A New Year with lots of New Learning Updates!
IMPORTANT DATES
January 13 - 24: Gymnastics - Please see safety information
January 15: Fun Lunch (Subway)
January 24: Poetry Café (please bring a travel mug to enjoy a hot beverage while sharing a poem with your peers!)
January 29: Fun Lunch (Coco Brooks)
January 31: PD Day - No school for students
February 12: Fun Lunch (Opa!)
February 13 & 14: Teachers Convention - No school for students
February 17: Family Day - School closed
February 20: PAC Meeting
February 26: Fun Lunch (Booster Juice)
February 26: Pink Shirt Day Assembly
What We've Been Up To:
In mathematics, we started our term looking at integers which we defined as all whole numbers and their opposites. We talked about zero being a neutral number and discussed some real-life examples of where we might see negative numbers and we spent some time comparing positive and negative integers. We have continued to look at factors and multiples as we continue to explore multiplication and strategies to solve multiplication problems. We will be applying our understanding of multiplication and addition as we move into our geometry unit. This unit will also incorporate decimal numbers and how they function with different operations.
In art, we are looking at vanish points and we are creating a unique building that explores the concept that we are developing. We have also continued to work on our reading nook which asks us to utilize our understanding of measurement and incorporating data gathered from our classrooms.
We finished up our teaching of courage and have started to look at the teaching of humility. We started our guided drawing of the wolf, which we have learned embodies the teaching of humility through it's actions. We have considered what humility means to each of us and we will be thinking about how we embody the teaching in our own lives and how we might be able to grow in that area.
As we have moved into a new year and a new decade, we took some time to look at some of the everyday heroes that took different kinds of action over the last year of the decade. We discussed what a hero is, what some characteristics of a hero might be and considered who we might think of as heroes in our own lives.
We moved back into our hayride stories to finish up some of our editing that we put on hold so that Ms. Haslock could take on a writing unit. We spent time providing each other with some feedback to move our stories forward and used that feedback along with the feedback we received from Ms. Parent to continue editing our stories.
Additionally, we had an opportunity for a Just Write and have started to create emotion poems based on an emotion that feels positive and one that we might experience that doesn't feel as good. We are thinking about what those emotions might look like, taste like, sound like and feel like. We will continue writing this poem and one other this week.
In science, the grade five students have started a new unit of classroom chemistry. We thought about what we already know about chemistry and questions we hope to learn through the unit. Next, we talked about what matter is, the states of matter and key information related to each state of matter, including how they change, what happens when they change and the differences between the states. We used this information to analyze our observations during our labs "Making it Rain Snow and Magic Bubbles" as we went outside (dressed appropriately) when the temperature outside was -30*.
Please remember to check Ms. Warrener and Ms. Pallesen's blog for updates on grade 6 science and social units.
Thank you to all of the grade 5/6 students for stepping up as leaders within the school community as the cold weather prevented students from being able to head outside for breaks. Every student provided leadership around the school to help keep the students in the school having fun during indoor recess! It is VERY appreciated by all of the teachers and support staff- not to mention all of the students who love having leaders in their classrooms.