We started out reviewing how our knowledge of simple whole number multiplication relates to arrays. We practiced building arrays with cubes and then trying to find as many possible arrays for certain numbers as we could. This helped us discover the difference between a prime and a composite number; prime numbers only have one possible array because they only have themselves and one as factors!
Grade 6 and 7 are all about building upon our prior knowledge in Numeracy. There are less brand new concepts but lots more depth of what we've already mastered. For example: multiplication. Most of us are familiar with how to multiply whole numbers... so now, we take what we know and begin transfering it to decimal numbers. We started out reviewing how our knowledge of simple whole number multiplication relates to arrays. We practiced building arrays with cubes and then trying to find as many possible arrays for certain numbers as we could. This helped us discover the difference between a prime and a composite number; prime numbers only have one possible array because they only have themselves and one as factors! We also spent a lot of time making connections between multiplication sentences and what we know about area. For example, the factors are like the length and width of a rectangle while the product is like the area. Building this language is crucial if we want to communicate our thinking clearly and meaningfully. Stations helped us play with the application of these concepts as well. We also continue to build our conceptual understanding through manipulatives and other visualization tools. Below is are a couple of videos showing us practice our communication skills using base 10 blocks. We also practice the symbolic method of multiplication using estimation to help us place the decimal. We will continue developing our computational fluency as we make connections between multiplication, addition, subtraction, and division as well as communicate our mental math strategies over the coming weeks. Our learning is never over!
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We are nearing the end of our Global Read Aloud (GRA). If you've never heard of this project before, you should check it out here. Essentially, we chose one of the novels that was appropriate for our grade level and we've been reading at the same time as classes from all over the world! Our novel is Pax by Sara Pennypacker. It's a story about a boy and his fox who are separated and their journey to reunite during a time of war. While it could be read as a simple story of a boy and his pet, there are a ton of very serious themes in this story that have helped us stretch our thinking and learn a lot about topics such as mental health and the impact of war. The GRA is exciting because it gives us lots of opportunities to connect with other learners who are reading the same novel through activities like Mystery Skype, book chats, and blogging. What is a Mystery Skype? Mystery Skypes (or Google Hangouts) are a virtual way to connect with another class in the world in a game-like manner. Ms. B finds a class with whom we can connect and sets up a time. When we call each other, our job is to ask a series of questions to help us guess where in the world the other class is located! This is a great way to build on our knowledge of geography as well as practice our critical thinking and collaboration skills. We have had the opportunity to do 3 or 4 Mystery Skype calls throughout the Global Read Aloud and also had the chance to ask other students questions about the novel and share our predictions and feelings with them. So far, we've connected with students in Victoria, BC as well as Saskatchewan and Missouri. What is Blogging? Our blogs are places we can share our writing with an authentic audience. Anyone who visits our blog can read our thoughts and leave a comment. We are "officially" connected with 2-3 other classes whose blogs we also visit sometimes. This allows us to develop relationships with students in other locations around the world but also provides us with some genuine feedback and conversation about our writing. You can check out our blogs here. So far, we've written about what makes a home and the costs of war, as these are questions that came up during our reading of the novel. Inquiry Of course reading a good piece of literature also allows us to explore characters, themes, and allows us opportunities for inquiry that we may not otherwise have come across. One of the major themes in Pax is war and what it costs. One of the main characters, Vola, used to be a medic in the war and now suffers from PTSD. Peter, who is separated from his pet fox Pax because of the war, goes through a journey of self discovery in the novel and realizes that the costs of war impact not only humans but animals and the environment too. He also grows up on his journey to find Pax and develops a stronger sense of self-identity. PTSD became of particular interest to our class as we were reading so we decided to learn a bit more about it. We are definitely not finished this learning, as it will tie into learning about anxiety and depression as well, but we made a good start with the videos below. For example, we now know that PTSD not only affects war veterans, but can also affect children or others who have lived through any sort of trauma such as abuse, neglect, or near death experiences. Some of our inquiry questions are still not answered, but we will continue our ongoing learning in this area. Here is a poem about the impact of PTSD that the Grade 6s co-wrote and shared at our Remembrance Day assembly: Many Canadians fought for our freedom. These men and women made sacrifices. Lives were lost, but that's not all. Families were broken. They returned but they weren't themselves. They remembered the war. They avoided their loved ones. Sights, smells, were triggers for flashbacks. They suffered from depression, anxiety, and loneliness. All of these have a name: PTSD. Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Always remember the struggles of those who survived. Overall, the Global Read Aloud has been a great experience and we look forward to sharing our learning about other themes and characters once we have read the ending! This year, we are so lucky to be pariticipating in the Roots of Empathy program. The main purpose of this program is to develop empathy in students of all ages, Kindergarten through Grade 8. We will explore both the cognitive domain of empathy, perspective taking, and the affective domain, emotion. The program is evidence-based and has been shown to have a positive impact on participants. Over the course of the year, we will have nine visits from a mother and baby from our community. Miss Koryna is our Roots of Empathy instructor, and she will also come in for a pre-visit and post-visit session, where we will have the opportunity to reflect on and communicate some of our learning. We will have the chance to explore nine different themes throughout the year which will help us connect and learn from baby Claire. For example, after we have met and gotten to know the family, we will focus on Crying as well as Caring and Planning prior to the winter break. We have already had our first visit from Miss Koryna where we made some predictions about what we think Claire will be able to do at 3 months old. Some of the things we think baby Claire will be able to do are:
We are super excited to meet Claire and her mother for the first time tomorrow! We will sing her a welcome song, and hopefully start learning from her right away through guided observations and inquiry. We can't wait to share our learning with you throughout the year! This year, we are exploring Science themes in a few different ways. We started off by really focusing on making detailed observations, both qualitative (what we can describe) and quantitative (what we can measure). One of our introductory activities in September was about finding common attributes between various objects to create an attribute sudoku. This was a great way to introduce us to critical and creative thinking as well, as we had to work hard to make our puzzle difficult to solve but still accurate in our observations. We got to circulate and solve each other's puzzles, which made us realize just how differently we all see things! Once we had spent some time practicing these skills again in mini experiments about states of matter and chemical change, we each got to choose a seashell. We observed our seashell in as much detail as we could with access to any measuring tools that might help us. Then, we posed some questions related to our observations. This helped us touch on one particular curricular competency in both the Grade 6 and Grade 7 curriculum: posing scientific questions for inquiry based on observations. After some introductions to online resources with Mrs. Bonn in Socials, we researched our question. This week, we finally presented our learning! Although we still need to work on improving our research and note taking skills, many of us shared our learning in engaging and creative ways. We're looking forward to our next inquiry! While some Science themes are well suited to research based inquiry, many of them are much more easily understood when we apply them. This is the other way that we are currently exploring Science. We have already started a few activities where we can explore and see forces and motion in action. Last week, we were given the challenge of lifting a marble off of a table using only a plastic cup. It was difficult at first, but many of us soon realized that using centripetal force, we could "spin" the marble off the table! This week, we are focused on building and testing weighing scales made out of paper cups, rubber bands, paper clips, and popsicles sticks. We have to accurately record our scale's data and then change one variable before testing again. This is part of the design thinking process, and now a part of the Applied Design, Skills, and Technology curriculum. It's also teaching us about the importance of controls and variables in any scientific experiment. The weighing scales are one way we can observe the force of gravity in action. These kinds of learning opportunities are helping to build our background knowledge for the final challenge later on in the term... but it's a secret! Stay tuned between now and Winter Break for more sharing of our Science learning about survival needs in the ocean and forces and motion.
This year, we are using Daily 5 as a large component of our Literacy learning. Daily 5 is a program that helps foster independence in students. Ms. B might give a mini lesson on a specific skill or strategy and then we rotate through different stations like Read to Self, Read to Partner, Writing, and Word Work throughout the week. Generally speaking, everyone will get to everything multiple times in a week. We've already written 3 drafts in writing and practiced making connections and inferences in reading books of our own choice! Below are a few photos of us when we were first introduced to Read to Self. We can choose any place we would like to read. For each station, we make an I-chart to help us stay on task. Then, we practice building stamina by starting with shorter amounts of time and building up to longer durations. We decided on the following responsibilities for Read to Self... Teacher Find new books available to read. Help make book lists with categories (when needed). Student Find a spot where you won't be distracted. Read quietly. Stay focused on the text. Use strategies when reading (e.g. making connections, asking questions, making inferences). Self-monitor when reading (e.g. re-read, use context). Ms. B also gives us weekly learning intentions so we know what exactly we are focusing on that week in each area of Literacy. For example, this week we focused on the following: Daily 5 is one way we will be focused on improving our Literacy skills throughout the year. It will soon become a part of our daily routine so that we are engaging with language as much as possible and becoming stronger readers and writers in the process!
Welcome back, Crescent Park! Now that we're settling into our classroom community, we thought we would share some of the fun things we've been up to so far this year. Ms. B and Ms. C have introduced us to STEM, which stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math. We did a few activities early on to help us practice collaborating in groups, thinking critically, and using learning intentions and criteria to help guide our learning. Below is our first challenge: playgrounds we designed in the first week of school. Learning Intention: We can apply what we know about simple machines to collaboratively design and build a playground with one of these materials: LEGO, K'Nex, Straws & Connectors, Tinker Toys. Criteria:
During our first week, we also had the opportunity to participate in creating a new Stream of Dreams! Every student and adult in the building got to paint one fish, which will help replace the Stream of Dreams that was looking a bit old and tired out on our fence. We've also been focusing a lot on our Numeracy skills these past few weeks, reviewing place value and working with decimal numbers. We are using base 10 blocks right now to help us visualize wholes and parts of a decimal number. Every Wednesday, we are going to be applying our knowledge in Math games and stations related to what we're learning. Below are a few photos of our work with decimal numbers so far. Overall, it's been a busy but great first two weeks back! We're looking forward to sharing more of our learning with you throughout the year once we are settled into our class routines.
I just want to take the time to say goodbye to our Grade 7s. We have had so much fun together this year and I wish you all the best in high school! The Grade 6s and I will be thinking about you in September. Be sure to come back and visit!
Sincerely, Ms. B We've spent several weeks using our knowledge of fractions and decimal numbers to help us understand percents. We started out by exploring ways to represent percents (especially in Grade 6) and then sharing what we understood. This helped us develop some conceptual understanding of what the percent symbol represents, which helped us further develop our number sense. Then, we started to explore practical ways to use these Numeracy skills such as making purchases with discounts and having to include tax in the cost. Ms. B modeled a lot and helped us understand the steps involved in these types of problems. We practiced, practiced, and practiced some more until we finally tried to communicate our understanding in a video. Below are a few samples of our work based on an item we wanted to purchase from IKEA. Ms. B gave us feedback on our work in class, these videos, and our Math journals before we began our final task. We've spent the last week working on a project where we have to schedule and price out our dream day with a budget of $1000. This project was one that most of us really enjoyed, as we got to be creative and really see the value of financial literacy skills in action. Stay tuned for our final projects, coming soon!
This week, we participated in Pink Shirt Day to support spreading kindness. We spent some time discussing where Pink Shirt Day originated (Nova Scotia) and how it came to be. Students were asked to reflect on two videos that we watched to get us thinking about inclusion, kindness, and bullying. We've continued our nature walks this term every Wednesday. This week, we looked for geometry in the forest. We brainstormed what geometry is and came up with the following list of possibilities.
We set out in partners with a device to help us snap photos of the geometry concepts we saw on our walk. It's so great to take a little time each week to be mindful and to learn from a local place. |
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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