Tuesday, May 17, 2022

 Today we: tried a morning workout to get our blood moving and wake us up. It was great to see everyone participate, even if it was a lot of effort while tired. We did some high knee running, stretches, push ups, squats, and ended with a power pose and a mantra of "I am ready for Tuesday." 

Word work and literacy block were very well done, and anyone who didn't finish their work was eager and willing to take extra time to complete it. 

In math, we went over the work we did yesterday on converting cm and mm. We discussed how multiplying by 10 adds a zero at the end of the number, and they are groups of 10mm in each cm. When that concept seemed grasped, we discussed what a 90 degree angle is. I was happy to see some recognize the other angles like 360 and 180, and the triangle angles of obtuse and acute came up as well. It was a wonderful number talk drawing on past knowledge and connecting to new concepts. Once they understood that a 90 degree angle is the corner of a perfect square, they were challenged with finding as many 90 degree angles they could in the classroom. The person with the largest list, who was Dylan, won a container of play-doh. 

We continued teacher edits on our articles and with the printers down, a lot has been postponed, but they continued to practice decimals and measurement on Prodigy. 

After lunch we read more of our book, City of Ember. I will start using a timer to implement a faster routine to be ready for the read aloud. They will have 2 minutes to get prepared, fill water bottles or go to the bathroom and then we are ready to read - yesterday we read a page and a half with all of the interruptions and today we spent 8 of our 20 minutes getting settled. 

The students had Music and PE in the afternoon, and we ended the day with some partner reading in Social Studies to work on fluency and reading skills while continuing their learning of the history of the Canadian Shield. 

Monday, May 16, 2022

 Today we: completed our phonics lessons! Some students have asked to replace the time with a morning workout. We will see how things go and maybe incorporate more fitness around activities if they can regulate themselves afterwards. Mornings are usually calmer for 5A and the focus is important for literacy. 

In math, we solidified our knowledge of measuring centimeters and millimeters by measuring ourselves. With meter sticks hung around the room, classmates took turns in partners recording their height and converting it to cm and mm. We had more time to write our fairytale newspaper articles after the math task. 

Between music and PE, we did some reading on the History of the Canadian Shield region of Canada. Students took turns reading a paragraph with my help pronouncing some new/French words. We learned about the Hudson Bay Company and the Northwest Company.

With the lovely weather, we spent PE outside with a classic game of capture the beanbag. It was Gadbois Gang vs. Nugent's Nuggets! The G gang sure had some clever strategies, but my Nuggets were sure out of breath at the end! 

Hope everyone had a great Monday!

Friday, May 13, 2022

 Today we: did phonics, word work, and our literacy block rotations. Our new helpers for next week are Mozhdah and Nylahe.

The class had their first lesson in volleyball, learning to bump and set the ball. They were very excited to begin a new unit! 

As promised with all of their earned points, they had an hour of Chromebooks "free time" where students were told to finish up any work that wasn't done yet, and then they could go on Minecraft, Prodigy, free write in a google doc, or work on an interest project. We will now use the time for multiple objectives instead of just Minecraft, as the interest in the game has died down. 

For science we brainstormed about words to describe today's weather, we did predictions for the weather tomorrow and then shared common sayings used to describe weather events, such as "it's raining cats and dogs." 

Please look in your child's backpack for a newsletter that went home today. Have a wonderful weekend everyone! 

Thursday, May 12, 2022

 Today we: learned that a centimeter is called that because there are 100 of them in a meter - cent means 100, just like in century. A millimeter is called that because there 1000 of them in a meter - milli means 1000, just like in millennium. We went around the room measuring various items and seeing how many centimeters and millimeters everything was, and then comparing them to notice the similarities in the numbers. The class realized that the millimeter measurement was just the centimeter multiplied by 10, and the decimal point moves over one place to the right, so it would add a 0 to a whole number. 

We are making progress on our newspaper articles - some are onto drawing their pictures! It has been wonderful doing teacher edits and getting to see what creative ideas everyone has. It also gives the chance for a one-on-one mini lesson with each student. 

After lunch, we read City of Ember and recorded main events in our visual journals before heading to the Learning Commons for a book exchange. 

The day ended with a science experiment of separating solids. The students were given a tray, 3 different sizes of sieves and solid particle mixtures with 3 different solids in them. They were tasked with sorting the items using the sieves and it was a lot of fun! We had white rocks, sugar, and red lentils, and it was great to see them explore these different items and try to separate them. 

Wednesday, May 11, 2022

 Today we: started the day with a quick exercise activity to get everyone alive and awake. We did 20 squats, 20 jumping jacks and 10 burpees. This energized everyone as word work was a pretty loud activity! 

In math, we wrote the test for adding and subtracting decimals and when they were done, they worked on their newspaper articles. Some are getting their teacher edits done and typing, so when they are typed they will draw a picture to go with it. I am hoping to compile their articles into one big newspaper. 

After lunch we read more of our book, City of Ember, while students recorded important details in their visual journals. 

In science, we worked on a crossword to develop deeper understanding of the definitions of some key terms for the chemistry unit. Tomorrow we will get our hands dirty separating solids with sieves! 

We ended the day in P.E. with a lovely Guest teacher, playing rainbow tag and bench ball. 

Tuesday, May 10, 2022

 Today we: perfected our skills in adding and subtracting decimals. We had some small group breakout sessions to work on subtraction specifically, and those who finished quickly were able to compare answers with peers. Some became "fact checkers" and went around the room giving students the answer key to check their work. We will test these skills more formally tomorrow and then wrap up our work on decimals to begin measurement. 

After lunch we changed the routine a little bit in honor of Jordan's Principle. We watched a 30 minute vimeo clip that accurately depicts what happened with the government and healthcare around Jordan's illness. The class cuddled their stuffed toys and watched intently. 

We did science after, exploring the terms used for chemistry as an introductory activity. Flash cards with the terms were handed out to the students and they copied down the definition of the ones they had. Everyone was given a bingo sheet to go have conversations around the room to learn the new word's definition. We will do a crossword to further explore the terms while we await the arrival of some materials for a mixture separating lab for Thursday afternoon. 

We ended the day with the first chapter of our new read aloud book, City of Ember. We learned that they live in a town powered by electricity and between the hours of 9pm and 6am, the city is entirely black and nothing can be seen or lit up. And sometimes they have power outages! The main characters, Lina and Doon are awaiting their "graduation" from Ember school to be given their assigned jobs to help their city. 

Monday, May 9, 2022

 Today we: Completed week 11 of 12 for phonics. Just 5 more lessons to go! We had 8 students away this morning, so we had a very quiet literacy block. A lot of focus and reading.

In math, we did some extra practice subtracting decimals. The biggest point for confusion is the operation of borrowing from the next place value when the digit is lower than the digit needed to take away. We discussed how the number will borrow 10 and will become a teen number, and the number ahead will lose one. This process was easily grasped, it just took some practice! 

Before lunch we worked on our newspaper articles with the help of peer edits and perusing fairy tale picture books. They needed to be reminded to plan it out using the 5 W's, as well as reading it aloud to make sure it flows and makes sense. It is important to remember that an article is reporting an event or incident, it is not the fairytale itself. 

After lunch we started our new read aloud. Students were encouraged to brainstorm and word-web what they think the book will be about based on the title "City of Ember."

The class had Music and PE taking up most the afternoon, and we ended the day with an introductory activity to Chemistry. They filled out a chart with what we know, what we don't know, and what we wished we knew. Then we discussed common terms and concepts needed to begin the unit (like solids, liquids, hypothesis, etc.). 

Tomorrow, we are "bear"ing witness to Jordan's Principle by bringing a stuffy (if possible a bear) to demonstrate support for the indigenous boy. He was not given the care he needed and sadly passed away at the age of five during the government struggle to decide who would care for him when he fell ill. We will learn more about this tomorrow while holding our stuffies.