Week 5

Math is Everywhere! 

This week we integrated Math into our outdoor learning time. This activity supported students to deepen their understanding of measurement by calculating the area and perimeter of different leaves ( irregular shapes). This activity required students to use their estimation skills in order to calculate the approximate area and perimeter of different leaves they found in their local environment. Our next steps will be to explore the relationship between shape, area and perimeter. Here are our guiding questions:

Does the leaf with the largest area have the greatest perimeter? Does the leaf with the smallest perimeter have the smallest area? Is there a relationship between area and perimeter? Why or Why not? 

Learning Intention:

I can identify general characteristics that distinguish trees from other plants, and characteristics that distinguish deciduous from coniferous trees.

During our Science block, students were given an article to read which outlined common characteristics of deciduous and coniferous trees. Once they had read and located the information, students were asked to represent their understanding using a Venn Diagram to compare and contrast the two types of tree.

This week, students worked on their land acknowledgement by adding their drafts to a Google document. As a class, we worked on incorporating variety of sentence types and structures as students learned about sentence fragments and run-on sentences. Our learning objectives for the week included: 

-       I can compose and organize texts using consistent writing and word processing skills. 

-       I can make connections between life themes and experiences to create text. 

-       I can enhance meaning of created text by using appropriate word choice. 

  

Orange Shirt Day/Truth and Reconciliation Week. 

In honouring Truth and Reconciliation week, students in grade 5/6 had an opportunity to acknowledge the history of residential schools in Canada, and to reflect upon their role in reconciliation.  As part of our learning on Orange Shirt Day, we looked at a historical perspective of the residential school system and compared it with a current media text that represents an accurate account.  

 

Canadian Residential School Propaganda Video (1955) 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_V4d7sXoqU 

Gord Downie – “The Stranger” (2016) 

https://www.secretpath.ca/ 

 

Students reflected on both videos and discussed as a class, and in small groups, the differences and similarities between the two videos. Using their critical thinking skills, students evaluated the intended audience and purpose of each video. 

 

 

In completing our analysis, students took a few moments to reflect on how students ‘should feel at school,’ and added their idea to a paper feather, which will be included in a whole-school collaborative art piece. 

Here is a snapshot of our learning, written collaboratively by the students:  

“We observe Orange Shirt Day because people didn’t have a say about attending residential schools and bad things happened there.  We need to remember the survivors that went to the residential school, and to honour the ones that did not make it. We need to acknowledge the mistake that was made, and to apologize to those people for what was done. It’s part of our history and we should learn about it. We should acknowledge dark times of our past because it makes us who we all are today."