mrpolsky

...and Breathe - March Update

Friday, March 4, 2016 2:16 PM

Wow. What a ride. The last month and a half have been intense, non-stop and awesome all at the same time. Let me just say I’ve had no issues falling asleep lately - out cold every night. From the excitement and passion of Innovation Week, to the field trip to the Glenbow Museum, from the Multicultural Feast to our very own Carnaval de Québec, it’s been an awesome couple weeks. February started and ended before I could blink twice. Looking ahead, March will be no different. So... Giddy Up!!


I also want to thank you all once again for your fantastic support of our Innovation Week. The passion, creativity and pride that the students displayed from beginning to end was amazing (cheesy I know but it’s true - it really was great to see). It would not have been possible without your support and encouragement. Before I get into the nitty-gritty of the next month - please take a minute to check out our recent adventures through the Innovation Week photo gallery as well as our time traveling adventures as members of the NWMP in our NWMP Troop Photos.


Math - Decimals and March Madness

Having pretty much finished our work on fractions, we’re now well into our focus on decimals. We started by making the explicit connection between fractions and decimals, relating that both a fraction and decimal can show the same value and practising how we can compare and order decimals and fractions. We reviewed and practised once again how to read and write decimals according to their placement on the Place Value Chart. From there we focused on the ideas of decimal equivalency, converting from fractions to decimals and vice versa then lastly, we are working with decimal addition and decimal subtraction.


This is all leading up to the whole reason that March exists.... March Madness. Watching endless games of basketball, arguing with your friends about why they are total and complete idiots for choosing the wrong team (only for you to come crawling back when they chose the right team in the end...). But yes, this is why we study math. So... Once Selection Sunday happens, I will be updating the bracket for the students and then we can get going. Please refer to the Polsky March Madness Headquarters for all information, resources, links and explanations.


Social Studies - The Famous Five & Heritage Minutes

Now that we’re no longer time travelling as members of the NWMP, courageously protecting the west from criminal scoundrels, we’re looking at the roles of men and women and how things have changed in the last century. We will be looking at the Famous Five and exploring how these courageous and powerful women stood up and changed our country forever (and for the better - I mean I talk to the kids all the time about how if it was up to us men, we would just make a royal mess. The boys are learning that if they’re about to do something and a lady is nearby saying that it isn’t a great idea... it likely isn’t. Life lessons haha). Students will be exploring the lives and accomplishments of Louise McKinney, Irene Parlby, Henrietta Edwards, Emily Murphy and Nellie McClung - with information, photos and resources all found here - Famous Five Information.


Anyways..... From here we will be kicking off a really exciting project where the students will be making their own Canadian Heritage Minutes of famous Canadians in the Stories of Canada Project. Feeding off of the excitement from Innovation Week, we were fortunate enough to have Craig Wrobleski and Shae Keebler come in to speak to the students about the film industry. Our guest speakers gave us insight from both sides of the camera; Mr. Wrobleski is a cinematographer who among other things has worked on CBC’s Heartland as well as being involved in making actual Canadian Heritage Minutes while Miss Keebler, on top of being a student teacher here at the school, is an actress that had a role on Heartland on top of starring a different show, City’s Young Drunk Punk. With their insight into their creative processes, our own budding producers and directors will be set loose to make some cinematic history. Now, you’ve all heard of the Oscars, but there’s a new and more amazing award now - the Inukshuk. We will be holding the 1st Annual Fish Creek Film Festival on behalf of the Academy and the Motion Picture Association of Fish Creek School in which we will be screening our finished films. Black tie, awards and everything.


Science - Electricity & Magnetism

Having finished our Classroom Chemistry unit, we’re about to move into our Electricity & Magnetism unit. This is one of my favourite units as it’s very hands on, with the kids able to build, experiment and problem solve their way through projects with knowledge developed in class. On the Science Resources page, I have provided the Unit SLEs (boring teacher-speak for what we will be covering) but for a brief overview of the different concepts we will cover, feel free to check out the Electricity & Magnetism Overview. As we work through the unit, we will be making use of Green Learning Alberta’s ‘Electricity All Around Us’ - a really great online resource that you should all feel free to refer to as well.


Over the course of the unit, students will be learning All About Electricity, Electrical Currents and how we can control electricity safely. We will be designing and building Series and Parallel Circuits followed by a look at Magnetism & Electromagnets. Once we’ve covered some of the core concepts students will release their inner Formula 1 as they build an electric car (and then Mr. Polsky gets in trouble for holding drag races in the hallway while wearing a racing helmet all day like The Stig). As always, feel free to review the information provided on the Science Resources as well as the Web Links and Vocabulary.


Language Arts - City of Ember & Creative Writing

Having finished Gary Paulsen’s “Hatchet” with students completing their Hatchet Final Projects as we speak, we are looking ahead to reading Jeanne Duprau’s “City of Ember”. This is a really great novel that ties into our concurrent study of electricity in Science. As we work through this novel, we will be shifting our focus away from articles of speech and grammar, to begin working more on the ‘writing’ side of Language Arts - writing strong paragraphs and then creative writing. Once we have a stronger grasp on how we create and develop effective paragraphs, we will begin looking at making great stories - focusing on the parts of a Story, character development and traits, and the overall planning/writing process. I strongly recommend taking a look at the creative writing files and links on the Language Arts page.


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With our student-led conferences coming up on March 17th & 18th, I’m looking forward to the opportunity once again to catch up and share all the different things we’ve been working on. I don’t know where the year has gone - hard to believe that we’re nearing the end of Grade 5. As always, please let me know if you have any questions or concerns and I’ll get back to you as soon as I can.