Grade 6

Turkey Project

Synopsis

Students are involved in turkey processing day. Parent volunteers brought equipment and walked students through the process. The intention was to help them learn the anatomy of turkeys inside and out, note differences of males and females, understand the process from farm to plate, and note weight differences before and after processing to see how much of the animal is used. They also noted temperature effects throughout the process that tied in to their particle and temperature unit in science.

Alberta Outcomes:

Science:

investigate how particles of matter behave when heated or cooled and analyze effects on solids, liquids, and gases.
Expansion & Contraction
make a hypothesis
gather evidence

Math:

solve problems, using standard algorithms for addition and subtraction.

Language Arts:

Offer relevant information and logical reasoning to enhance collaborative dialogue.
Reflect on and share new, expanded, or adjusted learnings resulting from collaborative dialogue.
Revise or confirm predictions based on new or additional information and sources.
Write to inform, explain, describe, or report for a variety of purposes and audiences.

Charter:

demonstrate safe behavior around animals
identify human uses of animals in our barnyard: Basic understanding of where food comes from.

identify body parts of a turkey

Garden Harvest: Pumpkins

In the spring of grade 5, the current 6s planted pumpkins in the school garden. This fall, the grade 6s were tasked with harvesting and using the pumpkins that grew. The pumpkins were not ripe before the first frost, so we harvested them and put them in the greenhouse to ripen off the vine. By the time Halloween came, most of them were still green, but we carved them into Jack-O-Lanterns anyway. We roasted the seeds with different flavours and tried them all to choose our favourites. We saved one big orange pumpkin for cooking and baking. We worked in teams to make pumpkin soup, pumpkin pie, and pumpkin cake all from scratch. Our puree was a bit watery, but Mr. Chambers taught us how to reduce it to a better consistency. We had a feast that day! Lastly, we saved one pumpkin for experiments. We watched (and smelled) our pumpkin decomposing in a glass jar, and will continue to watch it change over time. We are hoping the seeds sprout in the spring.

Alberta Outcomes:
Math:

Measurement: weighing and ordering pumpkins from lightest to heaviest
using fractions in baking/cooking

Language Arts:

Functional Writing: students wrote a review describing seed flavours
Sequential Reading: following step by step instructions

Science:

The effect of heat on various substances
Electricity
Ecosystems: stages of plant growth and decomposition

Charter Outcomes:

Understanding where food comes
How plants are cared for

How food is produced
Participate in different roles in group work
Interdependency of animals and food

Animal Project

Nathan and Lindsay Hollinda have 3 acres, and are looking to purchase some animals this spring.

They are raising these animals mainly for food. This year they would like to buy young animals in the spring and process them in the fall.

This project will help them decide which animals, how many of each, where on the property to keep them, and purchasing all necessities within a $3000.00 budget.

Animal Project Slides

Students researched thier animal including cost to purchase, feed, needs for shelter and fencing, meat processing and profitability. They then collaborated on an overall plan and budget and presented the plan to Mr. Hollinda. They were kept up to date on how the Hollindas spent the money, and how the animals were doing up until the end of the year.

Alberta Outcomes:
Financial Literacy/Math - working with a budget, measurement
Language Arts - informational writing, text features, oral presentation skills
Science - ecology; what part of the property would be suitable for each animal, toxic plants
Social Studies - collaborating to make decisions

Charter Outcomes:
Understanding animal needsand costs associated for food, shelter and fencing.
Understanding where food comes from (meat & eggs)
Animal Health; making decisions in emergencies, common health issues

Plant Project

Throughout the year, students grew their own plant collection in a variety of ways. They cared for and documented the progress of each plant from September to June. Students started with one propagated plant which they designed a clay pot for, researched the plant type and its needs, and created a plant care tag for it. As the plant grew, they were able to take cuttings to create a new propagation to plant and repeated the process of researchign and creating a plant tag. New plant types were introduced periodically, and some grew large enough to need repotting. Students checked, watered, and fertilized their plants regularly. In the spring they started seeds and bulbs, and moved the plant collection to the greenhouse. Plants included spider plant, angel wing begonia, pathos, aloe vera, wandering dude, deiffenbachia, money plant, pancake plant, and a variety of flowers.

Alberta Outcomes:
Science - ecology; photosynthesis, producers, consumers, decomposers
Math - measurement and entering data
Language Atrs - recording data, informational writing

Chater Outcomes:

Plant identification

Identifying basic needs and costs of plant production

Identifying varieties of plants

"The Game"

Students built a board game from the ground up that tied in with art, math and social studies. First, they measured the barn yard and then scaled it down to fit on the board game. They created game pieces such as money, character pieces, and "option to buy" cards. For each unit in Social, they created new rules that reflected the society we were studying. We had a version for Athens, Haudenosaunee and Canadian styles of democracy. Studetns learned first hand that there must be systems in place for decisions to be made efficiently.

Alberta Outcomes:
Math - measurement, perimeter, metric conversions, geometry
Social Studies - understanding how decisions were/are made in Ancient Athens, Haudenosaunee Confederacy and Canada.
Compare/contrast democratic practices in different societies and times.
Art - experimenting with different meduims to create original pieces.

Charter Outcomes:
Understanding animal needs for shelters; dimensions of pens and buildings.
Understanding costs associated with livestock, shelters, equipment/infrastructure and food.

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