Category: General Update

Happy Thanksgiving! Thursday, Oct. 4th Update

Hello Everyone!

Sorry for the delay in putting up a post, as it has been a crazy, exciting week full of learning and special visitors or events!

DEVELOPING OUR MEDICAL EXPERTISE, UNIT WORK:

Everyone is done with their letters to the Human Body Corporation, and it was a great opportunity to learn about:

  • Time-management skills and using class time appropriately
  • Using our laptops, Google Drive, and Microsoft Word to type
  • Specific information about an organ of the body and how it works with the other systems,
  • How to find information and take notes while using non-fiction books and internet sites,
  • How to write a business letter successfully, and
  • What makes an effective public speaker!

Ms. D enjoyed hearing the first of our letters today, and tomorrow we will continue hearing more from the various organs of the body who are complaining about the Human Body Corporation’s plans to lay off employees! 

***I noticed during this activity some students need to practice their typing. May I suggest everyone take the time to practice BBC Dance Mat Typing at home, doing all of the levels? Students need to learn to type with two hands. The “hunt and peck method” just takes too long, and this will help them speed up their work process in class.

***I also noticed some students get easily distracted by noise. You are welcome to bring noise-cancelling headphones or use the earbuds, which are important to have for class, to listen to music if that helps you focus.

Now, we are learning about microbes, pathogens, diseases, and the immune system, including what we can do to protect ourselves from getting sick! Yesterday, we played a fun game called “Catch the DZ” in class to see what it is like to be an epidemiologist trying to figure out why a particular population is contracting a disease. Students were asked to read two articles on immunity and pathogens before Friday as we continue to talk about this topic.

Last week, Patricia’s grandfather came in to speak with us about his work as a neurologist, and we learned some amazing facts about the anatomy of the brain! Thank you to Patricia and her family for helping us make that connection! After Thanksgiving, next Friday, we will have a group of Community Health nurses coming to make a presentation about their roles in helping educate others about how to stay healthy!

MATH:

Continuing our work on Crunching the Data, we worked on median, mode, mean, and range and talked about how these can help us find the data that is most “representative” of an answer to a question we could ask in a survey or data-gathering experiment!

Students are also learning about and can practice at home:

  • How to read decimals and place values appropriately (tenths, hundredths, thousandths),
  • How to add, subtract, and multiply decimals (and divide, for those who are ready), 
  • How to represent parts of whole using decimals, fractions, or percents, and
  • How to use fractions to represent the chance of something happening, or the probability.

Tonight students are working on some probability questions for 15 minutes only. Tomorrow, we are going to play a version of Deal or No Deal to practice our fractions and probability thinking. Here are some websites you can use to practice the things we are doing in class, only if you need it:

Your Median/Mode/Mean handout should have been finished by now. The Graphing Handout has been marked and turned in. Please check your red math folder. We are also keeping math notes as we go in our JOURNALS.

FRENCH!

Today, we started up our French program. We will be doing French typically twice a week for thirty minutes on Monday and Thursday, although sometimes more often. 

French Immersion Students are currently working in the book Eureka Le corps humain by Scholastic. It is all in French and the exercises, experiments, and questions are all in French. Students will be reading the text, responding to questions, and writing answers in French in their journals. During the year, Ms. D will be looking for texts to connect with our units and that are written, like this one, at the grade 4/5 French level. Lucky for us, the District Library has some French Immersion resources to use! Up next, some readers on a variety of cool science topics! Thank you to the French Immersion students for diving into this work today.

All other students will be working on Core French through three resources:

  • Web Resources: Students need to practice saying their French alphabet and be able to say it to me by the end of October with correct pronunciation. You can practice it here.   We will also be reviewing basic numbers in French, the body parts, and foods. To do this, we will be using French-Games.net which has minimal ads and does a good job of organizing lessons. Students may do more than the assigned sections if they wish. They will go through all parts of the lessons using earbuds in class. Then, they take the online quiz during class time and show it to me when done.
  • Book Resource, Activie 1 Bonne Collation, Bonne Nutrition: This book will provide us with basic French phrases and prompts around food and health related to our unit. Again, the idea is we will be quizzed on aspects of this by the end of October/early November.
  • Book Resource, Activie 1 Au Jeu: This book will provide some basic conversational French phrases for us to practice together in class.

Students will be taking notes in their journals about French and can study this at home.

FREE CHOICE FRIDAY:

If you would like to share a game with your peers, please bring a board game to school tomorrow. It will need to be a game with a shorter timeframe, not Monopoly or Settlers of Catan, as those games are much too long for our Free Choice time. The idea is to observe and to play some new games as inspiration for our end-of-unit game project coming up soon.

CARIBOU CONTEST:

The past two years, we have participated in the Math Contest called Caribou. The first competition is for free for all students, and it takes place at school (must be done from a school computer) on October 18th and 19th. After the first competition, students in grade four may continue for free; however, grade five and up pay a fee. We will all participate in the first competition, and you can go to the website to practice and learn about the competition details prior to the competition!

This competition is completely optional after the first one. We do not use the results or work on this competition in any way toward marks for students. We do this for fun only!

FSA:

We will begin the grade four only FSA process tomorrow. Should you want to practice, please do so here. You will need your PEN that I provided to you in class.

HAVE A GREAT THANKSGIVING WEEKEND!!!!!

Ms. D

 

Google Accounts and Responsible Technology Use

Dear Parents:

Thank you to Hong, Ashley, and Kathy who came with us to Science World! I look forward to the next trip together! Thank you also to Ms. Geddes and her class who came with us!

Each student has received school credentials to access a Burnaby School District Google Drive account. We will learn how to use this tool to produce and share work in our class. 

Please discuss these points about technology at home to help students use tools responsibly:

  • All technology activity for school is monitored and responsible use is important. Please remember you have signed a District Digital Media agreement detailing responsible use. 
  • All work for class is done on Burnaby Google accounts please, not personal Google accounts.
  • Technology is for school use, not personal use. Please stay focused on the task your teacher has given you and avoid using devices for other purposes. 
  • School Google accounts do not have chat or email. We do not use Google accounts for chatting back and forth, except when sharing a document and editing it together for class work.
  • Please use positive language and respect when communicating with technology.
  • Talk as a family about technology safety at home. I recommend having technology devices in open areas of the home where everyone can see what you are working on. 
  • If you have questions or concerns about what you are viewing online, stop and talk to an adult. Only use websites and tools you can understand and that are appropriate for you.
  • Monitor how long you are on a device and put it away at least a half hour before bed to avoid problems with sleep.
  • When using earbuds, please monitor volume. If you can’t hear people around you, or if we can hear what you are listening to, then the volume should be turned down.
  • Should you receive any inappropriate messages or have concerns about technology, please tell Ms. D immediately and she will help you.

Thank you in advance for discussing these things with your child. They will be talked about repeatedly during the year, and with reinforcement at home, Google Drive can be a positive way for us to share ideas and produce creative work together.

​Kindly,

Ms. D

Becoming Human Body Experts! September 26

Hello Everyone!

I hope you enjoyed your three-day weekend! TEDEdx in West Vancouver was amazing, and I spent Saturday hearing from interesting speakers around the theme “IMAGINE,” such as Dr. Santa Ono from UBC! Teachers need to keep learning, too!

Unit:

Students are working on becoming experts on one organ of the human body. Everyone has chosen a wide-range of body parts! Today we focused on finding our research in physical books, and Ms. D reviewed some skills related to non-fiction reading and researching, such as:

  • what kinds of things we would put down in our notes (key ideas, in our own words, interesting facts), 
  • how to cite our resources, looking for title, author, publisher, and copyright date,
  • how to use the table of contents and index to find information in the book, instead of reading the whole thing, and
  • how to look for headings, sub-headings, diagrams, the glossary, and other key words in bold that can help you find information.

We went over business letter format on the board on Friday, so you have a copy of a letter we did together in your journal. Everyone also received a handout explaining the Human Body Corporation project and showing the criteria to do well. Please keep this in your binder so you will have it to refer to and to evaluate yourself at the end! Letters will be due on Tuesday, Oct. 3rd.

We also did a BLOOD TYPES lab today, as we talked more specifically about what is in blood and what the main eight blood types look like. We discussed antigens, RH factor +/-, platelets, plasma, red blood cells, and white blood cells. During the lab, we used food colouring to simulate how blood types react to one another and to discuss how it is important to have the right type for a transfusion!

Please finish the blood type handout questions 1-4 from our lab if not done already. Then, play the Blood Typing game at home! (works best on a laptop/desktop, rather than mobile device.)

MATH:

Continuing our work on CRUNCHING THE DATA, we reviewed what we had learned so far and talked about how statistics may be used to find out information about a group of people so diseases can be best researched and treated. We defined four more words related to data: median, mode, mean, and range! Then we applied them during a fun activity of analyzing Smarties in boxes received by our classmates! If you didn’t finish the yellow handout for this, you can have a bit of time tomorrow. Remember, if you didn’t understand the percentages section, then please hang on and come back to it after we have talked more about percentages in class. If you know how to do it, though, go for it!

Ms. D has noticed we need to do some more talking about division and decimals. We will be covering this in class, but you are also welcome to practice some at home. I often use these websites if you want to take a look. TOTALLY OPTIONAL! If you are having trouble with division as we move on (division without a calculator) then do practice your multiplication tables to ensure you are able to quickly recall answers. This can help with division a lot!

Other NEWS:

  • LIBRARY TOMORROW: Our regular day for library will be Wednesday.
  • PE: Our regular days for PE will now be Monday, Wednesday, and Friday mornings before recess.
  • Music: Music will always be on Tuesday and Thursday mornings
  • Field Trip!! Please be here at 8:50 AM on time to load onto the bus. We will return no later than 2:45 PM. Thank you to our volunteers who are helping! Students need to bring a water bottle, light jacket, bag lunch, and a snack. Please don’t bring valuables or money as we will not have time to get food at the cafe during our visit.
  • NOTICES: Please get in all of the notices for the school as soon as possible so they can be sent in to the office.
  • PAC MEETING: Please note the PAC Meeting for Sept. 27th has been cancelled and a new date will be posted soon on the PAC website
  • FSA TESTS: A notice will be going home for grade four students about the upcoming FSA, so please look for this tomorrow.
  • PEN PAL LETTERS: If you haven’t turned your second letter to your pen pal in to Ms. D, please do so tomorrow!

Have a great evening!

Ms. D

Becoming Medical Researchers! Sept. 22nd Update

Hello Everyone!

What a great week! It was nice to meet with everyone’s parents, and I hope you all have a great three-day weekend!

Ms. D is headed to an exciting conference on Saturday — TEDEdX West Vancouver! I hope to hear tons of awesome ideas about teaching and meet up with many exciting, innovative educators in the Lower Mainland!

Today, we each agreed to become medical specialists and do research on a particular organ. We must prove to the HUMAN BODY CORPORATION (as the company may be laying off employees soon) that we are indeed essential to the human body! Each of us will write a business letter to the Corporation explaining how our organ works with other members of its system, as well as the other body systems, and why it is important. We will have lots of time next week for research, but if anyone wants to get started now, you are welcome. It is not required. Please take notes as you go and cite where you find your information.

**If you have not yet finished the Body Systems Packet, there won’t be any more time in class, so please finish it for Tuesday. Most of you are done already!

We will need this specialized information on the body so we can diagnose some mystery diseases as a group in the future. I look forward to seeing the Human Body IMAX movie at Science World next week, which should provide everyone with great information about how the systems work together as a team. Field Trip on Thursday, September 28th! 

In Math today, we talked about why people need fractions, how fractions are used in probability, and what people would do to double recipes using fractions. We will keep practicing these things, so don’t worry if some of what we did was difficult. We are currently working on handouts to further our understanding of data management, reading graphs, making tallies, and organizing data. This will help us as we gather data about germs and bacteria in the school!

**Don’t forget to get your notices in! Here’s everything that should be returned:

  • Young Peoples’ Concerts Pink Form — due Sept. 29
  • Blue Mature Reads Form from Ms. Ho, our librarian at Suncrest – due Wed
  • Student Permission & Information Blue/Pink/Green/Yellow forms in a packet – due ASAP please so they don’t get lost

Thank you for your help with all the forms!

Have a great weekend!

Ms. D

Happy Friday September 15th!

Hello Everyone!

We have had a great week! People are starting to really get into their routines and we are starting to dive into our first unit.

Here are some quick reminders of dates and important notices going home:

  • ​Parent Meetings Sept. 20/21: Please return blue forms by Monday. 
  • Early Dismissal on September 20th, Wednesday 2:00 PM
  • Late Start on September 21st, Thursday, 9:55 AM: Mark calendar!
  • Field Trip Notice Sept. 28th Science World Trip: Due Sept. 20
  • Yellow Student Verification Forms:​ Check info, due Sept. 22nd
  • Professional Development Day / No School on September 25th, Monday
  • Work Not Finished: Math Fractions Pg 1, Letter for Cap Hill Student due Mon.
  • TERRY FOX: The Terry Fox run is coming up soon! Students will start collecting money for Terry on Monday.

MATH:

This week we have finished our math assessments, and Ms. D will communicate the results to parents next week. We began our unit Crunching the Data! Students worked with a partner to do a survey of their fellow classmates and then report the results in an interesting way on a visual graph. This was a great way for Ms. D to see: our data gathering abilities, our sense of how to organize data, our ability to work with a partner collaboratively, and our understanding of graphs and how they are presented.

We also talked about probability and played some games to get started. Today we continued with some “unfair” dice games and had to explain why they are not fair. Students often say that things are unfair, but this gave them a chance to explain why in words. We also began working on fractions, as we will be doing the conversions of fractions to decimals to percentages. The exercises presented are called “high ceiling / low floor” meaning some students will be working on beginning understandings of fractions, while others will stretch their understandings to percents, operations involving fractions, and other math for statistics.

UNIT:

Our unit focus statement is: Our personal choices play a role in the interconnected system of the human body. The key concepts we will discuss are SYSTEMS and CAUSE & EFFECT. Ms. D introduced the Universal Systems Model involving input, process, output, and feedback. We explored how the human body is a SYSTEM and then talked about how the universal systems model can apply to other things. What are the parts of the SPACE system? How is a GROCERY STORE a system? How is a ZOO a system? In partner groups, students made their own models in their journals of different systems.

We watched a video on nutrition and the digestive system, Ms. D talked about how she doesn’t have a gall bladder and explained what it does! Students did some creative pre-assessment drawings of human anatomy, and now we are using the posters, iPads, and book resources available in the classroom to figure out the parts we may have missed! Today Ms. D led everyone in the HOT AIR EXPERIMENT where students determined their lung capacity using a milk jug, plastic tubing, water, and a straw! You can do this at home and the instructions are in the unit packet. Also included are two optional activities.

CONGRATS BRIAN on trying out the egg experiment which explores how acids work in your stomach!

JOURNALS and DAILY WORK:

We each have a composition book, and it will be used this year for taking unit notes, writing down reflections on our work, sharing thoughts with Ms. D, and recording learning activities. Sometimes Ms. D will ask to see specific tasks and provide students with a check plus, check, or check minus to show if they are on track. Please try to keep up with daily work and complete journal tasks. If you receive a check or check plus and want an upgrade, just re-do it or add detail, then show it to Ms. D the next day. If you take the journal home, remember to return it to school. 

CONGRATS to SHERMAN today for receiving the first check plus plus for amazing thinking on universal systems!

PEN PALS AT CAP HILL!

Everyone has been assigned a pen pal from Ms. Geddes’ class at Capitol Hill — this is the other MACC 4/5 class in the District. Ms. D and Ms. G will be collaborating on several projects this year. We hope this is a great opportunity to meet a friend from across the District and to practice personal letter writing.

Letters and envelopes need to be finished on Monday.

PARTICIPATION RUBRIC:

In grade 4/5 we have letter marks given to us on the report card. Sometimes, these letter marks come from specific big projects and quizzes (usually at the end of units). There are a lot of activities in MACC, however, that don’t have a specific mark given to them. We are sometimes so busy learning, it is hard to give every activity a mark. So, we develop a participation rubric for MACC together. Today we discussed what the letter marks really mean in MACC and how you know if you are being the best participant in your learning.

Here is the Participation and Work Habits Rubric 2017, which you can discuss at home. Ms. D has put it in language teachers, parents, and students can understand, with input from the students. Each year, students seem to truly know what makes a successful student. We use this rubric to guide our daily interactions and learning.

HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND! See you next week!

Ms. D

September 12th Update! & Approach to Math

Hello Everyone!

We had another great day in MACC, and we are starting to get into some routines!

Schedules:

Just so everyone knows, the schedules in the school for music, library, and gym have not yet been finalized, so we have a temporary schedule until then. When it is all set, I will publish a class calendar. This week: Music on Monday/Thursday; Gym on Tuesday/Friday; Library on Tuesday.

Essential Agreements:

Today we talked about the difference between the rules of the school and classroom and essential agreements. While rules are given to you to follow for the safety and organization of everyone, agreements are what we ALL agree to do to make our community a better place. Here are our essential agreements, as given by the students, so far:

  • Respect others and their things
  • Help people when they need it
  • Be kind and caring to one another
  • Disagree with ideas, not people
  • Use appropriate language
  • Don’t judge people
  • Be honest
  • Be responsible
  • Listen carefully
  • Better late than never (referring to turning in work)
  • Think positively and encourage others

We will review these again over the next two weeks and ensure they work for us!

Mathematics:

We are still finishing math assessments, but today we took a break from those to start our new unit of math. We will have five larger units of math that are connected with our inquiry units. Our first is called Crunching the Data! During this unit we will discuss data gathering, graphs, probability, fractions, decimals, and percentages as related to analyzing information through numbers.

The math in our class will be taught through hands-on activities that have a high ceiling and a low floor design — meaning everyone can be involved regardless of level, applying mathematics while still acquiring all math curriculum from grade 4/5 and beyond. After we finish the assessments, then I can see if anyone will need additional challenge beyond our applied math activities and projects. We will briefly talk about this during our parent intake meetings on Sept. 20/21.

Today I gave everyone a task to see how they could handle their data! We will work on it today and tomorrow. With a partner, students were asked to:

  1. Create a survey question(s) to ask every member of the class and Ms. D.
  2. Make sure it is an interesting question that we want to know about. Make sure it does not involve a yes/no answer and that people can give a variety of responses.
  3. On the large graph paper provided, create a visual graph of your choice (bar graph, pictograph, line graph, pie chart, etc.) that will display the data in an interesting way. You may organize the data in a way you think will be the most interesting to the class. Make sure you include all the proper parts of a graph.
  4. If you are able, include on the graph the percentage of the class who responded for each answer to your survey. If you don’t know how to do this, that is okay, and just show what you do know.

Gym and Library!

We had our first session in both the gym and the library today!

For gym, we talked about how our focus will be discussing how physical activity helps the body, heart health, and some yoga as related to mindfulness, de-stressing, and balance. On gym days, please make sure you have a water bottle, extra shirt, and running shoes. Sandals and outside boots don’t work well for running. The water bottle means you will have water during class and not have to run to the water fountain. An extra shirt is important so you have the option to change if you are sweating a lot from our activities.

For library, we learned about how to check out books and rules of the library space. Students at grade 4/5 may check out 4 books at a time, and they need to physically bring them back each week on our library day, even if they want to renew them. (If students need books for an assignment that Ms. D has given, extras are allowed, but only when we are doing research projects.) Ms. Ho will be providing a letter for parents about the mature reads in the library in the next couple of weeks. If you read at a high level, you will need permission from parents to check out mature reading books that are typically reserved for grade seven students due to some sensitive material.

Unit Question:

Thank you everyone for doing the human body brainstorm last night! Everyone received their first homework mark and we went over the “checks system” together. Remember to bring your journal back to school each day.

Tonight’s task is to ask your family about their medical history, which means asking at home if parents have had any operations, illnesses, or broken bones, etc. This task is not meant to collect information to share out loud in class, and it does not need to be written down if anyone is uncomfortable about the information being shared. The task is to create conversation between parents and children about past medical experiences. Please only share what you feel comfortable sharing. Ms. D shared a personal experience of having her gall bladder removed, as it was an opportunity to talk about organs in the digestive system and how you can live without one of them!

Reminders:

  • Save the Date: Sept. 20-21 Parent Intake Conferences
  • Pro-D Day/No School on Sept. 25th Monday
  • Save the Date: Sept. 28 Field Trip to Science World with MACC 4/5 Cap Hill
  • PAC Notice went home tonight
  • Cross-Country Running Team Notice went home tonight (only those who went to Monday’s lunch meeting and returned forms to be on the team)

Thank you everyone!

Good night!

Update September 11th: Beginning a new unit!

Hello Everyone!

NEW UNIT:

As mentioned in my beginning of year information, we will approach the curriculum with larger, trans-disciplinary, conceptual-based units that allow us to not only touch upon all requirements for grade 4/5, but also allow us to pursue depth and complexity in the subject areas.

 

Each unit has a unit focus statement to organize the BIG IDEAS we are learning. Our first unit is called BODY WORKS, and the statement is: 

Our personal choices play a role in the interconnected system of the human body.

During the unit, we will talk about these areas which will touch upon areas of the curriculum in Science, Socials, PE/Health, Math, Career Education, Language Arts, and French:

  • The systems of the body and how they work together
  • Diseases and how they impact our community
  • How the body defends itself against disease
  • The factors and strategies that contribute to healthy immunity and well-being
  • Crunching Data: How we gather and analyze data to tell us information we need to stay healthy
  • How art and mindfulness practices are related to mental and physical well being
  • Beginning French & French words for the human body

STARTING THE UNIT:

Today we introduced the unit and how it will work. Students did a pre-assessment activity to see what they already know about the human body by drawing life-size posters of classmates and seeing what parts of the body systems they could identify without looking at books or the web. We have some entertaining posters in the classroom! 🙂

We also began working with our composition notebooks, which will serve throughout the year as a place to reflect, to put down notes about the unit, to do brainstorms, and to record our thinking. These notebooks will go home every night, but should be brought back with you every day. Everyone had to create a cover page, and for tonight, finish a HUMAN BODY brainstorm. Please fill page 2 with all words you can think of related to the human body!

Tomorrow, we will continue our talk about the body systems!

READING AROUND THE WORLD:

As part of their Language Arts Reading marks, students are required to do 20 minutes of reading a night. If they choose, they can participate in the Reading Around the World program. They were given a green duotang today with the information about the program, including a letter explaining how it works. Here are some highlights:

  • There is a book listed in your packet for each country of the world, organized into six continent groups.
  • Sometimes there is a specific book to read, but many times it will say “any book” — it really is any book! Not necessarily anything to do with the country name next to the prompt.
  • As you finish books, you can write them on the list or record them on a piece of notebook paper. Parents can initial to say it was completed.
  • If you are not allowed to read a certain book or have absolutely NO interest in reading the book suggested, tell me another book you would like to use to replace it. I am flexible.
  • Finish a continent, receive a prize, recognition on the blog, and a post-it on the wall calendar in my room.
  • Finish all the continents, then get a free lunch with Ms. D in late June.

REMINDERS:

  • Do the brainstorm in your composition book for tonight. If you don’t have a composition book, please get one soon.
  • Thank you to everyone for turning in the parent questionnaires! They are all in!
  • Thank you to everyone who brought supplies! We really appreciate it!
  • First gym class tomorrow, so be sure to bring runners you can move in AND a water bottle so we don’t have to stop and keep going out for water in the hallway.
  • Parent Conferences Sept. 20/21: Save the date! Notice to come soon!
  • Field Trip on September 28th: Save the date! We are going all day with Ms. Geddes class (the other MACC 4/5 class in North Burnaby) to Science World to study the human body. Notice to come soon!

Have a great night!

Ms. D

Great First Week! MACC Update Friday September 8

Hello Everyone! Thank you for a great first week! Enjoy some pics of our first-day photo booth throughout this entry!  Scroll down to the end for Monday reminders.

Showing Our Creativity: Ms. D has been giving everyone opportunities to show their creativity and thinking as I get to know you. We made creations out of playdoh, completed thinking and math puzzles, did the toothpick challenge, and came up with creative names for jobs in our classroom! We do these things for FUN and to practice our creative and critical thinking skills throughout the year.

Roller Coasters!: Everyone finished roller coasters on Thursday, and then we walked around to test the creations and evaluate them for points. Great work! This activity was an example of the many science things we will do this year, as well as an opportunity to collaborate, getting to know peers who will be our colleagues on many projects this year!

 

Music: Thank you to everyone who participated by either singing or playing instruments during the special assembly on Thursday! I was impressed that some students new to our school and to MACC were willing to go in for extra practices during lunch to be part of Ms. Hetrick’s instrument group. Way to go! That was a great example of being a risk-taker.

Learner Profile: Ms. D has a poster with words that represent the characteristics of a successful learner. To be a lifelong learner, you should work on being knowledgeable, a good communicator, open-minded, principled, caring, an inquirer, a thinker, reflective, balanced, and a risk-taker.

 

We had groups do short skits to show our understanding of those words, which are tied to the B.C. Core Competencies in the curriculum. The competencies are a fancy way of saying lifelong skills that help you become the BEST person you can be in all things you do!

Comfort Circle: We talked about how everyone needs to have a GROWTH MINDSET by doing a comfort circle activity. The comfort zone is the place where you are on a couch, reading a book, drinking a soda, playing video games, or doing comfortable activities. The growth zone is the place where you are a little uncomfortable, but you can do it! The panic zone is the place where you are very uncomfortable and the adrenaline is pushing through your body!

Sometimes it is okay to be in our comfort zone, and we need to know the things that can calm us down during stressful times. When we are learning, though, we need to push ourselves into the growth zone, because we learn more if we have a bit of discomfort from doing something new. But, we also don’t want to go too far. If we are in the panic zone and feeling fear, our brains shut off and emotions take over.

In MACC, you may feel a bit of discomfort! Before, you may have felt like most class work was easy or that you needed a challenge. That is why you chose to be in MACC! However, you have to be willing to be a little uncomfortable. You may not see the answer to something on the first try, but that’s okay, just keep experimenting, take risks, try things out, and be willing to work with your peers to figure it out! You will get there, just maybe not right away. Don’t give up! Be willing to accept that you don’t know everything, but that you can learn something new if you try! Each of us has different strengths, so understand each activity will feel different according to your abilities. We have to learn to appreciate one another’s strengths and have resilience! If you feel something is difficult, instead of saying “I can’t” or “I don’t get it” — try saying, “I will get it if I try, if I practice, if I watch and learn from my peers!”

Math Assessments: Everyone began math assessments Thursday, and we are still working through them. Next week you will see a blog entry with more details about our first unit together, as well as information about how we will approach math this year.

Art: We did some ZENTANGLE doodling together to make bookmarks for class! You can look this up on Google and find many designs or YouTube videos on how to do more complicated zentangles. We discussed how drawing repetitive designs like these can be a great way to get the mind to relax so you stress less. Sometimes the best creative ideas appear when we allow the brain to daydream and relax. Also, we can use repetitive doodling when we need to be listening, but we need something for our hands to do!

Fidgets: We discussed how Ms. D has a collection of fidgets in the classroom for use during listening times. However, we all agreed last year, that a fidget is a TOOL not a TOY. There are some rules we created as a class last year, such as:

  • Fidgets cannot disrupt discussion by making repetitive noises.
  • No throwing around of fidgets; they need to stay in your own personal space
  • Once you choose a fidget, please don’t get up to switch it with another one
  • If we are doing an activity requiring you to listen in a group of 2-3, no fidgets
  • If we are doing a hands-on activity where you need your hands, no fidgets
  • If you have a fidget at the table, do it under the table to not distract anyone
  • You have the right to say someone’s fidget is bothering you so they can stop
  • You can bring in your own fidget, but put a name on it and show it to Ms. D
  • Do not leave your own fidgets around class anywhere, or Ms. D may say not to bring it again and keep it in her drawer for you until end of day

Free Choice!  Every Friday, unless we have a big project we are working on, we will have Free Choice Time! We had our first one and everyone enjoyed the many games available in the classroom. During this time you can: draw, do some art, fold origami, build something, play games with friends, create games, continue working on a project you are interested in, and more. Ms. D is open to ideas about how you want to use this time. Thanks to those of you who played Sushi-Goh with Ms. D today!

REMINDERS: For Monday, here are some reminders:

  • Letters to Ms. D and Supplies due Monday 
  • Parent Questionnaires and Social Media Consent Forms overdue. Please return ASAP. Forms are on the Notices and Forms Page.
  • Bring jackets and appropriate outside footwear every day. Even if it is raining, you will likely go outside for recess and lunch.
  • Please minimize trash in lunches. Pack out what you pack in, so we can keep our classroom clean. Avoid peanuts/tree nuts as some students have allergies.
  • Heads Up: First field trip on September 28th, Thursday. Notice coming soon!

Have a GREAT WEEKEND! 

Ms. D

Our First Full Day! What a great group!

 

Hello Everyone!

It feels like we did a LOT today! Thank you for your hard work!

Here’s a small picture of our activities together:

 

CLASS MEETING: We had our first class meeting, and Ms. D talked about how class meetings are mainly for talking about the cool things everyone wants to do! We are open-minded to new ideas and suggestions of activities or things we should try, and all of this can be discussed during class meeting.Your MACC experience will be as fantastic as YOU want to make it! Be thinking about what you want to get out of this year!

Together, we played a group game of JENGA, we cheered on each participant, and we managed to all take out a block without having a huge crash! Our year will be about doing things together, collaborating, supporting one another in our learning, and having fun!

TENZI!!!: This term, as we work on math involving fractions, probability, decimals, percentages, data, graphing, and more, we will be doing so through collaborative projects, group discussion, and games. Today, each person was given a tray and ten dice to play speed thinking and math games with new classmates. Have you played TENZI before? All you need are ten dice and you can do it at home!

READ ALOUD, Escape from Mr. Lemoncello’s Library by Chris Grabenstein: We are going to be doing a read aloud of this book in connection with our coming unit and math discussions about games. It has lots of great puzzles and riddles in it that we can solve as a class. Students also had the opportunity to peruse the many books in Ms. D’s library!

ROLLER COASTER ENGINEERING: The Fantastic Amusement corporation challenged the group to build an entertaining roller coaster for their amusement park! Today’s task was to draw up a plan, make a budget for purchasing resources, and build a prototype in the classroom using marbles. The extra challenge was the coaster had to be built with a million dollar budget. Don’t go over! Foam tubes, marbles, toothpicks, and masking tape had to be purchased from the master supplier (Ms. D). Points were given for different features and knowledge of roller coasters. For example, a loop was 5 points, turns were 1 point, spirals were 4 points, and knowing about potential and kinetic energy on your track was 5 points. Eight tracks are built in the classroom! We will continue the project and evaluate the coasters tomorrow morning.

MUSIC: Everyone met Ms. Hetrick our music teacher, and she prepared them for our special assembly tomorrow, which is an annual treat to welcome everyone to school. This is for students only, as we need all the space in the gym, but it is an amazing way to come together with all the other Suncrest classes.

MATH ASSESSMENTS: As mentioned in my beginning of school information, I will begin doing assessments of students’ math skills, possibly as early as tomorrow. During the upcoming parent meet and greet conference in September, I will communicate how those went, so you are aware.

LETTERS, NOTICES, SUPPLIES:

  • A reminder that the letter back to Ms. D is due on Monday, Sept. 11th.
  • The information from parents is due on Friday, September 8th.
  • Please bring all supplies by Monday, September 11th.

HAVE A GREAT EVENING!  🙂

Welcome Everyone! Great First Day!

Hello Everyone!

Well, here we go with another year of grade 4/5 MACC! Please do check the blog for updates. Some quick notes from today:

Parent Notices: Your child went home with a letter from our new principal, a classroom packet from Ms. D, a parent questionnaire, and a social media permission slip to sign. Thank you in advance for filling out the handouts!

Student Letter: Ms. D sent each student a personal letter. Each student should read it (parents are welcome to read it, too) and then respond by writing a letter back to Ms. D. The letter is due Monday, September 11th. Email, Google Drive, hardcopy, handwritten, pencil, pen, marker —  all formats are okay as long as I get it AND I can read it.

Photo Booth! We did a funny photo booth today! Not all students had an opportunity to do it, so anyone who missed this can do it tomorrow, and then I will post funny pictures on the web of our new MACC class.

Chain of Strengths: Today each person wrote down two strengths they will bring to MACC and we included it in a paper chain of strengths for our class, which is now hanging on the board! If you didn’t finish your slips of paper for the chain, please do it tomorrow.

KAHOOT! To learn more about everyone, I asked each person to write down 2 truths and a lie about themselves, so we can guess which one is the lie on the interactive APP Kahoot! If you haven’t finished yours, please bring it with you tomorrow or do one in class before end of day Wednesday.

Assembly! We met Ms. Driussi! Check out the bulletin board across from the office. Students from her last school wrote some things they thought you should know about our new principal. Very cool!

SUPPLIES: Please be looking for supplies and bring them in by Monday.

HAVE A GREAT EVENING AND LOOK FORWARD TO SEEING YOU WEDNESDAY ALL DAY!

MS. D

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