Social Studies Inquiry: Phase 2, with some links for research; looking at some everyday objects around the class using the Metric system

Social Studies Inquiry

The TDSB Inquiry wheel looks like this:

By now, all students should have completed the Exploring/Brainstorming stage of the project; we have now moved on to the Investigating section.  This is where you will start shaping your project and doing some research.

I am going to list a series of links that I think will help some of you begin your research.  So many of you are looking at different communities and I think this is great.  Hopefully, your research at one link will bring you to another.

Potential Links for Research

- remember to record the web address for where you get your information

- take only jot notes of key items of information
- these are not the only sites out there!
- remember that all websites may contain biased information and have a particular perspective

South Asians in Canada:  http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/south-asians/

A website for Bengali Canadians:  http://www.torontobengali.com/

A Toronto Star article on Bangladeshi Canadians:  https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2008/02/28/bangladesh_on_the_danforth.html

Information on the Indians to arrive in Canada:  http://asia-canada.ca/changing-perspectives/indians

Toronto Star article on the Irish in Toronto:  https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2015/03/14/19th-century-toronto-irish-immigrants-a-lesson-in-upward-mobility.html

Some historical information on Conscientious Objectors to war:  http://www.warmuseum.ca/firstworldwar/history/life-at-home-during-the-war/voices-for-peace/conscientious-objectors/

Maclean's article on Vietnam war draft dodgers:  http://www.macleans.ca/news/canada/u-s-vietnam-war-draft-dodgers-left-their-mark-on-canada/

10 quick facts about Caribbean people in Canada:  http://www.newsamericasnow.com/10-fast-facts-about-caribbean-immigrants-in-canada/

Wikipedia demographics of Toronto: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Toronto

Wikipedia page on Venezuelans in Canada:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venezuelan_Canadians

A Toronto Star article on the diverse Latin American communities in Toronto:  https://www.thestar.com/news/2008/12/06/the_gtas_growing_latino_problem.html

An article on the Latin American heritage of Toronto:  http://heritagetoronto.org/here-and-there-hispanic-heritage-in-toronto/

An article on Toronto's Ethiopian community: http://heritagetoronto.org/torontos-ethiopian-community/

An article on "Little Ethiopia" in Toronto: https://www.thestar.com/news/insight/2014/01/04/samuel_getachew_the_king_of_little_ethiopia.html

"The Early Years" of Japanese Canadian History:  http://www.japanesecanadianhistory.net/historical_overview.htm

From the National Association of Japanese Canadians:  http://najc.ca/history-of-japanese-canadians/

History of Jews in Toronto, according to Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Jews_in_Toronto

A site with some early Toronto Jewish History:  http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/vjw/toronto.html

Encyclopedia article on Chinese Canadians: http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/chinese-canadians/

A webpage called "Toronto Chinatown":  http://toronto-chinatown.info/chinatown-history/

Vietnamese Association of Toronto:  http://www.vatoronto.ca/en/
Vietnamese Canadians, according to Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vietnamese_Canadians

Toronto Hakka ChineseYouth Association:  http://thccn.com/
Tsung Tsin Association of Ontario:  http://www.tsungtsinontario.ca/about_us.php
Wikipedia information on Hakka people:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hakka_people

My next phase, minus the research

I have not done any research from the links I have posted, or any other Library books or resources.  I did use my initial questions to help focus my Inquiry and provide me with a sense of direction.  Here is what I came up with:

Once the Progress Reports are done, I will do some research to model what happens next.

Metric stuff

A morning investigation began when Hannah started to ask some questions about the Math homework, from a few days ago.  It concerned the issue of mass and how we might measure certain things.  

To have a benchmark of certain items, I looked in one of my Math crates and came out with a 1000.0g or 1.0 kg.  After doing some research, we learned the approximate mass of a paper clip is about 1.0 gram, so we  took turns feeling it:

So, upon some class chatting, we looked up some interesting things that came from the homework:

https://www.loblaws.ca/search/1478268082864/page/~item/banannas/~sort/popularity/~selected/trueThe question of how bananas are sold came up.  In this case, you can see the variation in price.  This type of math is also connected to the idea of unit cost and rate and ratio, something we will explore later.  

http://www.thetruckersreport.com/facts-about-trucks/

This teaspoon is approximately equal to 5 ml.  We were trying to figure out what it might feel like to hold the mass of sugar in some Pop.  So, this site was found:

http://www.rethinksugarydrink.org.au/how-much-sugar

Measuring

A couple of shots of the measuring along with a sample of what was to happen with the measurements:

This example, I did, for the length of my desk.  After the measurement was done, you were required to convert it to another unit, using the KING HENRY conversion chart.

Measuingt Josue.

Saya's turn

In the preceding video, I used the metre stick to show how it is broken down into the smaller units of that we may find on the KING HENRY Metric chart.  This mirrors what the Grade 6s are supposed to learn, in relation to the Place Value chart:  Moving to the tenths (decimetre), hundredths (centimetre), thousandths (millimetre).

Nestle & Water Consumption, Eco Club activities, looking at decimals through Athletics, Lao Tsu and wisdom on catching up on some homework

Nestle and water consumption

We are currently looking at the conversion among different units in the Metric system.  Just before Halloween, an issue was raised about some of the corporate tactics of Nestle and I knew I had some information about the issue of the number of litres the corporation extracts from the water table.

First, though, what is the water table?

https://www.ec.gc.ca/eau-water/default.asp?lang=En&n=23CEC266-1

So, now to the CBC story on Nestle's bottling and some interesting statistics on the volume of water which is taken up on a daily basis.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/kitchener-waterloo/aberfoyle-guelph-water-nestle-bottling-plant-tour-1.3825916

It mentions that Nestle extracts over 3 million litres of water/day.  For each million litres of water, Nestle only pays about $3.71.  Even with the seemingly cheap cost of plastic bottles at our local supermarket, it would cost close to $250 000 to purchase that much water.

A million litres is almost unimaginable.    How much water is that?  Well, 1 000 000 L is close to the volume of water in this aquarium, known as the AquaDom, in a hotel in Berlin, Germany.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/travel_news/article-3184229/Pictured-incredible-82ft-tall-hotel-aquarium-Berlin-elevator-guests-INSIDE-home-1-500-fish.html

In the following photo, Eco Team member, Charlie Cash explains to the class about the research into the number of non-reusable (plastic) water bottles that we go through.  The club is attempting to track these bottles, so we might qualify for a water bottle filler.  

Decimals in the world of Sprinting

As I mentioned earlier, the issue of decimal place value will be one of our areas of focus.  In grade 6 we go to the third decimal point, or the thousandths place.  For example:

9.911

This is not a random number, I selected to show how two athletes had their 100m times recorded as this at the World Track and Field Championships in Beijing in 2015 (this was based on a story from the Toronto Star (https://www.thestar.com/sports/amateur/2015/08/23/andre-de-grasse-wins-bronze-at-world-championships.html).  Still, I am a little confused why the official results rounded the final time to 9.92 seconds, if we are following the rules for rounding.

In sprinting, athletes can finish so close to one another.  In that same race, Usain Bolt only won by 0.01 of a second!  This is called a photo finish

from https://www.iaaf.org/results/iaaf-world-championships-in-athletics/2015/15th-iaaf-world-championships-4875/men/100-metres/final/result

The official results, complete with reaction times to a thousandth of a second.

  

Here is the actual race:

Over the next few days, we will do some walking and measuring, in and out of class, to get a sense of how long or far things are.

I was just looking at the Homework chart and making note of the work they have to catch up on.  It may seem a little daunting, but as the Chinese Philosopher Lao Tzu mentioned:

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/217298750746341012/

Laso Tzu from:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laozi

For a number of students, the challenge rests with developing a system to help themselves.  The easiest one, I believe, is to use the agenda that you paid $5 for.

Keep track of the work you are supposed to complete, so it does not run away from you.  As I have mentioned, incomplete does not disappear or go away, it simply piles up and has a way of overwhelming you.

Take one thing at a time and think of it as a step in your journey in Grade 6.









There are times where students have completed work, but I may not have marked it as complete.  The positive thing about our classroom homework is for students to keep me on point.  Sometimes, students may have forgotten to give things in, which is also part of the pile of items you see in the following picture.

The purple Post-it notes let me know what things were completed.  Once I check the work, I will update the Homework chart.  This will allow me to have a more accurate reflection of work completed for the upcoming Progress Reports.

In school orders due for photos due on November 3

Post Halloween some important reminders, Learning Skills journal, learning in Orff

David was the winner of our class Jack O'Lantern.  I hope that David, the rest of the class, and the pumpkin enjoyed a pleasant evening of Trick or Treating.

Learning Skills Journal:

This was  the next phase of looking at the Learning Skills and Work Habits section of the Progress Report/Report Card.  Each student had a blank copy of this page and did a self-assessment, which I will include on this page of the Progress Report.  This is just a sample I did with them to give them a sense of direction.  

They had this chart, which has been up, to help guide them through some of the complex language in Learning Skills/Work Habits page:

Orff:  Making progress

It has taken a while, but the class is now growing into an enthusiastic mass of participants!  In the process, I am learning a thing or two about music.

Reminders:

- November 8 is the day for the sight and sound testing (ears and eyes) at a cost of $10.

- Thursday will be the last day to work on your Book Talks in class/the Library with Mr. Proudfoot and Ms. Ling...presentations begin the week of November 7 [this has been on the Homework board]
- Tomorrow:  Math test on Composite Numbers, Prime Numbers, Factors and Factor Trees

Final Review of concepts for tomorrow

Happy Halloween! Study Sheet

Inspired by the design suggestions of Room 28

An example of a Study Sheet, prepared for Wedsnesday's test.  Details of what is on the test were listed on the Homework board.

Introducing Measurement and Place Value, Math textbook questions, and the rounding of decimals

A former colleague passed on this book to me about the metric system.  Eventually, a YouTube video, from the original 1977 film, showed up.  Thanks for the book, Kris Janssen!

The book and video serve as interesting introductions to a portion of the Measurement strand of Math, which relates to conversion among measurements in the Metric system.

Often, when I have done this, I have used a chart for converting.

It has been influenced by my Grade 8 teacher, Charlie Binkley, Laydin Bowles and Derek Fereira, both former colleagues. Now, the trick to remembering what the prefixes mean can be found in the expression:  King Henry died, drinking chocolate milk.  It is true and here is the evidence:

Now, since we are combining some aspects of measurement with the place value chart, I had this bright student named Avery, who made me rethink the original chart and came up with this:  

In the homework, you will be asked to do some conversions.  You can use the handouts I give you to speed up the process, but you may want to see the conversions in action.  I will do some in class and you can refer back to a few YouTube videos, as your guides.  

Here are a few Math questions, for the weekend.  For some of you who may not want to bring the textbook home, here they are:

In this unit, there will be some rounding going on and this REPETITIVE VIDEO (yes, I know, that is the point) will help you understand how to round decimals.

NYT, dates for Parent Teacher Conference dates and time

What is going on in this picture 

https://static01.nyt.com/images/2016/10/20/learning/VTS10-24-16LN/VTS10-24-16LN-superJumbo.jpg

We will do a reveal of what is really going on, tomorrow.  This is my shot at it.   By now, this should have been handed in.

Parent Teacher Progress Report Conferences

More details on this will come from the school, I am sure, but the dates are:

November 17th , after school until 8:30 or so.

November 18th, typically to about noon.

Bloom's Taxonomy, Summary writing continued, Study Sheet & Math HW

Introducing:  Bloom's Taxonomy

One way of introducing students to ideas that seem complex, or abstract, is to use things that they can relate to.  In this example, someone has demonstrated the taxonomy using the film Finding Dory.

Here is another example of Bloom's Taxonomy at work, with Harry Potter as an example:

Summary writing:  Using a wise story for a 10-word summary

This is a dramatic performance of a short story I used for an introduction to writing a summary.
  The story came from this book:

In the dramatization, the actors referred to the woman as a girl, when in fact, she was a woman.  Even in the story, she is described as being beautiful and helpless, which I think distracts from the content of the story.

In any case, the story is short and the purpose of the exercise is to have the students create a summary after recording 10 words from the story after I have read it.  Once I have created some space on the bulletin board, I will post the different samples of the summary.

Group shot of summaries:

Last night's HW & a Study Sheet for Math:  Due October 28

The answers for last night's Math are posted here.  Time was provided in class to check with me, or a classmate, to see the possible approaches to answering the question.

Some students commented that they approached the questions differently.  On a future test, I would not have the  students give their answers in a specific box.  I will only have them break down the composite numbers.  

Another approach to #1:

I will only deal with numbers that are on the multiplication table up to 100, since I am discouraging the use of calculators.  This is meant as a reinforcing of the multiplication skills.

The Study Sheet will be due in 2 days.  The date of the test has not been set, but it will not be on the day after Halloween!

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/236x/b5/15/2c/b5152c0ec30b90250d8b9494af4fa8d0.jpg

A possible Study Sheet might look like this:

I suggested 3 different numbers, as examples, on the Study Sheet..

Chanie Wenhjack & some shots from Reading Buddies, film list for Regent Park Film Festival trip, Homework (use your AGENDA!)

Chanie Wenjack

There was a request for a portion of the interview between Gord Downie and Chanie's Wejack's sisters.

A more complete version of the interview, along with the full presentation and post panel discussion, from Sunday night, may be found at this link:  http://secretpath.ca/

We watched the first track of 10 and responded to the following question:

To assist some students who needed some guidance to begin the writing process, I typed up a few possible prompts:  

The lyrics, at the side, are from screenshots of the graphic novel I purchased.  

Reading Buddies

Regent Park Film Festival Lineup:

Homework

There are many items written on the chalkboard and I encourage your son or daughter to use the agenda to record items which need to completed.  Please ask them to share the work they are expected to complete.  I provide the class with opportunities to catch up on work they may not have completed.

Have a good evening.

NYT, Introducing to Summarizing, Learning Skills and Work Habits

NYT:  What is Going on....

A more high res image can be found at http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/24/learning/whats-going-on-in-this-picture-oct-24-2016.html

Summarizing:  Something we are doing in our Partnering in Library and in Writing class

There are a number of students who have told me in their introductory letters to me that they enjoy looking at images and visuals to enhance the learning experience.  So, to begin a look at summarizing, I came across some ideas from Pinterest.  I will include the names of the original authors of the images used in on this blog.  For now I will post them and refer back to these images, for reference.

from Pride Academic Solutions

From Dana Mueller

http://www.wikihow.com/Summarize-a-Story

...to be continued...

These are the areas of the Learning Skills and Work Habits we have been working on for this portion of Term 1, which is also known as the Progress Report Period.  

“The Stranger” Official Video - Gord Downie - Secret Path