Systems: Students were introduced to this year's theme of Systems and became familiar with system parts and how these parts interact. (Input, Output, Boundary, Elements) They used these terms and concepts to identify and label systems they come in contact with everyday and to create a list of generalizations that can be made about systems.
- Systems have parts that work together to create a whole.
- Systems interact.
- Parts of systems are interdependant and rely upon one another.
- A system may be influenced by another system.
Habits of Mind: Our Habit of Mind focus has been on persisting and strategies to overcome “the dip” when faced with a challenge. Our favorite activity was reading the book, Grandfather Tang’s Story and using the 7 piece Chinese tangrams to recreate pictures. Students even used the pieces to create their own original designs!
Critical and Creative Thinking: This month students practiced reasoning strategies by using clues to complete matrix logic puzzles. They used the given information to make one and two step deductions in order to find or eliminate matches between the puzzle categories. These were a good test of growth mindset and a class favorite!
M^3 (Mentoring Mathematical Minds) Digging for Data: We had our commencing Digging for Data math lessons and students looked at both their rights and obligations as we embark. This math curriculum focuses heavily on discussion, defense of one's thinking, and writing about concepts. Students were introduced to the term rate and collected data based on their rate of completing some chosen activities. They used this data to ponder the question "what is typical?"
