November 2017

November 3, 2017

A busy and fun-filled week as students danced in our Halloween dance-a-thon & worked to complete their hurricane solutions. 

In Language, students continued to work on their biographies by completing their research and working on the portrait and movie portion of their graphic organizers for their Change Makers. Rough copies were handed-in on Friday and we'll all be working on our good copies this week. Stay tuned to find out more about people who are currently making change - for the better - in the world around us.

In Math we continued our work on patterns and working to offer feedback to peers. Students were given open problems that they had to solve in their table groups. The goal of this is to continue our work around accountable Math talk and identifying the strategies that we are using to solve these types of problems. Sample problems that you may wish to try at home with your child include: 

• A pattern has  7 terms. The 3rd term is 20. What is the pattern? What type of pattern is it? What is the pattern rule?

• Write 3 different patterns rules starting at the number 3.

• Create a growing pattern. How does the pattern grow?  What changes as the pattern grows? What stays the same as the pattern grows?

Data Management Quizzes will be sent home on Monday.

In Science, the grade 5s continued their building and have started to work on their pitches. Next week, we'll begin presentations of our work and determine the best way to display our hurricane solutions.

In French, we continued presentations of our play - La salade des fruits. If your child has not already presented, I would encourage them to continue practicing their pronunciation, expression and actions that demonstrate an understanding of the text. We've seen some fantastic presentations so far and we will be continuing next week.

In Art, we started to look at line and colour as elements of Art. Students were asked to create a landscape using lines and colour to give the illusion of depth and texture. We will continue this work next week.

Treaties recognition week is coming up. We will be continuing our learning around the Land Acknowledgement and Toronto Purchase as we dig deeper in our understanding of treaties.

Hour of Code is coming up! This week, we tried out coding through sites found on the Coding Activities page. Please take a look and consider asking your child for the connections that they see between Math and coding.

November 10, 2017

This week I was away at conferences so students were busy working on completing their Biographies, solving rich Patterning problems using a KWC Chart and learning about items used at school in French. The grade 5s continued to work on their hurricane solutions presentations and we hope to have things ready to present next week.

Next week is a busy one at Shaughnessy. We have:

•  Our book fair starting on Monday in the library

• Report cards go home on Tuesday

• Parent-Teacher Interviews are on Thursday and Friday. Notices will be sent home for interview times with the report cards on Tuesday.

Here's one of the Math questions that students were asked to work on this week. Take a look and see which strategies you might be able to use in order to solve it. The question comes from Marian's Small's Eyes on Math.

November 17, 2017

It was great to meet so many parents and have the opportunity to discuss our progress so far this year. I look forward to continuing to collaborate with you in order to ensure student success.

In Language this week, we finished our biographies and you'll find information about our Change Makers on the wall outside our classroom. As the year progresses, we'll continue to work on gathering and organizing information as we research. On Thursday, we began our next unit of study on Procedural Writing. Students were asked to consider how to make toast and to write the instructions in 3 minutes or less. It was amazing to see how many different ways there are to make toast. We also had a student lead us in an activity on making slime. We realized that we needed a list of materials, including quantities and clear steps in order to succeed. We will continue our work next week by looking at recipes. 

In Math, we are continuing our work around patterns and looking to extend and compare them through the solution of word problems. We also took some time to reflect on what we have learned so far and we filled the board with fantastic ideas from our unit. We will be having a quiz on Thursday, November 30th. Students will be given a practice sheet next week to prepare.

In French, we finished our Sac à dos activity and will be starting to get into a new play and another writing activity about familiar activities that we do with family and friends. 

In Science, the grade 5s are almost finished their presentations for their hurricane solutions and we will be starting presentations next Wednesday. Students will be given the opportunity to present their solutions to their peers and will be asked to reflect on the solutions of others and justify their choice of the best solution. 

We are starting Social Studies this coming week. The grade 4s will be working on Provinces and Territories while the grade 5s will be working on Government. The task will be to research and to create a game that they will use to teach their peers about a specific aspect. This will be tied into the work we are doing relating to procedural writing in Language. 

In Art, many students completed their Line Art activity. As we continue to look at the elements of Art, the next element that we will be exploring is texture. 

There are a lot of events coming up at Shaughnessy. Please be sure to check out the What's On A Shaughnessy page to keep up-to-date. Hour of Code is coming up and we are practicing with online activities. Stay tuned to see what we will create using our coding skills.

November 24, 2017

This week we put on our researcher hats as we tested new or unfamiliar games to see if there were some ideas that we liked and wanted to incorporate into our board game designs. Students were given their design planning template that outlined the following for their curriculum expectations. They are to consider how they may demonstrate their learning based on research in one of the following areas which are from the Ontario Social Studies Curriculum:

Grade 4s: Remember that your board game should include and/or teach one of the following:

• Analyse some of the general ways in which the natural environment of regions in Canada has affected the development of industry (e.g., how the characteristics of the Canadian Shield made possible the development of mining and smelting, forestry, freshwater fisheries, pulp and paper; how the characteristics of the Maritime provinces made possible the development of fisheries, coal mining, agriculture, offshore oil drilling; how the topography and climate of the Prairies make the region suitable for large-scale farming and ranching)

• Describe some key actions taken by both industries and citizens to address the need for more sustainable use of land and resources (e.g., controlling industrial tailings; putting solar panels on houses or other buildings; ensuring responsible hunting and fishing practices; consulting with First Nations, Métis, and/or Inuit communities about resource development in their territories), and assess their effectiveness

• Investigate into some of the issues and challenges associated with balancing human needs/wants and activities with environmental stewardship in one or more of the political and/or physical regions of Canada 

• Describe significant opportunities and challenges related to quality of life in some of Canada’s political regions 

• Identify Canada’s provinces and territories and their capital cities, and describe them with reference to their location and some of the peoples who live in them 

Grade 5s: Remember that your board game should include and/or teach one of the following:

• Assess the effectiveness of actions taken by one or more levels of government to address an issue of national, provincial/territorial, and/or local significance (e.g., the effectiveness of the Far North Act in addressing concerns of Inuit and First Nations about development in northern Ontario; the effectiveness of municipal, provincial, and/or federal programs/policies aimed at reducing child poverty; the effectiveness of policies related to the management of the Great Lakes)

• Create a plan of action to address a social or environmental issue of local, provincial/territorial, and/or national significance (e.g., homelessness, child poverty, bullying in schools, availability of physicians in remote communities OR managing waste disposal, regulating industrial practices that damage the environment, ensuring safe drinking water, expanding availability of energy from renewable sources, reducing vehicle emissions), specifying the actions to be taken by the appropriate level (or levels) of government as well as by citizens 

• Investigate into social and/or environmental issues in Canada from various perspectives, including the perspective of the level (or levels) of government responsible for addressing the issues 

• Describe the major rights and responsibilities associated with citizenship in Canada 

• Describe key actions taken by different levels of government to solve some significant national, provincial/territorial, and/or local issues

• Describe the shared responsibility of various levels of government for providing some services and for dealing with selected social and environmental issues 

In Math, we were hands on to solve our Pattern problems. From linking cubes to colour tiles and counters, students were using manipulatives to see if and how they might help to better understand and model the Math in our word problems. It was great to see students pick and use the materials that they thought would best support their learning.

We are learning how we might structure the elements of our sentences in French. Where does the verb go? What about the subject? We're figuring it out by using a template and next week, we'll use it to write sentences about our weekend, following a model.

Science presentations have started and I am blown away! There are some amazing hurricane solutions and presentations filled with many animations. This week and next, students will be interviewing their peers about the solutions that they created in order to learn more about the Forces Acting on Structures. Stay tuned!

In Art, we have a student who is leading us in an activity based on the book We Are All Wonders. The art activity asks students to consider how they can show kindness to others and ways in which they are wonders. We'll post them on Twitter once they are complete.

Next week is a short week as Friday is a PA Day! Please remember that it's Pizza lunch on Thursday.

November 30, 2017

Where has the month gone? Today we had our recognition assembly and we had two students who were selected by their peers to win the Character Education Trait Award for Empathy. It was such a close call and we had many runner-ups. This means that there are many students who are putting themselves in the shoes of others and considering how they may treat others the way they would like to be treated. Keep up the great work room 206!

This week we dug a little deeper into our board games. Students were asked to share their ideas with each other in order to get feedback. Once given feedback, students were then asked to start writing their list of materials and describing how they'll use them. I'm really excited to see some of these great Social Studies ideas coming to life next week. We will be starting to do a quick prototype on Monday that will be used to gain even more feedback from peers. Students are encouraged to make sure that they are connecting their board - not bored - game ideas to the curriculum expectations outlined in their design planning template. By the end of the next week, students should have the beginning of their instructions - procedural writing - complete.

Today was our Math Quiz. Students were asked to show what they have learned during our unit on Patterns. I look forward to taking a look at their work and they should be returned by the end of next week. On Monday, we will be beginning a new unit on Geometry. Please take a look at the This Year's Learning Journey page if you're looking for more specifics on what might be covered during the unit.

In Science, the grade 5s completed their presentations and their peer interviews. Students were asked to visit 3 peers to learn about their solutions as it related to our work on Forces Acting on Structures and the recent hurricanes. Next week, we will be having a Hurricane Lambert test of some of the solutions! Stay tuned to Twitter to see what we'll get up to. We will also be starting a new unit on Conservation of Energy.

In French, we are learning to write sentences about activities that we are doing during the weekend, following a model. This past week, students were asked to write 5 sentences and include drawings that were a representation of their activities. Our oral component was having students share their activities with others after being asked what they did on the weekend.

Next week is Hour of Code week. Students will be engaged in a variety of coding activities. Check out the Coding Activities page to try some neat coding activities at home.