November 2019

November 1st, 2019

Happy November, everyone! Report cards will be sent home in a couple of weeks. Students this week were hard at work, reflecting on their strengths and areas of need along with justifying where they think they are at in terms of learning skills. My hope is that this will serve as a great conversation before and during our parent-teacher conferences that are coming up on November 14th and 15th. An electronic sign-up will be sent out to parents shortly to select a time when we can meet. I look forward to continuing to work together to support the needs of students.  

This week in Language, we continued working on our lives in song. Students have started to create Google Slides presentations to share their nostalgic, identity and motivation songs along with an explanation of their significance through lyrics. Hopefully sometime next week we will have the opportunity to sit down and share our song choices with each other. We also had the opportunity to do a scavenger hunt with our reading buddies. It was nice to see the grade 4s and 5s helping their buddies to read for meaning. Ms. Torres and I look forward to more opportunities to read together for meaningful purposes. Next week, students will be doing a CASI assessment which is a reading assessment where students will read a story and answer a variety of questions to check for comprehension. This is a tool that I use to help understand where students are at and next steps to take in order to support their learning.

In Social Studies, the grade 4s have been continuing to work on their board games. While some are eager to start building, Ms. Dew and I have been taking thing slowly as students continue to make connections between what they would like to build and our learning about Canada. This week, we started a procedural writing activity in Language around recipes to help us with understanding how to clearly write steps so that those wanting to enjoy our dishes could do so easily. Our goal is that by Monday, game instructions will be clearly written and on Tuesday we will start building. We will have to extend the due date for this assignment and it will be updated in Google Classroom, once we have a discussion in class.

While we have been working on understanding the design and inquiry process, we will formally start our Science units this coming week. The grade 4s will be investigating Light & Sound and the grade 5s will be looking at Forces Acting on Structures and Mechanisms. There will be a lot of solutioning as students learn about and make connections to problems happening in the real world, based on these topics. Some may even make connections back to the problem that they have been working on over the last number of weeks in our Design sprint. 

In Physical Education, we are transitioning into Hockey for the month of November. While we've learned a lot about Lacrosse this past month, it's a sport that we will again revisit in the spring and hopefully have a team or club here at Sloane.

In Art, we have started to work on creating Pixel Art. Students are using squares to create works of Art and are considering how value might add depth and dimension to their works. Stay tuned for some amazing pieces that students have been working hard to create. 

A big congratulations to the members of the soccer team in our class who went on to win the championships this week! Fantastic teamwork to accomplish a challenging task! Next week we will be having our first Mindfulness session of the year with Nurse Alanna on Friday. 

November 8th, 2019

Today is Indigenous Veterans Day. Students reflected on the work we have been doing so far, learning about Indigenous perspectives. Over the course of the year, we will be continuing to learn, inquire and investigate for deeper understanding. Next week when you visit, you'll catch a glimpse of our work on the walls outside of our classroom. We're excited for you to come in and see what we've been up to. 

In Language, we took a pause from our Life in Song and jumped into procedural writing to help the Grade 4s understand what is expected of them for their board game instructions. Students engaged in coming up with creative recipes in order to understand how clear and simple we need to make instructions so that everyone can understand. We also read a text to help our mathematical understanding. The text was about the minimum wage increasing to $15/hr. and its impacts on individuals and businesses. 

In Math, we continued to solve a variety of problems using the addition and subtraction of money amounts. We are coming to the end of our unit and will have a culminating task next week. We spent a lot of time this week trying to determine whether or not $15/hr. was a livable wage in Toronto. We started out as a group creating a KWC chart and then independently or in pairs, students used online resources and calculations to justify their answers. During your visit next week, you'll see what we think!

In Design, we started prototyping! Students finished their storyboards, describing their solutions. Students also started creating prototypes that they can put in the hands of their users to test. From physical prototypes, to programs, brochures and websites, there are so many really unique and innovative solutions that are coming to life! The grade 4s also continued designing their board games. We started finally started building and we're almost ready to play! We can't wait for you to come in and see them!

In Physical Education, we continued to play games, cooperatively. This week's game was Dodgeball and we played a variety of different versions as students safely participated to achieve a goal. Next week, we begin our unit on Hockey and 2 students will be facilitating our learning.

Today we had our first Mindfulness session with Nurse Alanna. I was so impressed with what students already remember about different parts of the brain and how they impact the decisions that we make. On Monday we have our Remembrance Day assembly where we will be considering the diverse voices of those who fought hard for the freedoms we now enjoy here in Canada. Please consider joining us if you can. 

November 18th, 2019

In Language this week, we reflected on the significance of Remembrance Day and the power of story. Students were tasked with taking a look at the Veterans Affairs website and asked to pick someone whose story they wondered about. Once finished, they were asked to consider the 5Ws (who, what, where, when and why) and how as they sought to learn more and also summarize their information. We also spoke briefly about the diversity of veterans and that learning about someone whose story may not have been heard before is a powerful way to reflect on whose story gets told. 

In Math, we continued  with our $15/hr livable wage question and the class was split! Half of the groups said it was a livable wage, while the other half said that it was not. Open questions like these are powerful in that they allow students the opportunity to reflect on their own work and also understand some of the strategies used by others, learning from different perspectives. Our next unit - Geometry - will be starting on Monday and will be connected to the work that we will be doing in Art. 

In Physical Education, we are well underway with Hockey. 2 students have been leading the way in facilitating our sessions and it's been great to see them leading our warm-ups and teaching students essential skills. We'll be continuing hockey until the winter break.

Science will be starting next week. I mentioned it in last week's post but somehow time got away from us. We are also in the process of planning a trip to the Science Centre so please stay tuned for permission forms coming home next week.

In Health we took some time investigating different elements of nutrition labels and have been reflecting on healthy and perhaps less healthy options for food choices. Very soon we will be starting our units on Smoking and Alcohol for the Grade 4s and 5s respectively. 

It was such a pleasure meeting with families this week as progress reports went home. If by chance we didn't have the opportunity to meet, my door is always open and I would be more than happy to schedule another time to meet. Your child's progress is very important to me and I look forward to continuing to partner with you as they continue to grow. Thank you for your willingness to share tips and strategies that will help us in this goal. 

November 22nd, 2019

We have officially started our Science units and some students are independently using elements of Design to consider how they may solve problems related to light and sound as well as forces acting on structures. From questioning to gaining empathy, the pre-work that we did at the beginning of the year is paying off as students see themselves as Designers. We've only just started investigating and I can't wait to see what will come. Next week, we are off to the Science Centre for a field trip where we will have a workshop related to our own Science curriculum and an opportunity to explore. I'm so grateful for all of the parents who offered to volunteer, it will allow for students to form smaller groups that will provide them with greater opportunities to explore areas of most interest to them. 

In Language, most students have finished their Life in Song and this week, they had the chance to present them to peers. Students were encouraged to find a spot, sit down with a peer with whom they may not be very familiar, and take some time to get to know each other through song. It was nice to see students learning about each other and next week we'll be spending some time as a whole class learning a little more. 

In Math, we started a new unit on Geometry.  This unit will be tied to what we are doing in Art. We started by thinking of what we already know about geometric concepts. From 2D shapes to properties of lines and angles, students were really on the ball with what they already knew. We continued by looking at artworks by Kandinsky and trying to determine the geometric concepts within. Paired with another student, they were quickly able to identify some of the concepts and started to see that Math is really all around us in the real world. Later in the week, we created our Geometric Concepts wall where students gave a visual and description of each concept. This will help guide us as we start to create our own Kandinsky inspired Art. Students used Google Drawings to start thinking of what they might create using these concepts. 

You may have noticed that we got a little messy this week. We were measuring angles on our tables. Using masking tape, angles were made and we started to measure and classify them. We also used online activities to help us compare angles to benchmarks and to start gaining a greater idea of what obtuse and acute angles look like. Stay tuned to see how we'll continue to build our knowledge and apply these concepts to create. 

In Physical Education, our 2 students continued to lead us in learning to pass, shoot and defend the net in hockey. Students will have the opportunity next week to participate in Try Hockey. We're excited that it connects to what we have already been learning in and it will be a way for some of us to gain even greater skill. 

A lot of time this week was spent on Design. From our Design projects to the completion of  board games for Social Studies, there was a lot of time for students to get their creativity going. Please take some time to ask your child about what they have been doing for their project. It's a great way for them to see the impact that they can have on a larger level. I tweeted about one student's idea this week and he was amazed that an author loved his idea and it got us really excited about thinking about how we can bring these ideas to life beyond the walls of our classroom. These types of conversations empower students to keep going even when they are unsure that their solutions will have impact. It also allows for them to justify their choices in solutions and gives them the chance to consider how they may refine ideas. Ask your child: what problem they are working to solve; what solution they have come up with; and how they think their solution will change the world. They are all working on pitches and we'll soon start to hear them.  

Language was woven throughout our work this week. From students researching properties of light and sound to students researching effects of hurricanes on animals and humans, everyone was hard at work making sense of information online. Students gathered and organized important information in the efforts of helping them better understand their respective Science units.

We also had some time to continue with narratives - from long ago. Students are responsible for creating their own adventure story that will be sure to make us all laugh. On Friday they worked through a graphic organizer to sort out their ideas, making sure to have all of the elements of a great narrative and next week, they will start to write their rough copies. We will be working on editing our work for publishing and hopefully we'll have an anthology that we can all read over the Winter Break.

We will continue to practice next week as we further develop our Kandinsky Art and also incorporate technology for Hour of Code.

In Physical Education, we continued with hockey and also had the opportunity to experience the Try Hockey program from Hockey Canada. Students participated in 3 skill building activities - shooting, passing and stick-handling. It was the perfect connection to what we are already doing in Phys. Ed. We will be continuing hockey for the next 3 weeks and we will have students lead us in Basketball starting in January. 

Our Design Thinking projects are almost ready to go. It's fantastic to see student ideas evolve and it's been great seeing how autonomous students have become as they determine what steps they need to take next as they bring their ideas to life. Hopefully ideas will be pitched next week and we will be able to start thinking about how they may be implemented in our own school community. 

As I mentioned before, Hour of Code is coming up next week. Coding develops logical thinking, creative problem solving, and collaboration, among other skills. Every day, students will be engaging in activities that are connected to the work that we are doing in class or as they work towards developing leadership skills. Please take a few minutes to speak with your child and find out what connections they are making to the work that we are doing and how coding might further develop those future ready skills that we often speak of. 

I can't believe that November has already come to an end. There are 3 more weeks until the break. We have a lot planned and I look forward to it!