Day: January 8, 2024

Continuing the Unit on Creativity and Change – January 2024

Hello Everyone!

Before the break, we introduced our new unit and did quite a bit of work on the concept of creativity. Here’s what we discussed, for those who are catching up:

  • We did many alternative uses or creativity tests, to help us have discussions about the nature of creativity and how to cultivate creative-thinking skills.
  • We completed maker projects designed to exercise our creative-thinking, fine-arts and ADST skills, such as making mini snow globes, painting snow landscapes, designing mixed media snowflakes, and doing wool needle felting of winter objects.
  • We read articles from Time Magazine’s Special Issue on Creativity, discussing how creativity is best cultivated and debating whether or not creative thinking can be improved over time. Each of us read an article in detail to find out its key messages, so we could share this information with others.
  • We did activities with our buddy class to study creativity! We invited them to do our marble roller coaster ADST activity we completed earlier this year, and then we made observations about their building, as younger students, differed from our own. What difference does age make in creativity? What kinds of conversations happen when we are being creative?
  • We defined what technology is, talked briefly about whether its impact has been positive or negative on humanity and the world, and began discussing how humans have used scientific knowledge to create things they need or want to live. We will continue this conversation this week!
  • We looked at some old tools belong to Mr. L, Ms. D’s husband, who is a shop teacher. We had fun trying to figure out what they would be used for, as some of them were new things we hadn’t seen before!
  • We identified the basic simple machines and in our journals took notes on each type. This will be turned in to Ms. D. The research was done on books in the classroom provided by our school library and the District Learning Centre.
  • We watched Bill Nye’s Simple Machines along with several other videos. For those who were absent, here you go.
  • Discussion about simple machines definitely involves some math! Using the book You Do the Math Build a Skyscraper, we did math problems from grades 4-6, involving many areas of the curriculum — operations, graphing, coordinates, area, perimeter, word problems, measurement, and basic integers. All of the problems involve applied math. We are still finishing this, but should complete it in the next week. Students can only work on the Skyscraper Math at school, so those who were absent can do this during silent reading and free choice times.
  • After Skyscraper Math, we will be moving on to Multiplicative Thinking. More to come on this soon, but our emphasis will be better understanding multiplication, the math properties involved, area, and perimeter. All of this will lead to us building a fun model for ADST later this term.

Upcoming:

  • Field Trip to Reifel Bird Sanctuary on February 23rd. Notice to come next Monday, January 15th.
  • Catapult Building
  • Rube Goldberg Building
  • Timeline Project
  • Ted Talk
  • French Poster – Country Research
  • Machines PowerPoint Project
  • Tiny House Models
  • Migration / Exploration Unit before Spring Break
  • Deciding Independent Project Topics and Learning How to Ask Research Questions

MACC TED Talks Part 2

Hello Everyone!

Happy New Year! Over the next four Wednesdays, you will receive class time to prepare a TED talk to present to the class.

We have already done some brainstorming, and Ms. D will be checking in with each student about their topic.

Now, here are the next steps:

  1.  Draft five paragraphs for your speech in your journal.
  2.  Paragraph one:  Introduce your passion. Start with a hook to get us interested that is NOT a question (because most people do — try something different.) Give a short anecdote about why you are going to talk about this. Use enthusiastic, persuasive language hook us into also being passionate about your interests! Don’t forget to use an intro and concluding sentence.
  3.  Paragraph two:  What is the first reason this is your passion? Explain and give specific examples that back up this reason. Don’t forget to use an intro and concluding sentence.
  4.  Paragraph three:  What is the second reason this is your passion? Explain and give specific examples that back up this reason. Don’t forget to use an intro and concluding sentence.
  5.  Paragraph four:  What is the third reason this is your passion? Explain and give specific examples that back up this reason. Don’t forget to use an intro and concluding sentence.
  6.  Paragraph five: Sum up all of the reasons in different words. Tell a short anecdote or set of facts that help us remember your topic and speech. End with a strong concluding sentence. What you say last is most often what your audience will remember the most.
  7.  After drafting, type up a rough copy of these paragraphs. Size 12 Arial Font. Make sure to save it with the title of the project, your name, and the date in the file name. This way Ms. D can tell what it is.
  8.  Give your speech a title (without the word passion in it — make it interesting and catchy!) Label the document with your name where we can see it if the speech is printed. Example “Photography is Perspective” by Ms. DeTerra
  9.  Edit VERY carefully, looking at criteria. Read it out loud to be sure you caught any errors.
  10.  Have a peer edit it carefully and discuss it with you.
  11.  Make edits and prepare a final version.
  12.  Send to Ms. D by sharing the file.
  13.  Practice speech and present on February 1st, Thursday or February 2nd, Friday.

Proficiency Criteria:

  1. Five full paragraphs with indents, transition words and phrases, complete sentences, intro and concluding sentences, and 5-8 sentences each.
  2.  Descriptive and varied vocabulary. Use more interesting words and don’t be afraid to use a dictionary to get some ideas.
  3.  Editing! No run-on sentences, capital letters in correct places, punctuation, etc.
  4.  You describe your passion and give specific, interesting reasons why it is something you care about and why other people should care about it, too!
  5.  Your speech begins with an engaging hook that is not a question, such that we become interested in listening to your speech.
  6.  Your last paragraph has a strong ending, so we get the key message from you as you finish.
  7.  Your sentences have some persuasive, enthusiastic language to convince us why this is an area of passion.
  8.  You present your speech smoothly and with eye contact, showing you practiced at home and/or with partners in class. It doesn’t have to be memorized, but it needs to be well practiced so you are not reading from a sheet of paper.
  9.  You present your speech using adequate volume, so people in the back of the classroom can hear.
  10.  You present your speech with an appropriate pace and use pauses between important thoughts. You are not going too slow, but you are also not speaking so fast we can’t understand all of your thoughts.
  11.  You present your speech with enthusiasm and energy, so we can tell you care about this topic!
  12.  You present your speech with enunciation, making sure each word is pronounced fully, and that you use your teeth, lips, tongue, and full mouth to say the words.
  13.  You use appropriate body language when presenting, not moving around too much, standing up straight, using only a few gestures to emphasize points.
  14.  You work on this project IN CLASS and do the writing independently. Do not work on this project completely at home. In this way, Ms. D or Mr. H can answer questions and can see you are able to do peer editing and manage your time appropriately during open-project times.

We will do some practicing in class around speech techniques prior to presentation day!

I look forward to hearing about your passions!

Ms. D