Unit Update May 6th!

Hello Everyone!

Here is an update on what is going on in class with our unit THE NATURE CONNECTION! Please also see my Twitter feed for daily updates, as well as everyone’s e-port entries (there are four so far to look at).

SOCIALS AND SCIENCE:

After our visit to the UBC Biodiversity Museum, we followed up with conversation about biodiversity, the natural resources found in Canada, and the great variety of organisms that can be found in our backyards here in British Columbia. To further support our inquiry and questions about the amazing ecosystems of our province, each student began doing an art/research project on an animal from B.C. I encouraged everyone to choose rare animals from not often discussed parts of our taxonomy chart, just to make it interesting for all of us!

We read the book Weird Friends to discuss relationships between organisms, as an example of the interconnection we can find in nature. We talked about symbiotic relationships, mutualism, parasitism, and commensualism. Students were given a challenge handout with descriptions of animal relationships and then had to guess which type of connection the organisms have. We are going over these tomorrow and I will ask everyone to turn it in. And this is great prep for our walk through the forest at the watershed, as there are loads of lichens and fungi living in partnership with the forest.

We analyzed “What is science?” together and compared/contrasted indigenous traditional knowledge with western science. We talked about the meaning of worldview and how one’s worldview can shape how one sees the world. We have watched several great videos to understand indigenous cultures of Canada, as well as how people are working together, combining traditional indigenous knowledge and principles of learning with the methods, questions, and data collecting of western science, to protect our environment. We learned about clam gardens, why beavers are important to estuaries, and how indigenous scientists are working collaboratively to protect the Great Bear Rainforest. We are also reading My Elders Tell Me to better understand how important survival and ecological knowledge is passed down between elders and youth in aboriginal cultures. Thank you everyone for your thoughtful discussions as we open our idea of what science truly is!

Ms. D has asked some questions from our unit on the e-portfolios, and there have also been some assignments such as 2 informational zines, the handout on Bio Blitz and taxonomy, the handout on abiotic/biotic life, the biodiversity of BC handouts, and the Mensa taxonomy handout. Along with your contributions to discussions, your journal, and your animal project, these things allow me to see how you are understanding key concepts.

Language Arts:

We are continuing to read The Skeleton Tree and I am looking at your Readminder bookmarks as you read to see how you are writing down questions, key ideas, new vocabulary, and other interesting facts. Earlier this month I introduced the idea of asking deeper questions as you read using QAR Questioning Technique. This involves asking 4 types of questions:

1. Ones that are right there in the text, where the answer is stated in the text.
2. Ones that are think and search, where the answer is stated in the text but you have to combine pieces of information to fully answer the question.
3. Ones that involve author and me, where the author gives clues that are combined with what you know to figure out the answer, and 
4. On my own questions, where knowledge of the text is needed but the answer comes from your own head and thoughts!

We are also working away on poetry. Students already found examples of alliteration, assonance, consonance, repetition, metaphor, simile, limerick, quatrain, onomatopoeia, personification, and rhyme, and recorded these in their journals after viewing a huge selection of poetry books from our District library. Through the book Rip the Page we used a crossing of our five senses to create amazing phrases about nature and combine them into a group poem. I published it on Twitter, but look for a full version on a blog post soon. Great work, everyone! I was so impressed with our poetry!

Finally, we are working on our speaking skills through poetry recitation. How can we make our speech more interesting and engaging through the use of the speaking toolbox? Our toolbox includes emphasis, pace, tone, inflection, eye contact, facial expressions, volume, pauses, repetition, and gestures. Pick a poem to present! Next week we will present them in class. No need to memorize. Poem only needs to be between 8-16 lines.

Our end goal for the poetry unit is to create a nature art piece related to nature poetry. I look forward to your creativity!

MATH:

We collected pine cones on our walks and watched a great video about all the Fibonacci spirals you can find in pine cones, veggies, and flowers. This is a series of three videos exploring math in nature, and I look forward to doing more as the month progresses.

Students are also doing nature related math around geometry and other curriculum areas of mathematics through Animal Math and Planet Earth Math, as well as several other book resources such as This Is Not A Math Book. As everyone is in a different place with regards to math understandings, I am asking students to check in with me individually as I teach mini lessons to them as needed. Key to our understandings this unit: area, perimeter, types of shapes, types of angles, how to measure an angle, venn diagrams, and measurement. We are also practicing roman numerals, charts and graphs, division, decimals, fractions, and other areas directly from the curriculum. I can see more practice is needed in terms of division, so we will see more of that in activities to come!

APPLIED DESIGN AND MATH:

What would your own natural space look like if you could design one? Using the space to the side of the portable, what kind of natural space could you design? Students began brainstorming ideas about how we could incorporate calming, natural elements that are great for our mental health into the open space outside of the portable. We will be making 3D models of this space and will apply math such as area, perimeter, and measurement to our creation of a scale model. 

INDEPENDENT PROJECT:

Students have answered some questions on their e-port about questions they have and what they have found out so far. We have a large variety of books available for research. Thirty minutes of research a night is the guideline! This week we need to decide what kind of primary research we will do, as well as how we will present our project. A reminder that we are one month away from presentation!

Okay, enough for tonight! More updates to come. Thank you for visiting the blog!

Ms. D