Posts

Showing posts from 2022

December Update

Image
 Getting Caught Up... Well, that was interesting! After the week without internet I am still getting caught up on emails and wanted to update everyone as to the goings on in our classroom. We managed quite well in the class without the world wide web (did you know it takes less time to say that than WWW?). We have transitioned from Science to Social Studies and are discussing communities past and present. We made community flags by cutting and pasting, yes literally cutting and pasting, construction paper. We also studied the area of parallelograms and did cutting and pasting there, too. It was great for the students to see that if you cut a right triangle off of a parallelogram, and put it on the other side you have a rectangle whose area is easy to calculate with length times width. So a parallelogram has the formula base times height. This week we are looking at algebra and I used my favourite balance model to demonstrate isolating an unknown in an equation. Duffin's We had a ...

Culminating Science Project

 Making a Difference Locally It seems these days that we are inundated with issues from around that world that feel out of our control or too distant to connect with. It is great for students to learn about global issues, but we have problems in our own backyard as well. Potentially, literally in our own backyards! So to conclude our Biodiversity unit, we are going to look at how we can inform people about local threats to biodiversity. In their groups, students are going to make a Public Service Announcement or PSA about an issue in the Durham region that is a threat to biodiversity. The students will be using WeVideo to make the PSA and will learn about Media Literacy as well. I am hoping that the issue the students choose will be quite local so that a trip to the affected area by members of the group and their families might be possible . This would allow for the group to use footage they have recorded to make the PSA. Very cool, right??? Details about expectations to follow...

Pre-Long Weekend Update

 Goings-on in 202 as of late... We are rolling now and have been busy with lots of learning in our class! We have lots on the go in the various subjects. Some highlights include: Watercolour and Ink Fall Art Shared Readings of stories called, "Dog" and "Some More Than Others" Learning about the elements of plot Writing of mini-narratives Intense Flag Football games Unpacking Word Problems in Math Reading "We Are Treaty People" leading up to the National Day of Truth and Reconciliation Making Frayer models of five groups of vertebrates in Science to hang around the class and much more!!! Coming soon we will be: Writing "seed" stories based on suspenseful pictures from "The Mysteries of Harris Burdick" by Chris Van Alsburg Doing a research project on an endangered species with a choice of presentation Using warm and cool colours in contrast with one another Coding with Scratch Learning the "Cup Song" in Music, then expanding to ...

Binders, New Blog Features and Spiralling

 Well, it has been a great two weeks, and as I anticipated, this will be a fun year with lots of great learning. I wanted to update you on a few items that will be put into place now that we are in the swing of things. Binders I don't hand out duotangs in Grade 6. I have nothing against them, although opening the tabs to put something in is kind of annoying, placing a sheet in the middle of the duotang is quite cumbersome, having to have a bunch of them to keep track of can be tricky and ordering the right number in a variety of colours can be tricky, too. Ok maybe I do have something against them! Instead, I suggest all students use a binder system. This way, notes from a variety of subjects can be kept in the same place with the aid of dividers. It is also good practice as your child heads towards their Intermediate years, or even High School. New Blog Pages I will begin to add subject-specific pages to the blog to let you know the curriculum we are covering. While this is time c...

Altona Postponed

I have been asked to get permission forms signed for our walk to Altona forest. So we will probably have to wait until next week. Sorry for the confusion!

Rights and Recycling!

Image
Instead of making class rules, we brainstormed possible Classroom Rights in the style of the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights. We had lots of good suggestions and will be tweaking them to get them just right; pun intended! In Math , we continued looking at Multiples and Factors . We began with some Bell Work that went something like this: Two different numbers share the multiple 60 and have 4 as a factor. What could the numbers be? After a lesson on multiples and factors we did questions 1,2,3, 5 and 6 of this worksheet: In Science , we reviewed our "Handy Memory Trick" to recall the Five Kingdoms of Living Things. Maybe ask for demo when you have a minute! We then had a friendly competition to see which group could come up with the longest list of species (from any kingdom.) Here they are working hard on their lists: We also had to get rid of the leaves we collected and sorted last week. Instead of throwing them into the garbage, we talked about the recycling of nu...

What a Great First Week!

Image
 That Wasn't So Bad Now Was It? At least I hope not... I was very happy with our first week back. We have quickly established a positive working environment, and the students maybe even had some fun; I know I did!  In Science , we continued our look into Biodiversity by attempting to classify the leaves we collected. We will get into more formal classification, and soon the students will be expected to know the Five Traditional Kingdoms- Monera, Protists, Fungi, Plants and Animals. We also began discussing the Linnean Classification System which gets more and more specific as we go through Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus and Species. The students were asked to put the leaves into groups using whatever criteria they wanted. We had some great observations: Today, we began listening to a podcast about the biodiversity of a simple traffic circle or roundabout. The students heard that a handful of garden dirt contains approximately 200 Billion, yes billion organisms f...

What'd We Get Up To On Day 2 You Ask???

Image
 In Math , we played Yahtzee. Yep, the 70's called and they want their leisure activity back. Why Yahtzee or what is Yahtzee you might ask? Yahtzee is a dice game that requires addition, multiplication, probability, logic, problem solving and strategy. All in that in one game? Yep. The kids were given scoresheets and seemed to have a lot of fun without knowing all the awesome Math connections I just mentioned! If you can get together five dice, it's a fun non-screen game for the whole family that really consolidates a lot of Math. Later in the year, we will be making our own Spreadsheets to keep score, including using formulae to make the additions needed to calculate total score.  Hoping for a 4 next role for the Large Straight! If that 3 becomes a 6 we have a Full House! In Language , we continued working on a journaling activity that is a take on Two Truths and a Lie. Our version involves writing two things that the students did in the summer and one thing they wish they co...

Welcome to Grade 6!!!

Image
Let's Go!!!! With a new year comes new opportunities. I anticipate this will be a great year in Room 202. I believe everyone is unique and gifted in their own way. I expect hard work, but will promise fun times in return!  I will teach most of the subjects, but the students will have Ms. Tipson for Health and Ms. Coulter for Drama and Dance. As they have in the past, the students will have Mme. Andrus for French. We are going to build a strong supportive learning community, where we can all flourish. I can't wait to get the learning started! Please visit this form to provide me with important information:   Link to Google Forms