Perseverance, Planes and a Platypus

Day 1 of EQAO testing

Day 6 of EQAO testing--same diligence!

EQAO is finished and we survived!

And maybe, we came away from the EQAO testing a bit more prepared for the way high school exams will be administered, a bit more proud of ourselves for plugging away for 6 half days and a whole lot more confident in what we've learned this year and throughout all of our elementary schooling.

Day 5 snack:  ORANGE you glad there's only 1 SMORE day of EQAO?  #BEAR with it!  #Still Going Strong

No matter the results, I was impressed by the integrity of the kids to stick-with-it and show what they know, without letting up or getting lazy.  They appeared to consider answers instead of simply guess just to get it over with.  The kids seemed confident and calm and definitely looked forward to the snacks!

Paper Airplane Competition got underway Wednesday through Friday

Flight Unit Takes Off

A paper plane competition allowed the Gr 6s to design, build and test a flying device while learning about the four forces of flight--drag, thrust, lift, gravity (weight).

I modified the competition from a version I found here.  It consisted of 4 separate events--Middle Man (land in the middle of a path), Target Practice (hit a pylon from a specified distance), Hang Time (stay in the air the longest) and Go the Distance (furthest flying). 

Target Practice

Students worked in partners or groups of three and were allowed only the following materials for their fleet:

• one standard paper clip per plane
• 2 staples per plane
• 15 cm of tape
• up to 4 pieces of 8.5 x 11 copy paper (which we pulled from our G.O.O.S.e bin.  #always eco!)

Cutting the paper and using more or less than one piece per plane was permitted so long as the fleet did not exceed 4 airplanes or 4 sheets of paper.

You can watch the competition on our YouTube Channel.

Bill Platypus from Australia will enjoy a "homestay" in our class for a week.  We're glad he brought a passport since he's coming with us to Comerica Park for a Tigers vs Blue Jays baseball game!

G'Day 6B:  You've Got Company

A while back, in the cold, dark days of winter, I came across a post on Google+ from a teacher in Australia who was looking to have some stuffies travel to different countries as ambassadors of her classroom.  I thought this would be an interesting opportunity for our class to consider what makes Windsor, ON Canada and our classroom interesting.  This way, we could ensure that our Aussie visitor would learn oodles about us and enjoy his stay.

He's watched different math board games being played, seen part of the plane competition and hung out with the kids during recess.  Follow us on Twitter for updated photos and tweets of Bill's visit!

With only 17 days left before summer, how will you choose to enjoy the last days with your kiddies?

~MissBrooks