Understanding the Impact of Earthquakes

In Geography, students are learning about landforms and plate tectonics.

They researched famous Canadian geophysicist J. Tuzo Wilson and wrote a biography explaining his contribution to plate tectonics.

For the next few weeks, students will be using a fantastic application called ArcGIS to create and analyze maps (e.g., plotting all earthquakes that occurred over the past 30 days). This application is used extensively in secondary geography so students have the advantage of an early opportunity to practise using ArcGIS to represent geographical information.

Attentive Listening Article on Qatar

We are continuing to work on attentive listening skills.

Today, students listened to an article about the controversy surrounding the FIFA World Cup in Qatar. There were so many questions that arose out of this reading!

Please take time tonight or over the weekend to have a discussion about some of the shocking information we learned.

Using an Array to Model a "Part of a Part"

A big part of understanding fractions is being able to represent fractions using visual models.

Today, students learned how to represent a part of a part (or a fraction of another fraction) using an array.

This is an excellent opportunity for students to teach parents and guardians about this strategy to make sure they understand. Why not practise the array model by drawing the following expressions:

• a quarter of a quarter

• a third of a fifth

• two thirds of a quarter

Solving Problems with Structures

Students are investigating the form and function of basic structures in order to analyze problems and design solutions. This will be the focus for the entire science unit.

Today, they had to design and build a device to turn on a recessed light switch in our upstairs hall. The device had to be sturdy and not deform during use and fit on a key chain. Here is Kylie's solution.

Understanding the "Whole"

When students were asked the question in this picture, they realized that the amount of money in each bag mattered. While the fraction "a half" is larger than "a tenth", if there was $10 in the left bag and a million dollars in the bag on the right, the value of the money in the bag on the right would be considerably more than the bag on the left.

We then looked at the value of common patterning blocks to determine how the value of each shape changes when the "whole" is changed. This was a new idea for many students and we spent a lot of time making sense of how the value of each piece changes when the "whole" changes.

Biographies, Character Studies, Stereotypes & Drama

Students have written two biographies so far: one on either General Montcalm or General Wolfe and one on famous Canadian geophysicst J. Tuzo Wilson (who is the "father" of plate tectonics).

In our drama unit, students are learning to build characters from something as basic as an image of a pair of shoes. What we are learning is how powerful stereotypes are!

Today, students watched a video of "The Spoon Lady" (click here) and without any research or investigation, they built a character for her.

Their next step is to learn who she is and what her real life story is (click here) and write a biography of her.

Fractions Word Problems

Over the past week, we have been discussing why word problems in math seem to be challenging for many of us. Over the past several years, brain research has provided some answers! We know that the brain is divided into sections that each have specific functions. Signals are sent from one part of the brain to another through synapses. Think about all the processing your brain has to do to decode a math word problem:

• signals from the retina have to be processed

• shapes need to be identified as letters or numbers

• sounds need to be associated with each letter

• value of numbers needs to be processed

• combinations of letters need to be decoded as words

• words need meaning, etc.

Different parts of the brain are required to process each of these tasks! If we hooked our brains up to an MRI while we were solving math word problems, we would see most of the brain "light up" with activity. You can read lots more on how the brain works here.

All this means that we need LOTS of practice to master solving word problems.

Today we did an entry card so students would have evidence to prove what they had mastered so they could decide what their next steps were. Practice problems are posted in the Google classroom.