How to View our Google Classroom

Hi Everyone,

One last quick note from me:

As per instructions, I have "Archived" our Google Classroom. You are still able to view material I posted over the school year and access your own files. Follow the steps below:

I will check my email periodically over the summer. If you have any questions, email me at: eeelder@cbe.ab.ca.

Have a healthy and enjoyable summer!

From, Ms Elder

Celebrations from This Year

Dear Families,

It is with mixed feelings that I write this final blog post. This has been such an unusual year and it pains me to not get to finish it with the students in class. We took up some important and powerful work this year that I was so excited to continue it and share it with you.

As you collect your child’s belongings this week and read their report card, I encourage you to find a time to sit and go through the work together. There are assignments to share that deserve to be celebrated, and finding a way to provide closure is important in us being able to move on to the next school year.

I ask that you pay particular attention to three assessments that are in your child’s package that I spent a considerable amount of time on back in March. I had planned for students to share these with you at the March learning conference; they have not seen them yet.

1)    Affordable Housing unit floor plan

2)    Logo Re-Design for a Social Agency (click here for details)

3)    Animation Residency (click here for details)

These three assignments make up a significant portion of the students’ work in Term Two. They each relate back to our work from SEED School, and they showcase the way the students applied their learning in real-life ways.

Below, I have posted pictures from the bulletin board we created for the March learning conferences. The students spent a fair amount of time creating this board for you by documenting their journey of learning from December to March around homelessness.

I also posted the photos the students took during SEED School that we were going to share in a Photo Exhibition the night of the Animation Sharing in April. These stunning and moving pictures capture the feeling of invisibility that we explored in relation to human dignity.

I wish you and your family a safe and happy summer. I hope to see you all back at Ramsay School in September.

With much love and gratitude,

Erin

 

 

 

 

Our Invisible Population

Every person deserves to feel dignity and a sense of belonging 

Pixel Art

This week, we took up the Math-Art challenge of creating a design with a hundred grid. It relates to Fractions and Decimals and creates a pixelated art piece. Check out a few examples below!

Clouds

Over the last two weeks, we have explored clouds in Weather. We studied the names of the different clouds and learned how they form. We understand that clouds can predict weather changes. With our eyes on the sky, we documented the clouds we saw this week and wrote weather predictions to match them.

In an effort to understand when and why it rains, we tried a Saturation Station cloud experiment. Using a sponge as a cloud, we added drops of water one-by-one to the sponge. We saw that the sponge could actually hold much more water than most of us predicted. It "rains" when the sponge is so saturated (filled with water) that it can't hold any more, just like a cloud.

We discussed the different factors that led to us having such different results (like sponge size, eye dropper size, etc). Then, we represented our data in a bar graph and a pictograph using a scale of 10.

Independent Research Projects

The Penny

Throughout the month of May, students had the opportunity to learn more about a topic of their choice. Our Independent Research projects spanned from cats to Martin Luther King, and from diseases to Star Wars. The engagement seen in our Online Learning sessions and through the work sent in was exciting.

This project scaffolded and reinforced many learning outcomes in Language Arts and Social Studies. We practiced our note-taking and paraphrasing skills, learned about online searches and safety, explored ways to organize our information, and took down the sources we used. Google Docs ended up being a great tool for searching, organizing, and sharing information. Students created detailed research questions at the start of the project to guide them through their research and were successful in the end. It was truly a pleasure to read and listen to each child's project and presentation.

Cats

Students were asked to represent their learning in a creative way through an artifact. Here are a few examples that were easy to share. This is a project that deserves celebrating!

White Horses

Plague Doctors

Evergreen Trees

COVID-19

Pandas

Sending Love: Senior Picnic Baskets

This year, our class has focused on the themes of citizenship and community, and we've learned how we can better support our vulnerable populations. We had many follow-up tasks from SEED School that allowed us to take action based on what we've learned this year, such as by volunteering at the Drop-In Centre's donation centre, making and donating a quilt to Inn From the Cold, and teaching others about dignity and homelessness through our Animations and Photo Exhibit. Unfortunately, these events and experiences couldn't take place due to the cancellation of classes and COVID-19.

But, there was one activity planned that we were able to still do...we could support the Alexandra Centre Society in making picnic baskets for senior citizens who live in our neighbourhood. The whole school joined in for this optional learning task. Students drew pictures, made puzzles, and wrote inspirational cards so that every basket had a little extra love in it. Thank you to everyone who participated!

Tracking Rain

We are putting on our meteorologist hats and starting our Weather unit in Science! 

Last week, we had to track the forecast and actual rainfall for three days at home. Ms Elder couldn't have chosen a better week because we ended up with a record amount of rainfall on Thursday! 

This learning task was a great discussion-started about the accuracy of scientific experiments. We knew that we couldn't accurately compare our data because there were so many uncontrolled factors. Below are all of the ones we brainstormed. We also discussed why we might get different results even if we controlled for these factors.

The official Weather stats for Calgary documented 33.3 mm of rain for Thursday. That breaks the record from the past 100 years. In 1948, Calgary received 30 mm of rain.  

We also took the opportunity to talk about water safety. Our rivers swell when we get that much rain and there was flooding in parts of the city. Firefighters were warning Calgarians to stay away from the edge of the river, avoid going into pathway underpasses, and not to raft. 

We will be studying clouds next!