This week in maths we are looking and Factors and Multiples as we investigate multiplication concepts and strategies. Over the years I have found that children can sometimes confuse the two or think that they are the same thing so I have been on the lookout for a good visual that will help with this problem. Whilst researching I found this great photo that makes the difference quite clear and pretty easy to remember. I hope you find it useful as you try to remember what Factors and Multiples are!
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Last term we were exploring many of Alan Peat's 'Exciting Sentences' to try to help us become more powerful in our writing and our choice of both words and sentence types. One of the activities that we completed was based on a picture stimulus of a spooky looking house. We had to try to write in a way that would describe all of the senses relating to the house: how it looked; how it felt to be around it; how it smelt; how it sounded etc. The final pieces used a lot of 'show, not tell' writing and many of the 'exciting sentences' that we have been exploring throughout the term. Here are some examples of students writing: Have you heard of Alan Peat's 'Exciting Sentences' before?
What do you do to improve your writing? As a new initiative this year in the 5/6 area we decided that between the three teachers we would teach Science, History and Geography/Economics, and we would teach it to each class. I am responsible for delivering science classes to all of the grade 5/6 students at our school this year and though we have done many exciting things I must admit I have been very slack on updating anything to the class blog. Here are a few photos of some of the things we have been doing in class…..but I will be sure to make more regular posts in the future!
Watch the following video. It's a fable titled "The Lion and the Mouse". A fable is a short imaginary story that teaches a moral or lesson. While you watch the video, think about the lesson it teaches; that is the same thing as the main idea of the story. Post a comment below telling me what you think the 'Main Idea' of the fable was. Around about two weeks ago I was trawling the internet and stumbled across Mr. P's ICT blog. I spent hours going through some of his amazing ideas for use of ICT in the classroom and still only scraped the surface of what he had on show (I seriously recommend having a look!) Whilst looking for inspiration I found an activity he used with a grade 5 class that looked at whales in captivity….and this got me wondering if I could use the same concept with my grade 5/6 class. Before we go any further, full credit for the ideas based around these lessons go to Mr. Parkinson and I am very grateful that I was able to engage my class using these. Below is the first clip I showed to my students. It looks at orca's performing at SeaWorld. Once the clip had finished I prompted them to think about how the clip made them feel. The majority of responses were related to feelings of happiness, amazement and awe at how such beautiful creatures can perform and look so majestic. I then prompted them to think about how the whales actually got there; how they were looked after and cared for. I mentioned that I had recently seen the trailer to a movie called 'Black Fish' and wanted to share this with them. The initial reaction to whales performing and being kept in captivity immediately changed. Many questions were asked, lots of research conducted and consequently many questions were answered. It was now our class mission to create persuasive videos to help the plight of orcas in captivity. We discussed the effect of music, lighting, colour and surroundings. We looked at powerful language, rhetorical questions and a range of complex sentences…..all of which would help us to persuade our viewers! But it didn't stop there! Just for a little bit of healthy competition as a class we decided to put our videos up on YouTube and see whose video received the most views and likes (we also had other criteria in our rubric that needed to be addressed). THIS IS WHERE YOU COME IN!! There are 5 videos posted below. We would like you to view them all and then if possible (you need a google account) LIKE the one you think is the most PERSUASIVE. If you are unable to LIKE due to lack of google account, I have posted a poll below and you can enter your results there. Thank you in advance! This week during maths we are looking at data; how we use data; what it is used for and how to use data from graphs to inform us. There is data all around us; football statistics, census data, town populations, school attendance and the list goes on. For your task this week you are going to look at the weather patterns of a few towns in our local region and use this data to create graphs. From these graphs you will be able to make several conclusions based on the data and the way it is represented. Below you will find 3 different weather forecast maps, each for a different town. There is a great deal of data on these charts ranging from dew point as you can see, through to maximum temperatures. Charts can be a good way of representing data, especially when they are labelled clearly, however sometimes the same information can be easier to read in a graph. Your task this week is to use the information from the charts below to create your own graphs to compare and contrast something between the different towns. You might like to create a graph that compares the maximum temperatures for each town, or you may like to compare chance of rain in each town. Your graphs are going to be created with and online graph creator and to get there you will need to click on the coloured writing. Once you have created your graphs you will need to print each one off and paste them into your maths book. Using your graphs, you will then need to identify what information you can get from them. What does the information suggest to you about each of the towns/areas? What might be some possible reasons for differences in data between each town? What have you learned about each town compared to the other? Can you predict the forecast for the next few days based on this data?
Do you think weather forecast are always accurate? Why or why not?
Having seen how their faces lit up and the way they wanted to immediately reply or add another post, got me thinking of other ways to make this happen on a more regular basis…my answer was Quadblogging. I had heard of this before and knew it was a way to connect but had never really taken the time to find out what was involved. But that has all changed…earlier in the year I signed our class up for this challenge and the comments are coming thick and heavy…and the authentic writing is becoming more regular. Each week a class is the focus blog and the remaining 3 classes take time in the week to add comments to any posts they wish. Last week we were the focus class and my students were very excited to receive comments on both our class blog and their own personal learning blogs. Throughout 4 weeks, each class will have the opportunity to be the focus blog, thus generating new connections across the globe…….we have only just started and I can't recommend it enough already! Check our our schedule below: Week 1: 5/6S at St. Patricks Primary School Camperdown
Week 2: Henry Cavendish Primary School Week 3: Mr. DiFiore's Class Week 4: Ghyllside Primary School Have you ever been involved in Quadblogging before?
What do you think of this song?
Do you learn things easier when they are in a song? This post is especially for our friends at Malvern Wells primary school in England, however we welcome any new or regular visitors to take a peek inside our school. As one of our literacy tasks last week students in 5/6S had to research a little of the history behind their school and use their oral language skills to develop a short iMovie. We thought this would be a great way for our e-pals across the other side of the country to get better sense of who we are and what our school is all about (and to listen to our Aussie accents:!). We hope you enjoy them Mr. Wells and Co!
So what do you think?
Is it how you imagined it to be? Are there similarities to your school? We would love to hear your thoughts? My apologies for the technical issue with the Genius Hour page…I completely forgot I made it as a web page rather than a blog page and as a result it does not have the normal comment application. I know it is late getting it up there, but if you have already had a look at our Genius Hour page and had some discussion about it, we would love to hear what you think about it! So comment away!
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WHO ARE WE?
Hi there! We are a class of 25 students in year 5/6S in Camperdown, Victoria. This year we are embarking on a blogging journey to develop our global connections, share our work and learn from others!5 OUR BLOG QR
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April 2015
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