Minor Details - November 9

November 9 - 13, 2020

World Kindness Day - November 13

We have talked since the first day of school about the impact it would have on all of us if this was the kindest year we've ever had. Over the past few months, I have seen great acts of kindness that make me feel so privileged to be part of this group of amazing young people. I brag about them so much that my family and friends are starting to know their names!

Today, in honour of World Kindness Day, we took time to write kind words for everyone in our class. Next week I will compile the kind messages for each student and we'll take time to read them.

If you would like to know more about World Kindness Day, click here.

History - World War I Key Ideas

We are reflecting on key ideas about World War I from the reading we've done over the past 2 weeks. The key ideas are posted in the Google classroom and these will be the basis of our test on Monday. You can find the Key Ideas doc here

Remembrance Day Virtual Assembly

Thank you to Avalon, William L, Ava, Brooke, Anna & Kamron for their leadership reciting World War I poems during the virtual assembly today. They showed courage, commitment and responsibility and were excellent representatives of our class.

Veteran "Thank You" Letters

In the November 11 issue of the The Toronto Star, writers profiled 5 veterans who are currently living in Sunnybrook Veteran's Centre in Toronto. Some students have chosen to write "thank you" letters to one of these veterans and we will send them off in the mail.

The image to the right is of 98-year old Ken Hawthorn who was a pilot in the Royal Canadian Air Force's Squadron 428 - the "Ghost Squadron". Mr. Hawthorn took part in 40 missions over Germany. On D-Day, he flew over the English Channel to bomb inland France.

As a class, we reflected on how lucky we are to live in a peaceful country and our responsibility to be leaders for peace in our class, community and country.

"Why?" by Nikolai Popov

Author Nikolai Popov grew up in Russia during the Second World War. His experiences inspired him to write the picture book Why? to help both children and adults understand the senselessness of war and how easily we can get sucked in to the cycle of violence. His hope is that we all become "forces of peace".

His book has no words. We are working on a creative task to write a new last page to Popov's picture book.

The images from Popov's book are posted in our Google classroom.

News of a 90% Effective COVID Vaccine

We read a news article that explained the Pfizer vaccine that is being developed. It uses RNA to describe one of the "spike proteins" that are on the outside of the coronavirus. Then our immune systems respond by creating antibodies for that spike protein. The tricky part is that the vaccine needs to be stored at -80 degrees C.

Volume of Prisms

Today we discovered that there is one general formula we can use to calculate the volume of regular prisms: area of base x height. Today's notes are posted in our Google classroom.

While we were solving volume problems, we Googled the formula to calculate the area of a regular pentagon and it was the craziest formula we've ever seen!! Look it up!!

Remembrance Day Art

Now that we have added a preserved red maple leaf from the yard at Dewitt Carter, our projects are now complete.

Cylinder Investigation

Today we did an investigation to see whether a cylinder made from a piece of 8 1/2" x 11" paper would hold the same volume of popcorn whether you rolled it "hamburger-style" or "hotdog-style". Half of us were surprised (again)!!

If you want to know the answer, talk with us at home tonight. We're curious what YOU think.

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