WHAT'S UP IN 5E?: EMPTY BOWLS AND FULL HEARTS!

Our blog title this week says it all "Empty Bowls and Full Hearts!". The students put on a spectacular fundraising event on Thursday night! Besides the overall organization of the event, the ultimate product of the evening was all the efforts of our grade 5 students, everything from the bowls to the centerpieces to the entertainment to the decorations! I don't want to take away too much of the limelight from our "Blogger of the Week" so I won't say anymore about Empty Bowls. However, if you missed the evening (or just want to see it again), I've embedded the video from the evening into the blog; so be sure to click on the "WHAT'S UP IN 5E?" at the bottom of this e-mail message to see it on the actual blog.

It's hard to believe we could get any other school work accomplished this week with all the excitement, BUT we did!!! Unfortunately, it's what I like to call "crunch time", as I prepare to write their final report cards for grade 5! You've probably already noticed a few quizzes this week and you can expect a few more coming up next week in Science and French. Thank you so much for your support! We are coming close to the end of a FABULOUS year together and I am hoping for a happy and successful finish!

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

LANGUAGE ARTS:

Our final unit of Literature Circles has begun! The students have been reading their various genres of books and writing their reading responses. We have added a new element to our final round. Within each group, the students have been given a special role that they must prepare for and share at their literature circle meeting. The roles are: Discussion Director, Connector, Vocabulary Extender, Literary Luminary and Illustrator. Giving each student a role to perform should add a bit more structure and independance to the literature circle discussions. The students must have their book read to the halfway point, written a one page response and have their role ready for TUESDAY, JUNE 9TH!

Well, it's finally here...our last OFFICIAL T.U.S.C. meeting for the year...WEDNESDAY, JUNE 10TH! I don't think the students are as excited about our last offical meeting as much as they are looking forward to our "FUN T.U.S.C." where they can choose their favorite role to "do again" without getting evaluated by me!

MATHEMATICS:

It's been a full week of math as the students have been practicing their long multiplication skills...and practicing and practicing! We finished off the week with an assessment of their learning on Friday.

Next week begins our dive into DIVISION and of course the various long division strategies!

SOCIAL STUDIES:

The students received their assessments for their New Fance letters on Wednesday. Please return their rubrics signed once you've had a chance to review it. I was blown away this week correcting their New France tests. It seems that by putting themselves into the "shoes" of a colonist in New France helped them to really understand the concepts we covered during our unit.

To finish off our year learning about early Canadian history, we will take a look at the role the English played in establishing Canada and of course the infamous BATTLE OF THE PLAINS OF ABRAHAM!

SCIENCE:

It's been a cloudy week in 5E (no pun intended)! We've been learning all about clouds...how they are formed, what they are made of, what types of clouds produce what weather and more!! The students worked in pairs to create CLOUDY posters using cotton balls to display the various clouds in the sky.

Next week we will be learning about the properties of air, air pressure, air masses and how this affects our daily weather. I would like to have a quiz on their understanding of what we've learned about weather so far (hopefully by Friday) but I can't be sure that we'll be ready, so I'll keep you posted through your child's agenda. Thank you for understanding.

FRENCH:

With so much going on in our core subject areas, our French unit on Numbers has been "lagging". We will jump back into our unit this week and again have a quick assessment of our learning later in the week or early next week! C'est la vie!

OTHER:

I'm working on putting the students' POETRY GLOGS onto a wiki so that you may view them altogether! I'll keep you posted.

The annual LINDEN MEADOWS CARNIVAL is back again!!! The carnival date is June 19th and the early selling of wristbands begins Monday. Hopefully you received the gold colored sheet on Friday. Everything you need to know about the Carnival is on the pamphlet! Volunteers are GREATLY needed at this event and much appreciated by our hardworking Parent Council. If you are able to help for even just 30 minutes, that would be fantastic!