I hope that everyone who is participating in Halloween has a safe and fun time tonight. Due to the chaos that is this evening we are not having any homework tonight.
I will update for the week tomorrow as I have to get home to do the Halloween thing at my house too!
Cheers,
Julie
We welcomed another new student to 5A today which brings us up to 28! Joyce joins us from China and is keen to learn English. I know I can count on all her classmates to make her feel comfortable and help her out as much as possible.
Where does the time go? I can’t believe it is almost Halloween. The Halloween dance is on Thursday and tickets are two dollars a person and are available until Wednesday.
In math this week we are continuing with our work on decimals and how decimals are related to fractions. Homework on IXL should be focused on Section G under the decimals category. This is a tricky topic for some students so please ask them how they are finding the classwork. I have been working with small groups to reinforce these concepts and will continue to adjust groupings as we go along.
Word work consists of the same list as last week and students are expected to complete one activity each evening with their test being on Wednesday (two activities this week in addition to the four they were supposed to have done from last week). As part of their homework I asked students to complete their word work activities and hand in their scribblers on Friday so I could check their homework. I only received about 13 of the 27 scribblers so please double check with your child that they are completing their homework and turning it in when necessary.
We will be finishing our book Study on “As Long As Rivers Flow” this week. It is a very emotional book and I even had a few tears today when reading the ending! The kids really connected with the main character who is a boy their age who is forced to go to a Residential School at the end of the story.
Don’t forget that due to the Teacher’s Convention this week there is no school on Thursday or Friday.
Thanks for reading!
Julie
Hi there,
Just wanted to let everyone know that this week’s spelling words will carry over and we will have our test on Wednesday Oct.26th due to there being no school next Thursday or Friday.
In math we co-created our success criteria for outcome N8 today. I will post it below so you can check it out.
We also had some fun learning about Non-Newtonian fluids as a part of our matter unit in Science. Ask your child about making “oobleck” today 🙂
-Julie
Off to another busy week in 5A! We will be starting a new shared reading book this week called “As Long as the River Flows”. This book is a part of our predicting unit and is about a First Nations boy and his life just prior to being sent to a residential school. We will be reading together and discussing. Students will also have opportunities to do some independent reading, predicting and writing about what they have read.
In math we are beginning our next outcome which is N8: describing and representing decimals (tenths, hundredths, and thousandths) in a variety of ways. We will continue our place value conversations but now will be focusing on parts of whole numbers to the right of the decimal place. Homework for this section of our math should focus on IXL level G in the decimals section. Tests from last week will be coming home to be signed tomorrow or the next day so keep an eye out for those in their homework bags.
This week we have introduced a new series of word work activities that will get the kids noticing, thinking about and reinforcing the patterns not only in their sort words, but in the texts we are exposed to daily. They are asked to complete one activity each evening in their new word work scribbler. The activities and directions are glued into the front cover. They then hand in the scribbler with completed activities on Friday. (Four activities of their choice per week)
In Science we are full speed ahead with our unit on Matter. Last week we did some hands on investigating of changes in matter from a solid to a liquid and we will continue our exploration this week. Ask your child if they can explain to you what absolute zero is! 🙂
That is all for now. Please email me anytime if you have anything you wish to discuss.
Cheers,
Julie 🙂
I hope everyone had a wonderful long weekend and had a chance to spend time with family and friends. I want to start off by saying bravo and thanks for a job well done by all of 5A during our bus evacuation today. They provided a stellar example to the younger grades and earned a compliment from another teacher! Made me very proud 🙂
Because we have a short week this week (and an hour delay today) I decided that we would not do the traditional word sort this week. Instead we will be focusing on practicing the days of the week and months of the year, as I had noticed that these were still troublesome for some students. This week I will also be introducing some new activities that student’s will be incorporating into their word study homework over the next couple of weeks. I will post them on the blog after students have had a chance to try them.
We will be having our math test tomorrow on Outcomes N1: Representing and describing whole numbers to 1 000 000 and N2: Using estimation strategies in problem solving contexts. I have offered a couple of extra help sessions at lunch recess and several students took advantage of these opportunities to clarify any areas where they were not feeling confident. We will be moving on to outcome N8 next which involves describing and representing decimals (tenths, hundredths, and thousandths) in a variety of ways.
We are continuing on with our reading strategy unit on predicting and will be finishing our current read aloud over the next few days. The class has been very impressive with demonstrating their self-monitoring skills and used clues from the text to make inferences about setting and characters. They have been doing a variety of response activities in their reading binders to keep them thinking, questioning and demonstrating their understanding.
Last week students had an opportunity to write a short essay about what they are thankful for in their lives. A few are still finishing up but I was very touched by what I have read so far and the thought they put into them. I will send them home with students when I have had a chance to read them all.
That’s all for now,
Julie 🙂
I hope everyone had a great day today! It was my first day out of the classroom for P.D. today and I am looking forward to being back in action tomorrow. I wanted to let families know that 5A has worked very hard these first few weeks of school and have earned their 100 point reward for demonstrating cooperation, on task behavior, kindness and respect for themselves and others. The class voted on what they wanted their reward to be and decided on a “technology afternoon”. This means that from my end they have permission to bring their technology in to use for the last portion of the day. I also booked the class set of chrome books so everyone will have something to use regardless of if they brought something from home. I made it very clear that it is up to care givers to decide if they are comfortable with technology coming to school as I know how expensive it can be.
I wish everyone a fantastic Thanksgiving weekend and hope you have some time with family and friends.
Mrs. Love 🙂
Hello everyone,
It is hard to believe that October is upon us. I was happy to see all the smiling faces coming through the door this morning and to hear about all the “fallish” things they were up to on the weekend. Here is an update as to what we will be up to over the next little while.
In writing we are just about finished of our published draft of our memoirs. They have taken a little longer than expected mainly because we are typing our final drafts and the chrome books (which we share with all the grade 5 and 6 classes) are in high demand.
We are finished of our formal reading strategy unit on self-monitoring, however, we continue to expect that as good readers the students are always monitoring for comprehension and questioning. We will be moving on to our predicting unit this week.
We have also been doing a read aloud of Tom Sawyer which has provided plenty of opportunity for discussions surrounding character and character traits.
In math we will be finishing up our unit on whole numbers hopefully by the end of this week and will be reviewing and having a unit test sometime next week. I will let you know more accurately when I see how this week goes. We will be having a fast fact multiplication quiz later this week on multiplication facts to 9×9.
We are also hoping to get rolling with our science unit on matter and changes in materials. This unit should provide some great opportunity for hands on explorations and I am excited to get going on it!
The Zones track and field meet is tomorrow and we wish all our participating classmates good luck and good sportsmanship.
The school is holding a food drive of non-perishable food items this week in support of Anderson house. Anything you wish to donate is welcome!
Thanks for your support and as always please contact me with any questions or concerns.
Have a super week!
Mrs. Love 🙂
Mrs Love: West Royalty Elementary School 