Showing posts with label collaboration. Show all posts
Showing posts with label collaboration. Show all posts

Wednesday, October 24, 2018

Global Maker Day 2018: Cardboard Challenge





Saturday, December 09, 2017

Hour of Code


This week students participated in the #HourofCode. Students had the chance to participate in a variety of computer science activities online and using robots in our school. Students are expert programmers with the robot Dash. They had so much fun applying their knowledge of forces in science and coded Dash to move in a variety of positions and locations. We also had the chance to plan purposeful activities with Dash when we were challenged to design a maze for Dash to navigate through. Students used a variety of tools in their attempt to get Dash to move in the correct direction. They learned through much trial and error how to slow Dash down, pick up speed at the right time and change location to be successful. It was a tough challenge, but many students persevered to accomplish their goal.

Students also programmed their own games on the Coding website code.org. Students loved programming on many of the sites including Minecraft, Google logo, Flappy Game, Star Wars, Box Island so so much more. Students were challenged to apply their knowledge of forces in science as well as their math skills in movement. It was a great week of collaboration, critical thinking and communication. We reflected on this engaging week by writing a retell paragraph using details from the struggles and the exciting adventures we had with coding. Ask your child to share what they wrote about and what they liked best.


Students are encouraged to keep coding at home and use our KidBlog platform to continue to share what they are learning, what obstacles they face and what new discovery they are making while coding on their platform of choice.









Friday, December 01, 2017

Which One Doesn't Belong?

Our collaborative math task today had us thinking about Which One Doesn't Belong? Students worked in partners and had to come up with reasons why the clocks didn't belong. Click through our Slide Deck to see all of our math thinking today. For homework, students can continue to share their thinking on their KidBlog accounts!






 

Friday, November 17, 2017

Twitter Survey Results and Data Collecting

This week we spent a lot of time collecting data by coming up with our own survey questions. We collaborated with friends to come up with our own surveys that we posted on our class Twitter page. When we received the results, we worked in groups to try to explain the data using comparative language (example: altogether, fewer than, more than, most, least, etc).  We will continue to work on comparing data from our Twitter surveys next week. Below, you can see our results. Ask your child about it!
We also completed our own personal survey questions with a target audience of Grade 1/2 students. We are learning that we need to keep our audience in mind when designing a survey question so that the options are relatable to the people we ask. We had a lot of fun designing survey questions and using our tally chart information to build a bar graph. Ask your child what a bar graph and tally chart must have. Next week, we will continue to work with data and talk about pictographs.

Wednesday, November 15, 2017

Twitter Surveys

In our class, we are working on collecting Data and writing about the information we collect. We created polls (survey questions) on our class Twitter page. Below are each of our Twitter polls. Have your say and vote on each of our 5 survey questions. We will collect the results and analyze our information on Friday.

Wednesday, November 08, 2017

Visualizing Peace

In class we are using visualizing and our 5 senses to help us determine what peace means. We are reading books and collaborating on this padlet below. For homework, students can continue to add their own ideas. They may had juicy describing words or words that they think of that remind them of Peace.

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Wednesday, October 25, 2017

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

Tuesday, October 24, 2017

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!

 

Friday, October 20, 2017

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!
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Wednesday, October 11, 2017

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:

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Week 2: Possum Magic
Food Where We Live Shared Padlet
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Wednesday, October 04, 2017

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

Wednesday, September 27, 2017

STEM Task: Red Cup Challenge

Today students completed their first STEM challenge of the year. (STEM = Science + Technology + Engineering + Math).We collaborated with our group to stack 10 cups into a tower without touching the cups. We had to use only the materials provided in our baskets. An extra challenge at the end: we had to put our Lego figure at the top of our tower without touching it with our hands. It was great to see the students use their critical thinking and communication skills to solve this problem. We learned as a group the importance of following direction and listening to our group to finish the task. We will do many more STEM challenges and as a class we will need to review how to work effectively in a group when solving challenges or tasks. 
Ask your child about this fun activity. What strategy worked best for their group? What strategy didn't work at all? What would your child do differently next time? What would your child do the same next time?

Thursday, September 14, 2017

Being Safe Online

Our current focus in Religion is learning about how to be a good digital citizen. We are watching videos and having discussions about internet safety. Students collaborated in groups and came up with a great list of ways they will be safe while on a digital platform. Have a look at what we came up with! Did we miss something? If so, please feel free to add more ideas at home for homework!

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Tuesday, March 29, 2016

Coding and Forces Causing Movement

 In Science our current focus is on Forces that Cause Movement. We are exploring different types of forces found in our environment. We talked a lot about what push and pull forces are around us. Students are learning that forces in nature like wind or water have an impact on the environment. Many of our students are members of the Makerspace club at our school that meets a few times a week. They are using what they know about Forces when experimenting with different STEM projects.

This week we participated in an #HourofCode together with the grade 4/5 class. We collaborated with our friends in the class to learn how to code our very own video games. Students loved participating in this coding activity. We all received our very own certificates after completing the Hour. It's cool to see programmers in our Grade 3 class.

After the coding, students made connections between forces that cause movement and the coding activity. We talked about how altering the speed on a code or our own tapping on the keyboard impacts various push and pull forces in a video game. We also made connections between our knowledge of forces that cause changes in movement to the coding activities we did this week. We coded a few games this week like Flappy Bird, Minecraft, Frozen and Star Wars games on code.org. It was fun to put what we've learned into practice this week on our very own video games. Ask your child about their coding adventures. We will continue to talk about Forces and Coding next week. See our fun from this past week below.