daw.com - May 17

Tomorrow is the annual Spring Fair sponsored by the PTA and I know it will be a fantastic day.  I do hope all of you that attend have a great time as we support the important work our PTA does for the school.  I plan on attending for about an hour sometime in the morning.

I sent home the math unit five work and on Monday the students’ portfolios will go home.  

We have ended our short look at cleaning up an oil spill and the engineering that is involved with this.  Students were quite creative and I was pleased with the outcome.  The pics show some of the work they did.

Our math unit continues to look at the coordinate plane and we are currently learning about rules to make string lines on the plane.  We only use the positive quadrant so students need to learn to use numbers that stay in the section.  They are learning to make a rule based on a line and also to use a rule to create a coordinates table and also a line.  Today we looked at making parallel lines both horizontal and vertical.

Our next inquiry unit is called transformations and is based on states of matter and changes in matter.  We will start off by looking at models that include what we cannot see.

Have a great weekend.

daw.com - April 26

We have had a busy but great week.  It is hard to believe that this is the last Friday message for April.  With that in mind, please remember that next Wednesday, May 1 is a holiday and there is no school.  There will be no homework that night either.

Grade 6 step-up day was a great success.  While I have not talked with all my students yet, the few I did see said they really enjoyed it.  I think it is a great way to introduce middle school to students.

I was very proud of my class this week for donating books to the book fair.  They showed that helping others is important and the right thing to do.  I hope they enjoy the books they traded for theirs.

Remember that CASTA (Celebrate and Share the Arts) is next Tuesday.  Our class’ performance is 2:45-3:15 in the afternoon and is in the main theatre.  Hope to see some of you there.  Students need to wear their CASTA shirts on this day.

Next week is also spirit week.  Monday is House Color Day,  Thursday is pairs, groups and twins day and Friday is wacky ISB day (think blue and white).  I encourage as many as want to participate since this is the time they get t

o strut their stuff in school.

Our math unit on volume will come to an end next week with the final assessment on Tuesday.  While not a difficult unit, it is very important as it forms the basis for measurement in science and math classes of the future.  We also did a small section on the traits of quadrilaterals.  Our next unit is on the coordinate plane and is a fun unit to end the school year with.

Monday will see the start of our book clubs in reading.  For the first couple of clubs I will be choosing the books and groups students will work in.  Once I see that they have learned the process for books clubs and are a willing participant, then they will be choosing the books and the groups to work in.  These will be in place until the end of the year.

Our latest writing is the genre fantasy.  We have studied The Hero’s Journey and this is what they are using to plan and execute their stories.  They also need to have detailed descriptions of the settings and characters in their stories and show how they change over time and throughout the story.

If you have any questions or concerns please contact me and I will gladly set a time up to meet with you.

daw.com - April 19

 Sports day was a major success.  It was interrupted by an evacuation drill but once we debriefed about this, I think the students understood just how important these are.  We could not have asked for better weather or air quality for the day - it was picture perfect.  I know the students all really enjoyed it.

We are on to our new writing unit having looked at settings, characters and something called the Hero’s Journey.  This is a part that a lot of fantasy stories follow.  I have asked the students to have up to 3 of

the 12 points in their story as they plan for the journey of the hero.  We should finish our first drafts by the end of next week leaving us time to complete a second fantasy story.

Next week is our Step Up Day.  This is a day where the grade 5 students shadow a grade 6 student as they go through their day.  Students will be paired up with some grade 6 buddies who will then proceed to show them what life in middle school is like.  One thing they will get a chance to have is MS lunch in the cafeteria.  If your student purchases lunch at the school you might want to have a conversation with them about what is an appropriate amount to spend. 

There is a lot to choose from and it can easily get out of hand with no one really looking over them.  They will have the same opportunity next year, so starting now can ease your student into this.

Next Thursday is the school book fair so if your student wants to purchase a book or two for the summer, this might be the time.  While  I have no idea of the cost of books, they will be able to bring in some money to purchase books if they want to.  There is no requirement to do so.

Our current math unit is looking at how to calculate area with fractional sides.  We have passed the whole numbers and with fractions they are having to use the multiplication of fractions they learned in the last unit.  We are using the area model to prove area which may be something you want to ask them about.  It

is a neat way to show area when fractions are used.

I have seen most of the students genius hour project presentations now and I cannot say that I was overly impressed.  Many of them have just a basic guideline so we will spend some time practicing them.  I am encouraged by the fantastic information they have to share.  I think that with this practice, I will really see some beautiful pieces of work.

As always, if you have any questions or concerns, please let me know and I will set up a time for us to meet.