In the meantime, the grade 5's have been getting revved up for Halloween and setting and reflecting on targets for our first tri-conferences coming up the first week of November.
So here's what we've been up to and what is coming up...
LANGUAGE ARTS:
Our novel study of the Birchbark House continues! I had a chance to review their booklets over the weekend and make suggestions for specific areas of improvement. The students are enjoying our lively discussions as we practice responding to a novel orally and then take the time to put them into their own words in their booklets afterward.
As you can see from the images on the sidebar of the blog, some of the students have completed their Skeleton Book reports already! The final due date for October's book report is Thursday, Oct. 30th. The students will get some time to work on them in class on Monday but after that they will be required to complete them on their own. If you are already wondering about November, I will be starting our first round of Literature Circles that month so there will not be an individual book report but rather a book they will be assigned to read, respond to and discuss with their Literature Circle group. More information surrounding Literature Circles will follow in the coming weeks.
Our Daily Edits every morning have been practicing our editing, spelling and grammar skills. This has been an on-going practice since the second week of school and a great opportunity to learn so many basic writing skills all wrapped up in several mini-lessons spread out throughout the year. On Monday, the students will be assessed on their progress so we can reflect on their needs and plan a goal for the rest of the year.
MATHEMATICS
We've jumped into our Number Sense unit with both feet this week. We are beginning with a review of place value up to 10 000 before moving into the hundred thousands place. I also introduced our "NUMBER OF THE DAY" skills sheet that requires the students to represent a given number (the N.O.D) in many different ways (ie. writing cheques, rounding, in a number sentence, roman numeral and in a word problem). We will be practicing this skill with increasingly difficult numbers over the course of this unit (and beyond!).
Our daily conditioning warm ups continue to reinforce our basic multiplication facts. On Tuesday, I asked the students to write down the facts they are repeatedly getting wrong into their agendas and take them home to study with their parents! The mastery of their multiplication facts to 10x10 will be an ongoing target in 5E this year!
SOCIAL STUDIES
On Tuesday, we had a chance to review the Land Bridge Theory by watching a video excerpt from the series "Canada, A People's History". It's a wonderful series that has actors re-enacting events in Canada's past and bringing it back to life for the students...a very effective medium!
We will continue to explore the Land Bridge Theory and compare it to aboriginal oral tradition. There will be an assessment of their understanding of this theory some time after the "craziness" of Halloween!
SCIENCE
It was an eye-opening experiment on Tuesday as the students experimented with various foods to find out "how much fat content" was in particular foods. They even took a fun quiz that compared various foods and they had to guess which one had more fat...another "lightbulb" moment for some of our students! Did you know there is more fat in a fish burger than a plate of spaghetti and meatballs?
Next week we'll be looking at the nutrition information labels on boxes of cereal, however...we need empty boxes of cereal to do this activity!!! If you have any empty boxes or a box almost empty you can eat up this week, please send it to school (you can collapse the box) with your child. Thank you!
ART
The students have begun their study of Van Gogh's Starry, Starry night painting and interpreting their own version into a Scary, Scary night! I have attached another Youtube video of Starry Starry night with the song by Don McLean. I hope you can view this at home with your child as I could not access it from school. It's a beautiful song and goes nicely with Van Gogh's painting. We hope to have our paintings ready in time for Halloween!
OTHER:
- I hope you have all received your orange notice about the 5E Halloween festivities! Please bring in your toonie for the haunted house supplies ASAP! It's going to be a fun day!
- Scholastic book orders for October should be arriving any day!!!! The students couldn't wait for me to hand out the November orders so they came home already. The due date for those is Wed. Oct. 29th!
- We missed library on Thursday but I hope to get it early next week. Please return the library books on Monday.
- UNICEF fundraising is due by November 6th!
- Just a sidenote...please do not "reply" to this e-mail posting. (This is part of a group e-mailing system for your convenience.) If you wish to communicate with me privately, please send me an e-mail at heby@pembinatrails.ca or phone me at the school. Thank you for understanding!
Have a great weekend! Happy costume shopping (or sewing)!
Mrs. Eby
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