Quotable Portraits

I realize that my last post was wayyyyyy back in March. I'm sorry dear blog. It is inexcusable.
EQAO is all done and we are getting back on track.
Students are currently working on...
An algebra lesson in math based on a ficticious retaurant we created called Bombdiggity Burgers.
Our space travel brochures
Creating NGOs to suppport the bees (after being inspired by that great documentary)
Creating civilizations called Nacmo, Interpilyon, Smeagol's Valley, Fernland, and Jjetsville.
Along with preparing for Westfest, a potential flashmob, countless field trips, and some future special guest visitors.

We recently completed this art activity based on this strange painting. We talked about how important the eyes are and how much they communicate.

The students then took some time choosing a quote that was meaningful to them. We used mirrors to draw our faces, paying close attention to our eyes. They look amazing and we are stopping people in the hallway with our art. Can you guess whose is whose?

Book Spine Poetry

This morning in 310 we worked on writing instead of doing our usual daily math problem. The students created poetry by finding books in our classroom library and placing them one on top of the other on their sides. The titles on the spine of each book created one line of the poem. The students came up with some amazing poetry; some were funny, others were haunting and one was even a haiku. Below are the students' creations!

Enjoy :)

Tara

Philip

Daphne


Sage

Mohamed

Emma

Velisa

Claire

Julia

Callum

Julian

Mark

Tristan

Jane

Fraser

William

Maddy

Joey

Catherine

Alex

Lukas

Eric

Nadia

February has been a busy month. It has been filled with special guests, field trips, research, dancing, and getting down to business.

Canal Skate

Katherine the Storyteller

Katherine's work with the students has been amazing. It has been so interesting to watch the stories change and take shape. I know that many of the students are feeling nervous about the process, but I am certain that all will come out unscathed and even proud.

Katherine has taught them how to see their story clearly and to notice detail. She has them exploring different persectives and seeing their stories as a movie. Students are learning to "show" instead of "tell", to slow down their stories at certain junctures, how to begin and end effectively, and how to speak aloud for a presentation. It has been a great opportunity.

Here we are practicing decimals and fractions using base ten blocks.

Team Building in gym.

Art with Katherine

Tara has some engaging lessons planned. We have one week left until March Break. Let's make it a good one!

Thank you for sending in all of the forms and money on time. It really helps us out a lot!

PSAs

Hello 310 Community!

Get ready for an onslaught of posting to make up for the piddly effort as of late.
Today, Tara taught an engaging lesson on effective PSAs. We started with a minds on about the different types of drugs the students are aware of. We briefly discussed why people choose to do drugs and some of the ill effects.
Next up, students watched a variety of PSAs and reflected on the target audience and their personal ideas on which ones were more effective. Students are going to be generating a list of elements they feel are necessary in an effective PSA before they make their own skits next week.

Here are the links to the PSAs we watched and discussed today.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uUywiOb5eWk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Vw2ZPfAp8w
http://www.abovetheinfluence.com/ads - "follow your heart"; "sick"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FqG18lTZapg&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=38UeIvQ3YDY&feature=endscreen&nr=1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=0NZGPVBCrjY&feature=endscreen

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nl5gBJGnaXs
^^your brain on drugs - original^^

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iE7ukc7MV-k
^^ your brain on drugs - 90s^^

Capacity and Curling

We started a look at capacity in math. To start, we looked at capacity using non-standard units of measure. For one activity, I had them guess how many of the smaller cups would fit into the large pail.

Today, we looked at standard units of measure for capacity. The small centicube is a mL while 1000 of the small cubes makes 1L. We also talked about other points of reference like a 2L pop bottle.

In Social Studies, we played a game showing the connections between countries involving trade. It showed us visually that all countries are related and what can happen when connections are too tense or even break.

For this lesson in writing, students worked in pairs to find more vibrant words than some of the tired ones we get used to using.

The curling activity was great! Our teacher Lynn was very helpful and explained things so well. A couple of our students already sound like curling experts.

Pig's Lungs

Hello
A nurse named Andrea from the City of Ottawa came today with two sets of pig lungs to demonstrate the dangers smoking and to learn more about the respiratory system. It was a great presentation and the students proved that they already knew a lot about the dangers of cigarettes. We were able to see both sets of lungs in action and the differences in how they work.

This is a cross section of a pig's lung. Many students were surprised to find out that lungs are not hollow. Here, you can see the bronchioles.

This is an anchor chart I created to show how deeply I'd like them to be reflecting in their letter writing.

Tomorrow, I have challenged the students to try and have 100% participation in our agenda routine. I have also said that they can have a pyjama day. Please remember that Friday is a PD Day. Thanks!

New Year

This is the "Big Idea" from an exciting unit we are doing for Social Studies based on the "Canada and our Connections" unit. Tonight, our Social Activists have homework. It is a worksheet that asks them to go on a treasure hunt for objects around your home that come from other parts of our world.

This was a chart where I checked in with the students about what they already know about angles.

We are starting our Letter Writing again. These are the individual due dates for the students.

These are just a few examples from a math activity that we did last week. I gave each student a set of power polygons. Using only these shapes and no other tools, I asked them to identify the angles within each shape. The focus was on identifying angles and on communication in math. They did an excellent job. At this point, all students know and can identify acute angles, a right angle, obtuse angles, a straight angle, and reflex angles. They also know how to measure them using a protractor.