MS. DETERRA'S MAKER STUDIO

Dear Parents:

Our first dragon boat session will be this Wed., May 25th. Please be on time that morning so we can get everyone organized. Students need to bring light athletic clothing that can get wet, a change of clothes in a small bag, and water resistant shoes like crocs or water shoes. Anyone with allergies or asthma should ensure they have supplies needed with them in a waist pack. We will have snack before leaving school. We leave promptly at 9:45 and will return just before noon for lunch.

Thank you to all the parent driver volunteers! Please arrive at 9:30 this first day so we can get your group of students organized. We drive to the Burnaby Canoe and Kayak docks off of Kensington. I will provide directions on paper and We leave at 9:45, boat from 10:15-11:15, and then return to the school. If you are boating with us, please dress as described above.

Thank you and look forward to Wednesday!

Ms. D

Hello Everyone!

Sorry for the more intermittent updates, but it has been a very busy week with the musical going on! Thank you to everyone who performed, whether as part of our class performance, as one of the instrument group, or as a cast member. You all did a great job and we received some great feedback because of your hard work!

This week we have been working away on MACC Mall products, our new unit, and independent research.

MACC MALL will be on Tuesday, May 24th. Currently we have four classes coming to visit us. They have been given their ticket money and instructions, and our class posted their advertisements in the hallways today. Today we took some time to update our budgets for the project via excel, and I reminded everyone to ensure they record their patent fee, safety check fee, MACC Mall space rental fee, and other supply charges. As everyone tallied their expenditures, they started to realize that they may have to raise their prices in order to make more profit, especially as 12% of what they make will have to be paid in taxes to the government! Tomorrow will be our last class day to work on this project. Good luck with your sales! When we finish, we will be doing a reflection on the overall process.

Independent Projects: Ms. Ho, our librarian, let us know that the four-book limit does not apply to books for special classwork, so many students are checking out additional resources. She has everyone’s project topic and is doing what she can to get books. You will need to go to the public library if you haven’t already to make sure you have more resources. Remember: you must use some books! And if you are taking notes, whether on Evernote, Google Sheets, or otherwise, you must document your resources. If you don’t know what you need to document, please make sure you ask.

Myths!: We had discussion about the purpose behind and the elements of myths in connection with our new unit. Everyone looked up the story of Pele and Vulcan to do a comparison (venn diagram) between the two gods related to volcanoes. Also, students have been asked to read two explanatory myths and answer this question: Why is it that two different cultures, in two different parts of the world, that did not have contact with one another, explained something in a similar way? What is the same between the two myths and what is different?

Math: We have been using a lot of applied math in terms of money, decimals, and percentages, along with discussions of interest and economics-based topics. We are also doing some concrete math work around the conversion of decimals to fractions to ensure we all have the skills we need. Those who are more advanced received word challenge problems around this concept that were about situations involving money. We will continue this concrete math work through until the end of the year.

French: Tomorrow students will continue working on our dialogues. We hope to present them by next Friday, with more class time next week to practice.

Re-Writes of Writing Assessment are due tomorrow.

No School on Monday! Have a lovely, three-day weekend! I look forward to continuing our work after a short break!

Happy Friday!

Ms. D

Hello Everyone,

As we end the year, we will be doing a shorter unit of inquiry, while also simultaneously doing our independent project work and enjoying some great end of year activities such as dragon boating, the musical, and a social time together in late June! My hope is that as we complete our independent project work, we may have an opportunity to share — it will depend on how the projects progress!

Our unit focus statement is:

Humans use their senses and creativity to observe and explain the natural world. 

We will be doing inquiry on the following areas, involving a variety of language arts, science, socials, and math knowledge:

• World myths used to explain the unexplainable
• Our understandings of the moon, sun, tides, and time
• What it means to be a storyteller through drama, poetry, art, and stories
• Our senses and how they are used to make observations

We started our discussion today in two ways:

• Students identified myths that were proven wrong by scientific knowledge and technological development (i.e. that the world is not flat, and that the sun does not revolve around the Earth.)
• Students went on Windows 2 the Universe to look at mythology from different countries around the existence and function of the moon, stars, sun, etc.

If anyone has any expertise in these areas, please contact Ms. D, as you are always welcome to share with the students!

Tonight’s work is to take a look at myths, continue product work for MACC Mall (advertisements?), and continue independent project work. Our MACC Mall will be on May 24th upon return from the long weekend. Advertisements go up on May 19th in the hallways.

Also, some people need to finish their writing assessment. Today many people completed the writing, but did not show their knowledge of quotations and paragraphing while doing it. Ms. D is giving everyone a second chance, and to practice, please take home the writing assessment and re-do it before Friday.

Thank you!

Ms. D

Hello Everyone!

 

Tomorrow, no school, as the teachers have a day to work on curriculum implementation. Back to school on Monday!

Reminders/Homework:

• Literature Circle: Most everyone turned in their work today, as the project was due by the end of the day. If you did not turn in your project, please make sure you finish it completely over the weekend. It will be late, but at least it will be done, as no more class time can be given. Next week is really busy!
• Musical: Reminder that all of our class is performing at the musical on May 18, Wednesday. Please be here at 6:30 and expect to stay through until the end at 8:30 PM.
• June 20 End of Year: Our plans to go to Confederation Park on June 24th have not worked out, so we had a class discussion, and we are now trying to go to Rocky Point Park in Port Moody. My hope is it will be a no-cost trip, so I am asking for parent drivers. Thank you to those of you who have volunteered. Please email me if you are interested in driving. If we don’t get enough drivers, then I will let you know our back-up plan!
• French: We began work today on a partner dialogue that will be written and presented in front of the class. Use the BBC French Website to see basic phrases around “getting to know you” such as learning someone’s name, asking about interests, asking how someone feels, etc. Listen to the phrases and repeat afterwards to practice over the weekend. We will work more on the dialogues and practice more next week. Eventually we will have a quiz on vocabulary for “getting to know you.”
• Independent Project: Everyone is doing a great job of finding resources online or in the library for their project topics. Ms. Ho has also been looking for resources, and Ms. D is starting to put links on the Articles of Interest page as she finds them! Please try visiting the public library this weekend to look for books on your topic. If you don’t have a library card, now is the time to get one!
• Writing Assessment: On Monday, we will have an in-class writing assessment, with no help from computers or outside resources. You will receive a topic and write a brief creative story. The story must include a conversation with quotations. Practice this weekend by reviewing quotations in the book you are currently reading or online!
• MACC MALL: Mall will take place on May 24th, Tuesday. Please keep thinking about your products and ads.
• NEW UNIT: Next week, new unit to talk about! It will be a short one, but it will make our end-of-year discussions more interesting! Stay tuned.

See you Monday!

Hello Everyone!

Today we had a large portion of the class writing the Abel and Gauss math exams. Everyone seemed to feel good about the experience and we will look forward to find out more about the results! Congratulations to everyone who participated in the Caribou Cup! Hopefully you checked your final results already online.

Thank you to everyone in the class for helping to make both props and set pieces for our school musical! We made tissue paper flowers for our half hoops used during Division 5’s dance, and we are constructing more 3-D flowers for the Greek vases that will be displayed during the performance. We look forward to seeing you on May 18th! A reminder that all students need to come in costume and report to our classroom at 6:30 PM. Students must stay until the end at approximately 8:30, as there is a song performed as a whole school at the end of the show.

Tomorrow Lit Circle Projects are due EOD! Everyone has been doing a great job working in a group or independently to show their learning from the novel they read. We have dioramas, a picture book, a timeline, a PowerPoint, skits, and more. When you are done, please make sure to fill out the rubric to self-evaluate your project.

MACC MALL MAY 24th! On May 24th, we will have four-five classes visit us to purchase products students have designed! There are many creative products available such as origami decorations and planes, stress balls, parachute toys, gliders, marble mazes, bracelets, pencil holders, and more. Each student visiting our Mall will be given 20 tickets that represent money to purchase with, and at the end of our simulation, everyone will have to determine if they made money or not based on the supplies used and overall costs of operating a business.

Advertising: Today we looked at the ads people had brought in to class, and we talked about what makes a successful advertisement. We talked about what kinds of techniques are used to attract customers with ads, and how ads can sometimes be deceiving. We all pretended to be going on a trip to Hawaii, where we were going to rent a condo in Kihei using VRBO. Students had to answer how they would find a good place based on the advertisements available. We also discussed five top pieces of advice you would give to a consumer who is trying to find the best deal for the best quality product. Our own ads for our products will go up on May 19th.

End of Year Park Visit: Ms. D is still trying to make arrangements. Unfortunately, Confederation Park is not available on June 24, and there aren’t other dates we can meet up with Capitol Hill’s group. We are still looking at options. Currently, we don’t have enough drivers to take our class up to Confederation on that day, so please let me know if you are available, so I can make a decision on our plans. If we can’t go there, we may do a more local fun activity together.

Independent Project: Please visit the public library to find books on your topic! Ms. Ho, our librarian, has a list of all your topics, and she has been looking for books from other libraries to support our efforts. But, the best bet is to visit your public library and ensure you get a library card! Your project requires book resources.

Have a great night!

Congratulations to all participants in the Caribou Cup Contest this year!

Everyone can see their standings online now. They had posted a temporary listing on Thursday evening, but the final list is accurate now as of Saturday.

Happy Mother’s Day to all the moms in our MACC group!!

Also, don’t forget musical ticket orders due on May 11. Quiz tomorrow on unit topics.

See you tomorrow!

 

Hello Everyone!

Congratulations to the members of the track team in our class, as many received ribbons for their participation and efforts! 🙂  Good job!

Today we had a project work day. We are working on the following:

• Lit Circle Project: Students should have chosen a project from the list. They had the option of choosing an individual or group project. Our goal is to finish this project by May 13th, Friday. Please start brainstorming what you will do, and remember, use your book, as the project must show what you read in the novel!

• MACC MALL: Students are finishing their patent applications. Anyone with a stamp on their patent has permission to go ahead and begin working on the product. A list of prices for items is on the board in the classroom. Anything you use likely has a price, so make sure you check with Ms. D. Do not buy any new stuff. Only use recyclables or things you find, but nothing new or bought. Our first “product check in” will be May 12, Thursday. More work time tomorrow!

• Caribou Test: Tomorrow between recess and lunch, we will go to the computer lab for the Caribou Test. Please practice the interactive puzzle online.

• End of Year Project: Now that we have topics, our next step is to identify three areas of focus, eight key questions to answer, resources we will use to find out information, what our project to show our learning might look like, and how we will assess ourselves when it is done. Get a worksheet from Ms. D to detail all of this. Due Friday, May 6th.

• Musical May 18th: Remember that you will need to be at the musical from 6:30 – 8:30 on May 18th. We went over costumes in class. Please let Ms. D know by Friday if you have an issue with getting an item from your costume. Girls need flowing skirts or dresses; boys and musicians need white shirts, dark pants.

The blog has not been working well lately with regard to making comments, so if you need to reach me, please do email! Thank you and have a great night!