Geology Video Morning

Geology Movie Morning on Friday December 11th
Grade 5 Classroom at 8:45 am

Parents, teachers and students,you are invited... We will be watching the student geology films that were written, filmed, edited and produced entirely by the students. We had no idea how much work the films would be an we want to celebrate with you by kicking back and viewing our films.

 

An Exploration into Religion: Judaism

Our new PYP unit central idea is that "Religions help people express their beliefs and values." We will examine

• similarities and differences of world religions
• how symbols, artifacts and architecture are used to help people with their expression
• why traditions and rituals exist in religions

We will start with Judaism since it is the first monotheistic religion. Students are going to continue working on their research skills with a focus on organization of content and thorough notes taken in shorthand. Some of the resources we will use during this focus are going to include these videos:

BBC: My Life, My Religion: Judaism

Judaism Core Beliefs and Values

The Story of Judaism

Movember in 5R

Grade 5 is an important year. Students transition from PYP to MYP and take part in the culminating project, exhibition. Throughout the year I try to show important events occurring around the world and help them understand global issues that they might find interesting. I also try to emphasize the importance of taking action and making a difference in the lives of others.

One way to take action is through awareness. Movember is a great chance to teach the students about a movement to raise awareness about men's health issues. We discussed the reason for Movember and why it is important to teach people about cancer of all types.

Students get to share in the fun too by putting on mustaches. Take a look!

 

Grade 1 Buddies are continuing to go well. This time, the Grade 5 student council representatives talked to the class about children who do not have families, and about children in need, who don't have the love, warmth and cheer that most of us do during the holiday season. The school is involved in an Angel Tree project, collecting gifts for those special children, and today the students decorated the angels for the Angel Tree.

Student Tesselations

This week in Geometry, the students learned about shapes and patterns that fit together to form tesselations. What a great way to keep them engaged and excited about math! The photos below show some of the steps and samples of the students' work. Fun!

Skype Date with Geologist

Last  Wednesday we had a chance to Skype with a geologist graduate student who has been working in Greenland and Antartica. Ruth is the cousin of Elena, one of our students. She spent about 45 minutes visiting with us and answering our many questions. She created a google presentation of photos from her travels and shared them with us so that we could follow along with her presentation. It was a wonderful experience and I am glad that we were able to learn so much from her! If you would like to follow her here is her website and her program's blog at Dartmouth. Thanks Ruth!

 

Tessellations and M.C. Escher

For our geometry work today we explored tessellations and learned about the art master M.C. Escher. The students were very enthusiastic about his art and wanted to learn more. Here are some resources for learning and exploring about tessellations and the artwork M.C. Escher created.

About Tessellations

Math is Fun Tessellations
Cool Math 4 Kids Tessellations

M.C. Escher Resources

M.C. Escher Gallery
M.C. Escher Museum

How to Tessellations

Paper Cut Tessellations
Tessellation Creator
Creating Tessellations
Simple Tessellation Creator
How to Make a Tessellation

 

Convection Currents with Mr. Simon

Last Monday we headed upstairs and collaborated with the upper school science teacher, Mr. Simon. He invited us into the science lab for our very first science experiment. It was a wonderful experience and the students really got a good understanding of convection currents and how they move the tectonic plates. Thank you so much Mr. Simon for volunteering your time, expertise and enthusiasm!!!

If you would like to try some more experiments with convection currents, check out these videos and links below.

Home Learning: Convection Currents
Heat Convection in Liquids

 

First Grade Buddies

This year, we are going to collaborate and work with some younger students in ISL. Almost one week ago we had our first opportunity to go visit Ms. Alyssa's grade 1 class to go read to them. It was a very special time for us and we had such a wonderful time. The students were jazzed as we walked back after hanging out with the younger kids and I heard comments like "I can't believe we used to be that small!" and "I taught her something!"

I especially enjoyed it because I got to read Don't Let the Pigeon Ride the Bus... one of my favorite read-alouds. Many of you know how much I love reading to kids, but I don't often get to read fun picture books as often as I would like to.

What is your favorite picture book to read to students?