Learning skills

It is report card writing time...in case you've seen a teacher and thought they look a bit more frazzled than normal. I am a big believer in the importance of learning skills. My Mom taught me that what she looked at first and foremost was that first page of the report card. If you got a C or D in a subject but got Gs and Es in your learning skills she knew you had done your best.

That being last week I took advantage of the snow days to conference with students and show them their learning skills marks IF reports went home that very day (they don't they go home in a few weeks). I explained what students got a particular letter and how they could improve. I also told them they had a week or so to change their grade (hopefully for the better). Might be a good idea to ask them how the conference with Mme went.

one ending is a new beginning

We are wrapping up our rocks and minerals science unit. We wrote a collaborative book! We did a lot of critical thinking and learned how to organize our text using subtitles and a table of contents. Today we voted on the art work which will be on our cover page. Next week, each student will receive a copy of our class made book to show off to you at home! We will also keep a copy in the French book room and LC so future generations can use it too.

The end of one unit means the beginning of another. We started our light and sound unit today with 5 new centers. This unit will also integrate a lot of music and art. We will be recording our questions and learning on this blog. Here's a padlet with overall curriculum expectations and many many links students can explore in class but also at home.

Roches et minéraux

Bonne année!!!

I am hoping to power through our Rocks and Minerals science unit this month. We talked a bit about the mining industry when we studied Regions of Canada before Christmas. This week we will look at the identification of rocks and minerals using certain characteristics, we will also look at the rocks and minerals in everyday objects. Finally, we will look at the environmental impact of the mining industry and how we can possibly minimize it.

As always here is our padlet with curriculum expectations and some useful links for exploring at home.

Regions of Canada

Students will be studying a region of Canada by analysing one of its environmental problems. Students will learn about the issue then brainstorm possible solutions. Here are some of the problems we will be studying:
- acid rain
- fish farming
- oil extraction
- mineral extraction
- logging industry

Throughout this project we will continue to build our collaboration skills but we will also add critical thinking to the mix. Here is the rubric we co-created that describes some of the components of critical thinking. We used it to evaluate where we are approximately yesterday.

habitats learning fair

Students presented their final habitat projects today. Every group used Google Slides to document two habitats: our yard and Mer Bleu Bog. They then had to explain the images using what we had learned about habitats. They had to show examples of food chains, animal or plant adaptations, the importance of the habitat for humans and how humans impact it.

The students chose to present their projects in a learning fair format whereby half the students presented their projects and the other half listened then we switched. Together we discussed some of the main ideas in all the projects. Tomorrow, we will reflect on our learning journey. We will also reflect on how our collaborations skills have improved (have they ever!!!)  and what we can yet improve on.

Next week, we will be working on our listening skills as we listen to very short videos which will give us a good overview of Canada's regions (which is our social studies focus)

Collaboration

Now that we've got a good grasp on self-regulation we are moving on to an equally important learning skill, collaboration. Collaboration is one of the global competencies or 21st-century skills that every learner needs. Our Ontario Catholic Graduate Expectations state that each student should be A Collaborative Contributor who:

(a) Works effectively as an interdependent team member.
(b) Thinks critically about the meaning and purpose of work.
(c) Develops one’s God-given potential and makes a meaningful contribution to society.
(d) Finds meaning, dignity, fulfillment and vocation in work which contributes to the common good. (e) Respects the rights, responsibilities and contributions of self and others.
(f) Exercises Christian leadership in the achievement of individual and group goals.
(g) Achieves excellence, originality, and integrity in one’s own work and supports these qualities in the work of others.
(h) Applies skills for employability, self-employment and entrepreneurship relative to Christian vocation.

For our part, we have just started discussing what it means to be an effective collaborator. We used this progression (similar to a rubric) from the deep learning framework to come up with our own ideas of how to collaborate, where we think we are (the blue highlight) and where we need to go. Some of our big ideas where:

• having a clear common goal 
• making a plan
• making decisions as a group
• having each member contribute equally
• using each members strengths
• conflict resolution when problems/disagreement arise
• understanding (and eventually appreciating) points of view other than our own 

We will be writing our own student-friendly language rubric (en français!) at the bottom of the page. 

Les habitats et les régions du Canada

We are finally starting our first science and social studies units. Normally, I teach one unit at a time but these two have a lot of overlap so it will allow is to go deeper with our inquiries by integrating the subject. On our padlets below you will find overall expectations for both units along with links to games, articles, videos and whatever I can find that would spark student interest in the subject matter (good for review and exploration at home).

This week we will:

• start to build our vocabulary tied to these subjects

• practice describing pictures

• draw animals in the style of totem art

• keep practicing looking for or listening for les mots-amis (words that are similar to English) and les mots familiers (words I know)

• naming and finding provinces, territories and physical regions of Canada on a map 

Les habitats

Régions physiques et politiques du Canada