On Friday I sent home a Hot Pink Sheet containing all of your child’s passwords to log into the network and the programs we use at school. You can’t miss it in their agenda. Please put this very important sheet in a safe place in case we ever had to shift to home learning at any point throughout the school year. It would be painful to recite these passwords over the phone. (Fingers crossed that we never need to use it.)
Also a reminder if you could send in a set of headphones to be kept in your child’s desk whenever we are using chrome books in class.
Most students are doing an excellent job of wearing masks without reminders. If you could just emphasize how important this is as well as to sanitize their hands. Many students are forgetting to do that on a regular basis without constant reminders. Over half of our class had cold like symptoms on Week 2 so it shows how important doing these two things are. We really started to get into a groove this week with work and routines.
In language arts we started to focus on one of the greatest Canadian heroes Terry Fox. The students will also select someone that they consider a hero and write about them.
In math this week we hope to wrap up our Boot Camp of reviewing basic concepts and next week move onto place value up to the millions.
Enjoy the rest of your weekend and maybe get out for a walk or run to remember the great Terry Fox.
Yesterday and again next Thursday we will be selling cool treats for a donation of $1 or more. Yesterday our class alone took in $94 – over half of this coming from Lucas’ very generous donation. All money raised is going directly to the Easter Seal’s Campaign.
The yellow dental form sheets were sent home Thursday and Friday for you to sign and return on Monday.
This past week we were working on procedural writing. Everyone has a great grasp of the concept and we are currently typing up our finished products.
Last week we wrapped up two digit by two digit multiplication problems. (i.e. 45 x 67) I have been assigning on the homework this week and will continue to get each student to practice at least 3-5 (depending on your child's need for extra practice) of these problems each night to maintain their skill level. The students can randomly make up any two digit numbers to multiply together and then get you to check their answers.
This week we started 3 digit divided by 1 digit dividing problems. (i.e. 2 ⟌334) We will continue to work on this concept over the next couple of weeks. And the wonderful thing parents is that the students are learning how to do both of these math concepts just like you did when you were in school. So you can be a wonderful help to your child by practicing them at home as well. As there are a few students still at the point where they need direct instruction on every problem. Every little bit of extra practice/attention they can get would be incredibly helpful. More practice will boost their confidence.
Have a wonderful weekend!
We had a really neat Zoom presentation on Meditation and Mindfulness this week. The students really seemed to enjoy the ideas behind it. Please ask them about their meditation chains, examples of mindful activities they can do, and their crystals. These are all great practices even for adults and I am hoping the students give them a try.
Report cards will go home on Tuesday, March 2nd.
If you have not already done so please sign up for Parent Teacher Interviews taking place this Thursday and Friday at the following link:
https://signup.com/client/invitation2/secure/837026418565152057/false#/invitation
As we are wrapping up our second term I am reflecting on how much the students have matured and progressed through the past few months. I am so proud of each and everyone of them and feel lucky to be working with them each day. This year is flying by so quickly and I look forward to seeing what this great group can accomplish in our final term of Grade 5.
Have a great weekend everyone and stay safe.
We have finished our class novel Mystery Cranberry Farm and just like every other year the students fell in love with the story. It’s a great example of not judging a book by it’s cover, as they might have told you the books look very old and dated. But the story inside is so rich and kept them on the edge of their seats. We are currently wrapping up some activities associated with the book and then we will move on to create our own narrative stories.
In Math we are currently working on estimation with all four operations and adding and subtracting with decimals. Everyone seems to be getting along very well with those two outcomes.
We have also been working on our research weather project. The students are working in pairs to create a slideshow presentation for the rest of the class to learn and enjoy from.
This year is a little different with celebrating Valentine’s Day at school. If students intend to share valentines with other students in the class they must have them at the school by Monday, February 8th. That way the valentines can sit on their own at the school and then be passed out on Friday, February 12th. If the students are sharing valentines at school they should make one out for everyone in the class. FYI we have 21 students in grade 5. And this week I will allow the students to copy everyone’s name out as I do not have permission to send a class list home.
Hope everyone enjoyed the snow day as I know the kids have really been anticipating one coming.
I hope everyone had a great holiday and I would like to wish you all a wonderful 2021!
I am so happy that we are fortunate enough to be back in class for in person learning.
We did have a great first week back and everyone was very focused and ready to learn.
In LA we learned about New Year’s Traditions and even more exciting we started our class novel, Mystery at Cranberry Farm. It is one that’s been around for years and always is a favorite.
In Math we wrapped up our outcomes this week on fractions. Our final review will be tomorrow with the test on Tuesday.
It is so hard to imagine that this is the last week of school before Christmas. Everybody has been working very hard and they will have a special keepsake to share with you by the end of the week.
Thank you to everyone who sent in items for the food drive and donations for the candy grams. The money and items will go to help families in need this Christmas.
Just a reminder of our special dress up days this week:
Monday: Dress up like Santa’s elves
Tuesday: Christmas Hat Day
Wednesday: Dress up like a Christmas character
Thursday: Red and Green Day
Friday: Pyjama Day and Candy Gram deliveries
The next two weeks will be a little shorter for the students. We do not have school Wednesday to Friday this week and there is no school the following Friday due to parent teacher interviews.
The schedule for parent teacher interviews will be posted this week on the school website. The interviews are the evening of November 19th and the morning of November 20th. I’m really looking forward to meeting all of you and sharing your child’s progress during this time.
Just a reminder that all Remembrance Day writing and poster contest entries are due Monday.
This past week we have had a number of students out sick. Children have been doing a great job of wearing their masks, however if you could please remind your child to be continually sanitizing their hands, especially before they eat that would be wonderful. As there are some that never think to do it unless they are reminded.
Have a great weekend!
Most students have been doing fantastic with our work this week on decimals. I am very impressed!
There are still a handful of students who need to finish the good copy of their recounts that were due on Friday. Many students really pushed themselves to give their best effort. I am very pleased with the progress many students have made since the beginning of the year.
This week we have a couple of theme days: Wednesday will be wear Orange Day, Thursday will be wear Black Day, and Friday the students are allowed to wear their costumes to school along with their "regular" mask. The students can enter a pumpkin coloring contest that is due Oct. 30.
Have a wonderful weekend everyone.
School picture proofs went home this week. I will let you know when they pick a date for retakes.
On Friday I sent home the math test on place value and operations. Even though we don’t have weekend homework I got them to pack it in their agendas to show you. Please sign it, have your child correct their mistakes, and pass it back into me by Tuesday. Most students had fantastic results and I was very impressed. Some students do still need some practice on their operations of adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing. If you could please continue to work on those at home that would greatly benefit your child. In math our next four outcomes concentrate on fractions and decimals. We will be beginning that this week.
In writing we have been working on recounts and the students will finish up their good copy to pass in this week.
We will also be focusing on doing some reading comprehension activities. When you are reading with your child in the evenings please ask them questions about the text to make sure they are understanding what they are reading. I have been getting them to jot down just a short note of what an overall chapter is about to see if they get the main idea. Some students are still struggling with this.
Our youth worker has started to take small groups to do some team building activities with the students. I think they are enjoying them and hopefully see the benefits of working together as a group.
This was a fantastic week and I hope for many more just like it.
It seems so hard to imagine that we are already moving into our second month of Grade 5 this week. All of the changes with masks and cohorts have really started to just become our new normal.
In math we have finished our Boot Camp and have moved onto place value. Through our Boot Camp I noticed a huge improvement in students' knowledge of their basic facts. There are still a small number of students who do not know their facts as we would like at this point. It is very important for everyone to be still practicing these each night.
On Thursday a math package was sent home in plastic wrap. This was provided by the Department of Education to all K -6 students across the province. If you could put this in a safe spot for now as they sent it for parents to have some resources in case we ever had to go back to home learning. Fingers crossed that will not be needed.
On Friday we finished typing up Our Hero write ups. I can’t wait for the students to share them and pass them onto the people they wrote about.
There will be no official Meet the Teacher night this year. Instead I will be sending home an email this week with some information I would have been sharing on that night – most of which I have already shared with you. If you have any questions please feel free to contact me.
On Wednesday we will be having our annual Terry Fox Run as well as a Hat Day. We are asking anybody who can to take in a Toonie for Terry to support cancer research.
Friday is also our school Picture Day.
We had a super first week! As the week went on we only had a very small number of students who needed reminders to stay on task and not disturb those around them. I am sure next week everyone will fully settle into our class routines and work together as a team at all times. I am very impressed with all of them. I told them I have been bragging about them to anyone who will listen.
This week the students took home their IXL user names and passwords. This is a math site that I have purchased to work on our outcomes through the year. I will get the students logged into it this week but they are also welcome to work on it at home for extra practice. In case we ever had to go back to home learning this would be a great place to work on Grade 5 Math outcomes. There was also a code sent home for Epic to reading online. To do this at home parents need to sign up through their email like it said in the flyer. If you have lots of books at home don’t feel like you need to read from this site, it’s just an alternative. Students are also welcome to take books home from the school library or my classroom as long as they are taken care of and returned.
This year Scholastic Book Clubs will not be sending out a monthly flyer to order books. Instead they are getting parents to order online and the books will be directly shipped to your house. On Monday I will be sending home a flyer to show you how to do this. It says that online you will have up to 5000 titles to choose from for purchasing. So you have a lot more variety than in the flyer from the past.
In Math we will be doing a Boot Camp over the next few days to review basic skills from previous grades. Whatever is not finished each day in class will be homework.
In Language Arts we are focusing on proper sentence structure and adding detail to our basic sentences. We will also be discussing everyday heroes with a focus on the late legendary Canadian hero Terry Fox.
In Health we will begin our unit on Relationship Choices.
Thank you so much to all of you parents for doing all of your homework and filling out all of the forms on the first night. That is so helpful to myself and Miss Roxanne in the office.