Week 35

 In ELA this week, students were introduced to two literary techniques to enhance the mood, character, setting and/or action in their writing.  

  

A synecdoche device can be used in writing for two purposes: 

1. Describe a part of something, which acts as a representation for the whole 

e.g.  The phrase "hired hands" can be used to refer to workmen. 

e.g. The word "wheels" refers to a vehicle. 

  

2. Describe a whole of something to refer to a part 

e.g. At the Olympics, you will hear that the Canada won a gold medal in an event. That actually means a team from Canada, not the country as a whole.   

e.g. The word "police" can be used to represent only one or a few police officers. It does not refer to the entire department. 

Students also learned about hyperboles.  Hyperboles are a deliberate UNREALISTIC exaggeration for comic or dramatic effect. They are used in speaking and writing for effect or to make a story more interesting and exciting. They are not meant to be taken literally. 

  

  

  

Math 

In math, students continued with fractions, and practiced comparing fractions with the same denominator and numerator.  They also looked at how to create equivalent fractions through multiplication and division. Students will continue to explore fractions next week by comparing fractions with different denominators. Grade 5 students will then compare fractions to decimals, while Grade 6 students explore improper fractions and mixed numbers. 

Science 

Learning Intentions: 

• - I can recognize that streamlining reduces drag and can predict the effects of specific design changes on the drag of a model aircraft or aircraft components. 

 

Key Questions: How can design changes affect drag?

 

This week in science, students finally got to test their streamlined dart planes. Before they started their testing, we discussed streamlined designs and shapes of things like fast cars, downhill skill racers and jet planes. We discussed how their design choices have been made to create a streamlined shape to avoid drag. With this knowledge in mind, students were ready to test their dart planes. Their first task was to fly the plane without any modifications to the original design and record the distance it travelled 3 times. For the second trial, students were asked to make a slight modification (add rear flaps that create drag) to the original design and then measure the distance their plane flew 3 times. Students could clearly see that when drag was increased, that both the distance the plane travelled, the speed and overall balance were impacted. 

 

 

Parachute Design 

Learning Intention: 

• - I can conduct tests of a model parachute design and identify design changes to increase effectiveness of the design. 

We learned that: 

• - When an object falls it pushes air out of the way. 

• - Drag on falling objects is an upward force. 

• - Parachutes are designed to push large quantities of air as they fall, increasing drag and reducing the speed of decent. 

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• With this knowledge in mind, students designed parachutes. Throughout the testing process, students were asked to monitor the balance and decent of their parachutes while testing different versions in order to identify changes and improvements needed to add to their original design.