Thursday, October 31

Our morning task today was:
Ms. Steeves has been shopping for Halloween.  She went to Costco, Walmart and Superstore.  She bought 4 bags of candy.  Each bag cost $4.69.  She also bought 3 boxes of chips.  Each box cost $8.98.  Finally, she bought a pumpkin for $3.49.  How much money did Ms. Steeves spend altogether?

We went through the last of the Seven Grandfather Teachings and recorded important information in our creative journals.

We read the story, The True Story of Jadav Payeng The Boy Who Grew a Forest with the students form Mrs. Palamar's class.

We learned about alliteration.  Alliteration is the use of identical or similar sounds at the beginning of words.  The beginning letter sounds are repeated to create a rhythmic effect.  Some student examples from today are below.
Sam the slithering snake ate slimy sandwiches.
Sara slept in the stream.
Billy Bob the bear ate berries.
Billy ate the big Big Mac.
Spooky scary skeletons send shivers down my spine.
Spooky scary skeletons hung in the doorway.
Gary the ghost wears green goggles.
Happy Halloween!  I'm your host.
The bat ate my big burger.

We met as a large Grade 6 Social Action group.  We learned that we raised $1696.65 at the Halloween Dance.  We looked at the education options with WE Villages and made a decision on where we would like the funds to go.  

We had 25 minutes to write in our Friday Journals today.

Our day finished with buddies.  We had Thank You Friday with them and then went outside (Take Me Outside for Learning) and taught them some compound games.

Reminders:
- Return Friday Journal 
- PD Day- tomorrow (No school for students)
- Return field trip forms ASAP.  The preferred method of payment for the $6 is through your child's My CBE Account.
- Picture retakes- Monday, November 4

Wednesday, October 30

Our morning work today today was:

Max and Mark had a foot race which was timed with a stopwatch.  Max says that he ran the race in 64.5 seconds.  Mark was more accurate.  He reported his run as 71.34 seconds.  How many seconds faster did Max run than Mark?

In Social, we were reading about some of the rights that we have in Canada in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

In math, we were looked at multiplying decimals.  Just like whole numbers, it is important for us to make an estimate to know if our products are reasonable.  When completing our calculations, we can use any of the methods we learned with whole numbers (area model, partial product, standard multiplication).  To complete the calculations, we removed the decimal and multiplied as if it was a whole number.  Then, we added the decimal back in where it made sense based on our estimates.

In science, we did our Junk Pile observation task in our table groups.  We had 2 opportunities to observe the junk pile and record what we saw with our groups.  Then we had some questions to answer on the items in the pile.  

Our day finished with an introduction to policing video from the Calgary Police Service.

Reminders:
- Return Friday Journal if you haven't already.  We are still waiting for 4.
- Tomorrow- Black and Orange Day (no costumes)
- PD Day- Fri. Nov. 1 (No school for students)
- Picture retakes- Monday, November 4
- We have a field trip on Wednesday, November 20 to YouthLink to support our upcoming work in science.  We are in need of 2 more parent volunteers for the day.  If you have a valid security clearance and are able to join us, please email Ms. Steeves.

Tuesday, October 29

Students had time this morning to finish their Math Journal entry on multiplication and then work on their Ugly creative journal page before we went to gym.

Ms. Steeves read us the story, Duncan's Way.  As she was reading, she modeled her thinking as she left sticky note 'footprints' in the book with questions, connections and inferences that she had.  We will each be doing this with another book soon.

In math, we were looking at multiplying decimal numbers by powers of 10.  For example, 0.03 x 10, 12.365 x 100, 2.0493 x 1000.  

In science, we began our work with Evidence and Investigation.
We learned the 3 skills that investigators need.
1.  Being observant
2.  Remaining objective
3.  Using inference and deduction

We watched the following videos to test our observation skills.

Our day finished with some Solve Me Puzzles.  It is great to see students explaining their thinking so well.

Reminders:
- Return Friday Journal
- Thursday, October 31- Black and Orange Day (no costumes)
- PD Day- Fri. Nov. 1 (No school for students)
- Picture retakes- Monday, November 4
- We have a field trip on Wednesday, November 20 to YouthLink to support our upcoming work in science.  We need 3 parent volunteers for the day.  If you have a valid security clearance and are able to join us, please email Ms. Steeves.

Monday, October 28

This morning before music and gym, we worked on our Ugly Creative Journal pages.  

We have a new math journal.  It is a place where we will be able to show Ms. Steeves what we know about a topic or concept.  We went through the rubric together and then began to write what we know about multiplication.  Some students need more time to finish up, so we will continue with this tomorrow.

We are starting our new science topic, Evidence and Investigation in preparation for our field trip to YouthLink on Nov. 20.  We completed a pre-survey and will complete a post survey after our visit.

All of our experiments are on the go now.  We are composting leaves (crushed leaves only, dirt and crushed leaves and dirt and whole leaves), seeing if we can grow a tree from a variety of cones and have also planted seeds harvested from different types of cones.  We also have one large container with crushed leaves and dirt.

Students were inside at lunch and recess today as the windchill was below -20C.  Students will normally be outside, so it is important that they come prepared with a winter jacket, boots, mitts, toque and snow pants.

Reminders:
- Return Friday Journal
- Thursday, October 31- Black and Orange Day (no costumes)
- PD Day- Fri. Nov. 1 (No school for students)
- Picture retakes- Monday, November 4
- We have a field trip on Wednesday, November 20 to YouthLink to support our upcoming work in science.  We need 3 parent volunteers for the day.  If you have a valid security clearance and are able to join us, please email Ms. Steeves.

Friday, October 25

Highlights from the last 2 days:
We watched a Math Antics video which reviewed what we have learned about decimal place value and created a concept card. 

Next, we had a problem to solve.  
A hexagon has a value of $0.18.  Create a design using at least 15 pattern blocks that has a value of $1.56.  Explain.
In order to solve the problem, students needed to figure out the value of the other shapes.  

Now that we have finished the novel Ugly, in our creative journals, we are completing a final task that involves retelling, making connections to the text and reflecting on the text and what we learned from Robert.

Thank you to all the Social Action team members who were at the Halloween Dance and worked to sell pizza, water, chips and glow sticks.  Stay tuned next week to find out how much we raised to send to support the WE Education pillar.

Prior to writing in our Friday Journals, we looked at some student work samples and found that the work that was arranged in paragraphs was more organized and easier to follow.  We also noticed that some journals had many sentences starting in the same way, so our goal for today was to arrange our writing in paragraphs based on topic and to vary our sentence beginnings.  Students had 30 minutes of writing time.

Reminders:
- Return Friday Journal on Monday
- Thursday, October 31- Black and Orange Day (no costumes)

- PD Day- Fri. Nov. 1 (No school for students)
- We have a field trip on Wednesday, November 20 to YouthLink to support our upcoming work in science.  We need 3 parent volunteers for the day.  If you have a valid security clearance and are able to join us, please email Ms. Steeves.

Wednesday, October 23

Our morning task today was:
Respond to the following in complete sentences and include specific details.
What was the main message of WE Day for you?  Why is the message important to you as a student of Bridlewood School and a member of the Social Action team?

What was a moment of WE Day that really showed a person using their voice to create positive change?  What are some ways can you use your voice to create positive change?

We answered some questions on the reading we did in Social on Monday.

We watched a TED Talk on Robert Hoge, the author of Ugly.

After learning about the nutrient cycle and the role of producers, consumers and decomposers, we decided we wanted to try and decompose leaves in our class without the use of worms.  After our research the other day, we were ready to get started today.  We have three containers- one with crushed leaves only, one with dirt and crushed leaved and one with dirt and whole leaves.  We added water to make the mixtures wet, but not soggy and have them covered with air holes.  We will turn the materials and add water ever week.

Other students were dissecting pine cones to try and find some seeds.  We had fun watching one of the seeds with a 'wing' attached twirl to the ground.  We will be looking at planting some of the seeds soon to see if we can grow our own tree.

Today is Take Me Outside for Learning Day.  In recognition of this, we used our inferencing skills with the following cartoon.

To finish our day, we took our learning outside and brainstormed ways that we can take our learning outside this year.

Reminders:
- Halloween Dance this tomorrow- 5:30-7:30.  Students who are attending know the time of their shift to sell either pizza or glow sticks.  
- Thursday, October 31- Black and Orange Day (no costumes)
- PD Day- Fri. Nov. 1 (No school for students)

Tuesday, October 22

Our morning work today was:
Use your inferencing skills to talk about the cartoon from today’s Calgary Herald.  Be specific and detailed.  Remember that each part of the cartoon has a purpose, so be sure to think about the reason for everything that the illustrator included.  

Our deputy returning officers counted our ballots form Student Vote.  We looked at the results as well as the results from the real election.  The Conservatives and NDP were very close for our class.  This helped us see that every vote counts!

We watched and were inspired by WE Day!  As we watched, students Sketchnoted the message and important points that stood out for them.

Reminders:
- Halloween Dance this Thursday- 5:30-7:30.  Please return your form if you haven't already done so and are planning to attend.  There is a capacity limit for this event and tickets are almost all sold out.
- Thursday, October 31- Black and Orange Day (no costumes)
- Bring in leaves and cones

Monday, October 21

Our morning task today was:
1.  On a school trip, a class travels 67.25 kilometres by train and 41.9 kilometres by bus. How far did the class travel?

2.  Darren bought a piece of fabric that was 48.8 metres long. Then he cut 13.05 metres of it off to use in a sewing project. How much fabric is left?

When looking for a solution, students remembered to line up the decimals which lines up the place values so that you are adding ones with ones, tenths with tenths … Some students however, changed some numbers when lining them up so that both numbers would go to the hundredths.  For example,
   67.25
 +41.09

We reviewed that 41.09 is not the same as 41.90 and how we can add as many zeroes at the end of a decimal number and the number will still be the same, so the equation should be,
   67.25
 +41.90

We looked at the following cartoon from the Calgary Herald this past weekend.

We looked at the CBC poll tracker.  Students were asked to look at data presented in different ways and try and figure out how to make sense of the data.  There were lots of math connections we could make- decimals, percentages, probability as well as a graph showing continuous data.  Continuous data can include any value between data points. We talked about the difference between a majority and minority government and how that could impact decisions made by the government.  We checked back throughout the day to see if the poll was updated as it was different than last week, but the last update was yesterday.

When we looked more closely at the graphs for Alberta and BC, students talked about how the data might make some people more likely to vote.

We also looked at voting patterns across Canada from the past 3 Federal elections and discussed reasons why citizens may decide which party they are voting for from one election to the next.

In partners, we read more about democracy in Canada including the four principles that support democracy (freedoms, representation, equity, justice). 

We spent time researching in partners about some experiments that we want to do- compost leaves with and without soil and growing a tree from a pine cone.  Stay tuned for more information.

We spent time outside writing this afternoon.

Our day finished with a visit to the poll station in our gym.

Reminders:
- Halloween Dance this Thursday- 5:30-7:30.  Please return your form if you haven't already done so and are planning to attend.
- Thursday, October 31- Black and Orange Day (no costumes)
- Bring in leaves and cones

Friday, October 18

Our morning work today involved reading an article from the Canadian Reader about Election Day.  Students then answered some questions to demonstrate their understanding.

In gym, Ms. Steeves taught us a new game, Knockout.  It is like kickball, but everyone is trying to get a home run and runners do not stop at the bases.  Runners are out when the fielding team knocks over bowling pins at two of the bases and home plate before the runner reaches home.

Student Vote was today.  Students had several job opportunities including Deputy Returning Officer, Poll Clerk and Scrutineer.  We divided the Poll Clerk job into 3 positions and were able to have 10 students involved.  

Our day finished with Thank You Friday and Friday Journals where students had 30 minutes of writing time.

Reminders:
- Return Friday journals
- Return forms and $5 for Family Halloween Dance if interested

Thursday, October 17

Our morning work task today:
Which of the 5 WE Pillars of Impact do you think our Social Action team should support?  Explain our thinking.

We had a lockdown practice today.  Everyone got into our safe spot very quickly and sat quietly until Constable Gemma came and told us the practice was over.  Great job Room 81!

We continued our research in preparation for Student Vote tomorrow by taking notes on key points shared by the leaders of the parties around questions sent to them by students across Canada. 

In Social Action, we met to vote on the WE Pillar of Impact we want to support.  One student wondered if students had to vote.  This led to a great discussion about why it is important for everyone to vote as it is important that their voice is heard, even if they don't end up getting their way.  We also reviewed the decision making models to determine which would be the best way for us to make our decision.  We decided that the democratic way would be best in this situation.

We voted on the pillars and narrowed it down to Education and Water.  Education was the pillar chosen by the majority of students.  

Reminders:
- Halloween Dance ticket forms coming home today.  Please return 1 form and $5 per family if you will be attending.  
- Student Vote is tomorrow

Wednesday, October 16

Highlights from the last 2 days include:
We continued to build on our knowledge and understanding of adding two decimal numbers to make a specific sum.  
Our task yesterday was:
I added two decimal numbers together and got a sum of exactly 5.243.  What might the two numbers be?
Challenge- What two numbers might you add together to make exactly 7.490534?
We talked about the conceptual understanding we are creating with our work- place value, addition, algebra
Student examples include:

Our morning work today involved using what we have discovered about adding two decimal numbers together to subtraction.  

I subtracted two numbers and got a difference of 4.235.  What might the two numbers be? 

Most student examples originally did not involve regrouping.  We discussed as a class how we might make challenge ourselves and include regrouping and how we can check our answers using the inverse operation of addition.  

The following are some student examples after our discussion.  

In Social Action, we talked about the WE organization and WE Day which is next Tuesday, October 22.  Unfortunately we will not be having students attend as the event is in Edmonton, but we will be watching throughout the day here at school.  

Students identified areas of a families life the could be affected if they were living in poverty: food, water, shelter, education, medical care, clothing, job/work. 

The WE 5 Pillars of Impact are:

Food

Water

Education

Health

Opportunity

In small groups, students researched the different areas, and as a large grade 6 Social Action team, we will be deciding which pillar we want to support.

In Social, we talked about what it means to be an informed citizen and how we can sort through all that we see online to see what are trusted sources for information.

We began some quick research in preparation for Student Vote this Friday by taking notes on key points shared by the leaders of the parties around questions sent to them by students across Canada.

Thursday, October 10

Our morning work today was amazing!  It is great to see students thinking about what they are learning and applying it in different, more challenging situations.  Today our task built on what we learned yesterday.
I added two decimal numbers together to make exactly 9.  What might the two numbers be?


Challenge- What 2 numbers might you add together to make exactly 5.0006?

After completing a couple examples for two decimal numbers that equalled 9 using strategies learned from their peers yesterday, most students moved on to the challenge.  They used their understanding of the strategies in the new situation to find two decimal numbers that equalled 5.0006 (5 and 6 ten thousandths).  Students were able to add two decimal numbers to the ten thousandths place and were then challenged to have the sum as 5.0006, but to add two decimal numbers that went beyond the ten thousandths.  See their examples below. 

We had time to continue with our Sketchnotes on tree rings and what we can learn from them.

This afternoon we met with the other grade 6 classes for Social Action and reviewed the story, "One Hen" and how one loan made a difference.  We then learned how the microfinance organization Kiva works.  Using Ms. Steeves' account, we decided on three individuals that we wanted to make loans to.  We decided to lend to two women and one man.  One person is in Kenya, one in the Philippines and one lives in Guatemala. 


Our day finished with Friday Journals.  Students really enjoy reading the letters written to them by their parents each week.  Students had about 30 minutes of writing time today.

Reminders:
- Return Friday Journal
- School picture orders due tomorrow.  Orders can be made online 
- No school for students tomorrow (PD Day) or Monday, Oct. 14 (Thanksgiving)