Room 227’s Blog

Dear Gr.5s,

As we draw the curtain on our Fractions unit, I would like you to spend some time reflecting on the unit as a whole.

In a post, please:
1.  Upload a picture of the fraction tracks game.
2.  Be sure to explain the photo so your audience knows what they are looking at.

3.  Reflect on how you improved in your understanding of fractions and percents.  Give examples where possible.
4.  What did you like best about the unit?

*Be sure to categorize your post under ‘Math’.

Range of Salt Tolerance

Write a blog entry discussing the results of your experiment. You will include a picture at a later date. Answer the questions below in complete sentences.

1. What ’seed type’ were you in charge of?

2. When you looked at all of the results from your groups, did the seeds germinate the same in all salt conditions? Explain.

2. Did plants grow to the same height in all salt conditions? Explain.

3. Did the same number of plants grow in all salt conditions? Explain.

4. How does salt affect each kind of plant?
a) Barley—
b) Corn—
c) Pea-
d) Radish–

What were some factors that you might change for next time?

Here is the story you were told about before doing the investigation:

Farmer Johnson lives near the ocean.  He usually irrigates his crops with river water, but there is a drought and there just isn’t enough river water for his radishes, barley, corn, and peas.  But there is plenty of seawater.  His question is, “Can I use a mix of sea water and fresh water to grow these plants?”

Now that you’ve done the experiment, help Farmer Johnson decide what to do about water.

Write a letter to Farmer Johnson with your recommendations.  Consider the concentrations of salt and how the several kinds of seeds were affected.

1.  Reflect on the message from Mr. Dyke’s presentation on Tuesday.

2.  If you go to V-Day, see if you can take pictures.  What was the experience like?  What was it like to be in a carrotmob?

3.  If you don’t go, what do you think is the value in having an event like V-Day?

4.  What does V-Day have to do with sustainability?

**Be sure to link to Mr. Dyke’s blog.

Remember, just say “Mai ow tung ka” if your’e a girl and “Mai Ow Tung Krup” if you’re a boy.  This means, “I don’t want a bag, please”.

Hello Everyone!

I wanted to share with you one of the ways our class is reflecting on our recent Reading Workshop unit  on Social Issues.  Have you ever seen a book trailer or know what it is?  Well, our wonderful and talented librarian, Ms. Tara taught us a little about a website called photopeach.com.  It is a great way to create reflections on the books you read, but for us, we are looking at creating our own book trailer for a Social Issues book we read in our book clubs.  Another website called animoto.com is great too, however, I found that photopeach is more simpler to use, you can leave comments after you view the book trailer (yay! We love feedback!), and ultimately, it is more user-friendly. Take a look at these 3 examples of book trailers below:

We were reminded from Mr.Utecht, our cool tech guy expert at ISB, that it is VERY important when looking for a picture on the internet (or music and so on…), to have permission.  The best way, he taught, is using Flickr and making sure we are searching  images that use creative commons.  I’ve included a short video explaining what creative commons is, just in case you didn’t know, or forgot!  A great website brought to my attention by Ms. Hellyer is called compfight.com.  I highly recommend it as an easy to use image search tool, and NOT Google images.  It searches creative commons images using Flickr.  The students are learning how important it is to always be permitted to use something that is not theirs and then attribute the image (or other work) so that the creator is given credit.  Stay tuned for the students’ finished book trailers that they will post on their blogs.

Haiku? Rhyme? Diamante?  This year, our class really focused on free verse poetry.  We found that it is difficult with no boundaries, no limits, no rules.  However, as this year’s poetry unit comes to a close and our Anthology’s are handed in, there is really a lot to celebrate!  Way to go!

One of our inspirations for writing poetry was to get inspiration from the outdoors.  Everyone grabbed a clipboard, blank paper and pencil, and found a quiet spot to observe, listen, reflect on the sights and sounds and anything else that inspired the students to write.  After we constructed the poem, we created some artwork using plasticine and an empty CD case from which to display the art.  The art, along with the student’s poem, will hang on the bulletin board outside the classroom.

We took a lot of direction for our plasticine work from Canadian author, illustrator, Barbara Reid. We watched segments of the videos she has posted on her website.  Here is one of the 3 we watched parts of:

Hello Gr.5s!

A 3rd grade class in America is doing a survey on how people around the world use and drink water. I thought it ties in nicely to our environmental sustainability unit. Let’s give this Gr.3 class some information for their survey by filling it out. You can even ask your parents to do it, too!

You can also look at the results of what other people have said by scrolling down below the survey.  Click here to get started!  It only takes about 2 minutes.

Have a great day,

Miss B.

Have you ever heard of Brine Shrimp? Ok, well what about a Sea Monkey?  No? You must have heard of Artemia then.

Well, they are all the same thing, and they are not shrimps at all!  They are crustaceans and they start out the size of the period at the end of this sentence.  Adults grow to about 1cm long.  They don’t live in oceans but have adapted to life in salt lakes and ponds. The most important environmental factor influencing their survival is salt.

Why are we learning about them?  We are trying to determine the range of tolerance to salt by creating an experiment with 4 different plastic cups.  Each cup has a different amount of salt in it ranging from 0 spoons of salt up to 3 spoons of salt.  Today we found out that Brine Shrimp did not hatch in the cup with no salt and most hatched in the cup with 2 spoons of salt.

Take a look at the cool video we were able to capture using our new digital microscope. It is magnified at 60x its normal size.  Double click on the image to start it.

Two students look into the plastic cups, looking for signs of life.  The hatched brine shrimp are VERY tiny!

Have you ever wondered what a Billabong is?  What a Billy is? How to throw a boomerang?  How to make Damper?

Well, on Jan. 26th,  our class celebrated Australia Day.  And no, I’m not Australian.  However, one of our students, Heather, is from Australia, as is another of our Gr.5 teachers, Ms.Hahn, AND our wonderful Principal, Ms. Hoogland.  It was a terrific way to mix in something new and different and FUN into our learning.

Ms. Hoogland read a book called Wombat Stew and she taught us about some real Aussie talk.  What a great storyteller she was!  We also made traditional Damper, watched a video on youtube first to get an idea of what we were about to get ourselves into and then off we went…measuring, looking at fractions on our measuring tools, stirring and mixing, getting our hands dirty and kneading the dough.  Ridge’s mom helped bake the bread–which we very much appreciated, and it came back hot and smelling yummy.  It is a very dense bread–not very light and fluffy like we are used to.  It didn’t taste like much, so we added Golden Syrup, which is also a common topping in Australia.  Mmmmm…sugar syrup! You can also add jam or butter if you like. The video we watched is attached below.  Maybe you’d like to try making Damper yourself!

Ms. Hahn invited our class over to join her class in sitting in a big circle to learn the traditional Aussie song, Waltzing Matilda.  Ms. Hahn was a great host teaching us the song and what it means, along with passing around her own didgeridoo.  We all had an opportunity to try to blow into it–it definitely makes a funny sound and takes a lot of air to get it going!  In the pictures below, Lucas and Luis try their hand at playing the didgeridoo.  I’ve also included a youtube video of an Aboriginal artist from Australia playing the instrument.  Have a listen!   We had a kangariffic time!

Take a look at some of the photos from our celebration.

Welcome back everyone and Happy New Year to all.  I will write a post about my trip to New Zealand a little later.

We are currently studying sustainability and are looking at news articles that inform us about positive and negative aspects of sustainability in the world.  We studied one article together on garbage in the Pacific Ocean.  We read the article together as a class and had a good discussion on what impact this has in our lives and the Ocean.  I found the article and news broadcast quite alarming, particularly because there doesn’t seem to be a solution we are quick to embrace.  Certainly, one of the easiest things we all can do is to recycle.  If the statistics are correct and approximately only 5% of the world is recycling, this seems to be an obvious first step.

Do you make the most of recycling?

What are your thoughts on polluted oceans?

I also found on youtube a news broadcast talking about the very same thing.  Take a look.

I wanted to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!  Happy Holidays.  However you spend this time of year, spend it well.  Enjoy family, friends, travel and make time for yourself!

As for me, I’m off to New Zealand to explore, experience, meet new people. I’ll leave you with a great quote,

When preparing to travel, lay out all your clothes and all your money. Then take half the clothes and twice the money.
Susan Heller