Friday, December 17, 2021

 It's the final day before the winter break!! Only 16 students were present today.

Today we: played select literacy and math games, like Wordical, Word Around, Boggle, and Power of Ten face-off in groups of four. 

In P.E. students played an intense game of dodgeball called Snowman Takedown. Even Mr. Scout joined in and threw some vicious curve balls and the kids got him back two-fold by locking him in pylon jail. 

During snack, we watched some of the movie for Bridge to Terabithia so students could have visuals for the story we finished reading yesterday. It was awesome to see students recognize characters and events from memory as they presented in the film. 

For science, we got to make circuits out of conductive and insulating play dough. The students had to make a structure out of green, red and white play dough, and they had to make sure the white went between the two coloured pieces because they couldn't be touching. After they made their structure, we used circuits to test the conductivity of the structure. 

I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday and break. See you in the new year! 

Thursday, December 16, 2021

 Today we: worked in partners to explore adding 4-digit numbers with specific rules, such as the sum must have two 1's and the variables cannot have 0's. Students were challenged to come up with their own word problems and write explanations for their equations. 

We also finished our read aloud today and did a Kahoot quiz to wrap it up. Students showed how well they paid attention and competing for first place in the game was extremely engaging. 

In the afternoon we made Play-Doh! In small groups, they worked together to communicate, take turns, mix the ingredients, knead the dough, and clean their stations. This was all preparation for a science experiment tomorrow, which they are all very excited for! (Unfortunately, I was running around with the flour to help everyone that I wasn't able to take any pictures! Sorry...)

Festive socks were shown off this morning with early entry due to the very cold weather. Tomorrow has been adjusted to being both a Jersey day AND a Pyjama Day, so everyone can wear either or both of them. Students and staff should be extra cozy for the last school day of 2021. Stay warm! 

Wednesday, December 15, 2021

 Today we: practiced estimating in the thousands and ten thousands place by reviewing the costs of specific furniture and seeing how much we can fill a house with a budget of $15,000. For example, a bed and dresser would cost $1169 and kitchen appliances would cost $2599. Students were adding extra bedrooms or secondary suites to play with the budget and design a house for a family. They explored the idea of floor plans and got to design their own homes. 

We also introduced a game on the computers called Kahoot. We did two quizzes on estimating and place value with large numbers. Every student got to pick from multiple choice answers from a quiz displayed on the smart board. It allowed me to see at a glance how many students were understanding the material, and who needed more instruction. 

We ended the chromebook time with a quick quiz on social emotional learning via the movie Inside Out. They were able to identify emotions and their causes and effects, such as anger when someone is upset about something going wrong, or joy when something good happens. This was helpful for students to identify their own emotions. 

In the afternoon, we had both music and physical education, and with the little time left in the day, we all created a beautiful goodbye card for Cameron as he will be leaving Northern Lights School during the winter break. 

Festive hat day was cozy as most people were wearing Santa hats and Reindeer Horns. Looking forward to seeing the festive socks tomorrow! 

Only 2 more days until the break!!! 

Tuesday, December 14, 2021

 Today we: continued the social studies research on the Cordillera Region. This time the groups were shuffled so that new group members could share what they learned yesterday. Students who believed they had completed the task got to take on the role of leadership to help others, and those who were not done were given a second chance with different group members that were more supportive of their learning. The ones who were done also received insight on things they may have missed, such as the Sonoran Desert as an unlikely geographical feature in a landscape of rainy mountains. 

We also explored the language used to write word problems and made a chart of words that could be used for addition and subtraction problems, such as "difference" and "sum." Students were told to write problems of their own to demonstrate the use of math vocabulary, and then practice mental math strategies with their problems, such as friendly numbers or rounding. 

For example, Billy had 54 strawberries and picked 11 more. What was his total? Students added the 1 from 11 to the 54 to make 55, making the equation 55+10=65 which was much easier to solve once broken down. 

We also went to the learning commons today and took out some new books. Students are allowed to keep them over the holidays and I saw many chapter books being signed out! There was a wonderful variety of festive sweaters today and I can't wait to see the Festive hats tomorrow!

Monday, December 13, 2021

 Today we: wrote a response to our Read Aloud book, "Bridge to Terabithia," checking the reading comprehension for Chapter 6. Copies of the book were passed around table groups so they could refresh their memories as the weekend seemed to erase some of their memory on the events. It was nice to see some students were eager to help others to fill in the gaps and help out. 

In math, we discussed mental strategies to add large numbers by breaking them down into easier-to-add numbers. For example, the numbers 342 + 54 could be broken into 300 + 40 + 50 + 2 and they were encouraged to share their strategies with their table groups. Placing numbers in the correct place value  when not lining up the numbers was a common error that was highlighted. It was important for some to see that when you do mental math, you don't always have the numbers written vertically to line them up.

In Social, we did some research on the Cordillera region. Due to technical difficulties, the Chromebooks were down, so we improvised and used textbooks in small groups. They were able to share the research responsibility and practice extracting information based on key words from the checklist of topics on the board such as climate, landscape, and geographical features. 

Since we did not have physical education today, I played a festive challenge to The Grinch Who Stole Christmas on the Smartboard. Students were encouraged to jump, dodge, freeze and throw to the video and it was a spirit-lifter for the Monday madness. 

Today was Dress to Impress Day and I saw some amazing outfits! Excited to see everyone's festive sweaters tomorrow. 

Friday, December 10, 2021

 Today we: rotated the Literacy Block groups so everyone could work on a new task. Reading Responses were done to our Read Aloud book, "Bridge to Terabithia," and Partner Readers went to the prairie room so they didn't disturb those who were doing Read to Self. 

In Phys Ed, Mr. Newton has been adding some mindful meditations at the end to bring the high energies back down to focus. It has been very successful as the students came back for snack as quiet as mice! 

After snack we had time with the chromebooks to finish research on food chains. Those who finished early were allowed to go onto Prodigy where I have set up assignments based on the Whole Numbers unit we are currently working on. They can access this at home as well with the code 9B0831A. 

We finished the day with math and literacy games. It was Pyjama day, and everyone was extra cozy spread around the room engaging in fun activities that strengthen their skills while keeping them engaged. Boggle, Wordical, Power of Ten Face-off, and dice games that employ subtraction and addition. Half day Fridays mixed with pyjamas and stuffies makes for an extra wiggly group of kids, so they really enjoyed being able to work off some energy with education games! 

Hoping everyone has a wonderful weekend and we will be back Monday with the next Spirit Week! It will be Dress To Impress Day where we dress in our best family event clothing. Time to Suit Up!

Thursday, December 9, 2021

 

Today we: wrote wishes for everyone in the world on snowflake ornaments and hung them on NLS's Wish Tree. Some wishes were "I hope everyone has clean drinking water" and "I wish for everyone to be warm and safe this season" and I was very impressed with the class's compassion and kindness for others. 

We also had some math mini-conferences to discuss specific common errors in estimation to further reach the students with some confusion. 

In science, we perfected our checklist for the food chains and students got the chance to edit their work and find more specific research on decomposers, consumers, and producers. 

Word work is getting more seamless as the students get more familiar with the routine. I'm seeing improvements in their word sense already! Written responses were used in Math as well to discuss the differences between their estimates and the real data for the population of the Canada's provinces. I was happy to see the class pick up on the available resources as being a factor to the population size. 

Fitness tests in P.E. are helping the students get some energy out! Some students still need to practice the proper form of a push-up, but effort was high and smiles were spreading. 

Wednesday, December 8, 2021

  Today we practiced our spelling and printing by writing wonderful holiday cards for seniors! 5A wrote lovely messages, outlined in sharpie, and festive pictures coloured and detailed to bring joy and kindness. We also compared our estimates of each population in Canada to the real data taken from 2020. Students were surprised to see how close and far their guesses were. We continue to research food chains of wetland animals and students are beginning to record their research in a flipgrid. 

Tuesday, December 7, 2021

 Today was Vacation Dress-Up Day! Ms. Nugent dressed in hiking/camping gear to promote Canada vacations, and other classmates wore Hawaiian themed shirts, beach hats, and summer-like clothing. This definitely brought spirit to the classroom of 5A. We continued with our research on Food Chains in science and students will be presenting their animal research through a flipgrid. The Word Work program "Words Their Way" is in full swing now; all of the groups now have their words to work on every morning, and every 6 days they will get to Level Up! Building their vocabularies and enhancing their spelling are just the tip of the iceberg for what the students will gain with this program. Don't forget, tomorrow is Wear Red and Green Day! 

Monday, December 6, 2021

 Today we had an exciting holiday art event! We are decorating our classroom doors for Spirit Week and all the classes are in a contest for best door. 5A coloured ornaments and candy canes to be places on the tree that takes up the whole door, and some made 2D colourful presents to put underneath the tree. Votes are on Tuesday, December 14. We also discussed the six regions of Canada and colour coded a map with a legend. This will help with our math task tomorrow! 

Friday, December 3, 2021

 Today we created a new Math Prodigy Teacher Account so the students could occasionally at school, and more often at home, practice their math skills through engaging games. This allows them to play with their classmates, engage in competitive tasks, build proficiency in technology, and build their number sense. The teacher account allows me to view their progress and assess them through homework tasks which can be utilized over winter break. We also did a role-playing exercise to get a better understanding of the Zones of Regulation. Students were excited to perform the different roles and understood what all of the zones look and feel like. Our next step will be how to move back to the green zone when we move through other events and feelings through the day. 

Thursday, December 2, 2021

 While exploring the intricate system of the Wetlands, we dove into a heated topic about protecting the land and creatures who depend on it. After watching a visually enthralling read aloud of The Lorax by Dr. Seuss, 5A were tasked with writing a letter to either the Once-ler or the Lorax with their point of view on the situation. They were meant to emphasize the greed of the Once-ler and how the need for trees will affect multiple parts of life in the area. Everyone could comprehend the harm that the greed was causing and the need for oxygen needed for things to live. We also made a pledge to spread kindness and shed light this holiday season and wrote our pledge on Christmas tree cut outs.  

Wednesday, December 1, 2021

  The students had a great time today learning how to draw a map of Canada. We explored some of the provinces' geographical features through a story called "Carson Crosses Canada" by Linda Bailey and Kass Reich. The story has detailed artwork of each of the different types of landscapes found in various tourist hot spots from the Pacific to the Atlantic Ocean while an adorable dog takes a road trip through Canada. We also practiced more estimation rounding using the base ten blocks for visuals which helped many better grasp the concept of whole numbers. In Phys Ed, 5A won just about every round of Bench Ball and we ended the day with triumph! 

Tuesday, November 30, 2021

 Math is always made easier with visuals, and today, 5A got to explore rounding up whole numbers in the thousands with benchmarked number lines. This task made a lot of students have "lightbulb" moments and they were very surprised to find that rounding up or down usually is a case-by-case occurrence. Shopping on a budget seemed to be the most frequent example students wanted to play with, and with the holidays coming up, I'm pretty sure I know what's on their minds... Speaking of holidays, we made some fantastic snowflake art in the afternoon to prepare for the coming snow in the next week. 

Monday, November 29, 2021

 Today in Grade 5, tensions were high as the challenges brought out the importance of teamwork! In math, table groups were paired together and given a set of math manipulatives to attempt to build the tallest, toughest, and most triangular towers. Teams had to communicate, share, contribute, and rotate between multiple avenues to do these team building exercises. The tallest tower came in at 38 inches, and the triangle tower got extra points for spelling the word "triangle" with the blocks. In Phys Ed, relay teams raced to get the most laps between groups, and the highest lap count was 72! An amazing Monday for these little Nuggets, great effort team! 

Thursday, November 25, 2021

  Today was a big day of classroom furniture rearranging, discussing expectations, and figuring out where everyone is in their writing. We wrote a letter to the teacher this morning so that every student would have the opportunity to share what they want me to know about them. I intend to read and respond to them all by Monday. We also had a visit to the learning commons and everyone was thrilled to have a new set of books to dive into. Seating plans were made to best enhance every student's learning, and we all agreed to name the class Ms. Nugent's Nuggets. Hoping everyone has a wonderful long weekend! 

Wednesday November 24, 2021

 What an amazing day getting to meet this lovely group of happy kiddos! I am very excited to work with all these amazing personalities for the rest of the school year. While the day was spent mostly building relationships and getting to know one another, we did manage to do an art critique of the world famous Vincent Van Gogh. Students got to express their thoughts and feelings about the colours and line work in "Starry Night." We also learned a new game in Math, called The Power of Nine, practicing adding 1-digit numbers to 9. It was a great first day and I cannot wait to see what tomorrow brings!