Global Maker Day - Cardboard Challenge

Today students put their plan into action and brought their ideas to life during the cardboard challenge. Students were only aloud to use cardboard, scissors, tape and crayons or markers to design  and create. They were also told they needed to create something that could either be pushed or pulled.

Planning in groups for the challenge

They followed the Design Process to solve problems, brainstorm ideas, make a plan, follow and test our their plan, alter or change their ideas and finally reflect on what worked and what didn't. They worked extremely well in their groups today. No one gave up or become frustrated. Everyone was encouraging and helpful. They were on task and had so much fun  while playing and creating. It was also great to see them help out their friends when they needed extra hands to help solve a problem or to finish up their project.

Cardboard Challenge in action!

Students all got a chance to present their inventions and test it out in front of the group. They reflected on what worked and what didn't. They answered questions from their friends and asked a few friends to come up and try their games. Have a look below at our finished products! They are very proud. We will be writing a retell paragraph and a reflection on how the challenge went tomorrow. For homework, please have your child prepare for this by retelling what they did today. Have them use the keep on track words (first, next, then, after that, also, finally, etc) to share the steps they took to create today. It will be helpful for them to practice retelling for their writing work tomorrow in class.

A Vending Machine

A Photocopier Game

A tractor and a wagon with a game inside the wagon!

Maze Machine

Lucky Shoot Flicking Game

Pet Carrier and a Flicking Game

Flick Game

Cardboard Challenge - #GlobalMakerDay

Our class is participating in #GlobalMakerDay. We are going to use cardboard to challenge us to make, design and play something that will allow us to either push or pull. Students are only allowed to use scissors, tape and cardboard. They've collaborated in their group of 3 to come up with what problem they want to solve, or what neat idea they want to explore. Tomorrow we will play!

To get students thinking about the design process and how the cardboard challenge will look, we watched two videos about Caine's Arcade to inspire us.

What is Caine's Arcade, and how did pieces of cardboard inspire this wonderful boy's imagination?  Watch below to find out!


Here is Part 2 of Caine's story. Have a look at the inspiring creations that students from around the world have created after watching his story. We will be playing and creating tomorrow. Ask your child about their ideas!

 

Whoever You Are Shared Writing

This week we participated in week 3 of the Global Read Aloud Project. We read the story Whoever You Are by Mem Fox and talked about the text-to-text and text-to-world connections. We collaborated with a partner and shared our connections and our thinking on a shared writing activity using Google Slides. Students are becoming very familiar with how to use a Slidedeck to collaborate with their peers and help them navigate the site to post our learning. Have a look below at our finished product. Additionally, students can read and share their ideas on a shared-padlet created by a teacher from the Caymen Islands. This week, the book had us think about the great things in our community and in the city we live. A few students had the chance to post their ideas to the shared padlet. Students may continue to add for homework this weekend!

Push and Pull Forces Padlet

Today in class we talked about push and pull forces. We learned the following vocabulary terms:

Force, Motion, Push, Pull, Friction, Position and Location. 

Students can continue to add more of their learning or a wondering about Forces that push and pull.

Wanted: Cardboard!

Next week we will be participating in a Global Maker Challenge. We are in need of cardboard boxes or cardboard of any kind to prepare for a future challenge. (Examples: cereal boxes, gift boxes, kleenex boxes, paper towel rolls, etc..) If you have any cardboard boxes or materials that you can donate to our class, please send them with your child!

Many Thanks!

United Way Dress Up Days

The following is a message posted about United Way theme days on our school's website from Mrs. Mertz.

Our United Way Campaign begins Wednesday with student dress up days in support of United Way.  This is a great way to live out our spiritual theme, Sent to be the Good News.  We are welcoming a cash donation on each of our dress up days to go towards our United Way Campaign.  Here are our Dress up days each Wednesday during the campaign. Mark your calendars!

Oct 18 -    Jersey day 

Oct  25 -   PJ Day

Nov 1  -    Crazy hair

                              Nov 8 -     School Colours (blue and gold) 

Nov 22  -  Hat day

Global Read Aloud Project Week 1 and Week 2

Feel free to continue to add more of your ideas on the shared padlets that Mrs. Del Risco created with her students from the Caribbean. Have a read at what students from around the world are writing about foods and animals where they live.

Week 1: Koala Lou.
Animals Where We Live Shared Padlet:

Week 2: Possum Magic
Food Where We Live Shared Padlet

Dreambox Accounts Ready!

Our Dreambox accounts are finally up and ready to go! In your child's agenda you will find login and password information. The note also outlines how to set-up parent access if you wish to track how your child is doing this year. Coming soon, I will assign tasks for your child to complete based on the math work we are doing in class. Dreambox is available to use on any device including for download on a tablet. Please ensure to follow the school code to access Dreambox on the tablet.

STEM Task: Paper Chain Challenge

Today's STEM Challenge had the students work in groups of 3 to create the longest paper chain they could using only 3 materials: one sheet of construction paper, one pair of scissors and one glue stick.

It was a lively challenge and students were given 20 minutes to make a plan and execute it. Students are reflecting and learning that the planning portion of the task is important since they are not given replacement materials if they make a mistake. The students also collaborated at the start of the task to come up with a set of class rules and guidelines to follow when completing teamwork. Please see our rules below and talk about them with your child. Students had juicy ideas and mentioned some new vocabulary words some of us hadn't heard of before.

We ran out of time to measure our paper chains, but students lined them up on the carpet and decided which one looked the longest. Tomorrow we will reflect what we would do differently, and what we would do the same if we did the challenge again. Ask your child about their amazing teamwork and collaboration today to complete this fun STEM task.

Class created list of teamwork guidelines during STEM tasks

STEM Challenge in action