so in December there will be a double draw. Please continue to work on the Library’s Reading Program. Today, those students who had read for 50 nights were recognized by Ms. Ho for their reading.

During gym time, we did some general exercising as a whole group, and then we worked on our new focus in gym, types of movement. Students have been discussing the concept of “neutral” body language, and then have been moving from neutral into other types of movement based on characteristics, such as fast, medium, slow (speed); high, medium, low (height); and leading with parts of the body. With this in mind, we have been moving to create different characters, communicating personalities with body movement rather than words. Overall, it was a great, creative workout!

At the end of the day, we started talking about fuel cell cars! In preparation for tomorrow, students should watch for homework:

The SAE Website Video Called Fuel Cell Challenge which tells them how to put the car together and use it. THE VIDEO IS UNDER THE ASSEMBLY TAB — you don’t need to read the rest.

Honda’s Video Called Video Guide to Fuel Cell Technology (Please be aware this link is on You Tube and you need to skip the ads. Generally they are not inappropriate ads given the content of the video.

If you really enjoy the chemistry part, then also watch this video by Digital Splash Media animating the fuel cell science.

If anyone has not finished through page D in Math, please try to do so, as we will mark these in class together tomorrow.

Have a good evening!