Catch Up

Wondering what we've been up to lately?

In math, we made this delicious sounding fictitious menu to go with The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane. We've been using it to practice our mental math. How does your brain add up a few of these amounts? Is it different from how my brain does it?

This week, we also tried our second SOLE question. 

Grade 4: Why do we not always help Mother Earth?

Grade 5: What is government? Why do we need one?

In the arts, Makarena has been teaching us about the elements of dance. We are gearing up to give useful feedback as we judge dances from So You Think You Can Dance.

Today, we learned about Michelangelo. We also talked about warm and cool colour scheme and long and short brush strokes. We put all of these together to try and create the same drawing twice with two different colour schemes. Just for fun, we did this lying down, just like Michelangelo painted the Sistine Chapel.

In Language this week, we took a break from POW and we did some small reading groups to see how we Text Bust (break a text apart to understand it better). We will have more practice with this soon.

In social studies, we were looking at our wants versus our needs. Tomorrow, Paul Dewar is coming to answer some of our questions. We are really excited to meet him.

Cardboard Carnival!

I could not have been more impressed with the creativity, adaptability, and perseverance of these Awesome Geniuses. Their Cardboard Carnival was a HUGE success! We had quite a few classes come through and play our games. We got some excellent feedback, even from those big grade 6s!

Congratulations everyone!

Cardboard Arcade

Yesterday was a magical day for the Awesome Geniuses. After a meeting with our Tree Families, the students watched this video about Caine and his arcade. We saw how creative and passionate Caine was about his cardboard arcade.
The rest of the day was spent on the stage getting creative, designing, and building.
What did we make? We made a photobooth, a dancing game, a sensory guessing game, a drawing machine, a pinball machine, a boat racing game, a ticket booth equipped with Fun Passes, a claw game, and a few target games. The process from designs to final machines was incredible. Students were able to reflect that they needed to persevere and be adaptable when plans didn't turn out. Some reflected that they got sidetracked and others noticed that they either excelled as leaders or as supporters. It was an awesome day. Tomorrow we will be inviting some classes to come and play at our arcade. We can't wait!

What did we do? We designed and built cardboard arcade attractions.
Why did we do it? We practiced our design skills and addressed Learning Skills needs such as perseverance, passion, collaboration, and creativity. We also did some self-reflection. It helped us to feel like a team too.

These Short Chapters are Driving Us Nuts!!

So, it's been a while since we've written a post. This post will be a mix of things we are noticing and wondering.

We noticed that Edward was feeling really hopeless until he got taken off of the post by Bryce.

We have a lot of feelings about Bryce and Sarah Ruth's dad. Many of us think that he is really mean. Some of us are wondering why he is so mean. He might have been so sad about Sarah Ruth being sick that he wasn't brave enough to take proper care of Sarah and not brave enough to love her. Some of us are wondering about their mother. Maybe she died too and that is why the dad is so broken hearted.

We figured something else out. Someone in our class is reading a different book that takes place in Memphis. In her book, there is a street called Egypt Street. Now that Bryce and Jangles are headed to Memphis, we are wondering if Edward and Abilene will be reunited.

We cannot understand why Pellegrina just left Edward there. We know she knew who he was because she nodded at him.

Why does the next chapter have a picture of Edward in his fancy suit?!?
Why is Edward walking?!?
Why did it all just go black?!?

Arooooooooooo

Poor Lucy. Poor Edward. Poor Bull. Poor Malone.

Some of us are not enjoying how heartbreaking this story is getting. We are happy that Edward is starting to love but, now that he has the ability to love, he also runs the risk of having his heart get broken.

We are noticing some patterns as we read more and more of the book:

Oliver noticed that with every new owner, Edward gets a new outfit. The outfits really match well with the owner: Abilene and the fine silk suits, Nellie and Lawrence with the handmade rag dresses, and now Bull and Lucy with the outlaw's outfit made of handkerchiefs and Bull's hat.

Coralie noticed that with every new owner, Edward also gets a new name and identity. First he is Edward who is fancy and snobby. Next he is Susanna who is loving and a good listener. Now he is Malone, an outlaw that lives well on the road.

We all noticed that with every new owner, the author makes sure to spend some time describing Edward's point of view or, how he can see. With Abilene he could not see above the dining table. He sometimes got placed on his side at night and could see out the window. Other times he would stare at the ceiling or look at his own reflection. With Nellie and Lawrence, he got to sit in a highchair and see above the table. He also got to sit on Lawrence's shoulder and hear and see more of the stars. Now with Bull and Lucy, he gets to look back at the road they just travelled on.

Grace is noticing that with every new owner, Edward seems to be getting more and more poor.

Liani is noticing that once Edward started his journey, he seems to be learning to love more and more with each new owner.

Taylor noticed that with every new owner, the author always adds something in about Edward seeing the stars. We noticed this code before. We are still unsure of why the stars keep getting mentioned.

What patterns have you noticed that we haven't seen yet?

Big Changes in 9 and 10

Chapter 9 & 10

We found these chapters very interesting. We think the one big thing that happened in these chapters was that Edward started to care about other people. We have proof!

• What difference does it make really? Wearing a dress won't hurt me.
• Edward thinks his life with Nellie and the Fisherman is sweet.
• He listened to Nellie's stories.
• His heart broke when Lolly took him away.

If Edward had a Facebook Account, what do you think his status update might be at this point?

• Feeling sad to leave Lawrence and Nellie and really hating that Lolly lady.
• Heartbroken and devastated.
• What's this feeling? It hurts. I've never felt like this before.
• Just got thrown in the garbage face first by some Lolly lady.
• Feeling heartbroken. Just got thrown face first into the garbage can. 
• Where is Nellie? Where is Lawrence? Where am I going?
• Gah! Why did you hold me by the foot? My dress went all over my face. How rude.
• To the town's people and Lolly: Nellie and Lawrence did nothing wrong. Ask yourselves, what might you do if your heart was broken from losing a child of your own?

We think Lolly might have thrown Edward out because she was mad and maybe jealous. She might have been mad that a toy rabbit was replacing her. She might also be mad because her parents cared more about a rabbit and her dead brother than they did for her.

POW

GRA: Chapter 5 Thoughts

When Kate DiCamillo set out to write Chapter 5, she had a specific purpose in mind. What do you think she was trying to achieve in Chapter 5?

• She wanted to write a cliffhanger. Proof: at the end of the chapter, Edward has gone overboard and we are left wondering what has happened to him. ~Addy
• She wanted to create suspense and excitement. Proof: after the boys grab Edward, there is a lot of action where we are worried about what will happen to Edward. ~Oliver and Erin
• She wanted to start Edward's miraculous journey. Proof: Up until now, Edward has been with Abilene and now he has been seperated from her. ~Coralie

Science

Today Owen took the 4s to look at the gears on his bike. They are learning to see how different sized gears make a difference on bikes.

The 5s used marshmallows to look at internal and external forces that act on structures and mechanisms. We used words like compression, tension, and gravity.

Math

Looking to brush up on some numeracy skills at home? Try this game.

The object of the game is to reach 500 on a number line without going over.

Start by rolling two ten-sided dice or picking two numbers between 0-10 at random. Let's say I roll a 3 and a 6. These two numbers will form my starting point. I can choose to start at 36 or 63. I am going to choose 63 since it is closer to 500 than 36.

Next, I will roll one ten-sided die or choose one number between 0-10 at random. This is the number of jumps that I am going to take from my starting point. Let's say I roll a 5.

I can choose to take 5 jumps of 1, 5 jumps of 10, or 5 jumps of 100. 

I cannot take 5 jumps of 100 since that will take me to 563 which is over 500.

I will choose 5 jumps of 10. If I start at 63 and count by 10 5 times, I will land on 113. 

Now, I roll again to see how many jumps I can take and choose if I'd like to jump by 1s, 10s, or 100s.

Play continues until I reach 500 or go bust by going over.

Another option is to play with a partner. Take turns rolling. The object is to be the person that came closest to 500 without going over.

How can you make this game more challenging for yourself?

Language

For most students, today we started a new routine called POW or Paragraph of the Week. Throughout the week, we will be building a well structured paragraph. We start by brainstorming. Next, we write a draft of the body of our paragraph making sure to write about 2-3 different ideas. On the following day, we write an introductory sentence and a concluding sentence. Finally, we edit and rewrite our whole paragraph. 

This week, we are writing a paragraph on something that we are good at.

We are also going to be receiving letters from a class in Toronto. This is actually my niece's class. We are going to be penpals together.

Student will also be starting their slideshow notes with their San Diego buddies.