Term 2 Week 10

This week we ended our unit if inquiry in conflict. The summative assessment involved writing an information report on a major conflict in the world. Here is a link to slides about it See link. You will surely be impressed when you read the topics that have been discussed; everything from unemployment to appreciation of the Thai baht. Click into the slides to find the work.

We now move onto a new unit of inquiry:

Central Idea:  Present-day societies are built upon the systems and technologies of past civilizations. (Thai Link)

Line(s) of Inquiry :

• The connection between past and present  
• Societal errors of the past
• Processes involved in collecting, analysing and validating evidence

Students have been asked which ancient civilization interests them. This is so that I can plan learning activities that engage them and link with their particular interests.

English will involve reading for information. We have wonderful books about the civilizations of the past. This will feed into a written report.

Science will involve looking at the design of simple machines that were used in the past. Students will investigate which simple machines were developed by past civilizations (for example, lever, ramp, pulley, screw, wheel).

Maths

Today we came to the end of another topic, which was 'Directed Number - Operations and equations with directed number'. Although learning took place in the classroom, all students worked from their laptops or tablets to gain a better understanding of online learning through Google Classroom. Surprisingly, all the students said they preferred this way as it meant they could have access to the material at home as well. Based on that and once their recent assessment has been marked, the next topic of 'Fractional Thinking - Addition and subtraction of fractions' will also be likely to be done through laptops and tablets.

We have focused on a lot of content this week as we entered the final week of 'Directed Number'. The content we covered was:

Using a calculator to solve problems with directed number
Evaluate algebraic expressions with directed number
Calculate two-step equations with directed number
Use the order of operations with directed number

The students took their assessment Friday morning and they will receive their scores on Monday.

Next week, we will begin our new topic 'Fractional Thinking'. The content we will cover is:
To understand representations of fractions
To convert mixed numbers and fractions
To add and subtract unit fractions with the same denominator
To add and subtract fractions with the same denominator
To add and subtract integers from fractions expressing the answer as a single fraction

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me. :)