October 2019

October 4th, 2019

We are into October already! What a week it has been.

In Language, we celebrated Orange Shirt Day on Monday by starting an inquiry into our Land Acknowledgement. 

“We acknowledge we are hosted on the lands of the Mississaugas of the Anishinaabe, the Haundenosaunee Confederacy and the Wendat. We also recognize the enduring presence of all First Nations, Métis and the Inuit peoples."

We hear it every day on the announcements but what is its significance? Why might it be important to acknowledge the land? Who are the Anishinaabe? The Haudenosaunee Confederacy? The Wendat? What are treaties? How might a deeper understanding help us in our efforts towards reconciliation? What is our personal responsibility around truth and reconciliation? We're just getting started on this very important conversation and using texts to support our understanding and inquiry.

In Math this week, we continued our investigations around data, specifically practicing the creation of stem-and-leaf plots; learning about the mode, median and mean; and today we started to work on broken-line graphs based on our homework for this week. Next Friday we will be having a quiz on what we've learned so far and a practice sheet will be sent home on Monday for students to practice at home during the week. The sheet will be taken up on Thursday as we prepare. Friday's quiz will have the same format as the practice sheet; the only difference will be the values of the data. 

In Social Studies, both grades 4 and 5 students dug into learning about the 6 major parties in Canada, their policies and trying to best determine which aligns with their beliefs. Last week I mentioned that we are going to be having our own Student Vote here at Sloane.  As the weeks progress, we will be continuing to dive into the issues and consider ways in which we can make an educated decision about who to vote for. Parents can support students in having conversations around the issues that are of significance in the upcoming election along with helping students to understand their family's political views, beliefs, and reasons why.  

In Visual Arts, we are continuing our work around value and there are some amazing animal portraits coming to life. The next element we will be working on is shape. We will be considering how shapes are used to create works of art and how mathematical concepts are also an important part of Art. 

This week, in Physical Education, we had our first student-led sessions on Lacrosse. 2 students guided us in fast-paced warm-ups and then taught us how to throw and catch using a Lacrosse stick. We were so excited about the opportunity that we ended up doing a double period of Physical Education on both of our days this week. For the month of October, these students will continue to guide us and next month, we have another 2 students who are eager to get us learning about and playing Hockey.

The grade 4s have been hard at work on helping others to understand their passions through their projects. This week we spent some time around digital literacy and the creation of a website. Although sites are not to be published, students are learning about important elements to include on their site and ways in which to make it interesting for readers. As we progress through the year, their sites will further develop as they grow by engaging in what makes them truly passionate. 

On Thursday, students participated in an anti-bullying presentation, The Power Of One. The main message of the presentation was that every child has the Power of One, the power to report and deal with bullying when they see it. We continue to build our classroom community and this valuable presentation was a great way for students to consider the impact they can have to end various forms of bullying. 

It's been a very busy week and I wish students and families a happy and restful weekend. Happy October!   

October 11th, 2019

Today is the first PA Day of the year. While teachers were hard at work in the building on how to improve learning for students, it was certainly different being here today without the amazing students that I get to work with every day.

This week in Language, we continued to learn about treaties and started to think about rich questions to ask as we begin to inquire why this learning might be connected to our character trait of responsibility. We spent some time working through what we think rich questions should be. When finished, we listened to an online version of We Are All Treaty People, and started generating questions related to the reading. Next week, we'll sort our questions and start to consider a rich inquiry question that we want to investigate further as we think about our responsibility around reconciliation. There was no Day 4 this week so we didn't have the opportunity to do our What's Going On in This Picture this week. Interested in trying this activity at home with your family? Here is the link! Take some time to answer the questions before scrolling down since the answer has already been posted.

We're almost at the end of our first Math unit - Data Management. This week, students continued to conduct surveys and graph their data, including interpretations about their survey responses. On Monday a (long) review sheet went home about next week's quiz. Students were given data and asked to perform a variety of tasks based on what we've been learning so far. While they will be given data for Wednesday's quiz, the grade 4s are responsible for:

• creating and interpreting a double bar graph;

• creating a stem-and-leaf plot;

• determining the mode and median of the given data.

The grade 5s are responsible for:

• creating and interpreting a broken-line graph;

• creating a stem-and-leaf plot;

• determining the mode, median and mean of the given data.

While calculators will be available for students to use, it is important that they show all steps of their work to get full marks. The quiz will take on the exact format as the review sheet sent home last week. We will also have some time on Tuesday to take up any questions that remain.

In Social Studies, we participated in a shared reading activity where students read about the upcoming election and some of the issues at the forefront of the election. Next week students will be tasked with understanding the different levels of government and their responsibilities, as well as taking some time to identify and research local candidates as we approach our own student vote coming up, next Friday.  

The grade 4s have been playing games! Well, board games - not bored games! We've been on the hunt to discover different games and what the essentials are for a fantastic board game. The reason that we've been doing this is because we will be creating our own board games about Canada. While we've done quite a bit of research about Canada, students will be doing some more to construct their own games. Culture Grams is a great site that was shared with us by Ms. Dew and is another site that we will use as we continue to understand and learn more about our great country and its history. Next week we will be working on constructing our success criteria for our games and then the building will begin. Stay tuned.

In Visual Arts, we're still excited about our Querkles. We continued to focus on value this week as we prepare to mount them and put them on display in our classrooms. 

In Physical Education, we continued with learning essential skills for Lacrosse. From scooping and passing to cradling and catching, we're having a great time learning a new sport and it's pretty fantastic that it aligns with our learning about different Indigenous groups. Next week we'll be digging into the history of Lacrosse. Here's one article from Macleans should you wish to start conversations at home. 

In Health we began reading an article about a 2015 Canadian study about what students are eating during school hours. As we look at the choices that we are making in relation to health, we are also going to consider the factors that impact those choices. 

This week we were lucky to have some great time with our reading buddies and a performance of the Three Little Pigs which was also great fun. Some students have also been training at the library to be helpers and have been a great help to Ms. Dew in checking in and out books as well as shelving them. Next week, we have a few students out for cross-country and soccer. It's really fantastic to see them engaged in a variety of opportunities here at Sloane. 

Have a happy & safe long weekend!

October 18th, 2019

The weeks fly by but when we have a short week, it really flies!

In Language, students were preparing themselves for today's Student Vote. Tasked with finding out information related to the candidates in our local riding, students were asked to consider who they would be voting for and to justify their reason why. After carefully taking the time to investigate the candidates' platforms and having in-depth conversations in class, students made their decision and casted their votes. These votes will be tabulated along with votes from students across Canada and on Monday, the votes will all be counted and we'll have the opportunity to compare the Student Vote with actual election results. 

In Math we had our Data Management Quiz. Quizzes will be returned on Monday and students will be asked to share their results with their parents and return the signed quizzes by Friday. We also started a new unit around money. Students were asked to identify what they already know about money and in a quick diagnostic, students were asked, given $12 for lunch and menus, what they would order and how much change would you receive? Great questions about tax and how to add and subtract decimals came from this question. As we progress through the unit, students will learn real-world examples of earning and using money, as well as budgeting. 

In Social Studies, the grade 4s have begun designing their board games. We ran through an ideation exercise of Crazy 8s where they were tasked with coming up with 8 innovative ideas in a short period of time. The crunch was on and it was an intense period but some really great ideas came out of the activity. Today, students finished storyboarding their ideas using the question: How might we create an innovative and unique board (not bored) game about Canada; that teaches others about its regions, its people and significant activities within it? We also co-created our success criteria which has been added to Google Classroom. Due on November 8th, we can't wait to build and play these amazing games. 

In Art, we're finishing up our Querkles and mounting them. This week, we also took some time to use Tangrams. The goal was to get us thinking about using shape to make images. It was a really challenging activity for some of us, that got better as we continued to practice. This will come in handy when we are looking at investigating shape in Art. Interested in an online version of tangrams? Check this one out. 

In Physical Education, we continued with Lacrosse. We played a game similar to handball but with scoops to try to see if we could catch, throw and defend the net when we got locked out of the shed. Hopefully next week - weather permitting - we'll have the opportunity to use the skills we've been learning to start playing a real game. 

In Health, you may have noticed that we've been recording what we've been eating every day. We'll continue to do this for a week as we start thinking about the choices that we make and connecting them to reading food labels, where available. This week we read a Report Card on Health and students reflected on who/what helps us make choices when it comes to food and at what point do those influences change. 

You may have noticed this week that students were asked to have a lot of conversations at home. Families are foundational in developing our belief systems and helping us to be able to understand what we value most. It's through these conversations that we are able to learn and communicate with others. I've asked students to have discussions around the elections and money. Students also brought home a couple of resources related to money that we will be looking at in the classroom. Supporting students in having these conversations allows us to have great conversations that are deep and meaningful and I will continue to ask students to have conversations at home to support the learning happening in the classroom. 

Next week we will be having discussion in class around Halloween. A third of the students in our classroom do not celebrate Halloween and as we continue our work around inclusivity, we're finding ways to be mindful of the differences within our classroom space. We will keep you posted. Please check the What's On At Sloane page to see what we have coming up over the next couple of weeks. 

October 25th, 2019

I can't believe that it's the last entry for this page. The month of October has been a great one for us. We're building our classroom community and understanding the importance of voice, our rights and responsibilities. Today we had a conversation around Halloween and how we will choose to celebrate the day. Many in our class do not celebrate Halloween and we are making sure that we are being inclusive of all members of our classroom community.  In the afternoon, students who wish to wear costumes will wear them. We will continue with a Physical Education activity after lunch and the period before recess will be an opportunity for students to do an Art activity, Coding activities or a STEM challenge. 

In Math, we continued with representing, adding and subtracting money amounts. We looked at place value and are starting to understand that numbers before the decimal represent whole numbers, while numbers after the decimal are parts of a whole. We're also learning that there are different ways to represent money amounts both using coins and bills as well as using Base Ten Blocks. We had a couple of challenging questions this week, looking at purchases in stores as well as the planning of catering for an event. Students were introduced to a KWC chart which allows them the opportunity to write down what they know, what they want to know and what conditions will help support them in answer in the question. This is a strategy that we will continue to use as we look to solving multi-step problems involving money amounts. Practice at home with looking at money in real ways is a great way to support the learning happening in the classroom. Students can get involved in taking a look at flyers if you use flyers to help with planning for grocery shopping. Finding out the unit price of items is a great way for them to get practice using a calculator and understanding the differences in value (i.e. 3 juice boxes cost $1.49 while 5 cost $1.99 which is the better value?).

This week we got back to our Design Thinking Challenge and were interviewing peers and taking a look online for articles or news reports relating to our issue. The goal was to be able to develop greater empathy for our users and to really identify how it is impacting their lives. Students also learned about User Personas which are created after several interviews and allows them to consider the type of user they would like to build a solution for; and what that user is doing, saying, thinking and feeling about the issue. Next week, it's all about ideation. Students will start to come up with ideas for innovative solutions.

In Physical Education, we tried to play a game of Lacrosse and are learning more about the rules as we go. Now that we've got some of the skills down pat, we're trying to put it all together and see if we can get a real game going. Next week, we will take some time to briefly watch a game to help us better understand how we can further develop our skill. In November, we will be having 2 students who will be facilitating our learning about Hockey.

In Health, students documented what they ate for a week and we started to take a look at what we eat most often and how we make decisions around what we eat. At this age, we know that parents have a significant role in what we eat. Wee we're also reflecting on some of the factors that contribute to those choices and how we can continue to develop healthy eating habits over time. These discussions have been really fantastic and we haven't moved on to our food labels yet but they are up next!

On Tuesday we had some intense conversations around the election results. We compared our school's Student Vote data to Canada's Student Vote data and to the actual election results and there were many surprises and great conversations around what the actual results may mean for the future. We've been having real conversations about what is happening in the world and it's so incredible to see students reflecting on and speaking about real issues that impact their lives. 

In Visual Arts, our Querkles are going up on display in the hallway and they are stunning! We can't wait to have parents come in for interviews in the next couple of weeks and see the hard work students have done learning about and representing value. 

The grade 4s are closer than ever to being ready to build their board games! Plans have been made and material lists have started. After some intense feedback sessions, students are well on their way to creating board - NOT BORED - games that are going to be incredible. I really am excited to play them!

Have a fantastic weekend!