MS. DETERRA'S MAKER STUDIO

Today we began by working on our TED TALK and looking up evidence (facts) to back up our opinions. Students had time in class to work on support paragraph #1, and tonight they should work on support paragraph #2. Part of the criteria (they have a rubric) is supporting their position with persuasive arguments and facts, so ask them if they have done any research to find information that supports their position. The written speech is due on Monday, and we will have some more class time to continue working on it.

Later we worked on HOT WHEELS and INCLINED PLANES, doing running trials of hot wheels cars down inclined planes to find their speed. By the end of the day, most groups had recorded data from three trials, and then they will answer questions using math to find speed by dividing distance by time. r=d/t

We used our FRENCH vocabulary and sentences to begin making a PowerPoint presentation. Some students are new to this tool, so we spent a bit of time talking about what makes a good PowerPoint and what kinds of features the program has to play with as they construct a presentation. If your child does not have a USB, please have them bring it to school, as it is best to have a USB back up of documents worked on at school. Students are making a presentation to teach and test other students on the French vocabulary they have chosen. The presentation is due on Monday afternoon.

The Cariboo Math Test is coming up tomorrow — it runs over two days, so we will be going to the computer lab on Thursday morning to do the test as a group. The test must be done at school for it to count, as the contest site registers our school IP address and a teacher must be present during the testing. Last chance to purchase codes if you are in grade five is tonight!

Science Games money and permission forms filed online are due Friday. There are people on the wait list, so to secure your spot, please bring this in on Friday.

Homework also included two articles on social-emotional learning, How to Respectfully Disagree and How to Be Aware of Emotions. Today, during our cooperative work, some students had difficulty expressing their feelings and communicating their needs or wants. Please have a discussion at home about how valuable cooperative work can be and what strategies you can use when you disagree with someone. As I like to say in class, you can only control YOU, not what other people do. So, when someone is not doing what you want, or reacts to something you said, or says something that bothers you, then be a THINKER, be CARING and be OPEN MINDED. Think about what you can control and what you can do about the situation, not what you can make the other person do or about what you wish they would do. If you want others to care about things, you, too, must be caring about how you say things and how you work with others. Be open minded, that people, even with opinions and beliefs that are very different than yours, could also be right.

I also noted today that several students did not pick up the articles. If your child doesn’t have them, you may want to review how important the agenda and getting handouts is at the end of the school day.

Tuning In article booklets have been marked, and overall students did a good job. I went through and interviewed each student about the readings to find out if they felt the articles were too challenging, just right, or too easy. For most, the articles fell in the just right category. We also identified that articles from Science Alert (DNA, Stress), written at a grade 5/6 level, were preferred, as opposed to the articles from Eureka that are written at the grade 5-8 level (Ebola, Synthetic Blood). I was impressed with student reflections, questions, and their use of the glossaries included, or the internet, when they felt they did not know the meanings of words. We are still working on highlighting skills, focusing on not painting and only emphasizing the main ideas and key words.

Projects from Unit One are also completely marked. I wait until I have all of them done before handing them out, and I ask you to review them at home, sign, and return them to school. Overall, well done, everyone! If you have two marks on the sheet, I explained this means content from the project fell over two categories in the rubric. The first mark is the stronger of the two.

By the way, if you are sick or have a fever, please don’t feel badly about staying home. You are doing the right thing! You can email me, and if I can, I will send you assignments. Some can’t be sent as I work with hard copies, so when you return, I will give you copies we save for you. You can also have some extra time to catch up.

Please be safe out in the strong winds! I look forward to seeing you tomorrow.

Today we began by talking about the simple machine called the inclined plane! We involved some physics and math as we looked at the concepts of acceleration and velocity, and talked about how distance=rate x time. Tomorrow, we will be doing an experiment using inclined planes and hot wheel cars, racing them to determine their rate of speed and velocity over time. We will need to use past math skills of mean/average in order to find our data. We will also learn how to find the rate by using a stop watch and marking the distance traveled each second by the cars. Students were to complete their questions on acceleration for homework if not done already.

I reminded students that since we do not use textbooks, it is important to pay attention to the material I hand out in class and keep it safe in their binders. When we do projects, they can use this material directly to make their projects more interesting and add to their thinking. Also, part of being in the MACC program means we look at the curriculum with greater depth and complexity. Some of this depends on students taking the time to be deeper thinkers and to truly try and answer questions posed during class. It also means they should pay attention to adding detail on questions, so I can also hear or see their thinking! Thank you to everyone who is doing their best to be a THINKER in our class!

We also spent time this morning talking about our TED TALK project. I handed out a guideline sheet for writing a five paragraph essay, because really, a speech is like doing a five paragraph essay, with an introduction, supporting paragraphs, and a conclusion. Today, our goal was to write a solid thesis statement to express our opinion. In a speech for TED, we are not just doing a report on a topic, we are talking in a persuasive style. For example: I think art is an important part of the curriculum because it teaches fine-motor skills needed for future work, it allows students to learn things that could assist them in the many careers that need the arts, and it provides an outlet for self-expression and stress reduction. Students were asked to express an opinion and then follow it by three supporting ideas. Each of the three supporting ideas will become a paragraph in their essay. Ask your child to share their idea with you!

To further investigate how technology has an impact on our lives, students read from a variety of research books on different types of machines in communications, entertainment, transportation, medicine, and more. They looked for specific machines that have had an impact on our lives and took notes as needed. We also had a journal topic today: What would happen in your life if you did not have any technology (digital technology and electricity) from the time you wake up to the time you go to bed? I asked them to finish this one page entry for Monday.

As a reminder, some students have not been bringing their journals back to go in the green journal box, which means they may not receive marks for that work. Please look and make sure you have turned yours in!

To finish the day, we had PE and then read the book The Dot and did an art activity related to LINE and PERSPECTIVE — not the element of perspective, but being open to another person’s perspective. Each student drew six squiggles in their art book and other students came to change those lines into new things. This is a great perspective game to play when you are bored and waiting somewhere, as I explained to the students.

Please bring library books tomorrow for book exchange!

See the green notice regarding gift card fundraising for the school.

Caribou Math participants, tonight is the last night to purchase a code so you will be ready for the competition this week. The test runs on Wednesday and Thursday, and we will likely be doing it Thursday morning. Also be aware we will be going to the Young People’s Concert that afternoon.

Have a good night!

I will keep today’s update brief, as it is Friday and I am on my way out the door for the weekend! Let’s put it in point form:

• We looked at a variety of real tools today (some older ones you don’t see anymore) to identify the simple machines involved
• We went over last night’s homework about transition words and paragraph order
• We brainstormed an idea for our TED TALK which we will begin writing next week, as well as some criteria for how we will be assessed on our writing and speech
• Students completed their quizzes for French and/or agreed to complete them on the weekend by taking pics or printing off the quiz completion pages
• Everyone chose an area of vocabulary to focus on for a mini French project. Those who were in French Immersion should write a sentence for each word, and those who were not can write down the vocabulary on lined paper. Most students are done with this. I asked them to include the French articles of le, la, and l’ — we went over masculine and feminine noun concept today
• I assigned a Pulleys reading to be completed for Monday. Please bring any milk jugs, empty and clean you may have. I am in need of just 3 more.
• We had an assembly about Diwali — Happy Diwali everyone! And we tried some new Indian foods provided by the Suncrest community parents
• Students had an hour of music time with Mr. Wilson and had an assessment
• We had free choice, during which students caught up on French, built catapults, did some painting, and worked on individual projects, games or reading of choice.

Have a great weekend! See you Monday!

Today we began by reading a short article and having a discussion about the three types of levers. You can identify the type of lever by looking at the direction of the force/effort and load and the position of the fulcrum. I invite students to look at home and see if they can find examples of the three types!

Afterwards, students continued working on their catapult models, and then we did a group test session, launching marshmallows across the classroom. Congratulations to the group who had their marshmallow go the farthest! For all groups, we reviewed the engineering design process and reflected on what we would do differently next time. Some students have decided they enjoyed this so much they would like to continue building catapults during free choice time tomorrow with the supplies we have available.

Following recess, we went over some language arts skills to strengthen writing. First, we looked at some of the common symbols used when doing editing, which can be helpful when editing your own work or that of a peer student. This sheet will be kept in the unit binder as a reference. Second, we looked at transition words and phrases, which make writing flow more easily and connect ideas throughout a writing piece. For homework, students have two worksheets to finish which we began in class called Order, Order and Lost in Transition, for practice. We are working on writing skills to help with our TED TALK project, during which we will be writing a speech and presenting it on an idea of our choice. We watched a TED Talk by Sarah Kay today about spoken word poetry. See here for other TED videos appropriate for kids. Students were asked to watch one video for homework tonight.

Finally, we ended the day with music, finishing French quizzes, and open work time to catch up on things and organize our work binders. We also went over the fine arts rubric together, as I passed back some art projects. Students had the choice of taking the projects home or putting them in their black portfolios as records of our work.

Just a reminder to wear boots and/or coats — the weather is getting nasty and it has been cold, so dress appropriately!

See you tomorrow!

I hope everyone enjoyed their day off today, especially with the lovely weather we had!

I wanted to thank everyone for their contributions to our Remembrance Day Assembly on Tuesday November 10th, which went very well. Thank you to Kane, Daniel, Emma, Henry, Tove, and Amy for speaking in front of the whole school about both poppies and our art. Thank you to everyone for making the lovely poppies displayed around the gym. Some of these art pieces will be posted at the front of the school along with our Division 5 wreath of poppies made with the quilling technique. The rest of the poppies will soon be hung up in our classroom.

I had news from the Association of Professional Engineers that we will be able to have an engineer come by and do an activity with our class the week of November 25th, so that is great! More details as I receive them from the presentation’s organizer.

We completed our math projects on Tuesday and continued to work on French. We made a goal of having 10 French tests online completed by end of week, and everyone will have some more time tomorrow to work if needed.

We watched a movie by Disney Imagineers on Levers and Pulleys which explained how these simple machines work and how they are used in amusement park rides at Disneyland. Afterwards, Ms. D brought out a large wood plank and wood fulcrum and asked students to use this lever to lift her in the air. We discovered that by moving the fulcrum closer to the load, Ms. D, the amount of force or effort needed to complete the work of lifting an adult on the lever was reduced. Afterwards, students were provided with a set of supplies including hot glue, popsicle sticks, coffee stirrers, a spoon, paperclips, rubber bands and string, and were given 30 minutes to build a catapult using levers that would launch a marshmallow as far as possible. We will continue building on Thursday morning, and I asked everyone to please do research on catapults for ideas. We will further discuss the differences between first, second and third class levers tomorrow, as well.

Also due on Thursday are the technology positive and negatives worksheet, as well as the simple machines scavenger hunt. Scholastic orders are due Friday (and if you ordered before, the order is on its way.)

By the way, the reason I put the date in the post title is so that you know what day I am recapping in my post. WordPress, which I use to create the blogs, is housed on servers located on the east coast. Thus, when I am making an update for November 9 on the evening of November 9, it posts it for the next day, as on the east coast it is tomorrow. For that reason, please see the date in the title for the day I am talking about. I won’t post every day, so students should always refer to their agendas for homework, not the blog.

Have a great evening and see you tomorrow!

This morning students had open time to complete their math projects and ask any questions. If projects were completed, they had open time to complete french tests online, as 10 french tests need to be completed before end of week, when a mini-project on one vocabulary area will be assigned.

Everyone turned in their paragraphs all about the poppies and Remembrance Day, and I asked anyone interested in presenting for the assembly to read their paragraphs in front of the class. Of those who volunteered, I picked 6 students to read portions of their paragraphs at assembly. Everyone from class is being asked to dress nicely and preferably in black and white colours. We will all be going forward with our poppy paintings, the six speakers will present, and then we will turn our paintings over for all to see. We also made a poppy wreath for the assembly out of quilled paper, which two students will present tomorrow. I am looking forward to seeing our presentation as well as presentations from other divisions! Just a reminder that poppy donations are being collected tomorrow, so please bring in any donation you can contribute.

Today we also did a group activity designed to illustrate the connections between the machines and technology we use, ourselves, and the environment around us. Everyone was assigned a card with a title on it. Four students had SOIL, AIR, WATER and LIGHT (sun), and then everyone else had cards such as HUMANS, PLANTS, ANIMALS, FOOD, CLOTHING, SHELTER, STORES, RESTAURANTS, TRANSPORTATION MACHINES, FUEL, ELECTRICITY, FACTORIES, etc. One person received a ball of yarn, held on to an end, and then tossed the ball to another person in the circle who had a card with an item related to them (an example would be water tosses to electricity.) We kept doing this until we had quite the web of connections, and then I asked students to think and reflect on what this could mean for technology in our world. Everyone received an assignment to reflect by writing down 10 machines and putting their positive and negative impact on the world, which is due on Thursday.

Following this, we watched a short film on simple machines and discussed mechanical advantage and the equation for work = force (effort) x time. Each student received a sheet to do a scavenger hunt for simple machines at home. Tomorrow we will discuss LEVERS in more detail and do a hands-on activity I hope will be fun for everyone!

At the end of the day, we had some free choice time (as promised, since we were unable to do it on Friday), while some students finished their art projects in preparation for tomorrow’s assembly.

Have a great night! Reminders: No School On Wednesday, Library Books for Tomorrow, Poppy Money, and Scholastic Orders due Friday.

Just a short update as we are on the weekend!

Students have given themselves “homework” as assigned in their agendas for the Math Project. Each student has agreed with their partner to take on a portion of the project. Please refer to the rubric given to you for the project. A block of time will be given on Monday, and then the project is due on Tuesday. The assignment was to analyze your data from the survey, which you should be able to see online, by making a visual graph of your choice, finding the mean/median/mode/range of your data, and then writing a conclusion about your data that includes an explanation of how you analyzed it.

We continued our talk about simple machines, and students turned in a list of machines and notes about them from the National Geographic Machines Series read on Thursday and Friday. Students also worked on our large technology mural, which is a collage about items related to technology’s impact on us. Next week, we will be looking at technology’s impact on the world more closely and doing a variety of activities to investigate machines.

We also had an hour of music on Friday afternoon, and I believe everyone was working on ukeleles with Mr. Wilson. Mr. W reported the class went very well. Afterwards, the students worked to finish drawing and painting on our Remembrance Day contribution of poppy paintings. They are looking beautiful and a few students will need to finish painting on Monday. For homework, everyone was assigned a paragraph to write about “Why do we have poppies for remembrance day?” and “How did we make the art we completed?” The purpose of this is not only paragraph writing practice, but also to prepare a potential presentation for the assembly. Ms. D will choose the best paragraph to be presented during the assembly, as long as the student is willing to present aloud in front of the school. It is also an opportunity to reflect on the meaning of Remembrance Day prior to attending the assembly.

Happy Birthday to Naomi and thank you for bringing in cupcakes!

Due to paint clean up, we had to cut time from having free choice today, so Ms. DeTerra will allocate some time on Monday to free choice. Also, at our class meeting we will need to decide who will register as a team for the science games. Any student who wants to participate must be available on the day of the event, have a parent willing to attend with them, and be okay with the media release form (meaning being okay with having your picture taken and potentially used by the Association for publications in the future.) On Monday, be ready to discuss ways we can do this. Fingers crossed that our registration is accepted, too, as space is limited!

We started the day by discussing the machines we see all around us, starting with the kitchen! We identified the simple machines and then looked at several different kitchen tools to see what simple machines we could identify, including the wedge, pulley, inclined plane, lever, screw and wheel and axle. When identifying simple machines, we paid attention to the purpose of the tool we were looking at and identified how it makes work easier. By doing this, it made it easier to see which of the simple machines was involved. We also read a series of National Geographic books talking about different kinds of machines in the home, in sports, in health, and in construction, so we could further identify simple machines and understand how they work. For homework, students were asked to look at different versions of a can opener and “think like an engineer,” explaining why they think an engineer would have made that particular design for the machine.

After recess, we continued working on our surveys for the math assessment. Many are done with their surveys and are in the process of collecting the data from class members, parents or anyone else they care to survey! Next step is to use the rubric and make a graph for the data, identify the mean/median/range/mode of the data, and write an explanation about their data analysis. As a side benefit, students have been learning how to troubleshoot using an online application, how to use shortcut keys on the PC such as ctrl-V and ctrl-C, how to be clear in writing survey questions such that all can understand, and how to interact with people when taking a survey (for example, not leaning over them or making comments while they take the survey so as not to influence the person being surveyed.) The room was full of excited energy as they completed the project.

After music, students began work on an artistic presentation for our special assembly next November 10th for Remembrance Day. We looked up pictures of red poppies using our iPads and then drew large, zoomed in pictures of the flowers on 12×17 paper. Then, we went over the pencil with charcoal and used kleenex to help blend the black into the white space of our flowers. Tomorrow, those who are finished will be painting around the flowers using red, acrylic paint to emphasize the flowers using a bright colour and positive/negative use of space. We will hold these up and present them as part of the assembly. We also will make a wreath to be presented by two class members, and Emma and Shelley, from the Intermediate Choir at Suncrest, will be singing. I look forward to this solemn and important assembly.

Mr. P from Suncrest also came in today to announce there is a Chess Club that will meet at lunch on Fridays, probably starting next week. Stay tuned for announcements! Also coming up is a Diwali Celebration with the school and a notice went home explaining this. Finally, we are looking forward to the Young People’s Concerts coming up the week after next.

Have a great night!

Today was an exciting day of building and making. First, we introduced the new unit and talked about some of the things we will be doing. Then, everyone re-organized their blue binders and put some items they were proud of from unit one into their black portfolios, so we can keep track of our best work over time. Once all of the projects from the unit have been signed by parents, then they, too, will go into the black binder.

Then, I asked everyone to take a yellow sticky and put on it a quick explanation of whether or not technology has had a positive or negative effect on mankind overall. I created a chart for the board to post the sticky representing the spectrum of our opinions on this topic, with positive on the far right and negative on the far left. Some people felt it was both positive and negative, so their posting was in the middle. We will revisit our feelings on this topic at the end of the unit.

We then talked about how great inventions or technology get made and looked at some examples of products invented for the Olympics that took place here in Vancouver in 2010. We also talked about the engineering design process and reviewed how creative thinking occurs. Students were put in groups of two and given the task of building a structure that would be as tall as possible and still be able to support the weight of a small stuffy mouse in the classroom for 15 seconds. The constraints for the project (as we discussed this as part of the design process) involved time and materials (each person was allowed up to 100 index cards and 2 feet of masking tape.) The students created a plan together, showed it to Ms. D, then received their materials for building. They had to make many redesigns and adjustments, and kept testing their structures during the entire time. Everyone had a great time building and it was a good introduction to thinking about design, technology, and the creative thinking process, all of which will play a role in our learning during this unit.

Then I introduced the math assessment. Rather than doing a simple test, I provided students with an opportunity to show what they know while also learning how to do something new. We worked with Survey Monkey, one of many survey making sites that is free, and they created surveys to use with the class and people they know. They are tasked with finding the mean, median, range and mode of the data they collect, as well as making a graph and writing a quick explanation for their data. A rubric was provided for assessing this application of math knowledge. They received time today for working, and tomorrow we will continue, as it may take until Friday to finish.

Finally we did some great running and a game of California Kickball during PE. One of the things we are really working on is cooperative play and learning how to be competitive without being negative or argumentative toward others. We reviewed the rules together carefully, and Ms. D had to play referee closely during the game. It seemed people were enjoying the game and we may continue it on Monday in the gym.

I look forward to continuing the conversation tomorrow! If any of your children ask you to do their survey, I hope you will oblige them, as it will give them more results to tally later for their project. Many thanks for your support! And thank you to the students and Ryan’s Dad for helping me lug things into the classroom this morning, as I am beginning to collect many supplies for this unit!

Have a great night!

Hello everyone,

Today we finished up our unit projects and submitted them with their rubric. We also did a final unit reflection, which some people still needed to finish for tomorrow.

Per students’ request, I did a little bit of Spanish today by writing the schedule in Spanish and teaching them the parts of the body in Spanish. We also had some quick discussion about all the different languages in our room — Chinese (Mandarin & Cantonese), French, Romanian, Arabic, Korean, Spanish, and English. We did some comparisons of how languages sound by counting from 1-10 in everyone’s different languages. We also talked about how the mouth, teeth, and tongue work differently to produce sound depending on the language. In English, the mouth is more loose, French/Spanish require more tension in the cheeks and less of a loose chin, and when speaking Chinese the mouth does not open very far to produce sounds.

We also did some language arts work by looking at word origins. We brainstormed a list of difficult words to spell from our last unit. (It also gave Ms. D a chance to review some words that she found in student work. For example, the difference between their, there, and they’re.) Everyone chose five words and then looked them up using the iPads for origin, roots, the language the word comes from, and prefix or suffix meanings.

In Math we reviewed probability through a final game of Deal or No Deal. Tomorrow there will be an assessment, as mentioned before.

Library was today, and students had quite a few overdue books. As a reminder, please ensure books are brought back on Tuesdays for either renewal or return. All four books checked out must be brought back before any new books can be taken from the library. Please put a digital reminder or agenda note for yourself to help remember your books on Tuesdays!