In unit this week, 4A and 4L continued to collaborate to investigate ancient civilisations. In 4A, the workshop focused on timelines. The students explored timelines and then shared observations and queries. They discussed BC/BCE, AD/CE and how time is counted in chronological order. Based on what they noticed about the given timelines, they created a brief timeline of their own life.
Group discussion of timeline 'noticings'
Group discussion of how to build a timeline
From there, they then dug deeper into how to organise an historical timeline of major events from Ancient Egyptian history. They worked in class groups to achieve this task. Before we could begin our workshop in 4L, there was the pressing matter of mummified apple slices to attend to. We continued with the scientific method to document the results of our experiment and drew meaningful conclusions about the why and how of our results.
Antanas and Domantas are both excited and disgusted as they uncover their apple slice!
Students observe their apple slice and document results
This is it, folks! The mummified apple slice...
In 4L, the workshop's aim was to get students thinking about what characteristics make up a civilisation. We began by comparing cave men to Ancient Egyptians through discussion prompts. We then spent some time debating the question, "If we were a group of people who wanted to form a civilisation, what would we need to be considered civilised?" From here we brainstormed a short list of criteria.
Then we watched a short video on how a civilisation is defined and added the elements to our list that were not already present.
This is all you need to be a civilisation!
In keeping with our scientific/mathematical thinking, we realised in order for something to be a true rule, it has to be proven in more than one situation. Therefore, each pair of students took one characteristic of civilisation and looked for evidence in a civilisation other than Ancient Egypt, that would prove civilisations did, in fact, have the same elements. In pairs, we shared our piece of evidence and explained how it helped prove our thinking. Finally, we discussed why this particular characteristic might have been a necessary element to establish a civilisation.
Raphael, Migle and Meda skim books looking for bits of evidence that they can use to build their argument
Eva and Elena discuss how Ancient Roman coins serve as evidence of trade
Students discuss what evidence has been left behind to prove that different civilisations used farming
In Lithuanian A last week, the students had the privilege of working with Mr.Colin while Ms.Jurga was away and were prompted to come up with the BIGGEST or MOST IMPORTANT questions they had so far this unit. The students then spent time digging into 'strong' vs. 'weak' questions. This sparked an interesting conversation in 4L about 1) What IS a strong question? 2) When is the last time you were truly curious?
Group discussion about the last time we got truly curious...
We spent time really digging into the value of asking good, strong questions. We compared the idea of an inquiry and a question, and discussed the different results that come from asking a simple question versus launching into a passionate inquiry. We realised again what we already figured out last week...that to truly inquire, we have to GET CURIOUS! So, we spent more time this week not only getting curious, but seeking answers.
Stretching our thinking- what IS curiosity and inquiry?
All of the talk about being an inquirer and getting curious has continued to shape our work during Genius Hour on Passion Projects. After presenting final projects from the last cycle, several of us have gone back to the drawing board in order to make sure our free inquiry is driven by genuine curiosity strong enough to seek out answers. For this reason, we have begun to document our process more carefully to include why and with whom we have inquired along the way.
Sofija shares her song about wolves
Yigit shares his final project on creating a dance with his own dance moves
Shourya performs a bit of his mash-up song
Passion Project Documentation
Record resources you use (list ALL websites, videos, conversations, interviews, etc.)
I was looking for William Morris drawing techniques and I found a tutorial here that I tried
In language arts, we got curious this week about words. We realised that in order to become better spellers, we needed to inquire into words and find patterns/connections. We took several words apart and investigated each separate piece (base words, prefixes and suffixes). From here, we used what we knew of other words to determine the meaning of each piece. Finally, we put them back together with a more comprehensive understanding.
Pulling apart words and putting them back together for meaning
We also came to the realisation that reading is an invaluable tool in our inquiry process. We determined that we either get curious and set out reading to find answers, or we begin reading, grow curious, and read to find out more!
Benas, Yigit and Domantas seek to spark their curiosity
Krista and Veronika ask questions while Migle searches for answers
In math, we continued our work with decimals and began to explore their value and use in real-life. We sought to balance an imaginary bank account as we investigated their use in money. We also utilised them for precise measurements as we measured objects around our classroom. We branched out in our addition number talks to include decimals. We found that all of our usual strategies work just as well for the addition of decimals!
New ways of thinking as we apply mental math addition strategies to decimals
Yigit measures the width of his cubby
Nora, Shourya, Domantas, and Benas measure objects around the room
At the park this week, we enjoyed an icy day! None of us brought sleds, so we were equipped with only our imaginations. One group of students investigated the strength of ice formations, as well as the beautiful and peculiar patterns created by the thawing and freezing of the pond. Another group built an 'Ancient Egyptian kingdom' (which resembled a teepee made of sticks) defended by fierce protectors against an attacking army. On top of those adventures, we had some zombie attacks, trench digging and 'penguin' belly sliding. As always, we look forward to what next play time will bring.
On Friday, we enjoyed celebrating Chinese New Year together. We were delighted to partake of some delicious homemade dumplings and even got to see a dragon parading through the halls of VIS!
Lin delivered delicious dumplings to 4L in honour of Chinese New Year!
We had the pleasure of celebrating our friend Krista's birthday on Wednesday! We wish her a wonderful 11th year ahead!
In Unit, we continued our investigation of Ancient Egypt. After our workshop on Ancient Egyptian writing; the discovery and significance of the Rosetta Stone, we set out to create our own mini version. First we chose a word that represented something we value and wrote it in three different languages, just like the actual Rosetta Stone. The languages on our stone consisted of: English, hieroglyphics, and our mother tongue. Then, I enlisted a few volunteers to mix together batches of salt dough for our 'stone'. Next, we got to work 'carving' our messages on our stones. We, of course, enjoyed playing with the dough as much as we did creating our Rosetta Stones! Finally, we left our stones to dry and took home our own little piece of 4th grade history. On Wednesday, we collaborated with 4A once again to participate in two more Ancient Egyptian workshops. The workshop in 4A this week focused on Ancient Egyptian gods, goddesses and mythology. The students began with a brief discussion of what myths are. They then explored how geography might influence a civilization's mythology. Using maps of present day Egypt and Ancient Egypt, the students tuned into the importance of the Nile River and its emphasis in many Ancient Egyptian myths. The students were then invited to read about different gods and goddesses and worked in small groups to create myths or legends tying in what they knew about Ancient Egyptians and their beliefs. Once they had composed their myth, small groups presented their creations through dramatic performances. The workshop in 4L invited students to explore Ancient Egyptian mummification. We began with a short TEDEd video on the mummification process. The students watched with a purpose to find the big idea and then share this big idea using the 'Headlines' Visible Thinking Routine. We then decided to try our hand at mummification by 'mummifying' an apple slice! We used a combination of salt and baking soda (as close as we could get to natron) and used the scientific method to document our experiment. We understood after watching the video that mummification is on an instant process but takes some time, so we have placed our apple slices in a dark place to be uncovered after one week. We look forward to discovering the results to determine if our hypotheses were correct. Finally, we spent some time researching different elements involved in the death rituals of Ancient Egyptians. We explored amulets, sarcophagi, canopic jars, Books of the Dead and Weighing of the Heart ceremonies.
We spent time throughout the rest of the week reading about various ancient civilizations. The students were given free time to explore books alone or with friends and decided to begin documenting questions they generated as they read. This sparked an interesting conversation about how effective research happens in 4L. About half of us determined that we like to read first and then GET CURIOUS once we've read something that grabs our attention. The other half of us decided that we tend to do the exact opposite- we GET CURIOUS and then like to read to search for our answers. Since Unit 3 focuses on the attitude of CURIOSITY and the Learner Profile of INQUIRER, we'll be spending time developing both of these skills. In math this week, we continued our work with decimals. We spent a lot of time exploring how to visually represent decimals compared to the one or whole to understand more deeply what a decimal is. The students worked with base-ten block manipulatives as a hands-on tool to help them add, subtract, read and write decimals to the hundredths.
Students 'build' the problem 0.76 + 0.2 with base-ten blocks to open up a discussion of the correct solution to this number sentence
Veronika works with base-ten blocks while Steven uses a white board and a paper-pencil algorithm he prefers
Eva and Yigit build decimal addition and subtraction problems
In language arts this week, we spent some time with the 6-Trait Writing Rubric. In pairs, students took one trait and defined it for the class. Here is what they came up with:
Ideas—the main message
Organization—the structure of the piece
Voice—the personal flavour of the author
Word Choice—the vocabulary a writer chooses
Sentence Fluency—the rhythm and flow of the language
Conventions—the mechanical correctness (editing)
Shourya and Nora, Migle and Antanas read through pieces of the Six-Trait rubric with the goal of defining this trait
Gerda and Aleksandras explain what the trait 'Word Choice' is really all about
We then each identified which trait we thought we needed to work most on and went into our writing drafts to revise focused on this one identified trait.
Later in the week, we completed this writing prompt: Every day you pass a door. It’s always closed and locked. One day, as you pass, you notice that the door is open. You step inside. Write a story about what was on the other side of that door.
Gerda and Sofija compose their responses to the narrative prompt
We then referred back to our 6-Trait rubric tool to help us revise and edit our work.
On Thursday we visited Tymo Park with 4A. It had snowed in the morning and made our sledding hill perfect for the afternoon! When we arrived at the park, we discovered that someone had left us a snow wall. The students instantly utilised this new feature or prop into their play. Along with sledding and snow forts, the students also spent time tackling the slippery climb up the big hill! On Friday during our class meeting, we shared our peer appreciations. Once again I was reminded of how fortunate I am to get to work with such a fantastic and caring group of children! They were so generous and kind to one another, and it set such a positive tone for our day. Each child received their appreciation card to keep.
4L feeling all warm and fuzzy after receiving their appreciations
We were delighted to celebrate our friend Eva's 10th birthday this week! We wish her a wonderful year ahead.
Celebrating Eva's 10th birthday!
Finally, we learned that there will be a new addition to our class. We look very forward to welcoming our new friend, Domantas, to 4L next Tuesday!
It was a fabulous first week back from break in 4L! We began our third unit of inquiry under the transdisciplinary theme Where We Are in Place and Time. On Monday, we spent time collaborating with our peers from 4A brainstorming and sharing any background knowledge we already possessed about Ancient Egypt. The students used 'Think-Pair-Share' as we created a list on the board. This afforded us insight into what direction the unit take, but also gave us a quick pre-assessment.
Grades 4A and 4L 'Think-Pair-Share' what they know about Ancient Egypt
Grade 4's collective background knowledge of Ancient Egypt
On Wednesday, we put the students from 4A and 4L into two large groups (Group Isis and Group Ra) to attend some Ancient Egyptian 'workshops'. The workshop in 4A focused on Ancient Egyptian writing. The students learned a bit about hieroglyphics and the Rosetta Stone. They then spent time writing their name in hieroglyphics on a cartouche they made from paper.
For the workshop in 4L, we investigated the building of the pyramids. The students then discussed in small groups what studying the pyramids could teach us about Ancient Egyptian: religious beliefs, architecture, mathematics, politics, labour force, and science/technology. Finally, the students spent some time working on a challenge where they tried to build a pyramid out of sugar cubes 8 levels high, with each level above being slightly smaller than the one below.
We then asked the students to reflect on this question: 'Why is this important to us today?'Some of their responses were:
To know history and how they did things
So we can see changes between the ancient times and the present
To learn how people did things before and improve or modernise these things
To appreciate other people's history
To understand how we used to do things and learn from it
We will continue our investigation into the Ancient Egyptians next week as well.
In math, we began a new unit on decimals and their uses. The students began with a quick review of fractions and jumped into reading decimals. We looked at how decimals and fractions are related to the 'whole' or the 'one'. We then worked to read, write and show decimal values with base-ten blocks to get our minds around the value of each digit being discussed.
We also moved on to addition number talks. During our first number talk, the students quickly discovered relationships with subtraction and multiplication. They also found that some of the same strategies could be utilised, such as rounding up or down.
Addition number talks...some of these strategies look familiar
In language arts, it was a very exciting week for us as readers! Ms.Alie brought us back many new books to share from her trip to Canada. We got together as one large group to listen to booktalks for about 10 of the new books. The students then collaborated to come up with a system and method for sharing the books between the two classes so everyone would get a chance to read the new literature. We were excited about the many new choices of graphic novels, new books by some of our favourite authors and books we never even knew we'd love!
Ms.Alie booktalks the 'Babymouse' graphic novel series
Sofija, Lukas, Eva and Dovydas play rock, paper, scissors to see who gets the book first
We continue to work through our writing process. The students are currently in various stages of the process with several who have recently published a piece. They are now rotating back around to writing territories or drafting a plan. We will spend more time on the planning stage this upcoming week to solidify the value of a focus and a strong plan to guide us as writers in developing our compositions.
During Genius Hour this week, we got to hear from a few students who had put on finishing touches to projects from last term. We always enjoy the chance to celebrate our classmate's accomplishments!
Sofia and Gerda present the music video they made of the song they wrote and composed together
Antanas and his giant teddy bear
The students are now in the process of either: a) finishing up their last project or b) beginning a new project. Some of us have found it a struggle to stay on schedule, so we are now using a couple of tools to help us with that.
One is a contract signed by the student and teacher. This ensures that the project stays on focus. When it is sent home this week you will notice some new elements. The first is that the students must have a human resource- an expert- they can refer to when they get 'stuck'. The second is that they must identify 3 (out of 5) of the 21st century skills they will be working to improve. In a world where the focus is largely on the individual, we will strive to focus on how we can do our little part. You can find a list of new projects HERE.
Each students meets one-on-one with the teacher to discuss ideas and ways to make Passion Projects most meaningful
The other tool we will use is a schedule plan. This will guide us all with more focus as we define what we'll be working on in school on Fridays and what we will work on throughout the week. Please check in with your child to see these documents and encourage them to stay on track so they can reach success!
We had a great trip to the park on Thursday! There was still snow on the ground and it began to fall again on our way there. We enjoyed some fantastic sledding where we shared two sleds between us all. We also enjoyed seeing how the ponds had frozen over as well as all running water leading into the park. It was quite the winter wonderland!
Finally, we enjoyed the opportunity to celebrate our friend Antanas' birthday since we missed it on January 1st. We wish him a happy 10th year ahead!
Antanas and his very tasty teddy bear cake. We had a hard time cutting into that cake!
