Catching up

Recently, my class has been keeping very busy with the following...

Art - Students have been given a lesson on drawing with One Point Perspective, in which we use a Vanishing Point (blue dot on diagram) in the middle of our paper, and draw a Horizon Line (red line on diagram), as well as a vertical line and several diagonal lines across the page, all crossing through the vanishing point. Once these lines are drawn, we draw several boxes from smaller (around the vanishing point), to larger (just inside the edge of our paper), which begins to give the Illusion of Depth on the drawing. Using this framework, we continue to draw indoor or outdoor scenes in which the objects closer to us are drawn larger, while the objects further away (closer to the vanishing point) are drawn smaller. For more information on drawing using One-Point Perspective, check out: http://www.olejarz.com/arted/perspective/

Language - Students have been continuing their Novel Study of Tuck Everlasting, and have read up to chapter 20. The class has been divided into two groups, and have been debating the issue of drinking the magical spring water that gives the drinker eternal life. The two groups have taken the positions of the Yellow Suit Water Company, who are for (PRO) magic spring water as they wish to bottle and sell it for huge profits, versus Health Canada, who are against (CON) the magic spring water because of the negative effects it will have on Canadians and the rest of the world. Students have made their arguments based on the 4 Square Writing Method, and are currently using computers to complete a Media Literacy assignment of creating flyers that effectively communicate their group's message about the magic spring water to their audience, Ms. Schwartz's Grade 5 students. Our audience will then vote on whether the use of this magic spring water should be legalized or not. The winning group of students will get a one-week supply of spring water!

Math - The Grade 5 and 6 students have been continuing their units on Numeracy. Grade 5 students had a mid-point quiz today, followed by a lesson on decimal points up to the hundredths column on a place value chart (e.g., 1.25). Grade 6 students Had a lesson on renaming numbers using place value concepts, which involves converting units like bytes to kilobytes to megabytes, or millimetres to centimetres to metres, and so on.

Daily Physical Activity - We have finished Chair Aerobics, and have started our Leafs Fitness Challenge (hopefully this helps us more than it has helped the Leafs so far this season). We are measuring our times and number of repetitions in eight challenges during week one:

1. Vertical Jump - measures the height that a student can jump while reaching upward

2. Standing Long Jump - measures the distance a students can jump from a standing position

3. 10m / 20m Sprint - measures the time it takes students to run 10m and 20m distances

4. Illinois Agility - measures the time it takes students to run a course around pylons

5. Line Test - measures the time it takes students to shuffle sideways from line to line

6. Push-Ups - an all time favourite, measuring the number of push-ups a student can do in a row

7. Wall-Ball-Toss - measures the number of repetitions students can throw and catch a ball

8. Sit and Reach - measures the flexibility and reach of students

Over the next four weeks, we will focus on performing exercises that increase our fitness levels in Power, Speed, Agility, Muscular Strength, Coordination, and Flexibility. At the end of week four, students will measure their times and number of repetitions again, to observe their improvement over time.

Homework Assigned Monday October 15, 2007:

Grade 5

-Read 20 minutes & Update Reading Log

-Bookmatch sheet

-Spelling Unit 6 + 50 Word test this Friday

-Math Textbook page 43, # 6-9

-Science: 3 chart pages due tomorrow

-Art: One Point Perspective Drawing due Thursday

Grade 6
-Read 20 minutes & Update Reading Log
-Bookmatch sheet

-Reading Response Journal entry due Monday
-Spelling Unit 6 + 50 Word test this Friday
-Math Textbook page 45, # 6-9
-Science: Experiment pages due tomorrow
-Art: One Point Perspective Drawing due Thursday