Hats On For Mental Health Day 2017

Hats On For Mental Health Day 2017

The 2017 Hats On! For Mental Health Day will occur on May 3.  Each May, Albertans are invited to wear a hat to raise awareness of the importance of good mental health. Participating schools will relax their hat rules and encourage students and teachers to build understanding by wearing hats to school. Bring in a food donation or a coin donation – proceeds to a local charity.

                      Celebration of Learning

Thanks to all the families that stopped by the Learning Commons during the Celebration of Learning for some maker challenges. 

We had paper helicopters, paper parachutes, and balloon rocket races! 

Which forces of flight did you notice? 

• Lift
• Drag
• Thrust
• Weight

Watch our slow motion videos below to see who won the races. What might you change in order for your balloon rocket to go faster?

We loved seeing our parents participate in all the challenges! 

What did you notice about your roto-copter? Why does it spin? Which direction does it fall? 

                           Bike Provocation

Have you had a chance to come down to the Learning Commons this week? Did you stop and look at the bike? What did you notice? 

How many simple machines can you find on a bike? How does a bike work? How do simple machines make work easier?

                 Grade 3/4 Maker Club

Both of our Maker Clubs are now wrapping up after many opportunities to invent, explore and create! Each day, students chose between different stations of their choice. Some of the favorite stations were: Lego, kapla blocks, big blocks, PVC pipes, beads, littleBits, and the maker carts. They created shelters, lighting arm bands, boats, structures, keychains, and more. 

"Maker education fosters curiosity, tinkering, and iterative learning, which in turn leads to better thinking through better questioning.  This learning environment fosters enthusiasm for learning, student confidence, and natural collaboration. Ultimately the outcome of maker education and educational makerspaces leads to determination, independent and creative problem solving, and an authentic preparation for real world by simulating real-world challenges."

                  More Lego and Learning!

Lego bricks are naturally engaging to students. They have the power to ignite the student's natural curiosity to explore, discover, and create. Students learn subjects like language arts, science, technology, engineering, and math more effectively, while improving and developing their 21st century skills, such as collaboration, creativity, communication, and critical thinking. 

This week, our Lego bricks turned numbers from thought to form - into real models that can be touched, compared, and discussed.  After the grade 3/4 students in room 7/8 designed, built, and tested their catapults, they recorded all the distances on chart paper. They were challenged with the question, "How might you represent this data using the lego?" Although challenging at first, all groups came up with different representations, all showing the same data! 

Lego and littleBits in the 

Learning Commons

Students across the grades had the opportunity to come to the Learning Commons to explore, learn, create, collaborate, code, invent and play with Lego and littleBits this week.  

                              Celebration of Learning

Thank you everyone who visited the Learning Commons during our Celebration of Learning! Parents and their children had the opportunity to participate in some design/maker challenges. 

Take a look!

Watch the tower collapse in slow motion: