Interdisciplinary Water Inquiry: Water Protectors, Solubility, Scientific Method, etc.

Hello, 5B families!

We kicked off our day with a wonderful story read aloud experience for Literacy Week via Zoom. (Don’t forget that this Thursday is the day to dress like your favourite literary character.)

Video of our solubility experiments today!
Song credit: “Living Water” by Shane & Shane

This morning we also welcomed our new student, and dove into our new Math unit on division.

**HOMEWORK NOTE:** Even though we’ve moved on to a new unit, it’s important for students to keep practicing their **multi-digit multiplication skills** for homework to reinforce learning. The pace of learning picks up in upper intermediate and review at home will be essential for many students in order to retain their skills.

I have posted clipboards in the classroom with extra practice sheets that contain answer keys on the back so students can be self-sufficient in practicing at home—as long as they take home the sheets as needed. However, don’t let forgetting a practice sheet prevent you from learning—these sheets are not necessary because **you can create endless multiplication questions on your own and use a calculator to check your work**.

In Social Studies, we read the book “We Are Water Protectors” by Carole Lindstrom, who is Anishinaabe/Metis and an enrolled member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Ojibwe. Her award-winning book weaves in a powerful metaphor about a “snake” that poisons the water and land. We discussed a notion of ethical and sustainable resource management and what happens when humans—whether out of greed, carelessness, ignorance or for another reason—make decisions that harm the environment, particularly water sources. In our analysis, some students also made a biblical connection to the serpent’s temptation of Eve in Genesis. In our water inquiry we will continue to explore the connection between people and land through time and with an Indigenous lens.

In Art today, we contributed to a school-wide collaborative water-themed art project by colouring and recording our connections to water on this beautiful feather illustration by BC Indigenous artist, Michelle Stoney. (Artist permission was granted for this project.)

Looking ahead, we will be going deeper to learn advanced watercolour painting techniques in our “Art of the Salish Sea” unit. Students who are curious are welcome to get a sneak peek at the seven videos in the “Salish Sea Watercolour Mini Course” I created for this upcoming unit here: https://inquiryninja.com/salish-sea-watercolour-mini-course/

In Science we had an exciting day of applying the scientific method when doing solubility experiments. The photos of our handouts, class work, and experiments help tell the story of our learning. We will continue to explore water-related experiments in Science class—next time we look at the salinity of the ocean and how much salt can be dissolved in a given volume of water.