Mr. Wideman (Room 104) – Oct 21 – Oct 25

This week saw us take on some new learning challenges in Room 104, and we worked hard to persevere and further develop our confidence as learners. We are excited about the interest in our student leadership club, as we were well represented by students throughout the Grade 4/5/6 classrooms. On Tuesday morning, we had a great discussion about the results of the federal election, and we investigated how our voting process works. We made some interesting observations when we compared the percentage of the popular vote to the number of seats that each political party won in Parliament. We also looked at the patterns and trends that emerged through comparing voting results in different provinces and territories.

In Language Arts, we worked to complete our Pixar writing, and we started the process of planning for our own original stories. Our class novel study, Skeleton Creek, provides us with some possibilities for planning and designing multimedia storytelling. We’ll draw inspiration from this novel, as well as other sources of novels, films, and games, as we begin our storytelling project.

In Math, we worked with perimeter, area, and volume, and we further investigated the relationship between all three concepts. While working with a given perimeter, we explored the ways in which the area of different rectangles and squares can be manipulated to increase and decrease the total area. One of our challenges this week required us to design an area for WallBall that would provide the maximum playing surface for our students. We also worked with more estimating strategies and number clues in the “Esti-Mysteries.” Each challenge required us to work with two different estimates and their corresponding clues. Multiplication will continue to be the focus of our computational work this week.

In Science, our Grade 4 and Grade 5 students have input their photos and project descriptions into IRIS. We are further exploring options for planning and designing our upcoming assessment task. In Social Studies we started our exploration of qualities and characteristics that make up “good” maps (and what we can learn from them). Through examining maps from popular novels, films, and games, we worked to identify common characteristics that are essential to our understanding of information presented by maps. How does the omission of these characteristics affect our understanding of maps? Our continued exploration of maps will further provide us with an opportunity to examine exemplary maps, while creating maps of our own.

Please note that our Feedback Friday this week has been shared within your child’s Google Drive. With our focus on maps in Social Studies, we included an assessment task to demonstrate our ability to evaluate the clarity and the communication of information within our sample map.

With Halloween coming up on Thursday, students will be able to wear costumes at school throughout the day, provided that they are school appropriate and do not include masks or weapons. Friday November 1^st will be a Professional Development Day, and there will be no school for students.

Enjoy your Halloween week, and have a fun and safe time on Thursday evening.

-Mr. Wideman

What a great week of learning. The students discussed, debated, observed, and grew in their understanding across all content areas.

Mathematics: The students continued learning about volume and formulas. This upcoming week will see students push their comprehension of volume and multiplication. We have also begun using the strategy CUBES. The students will be able to define it by the end of next week.

Social Studies: We will be using maps to express our understandings and connections of curriculum content. In order to accomplish this, we must think like geographers and cartographers. The students have begun learning about the basic building blocks of maps, with the central idea that they communicate information in a clear and manageable way to viewers.

Science: The grade 6 students completed an experiment that proved that air takes up space. Next week we will look at the different variables in our experiment and discuss what we might control for.
The grade 5 students built their own flashlight and found solutions to creating a button/switch on their own. There were many surprising solutions.

Literacy: This week we engaged in free-writes and wrote outstanding artist statements for their reflection on Among the Hidden and its connections to isolation and connection.

Next week will be very exciting. Please remind the children that they are not to wear scary costumes or have masks that cover their faces.

All the best,
Mr. MacKenzie

Mr. Wideman (Room 104) – Oct 15 – Oct 18

Although this was a short 4-day week, we managed to progress quickly through our topics as we look to complete some of our current units of work. Just a note that we will be visiting the Calgary Public Library book truck this week on Wednesday, and that forms were sent home if your child did not currently have their own library card. We will also be having a meeting with students in our leadership club, as each of our Grade 4/5 and 5/6 classes will be represented by student leaders to help discuss school issues and plan for school events.

In Language Arts, we are close to wrapping up our dialogues for “Smash and Grab,” and these are available to view through your child’s Google Drive. As our focus for this particular piece of writing, we looked at how to structure a dialogue within a story using paragraphing and punctuation involving quotation marks. These dialogues included a brief introduction to the chosen scene from “Smash and Grab,” a short dialogue (6 quotes) between the two characters, and a final paragraph that sets up the events that follow the dialogue. This week, we’ll be further investigating the planning process as we start to consider our own original stories based on themes from the Pixar films.

In Math, we continued to apply perimeter and area, with an additional focus on volume. We'll be starting some work with creating 3D shapes and calculating the perimeter and area of the faces, as well as the volume of the shape as a whole.  This will follow up on our investigations of quadrilaterals and other polygons. We also worked with estimating strategies and number clues as tried to solve some “Esti-Mysteries” involving items in glass jars. These were quick but engaging activities that required students to apply their knowledge and understanding of numbers as we eliminated ideas that didn’t match the criteria given within each clue. Our work with computational strategies will continue, as we begin to expand on our abilities and confidence in multiplication.

In Science, Grade 4 completed work on their “Trash to Treasure” projects, and Grade 5 developed their own projects to demonstrate their knowledge and understanding of electrical circuits. We will continue to work with these units this week, and our goal will be to conclude our work with an assessment task before the end of the month. Social Studies will take us into the world of maps, and we’ll begin the week by starting an exploration of qualities and characteristics that make up “good” maps (and what we can learn from them). Our Google Earth maps investigating ghost towns will also help to form the basis of our work, as we situate ourselves and these communities within their greater provincial and Canadian contexts.

Please note that a letter was sent home on Friday that provides an update on our Feedback Friday work, and the ways that parents can access this work at home through your child’s Google Drive. If you are unable to access your child's Google Drive at home, please contact me and I can help provide support with this.

As always, we greatly appreciate the support that you provide for your child’s learning. Enjoy your week; Halloween is just around the corner!

-Mr. Wideman

Hands On Learning

This week had students taking part in a variety of hands on learning. As talked about in previous blogs the value of this type of learning is like no other.
Hands on learning allows students to put theory into practice. It gives them an opportunity to be independent, make mistakes and problem solves. Hands on learning caters to all students and their learning needs. It promotes reading/writing, kinesthetic, auditory and visual learning.
Learning by doing helps students perform better
Benefits of Hands on Learning


This week in Math students took their knowledge of Area, Perimeter and Volume to design a town that equals 2000cm3. Students worked in groups to design the town, determine the area, perimeter and volume of each building without going over 2000cm3. Students used problem solving skills along with their knowledge addition and multiplication to complete this task.


  

In Social Studies we used Google Earth to explore the different Regions in our Country (Grade 4: Alberta, Grade 5: Canada). Students were able to visually recognize the regions and what makes them unique as they took notes on their learning. By putting these two together students were using their visual learning to help with their writing. We will continue to explore these Regions in the coming weeks with more exciting and engaging activities, make sure to stay tuned!!

                               

Week of October 14th

Hello All,

This past week had students hands-on and minds-on in their learning.

Within mathematics, we reviewed multiplication in the context of calculating area, perimeter, and volume of 3d shapes. Furthermore, the students learned some key vocabulary connected to 3D shapes and space including edges, vertexes, and faces. They practiced their skills through creating rectangular prisms. Next week, the students will be measuring and multiplying length x width x height to arrive at a volume in centimetres cubed. We will also continue our work on understanding 3d shapes.

In literacy, the students continued their work on persuasive writing and debate. You will find that much of their writing is connected to opinion. This upcoming week will help students transition from writing opinion pieces to developing persuasion based on facts and research. We will continue our writing as we learn about the Charter of Rights and Freedoms (grade 6) and Alberta's Regions (grade 5).

In science, the students will continue their exploration of electricity through designing a flashlight. The grade 6 students will dive deep into the charter and begin the process of understanding the origins of democracy.

Our work has all been centered around the concept of empathy. The students are beginning to understand how others are feeling - and are starting to really function like a team. From the teacher's perspective, I have seen significant improvement in how students are treating each other.

This week was outstanding, and I am excited to begin the adventures of next week!

Mr. Wideman (Room 104) - Oct 7 - Oct 11

We hope that everyone had a restful and enjoyable long weekend! This week will be another short 4-day school week, as we continue to have our topics and projects on the go. Just a reminder that School Photo Day will be on Tuesday October 15th, and our family groupings will be meeting on Friday October 18 to further discuss our school focus on "Empathy" as we explore what it is, and how we can show it within our school community and throughout our daily lives.

In Language Arts this week, we will continue to work on creating our dialogues through our viewing of the Pixar short film "Smash and Grab." We have explored the themes of the film, and the ways in which we, as writers, can add further depth and insight into the characters by giving them a personal "voice" through dialogue. As with many of our writing assignments, these are available to you for viewing through your child's Google account. As part of the Feedback Friday focus that we have undertaken at Ron Southern School, I encourage our Room 104 parents to take some time at the end of each week to view our work in Google Docs. This will provide you with an opportunity to discuss the work with your child, while gaining a deeper understanding of the topics and skills that have been our focus on a weekly basis. Our writing assessment checklists are also available through your child's Google Drive account.

In Math, we are continuing to explore perimeter and area, with an additional focus on volume. The students in Room 104 are continuing their project work whereby they have been designing plans for a zoo that incorporates their understanding of perimeter, area, volume and converting measurements. We've begun our investigations of quadrilaterals and other polygons, as well as 3D shapes, and we'll continue to expand on our knowledge and understanding this week.

Through engaging in design thinking and problem solving activities, we have worked to further develop our ability to apply computational thinking as a strategy. This week, we worked with several "unplugged" programming activities that required us to think and plan sequentially in a manner similar to coding for computer applications. We also investigated light sensor color coding by programming Ozobots to follow a series of basic functions and directions to complete tasks. Within the sounds and music of Garageband, we've been expanding our capabilities to express thoughts, ideas, and emotions through the creation of our soundscapes. These projects will continue throughout the week, and Room 104 has been buzzing with creative energy around these investigations.

Again, just a reminder that updates and links to our classroom activities are also available through our Twitter account @ronsouthern45 – (please note that you do not need to have your own Twitter account in order to view our Ron Southern School accounts). 

Thanks again for your continued support. We're looking forward to another great week of learning.

-Mr. Wideman