Please enjoy this look into our week in grade 5! We were busy as we wrapped up term 1. We look forward to seeing families at student led conferences next week. Please watch for an email from the office to sign up for these conferences. These conferences are a time for students to share and celebrate their learning. If you feel you need to have a private conversation regarding progress and concerns, please reach out through email to book a time to meet with the teachers outside of the conferences.
Math/Science: Mr Sonico is back in the classroom and has started reviewing mental math strategies with students using number properties, like making tens and decomposing numbers. He has asked that students show their parents these strategies to show how to mentally calculate numbers (samples ranged in difficulty from simple to more challenging questions). We then played a game called Pig where students used the mental math addition strategies along with determining the likelihood of rolling a 1 or double ones using words like likely, unlikely, etc. Looking ahead: we will start our studies of multiplication next week. Mr. Sonico has given each child a copy of the multiplication table and asks that you work with your child at home in mastering this. At school, we will be looking at ways to represent multiplication and ways to calculate it and use it in problem-solving contexts. In science, we concluded our studies of wetlands by discussing students’ solutions to the beaver and cottonwood tree environmental dilemma. Students then began generating “I wonder…” questions related to weather as it is our next topic of study. Although any questions were welcomed, Mr. S encouraged higher level questions that start with the words “why” and “how.” Looking ahead, Mr. Sonico will start speaking in the first-person perspective. Humanities: The students are deep in an exploration of the Atlantic Region right now. They are learning about history and how the geography and resources have shaped the way of life in this region of Canada. Students are also well into their novels, many have started section 5. Students should be done the section 4 reading and activities today. Next week we will start the final activity for the novel study, as students will be starting to finish up the reading. Last week, we had a field trip to the Glenbow museum. There we engaged in activities around several different types of artwork, their significance, and learned skills on how to take time to thoroughly analyze art. We also looked at different artifacts in the galleries and this supports our collections inquiry. Google Calendar Subscription - apart from using Google Slides with your child’s agenda, Mr. Sonico has created a public calendar for you to subscribe to so you can add it to your mobile devices. He’s hoping that one of these links will work with your platform:
0 Comments
Math: This week in Math we are wrapping up our estimation unit and starting to move into multiplication strategies. We will be continuing to wrap up estimation strategies next week, but will also be looking at multiplication. We have learned about how to use arrays and area models to support us in building our conceptual understanding of multiplication. We practiced how to round numbers and in turn revisited place value. We also learned how to play a fun multiplication pyramid game, which is an easy game to play at home to practice our times tables.
Science: We continued to explore how humans impact wetland ecosystem and have chosen a specific action which we have been doing research on. Some students have chosen air pollution, construction, habitat destruction, and invasive species. Next week will be our last week in our wetland unit. We will be participating in an action research project with Mindfuel Alberta. This organization is testing their new augmented reality app. This app will support students in furthering their learning of human impact on Wetlands. Humanities: Our student teacher, Mrs. Sterling, spent the day with us on Monday. She will be joining us full time after Christmas break. We started the Amazing Race Canada in Social Studies. We will learn about Canadain regions and history we explore the county through roadblocks, detours and pitstops. Students are sketchnoting as they watch an introductory documentary and will continue to use this technique for notetaking throughout the year. Next week we will begin our in depth look into the Atlantic Region. We wrapped up the week with our first book talk discussions. Students should be done with section 2 of the novel, as we are moving onto week 3. The end of week 3, marks the half way point of the novel and most students are finding their book selection enjoyable. We will be working with these books until the end of November. Important Dates
Nov.6- Glenbow Field Trip Nov. 8 - No School Nov.11- No School Nov. 18- Report Cards Nov. 21&22- Student Led Conferences Dear Parents, We hope you had a restful break. It was great getting back into the classroom this week. Halloween is coming up next week, please see the message below, from admin. The students have requested an in class celebration, we will take some time Thursday afternoon to celebrate and socialize with games and a movie. You are welcome to send in some snacks. Feel free to access the google doc to sign up. We have a field trip coming up, the form is on powerschool, and volunteers can sign up on Better Impact. Humanities: This week in humanities, the students choose their next novel study book. Students have divided their book into six sections, and have a weekly checklist with assignment targets they need to meet. Most students completed the week one tasks and are on track. A 5 day week coming up should help any that are behind, catch up. Our book club discussions will center around the characters in the stories and the traits they possess. We will inquire into whether or not the character traits we see in the book are beneficial in the real world. Students also worked on their map skills and we are using latitude and longitude to determine absolute location. Next week, we will continue working on book clubs and will examine people and events in Canadian history that impact identity. Science: We were fortunate to have some Mount Royal University students teach us a science lesson this week. We also learned about food webs and how humans impact wetlands. Math: We continued working on estimation and mental math strategies in math. Halloween: For those who participate in Halloween festivities, students may wear costumes during the afternoon of Oct. 31st. Please be mindful of the following: • No masks, hoods or face paint that will obscure a student’s identity • No weapons or replicas are permitted • Arrangements must be made to accommodate students who do not participate due to cultural or religious doctrine. Please see one of us if any issues arise. Thank you, Admin Team Enjoy the weekend It was wonderful connecting with so many families over the parent teacher conferences. In humanities, we worked on mapping skills this week. This work will continue throughout the year. We also talked about homophones. This is a concept we will continually revisit as we look at spelling patterns. Students finished up their work in life cycles in science. In math, the concept of estimation was introduced. Estimation, mental math and rounding will be continues after the break.
Have a wonderful Thanksgiving Spirit Week
Oct. 7- Pajama day Oct. 8- Grade colour day (grade 5 wears purple) Oct. 9- Beach day Oct. 10- Fancy dress day Important Dates Oct. 10&11- Parent Teacher Interviews Oct. 11- 20- Fall Break Oct. 25- No School Humanities: Students spent most of the time this week examining artefacts from WWI. We had a collection on loan from the Canada War Museum. This was the first collection we will examine, as we inquire into, “What can collections tell us?” So far students have determined that collections can inform us about events in history. Students also finished off some assignments and completed their “Wishtree” novel study work. Next week we will practice some mapping skills and build on our understanding of Canadian geography. Math/Science: This week in Science we continued our talk about adaptations and started to explore the life cycle of different wetland organisms and vegetation. We will continue looking at the life cycle more in depth next week before the Fall break. In Math, we have been practicing key skills such as place value, rounding numbers, estimation strategies, and adding large numbers. On Tuesday we completed a check in on place value, and many students demonstrated a strong understanding of these concepts. Well done! Sept. 30 -Orange Shirt Day
Oct. 3- Terry Fox Run AM Oct. 10&11- Parent Teacher Interviews Oct. 11- 20- Fall Break Humanities- We started the week with a trip to Fort Calgary. Students engaged in a sketching and archeology activity, as we looked into the question, “What can collections tell us?” A special thanks goes out to the parents and grandparents that joined us to help out. When we returned to the school students completed a self reflection. We finished reading, ”Wishtree.” Students should have completed the “What’s in a Name?” activity and you can view it on Seesaw. Students started working on a summative project for the book. We are considering the plot, theme and mood of the book as we communicate our understanding through a Colour, Symbol, Image activity. We finished off the week with a discussion about why we would wear an orange shirt on Monday. Next week we will look at a collection of artifacts and primary sources for our collection inquiry and dig deeper into the idea that collections can tell us many things. Math/Science- In Science, this week we have worked to finish up our assignment, answering the question : How do the different adaptations of your chosen organism help it to survive and thrive in a wetland ecosystem? We walked to Wetland #14 for a morning to give us a closer look at some of the different organisms that live in ponds and provided an alternative place for us to reflect on some of the concepts we have been learning in class. We would like to thank our parent volunteers who joined us on our walk, making it possible on such short notice. In Math, we have begun to discuss and reflect on different estimation strategies, and where these strategies may prove to be useful in our day to day lives. Headphones- We would love each student bring a set of inexpensive headphones to school. We have set aside a place to store them in each homeroom, so they can be kept at school for the year. Please label them with a name and homeroom. The students often access videos for their learning and need to hear the audio. They also create videos and benefit from being able to listen to the soundtracks and voiceovers as they create. In addition, many students are beginning to enjoy listening to audiobooks during reading time, and headphones make this a possibility. Orange Shirt Day Orange Shirt Day is on September 30. This is a day set aside to honour and remember Residential School survivours and their families. To help commemorate this day, we are encouraging students to wear an orange shirt. All students will receive a sticker to wear on their shirts or hats for the day as well. Connect is also welcoming a guest speaker to speak to all students (in smaller groups to ensure age-appropriate content) on the morning of September 30. For more information about this initiative, you can visit http://www.orangeshirtday.org. Important Dates
Sept. 23 - Fort Calgary Field Trip Sept.27 No- School - PD Day Sept. 30 -Orange Shirt Day Oct. 3- Terry Fox Run PM Oct. 10&11- Parent Teacher Interviews Thank you to the parents who helped out at camp! The students send along their thanks as well. Please enjoy these video thank yous! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O13aNYEfcYc&feature=youtu.be https://youtu.be/rAsm9ZPQczQ Headphones- We would love each student bring a set of inexpensive headphones to school. We have set aside a place to store them in each homeroom, so they can be kept at school for the year. Please label them with a name and homeroom. The students often access videos for their learning and need to hear the audio. They also create videos and benefit from being able to listen to the soundtracks and voiceovers as they create. In addition, many students are beginning to enjoy listening to audiobooks during reading time, and headphones make this a possibility. Orange Shirt Day- Orange Shirt Day is on September 30. This is a day set aside to honour and remember Residential School survivours and their families. To help commemorate this day, we are encouraging students to wear an orange shirt. All students will receive a sticker to wear on their shirts or hats for the day as well. Connect is also welcoming a guest speaker to speak to all students (in smaller groups to ensure age-appropriate content) on the morning of September 30. For more information about this initiative, you can visit http://www.orangeshirtday.org. Humanities- The students completed a video reflection of their time at camp. This can be viewed on Seesaw. We made some progress with our novel study and are set to finish up early next week. Students will complete a summative assignment towards the end of next week, and their booksnaps will be available for viewing on Seesaw. As a connection to the novel study, students are exploring how names contribute to identity. They have been tasked to find out more about their names, and will likely ask parents why their name was chosen for them. Thank you for helping them with this task. Both classes have completed their first opinion journal activity. Additional information about opinion journals is available on Seesaw. Next week we will enjoy a field trip to Fort Calgary, and students will begin out inquiry into the stories that collections can tell. Math/Science- Students began working on a research assignment about different adaptations of wetland organisms, and how these adaptations help organisms survive and thrive in their environment. Next week they will be finishing the assignment and posting it to seesaw. In Math we completed a check-in on place value, and have been revisiting some of the topics. Specifically, how to read and write large numbers properly, and how to represent numbers in different ways, such as pictorially, expanded form, and in place value charts. Important Dates
Sept. 9th-11th - Camp Chief Hector Sept 13th- No School Sept. 23 - Fort Calgary (please email Mrs. Stevenson if you can volunteer, also check better impact: we need 8-10 volunteers, the form will be available on Powerschool soon!) Camp Info: Here is some important information regarding Camp Chief Hector next week.
Please do not hesitate to email your child’s homeroom teacher if you have any additional questions. We are excited to be going to camp together and are looking forward to creating a memorable experience with your children. Math/Science: This week students continued to work on our research for wetland ecosystems. They created a rough draft of the poster they were going to design as a group. They finished their posters and did a gallery walk around the classroom taking notes on the different types of wetland ecosystems their classmates studied. In Math, we continued looking at place value and how to represent numbers differently. Students were asked to download the app “Number Pieces”. This is an app that allows students to use base ten blocks online. They were asked to represent the number 1 420 in five different ways, and post their thinking to Seesaw. Humanities:We made good progress with our novel study this week. Students showed their thinking and understanding through booksnaps. We had some wonderful conversations as we shared our status of the class and students are starting to settle into our reading routines. 5.4 was able to write in the opinion journals for the first time, and 5.3 will do this next week. Students will have limited time in the classroom next week, we will work on the Canadian geography scavenger hunt and talk about books. Important Dates
Sept 4th PM- Dragon Boating Sept. 9th-11th - Camp Chief Hector Sept 13th- No School Sept. 23 - Fort Calgary Humanities: Students spent time this week learning some facts about Canada. They did a reading comprehension activity and started and A-Z geographic scavenger hunt. We are building our understanding of Canada, before we start our inquiry into Canadian Identity. We read a bit of, “Wishtree,” and completed an activity called, “The Best Part of Me.” This can be viewed on Seesaw. Please follow the instructions with this update to connect. Once you join one class, you are able to see all posts in all classes that use Seesaw. Next week we will prepare for camp, read some of, “Wishtree,” as well as look at personal identity and explore how our names fit who we are. Booksnaps will be introduced on Tuesday and will be used throughout the year. Booksnaps use technology to help students make connections with the book and show their understanding of what they are reading. Your child may ask you for permission to install an app called, “Bitmoji.” This is an app that allows them to create a cartoon avatar of themselves, which they can use with google slides in their booksnaps. It is commonly used in messaging apps (like snapchat, but we aren’t using the snapchat app). Bitmoji has no messaging or chat capabilities on its own. This app has a 12+ rating and is an app that requires a parent conversation and permission. It is not a requirement, as we have other emoji options to help us express ourselves. Please let me know if you do not wish for your child to use this app, as most students will want to install it next week. Please refer to the link to help with your decision. https://www.saferkid.com/app-reviews-for-parents/bitmoji-keyboard-your-avatar-emoji . Math/Science: Students spent time this week learning about wetland ecosystems in science. In math we went over Number Talks, where students did mental math calculations and shared their different strategies. The focus of Number Talks is for students to be aware that there are multiple ways to solve a problem and in sharing our different strategies, students may learn one or two other strategies that make a lot of sense to them. SEESAW: This platform is the key means of communication regarding student progress, and it allows you to see work that is completed in school, as well as feedback from teachers. It provides some insight for parents in areas where students may need extra support, as well as opportunities for at home discussions about in class activities. We encourage you to connect.
After you sign up, download the free Seesaw Family app and sign in. You can also access Seesaw from a computer at https://app.seesaw.me. Thank you for supporting your child's learning! P.S. If you used Seesaw last year or have more than one child using Seesaw, follow the link above, then click the 'Sign in' tab at the top of the screen. You do not need to create a new account. Welcome to grade 5. We are excited to be working with your children this year. We will email a weekly update at the end of every week to keep you informed about our progress. This first email is a long one, please anticipate shorter emails in the future! We enjoyed meeting many of you at the “Meet the Teacher” night last night. If you were unable to attend, the information we shared last night is attached to this email. The grade 5 website also has the information we shared. grade5connects.weebly.com Please complete the parent survey if you haven’t done so already.
Students are also bringing home a permission form for Camp Chief Hector. Please return this on Monday. Also, if you haven’t created your powerschool account please do so. The process requires that you create a username and password to make the account, and then enter the parent access ID and password that the school sent out on the yellow page. Thanks to those that returned the blue demographic form. If you haven’t done that yet please find the time this weekend and send it in on Monday. Camp Volunteers Sept. 9-11 We have only had 5 parents offer to volunteer to join us at Camp. If you can spare a few days and would be able to help out please send us an email. We could use some more parents from 5.4. Important Dates Sept 4th PM- Dragon Boating Sept. 9th-11th - Camp Chief Hector Sept 13th- No School Sept. 23 - Fort Calgary Google Calendar Please use any one of the following links to either subscribe to our class agenda or follow it on a web browser. Students will be using Google Slides to write in their own personal agendas. All the links below are for the same calendar.
Math/ScienceMr. Sonico and Ms. Drader will be co-teaching both math and science subjects in August. Ms. Drader will then teach full time from September to mid-November while Mr. Sonico is at MRU, and will return mid-November. Units of study in August/September are place value and multiplication (math) and wetlands (science). Math: We started our studies in math with an inventory of students’ perceptions of mistakes and the types of mistakes there are. We wanted to impart upon them that the mistakes that they will make in learning math are not “high stakes mistakes” all in an effort to reduce math anxiety and instil a growth mindset in the discipline. This blog post is our resource: http://blog.mindsetworks.com/entry/mistakes-are-not-all-created-equal We also looked at multiple ways to represent a number, e.g. standard form, expanded form, base ten form, etc. Science: We started our unit on Wetland ecosystems. We began our discussion with what makes up an ecosystem and the importance of the interactions that occur within an ecosystem. We now have a general understanding of what a wetland ecosystem is, the importance of wetlands, and some of the issues that wetlands are facing. We will continue to dive deeper into this topic in the following weeks. Humanities: This week in humanities we spent time establishing routines and getting to know one another. Students will be engaging in daily independent reading activities and we spent time reading and sharing. Students completed a reading survey. We began our exploration of Canada by thinking about our baseline knowledge. Students filled in a blank map to show what they know now. We also started our first Novel study, and are reading, “Wishtree.” Next week we will look at personal identity and how our names contribute to our sense of self. Students will write a letter to their future selves and we will continue to build our understanding of Canada. Enjoy the weekend |
Archives
February 2020
Categories |