Happy New Year! I hope everyone had a fun and relaxing break. The students are embarking on a new unit of study as the new term and calendar year begins.
UOI: Our current unit of inquiry is Sharing the Planet where the students will be looking at how "The Earth's natural cycles help to regenerate its resources". It's an inquiry into: Earth's renewable and nonrenewable resources, the importance of life cycles, and our responsibility to manage the earth's resources. The students have delved into a few of the formative questions this week, such as: What are resources, what are natural resources and which ones are renewable, what are plant and animal cycles like?
UOI & Maths: At the start of the new unit, the students were given a survey of questions to assess their background knowledge of the unit content. This information was collated and presented to the students to graph the results. The students began discussing and learning about different types of graphs and ways to present information. They used their knowledge to graph the results of each answer from the survey.
Maths: Along with graphing, the students will continue on with practicing multiplication & division facts. We have also started a unit on money. This has already proved to be challenging with all the currencies represented, within the class, from the various countries of origin. However, the bigger concept that is being addressed is parts of a whole. This is connected to their understanding of fractions as well.
The students heard the sad tale of " Alexander, Who Used to Be Rich Last Sunday" and have realized he foolishly spent his money. The students will have a chance to practice their addition and subtraction of money as they browse the classroom store to see if they can spend their money more wisely than Alexander.
The students heard the sad tale of " Alexander, Who Used to Be Rich Last Sunday" and have realized he foolishly spent his money. The students will have a chance to practice their addition and subtraction of money as they browse the classroom store to see if they can spend their money more wisely than Alexander.
Literacy: As we head into a new UOI, the students will also begin a new unit of writing. They will be focusing on opinion or persuasive writing. The children had a chance to investigate what this type of writing looks like. They thought about the author's purpose for writing, the convincing words they used, and the format in which they wrote to persuade the reader. In the coming weeks, they will be studying persuasive writing samples and practicing with the various elements in order to craft their own writing.