From the category archives:

Updates

Friday Update – March 25th (by Audrey)

by Karen Carmen on March 27, 2011

This week we had lots of different activities, this is what we did:

-My buried artifact project (sculpture)
-Alan Dick Memorial Walk
-Finishing off our mosaics
-Last swimming class
-Mathematics: Coordinates
-Auditions for the Evening of the Arts and Student Showcase
-Last T-Ball class
-French presentation/play
-Library literary genres lesson

This week we had our last swimming class. I have to say, even though I don’t like swimming class, I want to have more! This week it was the usual: warm up, freestyle and more, but then our swimming teacher said we are going to learn the butterfly. I thought ,’How boring!’ We first had to move our waist up and down in what our swimming teacher calls the dolphin stroke. It was hard at first  but then turned out quite easy. However, the difficult part came after. We had to add our hands, which was why is it hard (at least for me), because you have to keep remembering lots of steps. At the end, we had games. This week the first part of our game time was to find a partner and have him or her get into the water. The other person has to ‘save them’. The other part of our game time is to basically step into the water with your hands horizontally from you, then when you step down you have to keep your head out of the water, which is actually pretty hard if you’re short and in the deep end.

Remember the last update? One of the subjects was the My Buried Artifact Project. We are onto the step where we make our sculpture. We had to share a half a brick of clay between two people. The three steps were really hard for me. One was when you are trying to shape out your shape, because if we get a piece of clay that is not connected to your sculpture in the first place and you stick it on it will be ok, but once it has dried, it will fall off. Next is the smoothing the clay, I figured that a little bit off water would smooth the clay, but I tried it on the little lump and it did not look very smooth. Oh well. Third was making the designs, it is actually quite easy because there were tools that we could use. One thing that was easy was the hollowing out of the clay (because mine was a pot – a lotus cup). You just use a tool to take out some clay, when that becomes difficult, then you use your fingers. I think that once it dries then it will look good.

On Tuesday, we had the Alan Dick Memorial Walk. Me and ET 19 were always walking, then running, walking, then running and so on. Every single time I run, I feel really tired. I was quite glad that it wasn’t as hot as last year’s Alan Dick Memorial Walk, but then sometimes I felt like it was the hottest day ever. I did around 16 laps. I couldn’t do a lot because I was in choir and we had to perform. When choir sang it was our lunch time. We sang two songs: Amazing Grace and Chocolate. I wasn’t really paying attention where to go to get lunch and so, me, ET 17 and ET 24 went to drop off our things and ask people. We figured out that we had to get our lunch in us, so we went and stood in line. I was like, ‘Wow!’ There were so many people! We finished, went  to the stage and saw ET 14 playing the drums in an upper school band! We were all excited!

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Friday Update – March 18th (by Yan Yan)

by Karen Carmen on March 19, 2011

Weekly Update:

- Chance Fortune and The Outlaws - Grade 7/8 performance in the LLAC
– Hong Kong History Museum Field Trip
- Started Mosaics
- Sarah Brennan Poetry Competition
– Mathematics: Angles
– Prepared My Buried Artifact Project

This week we were really going into our new Unit Of Inquiry (UOI) Where We Are In Place and Time about how we uncover and interpret history.

We went to the Hong Kong History Museum to observe how the exhibitions were set up. Then we were asked to pick two exhibitions and sketch them on a worksheet (provided by the teacher) and write down why the exhibition was effective (attractive) to the audience.  I chose an exhibition on prehistoric people and an exhibition on Hong Kong in World War 2. I found out that the exhibitions that were big (they usually had cool sound effects, man sized dummies, and smaller exhibitions attached on the side) were the most attractive (except the exhibition on prehistoric people and a fake interior of a volcano). Some of the exhibitions were in video/movie form, which I thought were very informative.

Besides pouring over history books and going to museums, we also did a little bit of art. As we saw a lot of artifacts in the Hong Kong Museum, we decided to create our own artifact using clay. We were allowed to do any kind of artifact, but we had to find out information of our artifact. Of course, that artifact had to be suitable to be made out of clay too. Note that we are not using sculptor’s clay so if we tear off any bits of clay off our artifact while we make it and try to put it back it will fall off when it’s dry. Ms. C told us that our finished artifact will be broken up and buried in a beach. Then we are going to dig someone else’s artifact up and try to place the little bits and pieces back together. (a.k.a. ‘Dig Day’)
My artifact is a Hydria, a vase that has three handles used by Greeks to carry water or to put dead people’s ashes in. I’m looking forward to making my Hydria!

In mathematics we started on our first bit of geometry: ANGLES.
We learnt about complementary angles, supplementary angles (180 degrees/straight angle), vertically opposite angles and how to calculate angles without using a protractor.

What are Complementary Angles?
Complementary Angles are 2 angles which add up to 90 degrees (right angle).

What are Supplementary Angles?
Supplementary Angles are 2 angles which add up to 180 degrees (straight angle).

What are Vertically Opposite Angles?
Vertically Opposite Angles are angles that are the same  size when put face-to-face with each other. (Normally this happens when you have 4 angles that add up to 360 degrees and the top and bottom angles are the same.)

3 = 30 degrees
1 = 150 degrees
2 = 150 degrees

How to calculate angles without using a protractor:
Look at the above rules for angles. If you know an angle from a complementary or supplementary angles, you can easily calculate the other angle by subtracting it from 90 or 180 degrees. If your angle is a vertically opposing one, you can automatically know that the other angle is the same as the one provided. It’s easy if you are familiar with the rules.

That’s all for this week!

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Friday Update – February 25th (by Katherine)

by Karen Carmen on February 25, 2011

- Literature circles continue…
- Summative recounts
– Grade 5 and 6 assembly
– Storyteller: Lynne Kirk
- Mathematics: ratio and proportion
– Pajama and Pancake Day for Spring Into Reading

We had a grade 5 and 6 assembly on Thursday. We started off with our 2 national anthems, the Canadian one and the Chinese one. A girl from grade 5, named Rene Chan sung a song called I Believe and she was amazing! They started giving out the recognition certificates for French, Chinese, P.E, Mathematics, Literacy, Visual and Performing Arts.

We went to see a storyteller named Lynne Kirk and she told us amazing story about a prince, a servant and a princess. It’s about a prince who was cursed by an old lady (to win the love of Ferishtitall). The prince went on a journey with his servant the go see this princess, Ferishtitall. To win the love of the beautiful princess, he was told to keep her awake the whole night but unfortunately, he failed. The servant wanted to help so the next day, he went to try. He told 3 riddles to the princess and the next thing you know, it was morning! The princess refused to marry the prince because she wanted a husband that she could talk to and could entertain her. So in the end, the servant married the princess.

On Friday, it was Pajama Day so everyone got to wear their pajamas and bring a stuffed animal or pillow to school. I had a feeling that everyone in 5E was drowsy in their warm and cozy PJs in class, especially math class! It was also Pancake Day so during lunch, everyone got pancakes and sausages! Yum! After five minutes, everyone was lining up for their seconds but some people didn’t get any seconds because they all ran out! So, they started lining up for sausages instead!

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Friday Update – February 18th (by Elliot)

by Karen Carmen on February 18, 2011

- CDNIS Book Fair in the LLAC
- Badminton in P.E.
- Brought portfolios home
- Child heroes research and presentations
- Watched the Grade 3 Let’s Make It Happen dress rehearsal
- ECAs started
- Our Grade 2 reading buddies performed for us
- Literature circles continue…

This week we watched our grade 2 reading buddies perform for us. They performed The Three Little Elephants, a parody of The Three Little Pigs. The story was about three little elephants getting tricked by a tiny mouse. The elephants hadn’t seen a mouse before so they thought that the mouse was huge! But in the end, the elephants saw the mouse and weren’t afraid. They were very enthusiastic so they were all excited and spoke loudly so everyone could hear them. But a thing that was not so good was that the mice were too squeaky so they were hard to hear at times. But overall, the performance was excellent!

We also did our ‘child heroes’ presentations. For this, we had to choose a child that has faced mental and social challenges. Mine was about a person named John Tacket. He had a disease called Progeria. Progeria is a disease that causes you to grow older faster. The thing I liked about him was although he knew he was going to die before everyone else, he still lived his life well and never gave up.

We also started playing badminton in P.E., I’ve got to admit, but I’m pretty good! Badminton is a very fun sport, it’s like tennis, but with a smaller racket and a birdie instead of a ball. I find that badminton is easier than tennis because when you hit the birdie, it travels longer than a ball. But serving is harder because you have to hit the birdie at a certain time.

I hope you’ve enjoyed my update, keep reading! ☺

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Friday Update – January 21st (by Rohaan)

by Karen Carmen on January 21, 2011

- 12 minute run and sit up test
- Literacy: started recounts
- Class novel: Iqbal
- Field trip: SENT landfill
- Poetry workshop with Sara Holbrook and Michael Salinger
- Mathematics: fractions to decimals (to the thousandths)
- ”This is it” in Performing Arts.
- Chance’s Birthday

One important thing that we did this week was going to one of Hong Kong’s three landfills and the busiest of them all – the SENT landfill. SENT means: South East New Territories landfill.    

The purpose of going to the landfill was that to improve are understanding about landfills and solid waste management. When we first got there, we listened to a power point presentation about the landfill and the different ways that the trash is sent to them. After the talk about the landfill, we had a tour. We were shown all the stuff you need in a landfill and there are some really weird things like a place where the broken trucks get fixed. I had a really fun time and I really would like to go the other two.

I’ve already read this book, but I would really like to read it again. The book is called Iqbal. Iqbal is about a girl named Fatima who lived in a carpet- making factory. She just continued with her normal daily life until it changed one day when iqbal arrived. Before Iqbal came, no one was ever be able to stand up to Hussain Khan, but Iqbal did. When someone arrived at the factory they get a slate and lines were on it representing their debt. When all the lines were gone, they’re allowed to leave and go back to their home. When you’re there, you only earn 1 rupee every day and that’s only 50 cents in some places. Think of the children when you buy a carpet and think whoever made this was only receiving 1 rupee for such a beautiful piece of artwork.

Last but not least, we did the 12-minute run and the sit-up test in P.E.. In both of the testings, I improved – in my last 12-minute run I got 29 and this time I got 31. Also in my last sit-up test I got 20 and this time I got 42 and that was a big improvement for me. The way the testing works is that in the 12-minute run you have 12 minutes to see how many laps you can do and if you want to try to motivate people, you can put on some music. In the sit-up test I wouldn’t put on the music because you have to go up at a specific time which is when you hear the beep noise and if you start going off course, you’re out. These two ways of physical training that can really improve your fitness.

 

 

 

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Friday Update – January 14th (by Chance)

by Karen Carmen on January 15, 2011

Some things we did this week were:

  • New Reading Buddies
  • Let’s make it Happen Concert
  • Handball Intramurals
  • China Trip Session in LLAC
  • Switched blogs to WordPress
  • P.E.: Beep Test
  • Literacy: Simile Poems – Fractions are like…
  • Mathematics: Fractions & Decimal Fractions
  • Discussion About Children’s Rights and Literature Circle Novels

On Friday, we went to our first game of handball intramurals against 5D, our rivals from soccer intramurals. Handball is a game fairly similar to soccer but you use your hands instead of your feet. We had defenders, mid-fielders, attackers and a goalie. In our particular game of handball, we had 3 shifts so many people could have a turn at playing. I was on during the 2nd and 3rd shifts. While I was playing, I managed to block 3 shots as a defender and score 2 goals as an attacker. Sadly, in the end we lost 12 to 13. I think that if we had another 5 minutes, we could have either won or tied with 5D.

Last Wednesday, we had our Let’s Make It Happen Concert. It was based on our Unit Of Inquiry, which was solid waste management. Mr. Shaw organized the concert and the Grade 5s did the performing. Every class sang one song, played one thing on the xylophones and had up to 6 performances that the individuals in that group made. At the very end we had the Earth Song that Elliot sang very well. At the very end of the whole thing, some parents actually started crying. That means we did a very good job.

We also switched our blogs from the old version into WordPress, which was cool because then we added widgets like Flagcounter. It counts how any people have gone to your blog and where they’re from. I have 9 people that have gone to my blog and 25 page views. Also, we got to change the theme of our blog. I changed mine into something called Fusion. Then, we added a blog roll, which is basically a bunch of links to everyone else’s blog in our class. Now, everyone’s blog looks different because of the themes and widgets.

Those are the things we did this week.

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Friday Update – January 7th (by Keona)

by Karen Carmen on January 8, 2011

Events:

-  If Poetry competition winners + new contest
-  Finished A Christmas Carol (book and the video)
-  Finished Found Poetry and started simile poems
-  3 Little Pigs in French Class
-  Began playing Hand Ball in P.E.
-  Field trip to the Eco Park
-  First rehearsal for “Lets Make It Happen” winter concert
-  Second summative assessment (“Tracking the Trash”)
-  Started preparing Student Council class rep speeches for Term 2
-  Mathematics: mixed numbers, improper fractions, fractions and decimal remainders
-  Finished U of I – How The World Works

One of the best things that we did this week was visiting the Eco Park. Our purpose of going to Eco Park it is related to our unit about how we manage solid waste. We went there to discover more about the trash cycle and learn more about recycling plastic bottles. The part I think is the most interesting to see and took the most time to make is the artificial landfill inside a big room. That landfill is like an example of what it will feel, look and sound like when we are in a real landfill. The pile of rubbish is really high and they look very real. Then we went to the “Plastic Waste Management Center”. There were university students who volunteered to introduce us to the management of plastics. They talked about the different types of plastic and what type can be recycled. Then, the students took us to a recycling plastic area. First, workers sort out the different types of plastic and put them into different containers, next we saw big machines, and they turn all those plastics into small black pellets.

Recently, we finished reading the book A Christmas Carol and also watched the movie of it. The main character of the story is called “Ebenezer Scrooge”. He is a cold-hearted, selfish man. He thinks Christmas is a humbug and refuses to go to any dinners with friends and never donates money to charity. So, one cold frosty night, his dead friend “Marley” (who is a ghost) came to haunt him and to teach him a lesson not to be so selfish and mean to everybody. Marley sent three ghosts for him: the first ghost is The Ghost of his Christmas Past, the second is The Ghost of his Christmas Present and the third is The Ghost of his Future. All the ghosts made him reflect on what he did wrong and gave him one last chance to change. At the end, after the hard lesson, he changed into a very jolly man and came to celebrate Christmas like everyone else. We read this book before our winter holidays, and some parts of the story were very scary.

I really like doing Found Poetry. Found Poetry is a type of poem using cut out words of phrases from magazines, and combine them to make a very interesting poem. First, we each chose a picture from a selection that Ms. Carmen gave us, and then we found some words that describe or refer to the picture as we understand it. Once we got enough words, we start putting the words into phrases to make poem lines. My picture reminds me about Qin Shi Huang’s (the olden days of the Chinese empire) clay soldiers that stayed with him in his tomb. This is a very interesting project because you don’t need to write anything, but instead just find random words that will work in your poem.

I enjoyed our first week of school from the winter break!

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Friday Update – December 3rd (by Rael)

by Karen Carmen on December 3, 2010

Events:

  • Our class started sourcing materials for our found poems
  • We started our Fractions math Unit of Inquiry
  • It was the last day of swimming
  • We listened to the first round of CDNIS Has Got Talent through our classroom window
  • We bought things from the Grade 6 Marketplace as an end to their UOI about business
  • During library, we finished reviewing on call numbers and had the test this week
  • We started our UOI about persuasive writing

This week we did many things. One of the more important things we did was starting fractions as a math UOI. So far we have learned how to find equivalent fractions, find fractions of amounts, and make simplified fractions. One of the activities that we did to help us learn how to do this were fraction centers, where there were multiple centers around the classroom and we were split into 8 groups. We went around the centers and had to play the game or do the activity that was on the card at that center. One of the centers that I went to was a equivalent fractions center, where one player chose a fraction and the other players had to write down an equivalent fraction and check it with the person that wrote the original fraction before the other person. Ms. Carmen had some fraction cards, a circle broken into the fraction, it’s decimal, it’s percentage, and it’s fraction. To practice making equivalent fractions, as a class, we had to give some. The way that Ms. Carmen taught us was to multiply the numerator (the top number in a fraction) by a random number and multiply the denominator (the bottom number in a fraction) by the same number.

This Friday was our last swimming class. We did about 50 minutes of swimming, but during the last 30 minutes, we got to play water polo. There were two teams that played at a time. I was on the yellow team, and the teams were yellow, green, and red. We had to wear a swim cap that had our team’s color. My team, yellow, won first place with 8 points. We won both of our matches. Green came in second with 6 points, and red came in last with 4 points. The formation that we used to win was have 3 players on each side, one player in front of the opponent’s goalie, one player, our best blocker, in front of our goalie. Then we had maybe 2 or 3 players in the center. Our strategy was to get the ball to the goalie, or to the blocker. Then they would throw to one of the people on the side, and it would travel, zigzagging across the pool until the last person, the person who was in front of the opponent’s goalie, caught it and threw it into the goal. I was the person in front of the goalie and I scored a little over half of our goals. Sometimes I went into the center to try to get the ball, and then the people on the side close to the goalie scored instead.

Sometimes you do not write poetry. In fact, there is a specific type of poetry that focuses on you getting random words that inspire you and putting them together to make poetry. This form is called found poetry. Every extra-terrestrial had to choose a picture, and go through magazines finding words that might be linked to your picture and then cut those words or phrases out. We only were able to do this in the amount of time we had at the end of the week, but we are going to start making a poem with these words/phrases next week. My picture has a man crawling in the desert. It gives me inspiration because for some reason, I find it easier to write about sad things. I decided to make this poem more emotional instead of physical. I am trying to look for sadder, more depressed words. This way, I hope I can show that suffering does not only happen on the outside, but that bad things that affect people emotionally are also able to make people do bad things. Sometimes, it is the cause for suicide. I cannot wait to see what 5E comes up with! We all are very creative kids, and if we do this correctly, we could really show what we are capable of.

Until next time, and make sure to come back and see what 5E is up to next week!

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Friday Update – November 19th (by Nicolas C.)

by Karen Carmen on November 19, 2010

  • Our first class rep meeting
  • Sherryl Clark talks about narrative writing
  • Solid waste posters on different methods of disposal
  • 3 Way Learning Review preparation
  • Division activities for Mathematics
  • Box of Hope
  • Capture the Flag in P.E.

On Thursday afternoon, Sherryl Clark, a well known author who published over 20 books, came to our school to teach us about narrative writing. She talked about how to make a real life event turn into a story, and that you need to make up things to make the story sometimes more suspenseful. She also talked about how the beginning should hook you to the story, the middle should include the climax, and finally, the solution to the problem. She asked us to write the first paragraph of a story. A lot of our classmates had a creative and suspenseful beginning and I can’t wait to see what else our class can do!

This is the last week for the “Box of Hope” entries! The Box of Hope is a organization that gives little kids presents because they can’t afford it. It was really sad when I first heard that some little kids don’t get presents on special occasions, and that’s why CDNIS is trying our best to bring a lot of gifts. We are working really hard on it, 5E has already donated over 35 boxes!

On Tuesday afternoon, we had PE. and lucky for us, the upper school went away on Experience Week, so we could use the big grass field. On the field, we played Capture the Flag which everyone enjoys playing. For those who don’t know what Capture the Flag is, there are two opposing teams with one flag in their base. The first one to get the enemy flag and bring it back to their base scores a point or wins. We had a lot of fun out there and we sweat a lot, which is a good sign. But the funny thing was that we were afraid to tag each other because it might cause static electricity! The game was really fair and the score was a tie, 7-7. It was really fun, and I hope we can play that game again!

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Friday Update – November 12th (by Sincere)

by Karen Carmen on November 16, 2010

This Week:

  • Remembrance Day Service in the LLAC
  • Mr. Dave & Audrey’s Birthdays
  • Cybersafety Sessions with Robyn Treyvaud
  • Our 1st Swimming Class
  • LEAP Van
  • Spelling Programme Begins
  • Terra Master Green Roof Entry in Love Ideas Contest
  • New Unit in P.E. – Hockey
  • “If” Poems for Poetry Contest (on Mother Ship)

This week, my most memorable activity was Remembrance Day Service because we had to remember the soldiers who sacrificed their lives by  fighting for our freedom. I felt really sad and upset when I was watching a YouTube video about people putting poppies beside their graves. Even girls were brought into war to be a nurses/doctors. Many who went to war never returned or came home wounded. We used to grow poppies on their graves, and from then on, we wore  poppies on Remembrance Day. World War II ended on November 11, 1918 at eleven o’clock.

Another favorite activity, was going to the LEAP Van (Life Educational Activity Program).  I wanted to write about LEAP Van because we can only go once a year. This time we learnt about smoking and how people might convince you to smoke. Cigarettes are made out of carbon monoxide and tar. A cigarette includes the same chemicals that are found in mothballs,  floor cleaners and more.  Also, we played a game where the teacher asks you a yes or no question and if you agree, you go to the agree side, and if you don’t agree, you go to the disagree side. In the end, I got ½ of the questions right. We watched a movie about a boy named Chris who wanted to try smoking, but wanted his friends to try it too. We also played a role play game where you and a partner pretend to be Chris and his friend, James. The person who plays Chris has introduce the cigarette, and the person who plays James has to fight back.

Finally, CDNIS has decided that we will put a garden on top of the 10th floor library!  Li Ka Shing, a rich man in Hong Kong, wants to make our city a better place and will donate up to HK$300,000 dollars to a green idea. If we vote enough, we could get the money and make a garden to help us if we are inquiring about nature or the earth, we can go up there and learn – an outdoor classroom! We’re in second place! I helped my mom and dad vote for the Terra Mater Green Roof.

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Friday Update – Week 2 (by Isabelle)

September 14, 2010

The second week of school was fabulous! We had all sorts of things on! Here’s the list : -       The opening of the Alan Dick Forum -       Sit-up and standing long jump assessment -       Kids 4 Kids introduction -       Reading buddies with Ms. Meyer’s grade 2 class -       Finished our bio poems -       Place value [...]

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Friday Update – Week 1

August 27, 2010

Our First Week of School… What stood out: -Meeting our new principal, Mr. Hughes -MacBooks with Ms. Fung -5E Essential Agreement -Lockers and working out combination locks -Discussion about deodorant vs. anti-perspirant and the dreaded element, aluminum -French lessons (no English in class!) with Madame Lum -BEEP Test in P.E. with Mr. Steiner -Evan’s presentation [...]

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Welcome to 5E!

June 17, 2010

An exciting new year in Grade 5!

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