January 6th to January 10th

It was a busy first week back to school. The students were excited to complete their perfectly imperfect critter writing project. Inspired by the book, The Baranabus Project, where a creature who was built to be a perfect pet was called a failed project. Half mouse, half elephant, Barnabus was kept out of sight until he learned to love who he was.

First, the students experimented with creating their own perfectly imperfect pets. Next, they selected a favourite and created a visual representation and a three dimensional plasticine model of their critter. We then used our drawings and plasticine creations to help us to add descriptive vocabulary, sensory details and figurative language to best describe the appearance of our pets. We worked to selected specific interesting words. Rather than round, big sharp and students wrote words such as bulbous, enormous and as sharp as a razor.

The students then wrote descriptive paragraphs to reflect their creature's appearance and personality. Finally, we created folders to showcase our work that represented the files on all of the imperfect pets from the book. The student's showed great interest and care in putting their work together.

Learning Outcomes:

I can communicate clearly and accurately using precise alternatives for commonly used words.

I can develop creative expression through a range of sentence beginnings, lengths, and types.

I can reread written texts to identify what could be added or deleted to enhance creative expression.

I can revise texts to enhance clarity or fluency.

I can edit writing for spelling, punctuation, and grammar.

Questions to ask your child:

What part of the writing and creating process did you enjoy most?

What is your critter's name? Share a little about your critter?

Describe your creatures appearance using some of the descriptive vocabulary you used in your writing.

Comments

June 16th to June 20th

It is heard to believe that this was our final week week of the school year. The time has definitely flown past. Despite how close we are to the end of the year, the students have been working incredibly hard his week. We finished up our work in angles in math and the students completed their social studies research on The North West Mounted Police and early settlement in Alberta. Then, they worked to represent their learning in a Google Slideshow. This was a perfect connection to our Western Heritage Day where we enjoyed a pancake breakfast and afternoon of Western themes games with our buddies. We were also incredibly to learn about hoop dancing through a fantastic performance by Jay Genaille.

May 26th to May 30th

The start of our week was full with our final preparations for our Celebration of Learning. The students put the final touches on their food trucks and worked to fold and tape their two dimensional net into their three dimensional truck. The students were so excited to see their trucks come to life. For many, this final step was challenging as they worked to carefully cut and fold their trucks. We then did some work with three dimensional shapes including cubes, cylinders and cones as the students added toppers to their trucks. Students then had the opportunity to create a digital version of their food truck using Canva. They learned that by thinking carefully through their logo elements and describing them with a good amount of detail, they were able to create a digital logo that very closely resembled their hand drawn work. We may have some future graphic designers on our hands! Our Makerspace challenge this week was also connected to our trucks. Students were asked collaborate with ...

May 12th to May 15th

This week, the students continued with their work on their food trucks. The students have been so excited and engaged with this project, many sharing that it is their favourite part of the day. The students worked to apply their understanding of area by designing the interior floor plan of their truck. First, we looked at what items would be necessary to drive, prepare their menu items, store supplies and run their business. Some students needed deep fryers, others grills and some needed ice cream machines. Next, we the students planned out the interiors and designed their floor plans. Students were challenged to design their plans to scale with 1 square cm on the grid paper equivalent to 1 dm in real life. This challenge brought about wonderful critical thinking as the students measured and planned, imagining the amount of space needed to travel within their workspace or how much space was needed in the front of their truck so they would have enough space to sit and reach the gas pedd...

Mrs. Pols' Fantastic Fours

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