Report Writing

Over the past little while, we have been learning how to write non-fiction reports in our language class. We started by reading a number of non-fiction pieces and finding the main ideas and details. We also learned to differentiate between fact and opinion. Finally, we read an article and broke it down into an outline the author might have used to plan his or her thinking.

Now we are working on developing our own outlines for a report. We began by using some facts about Great white sharks and identifying facts that could be grouped together into subtopics about great white sharks. Then we used those groupings to organise the facts into an outline. Finally, we began writing a short report about great white sharks, which some students are still working on. Here is an example of a report and an outline that was used to assist in planning.

It isn’t widely known that each year more people are killed by chairs and toasters than sharks. The great white shark is a very interesting animal. They have amazing adaptations and hunting skills, as well as a unique breeding cycle.

Sharks have an incredible breeding cycle. Sharks give birth to live young, after the gestation period of over 12 months. They have small litters of 2-10 baby sharks, which are called pups. The pups are 1.2-1.7m long at birth, but have no parental care. Once the pups are born, the mother leaves them to fend for themselves. Their breeding cycle is different than most of the other creatures from the sea.

Because great white sharks live deep in the water, they have to adapt to their habitat to survive. Lucky for them, they already adapted perfectly to their environment. They have six senses; sight, smell, taste, touch, hearing and electroreception. Electroreception can detect the electric field given off by any living thing. The rest of their senses are strong too, they can see in colour during the day and night, and can smell blood from really far away. They also have taste buds in their mouth and throat, so they can really taste that good fish flavour. They even don’t have any eyelids and can live more than 6 years long! You would have to be really committed to get a great white as a pet! Great whites are incredible creatures, with even cooler adaptations.

Now let’s get to the cool part, hunting. Sharks are some of the most successful predators in the world. They live on a diverse diet of many types of fish and other sea creatures and they can catch food in many different ways. One of those ways is called spyhopping, where the shark sticks it’s head out of the water to search for prey. Sharks are perfectly adapted to hunting in their habitat.

So that’s why great white sharks are perfect hunters, are amazingly adapted to their habitat and how they have a unique breeding cycle. Remember, sharks kill about 5 people per year, so the next time you watch the movie Jaws, don’t be scared because that’s not a real shark.

Here is the outline that the student used:

1. Introduction

2. Breeding

• Live young
• Gestation over 12 months
• Small litters - 2-10 baby sharks called pups
• Pups are 1.2 - 1.7 m long at birth
• No parental care

3. Adaptations

• Sharks have six senses: sight, smell, taste, touch, hearing and electroreception.
• Electrosense can detect the electric field given off by all living animals
• See in the day, night and see colour
• Strongest smell of all sharks can smell blood far away
• Taste buds in mouth and throat
• No eyelids
• More than 60 years

4. Hunting

• One of the most successful predators in the world
• Live on diverse diet
• Many different ways to catch food
• Stick head out of water called spyhopping

5. Conclusion

  

     

 

Special Science Presentation Wednesday

On Wednesday of this week, our class will be fortunate enough to have a presentation about our local biodiversity by representatives from the Pinhey Sand Dunes Restoration Project and Biodiversity Conservancy International. The presentation will take place during 4th block. For more information, please see their website here.

Math Test Thursday, November 17th

Next Thursday we will have a math test that will cover everything we have learned in our Place Value unit. To study, please use the review sheets that I sent home with students today. If you cannot find them, click here.

Another great way to study is to have students log into the Hapara workspace and review the videos and activities there. Some are quite challenging, but beneficial.

Please review the materials with your child. We will be reviewing throughout the week before our test on Thursday. The review sheet is due on Wednesday, and we will take up the sheet together. Students can bring it home Wednesday evening if they wish to study some more.

Test for Biodiversity

On Thursday, November 17th, we will be having our first science test for Biodiversity. Throughout this unit, students have done a number of inquiries to learn about what makes a living thing, the importance of Biodiversity and how to classify plants and animals. We have read over some study notes and played some Kahoot games to practice our learning and review. Here is the link to the study notes that you can review with your child to study for the test this week. The links to the Kahoot games we played are at the bottom. Try playing these games with your child to review the concepts as well!

Biodiversity Study notes

Long Division

Over the next few days we will be learning how to divide large numbers. Specifically, we will be learning how to perform long division, which is often very challenging for students because of the many steps involved in the process.

There are two things that affect a students ability to do long division:

1. Knowledge of basic multiplication facts - I cannot emphasize enough how important basic facts are for children to understand a variety of math concepts, and this is another one. In order to perform long division, students need to be able to use multiplication facts to figure out at least two of the four steps. I highly encourage students to work on Xtramath as much as possible!
2. Having a systematic process - having a checklist-type system to follow helps students see and perform each step. 

Here is the system that I use to teach students how to do long division. This example is what would be expected at a grade 5 level. 

In this system, we use the acronym "Da Monkey Sells Bananas" to remember the steps of Divide, Multiply, Subtract and Bring down.

For grade 6, students are expected to be able to divide a 4-digit number by a 2-digit number. To help students understand how to do this, we watched a video from Khan Academy. I highly recommend this website for review of concepts and extra practice. Here is the video we watched in class:

Here is another video from Khan Academy that might also be helpful:

To practice we used the practice problem in Khan Academy, and we did some problems step by step together on the smartboard. This continues to be a challenging concept for many students, so we will be doing questions over the next few weeks to review.

Of course, there are other methods, such as the "flexible" method of long division, which I will also teach in class. Here is an example of the flexible method (Taken from Effective Guide to Instruction- Ontario Ministry of Education Document for Division):

Interviews for Progress Reports Tomorrow

Just a reminder that progress report interviews are tomorrow, Thursday, November 9. If you are interested in meeting with me to discuss your child's progress, please book an interview. I would love to have an opportunity to talk with you! I you would like an interview, you can book online using this link:

You Can Book Me

I look forward to meeting with you tomorrow. If you are unable to attend, please know that I am able to discuss your child's progress at any time by phone, or on another day for a scheduled interview.

Multiplying Whole numbers and Decimals

Today in math we began learning about multiplication. We started with a problem involving rates in which students had to figure out the cheapest store at which to buy dog food. They needed to use their understanding of addition and multiplication to solve these problems. Tomorrow we will extend this problem to 72 cans to see if there is a difference in the cheapest store. Then we will learn a few ways to multiply, both with and without decimals. Here are three common ways to multiply:

1) Break apart method (partial products); 198 x 23

• 8 x 3 = 24
• 90 x 3 = 270
• 100 x 3 = 300
• 8 x 20 = 160
• 90 x 20 = 1800
• 100 x 20 = 2000
• added together 2000 + 1800 + 160 + 300 + 270 + 24 = 4554

2) Lattice multiplication: Click here for video explaining

3) Standard method: Here

I encourage students to use whichever method works for them, but to be aware that there is more than one way to multiply. When they do EQAO, the focus is not so much on being able to multiply, but rather being able to solve problems involving multiplication, including multi-step problems that combine concepts from a variety of strands (eg. number sense and measurement). This is something we will be practicing a lot this year. 

After multiplying, we will be learning how to divide larger numbers, again with or without decimals. I will post later about our process for division.