Friday, June 12, 2009

Cirrus, Cumulus, Stratus...NO MORE CLOUDS!

I hope our Weather unit in Science has not spurred on this unusually cloudy, rainy spring! It seems that our grade 5 year is still plugging on into June and only 2 and a bit more weeks left of school (despite the weather). Once again, this class astounds me with their focus and willingness to continue learning and growing even into our last few weeks... and a few extra quizzes tossed in here and there!

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

LANGUAGE ARTS:

Our final literature circle discussion will be held on Wednesday, June 17th. The students need to have finished reading their novel and have their assigned role completed along with one page of responses by Wednesday! A big thank you to our parent volunteers this round who were able to join us on our whirlwind tour of Literary Genres!

We had our final T.U.S.C. meeting on Wednesday this week (which ended in the biggest sigh of relief as you can imagine!). Everyone is excited as they prepare for our FUN T.U.S.C. meeting on Thursday, June 18th! I think it will be a yummy one too as we have 4 healthy snacks being prepared for the meeting (I guess that role was a big favorite!).

MATHEMATICS:

We are into our final unit in Math this year...long division! Again, this concept requires a lot of practice and drill to really engrain the concept and strategies into our mathematical thinking. The students were introduced to the concept with a fun lesson about "Remainder Joe" (as you can see in the photo on the blog). We started slow with the idea of "reverse multiplication" and have worked our way to 2 digit division with one remainder. On Friday, the students were introduced to two different strategies for dividing into 3 digit dividends. With some practice over the weekend and next week, we will hopefully have this mastered in preparation for grade 6. An assessment of their understanding of division will be come in the form of a quiz on Friday, June 19th!

Our final few days of math will look at the world of geometry...always a fun and easy way to end the year!

SCIENCE:

Weather...what more can I say...not a fun topic to discuss lately!! We've been having some interesting discussions and lessons this week about air as we explored the differences between air masses, fronts and air pressure. We had a rousing game of Weather Jeopardy on the SMARTboard Thursday to prepare the students for their quiz on Friday.

Over the past month we've managed to cover the essential learning outcomes for this unit, so over the next week we will have some fun researching weather disasters and how to keep ourselves safe!

SOCIAL STUDIES:

This past week we've been learning about the parts of a textbook and the various strategies to use when reading expository text. Of course at the same time, the students have been learning about the colonization of the English in Newfoundland and Halifax before their big battle against the French!

Next week we will be looking more closely at the lives of a soldier during the time of the famous battle on the Plains of Abraham.

FRENCH:

It's been numbers, numbers, numbers this past week! I've done something I rarely do...give a pop quiz! The students faired very well. Of course this was not a formal evaluation for the report card but merely a means for me to assess their understanding thus far. Next week we will begin our application of our number vocabulary into the idea of how to tell time...en francais and make our own personal clocks to have fun telling time. "Quelle heure est-il, s'il vous plait?"

OTHER:

  • Just a reminder that there is NO SCHOOL on Monday, June 15th for report card writing!

  • It's Carnival Day on Friday, June 19th! If you did not get a chance to purchase your wristbands for $3/student this week, your child may buy one on Friday! It's a fun day! Come out and share lunch at the vendors or take a "whack" at getting a teacher wet at the Pitch Burst station. (I've kindly passed this honor on to my fellow staff members! LOL)

  • Next week, a letter will be coming out addressing some special activities we have planned for our final week (and 2 days) of grade 5, to make them fun and exciting!

  • Tuesday, June 16th...all library books must be returned to the library. There will be no more exchanges until we resume in September (with me!!!!).

Have a fabulous weekend! "Here comes the sun, little darlings!"


Mrs. Eby

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