September 2020

September 18th, 2020

Welcome back to another year of learning together at Sloane! While this year is certainly like no other, we've had a great start as Grade 5s in room 207. We've been hard at work managing new routines - wearing masks, handwashing and distancing - and getting back in the swing of things with face-to-face learning. I couldn't be more proud of the way students gave it their all this week. Thank you for taking the time to prepare your child for the new routines they would encounter in school. I am so grateful for the time you put in and I look forward to working with you this year to make it a success for your child.

This week in Literacy, we spent time learning about the characteristics of a narrative: characters, the setting(s), and plot. We also spent some time thinking about personal narratives (non-fiction) and great stories (fiction) that we enjoy reading and listening to. This lead us to begin our journey into yet another podcast this year. This time, we will be exploring The Unexplainable Disappears of Mars Patel. So far, we've listened to 2 episodes and have examined, in detail, the 5Ws: who, what, where, when and why. We're making predictions and trying to figure out what happened to Jonas and Aurora. As we understand the elements that make for a great story, we will start to write our own and who knows, they might just turn into another great podcast! Stay tuned.

In Numeracy, we started looking at Data Management. We created a KWL chart - a graphic organizer that helps to organize information before, during, and after a unit or a lesson. We used it to start our unit, as I tried to understand what students already knew and what they wanted to learn about Data Management. Many already know quite a bit about using graphs to organize and interpret data. There were a number of students interested in the real life application of analyzing data and how they drive decision making. We started to look at data about bullying in Canada as students created double bar graphs. Today, they started to consider the implications of that data. More specifically, how we might prevent bullying from happening as we now understand specific ways in which students are bullied. Over the next few weeks, we'll continue learning to construct graphs and hopefully understand more practical uses in a real life setting.

This week in Visual Arts, we spent time learning about Space and Colour as 2 elements of Art. Students created name tags that give the illusion of depth and used warm and cool colours to make their names pop. As we progress this year, students will continue to learn how to use the elements of Art to create 2D and 3D works of Art.

It was a great first week back. I know that you may have questions about how the year might unfold. Please remember to check out the What's on at Sloane page to keep up-to-date on school events. Our Weekly Schedule has also been updated for this year. I try to stick to this schedule but please allow for some flexibility for projects and student interest. For homework ideas, please visit the Extra Work at Home page. I am in the process of working through This Year's Learning Journey and it will be posted shortly.

Again, I'm so grateful for the opportunity to collaborate with you this year in order to make it a success for your child. Please know that my door is always open. Feel free to send me an email - arianna.lambert@tdsb.on.ca and I will be more than happy to set up a time to meet. Continue to take care of yourselves and have a wonderful weekend!

September 25th, 2020

Week #2 is in the bag and it was a great one!

This week we started getting ourselves ready for Orange Shirt Day which is on Wednesday, September 30th, 2020. Students were read a variety of picture books to gain a deeper understanding of the experiences and impact of residential schools on Indigenous children and families. This also served as an introduction to our first Social Studies unit on First Nations and Europeans in New France and Early Canada. As the weeks progress, we will continue to explore the following big ideas:

• interactions between people have consequences that can be positive for some people and negative for others;

• when studying interrelationships between groups of people, it is important to be aware that each group has its own perspective on those interrelationships;

• cooperation and conflict are inherent aspects of human interactions/ relationships.

In Literacy, we continued our work on narratives by listening to our podcast, The Unexplainable Disappearance of Mars Patel. I have to say that I am just as into it as the students! So much so that on Friday we couldn't end with a cliffhanger, we had to listen to another episode! This week, we focused on answering questions - open and some based on comprehension - keeping in mind:

• writing conventions - punctuation, grammar, spelling, and capitalization.

• using parts of the question in our answers so that the reader clearly understands what is being asked, even without seeing the question;

• re-reading our work to make sure that it makes complete sense to the reader; and

• being detailed in our writing - explaining our thinking.

We also tied our podcast into a STEM challenge, starting off our Science unit on Forces Acting on Structures. Today, students had to create their own ferry boat that would keep Mars and his friends safe for their journey to Gale Island. Given limited materials and time, they designed a ferry and got building. With only 20 minutes to build, groups did an amazing job at trying to get Mars and his friends across. There were a couple of casualties but most were able to make it safely. Next week, we will continue to explore features that make structures stable while also considering the forces acting on them.

In Numeracy, we finished creating our classroom action plan. This was based on the bullying statistics that we used to understand the different types of bullying faced by students across Canada. Understanding that data should always drive decisions, our action plan was a collaboration of our ideas on how to create an inclusive environment for all. On Thursday we signed our action plan, agreeing to the steps contained within. Later in the week, we started looking at how to create stacked bar graphs as well as how to determine the mean, median and mode. On Friday we started looking at data for household expenses from 2015 to 2017. We will be using this to try to understand a livable wage.

In French, we finished our bioglyphs and participated in a short guided writing activity where students wrote about themselves. Next week we will start to type our good copies. We also started to work on our visual dictionaries as we continue to increase our French vocabulary. Students should continue to practice saying their numbers and the letters of the alphabet which are in their visual dictionaries.

This week we worked on value for Visual Arts by starting a Querkles activity. Students were given a work of art to colour in with numbers according to value. As they move from darker to lighter, their works of art will come to life. Once finished, students will be asked to explore their piece further, sharing back with the class what they have learned about this piece.

In Music, we started thinking about:

• What is music?

• What emotions are evoked through music?

• What are the messages contained within music?

From there, we listened to Glory and spoke about the lyrics and its significance both during the time of the Civil Rights Movement and in current day. It was a time of deep conversation. Starting next week, students will pick their own songs and will continue to discuss.

Next week is a busy week at Sloane. On Wednesday, we have Orange Shirt Day and on Thursday we have the Terry Fox walk. This year marks the 40th anniversary of the Marathon of Hope. During their gym class next week, students will be taking part in our Terry Fox Run. Donations of a “Toonie for Terry” are greatly appreciated!

Lastly, we've had a great start to the school year and the junior grades are moving into greater use of technology within the classrooms. Next week we will begin using Chromebooks within the classroom learning environment as we know that technology is a great tool for engaging students as they learn. Please take some time to review the TDSB's Online Code of Conduct with your child as we will adhering to these guidelines while learning together this year.

Thank you for your support yet again this week. I hope that you have a great weekend!