I had a great week with my Model United Nations students from the High School as they debated and, in most instances, had passed all the resolutions they worked so hard on. We also completed our class debates this week and I was pleased with the outcomes. Debating is a skill that is very high level and takes years of practice to become good at so I am pleased that we start it in grade 5. There are two more debates in 5HD before the end of the year.
I have completed marking the final assessments for the end of unit 3 math. Unfortunately, they showed me that there is still further work required. No one in the class got the whole test correct and there were a mess of errors and misunderstandings all over the place.
What this means is that I will add this on to our math lessons for the next couple of units as I try to strengthen the students skills in multiplication and division. I wish I could say it was a single area but it was so spread out that I will review and extend all areas of this. One thing I can say for sure, there are a number of students in my room who have not yet mastered the basic multiplication facts up to 9 x 9. This is something they can continue to rehearse until they have it memorized and internalized. It will have a very positive affect on future mathematical learning. Ou current math unit is addition and subtraction of fractions.
We are well underway with our reading and writing units on non-fiction. For the reading section we are looking at how to tackle the more complex types of non-fiction writing. How to look for problems/solutions, cause/effect, sequence/order and compare/contrast sections in the writing. As this is very complex, it will take us many more weeks of learning to really see how this fits into our reading.
Our writing is taking us on the journey of writing an information article that teaches the reader something. With this as the main focus, students have completed a plan, headings/sub-headings and sections and have started drafting their works. This will continue for the rest of this term and then start up again in January upon return. I have indicated that my expectation includes details and flow in writing.
I want to remind everyone that our grade 5 Winterfest is on December 13. One part of this is the buffet lunch we have for the entire grade. You should have received a letter about this with your part in supplying food for the buffet. In case you did not, here is the breakdown. If you last name starts with;
A-E - appetizers/breads
F-K - main courses
L-P - vegetables, potato, rice, pasta dishes
Q-U - dessert
V-Z - drinks (only juice boxes please.
Remember this is to serve about 15 students in grade 5 and should be easy to both serve and eat. We will supply the plates and cutlery needed for the meal. The meal starts at lunch time but there is time needed for set up to please plan on having the food here at school no later than 11:30am. It is a fun time to celebrate all the wonderful successes of the first semester.
If anyone is planning on leaving early for Winter Break, please let me know ASAP. We have a lot planned for the last week of school and I need this information to assist with my planning. Thank-you in advance for this information.
If anyone has any questions or concerns, please feel free to contact me. I will gladly set up a time for us to meet.
