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!