Hello!
Our Field trip to the museum and Beacon Hill park on Monday was a success! We learned many things about the first nations culture of British Columbia, including their environmental practices and residential school experience. After, we enjoyed lunch at Beacon Hill park and played at the park.
In language arts, we wrote about our experience at the museum, discussing one part that stuck with us the most. We also completed the district reading assessment for grade 5, reading a booklet about storm chasers in BC. Finally, we completed our novel studies by sharing what we read about, our quotes from the book, and reading our poems to the class.
In math, we looked at adding decimals, and making sure that our place values line up. A couple of students learned that it is really important to line up our place values, so that we do not make simple mistakes.
In social studies, we discussed a little more about types of government, and then dove into our Canadian indirect democracy. We watched a couple of videos explaining our electoral system, focusing on first past the post. A couple of students discussed why voting turnout was so low during the last election, and felt the first past the post method may leave voters feeling like their vote doesn’t count. We then discussed proportional representation, and how there is a growing push for rating candidates, giving more choice for leadership. Finally, we looked at voting ideology, the left, center, and right wing beliefs of politics. We had a discussion about each ideology, and took a personality quiz, discussing what each students thoughts were on different subjects. An example would be should rich people may more taxes, or should Canada spend less money on military. Our class became quite engaged with the debate topics, sparking further discussion, and enhancing the learning of the class. By the end each student had a number about where they would fit in the left center right scale, with most students center left, and a couple center right. It was very interesting listening to the opinions of each student, and their logic behind it.
In science, we started looking at the different types of rocks, and learning about the rock cycle. We looked at and described igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic rocks, their different features, and what makes them uniquely different. We then learned about the rock cycle, how each type of rock is formed, and how each type of rock can become a different type of rock. So melting a rock and cooling it becomes igneous, eroding rocks can form together to become sedimentary, and heat and pressure can create metamorphic rocks.
In art, we put our finishing touches on our mothers day gifts. The students worked quite hard on them, and they turned out beautifully, so I hope you enjoy them.
We also had some special guests come by on Wednesday, the Brazilian women’s sevens rugby team! They led our class through a kicking drill, challenged some students to a couple of competitions, and signed autographs for everyone. They are playing this weekend at Westhills, if you are interested in getting tickets, a special code “COMMUNITY” might get you a discount.
Next week we will look at subtracting decimals, and hopefully reinforce our place value system further. In language arts, we will look at comic books, and the different features that are used. In social studies, we will look at the different political parties of BC and Canada, and have a voting election in preparation for next year’s federal election. In science, we will practice the rock cycle using crayons, and form our own types of crayon rocks. We will all hopefully be finished our 3D landscape art as well.
Thursday our intermediate students will be going to Belmont to watch the victoria symphony perform; sound be a fun experience.
Have a good weekend, especially Sunday, and see you Monday.
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