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This year, students decided to support the Orillia SPCA with our annual class fund raising event, entitled "Market Day."

This is how Market Day worked:

Students in our class were invited to donate gently used toys, games, books and videos that they no longer needed and were willing to sell to friends. After everything had been collected, students divided the items into three categories, or "stores," created storefront signs, and priced the items they would be selling. All items were priced between 25 cents and a dollar.

Students were then invited to bring up to $5.00 in change, to spend at Market Day. When Market Day arrived, students set up their stores and took turns selling, or browsing and purchasing goods. Then, they counted their profits and we tallied up how much we raised.

In all, students raised $78.90, through their Market Day event.

At the outset, Mrs. Black had promised to match student donations, up to $110. ($5.00 per student), with a donation of her own.

With Mrs. Black's donation added, our total raised for the Orillia SPCA was $157.80!!

Items that were leftover after our sale were donated to Valu Village.

Thank you and congratulations to all the students and parents who supported our fund-raiser with donations of goods and money. We know the Orillia SPCA will put our funds to excellent use!

Mrs. Black also wants to thank her teaching colleague Lisa MacRae, for sharing the idea of Market Day.

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Thank you for visiting our class BLOG.  If you have any questions or comments, feel free to e-mail me (Margaret Black):  mblack@scdsb.on.ca or to add a comment to this page.

During recent Social Studies and Literacy periods, our class participated in an island survivor simulation. The exercise was designed to introduce the concept of government, stretch students’ ability to work collaboratively in assigned groups and provide opportunities for students to engage in role play and oral discussions.

This is the basic outline of the project (Click on any photo to enlarge it.)

 

STEP ONE:

within their small groups, students began brainstorming a list of all the things they might be able to do with the items that were salvaged from the plane.

 

STEP TWO:

Groups began work on survival plans and land use maps of their islands. Then they were told they had been rescued and needed to prepare a presentation for the press.

 

STEP THREE:

Groups presented their survival plans at a press conference. When students were not part of a particular presentation, they became members of the press gallery. Ten members of the press rated each group's chance of survival, based on the plans they shared. Mrs. Black assessed the drama aspect of the project, based on how well each student acted his/her roles and listened during other groups' presentations.

This gentleman took his role very seriously, making his hair appear as if he'd been out in the wilderness for months!  🙂

 

THE RESULTS ARE IN!

These are the scores the press gallery gave each group's overall survival plan, based on their performance at the press conference:

  • Nunavut:  65%
  • British Columbia:  56%
  • Ontario:  53%
  • Newfoundland:  36%

The press gallery was also asked to rate the odds of each group surviving a winter in the wilderness, based on the survival plans they presented. These are the class' estimates:

  • Nunavut:  64% chance of survival
  • Ontario:  55% chance of survival
  • British Columbia:  48% chance of survival
  • Newfoundland:  26% chance of survival

Congratulations to the survivors who crash landed near Graham Island, Norwegian Bay, Nunavut! You are the winners of Island Survivor 2017!!

Island Survivor was a thoroughly enjoyable experience for most students in the class; a frustrating one for a few. While groups were meeting to brainstorm ideas and achieve consensus about their survival plans, Mrs. Black circulated. She stepped in and facilitated whenever personality clashes or inexperience with consensus-building created an impasse. She hopes the one-on-one and small group coaching that transpired during this activity will provide students with some new tools and strategies they can employ next time they are collaborating with others on a project.

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Thank you for visiting our class BLOG.  If you have any questions or comments, feel free to e-mail me (Margaret Black):  mblack@scdsb.on.ca or to add a comment to this page.

Within their Science program, Grade 5 students study "forces acting on structures." This Science unit includes reading and video viewing, hands-on building, the writing of lab. reports explaining the model building process, and a unit test.

This blog post showcases groups of students building model bridges, towers, roller coasters or strength bridges, with agreed upon materials and (in the case of strength bridges) agreed upon bridge spans.

These are the finished models, which were presented to the class:

Short video of roller coaster:  MVI_6590

Thank you for visiting our class BLOG.  If you have any questions or comments, feel free e-mail me (Margaret Black):  mblack@scdsb.on.caor to add a comment to this page.

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