Take Action Letters

Over the past three months in Science, we have learned a lot about the Earth and our Human Impact on it. We've learned how we can think about the environment before we act/buy to help make better choices. There are SO many things we can do around the home to help conserve. But, there are some things we know would help the Earth that we don't have control over. So now we're going to use our voices and ask our leaders to make those changes. 

We are each writing a letter to a current leader in Canada. We got to choose the issue we want to speak up about and learned who the appropriate leader is to help us with that issue. We talked about the different levels of community and who is in charge of what: 

Now, we're writing 3-paragraph letters to help make change!

Student Quotes

"I think we're doing this because it's important to learn how to use your voice and know when to speak up about something." ~ Finnley

"We are helping Earth. We need water for the Earth. It will be good. When we drink water, we will not be thirsty." ~ Jaivivaan

"It made me really confident because we weren't writing a letter to someone you knew, we were writing to a person really far and we don't know that person." ~ MM

"I almost fainted at the start but then I got in to it and I was confident." ~ LD

"I was really nervous at the start because I thought the government was going to give me trouble because I was telling him to change something but then I got on the Chromebook and felt more confident." ~ Fox

"First I felt this was not gonna happen. How we gonna send a message to the leader of Canada. Then, Ms Elder talked about it and explained it. Then, I see how it works." ~ SS

"First, I felt a bit scared because we were gonna send a letter to someone big and important like Justin Trudeau. Then, when I was on the Chromebook, I was feeling confident because I'm helping Canadians get clean water." ~ Felicia

"I got a little bit scared at first because I thought my sentences were not gonna be good for him but then when I edited with Ms Elder, I think it got better." ~ Viljo

Pieces of Me

'Pieces' Selection, Paragraph Writing, Presentations - Oh My!

Why do you think this project overall was important?

"It was important because we get to know ourselves and everyone else better." - Felicia

"To express myself in a different way than usual." - Fox

"You got to show what you like and what's about you so other people can know how you are." - Finnley

"I really liked this because I got to know a lot of my classmates and even though I knew some people really well, I learned more about them." - Hugh

 How did it feel to collect items about yourself?

"It was weird. Unnormal. Something new." - LD

"I felt really creative when I did it because we got to represent ourselves with objects." - Felicia

"Felt weird because there was a lot of things that represent me and you could only pick 10." - Hugh

"Kind of confusing because I didn't know what to put, but I do know myself?" - Finnley

"I got to know myself better." - Meredith

"It was fun because we got to express what we like." - Viljo

"Interesting and new. Never done an activity like that." - Atticus

"It was hard to pick items because I wasn't sure. I couldn't think of what to put in." - Milu

 

What do you think is important about learning how to write a paragraph (topic sentences, starting sentences in different ways)?

"Writing a paragraph is important because when we grow up in our careers, we might need to persuade someone with what we write." - Felicia

"You want to become a writer or a news blogger you need to know how to write a paragraph." - LD / Jaivivaan

"You'll never know what job you're gonna have. You might get one where you need to write lots of paragraphs." - Hugh

"If you want to be an author you can write books with lots of words, you would need to know how to write paragraphs." - Finnley

Big Presentation Feelings

"It felt good. I think it helped other people get to know me better." - Fox

"First I was feeling brave. Then when I tried to come on the stage I got a little bit nervous. I was reading the wrong parts. When I was done I felt calm again." SS

"At first, I was thinking I was a bit nervous, how am I gonna do it. I watched people doing it and thought this isn't so hard so I felt calmer." - Davyd

"Right after I did the presentation I felt relief." - Matin

"Right after I did the presentation I felt happy that it was over. I felt proud for trying." - Meredith

"I was super confident but being the first person there was a challenge. I pushed it aside and said nope I'm going to do this no matter what!" - Hugh

"At first I was nervous, but when I did the presentation I was proud of myself." - Zinat

Colour Theory

For the past month, we've been studying Colour Theory in Art. We have learned many vocabulary words like: warm colours, cool colours, primary/secondary/tertiary colours, complementary colours, and monochromatic. 

We have completed several learning tasks to practice what we've learned, including the Many Coloured Days watercolour art, and the Alphabet Emotion watercolour art. 

This week, we started a new assignment that focuses on monochromatic art. We are creating covers for our visual journals so our names must be large and clear. Then, we are using tints and shades to make an interesting background. 

Here are some pictures of us hard at work!

Buddy Time

Buddies

Why do we do buddy time with grade 1?

"When our buddies don't know a lot we are helping the grade 1s. We can help them read." - SS

"Kids take you as an example because you are older (being a role model)." - Finnley

"To know people better because Ramsay school is a family. We all need to be kind to each other and help people who are new to the school." - Felicia

"They get to know something we know and it's fun for them and for us too." - Viljo

"When we share with them a book we help them." - Jaivivaan

What did you like about reading with buddies?

"We like reading with our buddies because it helps them learn new words and everyone is having fun." Nollan

"I like the part where I helped them be confident and read louder and read some words that she doesn't get," - Aroosha

"Me and my buddy we were having fun reading funny books." - Sayed

"It was really fun and some of the books I hadn't read before, they were very funny." - Milu

What do you still love about picture books?

"They are funny and you can see the picture." - LD

"The art is beautiful and you can see what the author is thinking." - Nollan

"My favourite thing is that they can teach us a lot. I read one of my favourite books, Rainbow Fish, and it brought back good memories." - Felicia

"You can look at the pictures and there are still a good amount of words," - Finnley

"I like how they are hilarious and you can read 5 of them in 10 minutes." - Milu

"It made me feel like I was in grade 1 again and I had the best time ever," - Aroosha

Here are some pics from our September buddy activity where we gathered on the land and showed our appreciation of fall for Orange Shirt Day.

Coding with Scratch

This week, we watched two online tutorials to help us learn the kids' coding program, Scratch. the first session taught us the basics: how to make a "sprite" (character), how to change the "background", and how to code your sprite so it moves across the "stage". 

In session two, we learned how to code "loops" so our code becomes more efficient. We also learned conditional ("if"->"then" statements). We learned that if we code our spirte to move on the grid, if you choose a positive number you move to the right or up. If you choose a negative number, you move to the left or down.

Coding is a part of the new Science curriculum! Scratch is available for free at home and is linked on our Google Classroom. If you have parent permission, you can explore! :)

Marshmallow Building Challenge

Today Ms Elder gave us a team building challenge! We got to work with a team to build the tallest tower possible using 20 pieces of spaghetti, 1 meter of tape and 1 meter of string. On top of our tower, we needed to balance a mini marshmallow!

This activity was challenging because we only had 15 minutes to do it! There is a video on Google Classroom that shows the task. 

"I learned that you always have to use teamwork." ~ Viljo

"If you try hard with your team and help them, you might get a taller tower." ~ MM

"I learned that Kindergarteners did better than most adults and people with MBAs did the worst. The Kindergarteners did prototyping." ~ Milu

"I learned that you should have good leadership skills so you can lead your team and get the tallest tower." ~ Felicia

"I learned to never judge a book by its cover. It may look easy but this was extremely hard." ~ Hugh

"I learned that the triangle structure is the most stable structure for building your tower." ~ LD

Halloween Fun!

On Halloween, we did lots of regular classroom learning but we did some special activities, too! We got together with our Grade One Buddies to make a bat. We explored using a variety of interesting materials, such as paper strips to form the sphere shape. It was tricky but we were able to make them! 

Happy Halloween!