Semester 2 begins

Hi everyone
Welcome back to an exciting second half to the year. We were very sad to lose Souta at the Christmas break but we have three new students this semester. Alexandr, Suhha and John have all started this week.
Our unit of Inquiry for this quarter is about sharing the planet and in particular the issue of conflict. We will be looking at a lot of different conflicts, researching ones that we know about but also trying to broaden our knowledge on some more unfamiliar ones. An important part of the unit will be discovering ways in which we can find peaceful solutions to conflicts.

Just before we finished in December we undertook a small measurement unit where we investigated area, perimeter and circumference. We used this knowledge to create scale models of Castles. I have included a couple of pictures of some of our final products.

I would like to give a special thank you to the wonderful Grade 5 Mum's who helped provide a (farewell to Souta, Christmas party and birthday cake for me) combined celebration on the last day. We had a lot of fun and it was a great way to say goodbye to our friend Souta.

Over the next few weeks we will start preparing for the Exhibition unit and because of this we have started looking at current events. Through this I am hoping to get the students better prepared about some of the issues going on in the world in which they are living.

I am also going to post some of our math strategy videos in the next couple of days, so keep a look out for those.
Mike

Mini Science Fair

Hi everyone
firstly a big thank you to the parents who came to visit the students presentations yesterday. During reflection time several students commented that they felt really pleased and proud that the parents came to see their work. Thanks.
We had a great turn out of other elementary classes and also some teachers and secondary students visited.
I have placed some photos of the day for you to see.
I would also like to wish all the students, Parents and families all the very best for the holiday season and if you are traveling a safe and stress free time. I look forward to seeing you all in January.
Mike

The Great Egg Drop Challenge

Hi everyone
Last week was the egg drop challenge and after studying Newtons laws the students were set the task within strict guidelines to design a box (with again limited supplies) to protect their egg after falling from the 1st floor landing. Needless to say some had a very HARD landing.
This experiment was to practice writing and presenting the whole scientific method before starting our summative. The students are now busy doing science for real. They are carrying out their own scientific experiment of their choice and will put on a mini science fair on Wednesday the 12th of December starting at 1:30. So if you are able to come and share in our science time it would be great to see you.
Mike

Becoming familiar with Newton

Hi everyone
In the last few days we have done some study and experiments looking at Newtons Laws of Motion. This will help us as we head toward the Egg Drop Challenge and then next week onto the students own experiments for the summative assignment.
We have had some fun and on Friday the students performed some improptu drama's demonstrating the laws.
Here are a few for you to look at.
Mike

Eugene, Hong Suk and Dong Hee

SDC10700 from mike stanley on Vimeo.

Dana, Erin and Yerine

SDC10698 from mike stanley on Vimeo.

Tivan, Michael and Kane

SDC10696 from mike stanley on Vimeo.

Ashley, Gina and Brendan

SDC10694 from mike stanley on Vimeo.

Science at last

Hi everyone
The students are very excited that we have started our Inquiry unit about the Scientific Method. As part of this we are undertaking a lot of practical hand on experiments, practicing each step of the process to become really familiar with it.
This week has been about experimenting with water rockets. The students built some understanding around pressure and the properties of air and water.
The fun part of course was building and testing of the rockets. Some students wanted to find out if putting different amounts of water in the rocket would effect how high it would fly and others concentrated on whether more air pressure was better.
Mixed results were obtained and the students were given the opportunity to modify and try again.

Here are some of our photos;

Grade 5 television advertisements

We have finished our advertising unit of inquiry and as promised here they are for you to see.

The first one is produced by Ashley, Eugene and Gina

Our Ping Pong Advertisment from mike stanley on Vimeo.

Hong Suk, Dong Hee and Erica produced an advert about animal cruelty

HDE dog movie from mike stanley on Vimeo.

Billy, Hidemasa, Dana and Tatiana star in a funny movie about exercising your pets.

PN H,D,B,T from mike stanley on Vimeo.

Kane and Michael try to convince you to get better outside toys and equipment in the school yard.

MK toys movie from mike stanley on Vimeo.

Rikumu, Souta and Brendan want better tasting juice in the cafeteria.

BSR lemonade from mike stanley on Vimeo.

Our media campaigns

We have come to the end of our unit of inquiry and the students are busy working in groups producing their media campaigns.
For the 'How we express ourselves'unit the summative assessment is to produce a print advertisement (poster or brochure), a radio advertisement and a television advertisement.
Tomorrow is the due date and I am looking forward to sharing some the the completed products next week.
Here is Billy, Hong Suk and Ashley working on their products.