La musique

Before march break we had a brief but intense music unit. We practiced reading notes as well as rhythm. We used Garage band and virtual pianos to play and create music. We even created our own little arias. Today, we discussed the link between music, film and creating an ambiance. We read a poem today and students had to find music to accompany it. In small groups, students will record themselves reading the poem with their chosen ambient music. Now we need to get to work on our number for the 50th anniversary!

partage avec les 5ièmes

Today the grade 5s and 6s got together to share their science projects. The grade 6s shared their mission to mars projects and got a bit of feedback from the 5s. The 5s presented their bridge designs. Both classes had been working on innovative design so it was a great experience to share.

Défi de 7 jours

We are going on a 7 day challenge! We are going to give up a bad health habit (like sugary snacks or too much screen time) or add a healthy habit (like walking every day or drinking more water). We wrote in our portfolios what we are going to give up and some strategies for helping us nail our challenge!

J'abandonne le sucre!

mes stratégies:
- avoir beaucoup de grignotines santé (légumes coupés, fruit, fromage, noix)
- boire beaucoup d'eau
- mangé plus de proteines (ça me garde rempli pour plus longtemps et ça me donne plus d'énergie)

la créativité

Since we are working on innovation in our space unit I thought we would link that to our 4th C, creativity. This month we start every afternoon by discussing a quote. Over the last two weeks we have discussed quotes by Steve Jobs, Picasso, Matisse, Einstein and many others who touch on creativity. So far here's what we think is important about creativity: taking risks, making mistakes, overcoming fear, making connections, knowledge, seeing things other's haven't, thinking outside the box and using your imagination.

One of the interesting debates we had was whether school helps creativity flourish or whether it kills it dead. What do you think?

L'exploration de l'espace - suivi

Most students have collected a lot of data and researched what live would be like on mars and how we would get there. Some of the limiting factors for our designs so far are huge temperatures variations, limited space for food and provisions, cost and time. Most of the groups have brainstormed a few ideas around what to send and how they are going to send it. Now we move one to selecting the best idea, explaining in great detail and justifying why we chose this design.

Yesterday, we had a whole group lesson on some of the verb tenses, linking words and writing characteristics we need to write good explanations and justifications. "To justify we need to prove, give examples or back up our explanation".

"Math in French?!" Of course! If we are going to be sending rockets with provisions we need to be able to calculate lots of important things such as the weight, volume and cost our provisions, the amount and cost of fuel needed, the dimensions of the rocket etc.

the SAMR model

Last week, in a discussion about use of technology and innovation we learned about the SAMR model. The SAMR model helps educators, but in our case also students, judge how to they are using technology. Below is a good explanation of the model.

L'exploration de l'espace

Space exploration is our next big unit of study and we are going to boldly go where no one has gone before, mars! For this unit, students are working on creativity and innovation as they will attempt to solve one or two (time dependant) real-world space problems.

Challenge 1: How would you resupply a laboratory on Mars? If resupply is impossible how would you do then?

Students will record the whole design process using this Journal scientifique.


* No, I wasn't inspired by The Martian, check out my inspiration for this unit at NASA's Mission Imagination.