Category: Just for Fun

Family Nature Challenge April 9 – June 21, 2021

Want to win a game to play with your family or friends this summer? Please join in our nature challenge!

During the months of April, May and June, please visit the many parks and natural spaces found in our local area. If you need maps of where these are, you can find them online or in our classroom, and I have provided some links to some great sites below.

Take pictures of yourself in the natural environment. Make a Google Slideshow of your pictures. The person with the most locations by the end of May wins!

Here are the rules:

  • Pictures must be taken at some time between April 9 and June 21
  • Pictures need to include some identifying nature feature or a sign behind you. If you don’t want to be in the picture, then your hand or a personal sign with your name (“Joe was here”) needs to be in the picture as proof you were there.
  • One picture per location.
  • Same point value regardless of location.
  • Stay local as much as possible. Be aware of distancing and masks if needed in public areas.
  • Local parks, other school playgrounds, green belts, beaches, pond areas, pathways, hike trails, lakes, rivers, soccer fields, courtyards, green belts near your building, or any place you can play outside, etc. all count!
  • Create a slideshow on PowerPoint or another slideshow application to share the pictures with me. Label the locations if there are not signs.
  • You do not have to spend a specific amount of time at the location — all you need is a picture!
  • Make this a family challenge — it is way more fun, and a healthy activity to do together during this time of COVID isolation!

Local Location Ideas:

Main prize to be awarded to only one person. However, smaller prizes for everyone who participates and provides me with a slideshow. I hope you all spend a lot of time outdoors over the next three months!

Ms. D

 

Battle of the Books — June Reading Fun!

Hello Everyone!

During our reading of The Skeleton Tree we have been talking about taking time to read carefully, taking notes on key vocabulary and ideas using our readminders, and also how to ask deeper questions using the QAR model. We will continue to develop our comprehension as we do a fun, end-of-year reading activity. This is a great way to use silent reading time! We will also be bringing towels/blankets and reading outside on some days.

Here’s how it works!

  • Form a team of 6 people
  • Decide amongst yourselves who will read which books from the list provided
  • For each book you read, create 20 questions. Each question starts with “In which book did…..” or “In which book would you find….” or “In which book does the main character…..” 
  • Turn in the questions and Ms. D will be using some of these for the competition!
  • Ms. D will ask questions, and your team will have to guess which book they came from! 
  • Make sure your team reads all the books. That doesn’t mean YOU read all the books. It means the team reads the books. So “divide and conquer” and help one another out!

Here are the books:

  • Refugee by Alan Gratz
  • Hero by Ron Woods
  • My Life as a Book by Janet Tashjian
  • The Search for Delicious by Natalie Babbitt
  • A Handful of Time by Kit Pearson
  • Fish in a Tree by Lynda Hunt
  • Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes by Eleanor Coerr
  • Tuk and the Whale by Raquel Rivera
  • The Secret of Platform 13 by Eva Ibbotson
  • Wings of Fire: The Dragonet Prophecy by Tui Sutherland
  • 13 Treasures by Michelle Harrison
  • TroubleTwisters by Garth Nix and Sean Williams
  • Eight Keys by Suzanne LaFleur

Battle to be held on June 25th, Tuesday!

NATURE CHALLENGE for April and May!

Want to win a game to play with your friends? Please join in our nature challenge!

During the months of April and May, please visit the many parks and natural spaces found in our local area. If you need maps of where these are, you can find them online or in our classroom!

Take pictures of yourself in the natural environment. Make a Google Slideshow of your pictures. The person with the most locations by the end of May wins!

Here are the rules:

  • Pictures must be from this year.
  • Pictures need to include some identifying feature or sign behind you. You or some other item such as your hand or a personal sign need to be in the picture as proof you were there.
  • One picture per location.
  • Local parks, other school playgrounds, green belts, beaches, pond areas, pathways, hike trails, lakes, rivers, soccer fields, or any place you can play outside, etc. all count!
  • Extra 5 points for the bonus locations as described in class. As I discuss them, I will add them to this post.

Main prize to be awarded to only one person. However, smaller prizes for everyone who participates and provides me with a slideshow. I hope you all spend a lot of time outdoors over the next three months!

Ms. D

 

Fractals!

Today we explored FRACTALS as part of our ongoing conversations for this unit on how arts and sciences are connected. We looked at many beautiful examples of fractals in nature and worked on Sierpinski Triangle fractals in connection with geometry. It seemed many of you enjoyed this!

Here are some websites to explore if you are interested in FRACTALS:

Fractal Foundation What are fractals?

Fractals and Geometry Useful Beauty

Mathigon World of Fractals

YouTube What is a fractal and what are they good for?

University of Kansas Fractals for Fun

Let me know if there is another website you have found that we can post!

 

SFU Fun Opportunities for Students

Hello Everyone,

I wanted to pass along some information about upcoming programs for elementary, middle, and high school students interested in computer science and engineering! 

Please find a brief description of upcoming programs below with detailed information available at the SFU website at https://www.sfu.ca/fas/news-and-outreach/community-outreach.html. 

As I am only passing along information and can’t answer questions, please direct inquiries to fasevent@sfu.ca.  

Technovation (January to May 2018)

Open to girls ages 10 to 18. The Technovation Challenge teaches middle and high school girls how to make an app for a mobile phone using AppInventor.  This 12-week, online, after-school program is structured so that groups of girls (ages 10-18) learn how to identify a problem, design and test a solution, collaborate with a team and communicate effectively.  Each team will work though the Technovation curriculum with assistance from a mentor. 

Girls Get IT (May 26, 2018)

Open to girls ages 9 to 11. Each year, the Faculty of Applied Sciences hosts a great opportunity for girls aged 9-11 to learn about the fields of Computing Science and Engineering! Participants take part in various activities and have the chance to talk to current students about what it means to be a computing scientist or engineer. All activities are supervised by SFU faculty and staff. Girl Guides Canada participants complete all requirements for both their computing science and engineering badges. 

Science AL!VE (Throughout the year)

Open to grade K to 9 students depending on the specific program. Science Alive provides opportunities for youth to explore science beyond the textbook through hands-on, interactive discovery which stimulates their interest and fosters confidence. A student-run not-for-profit organization based at Simon Fraser University,  Science AL!VE is supported by the Faculty of Applied Sciences, and a member of Actua, a national organization that reaches 225,000 youth annually. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

Just for fun post-Jay

I found this cool video on youtube here and it shows a lot of math tricks. (Well not including the cube roots, but I figured out how to do it) I had tried to make the square from the two circles and it actually works. P.S. I think it is scary to have a cube falling on your head.

Who ever figures out the cube root puzzle you get a prize from Ms. D, maybe.

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