Category: Science

For their speeches students are required to write about an authentic moment in their lives and discuss what they learned from that experience. Speeches will be presented in class Friday March 1st. Finalists will be selected for the district competition by March 15th.

A timeline of Earth’s History:
https://explore.beatymuseum.ubc.ca/walk-through-time/timeline/

Students had a great time this week visiting the Beaty Biodiversity Museum and the Pacific Museum of Earth. During the field trip they got to learn about fossils (body and trace) and learned how scientists date rocks and fossils. They also had an opportunity to examine museum specimens to increase their awareness of biodiversity, evolution, ecology, and conservation.

The videos below talks about how important these skills are to develop and how to help kids develop them so that they can succeed in school, achieve their goals and plan for the future.

In class we have been learning about each executive function and students have been setting weekly intentions to help strengthen and develop these skills. In class we have been learning more about how the brain develops executive functions and students have been setting individual/collective goals around the following executive functions below:

Impulse Control
Ability to think before speaking, resist temptation, think about choices and consequences of behaviors before acting.

Flexible Thinking
Ability to think about different ways to solve problems, adjust to new situations, learn from mistakes, cope with routine changes, try new things, switch from task to another, and learn new things.

Emotional Control
Ability to regulate emotions, choosing which emotions are appropriate in any given situation, maintaining emotions under pressure.

Working Memory
Ability to follow instructions, pay attention, use relevant information while in the middle of an activity.

Self-Monitoring
Ability to have self-awareness of how one is doing in the moment to make adjustments of actions/behaviors to the current situation.

Planning and Prioritizing
Ability to plan daily tasks to meet short and long-term responsibilities.

Task Initiation
Ability to motivate self to begin tasks by directing behaviors and actions.

Organization
Gather and keep track of information and belongings.

Throughout the week they have been monitoring their individual and collective efforts. This critical reflection is helping them develop an awareness of their own needs and they are learning to monitor their progress, develop, and sustain growth in each of these areas.

Videos Links:

What is Executive Function?

https://youtu.be/ex0M-vPHPr4?si=jtMswwBLzLebAF6y

Executive Functions
https://youtu.be/ihP_ej4eixs?si=IJQjqCO_QikVhkf3

Executive Function-A Day in the life of…

https://youtu.be/I0IPjr9CKqg?si=KUb_vanW3Y7LmoPL

10 Ways to Train Your Brain to Be More Focused and Productive

https://youtu.be/322buwrWqhg?si=oP03hHzBPCtqsDej

How to Improve Your Concentration and Focus

https://youtu.be/XBpcaZrYdXw?si=OXbtA2CmClHYuilP

How does breathing impact the brain?

https://youtu.be/2HojLhKlJto?si=Btq0u93Et2KMEmks

The Science of Breathing

https://youtu.be/wpWa-z3wDmw?si=AVHppzaUEJHHPMjh

Please view your child’s poem on their Spaces account.

Please see your child’s Spaces account to view their individual work.

Students have been enjoying our brain break when we play a quick game of “Under the Microscope”. During this task students are given an object that has been magnified and they must try to guess accurately what the object is that they are viewing. It’s a great way to give the mind a break while also learning something new.

Here are a few from one of our sessions.  Can you guess accurately what they are?

What might this be? What are those smiley faces? You might be surprised when you find out.  Ask your child for the correct answers and get them to tell you what those smiley faces are.  

In this lesson students learned about the different elements of art (line, shape, texture, form, space, color and value) and created these beautiful leaves that incorporated all 7 elements.