Week 12: November 20–24, 2017


Posted by Admin on November 27, 2017 at 3:23 PM

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In a flurry of activity, the Grade 1-2s finished and presented their Social Justice Data Fair project this week. Focusing on food waste and access to food, the Grade 1-2s began their inquiry by learning about how waste is produced and where it goes after we get rid of it. They then crafted survey questions for the Linden community to assess how well people understand the rules for sorting and disposing of waste, as well as to understand some of their waste-related habits. After that, they began measuring the garbage, recycling, and compost bins in the Linden lunchroom to see if an educational announcement might change the amount of waste being produced at school. Unfortunately, it didn't. Through a connection with a high school in Pangnirtung, Nunavut, we were able to connect this learning about waste and food to an investigation into price disparities between Toronto food prices and the average prices of food in northern Canada. Students were deeply moved by the inequity they found and made plans for some action projects around this in the new year (stay tuned!). All this learning was poured into bar graphs, scatter plots, oral reflections and written responses which the students presented to visitors on Thursday. They were very proud and used their handcrafted presentation wands to confidently explain their findings. In CERES class, the Grade 1-2s continued to work on constructing marble runs. The Grade 1-2s also took on a leadership role in preparing and distributing honey jars with watercolour cards they designed to supporters of our rooftop bee program. Then we wrapped up the week with a relaxing walk in the ravine where the students began to observe seasonal changes on a familiar route.

 

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M, K, and M put the finishing touches on their bar graphs leading up to Social Justice Data Fair.

 

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S catches up with Soteira after a day away to get her bar graph finished in time for the fair.

 

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G goes over the important parts of her bar graph in Sharpie marker "so they really pop!"

 

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Z uses information from the traditional foods nutrition guides that our electronic pen pals in Pangnirtung sent us to write her entry for Writer's Workshop.

 

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Ellen reads Be Who You Are during snack time to help the Grade 1-2s and Early Learners understand Trans Day of Remembrance.

 

219682D4-B1BE-4B9F-BCFC-B754FA62F6E5.jpegM and M work together to correctly place the yellow and blue fresh food icons on the graph to illustrate the disparity in food prices between Pangnirtung, Nunavut and Toronto, Ontario.

 

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K and M love skipping together at recess. Today, they are skipping so fast that M has to jump as well!

 

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K was repurposing materials to make a new structure in CERES class.

 

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G and Z are excited to discover a lady bug on the rock outside the school while waiting for their families to pick them up.

 

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Z and M work together to construct a marble run in CERES class. 

 

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S uses a mix of materials to create her marble run in CERES class.

 

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M and K work together to construct and test a marble run in CERES class. K models how safety is always important for engineers!

 

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Z explains to a high school listener why her survey results for the question: "Where do you sort egg shells?" were not surprising.

 

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K invites her moms to participate in our collective brainstorm on ways to reduce waste. Her own contribution was to "pick up trash and put it in the right place".

 

8AFC952C-90E4-4136-B1BB-30C54F36E7ED.jpeg M shows H how you can regrow vegetables from food scraps as we did in our classroom.

 

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M uses her presentation wand to show Jazmin the differences between food prices in Nunavut and Ontario. Four litres of milk in Pangnirtung costs more than $15!

 

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G and M help our listeners understand the important take-aways from our class project. 

 

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Brie helps M read questions from the popsicle stick poll at Social Justice Data Fair.

 

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K uses the photos displayed with our project to help Brie understand some of the steps of their food justice inquiry.

 

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S was a very informative speaker during the Social Justice Data Fair. She made great connections between food access issues in Toronto and Pangnirtung and was excited to share her ideas for how to reduce waste.

 

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The Grade 1-2s and Early Learners were very proud of their inquiry project and presentation skills at the end of the Social Justice Data Fair.

 

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M and M use Sharpie markers to add accent lines to their watercolour bee greeting cards. The cards accompanied jars of our rooftop honey during a fundraiser honey sale to help pay for the program next year. The cards were very popular with our supporters!

 

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 S and Z put the finishing touches on their watercolour bee cards for the rooftop honey fundraiser.

 

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M and S happily display their Kids K'nex creations during morning recess.

 

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The Grade 1-2s work together to label all the honey bags. They were very excited to be in charge of delivery!

 

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These Grade 1-2s were excited to be delivering honey throughout the school! We even received an email from a Grade 6 parent that said: "We love the cards and the handmade packaging by the Grade 1-2s. "A" especially loved that the Grade 1-2s delivered the honey. The whole thing is just perfect."

 

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K delivers a honey package to Martha's desk in the teacher workroom.

 

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We were very grateful for a warm afternoon during our Friday ravine walk.

 

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G and K enjoy observing the flow of water down the hill in the ravine.

 

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M remarks on how cold the water is that runs down the hill. She wonders what might be making the water so cold without snow or ice on the ground.

 

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Z is excited to find a live worm in the ravine and shares it with M and K.

 

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S says: "Look! It's like I'm standing at the edge of a cliff!"

 

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G and K seem to remember some of their moves from our suspension yoga class during Week Without Walls!