Sunday 20 March 2016

Elementary School Art Exhibition

All girls in Elementary contributed work for an Art Exhibition as part of Student-led Conference Day.


The work was displayed in the brand new Drama room above the new grade 6 classrooms by the North gate.  

K-2
Grade 6 masks


Grade 2 Daruma





Grade 4 coil pots and Grade 3 Sushi plates

The Grand Finale Art Exhibition (in case you missed it) will be in the Gym on April 12 and will encompass Kindergarten through grade 12.

Henry Moore on Display

Grade 5 girls studied the figurative and abstract work of British sculptor Henry Moore, then created their own design incorporating some negative space. They started with a wire armature, then built it up with newspaper and masking tape before covering it with plaster and painting the final piece.

ES Media Center
The results are on display now in the ES and HS Libraries. Enjoy!

More Moore!
Grade 5 Showcase

Great Learning Moments From 5A

In Unit of Inquiry, we have been investigating the effect of messages on specific target audiences.

First, groups carefully chose a commercial that would be appealing for a grade 5A target audience and developed a survey for each of their classmates to complete. 



Afterwards, we analysed the data from the survey. Here are our findings:



Zarah:   "We found that our target audience liked the catchy jingle in the Oreo commercial. Most of our classmates are interested to buy or try Oreos."

Sudiksha:   "We found that not everyone had the same opinion. There were lots of different opinions. At least one person from different groups had a different opinion."

Jessie:  "We found that humor and hype is appealing to the target grade 5 audience. I was surprised that 'call to action' wasn't so high on the rating."

Next day.....

Thank you to everyone who completed last weekend's Google Form survey that described some common advertising techniques. We were able to investigate everyone's reaction to each technique and how different target audiences respond to messages in advertisements.  



Here are our findings:

Gyeongseo:  "Most people liked humor and association. I was surprised only a few people gave humor a 10."


Farah and Yui:  "We found that having a special ingredient is the most appealing, and sense appeal was at a range of 8-9."

Lisa:  "I think what surprised me the most is when I found out that women care most about sense appeal and special ingredients because when I see a commercial, usually what I mostly pay attention to is humor because I don't know, I just like to watch funny commercials. I thought a lot of other women and girls pay a lot of attention to that too."

Groups are now working on their advertising campaign project.

Goal:    Create a successful advertising campaign for a brand new type of shampoo. A key feature of the shampoo is that it uses cactus oil. 

Criteria for Success:   Works will be judged by the criteria listed in a given checklist.

We will report soon!

In other news....

Grade 5A students once again displayed their IB Learner Profile Traits, caring and communicator, by playing the role as 2B's parents, when practicing for the Student-Led Conferences.  


It would seem that 5A and 2B helped each other to prepare for Student-Led Conferences. Here are some comments from 5A students:

Tanaya:  "I think the activity can help us with out Student-Led Conferences because maybe we can try and explain our work more and we might already know some of the questions that our parents might ask us."

Anna "My partner showed me her pre and post math assessment. She showed me the difference and she explained to me what she had learned from the pre to post. My partner did a very good job answering my questions even the challenging ones. This activity helped me with my presentation by making me realize that I had to be prepared to answer specific questions and give a proper detailed answer, just like my partner. This activity was fun and I would like more things like this."


Azumi "I think that I kind of learned how to ask, or which questions I can ask my parents. I learned how to present better and that we need to write more reflections for each paper. "

In more news....

Grade 5A now ranks #12 spot in the world with 67,713 words on Night Zookeeper Writing. 

Great work!!




Friday 18 March 2016

What makes a good book trailer?


During recent library classes the students have been looking at the function of book trailers. By drawing on their new knowledge and understanding of how people create and manipulate messages to target audiences they listed attributes of a good book trailer. Having selected book trailers for their favourite books they shared them in groups. Knowing that each group member had different perspectives they discussed the features again and selected the top choices, which were then shared with everyone. The best book trailers can be found here and  here and here and here.

During the lessons we were able to focus on the key concepts:



Students selecting their book trailers individually before sharing and agreeing on a group favourite.

Students sharing their perspectives...

Friday 11 March 2016

Grade 5 needs you!

Grade 5 students would like your help with our investigation.
We are investigating how different target audiences respond to messages in advertisements.

We are creating an advertising campaign for a new shampoo.

Below is a link to a Google Form survey that describes some common advertising techniques. We would like to know your reaction to each technique. 


We will need your feedback by Monday, 14 March. 



Thank you in advance!


Tuesday 8 March 2016

Watching Commercials with a Critical Eye

Have you ever wondered how advertisers try to target specific audiences?

Well, grade 5 students have spent the last few weeks looking at this topic. Students uncovered a variety of common techniques used in advertisements.

Some of these include:
  • A celebrity 
  • An appeal to emotion 
  • A cute mascot Exciting or memorable music
  • An association A catchy slogan Facts and statistics 
  • Humor 
Watch below as Karin, Irene, and Imani dissect a commercial and teach viewers how to view a commercial with a critical idea.



As a next step, students are working in groups to create an advertising campaign for a fictitious shampoo.

Students will:
  • Create a message for their advertising campaign 
  • Decide on a target audience 
  • Conduct market research to refine their message and campaign 
  • Create a product name and logo 
  • Create a billboard
  • Create a TV commercial with a jingle 

Would you like to be a part of this exciting process? Well, you're in luck. We are looking for volunteers to help with market research!

Monday 7 March 2016

Striking and fielding skills in action for Hoop Ball in 5A PE!

Central idea: Developing the skills and techniques of striking, fielding, catching, and throwing a ball.  Using these skills in addition to learning strategies to contribute to active game play.