5B Safer Internet Day 2017

This week, we had a chance to discuss safe and responsible use of the internet. We broadened our perspective through a series of fun activities both in class and in the multimedia room. These activities included an ‘Emoji Match Up’, ‘The Bigger Picture’, ‘Bystander Vs Upstander’  and ‘Real or Fake’. Ask us about this at home and we will be happy to tell you all about it. We engaged in various discussions and shared our own personal experiences. It’s really beneficial to discuss these issues at home as well and to come up with a family agreement for addressing responsible use of technology and the internet.

We’ve Got Attitude!!

When we talk about attitude, we mean a way of thinking about something and this thinking is reflected in the way we behave. We can also think of attitudes as ‘habits of mind.’ Here at SEK, our school community encourages and promotes a variety of attitudes that support learning and personal development. This week, we reflected on the attitudes we have been displaying and the ones that we may need to develop further as the term progresses. Attitudes are one of the essential elements of the PYP exhibition. We are preparing ourselves in every way we can for the rewarding process of inquiry that lies ahead. Check out our photos and feel free to leave a comment!

Over and out from Grade 5B 🙂

Qatar Philharmonic Orchestra

On Thursday, all students in grade 5 went on a field trip to the Qatar Philharmonic Orchestra. Where they enjoyed many different pieces of music which was played right in front of them. The conductor made this an interactive experience and got all of the children very involved. He introduced some of the instrumentalists and told them what country they were from. He asked children from the audience to conduct the orchestra. He was really enthusiastic about his job and the children saw that. The bonus was, he was from Scotland and so is Ms. Catherine!!

All of the students seemed to enjoy it and benefitted from hearing all the different instruments, they were also taught what some of the instruments were called. A highlight was the instruments that sounded like birds. They couldn’t work out where the noises were coming from.

They also experienced beautiful architecture in the Qatar National Convention Centre. We took some photographs under a giant spider.

The whole morning was filled with sounds and sights the children won’t forget.

Here are some photographs from the day.

We are SMART in Grade 5B! :)

So, a new year is upon us and we have been working industriously here in Grade 5B. We have been discussing motivation, positivity, team work and follow through. In Grade 5, we understand the importance of working towards self improvement, bettering ourselves and making progress as learners. Even though it can be challenging at times, we stick with it and do our best, striving for balance in all that we do. SMART goals are a way of ensuring that we achieve our potential and so we have applied this easy formula to our intentions for term 2.

Specific

Measureable

Achievable/ Action plan

Realistic

Time limit

Little Bits Toy Fair 5B

Our recent summative assessment task gave us the perfect opportunity to collaboratively combine our creative talents with modern technology. You’re probably wondering about Littlebits. The official website describes them as making a ‘platform of easy to use electronic building blocks empowering everyone to create inventions, large and small.”

Our task was as follows:

You are working for a toy manufacturing company. Your company has a big order to introduce innovative toys for primary school children. However, it has a very small budget therefore decides to use recycled toys and materials to create new inventions. Use Little bits creatively to design and make a toy.

Our innovations were truly marvelous! The creativity and ingenuity of our students was displayed through the unique toys they produced. The groups also had to design and create a poster to explain the creative process from beginning to end. Each group had a checklist to guide them and this was a fantastic way of making sure everyone was focused and on task. We designed the checklist together as a class so our success criteria was accessible to everyone involved. This is the beauty of IB education. It promotes thinking and follow through based on real life experiences. The process as well as the final product were equally as important during this assignment as well as the ability to work with peers, respectfully,  effectively and fairly while taking account of different perspectives and points of view.

Overall, this learning experience was extremely meaningful and worthwhile. We had so much fun being inventors and working together.

How long? How wide? How tall? How deep?

Check out the SWAY presentation with details of this inquiry lesson in the maths links section.

We became true mathematical inquirers this week when we created our own measuring tools and discovered why we need to have standard units of measurement. We explored the historical origins of standardized units of measurement and discussed the need for them. Did you know that as long as 5016 years ago, the Egyptians tried to create standardized measuring systems?

We have also looked at the metric and imperial systems so we are on the road to becoming as knowledgeable as we can about measurements.

Hour of Code

Grade 5B had an eventful day today. Who knew coding could be so easy to do? Today’s attitude of choice was creativity and that was certainly put into practice during our session in the multimedia room with Mr. Fran. Today’s coding session taught us to be innovative, creative and to take risks by trying out something new and cool.

Please check out the video and web links saved under Hour of Code and remember you can code at home too. Everything you need to do it is on this blog under Hour of Code. Happy coding!!!

Bouncing Ball Lab with Mr. Muhammad in MYP

Grade 5s had their minds blown this week and last week by MYP’s marvelous and mystifying Mr. Muhammad aka MR. SCIENCE. We had 2 sessions in the lab where we were expected to put theory into practice. We have absorbed so much information about energy over the past four weeks in class that it was time to carry out a challenging practical activity and apply energy theory to real life.

From the captivating and scintillating introduction, to the activity of bouncing balls, the students were hooked. We gained a lot of new knowledge and also consolidated a substantial amount of research applying it to a hand son experiment. It was absolutely awesome! We dropped a ball from different heights and measured how far it bounced back. We used meter sticks to measure the height that balls bounced and recorded our results, taking into account variables as well as the need for accuracy. The scientist typically will change some conditions and then see how other conditions are affected. We collected data and then which gave us clues to help us answer the question we were testing. Once we had gathered all of our scienific data, we plotted our results on graphs and predicted various other scenarios using the graph to estimate scientifically.

Thank you sincerely to Mr. Muhammad! We can’t wait to have you as our teacher in MYP!

Here are just some of the key learning points:

Energy is the ability to do work.

The Law of Conservation of Energy states that energy cannot be created or destroyed, it only changes form.

Independent variable: What the scientist changes – cause

Dependent variable: What responds to the change – effect

Best fit line fro graphing data

Maths with Probots

What fun we had today with the probots! We solidified our knowledge of shapes and angles through technology and hands on learning.