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.

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!

Building a Vehicle that Moves

Throughout April we have been working on a building project for Science. Our task was to design and build a vehicle that moves from a force such as elastic, wind, spring, or inflated balloon. We could not push it ourselves or use gravity.

The focus of the project was evaluating different designs scientifically, and being able to make changes to improve the distance our vehicles travelled. Measurement was the tie to Math.

Some students made cars. Some even chose to make a boat, a plane, or a hot air balloon! Here are some photos of the different vehicles we made:

Six Room Poetry Art

When we were at the Mustard Seed, Ms Kelsey led a Six Room Poetry activity on the rooftop patio (click here to see pictures of us there).

"I like Six Room Poetry because it's calm and peaceful. You get to listen to the sounds of nature, even if there are cars. I really like listening to the birds and being on the rooftop." ~ Desiree
"What I liked was painting my background to connect with my poem." ~ Sophia
"I liked how it was really quiet and I could concentrate really well. When the geese came, it was not quiet!" ~ Priya
"I thought that it was calming until I heard a really loud siren." ~ Charlotte
"It was very hard to concentrate on our Six Room Poetry work because there were so many loud noises like geese and a bunch of cars." ~ Owen
"I think we are doing this project to learn descriptive words." ~ Jaxton
"We used our five senses in our Six Room Poetry because we had to see, and hear." ~ Owen

Animation: Day Two

Here's a sneak peek of what we learned today. We don't want to tell you too much because we want our final animations to be a surprise! :)

Making a boil: You draw 2-3 pictures of the same drawing then, when you take your animation, you switch them out every picture to make it look like it's flickering or moving. For example, a fire. The three images should look a little different but should all be the same size so they look similar.
By: Sophia and Jaxton

"We use boils to make boring things more interesting." ~ Nikita
"We use boils to make it interact and more realistic." ~ Isana
"We use boils to make more action in the film."
~ Priya

Making a smear: You can make one big drawing like one pair of eyes and you want their eyes to move to the opposite side of their head to show that they're looking the other way. So you can draw a squiggle, then put the eye on the other side. Or, you could make lots of pairs of eyes to give an effect that they're moving quickly.
By Desiree
"We use smears to show that a character is looking side to side quickly and it adds more animation." ~ Abby
"A smear is when something is moving very quickly because in an animation. In an animation, if you put something on one side of the page, then on the other side really quickly, it looks like it's teleporting. So if you make something longer, like an oval, it will look like it's actually moving, not teleporting." ~ Owen
"There's two different types of smears: one is a long stretched line, and the other is many of the object." ~ Charlotte

"Real life" example of Homer Simpson

Puppets: You need more than one section of a person or animal. Then, you use brads between the sections so that you can show a person walking or clapping. Brads are to make characters or props more detailed so they can move. It makes them articulated and realistic.
By: James and D

"We use puppets so you can make your drawing sit down without having to draw it all over." ~ Isla
"We use puppets to add detail. You have to do it really carefully so you don't rip it. You can make the character look like they're walking or swimming." ~ Chloe
"The point of using puppets is to not make it look like you're characters are teleporting. For example, an inch worm moves up and down so it doesn't look like it's teleporting across the page." ~ Priya

We also learned about wave loops and close-ups.

Here was an amazing animation we watched to inspire us to use the animation techniques we've learned. The drawings are so detailed!!!

Paper Planes (click here)

The Making of Paper Planes (click here)

Animation Residency: Day One

Today, we had our first of three animation workshops with PAW (Portable Animation Workshop). What we make with them will be showcased at our Spring Celebration at the end of April (stay tuned for more information on dates and times).

We first learned what an animation is and what different types of animation are (stop motion, CGI, flipbook, claymation, etc).

Next, we learned how to animate a bouncing ball and how to use the "Squish and Stretch" technique.

The "normal" ball and the "squished" and "stretch"

Here are some quotes from our work:

"You can barely see the squish. We need more pictures of it." ~ Jorja, Isana, Bianca
"It's a meatball that is bouncy. I think we did the drawings really well. Our second bounce is really high off the screen which makes it look super bouncy." ~ Isla and D
"I made it look like it was bouncing by having it come up off the ground. One looks like it's squishing as it hits the ground, then the next like it's stretching." ~ Owen
"We need a squish here, then a stretch. I have an idea! How about it bounces back and then starts rolling off the screen." ~ Jasper and K

After our bouncing ball, we got to make a story that included a squish and stretch.

Using "Replacement Animation"

"Our story is going to be about an alien who comes in on a spaceship. The alien will squish and stretch when he comes out of the ship." ~ Chloe and Sophia
"A girl went to a baking competition. She makes a messy cupcake. When the cupcake comes out of the oven, Lizzie bounces with happiness. That's where we'll show our squish and stretch." ~ Ina
"We're sticking with the meatball theme. This girl is going to be eating her spaghetti. One of her meatballs grows bigger, rolls off her plate, squishes and stretches. I'm so excited; it's going to be so cute!" ~ Isla and D

The "Onion Skin"

"We're trying to make a Princess and a Knight story. The Princess will fall down and squish and stretch." ~ Charlotte and James
"We're making a background. A bunny and cat are playing until it starts raining and they meet this evil dog." ~ Isana, Jorja, Bianca
"We're going to make our title pulse (get bigger and smaller)." ~ Jasper
"Assets are props. In our story, our assets are lava going out of the volcano and down the side, and we have smoke." ~ K
"Our story is about these two trying to get along. My triangle guy bounces around. My guy disappears into walls." ~ Jaxton and Silas

"We used replacement animation to make our alien ship look empty. We also used that for our thinking alien so we didn't have to redraw the whole thing." ~ Chloe
"Onion skin is when you can see what the last picture was that you took. We use it so we can see what's under it so you don't get lost in your animation." ~ Nikita
"I learned that every single shot has to be perfect (no little black dot or fingers)." ~ Bianca
"If you move something too far, you have to redo it." ~ Priya
"I liked how we got to make a "fun" one before doing our homeless ones." ~ Sophia
"I learned that it was really hard to get things in the place you wanted. It's really quick!" ~ Isla
"I enjoyed doing the practice animation today because you got to use your creativity." ~ Jaxton

Six Room Poetry Follow-Up

Last week, we had a visit from Ms Kelsey from Mustard Seed School (click here to see the post). She taught us a journalling technique called "Six Room Poetry."

You need to divide your paper into six sections. Each has a subtitle: Image, Light, Sound, Questions, Feelings, Theme.

We climbed up the hill and each found our own person spot. We looked around to see what we'd see for Images. We tried to be creative and as descriptive as possible.

Then, we chose our favourite lines and put them together in a poem.

We had to rearrange lines so that they were connected or had a theme.

"I loved how all of the class was very descriptive in their words, especially with how they felt. I also liked being outside and feeling peace in nature." ~ Desiree
"We started practising this because we're going to do this type of poetry when we go to Mustard Seed School in February." ~ D
"I liked how we could make it as creative as we wanted to. We could look around in a peaceful place and make juicy sentences." ~ Sophia
"I developed my grammar skills in this activity when I had a conference with Ms Elder." ~ Jaxton
"I liked being outside and noticing different noises." ~ Ina

Here are two samples of our work. It was very hard to choose!

It is ever so devastating that traffic bursts your creativity

Are the trees trying determinedly to talk to me?

Big birds exclaim, “Caw caw,” like a crow

And teeny, little chickadees say, “chick a dee dee dee.”

The chinook arch has blessed us for warmer weather

I am joyful

Nature is so beautifully loveable in peace

Nature is also lovable when

A jack rabbit apocalypse comes

The wind quietly blows into my ear

And bounces off my ear drum whispering “whooooo”.

~ Desiree

The trees are so tall they’re holding up the sky

I can see the birds fly

I can see the snow glow

I can hear the wind blow

It’s cloudy with some sun

Everyone’s having fun

I see the rink lights

Especially when it comes to night

When I lay down, the light blinds my eyes

I can hear guys

It’s very cold

And the sky is bold

~ Sophia 

Chinook Wishes

We are learning about Weather this year in Science. Throughout the year, we have been talking about chinooks and noticing cloud patterns. Today, we painted chinook cloud patterns using the Rule of Thirds we have previously learned about. We are hoping our artwork brings a chinook to Calgary soon! :)

Inventions for "Sleeping Rough"

Here is the video Ms Elder showed us today about the DOAP Team and how they help people who are sleeping outside when it's very cold (click here).

Then we shared our inventions to help people sleeping rough. We created inventions to help people either: stay warm, protect their belongings, move their belongings, or protect themselves from weather.

This is a public bed people can use if they need a safe and warm place to sleep

This jacket has hidden pockets to keep your stuff safe

This backpack folds out into a shelter.
It has a spot for a water bottle and an umbrella and sunglasses attached.

We also had our first session with Ms Kelsey from Mustard Seed School. She told us a bit about our week (February 24-28) and answered questions we had. She also led us through a journalling activity called "Six Room Poetry" that we'll be using during our week.

Design-Thinking Model: Homelessness

A bed you can rent for free if you need it

Brainstorming

We are preparing for our week at Mustard Seed School by learning about the different causes of homelessness. We know that homelessness is a complicated problem that does not usually happen by only one factor (ex: losing your job). That also means that it takes many supports to help people who are homeless. It's not as easy as giving them a free place to live.

This week we focused on people sleeping "rough" (outside). We brainstormed a list of obstacles you would have if you lived outside:

- Difficulty staying warm outside.

- Protecting yourself from danger.

- Protecting your belongings.

- Finding a safe place to sleep where you're allowed to sleep

- Carrying a heavy backpack or pushing a shopping cart to store belongings

Ms Elder put us into groups of three and we chose which problem we wanted to tackle. We then followed the "Design Thinking Model":

A jacket with hidden pockets to keep your things safe
while you're sleeping

Empathy:

Write a paragraph (3-4 sentences) to show how you would feel if you were experiencing homelessness. Be clear which problem you are trying to solve.

Ideate:

Draw 4-5 different ideas of inventions to try to help a person experiencing homelessness

Reflect:

Which idea best solves the problem of the person you’re trying to help. Stay on topic.

Prototype:

Build a model of your idea!

Write an inventor’s note that explains how your invention works and what it would be made out of.

Here are some photos of us working on our prototypes.

A shopping cart that you can also sleep in