Weekly Update

I hope you all had a wonderful first week of December. With only two weeks remaining until the winter break, we have a great deal to complete and wrap up. It is going to be a busy couple of weeks.

The students were finally let in on the secret material that was in the Beakerhead box...TAPE!!! Students were shown a variety of tapigami videos for inspiration and also steps on how to properly roll the tape in order to create a sculpture. The students were given a time to explore the tape and become more comfortable with this specific material. We will be planning and constructing out classroom structure next week, with a focus on the year 3018! Any suggestions???

We are wrapping our novel study A Boy Called Bat. We recently finished reading a chapter that focused on how one can tell a great deal about a person from simply looking into their eyes. The students were taken through a guided sketch of a human eye and then asked to brainstorm as many descriptive words that best suited their own personality. The students will colour a portion of the eye accordingly and then print their descriptive words inside of the eye. We created a massive word bank which all students can utilize in future writing tasks. The students will finish up these sketches next week and they will be up for display.

The students were ‘hired’ by Calaway Park this week to create a new maze for the park. Students will need to create a new maze attraction that will take customers a long time to complete, so people visiting the park feel like they are getting their money’s worth. Students will be planning and then building a prototype. This prototype will allow Calaway Park to see the initial idea of the maze and to make sure the maze is safe before ‘real’ passengers use it. Students will use a marble to represent the passenger.

In Math, students continue to work on developing their understanding of place value. They have also been working on a pre-assessment booklet with regards to our next unit Number Sense. This pre-assessment will allow myself to develop a better understanding of both the individual and group needs in this particular area. The pre-assessment looked at odd and even numbers, adding by separating the tens and one, subtracting using a number line and subtracting using the re-grouping method.

Thank you to everyone who made it out for the Family STEM Night. It was  HUGE success. I hope you were able to generate a few ideas on how you can support your child at home.

I will be sending a email to all parents regarding the outline for the field study on Thursday. I could not be more appreciative of the number of volunteers that will be joining us. During the afternoon, the parent volunteers will be on their own with a very small group of students. The task will include basic map reading and identification of centre structures within the downtown core. I wanted to give everyone a heads up about the plan for the afternoon. I will send additional details next week.

Upcoming Events:

*Thursday, December 13th - Calgary Tower Field Study

*Friday, December 21st - Last Day of Classes

*Monday, January 7th - School Re-opens

Have an amazing weekend!