Friday, April 29, 2022

 Today we: chose new groups and clean-up jobs. The helpers for next week will be CJ and Haily. We did not do word work because Friday housekeeping took longer than planned. After a short time in Literacy Block, the students went to their last lesson of gymnastics with Mr. Newton. 

After snack, the students got to enjoy their full hour of Minecraft. All points and stars were earned this week and some even chose to go on Prodigy instead to work on their math skills! I was very impressed to see so many interested in doing more math. 

We watched a video about electricity and magnetism before heading outside to end the day in the beautiful spring weather! We tapped into our 5 senses to find what we could see, smell, touch, hear and taste (no one ate anything, don't worry!). 

Have a wonderful weekend everyone, see you on Monday! 

Thursday, April 28, 2022

 Today we: picked our literacy block back up after the walk yesterday. Grade 5's are just crushing the environmental week for walking/riding bike to school! We could do better on Litter-less Lunches though, there are still plenty of wrappers in their snacks. We are first place for walking, and third place for litter-less lunches. Tomorrow is the last day to collect points! 

In health, we discussed the various components of the body for people with a uterus and the cycle and journey of an egg. Then we did a Kahoot quiz and some fill-in-the-blank sheets to solidify their retention of the material. If your child comes home with any questions, again, they may have been embarrassed or uncomfortable to ask them in the classroom setting. If you need any assistance facilitating their learning, feel free to send me an email. 

After lunch, we had music, gym, and then 5 students went off to do the Recycling Relay Race while the rest of the class watched the live feed. We started working on a social studies worksheet about settlers in the Cordillera region. They had to read the textbook to find who the first settlers were, where they originally came from, and what the result was in their exploration.  

There will be no Health class tomorrow, we will pick it back up on Monday. We have literacy, gym, Minecraft and science to fill our half day Friday and then it's weekend down time!  

Wednesday, April 27, 2022

 Today was a different type of day. We spent the morning going on a community walk for environmental week. Instead of our literacy activities, we walked a loop around the Coventry neighborhood, and on our way back to the school there were signs posted on the pathway - pages from a book to read about Alberta and the nature we live in. We made it back with a bit of time before snack and recess, so we shared what we learned and then played silent ball before they went back outside. 

After recess, we began our Health unit on Human Sexuality. If your child comes home with questions, please be prepared to answer them. If they were not answered in class, they were likely too embarrassed to ask, it was not appropriate/on topic, or they thought you were the safest person to ask. We have ground rules - respect one another, use scientific names for things, not slang, no put downs, respect people's boundaries, and no personal experiences. The material we are covering is designed for their age group and development so it is important for them to know how their bodies will change and develop, and why. 

Those who have not been given permission to participate will be working on another assignment about body systems and researching what other systems in the body are and how they work. 

The afternoon was mostly taken up by Music and P.E. and since we missed math block today, we did some prodigy practice in between the afternoon extra curriculars. 

Tuesday, April 26, 2022

 Today we: celebrated the wonderful Earth we inhabit with Earth Hour from 9:30-10:30am. We did this by keeping our lights and all technology off. This was easy to do during literacy time as we have books and papers to work on. 

In math, we explored decimals further with some fraction conversion and some practice questions from the textbook about creating fractions on a hundreds chart and converting them to decimals. We practiced more math skills by doing a class Kahoot of our multiplication facts. 

After lunch we read the Jumbies and we finished it! The book will be available for students to re-read or look over to polish up their visual journals before finals marks and we will write a response on our predictions from the beginning of the book.  

We visited the learning commons this afternoon and picked some new books. I saw many students challenging themselves with more chapter books! 

We ended the day with some extra time to polish the visual journals and then start brainstorming on a fractured fairytale article. 

We have a community walk tomorrow morning, first thing, as a task for environmental week. We are going out rain or shine so please make sure your child has mud/rain gear and/or a second outfit to wear if they get wet. We are also starting Human Sexuality in health tomorrow so please be prepared for the comments and questions when your child comes home. We will have a question box for anonymous questions, but we understand how uncomfortable some children may be, and the support at home would be very beneficial to this subject. 

Also, remember to encourage your child to walk, bike, or scooter to school and pack lunches with no litter in them! So reusable containers/bags, no packaged items, things that can be composted or recycled, etc. We are trying extra hard this week to protect the environment (though we should do this every day all year), and there could be prizes for the class who gets the most points! 

Monday, April 25, 2022

 Today we: switched up the routine again. We added CAFE reading to our morning literacy block, now that they have their goals chosen. It is important that students are shifting from learning to read and start reading to learn, so having reading goals helps them read with more purpose and intention. 

In math, we calculated how many students walked/biked/scootered to school as opposed to driving. Environmental Week began today and the smartboard in the Prairie Room will be showing a live feed throughout the week of the classes and grades totals each day. We also calculated who brought a litter-less lunch to save waste. We had a discussion about reducing, reusing and recycling. Then we dove into decimals. We discussed the basic fractions (1/2, 1/3, 1/4, 2/3, and 3/4) and what they were in decimals. We used base ten blocks for a visual aid to see out of 100. 

In social, students studied the textbook in groups to see the history of the Canadian Shield region. They read a page as a group and took notes on what they believed was important events and key information and then presented it to the class before lunch. 

After lunch we read the Jumbies and then worked on Fractured Fairytales. We presented our newspaper observations and then did another Venn Diagram on two versions of Goldie Locks. Then we went to gym to work on our cartwheels until the end of the day. 

Friday, April 22, 2022

 Today we: skipped literacy block rotations to work more on our observations of fairytale newspaper articles. We chose new jobs and helpers for the week; next week's helpers are Yasmine and Eva. 

In gym, students worked on hand stands for their gymnastics unit. We played silent ball during snack time and the boys started to throw pretty hard to test my catching skills. 

The class earned all twelve Minecraft points so they got a full hour of time on the Chromebooks. We focused on a task related to Earth Day - they had to build a pollination garden that would support the bees. They were so creative! 

When the hour was up, we did a quick Earth Day activity about pledging to protect the environment. We watched a story read by Ms. Brinson and then wrote our pledge on a fancy cutout of something in nature.

After the Earth Day pledge, we went outside with the other grade five classes and built volcanoes in the snow. We had a great surprise for them when they finished. We brought vinegar, baking soda, dish soap and food coloring to make the volcanoes erupt! 

Have a great weekend everyone!

Thursday, April 21, 2022

 Tomorrow is Earth Day! Make sure you wear green and blue to school. Next week will be environmental week and some of the staff has prepared many activities for the students on NLS. We are encouraging the students to pack litter-less lunches, so nothing in bags or wrappers, use containers and reusable materials. We are also encouraging students to walk or scooter to school instead of being driven. Check out these awesome posters made by students in our school:

Today we: did our final practice sheet for comparing fractions. They did some textbook questions as well in their table groups to solidify the concept of comparing fractions. To give the hard-working math professionals a break, because they're just crushing this fractions stuff, they got to play math games for the remainder of the math block. 

After lunch, we dove in the Jumbies with the intention of finishing it. The other grade five classes have finished the story so I'm hoping to catch us up in time to begin the next read aloud on the docket - City of Ember. 

We ended the day with some more fractured fairy tales work. We took 4 pages from a Fairytale Newspaper and worked in groups to read, make notes, and learn about newspaper articles. They will be writing their own newspaper article on a fairytale later in the unit, so this was a good chance for observations and learning through inquiry and exploration. We will read more fairy tales next week. 

See you tomorrow for Earth Day! 

Wednesday, April 20, 2022

 Today we: had 8 students away. Hopefully they are just staying safe from the snowy roads and enjoying a snow day! They were greatly missed today. Due to the absences, we had flexible seating for the day as a trial run to see if sitting by their friends would benefit or hinder their learning. It will be back to assigned seats tomorrow. 

During literacy this morning, we practiced our morning phonics by ending the final phoneme and seeing how the sound can change the word. For example, "brew" has three sounds (b-r-oo) but if you add a "d" sound, the word becomes "brood." Word work was a bit chaotic due to so many being away. I gave some word ladders out as a literacy block choice. 

The class came in from recess soaked from playing in the snow. I am glad to see more students wearing proper winter clothing, but I still need to emphasize the importance of bringing a second outfit in their backpack, wearing boots and snow pants, and doing up their jackets (some take them off as soon as they get outside and I am not always out there with them to monitor this). 

In math, we are applying our fraction reducing skills to compare fractions. We looked at a number of fractions and labeled them lesser than or greater than. This is the final stage of our fraction lessons, and then we will move on to converting fractions to decimals to begin the decimals unit. 

We are very close to finishing the Jumbies read aloud. We will do a reflective written response on our predictions when we are finished. 

Much like yesterday, we had gym and music in the afternoon, and with the little time we had left at the end of the day, we continued social studies. Each table group had a page in the textbook to read together and then share with the class what they learned from that page. 

Hopefully more students come back tomorrow! 

Tuesday, April 19, 2022

 Today we: took some extra time in the morning to share what we did on the Easter long weekend. Word Work is progressing now that we are in revised groups, we are just about all organized now. Literacy block time was cut short due to our discussion this morning, as well as the singing of O' Canada. 

It started snowing really heavily by recess, and many students were not dressed properly. They came in looking like they had run under a waterfall! With this sticky snow, we will likely be going outside tomorrow to do some unstructured snow play, and some land-based learning, so please send them to school with a warm jacket, mittens, hat, boots, and snow pants! 

I was asked by many this morning if we were beginning our health unit on Human Sexuality today. One of our grade 5 teachers is taking a course on how to best approach this subject, so we will begin the unit on April 27, when her course is completed. 

The afternoon was mostly taken up by extra-curriculars - Music and P.E. - but in between we did a little more work on social. We are studying the history of the regions, and how Canada came to be a country based on who was here first and who came to settle.

It was pretty evident that the long weekend and sugar consumption had most of the students riled up. Hopefully they get a good night's sleep and some healthy food tonight and we can learn better tomorrow! 

Thursday, April 14, 2022

 5A spent yesterday with a Guest Teacher, but I was thrilled to come back to see they had done their work and made some progress in math! 

Today we: did our Friday housekeeping since there is NO SCHOOL TOMORROW or Monday. Our new helpers of the week are Titus and Maher. 

We went over the student code of conduct as a class this morning as some students needed reminding of how to conduct themselves in the school (i.e. no bullying, no inappropriate comments, no disrupting others' learning, be welcoming and kind, be fair, etc.). The class earned a lot of points today to make up for the week and while the noise level was always very high, everyone was focused and I saw so many lightbulbs go off! 

Math seems to be going well mainly because they are starting to get the hang of reducing fractions. It was high fives all around when they marked their own work from yesterday and saw how easy it was becoming. 

It was hard to read the Jumbies today due to all the chatter and comments. There really is a Spring Fever in the air. We had a quick trip to the learning commons to exchange our books and then it was off to minecraft. They were tasked with researching architecture and constructing a building in one of the styles listed with a partner. They had a lot of fun interacting and creating. 

See everyone on Tuesday, Happy Easter! 

Tuesday, April 12, 2022

 Today we: did a mindful breathing exercise to begin our day. In for 4 counts, hold for 4 counts, and out for 6 counts. Mindfulness is a great way to get into the zone for learning, feel calm and focused, and learn to regulate our emotions. The class earned some Minecraft points for being so focused with our morning literacy work.

In math, we continued to practice reducing fractions. Using our multiplication table is further helping them to memorize their fact families and find common factors. 

The students still need a fair amount of guidance for our CAFE reading goals, so we didn't get to read as much today. Once this solidifies, I will start pulling students at this time for one-on-one reading conferences. 

We used the chromebooks this afternoon to look up diagrams of circuits. They drew diagrams in their visual journals of three different circuit types: open, closed, series. They had to look up all the components for a circuit, label them accordingly, and then make a legend for the symbols used for each component. 

For the rest of the afternoon, we looked at fractured fairy tales. We read 2 stories and created a Venn Diagram to compare the similarities and differences of Little Red Riding Hood. 

Monday, April 11, 2022

 Happy Monday everyone! 

Today we: revamped a lot of our routines. Our word work program, called Words Their Way, has been reassessed and the students now have new groups and new words to work on based on how they did on their spelling test last week. We now have color coded groups and assigned tables for each group. 

We have also changed up our reading schedule. Instead of having Read to Self as a category in Literacy Block, we are sticking to silent reading only after lunch. During this reading time, students will work on specific goals they will set every Monday based on CAFE reading (Comprehension, Accuracy, Fluency, and Expanding). They will record their progress on their goals after reading every day. 

Literacy Block now has only four categories that groups cycle through each day of the week (new groups are picked on Fridays). We have Work on Writing, Response to Reading, Partner Reading, and Literacy Games. 

In math, we continued to practice fractions through reducing with fact family division. They used their multiplication tables as a table group to find the lowest common factors and handed in their work for marks. We read some of the Jumbies just before lunch. 

The afternoon was spent going to music and P.E. where Mr. Newton began a new unit of Mission Impossible obstacle courses with them. We ended with an organizational task for CAFE reading and the class got another tutorial on how to clean up at the end of the day properly. 

Friday, April 8, 2022

 Today we: kept to our morning routine of phonics, word work, and literacy block. We actually took some extra time to reassess the word work progress which means the groups will be changing starting on Monday. Every single student made some progress, and it is fantastic to see the program is doing its job. 

They had P.E. before snack time, and then we went outside to enjoy the lovely weather we had today. Soccer games, skipping, story telling, playing on the park; they had no shortage of fun activities. A solid 20 minutes of free play and springtime joy. 

Before we had our Friday Minecraft hour, we took some time to review key terms and have a mini health lesson on emotional armor and the metaphor of a knight in armor. We discussed the medieval knights and the armor they wore centuries ago, and how it protects them from harm. We then discussed the ways we use emotional armor to protect ourselves too, like making jokes to hide how hurt we could be, or closing off from people rather than trying to resolve conflict. I opened a Minecraft world where the students had 4 mindful quests to complete around this idea of emotional armor. One quest asked them to focus on their five senses to check in with themselves - what they could see, taste, smell, touch and hear in the moment. When they had finished their four quests, they had free time on Minecraft or Prodigy until the end of the day. 

Have a great weekend everyone! 

Thursday, April 7, 2022

 We rearranged the desks again with a less flexible seating plan. Hopefully this arrangement will promote more focus and better listening skills. 

This morning, literacy block was the most focused and quiet it has ever been. It was lovely to see students following expectations, putting in effort, and completing their work. Mr. Scout has created a new system for recess - equipment will now be in carts at the doors for students to borrow during their recess time, it no longer needs to be assigned per grade now that Covid restrictions have been lifted. 

In math, we took a step back and revisited fractions. Table groups were given some practice questions on ordering fractions. This allowed them to practice finding common denominators, and ordering them from smallest to biggest. This should be helpful for converting fractions to decimals later next week. 

It is now part of our daily routine to read The Jumbies before lunch. Students are to record what the main events are in their visual journals for LA and Art marks. 

After lunch, the students had silent reading time and with the new books from the library yesterday, it was a very quiet and focused time. They went to music after, and then back for 35 minutes to do Social Studies. They actually studied this time, learning how to take notes on the history of the Atlantic region from the textbook. This should help them prepare for junior high where note-taking and independent studying will increase. They read and recorded information on the native tribes that were in the region before settlers came to that area. 

They ended the day with P.E. and some reminders on how to do their cleaning jobs at the end of the day. 

Wednesday, April 6, 2022

 

Today we: dug more into understanding decimals using a resource called Math-Up. This resource seemed to confuse a lot of students, so tomorrow we will break it down more, take it through smaller steps, and hopefully students will be less overwhelmed by the concept. I will attempt to clarify the chart that outlines tenths, hundredths, and thousandths and we will use base ten blocks to add a visual for deeper understanding. A big part of the job is adjusting the plans to better suit the needs of the class, and today was certainly one of those days! 

We have been reading The Jumbies every day, but today is a day 4, so they were expected to record in their visual journals and write predictions for the next chapters. The children in the story finally managed to capture the opal stone for Mama D'Leau but they lost a mermaid friend along the way. The plot thickens and 5A is eager to see where our characters go next.

I'm looking forward to seeing everyone's reading responses with the exciting books they checked out of the learning commons today. The rule for one chapter book with one graphic novel is proving to be effective. Happy to see students challenging themselves.

We ended the day with a fairy tale kahoot to see what everyone knows about some basic fairy tales. I was hoping to gauge their understanding of how fractured fairy tales work, and whether they could guess how the stories get spun based on point of view. The class had a very hard time staying calm through this, so there will be no more kahoot games for a while... 

Please remember to send your kiddos to school with a proper jacket - the mornings are still quite cold and they should be prepared for any type of weather change for their walk home.  

See below for a notice about a field trip in May:

Potential Grade Five Field Trip to Fish Creek Park on May 26

Hello Grade Five Parents and Guardians, We would like to have our Grade Five classes go to Fish Creek Park for a field trip on Thursday,  May 26 but we need to ensure that we have enough cleared volunteers that are able to go  in order to move forward with the planning. If you would be free on that day to go on the trip, please email Michelle Brinson so we can track  if we have enough adults to make our ratio.   All volunteers require a current security clearance.  Clearances are good for five years. If you have not applied for your security clearance yet, please fill in the  CBE-Annual-Volunteer-Registration-Form.pdf and send it back to Mrs. Brinson so we can get the  process started for you. If you have had security clearance at North Haven, Coventry Hills or another CBE school that  has not expired, we can pull you over to our school once I have the  CBE-Annual-Volunteer-Registration-Form.pdf  from you. Thanks so much!

Tuesday, April 5, 2022

 Today we: started learning about decimals! The easiest way to begin this unit is by using our knowledge of converting equivalent fractions and making one hundred the denominator. We discussed the place value after the decimal point and we did a few exercises converting fractions and making them into decimals. Knowing our multiplication chart is essential for this task. 

In the afternoon, we looked at fractured fairy tales. We are beginning a unit on newspaper writing, and the grade five teachers thought it would be a great idea to use fairy tales for some interesting twists. To begin the task, we read the classic story of The Three Little Pigs, and then we read the fractured tale called The True Story of the Three Little Pigs. This helps us to explore point of view, compare and contrast, and later we will look at different ways to write articles and report on facts between all of these different points of view. We compared these fairy tales using a Venn Diagram in our visual journals. 

The day ended with P.E. and the class had a chance to burn some serious energy by getting some free-play with the jump ropes. They got to practice their skills and try new tricks, like the double jump. Mr. Newton even challenged them to a circle skip with him spinning the jump-rope from the middle; it was like watching a wave! 

Monday, April 4, 2022

Happy Birthday to Deshawn today! 

Today we: nearly fell asleep during Literacy Block. Mondays are hard for 5A - me included! Needless to say, the morning was very quiet and calm. Everyone was on task and focused.

After recess, we worked on equivalent fractions and reviewing how to compare them using multiplication and division. We read some of the Jumbies before lunch as well. 

The weather warmed up quite a bit and the boys had some great soccer games over lunch. We had a lockdown practice drill during silent reading time and 5A did a great job of quietly going to the corner and waiting for the police officer to clear us. Everyone was silent and behaved! 

We continued to read the Jumbies, we wrote predictions for the next chapters, and touched up our visual journals with the important events and details. 

A quick DPA of classroom fitness exercises and a mindful meditation and the class was ready to learn more about the newcomers of Canada. Through a short, 2 minute video, they learned about Samuel de Champlain coming to Canada and creating a settlement called l'habitation until it later became Quebec City. They also learned that a man named Louis Herbert was called the first farmer because he cultivated the land with just a pick axe and no animals or tools. When they finished their assignment, they went onto prodigy to keep practicing their fractions. 

See you tomorrow! 

Friday, April 1, 2022

Happy April Fool's Day!  

Today we: chose our new groups for Literacy block, chores for the week, and our weekly helpers are Liam and Zak. 

The class was super focused during the literacy morning so they managed to earn all 12 points for Minecraft! Mr. Newton was back and ready to teach some epic jump-rope lessons and the class came back out of breath and happy.

After snack, we spent some time outside discussing the changes of the weather, the importance of wearing a jacket, and how the seasons change the ground. We had a quick game of soccer too.

We did a little science experiment with balloons! They had 3 stations to explore, each with a balloon and napkin pieces, and each one had a special item - wax paper, tin foil, or the use of someone's head of hair. They explored how the balloon would create a positive/negative charge with the items and then when put close to the napkin pieces, they would attract it like a magnet and it would rise to meet the balloon. They wrote their findings on a worksheet. 

This time in Minecraft, the class was not just given free time, they had tasks to perform in a new world centered on Health. It was a self-awareness lesson and they were tasked with making a building that represents their values. They had to take pictures of their creations and submit it to their Minecraft journals, and then write about a significant event in their life and build a self portrait to express it.  

Have a wonderful weekend everyone!