Wondering

Please start by filling out the "How do you feel today?" form.
Today I would like you to explore these links to Wonderopolis questions that match the Science units we are investigating right now.

In the comments section, write a summary of one of the questions. Please remember to sign your name and answer with full sentences that start with capitals and end with proper punctuation.

Grade Four Questions
Solar Lights
Music and Mood
Changing Colour
Vision Impairment and Technology
Night Vision

Grade Five Questions
Crackling Wood
Helium and Voice
Plasma Ball
Beginning of Earth
Diamonds
Quicksand
Matter
Hot Foggy Water

Geometry, Light, and Sound

We are looking at geometry in math with a focus on what properties shapes have and how we can use those properties to describe, compare, and understand shapes. We started with an activity to see what we already know about quadrilaterals and triangles. It seems we know a lot about sides but need to learn some more about the angles. We also need to learn more about the specific kinds of triangles (grade 5) and quadrilaterals (grade 4).

Today we looked at some of the benchmark angles and took a look around our room for examples. In looking, we noticed that there are a lot of right angles in our room because our room is full of squares and rectangles. That got us thinking: if the triangle is such a strong shape, why do we have so many squares and rectangles in our building? Well, I asked a carpenter that happened to be in our room after school and I've got some data that we can talk about tomorrow.

Sorry for the orientation of these pictures! Bonus question: how many degrees would I have to turn these pictures to get them to face the right way?

What is happening in these pictures? Only the grade 4s will know. Ask them and see what they say!

One Word

To help us stay focused for the rest of this year, we are going to be picking "One Word".

To help us find this word, we spent some time today slowing down and looking in 360 degrees around our brain, instead of shooting up our ladder of inference and rushing at finding a word.

Here are some of the mental maps we created when we thought about what dreams we have for the year 2015.

Next, we are going to take a step back from our maps and find a word that will help us focus on these goals. Stay tuned!

Ladder of Inference

Yesterday, we learned about our "Ladders of Inference". This was a tricky video so we watched it a few times and asked a lot of questions.
We are learning about our "Ladders of Inference" to help us understand some of the things that happen in our brains on a daily basis. We are going to use this information as we learn about new things and open our minds up to more questions.

After watching the video a few times and discussing it, students were challenged to write a thirty word summary. They are then going to work in a group to try and collaborate on one "super" answer from all of their combined work.

No matter what I tried, these just did not want to turn around for me. Sorry!

Pair Share

We are going to be reading independently and then sharing about what we've read with a partner. We are doing this so that we can practice checking in for understanding and practice speaking and listening to others about things that we are thinking about.

You'll know you have this if you are staying on task and completing all of the steps. You'll also know you have it if you are listening to your partner and can understand and repeat what they've talked to you about.

This should also help you to dig deeper into your reading.

When we do this, you will read for 10-20 minutes. Then, you will get together with your partner and do all three of these things:

1. Summarize what you read during their independent reading time.
2. Read a page aloud to your partner.
3. Answer the posted comprehension question.

When we finish, we will get together as a group and a few of you will:

1. Summarize what your PARTNER read to you that day.
2. Explain how your PARTNER answered the comprehension question.

Busy Bees

Here are some things we've been working on.

In math, we are all working really hard to truly understand decimals and fractions.

Here are some things we know to be true:

1. Numbers to the left of the decimal are whole numbers. Numbers to the right are pieces. The different positions of the numbers mean different sizes (whole, tens, tenths, hundredths, etc.)
2. One tenth, 1/10, and 0.1 all mean the same thing.
3. One hundredth, 1/100, and 0.01 all mean the same thing.
4. It is called a tenth because it takes ten of those same sized pieces to make one whole.
5. It is called one hundredth because it takes one hundred of those same sized pieces to make one whole.
6. Ten hundredths is equal to one tenth.
7. When counting by tenths, you go from 9 tenths to 10 tenths. 10 tenths is equal to one whole so after 0.9 comes 1.0, not 0.10.

For this artwork, we were working on creating different shades and tints to create depth. We were also working on brush control by anchoring our arms as we painted and by treating our paint brush bristles with care (loading paint, painting in one direction, looking at the edge of the paintbrush as we paint).

We are now moving on to fractions. We are working on understanding what the bottom number means and how it is different from the top number. We are going to use these flags that we made with 3 non-congruent shapes to help us understand this concept.

In writing, we are going to be making brochures for specific audiences to tell them about Churchill. We are hoping that they will get used by the school.

Next week, we will have some sing a longs, do some crafts, continue math, write brochures, and go on a fancy shmancy field trip. Yay!

Hour of Code