And Then It Happened!

Hi Boys and Girls,
This Thursday, April 29th, we will have the pleasure of Michael Wade, the best-selling author of And Then It Happened series, come visit our school. Please take the time to check out his books in our school's library or the local library. Get Reading!

Michael Wade will be speaking to our class second period. Those of you who have read his books will enjoy his humorous and educational style of presentation. He will also personally sign any book you purchase during his visit.

Sample stories are available online at www.boysbookshelf.com. If you would like to learn more about Michael Wade and his stories, go to kidzreadz.

Earth Day

Hi Students and Parents,
On Thursday, April 22, it will be Earth Day! What will you be doing to make the world a better place to live in? Will you spend the time outside enjoying nature's beauty or will you be picking up trash around your neighbourhood?

How can you help keep our planet beautiful or make a difference by not polluting? We can practice the 3R's - Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle!

Take a moment.... think about our world; its future. Think about playing a part in the Green Community initiative.

Earth Day 2010
Earth Kids

The importance of Earth Day ties in with our social studies unit, Canada and World Connections. So, in honour of Earth Day, we will focus this week on - where does Canada rank in implementing environmental reform compared to other nations. We will look at how we, as a Canadian society, are making important changes to reduce air, water and land pollution. Then, we can consider some initiatives we can do in our class and in our school to reduce, reuse and recycle during this week and for the year.

Place Value of Digits from 0.001 to 1 000 000

Hi Students and Parents,
We will be focusing this week on the math concept of place value for numbers between 0.001 (a thousandth) to 1 000 000 (a million). This is part of the math strand - Number Sense and Numeration. We will be using place value charts and base-ten blocks to help us understand this concept.

In tomorrow's class, we will look at specific digit amounts in large numbers such as 27 156.
For example: 27 156, the value of the digit 7 is 7000.
I will also expect you to be able to represent 27 156 in both expanded form and in proper written form.

• 20 000 + 7000 + 100 + 50 + 6 = 27 156

• twenty seven thousand one hundred fifty six

Boys and girls, you have done place value in grade 5 - looking at value amounts from 0.01 to
100 000. We will spend a few days working with large numbers greater than 1000 and slightly less than 1000 000 000. Once we are familiar with the place value concept of large numbers, we will open up a bank account with Ms. K's Bank and write and pay bills showing how to apply our learning to real life situations.

We will have fun! See you tomorrow.
For those that would like to explore place value a little more, you can check out the video clip I downloaded or the two game sites below.

mathgames/decimal place values
number nut

Fun with Place Value

Hi Boys and Girls,
We will be multiplying tenths, hundredths, and thousandths by 1000 and 10 000 today in class. We will be using the base-ten manipulatives and place value charts to help us learn this concept.

We will spend half our math period solving math problems. Then we will have a math challenge. The class will be split in two groups and we will do a math bee competition. The challenge will be to correctly answer the most questions on the multiplication of decimal numbers by factors of 10 (eg., using 10, 100, 1000 or 10 000). Let the fun begin!

Here are some great sites for those students who want to start the fun early.

Take the Place Value Challenge
Fun with Place Value

Bernoulli's Principle Explains the Concept of Lift

Hi Students,
How many of you understood the major factors affecting flight? If not, we will be discussing lift, drag, mass, and thrust some more tomorrow. We will also be looking at how Bernoulli's principle
explains flight.


Daniel Bernoulli was a Swiss mathematician born in the 1700's. His basic principle for fluid motion helps explain why planes fly. In simple terms the air flowing over the top of an aircraft's wing moves faster than the air under the wing. The faster air above the wing creates low pressure. The slower moving air under the wing is high pressure. The high pressure lifts the wing of the plane up.

We will be testing this principle tomorrow in class, this time using a ping pong ball, rubber tube and air. Read the assigned experiment tonight so you will be able to carry out the experiment with your partner.
This experiment considers the factors that affect flight: drag, weight, speed, and lift.
Check these sites for more information.

NASA Sci Files: What is Lift?
unplugyourkids
science of flight

Why Fly Planes?

Tomorrow in class we will be making paper airplanes. We will cut-out four types of aircraft and assess their flying capabilities. Remember to read up on Bernoulli's principle of flight. Particularly focus on air flow across a plane's wing. Be prepared for questions on thrust, lift, drag, and gravity since these forces affect flight.

We will test our aircraft for various flight maneuvers: flying the greatest distance, aerial loops, and smooth landings.

As a class we will discuss the various designs of our paper airplanes and postulate why they have certain design elements. We will compare and contrast our paper aircraft designs to real commercial and military craft. We will consider their purpose for sustained flight, maneuverability, heavy cargo, or reconnaissance missions.

So see you tomorrow and hopefully, we will get our crafts airborne.

For those of you who want to investigate the various types of aircraft and aircraft design before class, check out paper air planes and thinkquest/airplanes.

Understanding Flight

Dear Students and Parents,
We will begin our flight unit in science soon. This unit is part of the grade 6 Ontario science curriculum requirement for Understanding Structures and Mechanisms. Students, you will be expected to understand the principles of flight and the properties of air that both benefit or hinder flight. You will also explore and investigate how the science of flight has changed our society's ability to travel and how this has impacted our environment.

My expectations for this unit:

• understand the properties of air that influence flight
  
• investigate the properties of living and man-made mechanisms that aid in flight
• identify the four forces that affect flight - weight, thrust, lift, and drag; and how they can alter flight
• design, create and flight test a model aircraft
  
• able to use appropriate scientific vocabulary to describe flight

Students can you guess what is special about the image at the top right? Do you know where this image was taken? Send me a response.

Check out these sites for footage on early flying machines.
Problems with Flight Design
The First Successful Flight