Public Art Piece Creation Update

We have had four class work times to create our public art piece models. If students need more time on this project, they have been asked to finish at home this weekend and bring their completed pieces in on Monday.

In class, we also completed a written "artist's note" that explains the art piece. They should all convey a message of community. Students also named their pieces and described the material they would make them out of if they built a full-scale piece.

Next week, we will have a gallery walk. Students will display their models with their artist notes. We will complete self and peer assessments.

Here is a look at the student self-assessment that we created together:

Bury the Bones

Today we played a new domino game called Bury the Bones. This is a super easy game to play at home if you have a set of dominoes. It uses more Math skills than the Clockomino game we played last week because in Clockominoes, you're only practicing your adding.

In Bury The Bones, each player takes turns flipping over a domino. You can choose to add the two numbers, subtract, divide, or multiply them. Then cover up a space on your board (0-12). If you pick a domino that has no space left to cover, you put it in the "bones" pile. When someone has 3 bones (or strikes), the game ends. Whomever has more filled spaces on their board wins!

For example, if you pick the domino that has a 6:2, you could choose to add the digits together and put it in the 8 spot, subtract the digits and put it in the 4 spot, multiply the digits and put it in the 12 spot, or divide the digits and put it in the 3 spot.

We are keeping track of our results so that we can do some graphing.

This is an excellent game for discussing probability (Grade 5 concept). Last week, with Clockominoes, we looked at the frequency of picking different numbers. Students are beginning to build awareness of which outcomes are most and least probable. If you have a strong understanding of this, it is easier to win Bury the Bones!

Remembrance Day research

To complete today's activity in class, use this website for Question 4:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_the_100_largest_municipalities_in_Canada_by_population

Simple Machines Centres

We have been learning about Simple Machines. The six different simple machines are: wedge, screw, incline plane, lever, wheel and axel, and pulley. We can group them into two groups: levers, wheel and axel, and pulleys, and incline planes, wedges, and screws. A wedge is two incline planes put together and a screw is an incline plane wrapped around a rod.

Yesterday, we explored different centres that were all about levers. We also watched this video to learn more!

"Yesterday in one of the groups, we learned about a load, effort, and fulcrum." ~ Bianca
"In one of the groups, we learned about first, second, and third class levers. An example of each would be a seesaw, wheelbarrow, and stapler." ~ K
"A first class lever is a reclining chair." ~ Jaxton
"A first class lever is a seesaw. It can also be described by having a fulcrum in the middle." ~ D
"The closer the fulcrum is to the load, it is way easier to lift! I know this because I tested it yesterday by moving the fulcrum closer to the load and it worked. If you move the fulcrum away from the load, it's tougher." ~ Desiree
"Another centre we went to had tweezers and tongs. We were picking up erasers. We found that when we moved our fingers closer to the load, it was easier to lift the eraser. If our hands were on the back, it was much harder." ~ Jasper
"At the centre that we were using tongs and tweezers, it was easier to pick the erasers up with tongs because they are wider than the tweezers." ~ Owen

Here, we are sorting first, second, and third class levers.

This is the centre where we used tongs and tweezers to lift erasers.

We are testing how much effort it takes to lift the book when we move the fulcrum.

Simile Poems and Artwork

Check out the first half of this lesson by clicking here.

Continuing our work on similes, students painted the backgrounds of their faces or pets.

Then they laid objects overtop like in the book, My Dog is as Smelly as Dirty Socks. This created a matching poem and art piece that's all about similes and representing our ideas through various forms of media.

Simple Machine Games

You can try out these games to learn more about Simple Machines:

https://www.brainpop.com/games/simplemachinesgame/

https://www.learninggamesforkids.com/simple-machines-games.html

Mapping Our Public Art Pieces

We continued our work on our mapping skills today. Ms Elder gave us a list of 12 of our Public Art Pieces with their addresses, and a map of the downtown area. We had to work in teams to put each of the art pieces on a map. We used Google Maps as a tool to help us.

Reminder: Homework this week

There are 3 things students should be doing at home this week:

1) Simple Machines homework is due tomorrow (click here to see earlier post).

2) Brainstorm ideas and bring in materials for the Public Art Piece creation (click here to see earlier post).

3) Bring in materials for the Simile Poem of a family member (click here to see earlier post).

Thanks for your help at home with these great learning opportunities!

Simple Machines

Today we started exploring Simple Machines. We watched this video which describes the six different simple machines. We started experimenting with inclined planes.

Homework: Students have been asked to find 5 examples of simple machines at home and write which machine they are (ex: a knife is a wedge). Please bring your lists in by Friday.

Chasing Vermeer

This week, we finished off the book, Chasing Vermeer. Here are some thoughts on why we read this book:

"I think we read the book because we've been learning a lot about art and public art. It connects because the book is about the artist Vermeer." ~ Priya
"I think we did this book because we were learning about artists and Vermeer was an artist." ~ Bianca
"It connects with riddles. It helps us with our brains." ~ Jaxton
"I think it connects to the class because at the beginning of the year, Ms Elder said we'd be learning about people. I think that might have something to do with our history." ~ Abigail
"It connects with mysteries because there was an art crime that happened." ~ Ina
"This book can help us throughout our lives if we need to solve some problems." ~ Desiree
"The book connected to patterns. There were pentomino puzzles and things that would happen over and over, or kept popping up." ~ Jasper
"There were multiple 12s in the book and frogs." ~ Gaby

Teacher Reflection

We started the year by reading Chasing Vermeer by Blue Balliett together. This is a wonderful story that provokes critical thinking skills, as well as engaging students in an art mystery. There are connections to Math through the pentomino clues given in each chapter (Geometry), as well as the patterns and codes that are used to solve the crime (Patterns).

The book launched us into discussions about What is Art?  We brainstormed different forms of art (ex: sculpture, painting, installation, pencil sketch), and students brought in artifacts from home that they felt were art (Visual Art). They presented their artifacts for the class and we documented how our thoughts about art evolved (Language Arts).

Each of our Guided Reading groups read a different non-fiction book about art, and keeping track of their learning. They collaborated to create a presentation for the class, making connections with what we’ve already learned (Language Arts).

This learning has already prompted students to question the art they see around them. In reference to Public Art, students pondered, How are pieces chosen? What is it made of? How expensive is it? Who pays for it? Why do we have Public Art? This drove us to research on the City of Calgary website and discover how citizens are a part of the decisions about public art (Social Studies). 

Through our research, new facts were brought up that we needed to understand, such as 83% of Calgarians said we should spend more on Arts and Culture. This brought us full-circle and we were back to creating visual representations of data (Statistics and Number Sense).

So, in fact, a simple conversation about What is Art? can drive a deep, cross-curricular inquiry! 

~ Ms. Elder

Public Art Creation

The students did a fabulous job on their Public Art Piece Presentations last week. We had great discussions as a class about the way different art pieces make people feel welcome (or not), and how public art can create a gathering place, beautify a space, attract tourists, and express creativity. Feedback from the presentations (teacher, student, and peer) went home today in backpacks.

Students are now ready to take everything they've learned and create their own models of public art pieces. As we have been discussing different forms of art in class, students can choose whether they'd like to create a mural, mosaic, collage, photograph, sculpture, etc.

Students will build/draw a model of their piece, and compose an artist's note that explains:
- what it would be made out of
- what message their piece portrays
- how it expresses that message

The goal of the piece is to build a sense of community/belonging through their art.

Students will be assessed on:
- LA Writing: Is the message of the piece clearly explained? Is the material of the piece included? Does the writing include proper punctuation and spelling (after a one-on-one teacher conference with assistance editing)?
- LA Represents ideas through a variety of media: Is the message of the piece clear from looking at the artwork?
- Social Studies Communication: Is a message of community-building evident through the art and writing?
- Art Technical Proficiency: Is the art piece well-executed? Is it drawn/built neatly?


The pieces will be created in class but students may wish to brainstorm at home and/or bring in materials from home.

You can support your child by continuing discussions of what the different forms of art are and how ideas can be represented creatively through different forms of media. You may wish to complete the Optional Homework sent home on September 30.

Probability

Last week we talked about the Math word Probability. Probability means chance. We brainstormed different ways we could represent probability in both numbers and words such as 50%, 1/4, likely, unlikely, impossible, etc.

Ms Elder gave out signs that had statements on them like "I will be in school tomorrow," "I will be in New Zealand tomorrow," and "Today is Christmas." We had to arrange ourselves in order from impossible-unlikely-likely-very likely-certain.

Then, we played a dice game that helped us practice the probability vocabulary. Here's a picture of it so we can play at home.

Today, we played the domino game "Clockominoes." In it, you pull dominoes randomly and add the two digits together and place them on your game board. If you pull the same number as one you already have, you stack it. You win if you fill your board first. We discussed how probable it would be to win by pulling only 12 dominoes (very unlikely). We made predictions as to how many dominoes we'd have to pull to fill our boards. Then, we played and recorded our results. This would be a great game to practice at home for adding, and also for practicing probability. You could even keep track of your results to practice Data Management skills!