Our grade 4s started off the week with BikeWise Bike Safety training. We all brought our bikes and helmets to school and before getting started, we learned how to check the air pressure in our tires and make adjustments to our helmets. Once we were set we had lots of fun working through different stations that taught us how to be safe while riding our bikes. It’s easy to forget that when we’re riding around the neighbourhood, we’re going to face hazards so we need to know how to respond. A big thank you to LifeCycle and to the City of Surrey for this great learning opportunity. Two weeks ago, we asked some great inquiry questions… it was time to find answers to those questions! Before our internet searches began, we had some great discussions about keeping our eyes peeled for “fake” news and we then spent time exploring different hoax websites (including Dog Island). We also learned how to effectively use search engines, such as Google, and that they work best when we provide keywords, as opposed to questions, in our search. Although it sounds like a lot to absorb, we practiced by setting out on our search for answers to our questions. Many of us brainstormed helpful keywords to use and it didn’t take long for us to find what we were looking for! Who knew that big bumps on trees are called “burls” and that they can be caused from stress (such as fungus or an insect infestation) and that sap on tree bark can be a sign of tree damage (such as disease or fungus). Lots of fascinating information that’ll lead to lots of sharing and discussion next week! Looking forward to inquiry in the weeks/months ahead :) This week also included the Terry Fox Run. We spent time in class sharing what we already knew about Terry Fox and his Marathon of Hope. We then demonstrated active listening while watching a few brief video clips of his story. Terry Fox’s perseverance and message about “anything being possible if we try” really resonated with many of us. It was great to hear students reflecting on his message during our school run. In the few weeks that we've been together as a class, we've been doing a great job following our class values: respect, kindness, responsibility, creativity, inclusion and patience. It's been helpful to have those words posted up on the wall so that we can refer to them when we need to. We've had an enjoyable few weeks of learning and are looking forward to many more....as the calendar flips to October :)
0 Comments
We celebrated International Dot Day this week, a celebration of creativity based on Peter H. Reynolds’ book The Dot. In the story, the main character Vashti doesn’t think she’s very good at art. Her teacher encourages her to trust herself and to “make her mark” with a simple dot on a piece of paper. The next week when Vashti sees her art framed on display at her teacher’s desk, her creative spark is ignited. Vashti feels inspired to explore and create more masterpieces and by the end of the story we see Vashti sharing her art with others. The story has a great message about all of us being able to “make a mark” on the world, whether that be creating art or coming up with new and innovative ideas. To celebrate Dot Day, we made our own masterpieces that included dots. Speaking of picture books, we had some great discussions after reading We Live Here: From the Mountains to the Sea, a non-fiction Indigenous picture book. Although it is a book intended for a younger audience, reading it and learning about First Nations’ relationship to land was an excellent way to build our background knowledge. We then began an exploration of BC’s natural resources, including agriculture, fishery, forestry and mining, and their importance to BC’s economy. But what happens when the pursuit of those valuable resources conflicts with the values of Indigenous peoples? We were left with lots of “wonderings” and are looking forward to exploring further and finding answers to our questions. Part of our Math learning involves weekly stations. These stations involve different hands-on activities, such as games and problem-solving tasks, that reinforce new concepts and are fun at the same time! This week we began working with patterns so our stations included using blocks to make different patterns, rolling dice to determine pattern rules and looking for patterns and pattern rules in Pascal’s Triangle. The open-endedness of the station activities allows for all learners to be successful. We got started with the Daily 5 this week by introducing the first Daily 5 choice “Read to Self.” Although reading to ourselves sounds easy, we live in a world with so many distractions that sometimes it’s hard for us to stay focused! We had a discussion about our need to build stamina while reading independently and we took the time to model inappropriate and appropriate behaviour while Reading to Self. We also came up with criteria to guide us and then we were set to get started. We timed how long we could all stay focused as a group and we made it 57 seconds! But our second attempt lasted for over 2 minutes! Hopefully next week we can make it even longer. A great opportunity for a class goal :)
One of this week’s activities included a story about Norbert the pig, whose dream is to swim the English Channel. Norbert dedicates his time to training, but then realizes that he has a problem: he doesn’t know where the English Channel is! He is ready to give up, but his friends help him by pointing him in the direction of “Norbert’s Channel,” a stream on their farm. Was Norbert done dreaming? Nope! The story ends with a picture of Norbert at the peak of a mountain. It was a great picture book that led us to a discussion about how, like Norbert, we can also set goals, what we can do when we encounter challenges and the importance of persevering. We also talked about goal-setting criteria; goals need to be specific, measurable and realistic. Although it sounded challenging, after seeing several examples of different goals and then working in pairs to practise making goals, we were set to create our own. Like Norbert, most of us will face challenges. We need to remember to persevere and to rely on the support of those around us. Have you ever wondered where sap comes from? Or why chestnuts have a prickly outer shell? Or how spiders make their web? These are questions that we came up with after using our senses to take a closer look at the nature around us. Before heading outside to explore we discussed what makes a good question, and we determined that a good question needs to:
We weren’t outside for long before we started sharing what we observed and what we were curious about. Our next step: finding answers to our questions!
With our class values set and our curiosity sparked, we’ve kicked off a busy year of learning. :) Welcome Back to a New School Year!! We’ve only been back to school for a few days, but already we can tell that we’ve got a great group of motivated and curious kids. We’re looking forward to an exciting year of learning! This week we loved reading the children’s book Only One You and painting rocks. Only One You is a story about a mother and father fish sharing their wisdom and important life lessons with their son as he heads off to explore the world. After reading the story we each painted our own unique rock which included a powerful positive message, similar to those messages shared by the fish. We loved this activity and hope that our rock’s message will be meaningful to whoever sees it. This week also included several different STEM (Science Technology Engineering Math) activities that involved lots of problem-solving, teamwork and perseverance. One of the activities involved using the design process to build the tallest freestanding tower using only marshmallows, spaghetti noodles and tape. It was trickier than we expected! Before building, we needed to work together to create a detailed blueprint that outlined our thinking. We needed to be open to different ideas and try to predict what our challenges might be. We were excited to get started and we knew that we needed to use our time efficiently – we only had 10 minutes! As we were building we quickly realized that we needed a strong base to maintain balance. When our tower began to lean, we made adjustments. It was great to see everyone work together to find solutions. It was a busy, but great first week back to school. Here’s to a great year ahead :)
|
AuthorWe are a curious group of kids who are excited to share our learning with you! Archives
March 2020
|