Blog Entry –Week of February 24th

Grade 5’s  - Celebration of Learning!!!

           

You are invited on Tuesday March 4^th to 5-1 FI’s Writer’s Fest! Our class of authors has been working hard all year on their writing skills. Using the writing process to plan, write, revise/edit their work.  You are welcome to join us at 2:00pm until 3:00pm and celebrate the amazing work your child has accomplished. They will be sharing some work with you and you will also have the opportunity to go through part of the writing process with them.

Independent Projects

I know the date for the projects has changed a few times and I apologize. Many activities and due dates were popping up and I did not want students to feel stressed about the Independent Projects. The purpose of the independent project is for students to be able to share their love of learning. It will allow students to take initiative and share their work. Students have the freedom to choose the topic of their project and how they want to present the information. Students can work in pairs or independently. Work on the project is to be done at home, however students may work on it in study hall or if they need help can stay in at breaks in the classroom when I do not have duty.

The Independent Projects will be presented March 21^st in class, in a similar set up to a science fair.

LANGUAGE

READING

Students are continuing to ask Questions as they read focusing on asking “Thick Questions” and not “Thin Questions”. 

Students are also using the APE model to answer their questions to ensure they are explaining their answer and supporting it with evidence. 

WRITING

            Students are continuing to work on their final piece of writing during work on writing times (Grade 4 – procedural recipe and Grade 5 – Explanation of How The Digestive System Works). They will be provided with feedback this week on their first writing piece so that they know what they did well and what they need to focus on in their writing. During Daily 5 this week students are also being pulled based on their writing goal they made at the beginning of the month. Students will work in small groups to gain strategies and tools to help them meet their goals. 

MATH

We are still working on our Measurement Unit. Students have been practicing estimating, and measuring objects choosing the unit of measurement to measure the object (e.g., mm, cm, dm, m, km). They have also practiced converting one unit of measurement to another. 

This week students will be looking into estimating and calculating perimeter of polygons using a variety of tools and strategies.

ART

We have been focusing on the Elements of Design to display emotion in an art piece. This week students can bring in any materials that they need to create their art piece. They are choosing to create an art piece (e.g. sculpture, drawing, painting etc..) of their choice that displays an emotion they feel on a regular basis. They will be writing a reflection afterwards about their art piece and how the Elements of Design they used help portray their emotion. 

Week of February 10th

Blog Entry –Week of February 10th

LANGUAGE

READING

Students did a great job making inferences over the past month about characters, words, and themes. This week students started to use the reading strategy questioning to think about the books they are reading. They are focusing on asking questions when reading and trying to answer the questions that they are asking. The answers may be found in the text, an outside source or they may have to infer the answer using clues from the text.

WRITING

The Grade 4’s finished up their first independent Procedural Writing piece this week. They went through the writing process really focusing on revising and editing their work in a different colour to see/show the changes that they were making to their writing. They had the opportunity to conference with a peer and get feedback on what they might be missing in their writing (e.g. success criteria) and things they did well (“Stars”). Next week students will be writing their final procedural piece on a recipe of how to make their favourite food.

The Grade 5 ‘s finished up their first independent Explanatory writing piece. They also went through the writing process really focusing on revising and editing their work in a different colour to see/show the changes that they were making to their writing. They had the opportunity to conference with a peer and get feedback on what they might be missing in their writing (e.g. success criteria) and things they did well (“Stars”). Next week students will be learning more about The Digestive System in order to gain knowledge to help them write an explanatory piece about how the digestive system works.

MATH

We have finished up our Decimal unit and are moving into Measurement focusing on Perimeter and Area.

Grade 4 Expectations

* estimate, measure, and record length, height and distance using standard units (e.g. mm, cm, m , km)

*estimate the perimeter and area of polygons using a variety of tools and strategies

*draw items using a ruler, given specific lengths is mm, and cm

*describe the relationship between various units of length (e.g. cm, mm, dm, m, km)

*select and justify the most appropriate standard unit to measure side lengths and perimeters

*determine the relationship between length and width of a rectangle and its area and perimeter  (A = LXW) (P=2XL + 2XW)

* create through investigation using a variety of tools and strategies 2D shapes with the same perimeter and area (geo boards, dot paper, and pattern blocks)

*pose and solve meaningful problems that require the ability to distinguish perimeter and area

Grade 5 Expectations

*estimate the perimeter and area of regular and irregular polygons using a variety of tools and strategies

*determine using stacked congruent rectangular layers of concrete materials the relationship between height, area of

the base, and the volumes of a rectangular prism to create a formula (V=area of base X height)

* create through investigation using a variety of tools and strategies 2D shapes with the same perimeter and area

*solve problems requiring the estimation and calculations of perimeters and areas of rectangles

*select and justify the most appropriate standard unit to measure length, height, width, distance, and perimeter

*determine the relationship between length and width of a rectangle and its area and perimeter  (A = LXW) (P=2XL + 2XW)

* solve problems requiring conversions from m to cm, km to m

* measure the perimeter and area of regular and irregular polygons using a variety of tools and strategies

E-Text Pages

Grade 4  318-361                        Grade 5 – 306-347

Week of February 3rd

LANGUAGE

WRITING

The Grade 4’s are working on Procedural Writing. They have written “How to Make Hot Chocolate in Partners” bumping up a level 1/2 procedural writing piece they were given to a 3/4. They also wrote as a whole class “How to Plan Your Birthday Party”. This week they will be writing their own Procedural piece on a topic of their choice and focusing on the revising/editing part of the writing process.

The Grade 5 ‘s are working on Explanatory Writing. They have examined some samples and used those to create our success criteria. They were given leveled samples of explanatory writing and focused on the text features pulling out the information and placing it on a graphic organizer. They were searching for the topic, definition, components/parts, operation, and applications. As a whole class we used the Internet to search for “How a toaster works” and filled in our graphic organizer for our prewrite. This coming week we will write our draft and students will be given time to use our school I-pads to search for information on a topic of their choice that either “Explains why something happens, or How something works”.

Both grades have looked at examples of the text form they are focusing on and created their success criteria.

Procedural Success Criteria

                    Explanatory Success Criteria

In addition students choose a writing goal that they needed to focus on when it came to their writing. Using the 6+1 writing traits learned at the beginning of the year students selected a goal that they know needs improvement in their writing (e.g. revising, editing their work, spelling, punctuation, organizing their ideas, etc.).

MATH

Decimals!

Students have been doing a fantastic job using their prior knowledge of place value of whole numbers to help with our decimal unit.

We have already looked at reading decimals properly.

E.g. 5.6 = five and six tenths

We compared and ordered decimals, and came up with some great strategies to add decimals. This coming week we will be focusing on equivalent decimals, subtracting decimals, and solving word problems involving decimals.