Exploring the Regions of Alberta and Canada

This term we have been learning about the different regions within our Province and our Country.
Grade 4's have spent time learning about the different regions within Alberta, the Natural Resources that are found within them, the climate and the landforms.
Grade 5's have been learning about the regions of Canada, the Natural Resources, the climate and the landforms in the regions.

Each grade level has spent time researching on different websites, taking notes and sharing the information that they have gathered. It has been a great way for us to learn how to properly search websites for accurate and appropriate information and how to manage that information.
We have watched videos based on stories of people that live within the different regions. These stories help us to understand how the resources within the region help to bring people their and sustain their city/town/province.
We learned about what happens when those resources are longer there by learning about Ghost Towns.

This unit has allowed us to become experts in the different regions and  has also been a fantastic introduction into what we will be learning about after the break. As we start to learn about our history, the people that made our province and our country we will understand the conditions to which they lived and the places that they travelled.

This coming week we are taking everything that we have learned and we are making topographical maps based on our Grade. We can't wait to put it all together to share with everyone in the school!

Mr. Wideman (Room 104) - Dec 9 - Dec 13

The students in Room 104 have been working hard to finish several of our assignments and projects before the end of the month. The final week before the holidays is almost here, and we have some fun and exciting activities planned for the upcoming days:

Monday - Favourite Sweater Day
Tuesday - Holiday Hat Day
Wednesday - Dress The Same Day
Thursday - Pajama Day - last day of school for students
Friday - PD Day - no school for students

Our work in Language Arts has been connected to our Invention Convention projects in Science, as each student group has completed writing their presentations to share their invention and the real world problem that their designs intend to help solve. Each group included students from both Grade 4 and Grade 5, and this gave us the opportunity to combine our knowledge and understanding of both electrical circuits and waste management to build a model of our invention using our collective designs. During the upcoming week, each group will present their work via Google Slides, as well as a live demonstration of their inventions, and the class will gain a deeper understanding of the ways in which each design helps to solve a critical question related to waste management within the City of Calgary.

     

Through working with Tinkercad, our students continue to explore the elements of planning for design purposes. By incorporating aspects of measurement, converting units, and properties of 2D and 3D shapes, our work with designing practical, but creative, supply containers has helped us to understand the importance of the role that these mathematical concepts play in the design process. Students in Room 104 are evaluating their designs as we investigate the results that our 3D printing has produced, and we're finding that even with accurate measurements, our final products don't always fully match the results that we intended. During the upcoming week, this will continue to lead us into further evaluations and redesigning of our plans for our projects.

Our student teacher, Miss Yanko, has completed her first classroom practicum with us, and she will be returning to Room 104 for March and April 2020. During her time with us, Miss Yanko led several of our lessons in Social Studies, Language Arts, and Phys Ed. We would like to thank her for all of the hard work and support that she demonstrated within our learning community. We're looking forward to having her return in a few month's time.

With all of the excitement that tends to come along with the final week of school, we'd like to remind students to continue to demonstrate the values of empathy that we've been discussing regularly in the classroom, as well as in our family groupings. While many of us have fun and exciting activities planned with family and friends, the holidays can be a difficult time for some of us too. By understanding the different feelings and perspectives that the holidays bring, we can all gain a better understanding of each other as well.

Take care, and enjoy the upcoming week!

-Mr. Wideman

December 13, 2019

Parents,
What a busy and outstanding week! The students have been digging deep into their learning. Below are the subject areas and some key learning notes about what we have learned so far, and where we are going. All the best, and have an outstanding weekend!

Mathematics:
We have been learning about pattern rules in math. For this, students have been looking at input/output charts. There are additional practice questions available within our class google drive.

Essentially, the students are learning to think algebraically. For example, if we look at the expression 2 x n + 5, we can input any number for n and arrive at an answer. If the value of n is 3, we would multiply 2 x 3 = 6. Then we would add 5: 6 + 5 is 11. In the upcoming week, students will continue unpacking the difference between an expression (2n + 5) and a pattern rule (the output is increasing by 2).

Literacy:
The students have been learning how to create engaging and impactful lead sentences. They learned a few strategies including using a question, using a quote, and using strange or unusual facts. We practiced through examining the book we are reading as a class, The Giver, and writing headlines for different important parts.

In the upcoming week we will continue with this work. I have noticed that many students are writing in run-on sentences still, and so we will need to take a step back and look at different types of sentences. We'll connect this to coding, to The Giver, and to newspaper writing in general.

Science: The grade 5s have been researching clouds for their upcoming cloud guide project. They are looking at different ways to classify clouds. This week, they will begin creating their cloud guide and they will learn about different ways clouds are created.

The grade 6 students are continuing to learn about air and aerodynamics. They have been studying Bernoulli's principle, and they have been learning about oxidation and the carbon cycle.

Social Studies: This is the work that came home today. The students have been constructing and understanding about democracy in Ancient Athens (grade 6) and building a Canadian Identity (grade 5). For this, the students have been constructing "Chap Books".

Have an outstanding weekend, and be sure to check the school website for all of the amazing events planned by the leadership club!
All the best,
Mr. MacKenzie

Science Exploration

Our Science over the last couple weeks have given students the chance to further their knowledge in multiple areas.

Grade 4 

Grade 4's have been learning about lights and shadows. We have been experimenting with a variety of materials to determine what is transparent, translucent or opaque. We have been investigating the difference between reflection and refraction through the experimentation process. Ask your child what the difference is and an example of each. The Grade 4's have been enjoying the hands on activities throughout this learning process. These activities have allowed the Grade 4's to understand how these concepts work and feel the different materials that interact with light.
Of course, the snowy weather put a damper on some of our fun with shadows but we made due! Instead of going outside to experiment with our own shadows we made our own shadow people out of tinfoil and used the flashlights to act as sun as we learned how shadows are made and how light impacts the size, shape and location of a shadow! Make sure to check out our IRIS pages for our videos we made. Students have one more final project where we will be combining all of our knowledge to make an optic device. Stay tuned....

Grade 5

Grade 5's have been working on an all encompassing project to learn about the Wetlands. Each student was assigned a wetland that they are becoming experts in. We spent time researching our wetlands and looking and pictures or watching videos to help us become experts. We then wrote a research paper to show how we manage and evaluate information. We then teamed up with experts in other wetlands to make a beautiful mural showcasing the beauty of our wetlands. Students will next take their knowledge of animals in their wetland to make a lifecycle of one specific animal and a quick writeup about why they are essential to their wetland. We then get to make our animal on the 3D printer!!! Next week we will be teaching each other, the Grade 4's and hopefully other students at Ron Southern about our wetlands. Make sure to ask us what we have learned!

Mr. Wideman (Room 104) - Dec 2 - Dec 6

We hope that everyone is getting a chance to be outside enjoying the sun and the (not too cold) weather conditions. The upcoming week looks decent temperature-wise, but we encourage all families to ensure that students arrive at school with a warm coat, hat, and gloves. As we know, the wind chill here in Calgary can make things feel especially cold outside! For any misplaced items at school, chances are that they can be located in our school lost and found. The holidays are just around the corner! Please note that Thursday December 19 will be the last day of classes for our students. Friday December 20 is a Non-Instructional Day at Ron Southern School.

We concluded our creative story writing with a partner review/edit, and we shared feedback about the strengths of our writing, as well as areas for further growth and improvement. These stories are available for review at home through Google Drive. We know that many of our students had an opportunity to work on these stories at home and have a parent review their work with them, and we definitely appreciate your support. If you were unable to locate the editing checklist through Google Drive, please take a look at the following:

The checklist follows the same template that we used for our Pixar writing, so the students have used this format for editing previously. Our next steps in writing will take us into research and report based projects, and our investigation of the Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus helped to develop our understanding of the importance of critical exploration and questioning the accuracy of online resources. As we continue to conduct research on Alberta's regions and the physical regions of Canada, we'll be spending time conducting fact checking and comparing resources in order to ensure that we're locating information that is both accurate and useful for our purposes.

Our exploration of multiplication and division approaches and strategies will continue this week, and some of the work that we sent home in our yellow Weekly Review folders demonstrates the "Big 7" method for division. We included a video in last week's blog post that demonstrates this method, as well as several others that we'll be exploring over the next week. Our goal is for students to come away with one strategy that makes the most sense to them, as they should be able to explain how their chosen method works and why it's the best method to add to their personal bank of math strategies. If you'd like to review another video that demonstrates the Big 7 Method, please check out the following:

In Science, we're wrapping up a combined grade 4/5 project that brought us back into the worlds of Electricity (Grade 5) and Waste Management (Grade 4). In mixed grade teams, our students are planning, designing, and building models of inventions that function to help solve a real world issue around waste management for the City of Calgary. Within each team, the Grade 4 students bring their knowledge of Waste Management, while the Grade 5 students apply their understanding of electricity, switches, and circuits. The project involves both the design of a electrical powered prototype, as well as a presentation to be shared that describes the purpose and the practical function of the design. Stay tuned for the final reveal of these projects!

Thank you for your continued support. Enjoy the upcoming week!

-Mr. Wideman

Mr. Wideman (Room 104) - Nov. 25 - Nov. 29

Happy December! As we move into the last few weeks before the Winter Break, we have some important and engaging activities planned for Room 104. Our school wide initiative around Empathy takes center stage over the next two weeks, as all of our family groups will be collecting donations for the Calgary Food Bank. From December 2 to December 12, our students will be delivering their donations to their family group classrooms as we will be counting and building with these items during our family group meetings on Friday December 13. Thank you for your support of this important opportunity to help families in need during the holiday season.

Have you heard about the Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus? This rare (very rare) species of octopus inhabits the west coast of B.C. and Washington, and has been nearly hunted to extinction by local house cats, bald eagles, and the Sasquatch. Or has it? Students in Room 104 have been researching the Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus while evaluating the validity and usefulness of information shared online. By evaluating websites and determining whether or not the shared information is accurate and updated, we are learning to become more critical and thoughtful when we conduct research using online resources. If information is published online, can we assume that it's true? What are the indicators of a legitimate, authoritative website?

Our work in Math this week will take us deeper into the world of division. We will be exploring three main division strategies during the upcoming weeks; the traditional long division algorithm, the Box Method, and the Big 7 Method. To help familiarize ourselves with these methods, we will be using video demonstrations as part of the learning process. Here are three videos that introduce each of these different division methods:

Long Division Algorithm

Box Method

Big 7 Method

Our project work in Science and Social Studies will conclude this week, and we're looking forward to sharing this work during the Weekly Review (Feedback Friday) activities at the end of the week. Please note that the yellow Weekly Review folders should be signed and returned to school at the beginning of each week (on Mondays, if possible). In addition, thank you for taking the time to discuss, review, and edit the creative story writing in our Google Drive folders. These will wrap up this week.

Thank you for your continued support. Enjoy your week!

-Mr. Wideman

Math Problem Solving

Students in Mrs. Burton's class have been focussing on our problem solving skills. Developing and strengthening these skills will help students with their mathematic problem solving as well as their inferencing.
This website discusses some of the benefits to problem solving and the value in teaching it to our students. Problem Solving 

We used the CUBES acronym to help guide our focus in this process.

Students began by focussing on identifying what is being asked of them. They quickly realized that once you were your way through the first 4 steps it is easy to see that the rest of information was just being used to trick them!
We worked through numberless word problems that allowed us to not be hung up on numbers and instead focus on identify what operational clue words were within the text. The next step was to use the same numberless word problems and put numbers in them. This way students new what was being asked before having to focus on the numerical equation. We were then ready to become Math. detectives and solve a variety of word problems.

As we begin to practice and prepare for the Grade 6 PAT exams the ability to identify what is being asked and recognize what is not important will be a valuable skill.