Conductors & Insulators

Today Grade 6s got to find out what prime and composite numbers are. We used a table to list numbers 2 to 20. Students then used an organised and systematic strategy to find all the factors of all 19 numbers. For example, to find the factors of 10: 1x10, 2x5,

The factors of 10 are: 1, 2, 5, 10. Students learned that a prime number has 2 factors - 1 and itself. A composite number has more than 2 factors. The number 1 is neither prime nor composite. Students are asked to complete only the questions listed below on p. 46 & 47 of the MMS textbook. I did not get to check yesterday's homework today. Students will not be able to do corrections.

Next up was our inquiry unit How Shocking! For today's lesson, we discussed the steps of the scientific method. Ask your child if they remember the steps. SJA's Science Fair is taking place in November this year. Because it is so much earlier in the year, it will not interfere with Exhibition. For this reason, Grade 6s will participate along with the rest of the school. A change from last year is that the project will be mostly done in class. This will be excellent preparation for Exhibition. Students will be restricted to a topic about electricity. The project will count as their summative task for the How Shocking! unit. More information about the science fair will be coming home soon.

We used the steps of the scientific method to conduct two experiments today. In the first, students determined if a lemon, orange, banana, or slice of bread could work as a battery to light up an LED.  In the second experiment students investigated a variety of materials to determine if they were insulators or conductors. Ask your child to describe how they did this.

 

 A question that has us wondering is:

• Why is salt water a conductor while water is not?

Students worked to complete the language work on sentences and then their paragraph on what life would be like without electricity.

Grade 6s attended French and Gym class today.

Homework & Reminders:

• Complete the following practice questions on p. 46 & 47 of MMS textbook: 1 a), c), e), g), 2. all, 4. a), b), c), 5, 8, 9, 10
• Bring in Terry Fox donations as they are raised
• Bring in your devices tomorrow and Friday
• Be prepared to have access to PowerPoint or Prezi. If you choose to use Prezi, have your parents help you create an account. Public accounts are free. Practice logging in and out of your account before tomorrow. Be sure to bring in or memorise your email address and password.