daw.com - May 31

It was wonderful to welcome back your students last Wednesday after 3 months of on-line learning.  I am very proud of them for their effort over this prolonged and unusual time.


Please mark June 9th at 10:45 am on your calendar.  This is the time for the grade 5 promotion ceremony.  The link to watch this will be sent to you from the office.  If you do not get it by the end of the week, either email or call the ES office.  They can help you out.


This coming week has a couple of notable events that are on top of our regular class work.  First off is report cards go home on Thursday.  Second, if any of you need a year end conference with me, please let me know and I will set it up.  It still needs to be virtual, but that should not be a problem - I will continue to use whereby.com.


This week sees the start of summer library check out. As I have said all year, and reiterated with your students, none of them are perfect readers yet.  They have all grown since the start of the year and I do not see summer holidays as a reason to stop.  I encourage everyone to sign out a range of books in all genre (nonfiction, fiction, biography, history, poetry etc) for reading everyday over the summer.  No time specified, just a steady and continuous reading time every day.  Sign out is online this year as browsing the library is not allowed.  Here is a link to help your student pick books for the summer.  Remember, they can choose from the ES or MS libraries. The electronic library, Overdrive, is available all the time over the summer as well.


Link to instructions for library sign out - https://sites.google.com/view/summercheckout/home?authuser=1


Our last art class as well as our last session with Mrs. Adams is this week.  We will thank them both and wish them well over the summer.


Our reading unit on fantasy is moving along well.  I have asked all students to have their books completed by Monday June 1.  We have started our Hero’s Journey project and it will take most of the week.  We also have to complete our book summary this week.  If students have been keeping good notes this will not be a problem.


We have finished our two memoirs now and I have to say they were impressive.  There are things I have learned about your students from these that I did not know before.  This unit now switches over to UOI as we complete two parts for transitions.  One is our transitions journal and the second is our year end slideset.  We have also finished with our UOI Padlet where the students did a great job.


Our math unit on volume and surface area is almost complete and will end with a Volume City project probably starting bout Wednesday. This is where they will design and build their own city giving the volume and surface area of the constructions.  Students also have their previous math project to complete.  I even have a couple of people doing both of these.  Good job.


As always, if you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to contact me.