2-D Geometry and Measurement

We are starting a new math unit that deals with 2 dimensional geometry and measurement.  We will be covering angles and shapes, perimeter and area over the next couple of weeks.  Helpful summaries can be found on the wiki here: https://husky67.pbworks.com/w/page/26368963/2D-Geometry-and-Measurement.

Extra practice and review questions for some of the topics we will be covering can be found here: http://www.nelsonk8math.com/math6/studentcentre/studsurf.html#ch7 and here: http://www.nelsonk8math.com/math6/studentcentre/studsurf.html#ch5.  You can also try out the Chapters 5 and 7 activities here: http://www.nelsonk8math.com/math6/studentcentre/studtryout.html.

Reading Response

We are also working on our reading responses to "making connections" questions, and are seeking to show deeper understanding in our answers. We have been putting together some steps that will help guide our paragraphs for this purpose. A full list of the steps and some extra information have been provided on the wiki at: https://husky67.pbworks.com/w/page/25998659/Reading-Response.

Reading Response Guide

Step 1: Snap the question - what information does it give you, and what information is required to answer it? Brainstorm possible answers to what is required.
Step 2: What is the "Big Idea" from the story (what message is the author trying to get the readers to think about)? How does the "Big Idea" relate to the question? Which of your possible answers do you think works best with the "Big Idea"?
Step 3: Brainstorm possible support from the text that will back up your own thinking and the "Big Idea". Make sure your text support relates directly to the question asked.
Step 4: Brainstorm ways to compare (show it's the same) or contrast (show it's different) the message to something in your life. Make sure your ideas relate directly to the question!
Step 5: Organize your response according to the Reading Response anchor.

Learning Goal

• We will learn how to deepen our understanding of the “Big Idea” of a text by comparing or contrasting and making connections to our own knowledge, experience, world or other texts.

Speeches

One of our major projects for January will be our class speeches.  These speeches will be 3-5 minutes on a topic of the student’s choosing, and will be delivered to the class at the end of the month.  We will be going through the writing and delivery process throughout the month, but a lot of the writing and practicing will have to be done at home.  A link to the information we will be going through in class, as well as rubrics and timelines, can be found here: https://husky67.pbworks.com/w/page/34367723/Speeches.

Learning Goals
Oral Communication
- use vocal skills such as tone, pace, pitch and volume, as well as non-verbal cues including facial expressions, gestures and eye contact to appropriately communicate with a specific audience
- reflect on and identify their strengths as speakers and areas for improvement

Writing
- generate, gather and organize ideas and information to write for an intended audience
- revise their writing to create an appropriate voice and point of view

Science timeline

The Grade 6 class is putting together an online timeline about the history of the development of electricity.  We are experimenting with a few different tools, including XTimeline and Time Toast.  We have talked about some of the important scientists and advances that led us to our understanding of modern uses of electricity.  It is the job of the students to put these points in order and present brief (2-3 sentences) summaries of each event.  They will also be adding 1-3 events of their own to our findings.  More info can be found here.  They will be meeting the following learning goals:

- evaluate the importance of events that led to the modern electrical system
- communicate their findings appropriately and clearly using on online timeline

Early Explorers Glog

We are hard at work this week preparing a Glog, which is like an online bristol board project, about one of the early European explorers that came to North America (see the background of the explorers on Google docs or here).  We will be examining a brief history of their lives, a look at the country they were representing, where they went and what we feel was their most important achievement.  We put together a checklist outlining what we felt was the most effective way to communicate this information on a Glog.  The checklist can be found here.
We will be working on the following learning goals:

- explain why Europeans came to North America and New France to establish colonies
- clearly communicate information using a presentation tool (Glog)

New France History unit

We are getting ready for a brand new Social Studies unit, where we will be studying the arrival of the French at Quebec and the establishment of the colony of New France, from 1600 until the Battle of the Plains of Abraham and the fall of Quebec in 1759.  We will be exploring the people involved in this story, and some of the issues raised by the interactions between the First Nations and the Europeans.  One of the skills we will work on is the ability to look at the same issue from different points of view, and contrast the views to try to find the middle ground.  Another difference with this unit is the attempt to make this more of an on-line and paperless experience.  Much of the information will be passed on through Google docs and via internet sources and web 2.0 tools like online timelines, presentation tools and surveys.  This should be an exciting!

Posted here are our Learning Goals for the unit (what we will have achieved by the end of the unit):

Learning Goals

- to identify the main events that happened in the colony of New France
- to identify the important places in New France
- to identify the important groups and individuals, and what made them important
- to examine the interactions between groups of people like the First Nations allies and enemies, the French and the English by looking at issues from both sides
- to communicate my findings clearly using the appropriate tool

Remembrance Day poetry

In the next few days we will be working on our Remembrance Day poetry.  The Grade 6/7 class is responsible for the Remembrance Day assembly every year, and part of our contribution is a collection of Remembrance Day poems.  We have been talking over the last few weeks about different features in poems that make them special, like using the five senses, including comparative images like similes and metaphors, using descriptive, strong verbs and adjectives to create vivid pictures in the reader's mind, and various techniques like alliteration, repetition, rhyming and personification. Today we talked about big ideas, moods and symbols related to Remembrance Day, as well as watching some film clips from World War 1.  Students are to brainstorm ideas for their poem tonight, and start work on a rough draft.  On Thursday we will be sharing our rough drafts and deciding what features we could add to make the poem more descriptive and vivid, and then we will be submitting our good copies on Monday.  The ideas and word walls we looked at today, as well as a checklist and rubric and some sample poems from last year that students agreed to share are all available here: https://husky67.pbworks.com/w/page/Poetry.Get writing!