Fragmentation

In homeroom, we've continued looking into the complicated consequences of human beings affecting the fates of other species. This week, we looked at habitat fragmentation. 

Weeks 9 - 13: Miscellany

I take a lot of photos over the course of a week. Here's a smattering of odds and ends from recent weeks. 

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Juna is camera shy. 

Science: "Enigma Cylinders" (and banana phones)

As you may know, Lisa Johnson (famous and beloved for bringing Fish Lab to Summers-Knoll) has joined our faculty as a science teacher. We'll be co-teaching science this year, and we ran a fantastic activity on class on Monday. I'll tell you all about it, just as soon as Bora finishes this phone call. 

Bora blatantly violating our "no phones during the school day" rule

Collaborative Writing: Crafting a class "choose your own adventure" story

Adri wrote and illustrated a children's book:
The Very Fairy Princess Goes to Mars.

It's been an unusual few weeks in our class. I (Jason) was out on paternity leave for two weeks, and then the class was gone on the spring trip all of last week. We're finally all back together and at school now, so things are back to normal, if only for another week or so. 

Nick wrote and drew a comic in the style of
Berkeley Breathed (creator of Bloom County,
Outland, and others)

Our last full week together is still packed full of things to do. Many kids are wrapping up projects that they've been working on, and we'll be sharing and presenting our work to each other in the days ahead. Many projects are currently on display in the Middle School Commons, so take a peek if you find yourself in the building this week! 

Kit has been working on a comic adventure in the
style of Tintin creator Hergé

We also started a new writing project today, which has been a fun exercise in creative collaborative work. As a class, we're writing a Choose Your Own Adventure story. We started out by brainstorming some details about two characters, then began pitching in ideas as I typed the story onto a large computer screen. We quickly brought our characters to a point in the story where they had two options, and then we broke into two smaller groups to begin writing them. After advancing those two story lines, each of those branched, creating even smaller groups. As it stands, we have six possible stories in the work, and we'll continue to branch off until each student writes their own ending, which means there will be at least 22 possible outcomes of the story. 

Marcellin adapted the design of the Wright Brothers famous
plane to make it more suited to the atmosphere of
Mars

Rereading what I just wrote makes it seem a little complicated, which is fair, because it has been. But it's also been very fun, and everyone has worked really well together. 

We'll continue this project this week, but  if you're interested in checking out our story so far, click here. (Disclaimer: This is decidedly still a work in progress.) 

Eleanor wrote a short story in the style of author
Wendy Mass

A treasure trove of photos

Gathered around a new pal at Mary Beth Doyle.

We took a stroll down memory lane with the last fifteen minutes of the day yesterday, looking at a bunch of photos from the school year (so far). There's no rhyme or reason to these, and at least a few have probably already been posted, but we thought you might enjoy seeing them all regardless. Enjoy!

January So Far...

January is off to a rollicking good start in the 5/6. (Snow Days excluded, or perhaps enjoyed.) Here's a long, rambling recap of some of the things we've done with these first eight days of January.

A quiet work period in the middle of a very busy two weeks. 

Separating iron, salt, and sand

As part of an ongoing study of water, filtration, compounds, and mixtures, students are currently working in small groups to design a procedure to separate this:

A mixture of sand, salt, and iron

Into this: 

Separated samples of iron, salt, and sand

It requires a deepening understanding of many of the concepts we've been working with this year, including filtration, mixtures, and evaporation. It also requires brainstorming a plan with their partners, as well as crafting a detailed procedure to follow. 

Checking out the magnified structures of iron, salt, and sand 

Scenes from the final week of 2014

Now that the energy and excitement of the play has crested, we have a week left before a well-earned break. The final week in December can often be a tricky one, as people are starting to burst at the seams, but we're still getting a lot done! 

Our class lately. . .

It's been difficult to adequately sum up what's been happening at school lately, as we've been very busy! 

Magic act run throughs

As part of our exploration of the theme of Magic, we've been developing acts in small groups. It will culminate with a series of performances this Friday afternoon, when we'll be performing for other a few of the other classes (and any family members who would like to drop in!). 

We've spent this week putting the finishing touches on our acts, and performing them for each other for peer review. They're really coming together! Ask your child about how their act is going!

Prepping Our Magic Acts

We're all super excited about Magic Show on November 21st in the afternoon. The kids have been refining their acts, working out the kinks in tricks and rehearsing. 

Adri and Kit do a run through so Jason can give feedback.

Investigating Water

Water, Water, Everywhere

Last Thursday, as part of ongoing science unit on water use and water quality, the 5-6s collected samples from various locations in and around SK.

Eva and Niko make observations of their water sample.

Then, on Tuesday, we had a class discussion about the kinds of observations they made and whether or not those observations were objective or subjective.

Beginning our study of Magic: The Gathering

Our mini-theme this week is Magic: The Gathering. Of our 23 kids, we have 9 Magic aficionados and 14 novices. We're spending the morning with the masters coaching the newbies in our first games.

Math: Fraction games

Playing fraction games in Math

Watersheds, Wet Meadows, and Long Walks

Today the fifth and sixth graders started work on watersheds. They started by making models and looking at rain flow and point source pollution. We ended the day with a walk to the wet meadow and food forest at Buhr Park.

     

 

Flashback! Ad project videos

You may recall our studies of the tools of persuasion earlier in the year. For a refresher, visit these two blog entries: 

Identity, advertising, branding, and marketing

Ad project, round two! 

While sifting through materials for the year, I realized that we hadn't actually posted our commercials online. Here are two for your enjoyment: 

Student Blogs: Christopher writes about our Bigfoot films

During the Mythology theme, our class made videos about Bigfoot. The videos were Bigfoot because Bigfoot is a myth. We made them to demonstrate good and bad science. Almost everyone had some bad science in their videos. A lot of us made people faking Bigfoot. 

In the video by Eleanor, Emma, and Margaret, Bigfoot specialist Pearl Green is hunting for Bigfoot. In Christopher, Gabe, and David’s, two normal people trying to fake Bigfoot. In Adi, KK, and Keira’s video, Adi is a reporter and Keira keeps faking Bigfoot. In Matthew, Lee, and Evan’s, Matthew was a stupid scientist who was trying to find Bigfoot. Lee is a faker and Evan is a hunter. 

Quotes about Bigfoot: 

Lee “I had an awesome costume.” 

Matthew “It was fun demonstrating bad science” 

Marcel “My costume was kind of embarrassing.”

During math, Sam had us dip our feet in paint to measure foot length and gait. Using that data, we made scatter plots and histograms.

Stills from the first (annual?) Bigfoot Film Fest

As part of our Mythology theme, students spent two weeks researching, writing, filming, and editing short films about people investigating the existence of Bigfoot. Part of the project was to demonstrate some of the (often terrible) science that investigators utilize to substantiate their claims. 

We recently screened the films, and we thought you might enjoy seeing some stills from the productions:  

Ace reporter Kaeli interviewing an elusive and mysterious figure

A special effects spectacular! 

Home stretch!

As the end of the year fast approaches, projects are culminating! Here we see the 5/6s working on assembling their city in the atrium, as the 3/4s rehearse their play outside.

Meanwhile, Kaeli and Sydney are wiring their building up for light:

Bigfoot projects - Filming and editing

We started today with a quick demonstration about filming and editing our Bigfoot videos. We're using Macbook Airs to film and edit our projects. They're great machines, but they're not necessarily an ideal choice for capturing audio and video. We talked a little bit this morning about how to use close ups and editing to make a more interesting film, and also to work around some of the technical limitations of our equipment. 

For example, filming your script in a single take from far away is visually uninteresting and difficult to hear: 

Filming using establishing shots and close-ups, however, can bring the film alive, while also making things a little easier to see and hear: