March 2018

In Social Studies, Mr. Goudreau has been helping us to understand the historical context in the late 1600s and early 1700s in order to better understand the interactions between Europeans and Indigenous Peoples in Canada in New France. We're taking notes from texts and working to understand the intentions of the Europeans as they came to "explore" Canada. The week after the break, we will be starting an inquiry based on some of the questions that we will be working to generate next week using a Q-Chart.

With our Kindergarten Buddies, we continued our designs and paper prototypes. They are absolutely fantastic! As we were walking around the classroom when students were working, it was amazing to hear the kindergarten students sharing the solutions to their bugs and the excitement with which they were communicating. I can't wait to see their actual solutions. Next week we will be working with them to learn about Hand Tool Safety and will start to build the week after the March Break.

There's one more week before the break and there is a lot going on in the school. Please remember to check out our What's On At Shaughnessy page for our school and classroom calendar.

March 9, 2018

What a busy week! It's a good thing that next week is March Break...We'll have a bit of time to rest up for the last part of the school year!

In Language, we wrapped up our Book Talks this week. I have to say that I was so impressed by the collaboration and leadership skills that students took on in order to finish reading their books, discussing them and completing assignments. While it's been great reading through their work, I have really enjoyed watching their movie trailers for their books. There has been such creativity and originality as students shared what they learned based on themes and ideas from the books. We start a new set of book talks after the break.

In Math, we had a busy week of investigating equivalent fractions and comparing fractions. Students were tasked with trying to determine how they might be able to break up a line that is 24 units into equal parts. They realized that there were 7 ways that they could easily do this and that they could use multiplication and division to help make the task a little easier. We also took some time to compare our fractions with a clothesline activity and problem solving through word problems. After the break, we continue our work and connect it all back to decimal tenths and hundredths.

In French, we continued our work on the human body and descriptions through our play - Mon enfant est perdu! Students will have the opportunity to practice over the break and we will be presenting upon our return.

In Science, we have been continuing our research on Human Body Systems. Students had the opportunity to create sketchnotes this week of their learning about the systems and how they may interact with each other. We also had the chance to work on a KWL which allowed students to reflect on what they already know, what they want to know and what they have learned. Students also had the opportunity to select an inquiry question that they will research after the break. They will be tasked with creating an artifact that speaks to their inquiry process and learning.

On Thursday, we had a Bring Back The Sun celebration where students had the opportunity to participate in activities throughout the school with teams of students from various grades. Our Grade 5s were leaders for their groups and did an amazing job with helping the younger students navigate the tasks and understand the activities. The 7/8s were students leaders and we were lucky to have 2 who lead our Sand Castle Building.

Next week is March Break. Wishing everyone a happy, safe & restful break. I'll see you on Monday, March 19th at 8:40am.

March 23, 2018

I hope that everyone had a restful March Break! We are in the home-stretch with just a little over 3 more months left of school. I feel as though this is where the magic happens so stay tuned!

In Science, the grade 5s have been researching their "How might..?" questions related to the human body systems. From, "How might the systems of the body be impacted before, during and after a transplant?" to "How might our experiences affect our dreams or when we dream?" students are searching for answers and will be creating artifacts of their learning soon.

In Languages we started our second round of Book Talks. Students once again are engaged in reading in groups and completing activities related to their novels. After feedback from students, groups are a little smaller and we added a couple of new selections.

In Math, we continued to relate our fractions to decimals. We started the week with a breakout about decimals and how they might be related to fractions. Students also started adding fractions and learned that we can add the numerators for fractions that have a common denominator. If presented with fractions with 2 different denominators, students learned that we have to use multiplication to help us find a common denominator in order to add them. We also learned about proper and improper fractions. Next week we will be wrapping up our unit with an Art activity.

In French, we presented our plays and started a new unit on modes of transport. We used online activities to help gain the vocabulary needed to help us in this unit.

In Art, we continue to work on our arpilleras related to a social issues in our groups. After researching we continue to try to show not only the what but the how and the why behind issues like poverty, global warming and terrorism. Next week we get our pieces of burlap and start putting the physical quilts together.

Next month, we start tdsbCREATES which is a project related to narratives of now. Students will be working to create a 10 minute musical with an Artist who has been selected to work with our class. Our narratives will be related to identity. Also, we will be heading to the ballet later in April so it's bound to be a month full of the Arts! Remember to check out our What's On At Shaughnessy page for upcoming events.

March 29, 2018

A great week to wrap up the month of March.

In Language, we continued to work on our Book Talks and although we are a bit behind, we'll have some time to catch up next week as we start to begin Book presentations. Groups will share their novels and artifacts that they created that most resonated with them during our Book Talk.

We also started to look at identity as we prepare for tdsbCREATES, which starts later this month. Using Padlet, students were able to share what they understand of identity and ways in which we express our identities. There will be much more talk about this as we being our work with our Artist.

In Math, we continued to relate fractions to decimals and worked on a piece of Pixel Art where we had to determine the fraction and decimal of each colour used. It was a tough tasks since our grid was larger than 100 pixels. We'll consolidate our learning on Wednesday and then move into multiplication and division strategies.

In Art, we continued our work on arpilleras and we are almost ready to get creating! Stay tuned for some amazing pieces that really demonstrate an understanding and a call to action about social and environmental issues that are of concern to students.

In French, we started a new play - Comment y aller? We have taken some time this week to do a hunt for nouns and started on a graphic organizer to help us summarize what happens in the beginning, middle and end of the text. Next week, students will start to group themselves and work together to bring their play to life.

In Science, students continued to work on their inquiries and took some time to touch base with peers to be able to get some feedback on their ideas for artifacts. We will hopefully start to build or create our artifacts next week.

During our Student of the Month assembly today, the students in our class introduced next month's character trait - Cooperation - through a mannequin challenge. We used Canned Heat's song Let's Work Together as the background to our challenge. It was amazing to see the students rise to the occasion and lead this portion of our assembly! Great job everyone!