Hi Parents!
For a short week, it was a full one. We enjoyed an in school experience coding micro:bits and went out of the school for a wetland visit! Important Dates: Monday, Nov. 19: Report Cards go home, sign up for student led conference time. Thursday, Nov. 22 (4pm-8pm) & Friday, Nov. 23 (8am-1pm): Student Led Conferences (no School on Friday)Conference registration will open Monday. Watch for an email from the office for specifics. Home conferencing is also possible if that works better for your circumstances. Thursday Nov.22: Scholastic book orders due. 5.4 can order online through Gail’s account, 5.3 can order online through Erin’s account. If you are ordering Christmas gifts, let us know and we can hold on to them when they arrive to keep it a surprise! Science (and more!): This week we launched a long-term interdisciplinary (humanities and math/science) study focusing on the question: “What is Beautiful?”. This essential question will be explored through the year. We will examine the beauty that can be found in the grade 5 curricular topics. Students will build their critical thinking skills as we build a multifaceted definition of the concept of beautiful. We will then look for beauty in geography/landscapes, historical stories, weather/climate, and mathematics (think patterns, Fibonacci, symmetry). Our first experience was to look for beauty at the constructed wetland in North Glenmore Park, as we will be using this a test site for a citizen science project in the spring (check out: Call of the Wetland). Students used a new app, called “Clips” on their iPads to document beautiful things they saw in the wetland and will share these with you at student-led conferences. We also generated ‘thick’ questions that will guide us into our weather inquiry as we observed interesting things about the changing of the seasons during our visit. Thanks to Sam C. and Layla’s moms, as well as our dear former superintendent Ms. Chomistek for joining us on our walk. Stay tuned for more volunteer opportunities! Math: This week in math we wrapped up the rectangle problem from last week. Next week we will begin to explore strategies for multiplying beginning by analyzing a unique representation of a multiplication table as we build our understanding of what it means to multiply. Students can continue to build fluency in their multiplication facts up to 9 by practicing at home. Parent Math Corner: Check out this great resource: 6 Ways to Support your Child’s Mathematical Development Humanities: This week we wrapped up our novel study. Students completed an activity that assessed their understanding of the book’s mood, theme and events. Most students found the end of the book quite sad and we had a good discussion about why books like, “Refugee,” are important. We agreed that we developed increased empathy for those that are forced to flee their homes because of war. Most of the students enjoyed the genre of historical fiction. Coming up we will begin a new social studies focus that is embedded in our larger inquiry.
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