Survey Says

7 dots and how we see them from YouCubed.org

After having completed Dr Jo Boaler's Week of Inspirational Math, I felt students had some key learning under their hats to begin their adventure in Gr 6 Math.  This key learning included:

1. Math is not about speed.  Math takes time!
2. There is no such thing as having a math brain or not.  EVERYONE can learn math!
3. When we make mistakes, our brain GROWS.  When we are not challenged, there is very little activity going on.

With some new found confidence, we began to delve into the Data Management strand of the Ontario Curriculum.  The big ideas are that graphs contain information and we are to draw inferences from them.  I had the students complete the Census at School survey which gave us a spreadsheet containing oodles (a real math word) of results from our class.

Sample categories from of our class' spreadsheet

After looking at who was the oldest, tallest, biggest footed or which was the most liked subject, I asked the students to consider a research question.  Giving them the example "Do boys have allergies more than girls?", they understood that they would be comparing data from 2 columns of their choice.  Some interesting research ideas included:

• Do tall kids have big feet?
• Do boys or girls have quicker reaction times?
• Who eats breakfast more:  boys or girls?
• Are your feet and forearm really the same length?

Students were challenged with the task of creating tally charts, 2 graphs and a title page ... without paper!  Instead, they would be like "real world" data analysts and use the Chromebook to create colourful, professional looking results.  

Our brains were definitely growing with using technology and math discussions flowed over the course of the week.  Once students figured out how to create a table or make tallies or use Create A Graph, they began to show their peers how to ease themselves through it.

Collaboration in the learning environment ... a beautiful sight to see!

~MissBrooks

PS  Ask your child to show you their research on their mytools2go accounts.  I think you'll be impressed!

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas

Is this how it is for the elves?

This past week, the students in 6B were engaged in Christmas learning---and maybe some Christmas traditions---like eating cookies---with green icing!

The week started with taking a look at the Top 10 Grossing Christmas Movies in our Math block.  The students guessed which movies made the list (no Home Alone! or Christmas Story!), practiced rounding numbers to the nearest million, created graphs and analysed data.  And what are movies (or the discussion of movies) without some popcorn?  It helped add a little incentive and interest and Christmas spirit!

Most kids chose a bar graph but one set of partners chose a line graph to see when most of the popular movies were made.

For our Readers' and Writers' Workshops, we read "How Santa Got His Job" by Steven Krensky.  This made us think of job applications, which made me think persuasive writing opportunity!  The students were given the task to write an essay or letter in which they convinced Santa to hire them as an elf.  Reasons ranged from being good with tools to being a potential body guard.  No shortage of creativity in these kids! We indulged in cookies and "elf kabobs" (a green grape with a raspberry on a toothpick) this week to get us in an "elfy" way of thinking.

Since we finished that in record time (elf speed?), we've started on planning a trip to the North Pole!  Fear not...this is NOT another field trip but a brochure writing assignment.  Having access to our Chrome books, we were able to begin searching climate, hotels, restaurants and flights to North Pole, Alaska.  The students will work on presenting their findings in an attractive and convincing brochure for a fictional travel agency.

We've spent many spare moments decorating place mats for the Downtown Mission.  

It really is like Santa's Workshop in our classroom at this time of year!

~Miss Brooks

Follow us on Twitter!