Did You Know…? In ancient Rome, it was considered a sign of leadership to be born with a crooked nose.

Good afternoon,

We started our day of by discussing stories. Specifically, we were discussing showing not telling readers in stories. One way that we can show a reader clearly what we are describing, instead of just telling them, is to use our 5 senses: taste, smell, hear, touch, and see. We watched a Halloween themed tumblebook to help us to explore the 5 senses. We watched Frank Was a Monster Who Wanted to Dance by Keith Graves. We were actually able to find a lot of examples of the 5 senses in the book. Some of the things we directly read about, hear about, or saw, but other students told us what they were visualizing and thinking about during the book. We definitely found hearing to be the easiest today. We’ll be exploring this concept throughout the year, and be practicing adding details that show not tell into our own writing.

In Math today, we did another check-in about our October projects. Today we reviewed how our raffle sale has been doing. Students were asked to consider how much money we have earned overall, and to create equations describing what we have done. We also started a new check-in on the bracelet sale that we were having today. Students, again, created a table and were asked to find and describe the patterns that they were able to see. You can check out both of those pages below. We were able to raise $157 altogether for UNICEF over the past 3 days. Great job everyone! It was amazing to see your commitment and excitement for this project.

We also had some time to write and share some spooky Halloween stories today. Students were given 20 minutes to write a scary story in their writer’s notebooks. They were asked to consider what we had discussed earlier in the morning about showing, not telling, and to think about how they engaged the 5 senses in their writing. Afterwards, we formed a community circle and students were able to share their stories. As with all community circles, students had the right to pass if they did not want to share. I heard some creepy and very descriptive passages in student writing today, from “ribbons of flesh” to “mucus slurping,” and all were very effective for our Halloween theme. While we listened to each other’s stories, we turned down the lights and had a crackling fireplace to keep us warm. Want to tell some spooky stories at home tomorrow. You can use the same fireplace we used!

We also had our Costume Parade and Halloween celebration today. At 1:15 pm we were able to make our way to the gym to see everyone’s costumes. It was really neat to see all the different and creative ideas! When we returned to class, we were able to eat all of our healthy Halloween treats. Thanks to everyone for your support and generosity. The students had a wonderful time and we had a LOT of delicious and creative things to choose from. The time and effort everyone put in really helped to make our celebrations so successful! Check out some of the treats we enjoyed below!

Read 20 minutes

Math: pgs. 45-47 # 1-13, 15, 17

Website Release Form (ASAP)

Halloween Dance – Tonight, 6:00 – 8:00 pm (admission by donation)

Conquer the Cold Donations – until November 7th

Photo Retakes – November 5th

Ski Forms – ASAP

Hot Lunches – Order Online at (https://timberlea.hotlunches.net/admin/) until this evening

Candy Exchange – November 4th

Did You Know…? A lion’s roar can be heard from five miles away.

Good evening,

Today we began with another check-in on our Math projects. We reviewed how the bake sale went yesterday using the following form:

Yesterday we were able to raise $41. We started with 55 muffins and we still had 37 left. That means we must have sold 18 muffins yesterday. If we sold each muffin for $2 that means we made $36 yesterday on muffin sales:

55 – 37 = 18 x 2 = 36

Since what we raised didn’t match with what we sold, we considered as a class what the difference might have been. Then we remembered, of course! We sold raffle tickets yesterday as well! We counted the ticket stubs and it turns out that we did sell exactly 5 tickets yesterday. That lead us to consider, do we see the same patterns developing from the raffle ticket sales as we did from the muffins? Check it out:

 

Tomorrow we’ll have to have another check-in to see how well we did today! You could also go look at our classroom twitter page for a sneak peek (link is on the right).

In Social Studies today, students discussed the Mi’kmak peoples of the Appalachian Region. Students reviewed a Mi’kmaq calendar that we discussed earlier in the unit. We had noted then that it was interested that this group felt so connected to nature. We could see evidence of this in the calendar through the names of months or time periods. There was frost-fish moon and egg-hatching moon, all things about the communities needs and their environment that would help them to structure and organize their lives. Students began to construct a calendar of their own. They are considering things that help them to realize what month it is. We have some “School Starting” months, some “Christmas” or “St. Nick” months, and the more creative “Ghost” month or “Hot Dog” month. We’ll be working on our good copies next class.

Don’t forget that tomorrow is our Halloween celebration. Students are welcome to wear costumes, but please make sure they are school appropriate. We will be having our Costume Parade around 1:15 pm, as well as enjoying some healthy snacks and watching a movie. An email went home yesterday and a note went home today about our movie choices. Please let me know if you do NOT want your student watching one of the following:

• Coraline
• Monster House
• Monsters Inc.
• It’s the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown
• Casper
• The Addams Family

Agenda:

Read 20 minutes

Language Arts – Paper Bag Character Studies (tomorrow!)

Math: pgs. 45-47 # 1-13, 15, 17

October Projects –  Glow stick and bracelet sales tomorrow!

Website Release Form (ASAP)

Halloween Dance – Tomorrow, 6:00 – 8:00 pm (admission by donation)

Halloween Classroom Celebration – Tomorrow (bring healthy snacks)

Conquer the Cold Donations – until November 7th

Photo Retakes – November 5th

Book Orders – Tomorrow

Ski Forms – ASAP

Hot Lunches – Order Online at (https://timberlea.hotlunches.net/admin/) until tomorrow evening

Candy Exchange – November 4th

 

Did You Know…? The average person makes about 1,140 telephone calls each year.

Good evening,

Today in Math, students began to work towards completing their October projects. We did a “check-in” activity as a class. Students were asked to consider the amount of muffins brought today and the amount of money we expected to raise. You can see the worksheet that we used below, although students copied down the questions themselves, they were not given the worksheet. This lead to a number of students creating much more detailed and thoughtful tables outlining the patterning in our fundraiser.

We will be doing a “check-in” activity both tomorrow and Thursday as well, to help us to gauge student understanding of the concepts behind their projects. Students also worked in groups today finishing their posters and planning their presentation. Students are going to share with the class how they planned their fundraising activity and what was involved. These really are just brief outlines of their work to share with their classmates before students evaluate how they think they did as an individual, a group, and as a class on this project.

In Language Arts today, students were able to review our last connection. Today we reviewed text-to-world connections. What is a text-to-world connection? Text-to-world connections are the larger connections that a reader brings to their reading. We all have our own ideas about how the world works. This includes our personal experiences, but we also learn about things through television, movies, magazines, and newspapers. In class we often refer to this prior knowledge as our schema. An example of a larger connection might be: “I saw a program on TV that discussed how children need to eat better foods and about childhood obesity in Canada.” Wondering why I chose that specific example? It is a connection that you could have made to our book from today, The Lima Bean Monster by Dan Yaccarino. Check it out on TumbleBooks (link on right hand side, just scroll over for username and password).

In Science, students finished up their devices. They are looking wonderful. I am so excited for students to present their devices on Thursday, and to learn the answers to our driving questions: what causes wind, and how do meteorologists measure wind speed and direction. Check out some of our devices below!

Agenda:

Read 20 minutes

Language Arts – Paper Bag Character Study (Thursday!)

Math: pgs. 45-47 # 1-13, 15, 17

October Projects – Bake Sale continues tomorrow!

Website Release Form (ASAP)

Halloween Dance – October 30th, 6:00 – 8:00 pm (admission by donation)

Halloween Classroom Celebration – Thursday (bring healthy snacks)

Conquer the Cold Donations – until November 7th

Photo Retakes – November 5th

Book Orders – October 30th

Ski Forms – ASAP

Hot Lunches – Order Online at (https://timberlea.hotlunches.net/admin/) until Thursday

Candy Exchange – November 4th

Pssssst…. still looking for inspiration for a healthy Halloween Snack? Follow the link or try one of these healthy creations created by last years students:

http://www.listotic.com/64-non-candy-halloween-snack-ideas/

 

Did You Know…? There are twice as many kangaroos in Australia as there are people. The kangaroo population is estimated at about 40 million.

Good afternoon,

Students started this morning with Words Their Way Spelling. Each student is given a weekly set of words to practice with. They then sort these words based on different word features. For example, a group may be sorting words based on beginning consonants or a consonant blend such as “s-,” “t-,” or “st-” words. They may have to determine which category stump, star, and scissors would fit into. Students work on their sorts throughout the week. On Monday they work on getting familiar with their new words/features. On Tuesday they are given time to work with a menu of different activities. You can see the menu we are currently using below. Students aim to finish the menu by the end of the week.

Word Work Practice

On Wednesdays, students all participate in Speed Sorting their words. They are attempting to sort the words as quickly as they can, and to beat their record. On Thursdays, students will have more time to continue to work on their menus. Students will be quizzed on their words before they move on to new words/features. Our activities will also change throughout the year. Likely we will do a variety of menus, as well as a variety of different sorting techniques.

In Math today students continued to work on Lesson #3 in their Math Makes Sense book. Students are currently practicing their place-value skills up to the millions place. They should be able to use a place-value chart, and they should also have an understanding of standard and expanded forms of expressing numbers. The standard form is how we would generally write or represent a number (eg. 234 567). The expanded form is where the number is expanded into its place-values (eg. 200 000 + 30 000 + 4 000 + 500 + 60 + 7). Students should also be working towards improving their overall fluency with larger numbers, which includes speaking and wording of these numbers. Students need to practice speaking and writing numbers (eg. two hundred thirty-four thousand five hundred sixty-seven). We have been practicing in class. Remember no AND (an and implies that there is a decimal in the number when spoken aloud). Students were allowed to continue working on the practice questions that they began last Thursday in class. Students who did not finish this work in class, will be bringing it home this evening.

In Social Studies today, students continued to review the natural resources of the Appalachian Region of Canada. We have been using different maps to help us to organize this information. Today, students worked together to organize this information into a very unique (and challenging) form of Venn Diagram. Can you figure out how it works?

In Health today, we began our FRIENDS for Life Unit. This is a unit that will focus on feelings, anxieties, stress, and coping techniques and strategies. It is a program that is run across the school district in each grade 5 class. Today we began with the section on feelings. Students discussed days when you feel great but also days when you just feel like you can do anything right. We then split into pairs to interview each other on our likes/dislikes, etc. Students are encouraged to openly share with one another throughout the unit, and this was a good introductory activity that helped the students to become comfortable asking one another personal questions and sharing the answers.

Agenda:

Read 20 minutes

Language Arts: Paper Bag Character Study (Thursday)

Math: pgs. 45-47 #1-13, 15, 17 (tomorrow)

October Projects – Bake Sale starts tomorrow!

Website Release Form (ASAP)

Halloween Dance – October 30th, 6:00 – 8:00 pm (admission by donation)

Halloween Classroom Celebration – Thursday (bring healthy snacks)

Conquer the Cold Donations – until November 7th

Photo Retakes – November 5th

Book Orders – October 30th

* Note – For our Halloween Party, we will be having a contest to see who can come up with the most creative healthy snack. Students do NOT have to participate, however, for those who are interested, you can get ideas and inspiration for healthy snacks on my Pinterest (http://www.pinterest.com/arb5/school-parties/), through Timberlea’s Pinterest (http://www.pinterest.com/timberleaschool/). More ideas will be posted tomorrow, as well as a letter sent home to parents outlining our plans for Thursday.

Agenda:

Read 20 minutes

Language Arts – Character Study Paper Bags (October 30th)

French – Numbers 1-31 Quiz (Monday)

Book Orders – October 30th

Benefit Concert – Friday, 6:00-9:00 pm (admission by donation)

Halloween Family Dance, October 30th, 6:00-8:00 pm (admission by donation)

Website Release Form – ASAP

Conquer the Cold Donations – until November 7th

Photo Retakes – November 5th

Agenda:

Read 20 minutes

Language Arts – Character Study Paper Bags (October 30th)

French – Numbers 1-31 Quiz (Monday)

Book Orders – October 30th

Benefit Concert – Friday, 6:00-9:00 pm (admission by donation)

Halloween Family Dance, October 30th, 6:00-8:00 pm (admission by donation)

Website Release Form – ASAP

Conquer the Cold Donations – until November 7th

Photo Retakes – November 5th

Agenda:

Read 20 minutes

Language Arts – Character Study Paper Bags (October 30th)

French – Numbers 1-31 Quiz (Monday)

Book Orders – October 30th

Parent-Teacher Interviews – Tonight and Tomorrow (sign up at http://timberlea.fmpsdschools.ca/)

Benefit Concert – Friday, 6:00-9:00 pm (admission by donation)

Halloween Family Dance, October 30th, 6:00-8:00 pm (admission by donation)

Website Release Form – ASAP

Conquer the Cold Donations – until November 7th

Photo Retakes – November 5th

Did You Know…? When snakes are born with two heads, they fight each other for food.

Agenda:

Read 20 minutes

Language Arts – Character Study Paper Bags (October 30th)

Math – pg. 38 #1-3, 5-7 (tomorrow)

French – Numbers 1-31 Quiz (Monday)

Electronics Day (Secret Recess) – tomorrow!

Website Release Form – ASAP

Book Orders – October 30th

Parent-Teacher Interviews – Tuesday and Wednesday (sign up at http://timberlea.fmpsdschools.ca/)

Halloween Family Dance – October 30th, 6:00-8:00 pm (admission by donation)

Conquer the Cold Donations – until November 7th

Photo Retakes – November 5th

Breakfast Program Benefit Concert – Friday, 6:00-9:00 pm (admission by donation)

 

Did You Know…? The human heart creates enough pressure to squirt blood 30 feet (9 m).

Good evening,

Sorry for such short posts this week. I’ll try and catch everyone up on what has been going on in our classroom. On Tuesday, students worked together to review the water cycle. This is something that we learned about the week before. We had watched an entire Magic School Bus episode on the water cycle. Students then summarized their learning on a plastic bag and we created our small water cycle demonstrations that are still hanging in our classroom windows. On Tuesday students watched this great song to help them to review:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T05djitkEFI

This song also introduced students to our next topic of discussion, clouds!

On Wednesday, we started our October Math Project. At the end of each Math unit, students work together to complete a small project that emphasizes some of the learning that took place throughout the unit. This month, students are planning their own charity fundraiser. We are going to be raising money for UNICEF. Students began planning their events on Wednesday. On Monday we will be creating the timelines required for our events, and then the following week we will begin our fundraising. Students were asked to predict the costs and projected profits of their events and to create a table demonstrating their projections. View the assignment sheet below for more information:

Patterns and Equations – October Projects

On Thursday, we continued to explore expository and narrative texts. Students were asked to compare an expository and a narrative piece of writing. They were given a sample of each and asked to identify which was the expository and which was the narrative piece. To identify the expository pieces, students noted the use of real pictures, captions, informative words (eg. geography, etc.), a title with smaller subtitles, etc. For the narrative pieces, students noted the use of cartoon images, a single title, the author and illustrator, etc. We also attended a presentation put on by Be the Game. This presentation introduced students to the 21 Day, Kind Every Time Challenge that we will be participating in. The Grade 5 classes are going to be keeping track of the number of random acts of kindness that we witness. We will be displaying these acts on a large tree that we hope continues to grow and flourish throughout the 21 days.

Today students learned about the artist Keith Haring. We examined the following prezi:

We were particularly focused on his use of colour, as we are finishing a unit on colour ourselves. However, we also began to discuss his use of lines. It was interesting to see how Keith Haring uses such bold, simple lines to convey so much energy and movement in his pieces. Students were then tasked with creating a Keith Haring inspired sculpture. You can see some of our completed pieces below.

Agenda:

Read 20 minutes

Language Arts: Paper Bag Character Study (October 30th)

Website Release Form – ASAP

Parent-Teacher Interviews – October 21st and 22nd (sign up at http://timberlea.fmpsdschools.ca/)

Book Fair – Wednesday (also during parent-teacher interviews)

Electronics Day (Secret Recess) – Tuesday

Book Orders – October 30th

Benefit Concert – October 24th (6:00 – 9:00 pm, admission by donation)

Halloween Dance – October 30th (7:00 – 9:00 pm, admission by donation)

Agenda:

Read 20 minutes

Language Arts: Character Study Paper Bags (October 30th)

Website Release Forms – ASAP

Benefit Concert – October 24th

Halloween Dance – October 30th

Parent-Teacher Interviews – October 21st and 22nd (sign up at http://timberlea.fmpsdschools.ca/)

Electronics Day (Secret Recess) – Tuesday