We used to think that our intelligence was fixed – meaning we were either smart or we weren’t. Scientists have proven that that is simply not true. Instead our brain is like a muscle – the more we use it, the stronger (and smarter) it becomes. That’s growth mindset. To get started learning about growth mindset, we read the picture book The Most Magnificent Thing by Ashley Spires. In that story, the main character has an idea – she wants to make the most magnificent thing. Although she knows just how it will look and how it will work, making it is not easy. Instead she tries and fails. She tries again and fails. After trying several times, she gets mad and wants to quit. After following her dog’s advice and taking a walk, she tries again – and this time she gets it! The story led to a great class discussion about experiences we’ve had when learning something new. We also thought of a time when we weren’t successful at something.
We were really puzzled by the plant in our Science experiment this week. When we took our plant out of darkness and compared it to our plant that’s had exposure to the sun. What we saw wasn’t entirely what we had expected! Some of us had predicted that the leaves would change colour, that the stem would bend or that the plant would die. We were right about the plant getting brown spots on the leaves. We also noticed that the plant with access to sun had grown taller than the other plant. But what we didn’t expect to see was new growth (baby leaves) on our plant in darkness! We were puzzled by how the plant was able to shoot new green leaves without having had access to sunlight. To find out a little more we tweeted Science World and discovered that coffee plants are used to having limited light. It likely had lots of stored energy. We’re curious how long it will take to see further changes in the plant. Our experiment (and our curiosity!) continues… In real life, estimation is part of our everyday lives. When we’re thinking about how much time is left before the bell rings, how long it will take to read a book or how many 5 cent candies we can buy with two dollars, we are using estimation. Instead of just adding or subtracting numbers according to place value, estimation involves lots of thinking. We need to be able to analyze numbers and then decide whether to round numbers or use front-end estimation. To practice, we chose ten grocery items from a list and then used rounding to estimate the sum or grand total. We had lots of fun sharing our grocery lists verbally with peers. A Math lesson that didn’t involve a pencil...there’s a first for everything :) Growth Mindset - What is it? We used to think that our intelligence was fixed – meaning we were either smart or we weren’t. Scientists have proven that that is simply not true. Instead our brain is like a muscle – the more we use it, the stronger (and smarter) it becomes. That’s growth mindset. To get started learning about growth mindset, we read the picture book The Most Magnificent Thing by Ashley Spires. In that story, the main character has an idea – she wants to make the most magnificent thing. Although she knows just how it will look and how it will work, making it is not easy. Instead she tries and fails. She tries again and fails. After trying several times, she gets mad and wants to quit. After following her dog’s advice and taking a walk, she tries again – and this time she gets it! The story led to a great class discussion about experiences we’ve had when learning something new. We also thought of a time when we weren’t successful at something. We finished the week by making art for the Remembrance Day Ceremony and cards for local police officers who are dealing with grief. A reminder to us of what it means to be a hero.
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March 2020
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