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Category: Language

Published on Leave a comment on Book Character Day for Polar Bear Conservation

This fall, as our annual fund raiser for charity, my class invited students and staff at our school to donate a two-dollar coin (the one with the Polar Bears on it) in support of Polar Bear conservation, and come to school dressed as a favourite book character.

We used our media literacy skills to promote our fund-raiser, via the school newsletter, flyers, announcements and mini-posters:

Mrs. Black provided our class with an extra incentive to participate. She pledged to donate a dollar for each student in our class that brought in a donation. Twenty-three of us took up her challenge!

We estimate that about 30% of the school population participated in our event. We collected $168.25 in donations. Our money will help World Wildlife Fund Canada protect habitat and conduct research to ensure a future for Polar Bears in Canada.

These pictures show members of our class dressed up as favourite book characters, plus "Adopt a Polar Bear" items from World Wildlife Fund Canada. The bear is our new class mascot. We named him "Snowball!"

On behalf of the bears, we want to thank everyone who participated in our event!

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

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Published on 1 Comment on Writing in Support of Habitat for Humanity!

Habitat-for-Hunanity-Canada-300x211This year, we participated in a national writing contest in support of Habitat for Humanity. Students in Grades 4-6 were invited to pen 50-300 word explanatory writing pieces, explaining what "home" means to them.

The contest involved the usual incentives and prizes for students, but the best part was that builder Genworth Canada pledged to donate $5.00 to Habitat for Humanity Canada for every contest entry that was received.

Students our class planned and drafted their writing on either side of Thanksgiving weekend... a perfect time to reflect upon thoughts and feelings about home.

Then, on October 24th, a representative from Habitat for Humanity's Gravenhurst office came to the school to share the organization's vision and procedures with students in Grades 4-6 (click any photo to enlarge it):

Students were required to get parental permission in writing, in order to enter the contest. We set a class goal of having 20 out of 25 permission slips returned, and we exceeded our goal. At the time this BLOG post was written, we had received 22 permission forms back, meaning our class' writing efforts generated $110.00 in donations for Habitat for Humanity!

moh_sitelogo_enHere are some of the reflections that our class entered into the contest:

A.M. (Grade 4):  Home means everything to me, because I have a roof over my head and a family that takes care of me. I have clean water to drink and lots of food to eat, and I am thankful for having a warm fire to keep my Mom and Dad, my brother and me warm. That is what I'm thankful for.

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C.B. (Grade 4):  When you come home, it is to a warm place. Home is where you are safe. Home is where you are loved. Home is where when you are sad you will get a hug. I feel sorry for the people without homes.

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Z.M. (Grade 4):  Home is a place to be loved and a place with my family, my Mom and Dad, my fish and my bed. Home is a place where Mom and Dad make you food, so you aren't hungry when you go to sleep. Home is a place where you have holidays all day and night, Christmas, Easter and everything else. Home is a place to be hugged when you cry. Home is a place for me to stay and lay. Home is the perfect place for me.

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J.M. (Grade 4):  A home to me is a place to feel safe where family loves you. Home can be for anyone, like a web for a spider or cave for a bat. You don't need to be rich as long as you have a roof over your head and family to love. Home for humans can be a cabin, or condo, a mansion or an apartment.  A home can be small or big.  It can be any size or any shape. If I won the lottery I would give it to charity so someone could have a home. Home is a place where I can cry.  I know how it feels to have nowhere to go.  You feel trapped and insecure.  At least I have hope when I come home to family.

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S.R. (Grade 4):  Home is a nice warm place. There's no need to think you're not safe. Home's a place to spend time with your family. This is where your memories be. If there's work you don't want to do, at least your family is there for you. It's not just you, there's also your family, a soul, it's not like an old cereal bowl. A home is filled with love and joy. There's the same amount of love in a gifted toy. That' what home means to me.

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E. M. (Grade 5):  Home is a place I can be with family. It is a place of laughter, love and warmth. It gives me a safe place to be. If a strong storm comes, we know where to go. My home is the place to be. We cuddle up and watch TV together. It gives us a place to eat our dinner. Everyone should have a home. It is a safe place. It is YOUR home.

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R.C. (Grade 5):  Home is a place where we all belong. It makes us want to sing a happy song. After a cold winter day we gather 'round the fireplace. Home is a place where you can be sad, but also be glad. Home is like a castle, which hatred cannot penetrate it's walls. Home is not like a house. A house does not share love, but a home does. Everybody needs a home, either trailer or mansion, a home is made of LOVE!

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I.A. (Grade 5):  Hopefully today will inspire you to make a very nice story of love and no hate. Build a good home for you and me, open for someone to eat and sleep. Home is a place for companionship and joy, always comfy. Home is a place which some people desire. Home is a place for fluffy and soft. Home is a place to be yourself, where family knows what to say when you're down. Where you should not be lost to hope and be free to be a dope with no question. Where you can chatter when it matters, with sisters, dads, brothers, moms, as long as they love you. You can call it a home, with cats, dogs, turtles and snacks. Whatever you want. Where no one calls you dumb, small or tall, weird, because you're different, not my friend, or where they take advantage of you because it's funny. My home is one of my greatest loves, wearing my Mom's sweatshirt, with all of her love. It would kill me thinking of me and my family on the street, hoping and wondering where to sleep and what to eat.

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The other Grade 4-6 students at our school also raised money for Habitat for Humanity, by participating in the contest.  Afterwards, the Junior Division received a "caring classroom award" from our local Habitat office and a "spirit award" from the builder that sponsored the contest (Genworth Canada):

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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.

Published on Leave a comment on Bridge-Building and Explanatory Writing 2014 Project

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As a culminating task in our Pulleys and Gears (Grade 4) and Forces Acting on Structures (Grade 5) science units, students worked together in teams to build bridges out of popsicle sticks, straws, paper clips, toothpicks, string, elastics, paper and tape.

The class worked with Mrs. Black to define the requirements and Success Criteria for these projects.  The goal for Grade 4 students was to build a 30 cm lift bridge and swing bridge, using at least two pulleys. The goal for Grade 5 was to build a 50 cm bridge that could hold at least eight math textbooks.  Students made two attempts, building on the success of their previous attempt to improve their designs.  They kept detailed lab notes explaining their thought and building processes. Their lab reports became their explanatory writing pieces for literacy.

The following photo collage depicts the fun students had with this project. Click on any photo to enlarge it.

With this project, students had a great time learning some principles of design, through trial and error, and by building upon the knowledge they gained in their first trial.  They also learned how to write up detailed explanations using a standard lab report format.

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.

Published on Leave a comment on Wildlife Food Drive Update #1

This year's "Food Drive for Orphaned Wildlife" is shaping up to be an overwhelming success!  Over the past two and a half weeks, students from Kindergarten through Grade 8 have been contributing a steady stream of acorns, pine cones, maple keys, apples and black walnuts, to feed animals overwintering at three wildlife rehabilitation centres.

(Click on any photo in this blog post to enlarge it.)

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On Monday, students in our class solved a math problem associated with the food drive. They determined how many kilograms of acorns fit in a standard-sized box. They weighed a student holding a box of acorns, weighed the student again without the acorns, and then worked with a partner to devise a strategy for calculating how many kilograms a box of acorns weighs. 

The day we completed this math problem, Mrs. Black delivered four boxes of acorns to Aspen Valley, adding to the 29 kg they had already received. Students were asked to calculate how many total kilograms we shipped to Aspen Valley.

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Altogether, Mrs. Black delivered 92 kg (203 lbs.) of acorns, a large box of pine cones, a small container of black walnuts, a box of sumac flowers, six pumpkins and two bags of peanuts in the shell to Aspen Valley Wildlife Sanctuary, in Rosseau.

This was delivery #1 (29 kgs. of acorns):

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These are students helping load Mrs. Black's car for delivery #2 (63 kgs. of acorns):

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Delivery #2 ready to leave for Aspen Valley:

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We have also shipped 57 kg (125 lbs.) of acorns and two medium boxes of pine cones to Shades of Hope Wildlife Refuge, in Pefferlaw:

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This week, we are collecting for Woodlands Wildlife Sanctuary, in Minden. On the weekend, Mrs. Black expects to take them approximately 57 kg (125 lbs.) of acorns. Woodlands will also be receiving two medium boxes of pine cones, two boxes of sumac flowers, a box of black walnuts, some pumpkins, farm-feed corn and peanuts in the shell.

Food that students collect on the last weekend of the food drive will be delivered to Shades of Hope Wildlife Refuge next week.

Aspen Valley staff asked Mrs. Black if she would write an article for the Parry Sound newspaper, explaining how students in three schools have conducted food drives this fall, to help Aspen feed orphaned and injured wildlife over the winter. As a media literacy/writing project, students in our class worked in groups to write their own articles about the food drive.

Students even got to pose for pictures to illustrate their articles:

Here are a couple of the articles we wrote about the food drive:

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Mrs. Black used our articles as sources for her Parry Sound North Star column, and let our class help edit her article before she e-mailed it to the newspaper.

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Friday, October 3rd Update

This is a link to the article Mrs. Black and our class authored, on the Parry Sound North Star website:

food-drive-article-2014http://www.parrysound.com/news-story/4895585-students-hold-food-drives-for-animals-at-aspen/

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Next week, we will share three more math activities that are based on our food drive, and tell our blog readers how much food we collected during our three-week campaign.

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

Published on Leave a comment on The Great Spring Reading Challenge!

In mid-March, students in our class were challenged to complete 1,000 minutes of home reading by June 1st.

This reading was intended to provide material for five reading response projects, which were to be completed in the same time frame. (The reading response projects were showcased yesterday, at a literacy fair.)

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Students tracked their reading on weekly time sheets and their progress was recorded on a classroom graph. Three Grade 5 students took turns tabulating the information on the time sheets and updating the graph (HUGE THANKS to Vaughn, Bella and Connor for their help!!)

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Students were given a choice of rewards as they reached particular milestones. The class developed this reward scheme for the challenge:

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The entire class participated in our home reading challenge. Fifteen of twenty-six students read for at least 1,000 minutes. Five students completed over 2,000 minutes of reading. The class total was an impressive 26,774 minutes of home reading!

Today, we invited our librarian, Mrs. Torrey, to help one of our students present a certificate of achievement to each student in the class:

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Here are the students that met or exceeded the challenge, pictured with Mrs. Torrey and one of our students. Each student's minutes of home reading are shown in red:

What a great bunch of readers!!

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

Published on Leave a comment on Literacy Fair for Younger Students!

This afternoon, students in our class shared the reading response projects they completed over the past two months with the students in Miss Wigle's/Mr. Launchbury's Grade 3 class.

These photos were taken while the Grade 3's were visiting our class. The Grade 3's particularly enjoyed trying out some of the original board games that students in our class created, based on books they had read. Click on any photo to enlarge it.

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Here is a close-up look at some student projects:

Here are some pictures of our student work displays:

We would like to the thank the Grade 3 class for joining us today.  It was really fun sharing our projects with them!

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

Published on Leave a comment on Persuasive Writing, Part Two

Overall expectation #1 in Writing, in the Ontario Curriculum, asks students to "generate, gather, and organize ideas and information to write for an intended purpose and audience." This project provided students with an opportunity to write for two purposes and three different audiences.

We asked the Kawartha Turtle Trauma Centre (KTTC) to help us turn our persuasive writing unit into something with a real purpose. Staff at the centre told us they would love it if we would write some letters aimed at persuading potential donors (companies and those offering grants) to support KTTC. They said they would also appreciate some kids' thank you letters that they could give to donors.

As you can see from the following pictures, working for a real-world client inspired students to do exemplary work. These are their persuasive letters (click on any photo to enlarge it):

These are samples of their thank you letters to donors:

We also wrote thank you letters to the staff and volunteers at the Kawartha Turtle Trauma Centre for the amazing work they do!  Here are samples of those letters:

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

Published on Leave a comment on Persuasive Writing for a Real Purpose

This year, our persuasive writing unit fulfills Grade 4 and 5 curriculum expectations in Writing, Grade 4 expectations in the Science strand "Habitats and Communities," and Grade 5 expectations in the Social Studies strand "First Nations Heritage and Identity" (turtle symbolism)... plus, as a bonus, our writing may save the lives of some turtles! In consultation with staff from the Kawartha Turtle Trauma Centre, we are writing letters intended to persuade companies to support the centre.

kttc-logohttp://www.kawarthaturtle.org

The Kawartha Turtle Trauma Centre, in Peterborough, is a twelve year old Canadian registered charity that rescues, rehabilitates and returns to the wild over 1,000 turtles per year. The centre also engages in wild and released turtle population research, conservation initiatives such as establishing "eco-passages" that allow turtles to cross under busy roadways, and education outreach.

After students' persuasive letters are graded, and writer strengths and "next steps" identified, the letters will be forwarded to the to the turtle hospital. Staff there will include student-authored letters with applications for support from companies.

We began the project by educating ourselves about Ontario turtles, and the Kawartha Turtle Trauma Centre. Seven out of eight species of Ontario turtles are at risk!

turtle-species-posterhttp://saveconcordwest.files.wordpress.com/2010/11/ontario_turtles.jpg

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These videos and websites provide a good overview:

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Based on what we learned, we brainstormed information about the role of turtles, why Ontario turtles are at risk, the Kawartha Turtle Trauma Centre and how people can help. This is what we came up with:

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Next, we discussed the elements that make a good persuasive letter and agreed upon the following success criteria (click on the photo to enlarge it):

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Then, we began planning our letters and authoring first drafts (click on any photo to enlarge it):

After drafts were edited by peers, students began to write good copies of their letters and draw pictures of Ontario turtles on them (click on any photo to enlarge it):

Students are taking great care with this project.  In a future BLOG post, we will share the final products!

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

Published on Leave a comment on Marvelous Miss M.!

Over the past five weeks, Olivia Manovich, a teacher-candidate from Lakehead University's Faculty of Education, completed a teaching practicum in our classroom.  During her first week with us, Miss M. observed Mrs. Black's teaching. From weeks two through five, Miss M. began to create her own unit and lesson plans and teach the class herself, with Mrs. Black providing feedback.  Each subsequent week, Miss M. assumed a larger proportion of the teaching responsibilities, until last week (week 5) when she was teaching full time.

Miss M.'s enthusiasm was contagious and her thoroughness was second to none. She brought as many new ideas to the table as she took away! We want to thank Miss M. for all her hard work and dedication.  It just won't be the same when we return in January, and Miss M. isn't there.  🙁

Here are a few images of Marvelous Miss M. at work with our class (click any photo to enlarge it).

Introduction to The Elements of Dance:

Daily Physical Activity:

Math:

Writing:

Gym (Volleyball):

Science:

Playing with the school band and teacher-band:

We wish Miss M. all the best in her future as a teacher.  Any school would be lucky to have her!!

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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.

Published on Leave a comment on Science & Explanatory Writing: The Bridge Building Project

As a culminating task in our Pulleys and Gears (Grade 4) and Forces Acting on Structures (Grade 5) science units, students worked together in teams to build bridges out of popsicle sticks, straws, paper clips, toothpicks, string, elastics, paper and tape.

The class worked with Mrs. Black to define the requirements and Success Criteria for these projects.  The goal for Grade 4 students was to build a 30 cm lift bridge and swing bridge, using at least two pulleys. The goal for Grade 5 was to build a 50 cm bridge that could hold at least two math textbooks.  Students made two or three attempts, building on the success of their previous attempts to improve their designs.  They kept detailed lab notes explaining their thought and building processes. Their lab reports became their explanatory writing pieces for literacy.

The following photo collage depicts the fun students had with this project.  Grade 5 students far exceeded the expectation that their bridges support two textbooks. All of their bridges held 5 or more books.  One bridge held 22 books before it listed to the side and dumped its load!  Click on any photo to enlarge it.

With this project, students had a great time learning some principles of design, through trial and error, and by building upon the knowledge they gained in each trial.  They also learned how to write up detailed explanations using a standard lab report format.

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.

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