Hello Parents,
Today we worked on our debate arguments for our inquiry into sustainable energy. The students are in groups of 3 or 4 and are working on arguments for the following resolutions:
Be it resolved that __________ energy is the future. In the blank space, students are inserting one of the following energies: wind, solar, geothermal, or hydro.
We have been researching these energies and Mr. Horner has taught the students the elements of debate. We will continue to work on our arguments tomorrow and into next week. We plan to have our debates on Friday, December 14th, Parents are welcome to attend. There will be 4 debates that will run throughout the day. We have not set up a schedule for our debate tournament, but when we do, that information will be sent home.
We also worked on squishy circuits today. The students were excited and highly engaged. Here is a link to the squishy circuit website. You can go there to see what we were doing - today we learned about series circuits. As well, many students asked where I got the battery packs and light bulbs (LEDs). I bought them at the squishy circuit website - they even sell kits that have 25 LEDs, a battery pack, a motor, and two buzzers. The kits are $25, which might make a fun Christmas gift for enthusiastic children. (Just a thought - I don't make royalties off of their sales. :) Click here to go to their website.
Today we discussed possible fundraisers for Christmas. Since the student suggestions were all over the map, and they couldn't agree on what they were interested in, AND because we are just wrapping up our Art Auction, which raised $285 - $200 of which will be donated to the Saskatoon Food Bank, I have made an executive decision to just keep it simple. If you are able to, please send nonperishable food items to be included in the Christmas food hampers.
As well, we are responsible for bringing coleslaw for the school wide potluck lunch before Christmas. Some students were asked to bring a bag of coleslaw mix, and other students were asked to bring a bottle of dressing. Closer to the date I'll have students write a reminder in their day planners.
The grade six students have a math test coming up next week. It may be Tuesday, but we have a little more work to do before we can set an exact date. We will do the practice test tomorrow.
On Tuesday, Mr. Scott came to helped us with our appliance activity. Our class, along with the 5/6 class opened up appliances and electronics. Thank you to Mr. Scott for being willing to come and give us such great information. The students loved the experience. A few switches for the appliances found their way into our squishy circuit exploration today - it was really cool!
Have a great night everyone!