Socials: Survival Plans

Today in socials we finished our pastel drawings of what the local area might have looked like before people came here. Afterwards, students were given a Survival Plan to fill out. They are to think about what they would do to fulfill four basic needs: food, water, shelter and clothing. I asked that they talk to someone about their plan and have that person sign the back of their page indicating that they did have a conversation.

Poetry: Diamante Poem Good Copies

Today we went to the computer lab and made our good copies of our Diamante Poems. I will be taking these home this weekend and looking at them closely. Next week we will be working on a different type of poem (likely a Haiku) as well as talking about how to use great words in our poems.

Personal Planning: Tobacco

Today we started a unit on tobacco. I had the students brainstorm what they knew about tobacco in groups. After this brainstorming, we posted the responses around the room and everyone read each other's thoughts. We finished by reading about the effects of tobacco use. We will be continuing with this material next week

Poetry: Editing our Diamante Rough Copies

Today we discussed how to edit a poem and offer up constructive criticism. I prepared two poems and as a class we discussed how I could improve them. Afterwards I had the students switch their rough copies with one another and offer up constructive criticism. The students were given some time to revise their poems. I will now look at them tonight and offer suggestions to students. Tomorrow we will be working on our good copies.

PE: Adventure Curriculum

Today in PE we started working through the adventure curriculum. This unit deals with games that are fun and adventurous. There is a focus on teamwork, cooperation and communication in this curriculum.

We started with talking about the 4 important ideas (in our "contract"):

1. Play Hard
2. Play Fair
3. Play Safe
4. Have Fun

We played a few games to show these parts of the contract.

Poetry: Diamante Poems Rough Copies

Today we finished looking at Diamante poems and I had the students start their rough copies. We established a set of criteria in the class that the students will be expected to follow:
- Correct spelling
- Big, bold, clear letters
- Looks like a diamond
- Fits the form (the students took notes on this)
- Use of descriptive words (this is the focus of this assignment)

Students have been asked to write two poems, one of type A and type B. These rough copies are due on Thursday April 11th.

Science: What Affects How Much Force We Need

Today in Science we talked about the different factors that affect how much force you need to move an object. We briefly reviewed yesterdays lesson on friction and brainstormed several other situations in which you might need more or less force.

We did an exploration as a class with what happens when you add things to a bag (the force you need goes up) and what happens when you increase the steepness of a slope (the force you need goes up). There is no homework for this section.

Social Studies: Local Resources

Sorry for not posting this yesterday, but as you know a lot went on and I did not have the time to get this up.

Yesterday in Socials we talked about what resources are. We then took a walk around the school to look at all of the natural characteristics of our area. Once back in the classroom, I had the students create a picture of what this area might have looked like 10,000 years ago or before any human beings had come to the area. We did not finish these pictures so we will continue with them another day.

There was no homework for Socials today.

Poetry: Diamante Poems

Today I introduced Diamante poems. I showed 4 examples (one is included below) and we talked about one way that the poems can be written. Due to time constraints we didn't get to the second way we can write the poem. The plan is to continue with that tomorrow and then to move on to first creating criteria for a good Diamante poem and then writing our own.

Example of a Diamante Poem:

Rain Forest
Damp, dark
Raining, dripping, steaming
Monkey, jaguar, frog, anaconda
Climbing, stalking, slinking
Furry, scaled
Endangered

Science: Friction

Today we talked about Friction. We discussed how friction is related to surface texture (rough surfaces create more friction and smooth surfaces create less friction). We also talked about advantages and disadvantages of friction.

The homework for tonight is to finish the sheet called "Section 1.3: Friction." Students only need to complete the front side of that page. We will be working with the back side of the page tomorrow so they should remember to bring back their sheet.