Today, we had the opportunity to visit the Richmond Olympic Oval with all intermediate students. It was awesome to participate in both athletic and team building activities in such as fantastic facility! Students in different classes and programs were able to get to know and support each other throughout the day. It was wonderful to see some new friendships forming. We are so thankful for community support that helped make this day possible!
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At Crescent Park, we use our W.I.T.S. to solve problems! Walk Away Ignore Talk It Out Seek Help As some of the oldest students in the school, we focus on being W.I.T.S. LEADerS throughout the year to help us become role models in the school. Back in the second week of school, we read a picture book called English Roses, which is all about judging someone before we know the whole story and looking at a situation from multiple perspectives. We then had some discussion about times when what we say is different than we are thinking and why that sometimes happens. Students were asked to create a comic strip that showed their understanding of this type of situation.
Learning Intention: I can create a comic strip that shows my understanding of how what someone says might be different than what they think. Criteria:
Each student created a rough draft and was given feedback to improve their story before completing a final copy. Below are a few examples of our work. Thank you to these students for sharing! In Science, we've been learning to make accurate and detailed observations. We've practiced describing what we see, hear, smell, and feel about an object. The next step was to start making connections! One activity that many of us found challenging this week was Attribute Sudoku. We worked in groups to find unique attributes about various objects and had to arrange them to make a sudoku puzzle. Each row, column, and diagonal had to have a common attribute that they shared. Below are some of the puzzles we created. The most creative ones were very tricky to solve! Can you find the common attributes?
Welcome to Division 3's first post of the year! Many days right after lunch, we have what we call Creation Lab. This is a time to work on developing important competencies: Thinking and Communication.
Critical and creative thinking means that we need to learn how to develop plans, execute them, and make changes to improve our ideas along the way. We are doing this in a few different ways: some of us are building, and some of us are focusing more on artistic creativity. The idea is that everyone will explore new ways of creating throughout the year. We have several materials at our disposal during this time; some are recycled and some are new. Soon, we will be introducing technology into the mix so we can explore tools like Makey Makey and Squishy Circuits. Our time in Creation Lab also helps us to develop our communication and collaboration competencies, as we are working with others, sharing ideas, and learning to articulate our thinking in accurate and meaningful ways. Below are some of our creations in progress. Enjoy! I just want to say a huge thank you to all Division 1 students and families for making my last year at Sunrise so fantastic! You have been so much fun, so supportive, and so wonderfully focused on growth this past year. Students, I am so proud of all of you and how far you've come in your Grade 7 year. We've had a lot of laughs and great experiences that I hope you will treasure as you move on to new places. I know you will do amazing things in this world, so think positive, word hard, and keep in touch!
I am looking forward to my new experiences at Crescent Park Elementary, but I will always remember my Sunrise family very fondly. I couldn't have asked for better people with whom to share this last amazing year. Enjoy your summers and take care! Avec amour, Mme. Bunker As you probably know by now, we've been exploring ecosystems this term and how humans can have a positive or negative impact on them. We've visited Burn's Bog and the Surrey Nature Centre to experience local ecosystems firsthand and we've learned about how different roles are necessary in an ecosystem to maintain balance. More recently, we've been working collaboratively in groups on an inquiry related to human impact on ecosystems. The questions that the class explored are:
Should we use pesticides to eliminate the gypsy moth in Cloverdale? Should we eliminate Canadian geese to prevent the problems of overpopulation (for example, habitat damage)? Should we eliminate mosquitos to prevent the spread of West Nile Virus? Is it acceptable for companies to cut down trees to build new construction if they replace the trees? Are beavers a big enough problem that we should eliminate or relocate their dams in Surrey? Each group focused on one big question and connected with someone in the community by email or through Twitter to gather information that would help them make a reasoned judgment about their issue. The whole inquiry process was a great example of how we are stronger when we collaborate and how critical thinking is important to help us think about relevant scientific issues in our community. Ask us about how we chose to share our learning and check it out on Fresh Grade! This week, we went to the Vancouver Art Gallery to see an exhibit called "Wallpapers: A Dialogue with Emily Carr." Most of us had never been to the gallery before, so it was cool to take the Skytrain into Vancouver to visit. Prior to attending, we learned a bit about Emily Carr and her paintings. For example, we noticed that she often painted nature or Aboriginal totem poles and that she used natural colours and curved lines to create her landscapes. We tried creating some of our own versions of her painting style with oil pastels. The exhibit was made up of 2 parts: one of Emily Carr's paintings and one of the group Wallpaper's digital installation art. We were asked to explore both the characteristics of Carr's work and how the digital art represented the same concepts of nature and landscape. We also learned that installation art is designed so we can interact with it, which was a lot of fun. It was a great opportunity to see both traditional and modern media in a gallery setting!
We've done a lot of active learning as part of our Science learning this term. Yesterday, we took a whole-day trip to the Surrey Nature Centre. We took a walk to Green Timbers Lake, where our guide Chris showed us how to take a water sample and check for invertebrates that can help indicate the quality of the water. We headed back on the trails to the Nature Centre. Along the way, we learned about bio indicators and how they can help us understand the health of an ecosystem. Below are 3 examples of bio indicators that we discussed. After lunch, we learned about the history of Green Timbers Park and the importance of preserving natural resources for future generations. We also went on a native and invasive species walk where we learned how introduced plants like bamboo and English Ivy can cause problems for our ecosystems in British Columbia.
As you know, we've been working on designing functional and innovative products using Little Bits circuits and building materials. Without further ado, here are some of our final products after much revision and learning along the way... We've been working on an inquiry question about democracy for several weeks now. We've explored principles of democracy and how they are represented in our Canadian system. We've also learned about how democracy started in Ancient Greece and how the principles are represented in other government systems, such as the Aboriginal Iroquois Confederation in Canada. Students had to use their research and their own judgment to answer the question: Which is a better model of democracy - Ancient Athens or the Iroquois Confederation? They developed their own criteria for what makes a good democracy; for example, everyone has a voice and rights are equal for all citizens. Then they created a presentation to share with the class about how they made their final judgment. Below are some examples of our work. |
AuthorWe are a class of Grade 6/7 students in Surrey, BC, Canada. This blog is one way we will share our learning with the world! Archives
October 2016
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