IS WINTER HERE TO STAY?

I want to begin this week's post by thanking all the parents for making it out in such terrible weather for our tri-conferences. It was nice to finally have a chance to sit down as a team and celebrate your child's strengths as well as making plans for reaching their individual targets! We have a dedicated group of students and I look forward to a fun and productive year of learning with them.
With the excitement of Halloween behind us and the layer of fresh, fallen snow before us, we've kept our noses to the grindstone. So here's what we've been doing and what is coming up...

LANGUAGE ARTS:
It was a sad day in 5E as Mrs. Eby read Ch.10 of The Birchbark House on Wednesday. The students have become very engaged and attached to the characters in the novel and we all had an emotional moment as one of the characters passed away from smallpox. Our novel study has been a slow journey but a worthwhile one as we've learned so much about aboriginal culture, Canadian history and practiced our responding skills. I hope to complete the novel next week (fingers crossed) so we can work on their final project and begin our Literature Circles near the end of the month.
As outlined at tri-conferences, the students are encouraged to continue with their independent reading and responding using their Daily Reading Logs. Hopefully, these are coming home on a regular basis every weekend!

MATHEMATICS:
As you can see from the picture of our bulletin board in the sidebar of the blog, we have been practicing our Number Sense with "The Number of the Day" (N.O.D.). The students are given a particular number and asked to represent it in various ways. The bulletin board depicts the 8 main representations we practice in class but they are also asked to create a unique one on their own. Along with this skill, we are working on identifying the different place value in numbers and ordering these numbers from least to greatest.
We've jumped back into problem solving this week and will finish up our study of the strategy "Making a Table" with an assessment problem next Thursday. The students were given a problem to practice this weekend in preparation.
Our target of MASTERING multiplication facts is becoming more and more attainable by everyone! Keep working on those "At Home Multiplication" booklets, fun websites and flashcards. We will have another assessment of their learning near the end of November.

SOCIAL STUDIES:
We finished up our exploration of the Land Bridge Theory vs. Oral Tradition to explain how the first people came to North America. The students did a great job in their first Social Studies assessment and were able to explain the Land Bridge Theory very thoroughly in their own words. They will receive their quizzes back on Wednesday.
Our next focus in Social Studies will have us reviewing the geography of Canada in preparation for our inquiry question: How were the First Nations people able to survive off the land based on their location in Canada?

SCIENCE:
Our unit on Nutrition has come to an end. Hopefully the knowledge they have gained through this study has transferred over into their everyday eating habits and in maintaining a healthy lifestyle. I'm sure those Rainbow Food Guide placemats the students created have come in very handy! As with the end of all fun units comes the assessment "of" learning. The students have been given a review sheet to help them prepare for their final quiz on Thursday, November 13th.
As I mentioned to the class, now that we know WHAT to eat, we are now ready to learn WHERE it goes and HOW it is processed by the body as our next unit of study is the digestive system!

ART:
Along with self-reflection this month has come SELF-PORTRAITS! We began our study on Wednesday with a "pre-drawing" activity. The students created their 'BEFORE' portraits (meaning no lesson, just draw yourself the best you can!). We have just started our 'AFTER' portraits in a step-by-step process that involves proportion, symmetry, measurement and patience. Who knew Art and Math went so well together?

FRENCH:
The students "Je vois" pages look terrific! I will be putting them together into our class book for the students to read and discover during free time. With our unit on school and classroom objects completed, we will be having a quiz on their understanding and grasp of the vocabulary the following week. We will be spending next week reviewing as a class. The quiz will be tentatively planned for Wednesday, Nov. 19th.

OTHER:

• Mrs. Rappaport will be doing her "Day 6" work on Monday, Nov.10th as we made a switch to accomodate tri-conferences. Everyone is looking forward to another visit from baby Linnae in the afternoon.
• Remembrance Day assembly is Monday, Nov. 10th at 10:45 in the school's gym. Everyone is welcome!
• Library is also on Monday. Don't forget your books for renewal or return! Mrs. Husack hopes to return to the library on Nov. 17th. We wish her well! Mrs. Smitten has been happily "holding down the fort" in the meantime.
• No school on Tuesday for Remembrance Day.
• SNOW! SNOW! SNOW! What more can I say? Have fun! Play safe! Stay off the lakes! Please remember to start wearing warmer clothes to school for a more fun and comfortable recess play. Changing into indoor shoes is an important habit that needs to be reinforced now more than ever to keep our school looking nice and so as not to slip on wet floors. Please wear the appropriate footwear to keep those toesies warm and cozy!

Have a nice long weekend!

Mrs. Eby