Dear Parents,
We hope you enjoy the long weekend. The week was short, and 2 unexpected days without technology make for a short update. Humanities- Students started their amazing race log book this week and identified aspects regions have in common and elements that affect life in a region. They also became familiar with the 6 regions and which provinces are in each region. Project Beautiful- This week we began talking about the beauty that can be found in people. Our focus is on the character traits we can infer through people's actions. We watched, “Wonder,” to practice making these inferences about characters. Students are engaging in some brief research about a person in the past or present whose actions show positive character traits and creating a bookmark to share their understanding with others. Math - On Monday students did a quick check-in on the box method for division. We will look at these together next week, keep an eye on SeeSaw for those. We also began to learn the Big 7 method for division. Science - We began to look at factors that contribute to extreme weather events. This will help us when we start looking regionally at the types of extreme weather events that happen across Canada and how this affects the people who live there.
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Please enjoy this brief look at classroom events from last week. The upcoming week is short, as all teachers participate in 2 days of professional development at a staff retreat on Thursday and Friday.
We don’t have any formal or official plans for Wednesday to celebrate Valentine’s Day. If students wish to exchange cards or small treats they should bring enough to include everyone. Pink shirt month is happening for the month of February. A school wide initiative kicked off last Monday, and students are encouraged to show extra kindness and empathy. Students are challenged during morning announcements to complete the daily kindness challenge. Teachers are on the lookout to acknowledge these special and extraordinary efforts with caught ya certificates. Please ask your child if they have some ideas about how they can get caught being kind. Important Dates Feb. 14th & 15th- No School- Staff Retreat Feb 18th- No School -Family Day Humanities- This week students examined art pieces from WWI, and looked at the role art plays in remembering historical events. They finished their book proposals. The book trailers and letters can be viewed on Seesaw. The completed trailers have also been posted to the Seesaw class blogs, so parents and students are able to view the trailers that were created by everyone. The blog privacy is set so that only those with the links can view the work. This allows work to reach a larger audience, but not a completely public audience. 5.4 Book Trailers 5.3 Book Trailers Next week will begin our interdisciplinary Amazing Race and will start our in depth study of the regions of Canada. Students will also complete another Project Beautiful inquiry task, as we examine the beauty that is found within people. If you wish to see some of the work students have created for this inquiry you can view it on the Project Beautiful blog. Math: This week we looked at the Box Method (Or Area Method) for long division. This method is a mental math approach that enhances number sense understanding. While it does encourage students to have strong recall of their multiplication tables, it is also forgiving in the sense that students can work primarily with ‘friendly’ numbers (numbers ending in zero and five) to find the quotient. Check out this video tutorial if you would like to learn more about this method. Up next we will look at the Big 7 method (similar to the Box Method), short division and then finally the traditional algorithm for long division. The latter two strategies rely more on procedural memorization rather than conceptual understanding so many students will end up using one of the first two strategies until they have a solid understanding of what it means to divide. Science: This week we began to learn about extreme weather. We will continue to explore this interesting topic as we begin an interdisciplinary Amazing Race project with Mrs. Stevenson where we will closely inquire into Canada’s geographic regions including looking at why some regions experience more extreme weather events than others. Important Dates
Feb. 6th- Swim to Survive @ Southland Leisure for PE forms. Please email the PE teachers if you can volunteer. Feb. 14th & 15th- No School- Staff Retreat Feb 18th- No School -Family Day Humanities- This week students had the opportunity to think like Historians. Students examined artifacts from WWI and inferred information about people and events that occurred in the past. Our focus was on the stories that artefacts can tell. Students also found out that, “Hello Lighthouse” won the Caldecott medal. It wasn’t their top pick, but it is a beautifully illustrated book and the award is well deserved. Students are working on a proposal that requests a Mock Caldecott book be purchased for the school. The proposal includes a book trailer and a piece of opinion writing. Look for the book trailers that will be posted to Seesaw next week. Science: This week in science we continued to investigate how we can prove whether or not there is moisture in the air. We spent time working on our scientific procedure as we went through a demonstration together. Additionally, we brainstormed examples of where we see proof of this in the world around us (steam on the bathroom mirror, dew on the grass, frost on the inside of car windows etc). This led into an exploration of clouds using the chinook arch yesterday as a jumping off point. We will continue to learn about how clouds help us forecast weather. Math: This week we continued to look at division and how it relates to multiplication. Using the bar model we represented remainders as fractions (which is something new for grade 5s). Have your child show you how we would do this by giving them a simple division sentence such as 11/3. Students did a quick check-in yesterday on this concept and are well on their way. Next week we will look at strategies for dividing larger numbers. Continue to practice those times tables at home. Important Dates
Jan. 30th- Electives and PE Report Cards go home Feb. 1st- No School Feb. 6th- Swim to Survive @ Southland Leisure for PE. Forms are attached, and if you haven’t returned them, they need to be returned by Wednesday. Please email the PE teachers if you can volunteer. Feb. 14th & 15th- No School- Staff Retreat Feb. 18th- No School -Family Day FORT STEELE DATES: 5.3 - May 2-5, 2019 5.4 - May 5-8, 2019 **If you would like to be considered as a parent volunteer, please email your child’s homeroom teacher. Decisions regarding volunteers will be made closer to spring break. We do attend camp over the weekend days. The other pod goes to camp after us. Humanities- Students finished their Canada One Pager. Next week we will start a quick overview of each of the regions of Canada, as well as look at some primary artifacts from WWI. Our Caldecott books were narrowed down and a winner was chosen. Students know the final 5 books, but will not know our class pick or the official pick until Monday. Students completed 2 small assignments that allowed them to express and support an opinion. Next week students will begin crafting a persuasive letter to Mrs. Veteikis. They are making a case for, and requesting that their favourite Caldecott eligible title be added to our school library collection. Math- Students started the week with some inspirational math and looked at the benefits of taking your time when solving math problems. They took their time to solve a problem that required deep thinking and not fast thinking. Students started looking at methods of division as the week wrapped up. Next week we will continue with division strategies. Science- Students reviewed the steps of the scientific method. This review of the method for conducting fair tests and experiments will used in the upcoming weeks as they design their own experiments in the weather unit. Important Dates
Jan. 25th- Last day of term 1 electives Jan. 30th- Electives and PE Report Cards go home Feb. 1st- No School Feb. 6th- Swim to Survive @ Southland Leisure for PE FORT STEELE DATES: 5.3 - May 2-5, 2019 5.4 - May 5-8, 2019 **If you would like to be considered as a parent volunteer, please email your child’s homeroom teacher. Decisions regarding volunteers will be made closer to spring break. Humanities- Students viewed a documentary that took them on a cross-country tour of Canada. They began creating a Canada One Pager to demonstrate their understanding of the video’s content, as well as their own prior knowledge. They will continue working on this next week. Our Caldecott books were narrowed down to a field of 20. Students took another look at each of the books and used the criteria to rank each book. We will choose our winner on Friday of next week. Our top titles are going head to head, and students will be very sad to see some favourites eliminated. Students will begin crafting a persuasive letter to Mrs. Veteikis. They are making a case for, and requesting that their favourite Caldecott eligible title be added to our school library collection. Math - This week we learned (or reviewed, for some), the traditional algorithm for multiplying. We also tested 2 conjectures around multiplying double digit numbers. We are close to wrapping up our multiplication analysis and will be moving on to methods for dividing. Continue to practice multiplication facts at home as fluency in those will aid in students ability to divide. Science - In Science this week we shared our weather instrument videos with each other and looked at ways of measuring weather. We also began to explore air/atmospheric pressure and the role it plays in weather. We had a busy week in grade 5. Please enjoy this glimpse into the week’s learning.
Important Dates Jan 15- In class expert, Science Illustrator (Teresa McLaren) will spend 80 minutes with each grade 5 class on field journal sketching techniques. Jan. 18th- No School Jan. 25th- Last day of term 1 electives Feb. 1st- No School Feb. 6th- Swim to Survive @ Southland Leisure for PE Math- In math this week we explored another multiplication strategy, the Lattice Method. Many found success in this simplified strategy and prefer it over the array method. They did a check-in on Thursday and it is in the midst of being assessed. Students will get these back by mid week. If you are interested in learning more about this method, check out this instructional video and why it works. In Grade 5, students are expected to master 2 digit by 2 digit multiplication, some have been able to take a strategy like this to expand to even larger numbers. Next week we will look at the strategy that is familiar to adults, what we will call the ‘traditional algorithm’. It is important that students have a strong understanding of what it means to multiply prior to investigating this strategy, as it is not as intuitive as the first two strategies we explored and much more depending on memorization of steps. Science- Students researched, planned and created weather instruments that helped us observe and monitor what is happening weather-wise in our local environment. They tested their instruments and shared their results with a video that was posted on Seesaw. This week will look at some of the scientific principles behind the weather phenomenon we see in our local environment (such as chinooks). Humanities- We spent this week immersed in our collection of Caldecott eligible picture books. There were over 40 books available on the long list for students to examine against the Caldecott criteria. Students voted for each book on a 3 point scale, and the top will 16 move onto the next round. In addition, 4 books will be assigned wild card spots and will move on. We will continue narrowing down the books until Jan.25th, when we will choose a winning selection. We will compare our results with the official results on Jan, 28th. Looking ahead, the students will begin looking at beauty within Canada, and we will continue with Mock Caldecott. Project Beautiful- We have completed another assignment for this inquiry. Students built their critical thinking skills as we explored the concept of beautiful. Collectively and individually we defined the word, “beautiful.” Many students found that their ideas around, “What is beautiful?” have expanded. Thank-you to all of you who were able to take the opportunity to provide feedback to your child on their movie. Moving forward we will be examining our essential question, in the context as it relates to “What is beautiful about me?” and within the context of the topics we learn about in grade 5. Dear Parents,
These last weeks before break are busy ones. We enjoy some fun activities, but also work hard and learn a lot. Please don’t forget to let the office or the teachers know of absences. Important Dates and Peace Festival Activities Dec. 17- Keynote speaker about empathy and caring for others and an opportunity to shop at Peace Festival Market. Please note that the Market includes student-created crafts (proceeds will go to Inn From the Cold -cash only), as well as goods from Nepal (proceeds go to Medical Mercy Canada’s Nepal project- cash or credit card accepted) This is also open at lunch recess Mon-Wed. Dec. 18- Skating @Lakeview for Peace Festival (bring helmets and skates) Dec. 19- Fun carnival games in the gym - non-perishable food items welcomed to play some games! Dec. 20 - Potluck Lunch Sign Up Here Dec. 21- No School until January. Enjoy a restful break. Please vote for the People’s Choice award in the Canstruction Jr. competition. Voting closes Dec. 17th Our school’s entries are: The Cat in the Hat The Heart of Who-ville Gifts for Grinch www.surveymonkey.com/r/canstructionjr18 Project Beautiful: We continued to investigate the definition of “beautiful.” Our trip to the library resulted in some great clips about beauty in that space. Students began creating a video that summarizes their crowdsourced results. Humanities: We started our Mock Caldecott Unit and read several books that have won the medal. We searched for evidence in each book that meet the Caldecott criteria. Once we are familiar with what award winning books look like, we will examine books that are eligible for this year’s award and see if we can predict the winner. In writing, we began looking at the punctuation involved in written dialogue. We started by taking comic style conversations in the “Pigeon books” and turned them into written dialogue. Math: This week students looked at feedback from their multiplication check-in and made any corrections necessary. These have been uploaded to SeeSaw. While Mrs. Piper was at MRU this week marking final projects, Mrs. Price worked with the students on multiplication proofs. They analyzed different ways they can represent numbers using the array method, whether or not these methods worked and how you can mathematically justify whether they worked or not. Students then created their own proofs. Science: In Science this week, students compared forecasts using both the Farmers Almanac and the Weather Network. We are beginning to look at why we forecast weather, how we forecast weather and what instruments are used to measure/forecast weather. Important Dates Dec. 10 - Central Library Field Trip: 9am-2:30pm (Thanks for the tremendous volunteer response!) Dec. 18- Skating @Lakeview for Peace Festival Dec. 20 - Potluck Lunch Sign Up Here Dec. 21- No School until January! Project Beautiful: We continued to investigate the definition of “beautiful.” Our walk to MRU and the interviews we completed were a success. Students reflected on their responses and began curating some of the common ideas and words that are arising. Some students require your support this weekend. If they have not yet done so, they need to interview YOU about your thoughts on beauty. There are 2 questions to answer with either a voice recording or video recording of your response. We would also like them to find someone older than you to interview (could be a grandparent, neighbour, coach, etc.) to see how the idea of beauty might change with age and experience. All interviews will need to be completed by Monday, Dec. 10th. Math: This week we further investigated using the array model to multiply 2 digit by 2 digit numbers (and beyond!). Students found great success with this strategy and even completed a check-in this week. Look for those check-ins to be posted to SeeSaw early next week. If you would like to learn more about the array model, check out this video. Science: This week in Science we explored the reasons for the seasons. Through a combination of demonstrations, videos, group quizzes and a Kahoot we constructed our understanding of why we have seasons on earth. This TED Ed animation is a great summary of the reasons we have seasons and some common misconceptions. As we lead up to the winter solstice, now is a great time to have some conversations with your child about things they observe happening in the world around them. The changes in seasons is a fascinating topic to explore as it lives all around us, every day! Humanities: This week students shared their countries through a gallery walk. Please look for their work next week on Seesaw. We also spent time learning about absolute location. We practiced using latitude and longitude coordinates to find locations of countries. We are making progress with our reading of, “Endling.” Coming up we will work on writing dialogue and begin examining books that have won the Caldecott medal.
Central Library trip: We will be visiting the new Central Library on Dec. 10, 2018. More information will be given along with informed consent and letter outlining the details and curricular outcomes of this trip. However, we encourage you to register your child for a free library membership if they aren't already members. https://reg.calgarylibrary.ca. They will have the opportunity to sign out a book from there. If you're interested in joining us for the trip, we are looking for 4 parent volunteers per homeroom. In order to volunteer with us, please have your current volunteer form and security clearance at the office.
Project Beautiful: We continued this week to investigate the definition of “beautiful”. Students all reflected on their own individual definition of the word and wrote about it in their journals. They will be coming home this weekend with a bit of homework. We would like them to interview YOU about your thoughts on beauty. They have 2 questions to ask you and would like to either voice record or video record your responses (you choose!). We would also like them to find someone older than you to interview (could be a grandparent, neighbour, coach, etc.) to see how the idea of beauty might change with age and experience. Next week (Dec. 6) we will be taking our questions on the road and interviewing members of the public at Mount Royal University. This will help us broaden our own definitions and expand our thinking of what is beautiful. Building Community: This week we focused on supporting and enhancing community by coming up with strategies to accomplish both class’s goal of “valuing people in our community by listening to them and not talking over them”. Students collectively generated a list of specific ways we can work on this goal and we will be helping to hold each other accountable for this goal. Math: We are continuing to work on our understanding of multiplication. Please check SeeSaw for feedback on your child’s Number Pieces Arrays. Next week we will continue to work on the array method for multiplying by replacing the pictures with numbers. Thank-you for your support with our work habits goal and encouraging your child to find time for their homework this week. Science: We tackled one of our “thick” questions from our trip to the wetland, “what happens in the winter to the animals who live here?”. We created a list of animals we think use that wetland as habitat and students then did some research to determine how that animal survives the winter (ie: migration, hibernation, change of coat colour, food caches etc.). Each pair then shared one adaptation they learned about their animal with the rest of the class. This ties into another one of our questions which is “why do the seasons change?”. We generated some ideas around this question and will continue to explore it next week. Humanities: Students had an opportunity to create their own county this week. Many of the elements we learn about in geography and our study of Canada were introduced through this short term project. The project was due today and the students completed a self evaluation. If there are parts of the project they felt didn’t meet expectations they have until Monday to add to the project. Peer feedback will be provided on Monday. After peer feedback, and an opportunity for improvement, the projects will be assessed by the teacher. I am hopeful that each round of feedback results in improvements. Improving work and acting on feedback, are work habits we will be developing in term 2. Parents are welcome to provide feedback over the weekend. A copy of the rubric is available for viewing on Seesaw. The assignment can be found on google slides. Hi Parents! It was wonderful to cross paths with so many of you over the last two days at Student-led Conferences.
Important Dates: Dec. 7 -No School Dec. 21- No School Building Community: This is an important focus as we move into term 2. This week, both classes participated in a knowledge building circle. The question “What do we value as a learning community?” was posed, and students created an exhaustive list of things they value about our place. From this list of values, each class created 3 community goals we can work on during term 2. Science: This week we continued to compile our wonders/questions from the wetland visit last week. We will take these big questions and help formulate the direction we will take for our weather inquiry. Math: We continue to work on constructing our understanding of multiplication using arrays. We built some out of unit cubes as well as using digital manipulatives on a Number Pieces App. You can check these out on SeeSaw. Next week we will work at constructing proofs for multiplication. Continue to work on those math facts at home. Students also revisited the Deca Tree problem as some had not yet completed it or submitted it to SeeSaw. If students were finished that, they had the opportunity to work on some challenging riddles. Humanities: We started a new read aloud this week, “Endling, the Last.” We are exploring a different genre, as this book sits in the fantasy realm and provides a lot of opportunities to examine how an author builds worlds and characters that sit outside of the known and everyday. We also wrapped up our work on Canadian identity and wrote in the opinion journals. Coming up we will begin a new social studies focus about history and geography, that is embedded in our larger inquiry into what is beautiful. |
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