Deck the Halls

Christmas Math is spilling out into the hallways of our schools!

Check out OMSK’s Grade 3 Christmas scenes, complete with measured houses and conical conifers!

Then scroll further to see the stacked measurements of ILTO’s Grade 2 Christmas tree towers. 

Scrunched inbetween are some reindeer, with complete instructions on how to make one yourself!

Now that’s combining numeracy and literacy in a fun, festive way.

 

 

We Have Lift Off…

Ground control to Major Tom…here’s some rocket launching videos from Miss Freeman’s Grade 5/6 class.  View the launch line up here.

Racing Rockets

Next up for Miss Freeman’s class is rocket building.  Students are being Aerospace Engineers and designing the right amount of thrust to counter the drag of launching a rocket.

Students are using cardboard and paper to add to a water bottle to create a rocket. 

Hypothesis testing is the focus, as students determine the right amount of water in their bottle to ensure maximum pressure between air and water for succesful force upon launch.

Here the students are building their rockets, selecting appropriate cone design for the nose and fin size for the rockets.  They will then choose the right amount of water they think is right for their bottle.

Crash Test Dummies

Here are the test runs of the crash cars…you can watch it on You Tube by clicking here.

(For some reason the You Tube playlist won’t load correctly here in WordPress…if you have any suggestions to make it work, please let me know.)

ESQ Science exploration

Miss Freeman’s Grade 5/6 class has the Engineering Science Quest group in today to teach science concepts.  We are starting with Crash cars.  Students are designing their crumple zones on a tight budget.  With $20 they need to purchase straws, newspaper, popsicle sticks, cardboard and tape.

20 minutes of building later, the prototypes are nearing completion.  Now it is time to go and test out the car designs with water balloon passengers.

TheSpec – After the storm

TheSpec – After the storm.  Read this excellent and inspiring article about one of our own teachers, Mr. T. Hill.

Venture Day at McMaster University

Students are having an awesome day at McMaster University, learning about cleaning up oil spills, the DNA and genetics of fruit through experimenting with strawberries, as well as cultural activities about cleansing our spirit and weaving and braiding corn husks.

Zac Hawkins’ Plea for Classroom BYOD | Powerful Learning Practice

Zac Hawkins’ Plea for Classroom BYOD | Powerful Learning Practice.

Proud to make this my first WordPress blog post…I will not, can not be contained!!!

Inspiration happens.

iCivics Screencast

Following up from yesterday’s post, here is a Screencast from BrainPOP explaining more about the iCivics site and how teachers can use it in the classroom.  Though the content may not be relevant to our area, the ideas behind the pedagogy and learning strategies can certainly be adapted to suit our needs.

iCivics

Despite the American specific content, iCivics is a great way for students to experience civil and civic studies through gaming.  Students can experience first hand the difficulty of passing a law through the various levels and stages of government in the United States.  Hopefully a Canadian version or Haudensaunee specific program is in the works!!  Maybe our own students can design it themselves?  More on that in future posts.  Stay tuned.