This past week, we were introduced to the topic of residential schools through the picture book "Shi-shi etko." It is a beautiful story about a young girl preparing to head off to school until the spring. She spends her last four days exploring her local environment and collecting things in her "bag of memories." Students first tried to connect with an event or a feeling in the story. We also practiced visualization of our own special places to help us gain a sense of Shi-shi etko's happiness in her land. We also discussed the difference between quick and deep-thinking questions this week. When reading, we want to ask deep-thinking questions because they help us to better understand the story and its characters. These types of questions can be asked before, during, and after reading. Since we had already read "Shi-shi etko." we practiced asking questions after reading. We also knew there was a second picture book that followed, so most of us couldn't wait to read it. This one was called "Shin-chi's canoe" and told the story of Shi-shi etko and her younger brother, Shin-chi, at residential school. Although it is a fictional story, we discussed how it likely mentioned many realistic things about residential schools. We developed a list of questions that we'd like to explore so we can better understand this topic. They are a combination of before, during, and after reading questions. Many of us are intrigued by this topic and wanting to learn more. Hopefully we will be able to explore it further in the new year with some short novels based on true events from this part of Canadian history.
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As you may remember, we've spent a lot of time this term discussing and reading about the Syrian Refugee Crisis. In case you need a quick overview, below is a short animated video explaining the situation. It allowed us to learn a lot that we didn't already know but we also talked about how the video (like most sources) is biased to one point of view and that we are allowed to develop our own thoughts on the issue. Through readings, discussions, and mapping, we have explored how the crisis is impacting Europe and Canada. We ran out of time today, so you will find our personal reflections about how our thinking of this crisis is developing on Fresh Grade next week.
Next on the agenda in Humanities, we are going to take a look at the role of government in shaping culture. Grade 6 students will be exploring how rights and freedoms can vary in different countries (for example, Canada and Syria) while Grade 7 students will be looking at how government in Mesopotamia changed over time to become the republic that Syria is today. As a whole class, this will also allow us to assess how the actions of government can lead to conflict, which Syria has experienced in the form of a Civil War since 2011. It's so important that we continue to learn about the past as well as current global issues so we can be informed citizens who are able to see the world from different perspectives. Stay tuned for our presentations in the weeks ahead! As we mentioned previously here, we've recently been focusing on the scientific inquiry process. We developed inquiry questions that could be answered by research and then we made short videos communicating what we learned throughout that process. Below are the learning intention and criteria that guided us through the inquiry process. You can find specific samples of our notes on Fresh Grade. Learning Intention: I can use the scientific inquiry process to learn something new about the natural environment. Criteria:
Below are a few samples of our videos communicating the Science that we learned. Enjoy!
Today we read the final chapter of our read aloud novel "Fish." Below is a Padlet with some of our predictions prior to reading today.
Many of us were surprised that the author ended the story the way that she did. We discussed some of the reasons why she might have left out the fate of certain characters; many of us thought she wanted the readers to imagine the ending for themselves. We tweeted author L.S. Matthews with some of our thoughts! She's usually great at responding and has even read some of our blogs, so it's been a cool experience! The novel may be finished, but we will continue exploring its themes and characters for a few more weeks.
We are nearing the end of the Global Read Aloud! It's hard to believe that we are 5 weeks into the 6 week-long project. We are almost finished our novel, but with the short week next week, we might need to take a little longer to finish than anticipated. Here are some of the highlights of our reading so far... Gallery Walk Reflections This novel has some pretty important themes, so we've spent some time doing gallery walks to help us reflect on the spot. This type of gallery walk is usually silent and we are prompted with big questions. We circulate and take time to respond and read others' responses. Below are a few samples of this reflective activity. Skype and Google Hangouts We have connected with four other classes AND the author, L.S. Matthews (aka Laura Dron) through Skype and Google Hangouts! Three of these were Mystery Skype, which means each class asks each other questions and researches throughout the call in order to guess where in the world the other class is located. Our first one was pretty difficult because we weren't sure how to strategize, but we have gotten so much more efficient and better at working as a team. This week, we guessed the location of a group of student teachers in Martin, Tennessee! We were pretty proud that we could guess sooner than adults :) Blogging We've also been blogging about themes from the novel "Fish" throughout the project. Since the novel is set in an unknown place where people are fleeing their country to escape war, we've explored a few articles about the Syrian refugee crisis. Examples can be found here and here and we've also a video clip from Doctors Without Borders below. You can find our blogs about what we would bring if we were refugees and what we think about the current refugee crisis here. This is a topic that we will continue to explore in Humanities this year as it relates to geography, government, and various global issues. Sketchnoting
Lastly for today, we have been learning to use sketchnoting as a way of engaging with text during a read aloud. It's much trickier than it seems, as you have to be very attentive so you can capture key words and images as the reading is happening. Some of us love this activity and others have struggled a bit, but it has definitely helped most of us focus on important aspects of the story and we are all sharing our understanding in a visual way. GRA 2015 has been a huge success and a really great learning experience. Stay tuned to find out what we do once the novel is finished in the next couple of weeks! This week, we headed outside to make detailed observations about what we could see in nature. Our goal was to look for things we wouldn't usually notice and then to share something we wondered about what we saw. This is one way we are developing our scientific curiosity. Check out some of the things we noticed... Here is what guided us in developing our wonders...
Learning Intention: I can write an "I wonder" statement about a scientific topic. Criteria:
Enjoy some of our wonders below and stay tuned for our inquiries to help discover some of the answers! Recently, Grade 6 students have been learning about factors and multiples. We're now moving towards visual representations of numbers in a multiplication. Enter... arrays! First, we practiced making simple arrays with cubes to show small numbers like 24. This is how we discovered prime and composite numbers! Prime numbers were numbers with only one possible array while composite numbers had two or more possibilities. Next, we moved to drawing our representations. Again, we started with smaller numbers but are now moving toward larger ones. Arrays help us visualize what multiplication can look like. They also help us make connections to other Math concepts like area. Most of us are really enjoying ourselves in Grade 6 Math so far this year, we can't wait to continue sharing our learning with you!
With the federal election coming up on October 19, we've been recently exploring our personal values and how they might impact our vote. We've done some reading to help us assess the pros and cons of voting for 4 different parties: Conservative, Liberal, NDP, and Green Party (the Pollenize site was very helpful). This was a good critical thinking exercise because everyone's responses could vary, but we had to look at issues from a variety of perspectives before deciding. It also showed us that no one else can tell us what to decide because only we know what's most important to us! Below is one of Rick Mercer's Rants from several years ago that we watched today in class to spark some discussion about youth voting. Many of us weren't sure whether we agreed that 16 year olds should be allowed to vote (like the rant says). However, it really got us thinking about how it's a privilege to live in a democracy and to be able to vote, as well as why some young people might not know how to vote. Ask us what we think! !This week, we continued to practice a very important scientific competency: making detailed observations. We also learned about the difference between what we see and what we think. One is called an observation and the other, an inference. We used a photo borrowed from a Smarter Science activity and many of us said we could see space right away. Ms. B tried to help us understand that we can see shapes, colours, and patterns, but we can't "see" that the photo is of space. She is going to give us written feedback before we try this activity again with a new photo. It was a great way to get us thinking about space while practicing curricular competencies. Some of us noticed the ELC4 in the photo and quickly wanted to learn more about it, so we might share what we found next time!
This week, we are beginning our journey with the Global Read Aloud. This is an exciting time of year! Over the next 6 weeks, we will be reading a novel called "Fish" by L.S. Matthews that other classes across the continent (and the world!) will be reading at the same time. We will connect with other classes through Skype, blogging, and our class Twitter account (@msbunkerclass) to share our thoughts, questions, and inferences about the novel. Our novel is about a family who must flee their country for safety during a time of war. The main character, Tiger, makes a spontaneous decision to take a fish he finds in a puddle with his family on this journey. To introduce students to the theme of refugees, we watched the following TED talk video below. This video really got us thinking about things we take for granted in our lives, like education, and helped us imagine what life might be like in a refugee camp. We also read the first chapter of the novel today. We reflected on why the author might not tell us the main character's gender and what we might bring with us if we had to flee our country. We will blog about this topic later this week.
The Global Read Aloud is a great way to get students excited about literature because they have an authentic audience with whom they can connect about what they're reading. We look forward to sharing our thoughts with you and other students from across North America over the next 6 weeks! |
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
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