"FOOD, GLORIOUS FOOD!!" - Oliver Twist

We've got two short weeks in a row but lots of activities and learning keeping us busy! I hope everyone had a relaxing Thanksgiving. Based on the students "New Food" badges, it sounds like everyone enjoyed a yummy Thanksgiving feast! I was very impressed with all the different foods the students were willing to try. Hopefully, you have a new food to introduce to your supper tables in the future that won't be met with too many grimaces!

So here's what we've been up to and what is coming up...

LANGUAGE ARTS:

The students are really getting into our novel study of "The Birchbark House". Their responding skills are developing rapidly as we reflect on the targets for responding daily and using them in our daily reading logs as well. Some great discussions have arose from the topics surrounding aboriginal beliefs and the role of the "chimookaman". I have asked the students to submit their booklets this weekend for me to see how they are keeping up with our daily work.

Hopefully your child is well into their October scary, suspenseful or mysterious novel in preparation for their skeleton book report. If they haven't already told you, the students will be writing their book report on outlines of skeleton bones to create hanging skeleton decorations for our classroom this Halloween. We will be doing some of the work in class but much of it can be done at home as well. It will be due on October 30th (in time for our party on the 31st!).

MATHEMATICS:
The students did a great job on their graphing quizzes! We've mastered that skill and we're moving on into Number Sense. To get their minds around the idea of big numbers, I read them the book "How much is a million?" and had them design a page for the book as their title page for this unit. We had a chance to share them today and start reviewing our place value knowledge from last year.
Next week, we will continue reviewing the different place values and how to represent numbers to 10 000 until we reach a million!
Our daily conditioning warm ups of our multiplication facts are a great reminder of the continuous work that needs to be done to keep up our facts. Feel free to "throw" some facts at your child in a car ride to hockey/dance lessons or even at the kitchen table over supper!

SOCIAL STUDIES:
This week the students finished their illustrations for the creation story we read together as a class. They also viewed a video of a different story of origin told by another aboriginal group and made many intelligent comparisons between the two versions.
Today, the students worked in groups as "scientists" exploring the theoretical side of how the first nations people first came to North America. I played the news reporter who shared "newsflashes" to help the scientists come up with their theories. They had a lot of fun working together to figure out how these nomads from Asia crossed the Bering Strait to North America without a boat! Ask them about the Land Bridge Theory this weekend!
Next week we will continue to explore this theory with a video and make some comparisons to the oral traditions of the aboriginal.

SCIENCE:
Food, glorious food!!! Our unit on nutrition is never dull when you're talking about food! The students reflected on their one day food diaries to see how they could improve their diets or keep on track if they were eating well! Today, the students were asked to create a nutritious, well-balanced meal plan for one day for a grade 5 student. This assignment was completed by many in class but some may be bringing it home for homework.
Next week we will be experimenting with various foods to check their fat content. It's always a bit of an eye-opener for the students!

FRENCH and ART:
Our French classes have been practicing our classroom vocabulary! We had a fun game of "Cercle Magique" where the students are able to practice speaking out loud and try to beat our classroom's best time!
Next week in Art we will be studying the works of Vincent Van Gogh and creating our own Scary interpretations of his "Starry, Starry Night" paintings using oil pastels and paint.

OTHER:

• School picture orders are due for Wednesday, Oct.22nd
• The UNICEF campaign has begun! The grade 7 and 8 students are working to raise an average of $12/ student. Your fundraising envelopes should be home today!
• No school this Thursday and Friday (Oct.23rd and 24th) for Teacher In-servicing.

Have a great weekend and enjoy the warm weather (once again!) Let's hope we can keep our October temperature graph above the zero degree axis all the way to Halloween!

Mrs. Eby