Exit Point Powerpoints

As we work through our IPC unit on Explorers and Adventurers, the students will be collecting data to use for their exit point activity.  At the end of every unit, students partake in an activity to conclude the unit which is what we refer to as the exit point.  For this current unit, students are creating a powerpoint.  They'll use data in the various categories pertaining to this unit for each slide, and then will present these powerpoints at the end of the unit.

Guest Speaker

Our current IPC unit on Explorers and Adventurers has students learning many things about geography and maps.  Yesterday, a member of our school community came and spoke to us about maps and cartography, aspects of maps, the various kinds and how he uses them in his job as a cruise ship captain.  It was extremely informative and we learned that electronic maps have many great features that keep passengers safe while travelling.

Is a Square a Rectangle?

We started another mini geometry unit today: square and rectangles.

First, we investigated characteristics of square and rectangles.  We decided:

Rectangles

• have four 90° angles
• opposite sides are the same length
• opposite sides are parallel

Squares

• have four 90° angles
• all four sides are the same length
• opposite sides are parallel (from which we deduced that the lines must be straight)
• is a rectangle

This last feature about squares brought this question forth:

The students discussed this and came up with some very valid answers.  They should good critical thinking skills and through debate and discussion were able to decipher that this statement is true and why it is so.

Villa Gentile

On Monday the students headed to Villa Gentile for a day of Salty Cats.  While the weather wasn't the greatest, it did allow us to participate in many events this morning - from relays, to sprints, to shot put, to sack races, to javelin and more!  We had a fabulous time and even managed to make it back before the rain, and hail!, came pouring down.

Using Tools to Make Perpendicular Lines

Yesterday students learned about parallel and perpendicular lines, and how to draw them.  The tool we chose to start with was a triangular ruler, that has a 90° angle incorporated in its structure.  This led us to today's goal:

With a bag of different measuring tools in front of them, students first choose the one we know and demonstrated how to use it to create perpendicular lines.  Then, from the remaining tools left on their desks they needed to choose on that they thought they could use to create perpendicular lines.

After some discussion, and trying out one tool which we deemed would not work to accurately create a perpendicular line, they decided that we could use a protractor to help us in this endeavour.  Through a class demonstration, the students agreed that indeed this would work.  So then we set out to practice creating perpendicular lines alternating between the two measuring tools.

Making Lines

Using triangle rulers, students practiced making parallel and perpendicular lines today.  It's nice to start with graph paper to help ensure that our lines are straight and that we do create 90° angles.  When we leave the graph paper, our triangle rulers will definitely help as will using a protractor.  It's amazing how previous unit concepts return to be applied again. ;)

Parallel and Perpendicular Lines

Our next mini geometry unit is about lines; parallel and perpendicular lines to be exact.  Today students first explored concepts and shared what they observed about two separate images of lines.  From doing so and our class discussion, we discovered the properties of parallel and perpendicular lines.  Also, we found that moving the turning or rotating the image did not change the properties of the lines.

Parallel Lines
1. Made by two straight lines / line segments
2. The lines never meet.
3. The distance between the lines remains the same at all points.

Perpendicular Lines
1.  Made by two straight lines / lines segments
2.  The lines meet.
3.  Where the lines meet creates a 90° angle.

After we explored this visually and through discussion, the students then used strips of paper to create parallel and perpendicular lines.  We found that using measurement tools (ie rulers and right triangle rulers) helps to ensure accuracy of our lines.

Shared Writing

The students are working on their last large writing project of the year: an expository essay on an endangered animal.  They have been hard at work doing research for their paper, and some of us have even finished.  As we all start to get closer to the next step, it means that we'll begin drafting.  To start our papers, we plan on writing an introductory paragraph.  This can often be a hard, wordy task and one which I like to model first for the students (do an example for / with them first).  Today we did just that and then the students participated in shared writing with a partner or small group to write an introductory paragraph together to get our papers started.  It was GREAT to see the collaboration between the students.

IPC Cartography

Learning concepts through reading non fiction and fictional literature is an important skill students need to build on in school.  In IPC we do a lot of reading about our key learning ideas through non fiction articles and books.  Today we read about cartography and various map skills through reading Mapping the Woods which speaks from a child's point of view, and is fun to read.

Learning Through Discussion

A key factor in learning in our classroom is being able to express your thoughts, ideas and answers both verbally and in written form.  In many of our reading units, learning comes from each other in the form of discussions.  As we discuss, students learn to hear other points of view, debate them respectfully, share thoughts, change opinions and answers, and just generally being able to discuss literature to educate.  This morning, students participated in a guided discussion group where we shared our thoughts to various questions.

Protractor Fun

Students are learning how to use a protractor to measure angles.  This can be a very tricky tool to use as it's important to place it on the angle you are measuring properly in order to get an accurate measurement.  Also, angles can be measured from the right or the left, hence a protractor has two sets of numbers.  We have to be very aware of which numbers to use, therefore applying our math thinking and knowledge of kinds of angles.

We are using protractors to both draw and measure angles.  Once we've gotten it, it doesn't seem so tricky anymore. :)  Thankfully Singapore Math has some wonderful online resources for us to use in the classroom.

Explorers and Adventurers

New unit alert!  4th grade purple is entering their final IPC unit of the year: Explorers and Adventurers.  In this unit students will be learning about history, geography and international aspects relating to the topic.  To begin our unit, students worked with partner to brainstorm what they thought geography was, and then terms related to it.  As a whole class we collaborated our ideas, then began applying the geographical terms to describe Genoa.

Angles

Students were learning how to name angles today.  First we reviewed the different types of angles (right, obtuse, straight and acute) and then looked at how to name them using letters.  It's a tricky process, especially when we are looking at naming angles that are part of closed shapes, but the students have a good start!

Buddy Links

Vasanthi Story:

http://www.wateraid.org/uk/~/media/Files/UK/Schools/peoples_stories__vasanthi.pdf?la=en-GB


The Water Family:

http://www.thewaterfamily.co.uk/

Animal Adaptations

In small groups, students each read about a different animal adaptation: migration, camouflage and nocturnal animals.  After each group has read about their adaptation, they synthesized information on a presentation sheet and then answered questions based on their adaptation.

Today, the groups presented their synthesized information so we could all learn about the different adaptations.

Research

Students are in the midst of writing an expository essay.  Combing writing with IPC, this essay will be on an endangered animal.  Using our Macs, students have been busy gleaning different information and utilizing a variety of websites and search engines (safe ones found here on the blog) about an animal of choice.  It's been fun to see them discover new information about their animal that has shocked them.  And we've noticed that some predators and preys are sitting beside one another in the class.