General Update, Friday November 4th

Hello Everyone,

Reminders for the weekend:

  • Research strong shapes and ideas for towers made out of popsicle sticks in preparation for building activities next week 
  • Read about Bunraku for our workshop next week
  • Math quiz on Applied Math FLIGHT, Packet 1 only, on Monday
  • Did you return your signed overall participation rubric? You were supposed to go over it with parents and return it Friday.
  • Did you return your signed, marked speeches?

What’s Going On!

  • Students are reading about STRUCTURE through some textbook reading I gave them in binders this week. 
  • We are focusing on how FORM of something follows its FUNCTION. For example, we looked at different balls in the PE equipment room, described them, and then talked about how certain ones are designed for certain sports. If you are designing a chair, how does the purpose behind the chair impact its form?
  • A STRUCTURE is made up of SMALLER PARTS. So, we used the human body as an example. What is the smallest part of us? What words describe those parts? (Atoms, molecules, cells, tissue, organs, organ systems, organisms)
  • What are the strongest shapes to build with? What do you have to take into mind when designing something? Students were given a batch of uncooked spaghetti, tape, and marshmallows to build a strong tower in a limited amount of time. When we finished, we reflected on not only our building technique, but also on our collaboration skills. See this TED video by Tom Wujec on Build a Tower, Build a Team, which we watched in class to discuss who is the most successful during challenges like these.
  • How does studying bees help us understand structure? We watched a video from TED on bee hive construction, then another from the BBC on the math behind bee hives, and then we constructed honeycomb structures of our own out of paper! Through this, we learned about the strength of the hexagon, the circle, and equilateral triangles. And, we talked about compression, tension, cylinders, and redistribution of weight.
  • Structure is an important part of communication and order. We are working on making strong paragraphs and sentences. For some, this means adding details, and for other students, it translates to using conjunctions and transition words effectively so sentences are more complex. We will also continue to work on the structure of a speech, as well as our public speaking skills.
  • We are working on building our classroom community. Everyone is working on two key words from our Learner Profile: CARING and PRINCIPLED. To be caring means being more aware of your surroundings, being proactive when you see something needs to be done, and thinking about how what you say and do makes a huge difference in our classroom community. To be principled means you know right from wrong in your heart, and you do what is right even when someone who is in charge of you isn’t looking. We agreed that many of the people we admire in our lives are BOTH principled and caring. Without people who are like this, the world would be a much different place. With more people like this, the world can be an even better place. 

Thank you for a great week and a fun Halloween Party! So many great costumes! Thank you again to parents for supporting the kids with treats and decorations.

We are making some great art for the Remembrance Day assembly on November 10th at 10:45 AM. I look forward to our Bunraku workshops next week, and thank you to the PAC for funding it! 

Have a great weekend!

Ms. D