Thursday, January 30

Our morning work today was:

We discussed how to find the perimeter of an irregular shape where not all measurements are included.  We also looked at finding the area of irregular shapes.  See our work below (sorry it is a bit messy).  Students then had an opportunity to practice what they had learned.

We checked in on our tomatoes.  We now have 14 of 29 L seeds germinated and 19 of 31 M seeds that have germinated.

Friday journals are coming home today.

We had gym outside in the field this afternoon.

Reminders:

• Outdoor school forms are coming home today.  Please return the completed forms by Feb. 12.  The ODS fee can be paid at anytime through My CBE account.
• Complete a moon journal entry each day.  Bring your moon journals to school on Monday
• Yearbook orders accepted until the end of February.
• Save the date- Grade 6 Learning Celebration Thursday, February 27.  More details to come
• PD Day tomorrow-  No school for students
• Return Friday Journals

Wednesday, January 29

Our morning work task today was:

We created concepts cards for area, perimeter and volume. 

We also discussed why the units for perimeter are m, cm, km, u etc, for area they are m2, cm2, km2, u2 and for volume m3, cm3, km3, u3.

We then continued with a variety of word problems involving perimeter, area and volume.  

Now that we are using grow lights, our tomato plants are needing to be watered more often as the peat is drying out.

This afternoon we checked on the germination of our tomatoes.  13 L seeds have germinated and 16 M seeds have germinated.  We have a few seeds that have sprouted, but they still have the seed case on the top of the shoot, so we can't count them as germinated as we can't see the 2 leaves.

Today is Bell Let's Talk Day in support of mental health.  Students wrote about the ways that they can take care of their mental health.  Some ideas were:
- go for a bike ride
- cuddle your dog
- nap
- hug your teddy bear
- listen to music
- read
- take a walk
- draw
- paint
- write
- squish a stress toy 
- call a friend
- talk to someone in your family
- watch a video
- play with a friend
- play video game
- bake or cook
- exercise

- dance 

Complete a moon journal entry.  Bring your journal to school tomorrow.  If the moon is not visible, you can use this website.  Calgary Moon Phases

We continued with the novel, I Am Malala.  As we are reading, students are drawing pictures to represent their visualizations, asking questions and making connections and inferences.

Reminders:

• Outdoor school forms will be coming home soon.  The ODS fee can be paid at anytime through My CBE account
• Yearbook orders accepted until the end of February.
• Bring in empty, clean 750 g yogurt containers to transplant our tomatoes
• Save the date- Grade 6 Learning Celebration Thursday, February 27.  More details to come
• PD Day- Friday, January 31- No school for students
• Return Friday Journals and black journals 

Tuesday, January 28

Our day started with our multiples and factors assessment.  There are a few students who will need time to finish up tomorrow.

We welcomed a new student to our class today.

Our tomatoes are really growing!  In order to consider them germinated, we need to see two small leaves (cotyledons).  We are having our official count each day after lunch.  For L seeds, we had 6 that were germinated and 9 for M seeds.  The pictures below are from the end of the day, so there are a couple more L seeds that have germinated.  

In math, we were working on determining the area and perimeter of given shapes using formulas.  

We were also given a problem relating to area.  "Two girls were buying a quilt for their dolls and wanted to buy the one with the greatest area."  Students used pattern blocks to help them determine which quilt was the biggest.

Many realized that you could not just cover the two quilts with shapes and count the shapes as the shapes are all different sizes so they needed to assign a value for the area for each of the shapes.  

We began our new novel, "I Am Malala" to finish the day.  Ask me what we know about Malala so far.

Reminders:

• Bell Let's Talk Day- Hats on for Mental Health tomorrow
• Complete a moon journal entry
• Outdoor school forms will be coming home later this week.  The ODS fee can be paid at anytime through My CBE account
• Yearbook orders accepted until the end of February.
• Save the date- Grade 6 Learning Celebration Thursday, February 27.  More details to come
• PD Day- Friday, January 31- No school for students
• Return Friday Journals and black journals 

Monday, January 27

Our morning work task today:
The students at Bridlewood School decided to build two gardens in front of the school- one to grow vegetables and one to grow flowers.  
They decided the vegetable garden will be a square with each side measuring 8m.
They decided the flower garden will be rectangular with the longer side measuring 7m and the shorter side measuring 5m.
What is the perimeter of each of the gardens?

Some of our Earth seeds and space seeds are showing signs of life!

Students individually read an article about seeds and gemination. As they were reading, they were encouraged to annotate their thinking.  

Students completed a page in their creative journals showing the phases of the moon.

As we move into area, perimeter and volume, we looked at some vocabulary terms- polygon, quadrilateral, parallelogram and parallel.  We saw that there were some shapes that we could use several names for.  We also learned that a square is a special type of rectangle where all side lengths are equal.

Today is family literacy day.  Teachers shared a favourite book with their class as well as another class.  Thanks to Ms. Sleno for sharing one of her favourites with us.

Reminders:

• Multiples and factors assessment tomorrow
• Outdoor school forms will be coming home later this week.  The ODS fee can be paid at anytime through My CBE account
• Yearbook orders accepted until the end of February.
• Save the date- Grade 6 Learning Celebration Thursday, February 27.  More details to come
• PD Day- Friday, January 31- No school for students
• Return Friday Journals and black journals 

Friday, January 24

Our solar system and moonscape are almost complete.  It is great to see how everyone is working together towards one common goal.

Out tomatoes have not sprouted yet.  We are hoping that they will next week.

Friday journals are coming home.  We had a little less than 25 minutes to write.

Our math journals with our multiples and factors entry (black journal) is coming home.  Please share with your parents and have them sign it and return it to school on Monday.  We will have a multiples and factors assessment on Tuesday.

Reminders:

• Thanks to all parents who attended our Outdoor School Meeting last night. Forms will be coming home soon.  The ODS fee can be paid at anytime through My CBE account
• Yearbook orders accepted until the end of February.
• Save the date- Grade 6 Learning Celebration Thursday, February 27.  More details to come
• PD Day- Friday, January 31- No school for students
• Return Friday Journals and black journals 

Thursday, January 23

We completed our math journal entires about multiples and factors that we started yesterday.

We took our learning outside and used the moon pops to help us better understand the phases of the moon.

Thanks to those that were able to bring in some salt clay today.  We started our moonscape and the pieces of our giant solar system mural this afternoon.  We can't wait to share all of it with you at our learning celebration!

Reminders:

• Mandatory Outdoor School parent meeting tonight from 6-7 pm.  See blog posts from last week for more details.
• Yearbook orders accepted until the end of February.
• Save the date- Grade 6 Learning Celebration Thursday, February 27.  More details to come
• PD Day- Friday, January 31- No school for students

Wednesday, January 22

After we completed our moon observation journals, the morning was all about tomatoes!  It started with adding illustrations to a cartoon about tomato seeds that had been exposed to space conditions.

Scientists often use experimental inquiries to observe cause and effect relationships.

There are three types of variables in an experimental inquiry.

Independent variable (cause):  the material, or the way you use the material, that is going to change or be different throughout the whole experiment.  This variable helps you to test the exact question you asked.  There should be only one independent variable to ensure a fair test.

Dependent variable (effect): what is going to happen in your experiment. What are you looking for or observing AS the experiment is going on?  There should be only one dependent variable and it should be observable and measurable.

Controlled variable:  the materials, or the way you use the materials, that must stay exactly the same throughout the WHOLE ENTIRE experiment.  To ensure that the independent variable is the only thing affecting the dependent variable, all other factors must be kept the same.  It is very important to have controlled variables so that your test is fair, and helps make sure you don’t accidentally test a different question than the one you asked at the start of your experiment. 

We will be conducting our own tomato seed experiment.  We will be testing the question:  How does exposure to the space environment or space-like conditions affect the germination rate of tomato seeds?  It will be a blind experiment, meaning we do not know which are the space seeds and which are the Earth seeds.  Every student planted one of each seed this afternoon.

We will be creating a large solar system mural and did some research this afternoon to decide what we need to include.  We wanted our planets to be relative in size, so we looked at the diameter of the planets and came up with a scale of 1cm = 2000km.  

We will be building a moonscape in our classroom this week.  It is not necessary, but if you are able, please bring in some salt clay tomorrow to help us create the surface of the moon.  The recipe is below.  When I made some at home, I did not need to use the whole half cup of water and did not need to knead it for 10 minutes.  Please put it in a plastic bag or container so that it does not dry out and bring it to school.  

Reminders:

• Mandatory Outdoor School parent meeting tomorrow night from 6-7 pm.  See blog posts from last week for more details.
• Yearbook orders accepted until the end of February.
• Save the date- Grade 6 Learning Celebration Thursday, February 27.  More details to come
• Special lunch tomorrow for those that ordered
• PD Day- Friday, January 31- No school for students

Tuesday, January 21

We reviewed what we have learned about multiples and factors.

We also leaned about prime factorization (factor trees).  This involves breaking a number down to only prime factors.  Practice this at home tonight using the numbers 27, 48, 72, 95.

We also played the Factor Game on the computer.  Factor Game

We began our moon journals where we will be recording information about the moon each day including the date and time of the observation, a sketch of what it looks like and where we see the moon in the sky.  The moon was visible this morning, so we completed our first entry.

We looked at a site that has information about the moon phase in Calgary.
Calgary Moon Phases

We began some research to learn more about the moon.  We used the following site.
NASA Space Place Moon 
 In small groups, we looked at songs with lyrics that relate to the moon and its phases.  We needed to find the information in the songs and write what we thought it was all about.

We will be building a moonscape in our classroom.  It is not necessary, but if you are able, please bring in some salt clay on Thursday to help us create the surface of the moon.  The recipe is below.  When I made some at home, I did not need to use the whole half cup of water and did not need to knead it for 10 minutes.  Please put it in a plastic bag or container so that it does not dry out and bring it to school.  

Reminders:

• Mandatory Outdoor School parent meeting Thursday, January 23 from 6-7 pm.  See blog posts from last week for more details.
• Planet research due tomorrow 
• Yearbook orders accepted until the end of February.
• Save the date- Grade 6 Learning Celebration Thursday, February 27.  More details to come.

Monday, January 20

We continued our math problems related to multiples that we began last week as our morning work.

We have started gymnastics in gym.  Anyone with long hair needs to have an elastic to tie it back. In music we did a movement activity to music.

Constable Gemma came and talked with about being safe when we are online or using technology.  

In math, we were presented with the following problem

Nick the Knight, came upon a castle inhabited by a very strange wizard.  

• The castle has 12 huge doors, each guarded by a fierce dragon and numbered from one through 12.  
• The wizard has a strict rule about the use of the doors.  Knights may enter through any door except #1.  
• They must take note of the door as they enter, because they are only able to leave through a door whose number is a factor or multiple of the number of the entry door. 
• Knights may not exit through the same door they entered.  If a knight tries to leave through the wrong door, the dragons are to throw him in the moat with the crocodiles.  

How many ways can Nick safely enter and exit this castle?

Thanks to Lucas (Hubble Space Telescope) and Lincoln (Mission to Mars) who completed projects related to space at home and shared them with the class.  Here are the 2 videos that were shared that were sources of information for one presentation.

Reminders:

• Homework from Constable Gemma- Make sure you know your address and the cell phone of at least one of your parents
• Mandatory Outdoor School parent meeting Thursday, January 23 from 6-7 pm.  See blog posts from last week for more details.
• Planet research due Wednesday (there is no more class time for this)
• Yearbook orders accepted until the end of February.
• Save the date- Grade 6 Learning Celebration Thursday, February 27.  More details to come.

Friday, January 17

Our day started with time to continue with our multiples and factors work.

We had gym with Mrs. Gordon's class and then continued with our planet research. 

Our solar system is only a very small part of our galaxy and universe.

We each created our own solar systems that could be somewhere in the universe beyond our own galaxy.  Our art needed to show perspective, each of our planets needed to include at least 2 colours/shades and the light source must be evident.  Below is a sneak preview of our finished products.

Reminders:

• We are still waiting for one white report card envelope and 2 blue assessment folders to be returned.
• Mandatory Outdoor School parent meeting Thursday, January 23 from 6-7 pm.  See blog posts from last week for more details.
• Yearbook orders accepted until the end of February.
• Save the date- Grade 6 Learning Celebration Thursday, February 27.  More details to come.

Thursday, January 16

Our day started with the multiples and factors work we have been doing.  We then began to work on the following problem.

I am the fewest number of gorillas that meets the following conditions.  When grouped by twos, by threes, or by fours, there is one left over.  When grouped by fives, there are none left over.  What number am I?

Students are working at explaining their math thinking in writing.  Some completed this task and moved on to another one.

Our morning finished with music and gym.

This afternoon we continued our planet research and had buddies with Miss Aebli as Ms. Steeves was at an appointment.

Reminders:

• We are still waiting for a couple white report card envelope and blue assessment folders to be returned.
• Mandatory Outdoor School parent meeting Thursday, January 23 from 6-7 pm.  See blog posts from last week for more details.
• Yearbook orders accepted until 
• Save the date- Grade 6 Learning Celebration Thursday, February 27.  More details to come.

Wednesday, January 15

Our morning work task today was continuing our multiples work from yesterday.

In gym, we played a new game, Builders and Bulldozers.

We reviewed what we have learned about factors and created a concept card.

In math, we did some work related to factors including finding the factors of given numbers, explained why a number might not be a factor of another number and classified numbers as composite or prime.

We continued our planet research using the computers.

Here is a peek of what we are up to during our indoor recess times this week. Today, many student worked together to create a giant wall out of the stacking cups.  It was great to see the teamwork needed to create this.

We finished the day reading the book below and learned more about the Sun and how important it is to the Earth (light, heat, part of the water cycle, necessary for photosynthesis).  There was also some information on other parts of our solar system.

We also brainstormed what we think we know about the moon and what we wonder.

We had a surprise lockdown practice today.  It was great to see that everyone knew what to do and sat very quietly until Constable Gemma and Mrs. Tourigny came to tell us the practice was over.

Reminders:

• Return white report card envelope.  The contents in the envelope are yours to keep.
• Return blue assessment folder
• Mandatory Outdoor School parent meeting Thursday, January 23 from 6-7 pm.  See blog posts from last week for more details.
• Information regarding ordering a yearbook is coming home today.
• Save the date- Grade 6 Learning Celebration Thursday, February 27.  More details to come.