Dear Parents,Each week there are students in charge of a current event. I have sent home a reminder with these students but I will also list them here.
Monday - day 2, no current events
Tuesday - Zehra
Wednesday - Trey
Thursday - Simon
Friday - holiday - no school
Here are some student friendly sites for Current Events.
Good News Daily
Science News for Kids
Time for Kids
This past week has seen the class fully involved in the science experiments for the pollution unit. We completed the particle detectors, completed the filtration of water and are in the middle of the oil spills lab. Some real neat learning going on in these labs. I think there are 4 more left for this unit. Each of the labs is designed to show a particular point in pollution and what can be done about it. Not every lab is a perfect solution.
This week we start unit 5 in math. This unit is on fractions, decimals and percent. Because the three are so closely related to division it is a natural move for the program. We will continue to look at division but this time as fractions, decimals and percent. The unit 5 webpage with games and other interests can be found here. The family letter will be sent as part of the weekly email. I expect to have the final assessment for the last unit in this weeks Monday Folders.
We have also completed out realistic fiction stories unit and started the unit on Essays. This unit will focus on taking the seed ideas from large ideas and really thinking deeply about them. These ideas can come from observations, personal thoughts or beliefs. One thing that will be stressed is how passionate the writer needs to be about the topic.
We had a great time at Field day on Wednesday inspite of the cold weather. Students were so active that I do not think they even felt it. I have put some pics up on the website along with the Sports Day photos. Have a look here. Thanks to Mr. Moreno for most of these pics.
This week is American Thanksgiving week. Students get Friday off and teachers will be doing work on the technology for next year's one-to-one program. I will be presenting several workshops using what we have done in class as some of the examples. Because of the short week there will be no Wordly Wise for the week. Instead students need to complete their pollution poister from their non-fiction reading and hand it in with all the Thinkmarks. The school's Thanksgiving chapel will be on Wednesday.
I would also like to begin asking for any plans you may have leaving early or arriving late for the Christmas Holidays. This helps me plan in advance some of the aspects of my class that must be completed. I prefer to do these with everyone here. It also helps me with advance planning for some of the events of the last week (crafts, assembly etc.). Please let me know as soon as possible if you have had to make any such arrangements.
This weeks pics are from our science labs. They really show some of the neat things we are learning in science.
As always, if there are concerns or other questions please feel free to contact me.
Regards,
Harold Daw
