A reminder that the grade 5 Performing Arts presentation is this Tuesday at 8:30 in the Theatre. The students of grade 5 have worked very hard on this and I am sure the event will be well worth it. If you can make it I am sure the students would be thrilled.
I was asked about assignments sent home, work sent home, assessments sent home etc. and realized that I have not been very good about communicating this to parents. Hopefully this will clear it all up. Most of the work we do is in books that we use all year long - writing journal, inquiry book, math journal and goals and objectives book. Other work is done online throughout the year such as reflections and reading journal. What I do send home is the final rubrics for you to see unit assessments. So far you should have received three - first unit in math, first writing unit and Global Citizenship Unit. At least two parents have not got these and it is most likely
due to me not stressing to the students or informing the parents these are coming home and to look for them. I will change this immediately by putting notes in the daily planner to let you and the students know when these are headed home. In the mean time, if you did not get any of the ones I mentioned above, please let me know as I do keep scans of these and can send them to you. In the next two weeks you should get the final assessment rubric for Innovation Through Nature, Unit two in math and our second writing unit (this may be a couple of weeks away still). As home school communication is very important to me, let me know at any time if you feel something is missing.
Next week the homework takes on a very different look - one that I am going to need some help with from all of you. Students are going to interview parents about a significant historical event in their lives that is not personal (no marriage or births etc please). Then they are to try to also interview another family member that is not living with them - perhaps a grandparent, uncle or aunt. I would love it if you could help make this possible but also understand if it cannot work. This is in relation to our current unit on Historical Evidence where we are looking at how perspectives are different among people. Be prepared to look at your reactions to 9/11/2001 terrorist attacks as that is the event we are zeroing in on. We will analyze the results and look for both patterns and out lying topics. Hopefully this will be a rich way for students to see how history has affected those around them and subsequently themselves. They will have all week to work on this and it is due on Friday.
We will complete our math unit on multiplication and division of decimals this week. Over all I am very happy with what I am seeing. The only area that is still a work in progress is word problems that have more than one step. Some of this is that the context of the word problems is not easily understood. Another part is filtering out the useless information and organizing what is left. We will continue to work on this throughout the year so hopefully it will improve. Our next unit is on Addition and Subtraction of Fractions. We will complete it prior to winter break.
Last week the students took a look at historical events and people and what makes them so. One of the more difficult questions that was raised by the class is what makes an historical event significant? We had a basic discussion about this but never really answered it. I am hoping as we continue to study history, that this will come up more and more and finally maybe even either an understanding or answer to the question. In relation to this, here are the unit of inquiry questions for this unit;
- At what point doe an event become significant?
- Why do people view some events as more significant than others?
- How can learning about perspective help us to understand the world today?
- How do we measure the significance of an event?
- How are historical events connected?
- How does our past affect us today?
The writing unit will also be connected to this with a research report as its final project. This coming week students will think up three topics, find information about them from the internet and school library, and then select on to write a report on.
We had a great spirit week this week and the pictures represent the class students that participated. I was pleased to see so many wanting to be a part of increasing school spirit. This can only have a positive effect on us and the school. Thanks for your support too.
As always, if you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to contact me. I will set up a time for us to meet.
