Day: March 30, 2020

Hello Division 5,

It is hard to be learning at home without any structure. Even I have found that hard! I mean, sure, we could stay in bed until 12 PM, watch movies all afternoon, and then make dinner…..but, then I feel like a marshmallow on the couch, and I have a hard time getting rid of my anxious energy and going to sleep!

So, one of the teachers I follow on Twitter, who also loves project-based learning, recommended a way to schedule the day.

We will be using this to help schedule our days of distance learning together. Here is how it works:

1. Every day, you will have a choice of activities to do in six categories.
2. You may do the categories in any order, as long as you do all of them.
3. Tasks need to be done for the amount of time given.
4. Select any activity from the list under each category. Don’t repeat activities, unless you are finishing an activity from the previous day. It is good to finish what you start before moving on.
5. Complete tasks at any point in the day between the time you get up to the time you go to sleep. Talk with Mom and Dad about the best schedule. Maybe from 9 AM to 3PM, so you stay in school hours.
6. You can provide suggestions to add to each category, too! Just email me your suggestions to add to the coming week’s list.
7. Some tasks are mandatory and some are optional. Mandatory tasks need to be completed by end of day Friday of each week, and I have put them in italics. 
8. Our first week, we will just try this out. Second week, Ms. D will provide instructions about how to document the choices you made, as I would like to be able to give you feedback on how you are using your time.
9. I recommend making posters or a schedule to put on your fridge.
10. Ms. D will be doing this, too! Parents are welcome to participate.
11. I will add options as we go along and re-post each week.

Here are the categories:

MAKER HOUR (60 minutes)  Do something creative! Make something new! Take a picture of it to document your work!

• Paint something
• Make a mini model of your home (extra challenge, make it to scale). You could also just measure the area and perimeter of each room in your house, as a review from our last math unit.
• Create a cartoon
• Make a marble roller coaster out of found objects in the house
• Make prints using paint and found objects
• Read about and create a 5 Clue Video Challenge for us
• Make a puppet show and present it to your family or us
• Create a website, blog, art journal
• Do SCRATCH online or find something on Code.org to do coding
• Do Tynker coding for free
• Bake something
• Take a box and make something out of it
• Make a mini catapult out of found objects
• Do a Science-U science activity at home
• Make a newsletter for your home
• Do napkin folding for your home
• Do the Getty Museum Art Challenge — Read about it here.
• Grow some plants from food scraps. See how here. or on this website too!
• Create something from the MAKE Magazine Maker Project Library (most materials can be found in the home)
• Make instruments from things in your home
• Find, pick and dissect a flower to learn its parts
• Make paper airplanes that fly very far.
• Exploratorium California Science Snacks with home supplies.
• Do edible science projects.
• Do a fun science experiment creation using office supplies.
• Make a homemade weather measurement instrument
• Watch a GEERING UP UBC Engineers Science Activity online, which is live streamed at 11AM every weekday.

FITNESS HOUR (60 Minutes) Get moving, get some exercise, get your heart pumping!

• Go walking outside
• Or, if you can’t go out, go walking a mile on YouTube with Alana
• Create your own fitness routine
• Do Just Dance on video games or YouTube
• Look up Fit with Frank videos to do a fitness routine in the home
• Do Pilates for Beginners (was recommended by my daughter’s dance instructor)
• Do the New York City Ballet Warm Up Level 1 if you like dance
• Do Yoga for Kids for beginners, shorter class with basic poses
• Do Yoga for Kids for a bit longer class
• Do the Scientific 7 Minute Workout from the NY Times
• Go for a bike ride outside with someone in your family
• Use the Healthy Living 25 Ways to Get Moving At Home
• Face Time or Zoom with a friend while doing a workout. Do it together! Just need two devices.

INDIE READING (30 minutes) Reading, preferably offline but if you are out of books and need to go online, at least not news or current events articles.

• Build a fort with a blanket over a table or chairs and do some reading under it
• On Amazon.ca, if you have the Kindle App, there are lots of free books to read
• With your library card, check out online resources for Burnaby or Vancouver Public Libraries
• Use Audible for free right now to listen to tons of online audible stories.
• Use the Burnaby School District’s Tumblebooks Account to access books online. Press the ebooks tab at the top.
• Ms. D is looking for more options!

SERVICE (30 minutes) Clean and help!

• Unload or load the dishwasher
• Sweep or vacuum the house
• Call a grandparent, family member, or friend to help them feel connected during this time of isolation
• Help with the laundry — loading, folding, putting things away
• Dust the house or blinds
• Clean windows
• Help with the garbage or compost runs
• Clean off counters
• Wipe doorknobs and high-touch spaces with cleaner
• Take care of a pet
• Clean the toilet
• Organize recycling
• Watch your younger sibling so your parents can have a break

GENIUS HOUR (60 minutes) Learn something new and document your learning in some way.

• Learn morse code and practice using it with a sibling through the walls.
• Learn magic tricks for beginners
• Learn about Animation Pixar in a Box on Khan Academy
• Play Chess online with Masters
• Learn how to Beat Box, creating new sounds with your lips
• Study Yourself — Experiments to Learn More About Your Body Exploratorium
• Mandatory: Keep working on independent project, document your notes and resources used. What new questions have you added since the first 10 you created? What new questions do you have after doing research since before break?

UNIT, NUMERACY, LITERACY HOUR (60 minutes) Specific learning opportunities at our grade level or connected to our unit….more to come.

• Use the grade 4/5 Resources on the Burnaby School District’s Continuing Learning Website for literacy, numeracy, or ADST
• Play or create math games using cards.
• Play math games or do literacy activities with dice.
• Make a graph of something — for example, which birds come to visit your backyard, or the objects everyone owns in the house, or make a graph by collecting information from friends online.
• Write something using a picture prompt on The Learning Network, NY Times
• Make a 15 second Word of the Day Video and share it (NY Times)
• Do a Math Activity on YouCubed Home Activities, Stanford University
• Do the Weekly Waterloo Math Challenges by Grade then check answers later
• We talked about blood types in our first unit — try out this module to learn about blood typing and how they match up patients. Fun game!
• Practice your online research speed skills. Do the Google a Day challenge.
• Use other general online math and literacy learning RESOURCES from the Burnaby School District’s Continuing Learning Site, including Prodigy.
• Do a writing prompt:  Mandatory task this week, E-Port Documenting History

Questions? Email me!

With kindness,

Ms. D

Hello Division 5,

As I said in my last post, our main focus for this first week together in our new distance learning environment will be finding connection with one another AND finding structure. Our learning together now will not look like what we did in the classroom, because that is impossible. We can’t turn the awesomeness of MACC into an online course. But, we can do many, many things, and maybe we will come up with new creative ways to work together.

We will still use our E-Portfolios, and that is a good thing!

Assignment #1: Documenting History

So, these are historic times. Schools closed all over the world, no travel, businesses shut down, and our world turned a bit upside down. It is okay to feel anxious, bored, lonely, or upset. I know I have. It is also great that some of you have found creative and positive ways to use this time, either doing projects independently or just spending time with your families. This has been very important for my own health, as I found ways to keep myself mentally and physically active during the break. It is also helpful to talk or to write about how you feel, so that our feelings get out of our heads and on to the paper.

You may want to document this time in a journal! Most historians are recommending everyone take notes about what they are experiencing, feeling, and doing during this time.

This is how historians put together our past stories, through the journal writing of the people who experienced the past. I remember when I wanted to learn about the Titanic, the diaries and journals of some of the passengers were fascinating!

So, here are some questions for your E-PORT to think about this week, as you become an official historian of 2020. Remember, the more detail and descriptive vocabulary you provide, the better a person reading your entry will understand exactly what it was like for you during the last two weeks.

Title:  Documenting History

Questions:

1. What has it been like for you during spring break? How did your daily life change because of the health recommendations?
2. What did you think about this last week? What questions do you have? (Be as specific as you can.)
3. How are you feeling about what is going on right now? (Be more descriptive than just “bored”?)
4. If you felt anxious, upset, restless, or emotional, did you use any self-regulation strategies to help you?
5. How did you use the time over the last two weeks?

Please include a picture of one of these things:

1. something you made
2. a picture of you doing one of your chosen activities during the last two weeks
3. your view from your window
4. something you could see during a trip outside for fresh air

I look forward to seeing what you have to say!

Ms. D