Nov. 4

As we get ready for Remembrance Day, we have been focusing on the concept of Peace. We are using descriptive language to describe what Peace is to each of us. To help us figure out this abstract idea, we are using our senses to give us examples of what peace looks like, sounds like, smells like, feels like and tastes like. Using adjectives and simple similes and metaphors allows us to give specific ideas about what peace is to each of us. We will eventually use these ideas to help us create our own Peace book in the style of the book What Does Peace Feel Like by Vladimir Radunsky. As we finish these books, we will post them to the blog and Google Classroom for you to see.

This week, we have been trialing using our Makerspace supplies in a new way. We have created a Makercart that has our materials separated for individual use for students. This allows students to still have the hands on experience of making, but in a way safe for Covid. To inspire us, we are reading the book "The Most Magnificent Thing". This story tells about a girl and her "assistant" who are trying to create the most magnificent thing. She struggles along the way to get it just right but in the end shows a growth mindset, which helps her create her magnificent thing. As a class, this was good review of using our own growth mindset and how a fixed mindset can prevent us from creating our best work.

We also used this book to help us introduce the Design Thinking Process. We discussed how the girl came up with an idea and created a prototype, but because it wasn't right the first time, she had to go back and review and adjust her idea several times. Students identified a problem that they have and came up with an idea to help them solve that problem and drew a plan for how they would build it Today, they used their idea and plan to help them create a prototype of their idea. Students had to be very creative as the material they received might influence how they could actually build their prototype.