3D Maths Moderation Assessment

Today was a full on mathematic's day with a short library interlude. Here are some of the materials students have to make their 3D models with, apart from the cardboard nets they have either drawn up themselves or been given.  They will receive three more nets tomorrow.

Possible 3D shape construction materials

Students have the choice of using the A3 Black line proforma I made up for the assessment task (which is already A3 size) or they can save the digital version on to a USB stick so they can use ICT skills to make their poster. I showed them how to obtain and  use images off the net or import their own photos of  the 3D shapes they have made into the document. The A4 posters they make digitally can be easily photocopied and converted to A3 colour if students have them saved on a USB device.  Below are the proformas. I shared one I was making. They have been asked to choose a simple 3D shape and a more complicated one to investigate. Below is the blank  basic proforma.

3D Shapes	Squared-based Pyramid	Hexagonal Prism
Real-life example
Shape of base
Number of faces
Number of vertices
Number of edges
Number of curved surfaces
Skeleton Model OR Cardboard Model OR a  hybrid
Example of 2D Net
Sketches from different angles

  

Extra Information and Interesting Facts

Here are two examples of explanatory posters on 3D shapes which I made from scratch. I have focused on a hexagonal prism which we haven't looked at yet in class. Students can use the above digital template to design their own OR they can be really adventurous and design their own template.

Example 1... to show the possibilities

Example 2 with views and skeleton model

Hexagonal prism made from Plasticine and toothpicks.
The photograph was then inserted into the poster.

Skeleton cube made from peas and toothpicks

I made the cube from toothpicks and frozen peas. We only had baby peas in our freezer which made the job a bit fiddly. When the peas dry and shrink, the structure becomes more rigid. This usually takes a couple of days. Students may like to experiment at home where the peas can be kept frozen before use.

All students chose and made their own skeleton model for a simple 3D shape today and photographed the finished product for insertion into their Explanatory posters. These are on the student drive where students can access them.  Students need to ensure that their Extra Information and Interesting Facts section at the bottom of their posters is in their own words.

Have packed some skewers for G to use tomorrow for her

rectangular prism.  Top efforts with what we had though.

Skeleton cube made by JS

Some snap shots from today:

Making a truncated pyramid skeleton model

Referring to a maths dictionary

The three nets given out on Friday made up. This student 

scored his shapes very carefully.

Step pyramid

AD's square-based pyramid skeleton model

Students also viewed a PhotoStory all about finished shapes boards completed by students from a like age group to give them something to aim for. They will all receive their card tomorrow to mount their finished shapes on and on which to write a summary of the attributes of each shape.

Below is a photo of the finished Japanese flowering cherry blossom trees. They look very effective. Well done Blackman's Bay students. Sensei Townsend must be very proud of you all.  I have one of these trees in my front garden and love it when it flowers in our spring.

Cherry Blossom Viewing

Hanami

I also hope my beautiful-inside-and out grade 6 girl with the severe neck is feeling better. xx

Assembly, Hanami, Squash, Spelling and you guessed it... more mouldy bread

Hanami

The comprehension passage

Cutting out the blossoms

The naked trees

Following the usual whole-school assembly and a 5 degrees celsius start in the little Siberian classroom, my students did their desk change for the week and we headed off to Japanese class together. I always enjoy these sessions because I learn so much about another culture. I used to teach the upper primary Italian program at Illawarra Primary School. The lesson today focused on the Hanami. Students did a short comprehension piece and then cut out blossoms to adorn the trees which had been prepared for today's lesson. Next week I will hopefully post up a photo of the finished product.

After recess students went to their daily physical education sessions and then got straight into the phyical eduaction lesson which focused on squash skills.  It was then back to the classroom for the remainder of the day.

This weeks' spelling is focusing on the "drop the y and add ies rule." We discussed the rule that if a consonant (eg. b,d,f etc) precedes the y then the rule is to drop the y and ies. We looked at what happens if the letter which precedes the y is a vowel 
as in donkey, valley...then the rule  is to simply add the s. Knowing our language there is surely some word which doesn't follow this rule but it usually works.   Eight students already understood this rule and applied it capably on various occasions in standardised test so they published work and had extra time on their Science projects (yes, the mould) or on typing up their recounts about the grade 6 camp.

After lunch we successfully watched the whole clip on moulds in Mrs Franz's room whilst her students were at Japanese because their internet connect is more reliable than ours. This film will definitely assist students with the write-up of their background to their science reports.

Following that students had time on their Spelling and their Science investigations. We discussed how the cm squares could be used to work our percentages of mould on a surface area.  This weeks spelling bingo words are:

family families

daisy  daisies

city  cities

lady  ladies

butterfly butterflies

baby babies

activity  activities

memory memories

hobby  hobbies

carry  carries

bury   buries

marry marries

cry  cried

hurry hurried

apply applied

Individual feedback was also given on the prime numbers lesson we did on Friday. Some students are still have problems with this concept so I will do another quick lesson on Tuesday and discuss composite numbers at the same time. There are also new books to the classroom library.

As from next Monday I will no longer be teaching on a Monday as I need to have the time to visit my dad in Devonport on a more regular basis. I spoke to the class about this during the afternoon session and trust that they and parents understand my decision.

Mould, mould and more mould

There has been one timetable change to our Monday so as students don't have so many options on a Monday. The library lesson will now happen on a Tuesday.

In the morning we all attended  the whole school assembly where students were reminded about the importance of staying within the boundaries of the school. The new slogan is Stay in bound and be found! We also celebrated the birthdays of the week  and  did a meditation session.

Then it was on to Japanese where the focus continued on classroom items.

Students received feedback on their last lesson

They played a game to reinforce the new vocabulary

Students will make these signs in the near future

Something is not right

Students have been  given some guidance to the aims and expectations of this section of  Marvellous Microorganisms  unit  which is now  focusing on moulds. They will be concentrating on  conducting fair tests in scientifc experiments and the use of computers to publish their findings and results.

After recess students had Daily Phys. Ed and their weekly Physical Education lesson. I am so proud of the dance leaders who I oversee. A job well done girls.  Cross country is tomorrow and students know the run off times  times and all about the expectations of the day.

Over the next few weeks students will be:

*planning an investigation that is a fair test.

*conducting an investigation,and making and recording observations.

*interpreting observations and making a conclusion which answers the
 research question  posed.

* describing the conditions that encourage the growth of food mould.

*use technology to present their final report, including  typed text
  tables, photos, diagrams, graphs etc

Students completed the following cloze procedure on moulds after watching the following doucumetary.
http://vimeo.com/20196310

Tonight as part of their spelling homework they need to ensure that their word walls about Microorganisms are up-to-date. I hope to see the word hyphae there. They also had to complete this cloze procedure and focus on the significant Science words:


The ____ 'mould' is used to refer to several kinds of _____ that grow on
various surfaces. Moulds reproduce by producing ______. Mould spores
are commonly found in the air and soil, but will grow into mould only when
they land somewhere with the right __________ for growth.  Spores are very
_____ and don't contain a supply of food to help them begin to _____ like
seeds do.  They use whatever they land on as ____.

Mould grow _____ away from direct _________ in moist, cool-to-warm conditions
where there is plenty of plant and animal (organic) matter for them to use as an _____
source. A soggy sandwich left in a lunch box over the summer holidays is a
mould's delight. Moulds love  bathrooms and ______ old shoes.  They will even
grow on books and papers that have not been ______ in the right conditions.
Direct ultraviolet light (including) sunshine tends to _____ moulds and they don't
grow well in dry _____________.

When mould spores germinate they produce long, thin strands called hyphae
which give moulds their fluffy __________. Moulds play an important role in the
ecosystem, helping to decompose and ________ dead organic matter.

term        stored  recycle     sunlight   spores      appearance       environments
fungi        kill     conditions   food    energy     small    best   grow  sweaty

To end the day we had a look at mouldy foodstuffs.  There's a nightmare in my lunch box!

Students looked closely at what six week old bread mould looks like along with a very disgusting apple and some really gross tomato paste.  We discussed the importance of sealing or double bagging their future mould experiments. Students have been asked to think about the experiment they are going to conduct to find out about the conditions that mould requires to grow on bread.

I now have a record 23 out of 24 parents who are coming  to or have already had a parent teacher discussion session. Thanks all, I appreciate your time and actually enjoy the whole process. 

Respect,Twister, Spelling and other things

This morning we had the usual 35-40 minute whole-school assembly where students listened to a story about respect, applauded birthdays and shared ideas on respect. This next month the whole school focus will be on respect. Following the assembly students and I went to the scheduled Japanese lesson where students learn the name of everyday school objects and how to play Twister in Japanese reinforcing their knowledge of colours and body parts.  Then it was Daily Phys Education,  P.E., Library which took us up to the lunch break. In the afternoon, as usual. we tackled spelling, this week looking at words with silent letters. These will be tested on Thursday.  Some students were publishing drafts into top copies and two were doing the subtraction lesson they missed on Friday. Students are learning to scan and print out a copy of their Marvellous Microorganism jigsaw puzzles. Tick off another part on the ICT checklist. One student presented his persuasive text which he didn't have prepared from last week, and received two peer assessments and a teacher assessment.  All these assessments are housed in the portfolios under the Smart Board. Students received back their Science books complete with assessments on the last four Science lessons. WB = Working Beyond, AA= Age Appropriate, WT = Working Towards. All spelling corrections were added to their ISL cards. A few students who finished early went on with their Softies. Monday done! The timetable will be adjusted after Easter so I have the students more in the morning blocks.

Danger Words...and new desks to come :)

These are the words students have been having the most problems with over the last four weeks in a wide selection of written pieces. This chart is now up in the classroom and students will  need to thoroughly check their written assignments to make sure none of these words are incorrect.

The latest t-ball photos taken on Friday are also up on the store room door.

Today: assembly, Japanese, P.E. and Library. In the afternoon we concentrated on spelling words with the au pattern. We also looked at same of the words in our language that have the combination mn:
solemn
column
hymn
mnemonics



I asked students if they could find out any other words that might have this unusual combination.  I can think of a few. In some the n is silent and in others it is not.

Homework tonight is to finish the spelling level they are on. A couple of students managed to finish this in class time today, well done!

A small group of four students who didn't need to do the lesson on the au words started cutting out and sewing their softies. They worked very well with limited supervision.

Students have set up the A-Z sheet ready for the microcosmos competition which is mentioned in the blog preceding this one.

Below is a picture of the days of the week activity the students did in Japanese. 

Students finished their Japanese lesson with the game at the following link:
http://www.digitaldialects.com/Japanese/Daysmonths.htm

The best news of the day is some new desks for the classroom and some vital mathematics gear  are on order. Yipeeeee!

Junko Morimoto and ... The Pinballs for Homework

Today we focused on literacy beginning with Spelling Bingo as usual.  I again modelled the use of full sentence answers and using paragraphs. Students are really start to show great improvement in this area. Students were given time to finish answering the 8 questions about The Pinballs, the class novel, and another block of time to get another of the bigger activities done. Tonight's homework is to complete a third activity. The unit of work on The Pinballs is due in Friday morning. Students will be assessed on this using a rubric and some written feedback given. 

In Art this morning students finished off their banners. I guess these will be hanging in our classroom soon.

Woodwind students were in and out from 12-00 o'clock on. The grade 5s seemed to enjoy their first lesson.

In the afternoon, for the first 20 minutes, students had silent reading whilst  I worked closely with four grade 5 girls on the art of writing persuasive texts. Students then worked on their microscope sketches, their microorganism jigsaws or their softies designs.

We focused on illustrator Junko Morimoto for half an hour, looking at some of the books she has illustrated and written. She emigrated to Australia from Japan in 1982. We watched a short film about her experiences during the bombing of Hiroshima. She was thirteen years old at the time. I did this short lesson as students missed their Japanese lesson due to House Meeting on Monday morning. 

http://littlelibraryofrescuedbooks.blogspot.com.au/2012/03/phoenix-by-nan-hunt.html
Some students have also opted to read Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes which also provides interesting insights to the aftermath of the bombing.  There are two copies of this book in our class library.
http://littlelibraryofrescuedbooks.blogspot.com.au/search?q=Sadako

About 25% of the class read for half an hour every night. It would be great if we could elevate this percentage.

The majority of students handed in their Luck Dip maths activity.

One hydra coming up!

Bacteria anyone?

Preparing a softie design

Cutting out pattern pieces

Hinamatsuri (Doll's Festival), Obina and...this week's ough words

The class puzzle is going well. Students do this before school, during wet weather, or if they finish a task early.

Hinamatsuri Dolls

Some of our  Hina Obina (Emperor) dolls

This is the origami steps students had to follow. 

Today after the usual 35 minute Monday morning assembly, students had their second Japanese class for the year. They they learnt about the Japanese Doll's Festival called Hinamatsuri, and completed a short comprehension exercise. They then  made a Hina Obina doll.  The festival is held on March 3rd, the third day of the third month.

There was the usual Physical Education lesson and then the  Library lesson.

This weeks spelling  words are:

dough                       bough
though                      plough
although                  drought
rough                       wrought
tough                        enough
thought                    ought
thorough                 brought
borough                  sought
Kingborough         nought
cough                      bought
trough

Students were given 60 minutes in class to complete the spelling activities. I have suggested they have a parent test on these words to isolate the tricky ones they need more practice with. These words will be tested on Friday morning. Five students who did not need to do this lesson spent the afternoon publishin their Pinballs activities or their The Otherside interviews.