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!

Representing the Main Idea

Owen

Sophia

This week, we continued our reading of Current News Articles. The article was about animals taking over cities because there are less people and cars on the roads.

Instead of writing a summary about the main idea, we did something a little different. Students represented the story in an artistic way. They were allowed to choose the medium they used.

This goal of this activity was to continue practicing summarizing information. This is in preparation for our Independent Research Project due at the end of May. It connects with objectives in Language Arts, as well as Social Studies.

Here are some student examples. We have such a creative class!

Jasper

Jaxton

Abigail

D

Summary Writing

For the next few weeks, our class will be working on writing summaries. This is in preparation of an Independent Research Project that will be introduced at the end of April.

Key skills we are working on with these summaries include:
- Finding the "main idea"
- Paraphrasing information in our own words
- Making personal connections with the text

Here are the two articles we read and summarized last week, with some student samples attached.

Turkey Chased by Police!

For the original article, click here.

The main message in this article was there's no need to call 911 because of a turkey. It's important because then the police are wasting their time when they could actually be helping other people. This article makes me feel happy and worried. It made me feel happy because it was kinda silly how people would call 911 over a turkey. I felt worried because if Turk does it again but people don't see him he could get lost. ~ Isla

The main message in this article was that too many people were calling 9-1-1 about the turkey. People must call 9-1-1 only in emergencies. This article makes me feel happy because the Turk is in a safe place which is Ramsay. ~ Nikita

Calgary Cheers!

For the original article, click here.

The main message in this article is that people are cheering on their balconies and porches to support frontline workers! It is important because it's nice to support people that help us. This article makes me feel happy because so many people show appreciation for all the frontline workers! It also makes me feel thankful because people are willing to take the risk to protect us! ~ Priya

The main message was that people are banging pots and pans to say thank you to health care workers. This is important because people are notifying the health care workers to say thank for fighting covid 19 and taking in sick patients with covid 19. This article makes me feel happy and good inside because people are supporting the doctors and our doctors are trying their hardest to fight against covid 19. ~ Jaxton

Quilting: How to Stitch your Squares Together

For previous quilting steps, click here.

STEP FOUR: Sew the Squares Together
Using a thread that's the same colour as your fabric, thread your needle.
Choose two squares that you'd like to be side by side. Put them together facing each other so that you're seeing both of the paper squares.
Starting in one corner, poke through the fabric of both squares. Try not to poke through the paper this time.
Use a whipstitch to stitch the two squares together along ONE edge only. If you run out of thread, tie it in a knot a few times, rethread your needle and keep going. When you get the the other corner, tie a knot a few times.
Then open your squares back up to see that you stitched together the edge that you wanted to. I make mistakes all the time and I use my seam ripper to take my stitches out. Ask an adult for help if you do this.
Choose the next two squares to stitch together and follow the instructions again.

Watch the videos to see the steps.

Here is what the finished product should look like:

Quilting: How to Baste

Here are the steps for completing your quilting squares at home. If you didn't come into the school to pick yours up, you can make a new one with any scrap fabric you have around the house. :)

STEP ONE: Measuring your Squares
Measure accurately so that the quilt pieces will fit together. 
You need four small squares and one large square.
The small squares need to be 6.3 cm on each side.
The big square needs to be 12.7cm on each side.


STEP TWO: Cutting the Fabric
Choose five pieces of fabric that are the same colour palette (monochromatic). The patterns can be different.
Cut out fabric so that is a bit bigger than your paper so you can fold it over on each side (approximately 1 cm extra on each side). This measurement does not need to be completely accurate.


STEP THREE: Basting the Fabric to the Squares
Thread the needle and sew the fabric to the paper. This is called basting. 
Make sure the side of the fabric you want to see is facing out. Whatever side is touching the paper, you won't see.
Watch the video to know how to baste.
(I had to decrease the quality to low to be able to upload the video so I hope that you're able to see it!)
For basting, we usually use a different coloured thread than the fabric so that it stands out easily. We will be taking these threads out later.

Check back soon for a video on how to hand stitch the squares together!

Re-Designing a Social Agency Logo

Here are the current logos for 4 Calgary agencies.

Last week, we took a closer look at the Social Agencies we have learned about this year and their logos. We discussed which logos reflect the organization and the population they serve. We also looked at the symbolism used in the logos. Overall, the class favourite was the "Inn From the Cold" logo because you can see in their logo that families use the space as a shelter. Our least favourite was the Drop-In Centre because you can't learn anything about the DI from their logo.

We then got to choose one of the four organizations to design a logo for. We used graph paper so that we could easily make our logos symmetrical, as well as use polygons in our design. Then, we counted the total area of our logos, so there was lots of Math used in the making of these!

We also coloured ours and described how our designs and colours used represented the social agency. We'll share this work with you at our next Student Learning Conferences (date to be announced).

Quilting

Last week, Ms Elder read us the book, The Quilt-Maker's Gift. Most people thought it was an agreeable idea to make a quilt as a class. We would like to make our own quilt to give away to someone in need, just like the woman in the book. "Some people want something but they don't need it."

This week, we're making the quilt!

First, we had to measure the paper to make squares. We need to measure accurately so that it will fit together to make a quilt, like a puzzle. We measured each square side as 6.3 cm to make a big square that's 12.7cm long and wide.

After we measured the paper, we cut out fabric that is a bit bigger than your paper so you can fold it over. We had to pick fabric of only one colour (monochromatic). You could choose five different fabrics of one colour.  We agreed to make the quilt colourful so in the end, it will be a rainbow.

Then, Ms Elder taught us how thread the needle and sew the fabric to the paper. This is called basting. Later this week, we will finish basting and hand stitch the pieces together.

"We are measuring our squares."

"We had to be really careful. If we messed up, it wouldn't fit in the quilt."

"Some of us are choosing the pieces of fabric for our quilt." 

"We are practicing basting."

"This is Ms Elder's demo. This is what the finished squares will look like."

Letter Writing to the Government

After all of the learning we've done this year on homelessness, we felt we needed to take action to help others. We wanted our voices to be heard so we wrote letters to the government to advocate for people experiencing homelessness.

See our post from Mustard Seed School about this (click here).

Listen to the news article we watched about the budget cuts announced last week to Affordable Housing maintenance (click here).

Here is the letter we wrote as a class about Affordable Housing. We each wrote our own letters in partners about an issue of our choice (affordable housing, pet-friendly shelters, public bathrooms, affordable clothes and food, or tiny homes).

We are mailing our letters to the municipal government (our Mayor Nenshi). Our class letter is going to the provincial government (Premier Kenney) because it was provincial budget cuts.

Dear Premier Kenney,

We are Ms Elder’s Grade 4/5 class in Ramsay School, Calgary. We are learning about homelessness this year. We know that homelessness is very complicated and there are many ways that people become homeless. We participated in a week-long program at Mustard Seed School, and we had presentations from the Drop-In Centre, Alexandra Centre Society, and the Calgary Immigration Society. We know that everyone has their own story. We want to help people experiencing homelessness in Calgary.

We are mad that you are cutting $53 000 000 to affordable housing. We know that giving people homes is actually cheaper than having them live on the street. When people are homeless, we spend more money on hospitals, police, prisons, and homeless shelters. People who are living in an unsafe environment might be scared to move out and become homeless so they may stay where they shouldn’t. After people leave our affordable housing units, there needs to be money to repair them so someone else can move in. We want to solve the problem of homelessness, and by taking money away, it will only make it worse.

We find that your choices with our province’s money, is just making the problem of homelessness worse. Finland solved their homeless problem by putting homeless people into homes, so why can’t we try too? They did the math and realized it costs less money than having people be homeless. For example, studies indicate in Alberta, we would SAVE $34 000 per person!

Please consider our ideas. Never give up. The future depends on you.

Remember, as the Lorax speaks for the trees, we speak for the people experiencing homelessness.

Sincerely,

Ms Elder’s Grade 4/5 Class

Mustard Seed School: Day Five

We started Day Five with a presentation by a resident of the Mustard Seed, Les. He told us his life story and how he ended up becoming homeless. He shared with us how his perspective on homelessness has changed and how the Mustard Seed has become his home.

Here is Les’ take-home message:

“Everybody out there is somebody’s son, daughter, mother, father…they are all people. You don’t have to give money to someone on the street. Just say hello, look at them, ask them how their day is.”

We also spent some time on the rooftop patio of the Mustard Seed. We completed a Six Room poetry activity that Ms Kelsey taught us.

At the end of the morning, we walked by the site where a memorial is being built for people who have died sleeping "rough." We learned about people who advocated for that to be built so they would have a place to remember lost loved ones who didn't have a home.

Mustard Seed School: Day Four

On Day Four, Ms Kelsey read us a book called “Malala’s Magic Pencil.” In the book, Malala uses her magic pencil to help solve problems in the world.

We considered which issues we’ve learned about that we care the most about. We will be writing letters to the government to advocate for people who face these issues. Here are some of the issues we brainstormed:

In connection with our animation work, we thought of images that show how people feel invisible. We staged them in tableaux (each of us was the director for one photo). Then, we walked to Stephen Avenue and took the pictures. We will display the photos at the March conferences and our Spring Celebration.

In the afternoon, Ms Kelsey led a budgeting activity. We had to choose how we spent our money on housing, food, transportation, technology, childcare, shopping, and school. We had rockets that we used as money.

“There are only 15 rockets so it’s hard to decide. Most of my money is going towards 3 meals a day, and a 2-bedroom apartment…things that are more important than others.” ~ Isana

“It’s hard…even though it’s not actually real, it makes me think about my choices. The hardest decision was child care and the school.” ~ D

“My hardest decision was transportation and child care. If child care is at one, I’d be really busy. If I did walk, I’d be late for work. If I had a licensed day care that’s high quality, I could leave my kids there when I go to work.” ~ Nikita

We also had a presentation from Erica from Immigrant Services Calgary to hear how Calgary supports our new Canadians.

Mustard Seed School: Day Three

On Day Three, we did a walking tour of downtown Calgary. Here is a mind map of everywhere we went to and what we thought about at each place.

Mind Map from our day

Journalling at the Chinese Cultural Centre

Things we learned:

“Art can be a message to people and can enforce rules, like how the walking people say, ‘You can’t sleep here.’” ~ Jasper

“I learned the word perspective. “ ~ Chloé

“I learned about art made out of feathers at the Chinese Cultural Centre.” ~ Ina

“I learned that at one time in Canada, Chinese people weren’t welcome.” ~ James

“I learned that people can’t sleep in the +15’s.” ~ Owen

“In China, red is a lucky colour. I learned that there was a microphone in the glacier.” ~ Priya

“I learned that the winter garden is private. I learned that there is a lot of hostile architecture. I learned that the forest of trees was a cross-stitching pattern.” ~ Nikita

“I learned that water can look frozen but still be able to move.” ~ Abigail

“I learned that everyone is allowed to go in the Devonian Garden.” ~ Isla

“Homeless people can’t sleep where there’s hostile architecture.” ~ Gaby

“I learned how to make a signing bowl work. You put pressure and have perfect timing.” ~ Silas

Connections we made:

“The Winter Garden and Devonian Garden both have living walls.” ~ Jorja

“The Winter Garden and Devonian Gardens connect because they are both gardens that have water and are peaceful.” ~ D

I felt calm in both the Chinese Cultural Centre and the Winter Garden because they were both quiet.” ~ Ina

“The Winter garden was smaller and less public than the Devonian garden.” ~ Desiree