Our field trip to the Nature Knowledge Festival at Surrey Bend Regional Park was a highlight of the week for many of us. We loved exploring the different stations and learning about adaptations and survival of local plants and animals found in local wetlands. Neil from BCWF Wetlands introduced us to wetland invertebrates and how to identify them and Lynn from Friends of Semiahmoo Bay shared how birds adapt physically in order to survive. We also learned about different animal tracks. We loved spending our afternoon outdoors in nature…and were reminded of the importance of protecting it. We’ve been exploring fractions over the past few weeks and have developed a strong conceptual understanding in the process. This week we used what we know about fractions in art! Our task was to create a picture using small squares and to then describe different fractions. What fractions can you see in our art? Since September we’ve been developing our inquiry skills in Science. We’ve learned to ask questions, make predictions and find answers to those questions by conducting our own experiments in class (a perfect example was our plant experiment: “how does darkness affect plant growth?”). Science Fair is an excellent opportunity to apply these skills, so several of us participated in our school Science Fair…and had loads of fun sharing what we learned!
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To celebrate Earth Day we’ve begun an inquiry into current local environmental issues. In our busy day-to-day lives, we don’t often think about the impact that our choices are having on the environment. That means we have some learning to do. To get started, we each picked one of the following inquiry questions and began researching different perspectives of the issues:
“When plastics, such as straws, do begin to degrade, they release harmful toxins that can pollute aquatic ecosystems and ultimately destroy the environment” Click here “Using a straw, people can reduce their exposure to germs and bacteria” Click here “Trees help absorb storm water” Click here "Removing the correct trees from a woodland area helps maintain forest health and vigor." Click here Although we are very quick to form opinions, we’ve learned that it is important to do research so that our opinion is based on facts, not assumptions. We loved the Design Challenge that our Teacher Candidate (TC) Miss Pannu led this week, which involved building a hammock that is part of the setting in our current class novel Holes. Check out what we built: We’ve also been exploring fractions using pattern blocks. We often think pattern blocks or manipulatives are for those who struggle, but they are actually a great tool that we can use to challenge our thinking. Initially we only saw one way to represent one whole…but when we took a step back, we could actually see many different ways to represent our whole and fractions such as ¼, 1/3, 1/6. We’ll continue to challenge our thinking as we take a closer look at fractions next week.
Learning to code without a computer may seem challenging, but it makes perfect sense when you think about the problem-solving and thinking involved. We got our first taste of coding uplugged with a challenge similar to “The Orange Game.” To play the game, everyone starts with two same-coloured blocks that get mixed up. Players hold out their hands with blocks and then need to work together to rearrange them. Players can only pass to the empty hand of the person sitting next to them. The end goal is to get those same blocks back. During this activity, we discovered that when you don’t work collaboratively, you can reach a “deadlock,” like rush hour traffic. “Deadlocks” are a big challenge in many computer networks so this gave us a taste of why designing networks is so important. To avoid these “deadlocks” we needed to work together. We loved the activity and can’t wait to do it again! This week we took a closer look at thermal energy – energy that comes from heat. Heat involves fast-moving particles and the faster these particles move, the more heat is produced. Bill Nye gave us a closer look with examples of how heat is transferred from one place to another through conduction, convection and radiation. We also saw convection with last week’s food colouring experiment. Division 7 is participating in the 2018 snow plow painting event! This involves us coming up with a design and then painting the snow removal blade. The snow plow was delivered this week…and we got to watch it lifted by a crane onto our school grounds. We had no idea that a snow plow blade weighs over 2000 pounds! Showing support for families & friends of Humboldt Broncos.
Did you know that energy comes from the food we eat? From the sun and wind? From fuel and heat? We certainly do! We kicked off our energy unit with a few non-fiction picture books that introduced us to energy. These books clearly described several ways that energy is produced, stored and transferred. We were fascinated to find out that energy surrounds us! We need energy to make things happen. After learning about different forms of energy, we got to use our creative and critical thinking while designing robots that produce at least three forms of energy. To learn a little more, we asked some deep-thinking questions and began a scientific inquiry to find answers. We also conducted an experiment that involved adding drops of food colouring to different temperatures of water (hot, cold & room temperature). It was fascinating to watch the food colouring spread out quickest in the hot water. That’s because molecules move faster when they are warmer and slower when they are colder. Stay tuned to hear about next week’s experiments! After using arrays in a recent Math unit, we explored how Piet Mondrian (one of the great artists of the 20th century) used arrays in his art. We noticed that his paintings feature specific colours and have a specific style, so we kept those in mind while we created criteria for an art activity. Here’s the criteria that we (students) came up with:
Learning Intention: I can create artwork inspired by Piet Mondrian that includes arrays Criteria:
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AuthorWe are a curious group of kids who are excited to share our learning with you! Archives
March 2020
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