#HClassBlog - "I'm always hungry during Music Master Class" - October 7

 Introduction:

For the fourth year, the #HClassBlog returns. This year’s group of learners, #HClass24, had their first lesson in blogging on Friday. We talked about using a framework with headings to set up our thinking. Once again, we will be using the Rose, Thorn and Bud strategy to talk about…

The best part of our week - The Rose

The bummer part of our week - The Thorn

And

What we are looking forward to in the next week - The Bud

The Rose:

On Wednesday and Thursday, two coaches from the London Whitecaps soccer club came to Sir Arthur Currie to provide professional instruction to our students. #HClass24 spent an hour on Thursday learning coordination fundamentals and important soccer skills before breaking into four teams for two  fun games. The Whitecaps organization also purchased new soccer balls, mini-nets, pinnies and pylons for our gym department.

The Thorn:

Our thorn is a bit of a dilemma for us. Ms. Rees offers us Master Class instruction on our instruments - so each group of instrument players (saxes, clarinets, etc.) can work together to improve with direct guidance from our talented music teacher. However, we have to give up our recess and then eat during class time. So, it is a worthwhile sacrifice - but still kind of a thorn. 

We also had a French test that most of us did well on. It was a nice way to start our year of study with Ms. Parker.

The Bud:

We are looking forward to the arrival of Mr. Song who is a Teacher Candidate from Nipissing University. He will be working with our class on his first placement for the month of October. He will also return to learn with us in February on his second.

We are also excited about two, back-to-back, four day school weeks. There is a Professional Development Day next Friday, followed by the Thanksgiving long weekend! Woot!!

Literacy Leanings:

We have been reading the book The Wild Robot for the past few weeks. Shipwrecked on a deserted island, a robot named Roz learns to adapt to unfamiliar surroundings by building relationships with the native animals.

It is a story written with a Junior Grade audience in mind; however, we have been examining it through a Middle School lens. We are recognizing that it uses the literary trope of “a stranger in a strange land” or a “fish out of water”. We’ve discussed how people can often “fear” things that are different and unfamiliar and this can lead to racism and xenophobia.

We’ve also been examining the rich vocabulary in the novel and have used the WeVideo program to create animated Frayer Models of the new words we are learning. Some students dug deep into the etymology of the word and our discoveries were fascinating. Here’s an example…

Math Mentions:

Mr. Bliss, our current Teacher Candidate has been educating us about base ten, exponents and scientific notation in order to deal with large numbers. We are all feeling positive about our success with this unit so far because Mr. Bliss has done such a good job teaching us. 

Geography Gab:

We kicked off our Geography studies by reviewing the things we learned in Grade 4. Mr. Bliss used funny videos and mnemonics (memory tools) to help us learn the names of the continents, Canadian Provinces and Territories and The Great Lakes. Next week, we start learning about the Compass Rose and Relative Location.

How About History:

October is “Women’s History Month” and we researched Amazing Canadian Women in order to create short, engaging videos about some incredible artists, musicians, politicians, authors, actors and animators who come from The Great White North! The full list of videos can be seen here.

Next Week:

We will create our second blog as a class. Look for it to be published just before the long weekend!

All class pics posted with permission