What do you see?

As part of our Sky Science inquiry students in Rooms 17 and 18 have been reading The Little Prince by Antoine De Saint-Exupery.    As a child, the main character in the story draws an image of a Boa Constructor who swallowed an elephant but is frustrated by adults' inability to see what he has actually drawn.

"Whenever I encountered a grown-up who seemed to me at all enlightened, I would experiment on him with my drawing Number One...I wanted to see if he really understood anything.  But he would always answer, 'its a hat'.    We decided to challenge the author's findings by surveying students from Kindergarten to Grade 6 as well as adults.  The findings were very diverse!   Students decided that whether or not someone saw what was right in front of them or not depended in fact less on their age and more on their imagination, creativity and ability to think outside the box.

What do you YOU see?

Zones of Regulation

The Zones of  Regulation give students a way to vocalize how they are feeling and understand the triggers that create these emotions.  As part of our exploration of the Zones students brainstormed different words for each zone. Being in the Yellow Zone brought up words such as 'hyper', 'annoying', 'giddy', 'unfocused' and the Blue Zone was defined as being 'lonely' or 'sad'.

We then created our own Emoji's to allow students to bring to life their personal interpretation of each zone and accompanied this with a metaphorical poem.  

What do we need to survive?

He defeated Mantracker,  jumps out of airplanes and can build a fire in any weather condition! Students in Grade 5/6 at CJFS had the privilege of meeting Vlad Rybicka on Friday as he shared with us his love for the outdoors and survival expertise.

Vlad stressed the importance of being prepared, educating yourself and ensuring that you have the proper equipment.  He shared with us the incredible sense of freedom that being outdoors gives him and inspired us to explore this incredible country that we call home!  When we asked Vlad,  "What is success to you?" he stated that to him success is when, "I challenge myself so I can grow stronger, always finishing what I start.  Nobody can stop you!"

Students in Room 17/18 have been looking at the concept of survival as we have investigated the devastation that swept through Haiti recently account Hurricane Matthew.  We have brainstormed the issues faced by the people of Haiti as they struggle to rebuild their country and navigate the countless problems that a hurricane of this magnitude can bring.  Stay tuned for more of our work on Haiti!

Micrography

Last year, while on a field trip to Heritage Park we noticed some portraits of famous Canadians that were made up of words. We were inspired by these and decided to recreate them ourselves. Our first step was to talk about adjectives and brainstorm adjectives that described ourselves. The next step was to use a photograph and trace the outlines of our faces on a blank piece of paper. Next we filled in the spaces with the words that we had brainstormed. Once we were finished working in pencil we went over it with a fine tip sharpie. Finally the last step was to erase the pencil marks. Can you guess who each portrait is?

Democracy

In Social Studies we have begun to look at our rights and responsibilities as citizens of this school and of our city and country.  We learned that equity and equality are not the same thing.  Equality is treating everyone the same and Equity is giving people what they need to be successful.  We have also learned that democracy is built on four beliefs (or pillars): Equity, Justice, Freedom and Representation. 

We will be revisiting these concepts throughout the year in our studies. 

Beakerhead

Click here to learn more about our experience with the inventor Dominic Willcox

Who Am I?

One of the first steps to exploring success is to look at someone who is deemed successful and describe the attributes that they have that made them successful.  Students were shown this picture and asked to describe this man.  Who is he?  What does he look like?  What conclusions can you draw about him from this picture?  How old do you think he is?  Is he from the year 2016?

Students are encouraged to ask their family members about other people that they can think of throughout history that have been successful.  We hope that families discuss this together and share their ideas with us.

 Welcome to Room 17/18

We are extremely excited to begin this new school year and look forward to the many adventures that lie ahead!  This is our second year as teaching partners and we are fortunate enough to have a new space this year.

Our blog will be a great way to follow our learning this year, view student work and see our daily agenda reminders.


Our inquiry question this year is What Is Success?  We started our inquiry with some Freyer Model work looking at the definition, characteristics, examples and non-examples.  This activity will be revisited frequently through out the year as we continue to explore the idea of success.

Please feel free to contact us at any time at

slmclellan@cbe.ab.ca  or testorrier@cbe.ab.ca

Grade 6 Math PAT Review

Check out this website for math review for the PAT.

Grade 6 Science PAT Review

Check out this website for Science review resources.

Grade 6 Social Studies PAT Review

Check out this website for resources (including the textbook chapters) for reviewing for the PAT.

How might we...design challenge!

Using everything we have learned so far about electricity students were given a final design challenge:

How might we build a mechanism that uses electricity?   

Room 16 designed blueprints and build a prototype for their mechanism.  Students worked in their groups to then test their prototype and create a presentation sharing what they have learned, what challenges they faced and how they were able to work together to complete this task.

Check out our creative designs!

Successful Story Writing

Genre: Character-Problem-Solution

We are writing original creative stories, using this genre. This involves a problem or adventure that our main characters will experience.

Beginnings: 4 techniques to hook our reader

•  Action – What would you do?
• Dialogue/Exclamation – What would you say or exclaim?
•  A Thought or Question – What would you be thinking, wondering or worrying?
• A Sound – What would you hear?

Suspense: Here are some ways we can build suspense

• Story Questions – use your characters to ask questions – to wonder or worry. This gives hints to the reader about what might happen next.
• Word Referents – when describing a story critical person or object, do not immediately reveal what ‘it’ is. 
• Magic of 3 – use imagery (descriptive language) to give 3 hints before revealing a discovery at the end. Focus on the 5 senses (what we see, hear, feel, smell, taste)

Main Event: This is the MOST IMPORTANT part of the story. Fully elaborated main events have a balance of:

• Action – What did the characters do?
• Description – What did you see, hear, or feel?
• Thoughts/Feelings – What were you wondering, worrying, feeling?
• Dialogue/Exclamation – What did you say or exclaim?
• Sound Effect – What did you hear?

Endings: A good story ending reveals what the story was about and how the main character has grown or changed.

Here are some suggestions for writing extended endings:

• A Memory – What did you remember most?
•  Feelings – How did you feel about what happened?
• Wish or Hope – What would you wish or hope?
• Decision – What did you decide?
• Defining Action – What did you do?

How Many Different Switches Can You Build?

As part of our ongoing Electricity Inquiry students were challenged to create as many different switches as they could using materials from our Maker Carts.  Students had to assess what types of materials would be most appropriate for this task and then invent and test their design.

They also had to consider questions such as:

Why are switches important?

What is their purpose?

How does  switch effect the flow of electricity?

Working in their teams students created many unique designs!  Take a look!

  

Story Writing

 In Language Arts we are writing stories using a character-problem-solution model.

These kinds of stories are about a problem or an adventure that the main character(s) encounter, which eventually results in a resolution.

Students begin writing their original short stories.

The purpose of the beginning is to hook the reader, and to introduce main character(s), setting (time and place), and theme/topic of the story.

We are practicing writing story beginnings using 4 techniques to interest the reader:

        1.     An Action – what would you do?

        2.     Dialogue – what might you say or exclaim?

        3.     A Thought or Question – what would you wonder or worry?

        4.     A Sound – what might you hear?

We have also discussed the importance of starting the stories close to the main event, so we don’t write about details that are not relevant to the events in the story.

Everyday Super Heroes!

On May 6th the students of CJFS will be taking part in a school wide parade to celebrate student learning and school culture.  The students of room 16 have decided that our theme will be Everyday Super Heroes.  This can be someone that they know (mom, dad, friend...) or someone who is famous and has made a positive difference in the world.  Students may not choose a comic super hero such and Batman or Superman.  When students have chosen their "superhero" they need to fill out the google form here by next Friday April 8th.

What Does it Mean to be Canadian?

In Social Studies, we are learning about the different groups of people who have come to Canada over the years, their ways of life and appreciate the diversity of Canada's heritage.   Students are applying for a job as a tour guide for the National Museum of Canada, assigned to a new exhibit that will examine the diversity and complexity of Canadian identity. The exhibit will share the stories of the many groups of people who made Canada what it is today. As part of your application, you will become an expert on one group and create a presentation to share. By listening to the presentations of the other applicants, you will make some conclusions about the diversity and complexity of Canadian identity. The museum curator requires guides who are knowledgeable about Canada, both past and present.

Students should have answered the following questions to help guide their research for the project. 

Questions for Research

•   Where did they come from?


•   How did they get to Canada?


•   How did they live once they were in Canada?


•   How did they adapt to their environment in Canada?


•   Where did they settle in Canada? (rural, urban)


•   Why did they come to Canada? 


•   Who were they?


•   What did they bring with them?(customs, traditions…)


•   What kind of housing did they live in when they arrived?


•   What did they eat? (did they continue to eat their traditional foods or did they change what they ate)


•   How did they feel about coming to Canada?


•   When did they come to Canada? 


•   What did it mean for them to be Canadian?


•   How did their lives change once they came to Canada?

When they are finished their research they need to ask themselves the following questions:

•   Is the information on topic?

•   Is there enough information to help the audience understand my topic?

•   Does the information help me understand how these people felt?

They will also be working with a peer coach to help them answer these questions and give them feedback on their research.

The final step will be to use a visual or oral format to create an exciting and informative presentation about your selected group that:

•   Shares important information from your research (how they lived, their hardships and their contributions to present-day Canada)

•   Draws conclusions about how they felt about their lives (their sense of identity) supported with evidence obtained from your research.

Electricity at CJFS Assignment

Students in Room 16 explored and discovered electricity at CJFS last week by taking photographs throughout the school.

We are now working to sort these photographs by the following categories:  

-Heating

-Lighting

-Communicating

-Computing

-Moving

-Other

These assignments are to be completed over the spring break and can be accessed via Google Drive from home!

Please review the following checklist before sharing with Mrs. Storrier:

• 6 categories with at least 2 pictures per category
• Explanation of WHY these pictures were sorted the way they were
• Titles, labels, etc

To submit these assignment it must be shared with testorrier@educbe.ca

Hope you have a safe and restful break!

Electricity Quiz

You need to be able to define and give an example of the following?
What is a conductor?
What is an insulator?
What is a resistor?
What is a switch?
What do you need to make a circuit and be able to draw.

What Makes a Pattern?

Can you find the pattern rule for this pattern?

The students in room 16 have been learning about patterns in math.  We know that patterns are found all around us, including in nature.  Students learned that a pattern repeats and that in can increase or decrease. We learned how to determine the pattern rules and how to apply the rule to find subsequent values in a pattern.  We applied rules to input charts and challenged our friends to find the rule based on the output.  As a final project we created our own patterns, determined the rule and then graphed the pattern.

How can where we live in Canada affect the way we live?

The students in room 16 have been studying the regions of Canada and the first people that lived in those regions.  

The Royal Alberta Museum has decided to celebrate Canada's history with a very special exhibit called, "Surviving the Wilderness: Canada's Aboriginal Cultures and Heritage."  The museum curator has decided to hire our class to create a display for this exhibit. In order to complete this task to the curator's satisfaction, you and your team will need to focus on the main idea for this exhibit: How were Canada's First Nations cultures able to survive in their unique region?  The curator is expecting this to be a very large and spectacular exhibit, so he has requested that you and your team create a display for ONE region of Canada, and the First Nations people who live there -- he is hiring other teams to cover the remaining regions and Aboriginal cultures required to complete the exhibit.

Students have completed their initial research and have completed slide shows on Google to present their findings. The next steps will be to create a diorama to represent their region and how their aboriginal group lived on the land. Then they will be creating an artifact to represent the way these people lived.

To see the full assignment please click here

Classroom Chemistry Unit Review - Test Monday January 11th

Through out Classroom Chemistry inquiry students participated in various experiments, student-led research and visual learning to begin to understand the role that chemistry plays in our daily lives.

1) Discovering various ways to separate solids
 Technique #1: Water

"The water made the moss float because it is lighter" (Student from 16A)

*Water was not as effective if materials are the same density

Technique #2: Sieves  

"They were good because if you mixed everything together when you sieve it, the smaller ones go to the bottom and the larger ones go to the top".  (Student from 16A)

"If you mix two things that are practically the same size it won't work because they won't seperate" (Student from 16B)

Technique #3: Magnets

"The magnets worked for the nails because they are magnetic but the other materials weren't (like the glass) so they were stuck together" (Student from Room 16A)

Experiment #2: Mixing Liquids

How did you know if something separated, partially separated or did not separate?

-"If you took the eye dropper and you had one that was heavier then the other you could have separated it from that"  (Student Room A)

- "If you put two liquids and one is already separated with it and you mix it, and some of it is gone" Student on Room B (on how you know its partially separated)

Check out this great video that reviews vocabulary such as:

homogenous

heterogenous

dissolve

mixture

solution

Reversible and Irreversible Changes

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/scienceclips/ages/10_11/rev_irrev_changes.shtml

Evaporation - Solids can be recovered by evaporating the water.  The water is lost into the air as it evaporates while the solid remains behind.

Decanting - to pour off a liquid to leave behind a sediment

Filtering - Solids can be stirred up to form a suspension which can then be poured into a filtering system.  Water will pass through the filter but the insoluble substance 

will collect on the filter

Creating Crystals:

Crystals are a solid unit in which molecules have been arranged in repeating patterns or networks and are created by the process of evaporation

Students in Room 16 created their own crystals with the following procedure:

1. Choose a pipecleaner and make a shape

2. Tie a piece of string to the top of your decoration

3. Pour boiling water into your jar

4. Add 4 tablespoons of borax, continue until the water is cloudy.  Once it is cloudy and no more will dissolve you're reached saturation.

5. Wrap the string horizontally onto your stick.  Dip your decoration until completely under water.

Carbon Dioxide

Carbon dioxide can be produced through the interaction of solids and liquids.  It is odorless, tasteless, colorless, heavier than air and does not burn.  We learned about two different ways that carbon dioxide can be produce in chemistry.

Balloon Blow-up

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JK5-2X_GqP8

Making Your Own Lava Lamp

http://www.sciencekids.co.nz/experiments/easylavalamp.html

Chemical Reactions

A chemical reaction has occurred when a substance changes color, odor, temperature (heat) or produces a gas.  In a chemical reaction a new substance is created.  Chemical changes are generally irreversible

http://www.sciencekids.co.nz/experiments/easylavalamp.html

Acids versus Bases

An acid is a substance that can donate hydrogen ions.   

Characteristics:

-Taste sour

-corrosive to materials

-can sting when touched

-become less acidic when mixed with bases

A base is a substance that can accept hydrogen ions.   

Characteristics:

-Have a bitter taste

-Do not react when combined with most metals

-become less basic when mixed with acids