Agenda:
Read 20 minutes
Language Arts:
Math:
Science:
Book Orders – due January 29th
Hot Lunch Orders – due January 25th
Recorders Begin – January 18th
Trifold Board Orders – due tomorrow! ($5.25/board)
Did You Know…? In the 1900s, a scientist decided to test the idea of ‘crocodile tears’ by rubbing onion into crocodiles’ eyes.
Good afternoon,
Our next ski day is tomorrow, January 14th! Students will leave school around 8:50 am, and will return before dismissal at the end of the day. Please send your student prepared to go skiing. They will need ski pants, a warm jacket, hats, mittens, extra socks, etc. The school will update the website/facebook page with the status of the ski trip as soon as they are able, however, it is best to come prepared for the trip to occur as planned, as there will be very little time for last minute items to be delivered to the school.
Students who are planning to bring their own equipment are asked to drop it off at the front of the school, just outside the front doors. The equipment will be transferred to the hill by vehicle, as it cannot be taken on the bus. If you are available to help transport equipment to the ski hill, please let us know as soon as possible so that the required arrangements can be made.
Parents who would like to chaperon this event are welcome to do so. We will be leaving school around 8:50 am. Parents are welcome to ski with their student throughout the day. Please let me know if you are interested in volunteering, and I will provide you with more information.
Finally, please send your student prepared for the Ski Trip to be postponed. We do ask that students still bring all of their school materials as well as a lunch. That way, if the trip needs to be postponed due to weather, students are able to take part in our regular activities with minimal disruptions to our day. School materials can easily be left in student desks/lockers if we are travelling to the ski hill. Many families choose to allow students to purchase lunch/snack items at the ski hill. While this is allowed, please send students with a packed lunch also. That way, students will not go without lunch if the trip needs to be postponed. It will also increase the amount of time your student is able to be active and ski if the trip goes ahead, as they will not have to waste any time waiting in line, etc. at lunch time.
Agenda:
Read 20 minutes
Language Arts:
Math:
Science:
Book Orders – due January 29th
Hot Lunch Orders – due January 25th
Recorders Begin – January 18th
Grade 5/6 Skiing – tomorrow!
Trifold Board Orders – due Thursday ($5.25/board)
Did You Know…? Walruses have such sensitive mustaches they can use them to distinguish between objects smaller than a 5p piece.
It’s that time of year again! Timberlea Public School is looking forward to our upcoming school Science Fair. Information regarding the Science Fair (logbooks, dates, etc.) came home today and in preparation for our Science Fair we are offering to order trifold display boards. These boards measure 38 x 48 inches, and will stand upright on a table top. They can be used to display project information, graphs, charts, images, etc. Any student interested in purchasing a display board will need to bring $5.25/board to their homeroom teacher before January 15th. Students do not need to purchase a board to participate in the Science Fair, and are more than welcome to build models, bring posters, etc. instead. Boards can also be purchased at a later date by the individual at alternative locations such as Staples if required.
Science Fair logbooks were sent home today. Students are required to use these logbooks while conducting their experiments. The logbooks contain the steps needed for students to follow the scientific method, the rules, and the specific forms that are needed to be filled out depending on the topic of the Science Fair project. Please read through the logbook with your child this evening, and let me know if you have any questions. Students will be given time this week (Thursday) to do some initial brainstorming and researching about their projects. This is a good opportunity for them to develop their essential question. I also recommend that students work on this project well ahead of the due date. A sample schedule of a student work schedule is included below:
Students are NOT required to follow the above work schedule, and may work on the project at their own pace, but students need ensure that they are not leaving this project until the last minute. I will also be allowing students the opportunity on the above dates to bring their logbooks to school and to ask questions or advice about what they have completed so far and next steps on their projects.
For further information and tips on the Regional Science Fair please see http://www.wbrsf.ca. Click on the Parent and Student tab and follow the links, which includes Science Fair ideas.
Agenda:
Read 20 minutes
Language Arts:
Math:
Science:
Book Orders – due January 29th
Hot Lunch Orders – due January 25th
Recorders Begin – January 18th
Grade 5/6 Skiing – Wednesday
Trifold Board Orders – due Thursday ($5.25/board)
Did You Know…? Killer whales can kill sharks by karate chopping them with their tails.
Good evening,
Today in Language Arts, we continued to discuss poetry – specifically Spoken Word Poetry. Students watched part of Sarah Kay’s TED talk on spoken word and listened to her poem “If I should have a daughter…” After, we consider of the things from the TED talk that we would like to use in this unit. We set 3 objectives for ourselves about poetry: I can, I will, it will be specific to me. Then, we decided that instead of tackling a poem right away, we would write something a little easier to get ourselves started. We wrote a list called, “10 Thing I Know to be True” in our Writer’s Notebooks. The goal was that students could write anything that was specific to them, but that they weren’t allowed to think too hard. It could be as simple as, “I have a brother” or as challenging as, “When I first moved here I hated it and didn’t think I could make friends.” As long as it was true for them, they could write it. We will be using these lists to make our own Spoken Word Poems later in the unit. For now, we are going to be learning some things to help get us ready to write this poem. Today we looked at the rhythm of poems. Poets often provide us with clues as to how the poem should sound, clues that we have seen in most forms of writing – periods, commas, exclamation marks, question marks, line breaks, etc. Students discussed what each of these tells the reader/speaker about how the poem should sound. A comma would get a short pause (a breath), while a period would get a full stop, etc. We will need to practice looking for and using punctuation to help us to read poetry. Stay tuned for more, or watch Sarah Kay’s full video below:
In Art today we completed an activity called, “Secret Math!” Students created tessellations that contain hidden multiplication sentences. Can you spot them? Check out the examples below.
In Computers, students worked on creating small weather forecasting scripts, that they will be sharing next week. We need some practice, but stay tuned to see our young meteorologists at work!
Computer Class Link: http://teacher.scholastic.com/activities/wwatch/analyze/
Agenda:
Read 20 minutes
Language Arts:
Math:
Book Orders – due January 29th
Hot Lunch Orders – due January 15th
Recorders Begin – January 18th
Grade 5/6 Skiing – January 14th
Did You Know…? King cobras don’t hiss; they give out a growling noise like an angry dog. The sound is produced by forcing air through tiny holes in their trachea, which have membranes not altogether unlike a kazoo.
Good evening,
Today students completed a review of the traditional, lattice, and partial products (box) methods of multiplication. After we had worked in collaborative groups on some practice problems, students were asked to reflect on how they feel about multiplication so far. Students were asked to consider what they are most proud of, what skills they have been using, and how they can continue to improve. Students also assessed consistency with classroom procedures such as keeping their work neat, staying on task, etc. I have asked students to take these assessments home tonight and share them with a parent or guardian. Please review this assessment with your student. Students worked hard to be honest about their abilities, and this worksheet will not be used to assess your student’s learning. Rather, it will help us to develop more concise learning goals and set the direction of many of our upcoming lessons. It should also give students and parents insight into where their student feels they need support. Using this assessment together with the goal setting worksheet that goes home with each Math Olympics sheet, students should know which area of multiplication they would like to continue to develop. They should practice at home as often as possible. Students can also access more targeted supports through their online Mathletics accounts as well as our Math tutoring sessions each Wednesday from 3:00 – 4:00 pm.
Students also took home our January Book Report today. You can view it by clicking on the attachment below:
Biography Poems – Comparing Assignment
Students have been asked to write two different Biography Poems, each on a different character from a book of their choice. Students should be careful to make sure that their poems, while fitting the provided format/structure, also highlight something specific about their character. Each poem should have an identifiable topic. Poems may be written or typed, but should be done on good paper (coloured, white, scrapbook, etc.) and should NOT be completed in pencil or on looseleaf. Students will also be sharing at least one of their poems aloud with the classroom. Students should practice reading their poem at home, paying attention to the rhythm created by line breaks and punctuation. Students should be able to read their poems in an easy and fluent manner. These are all things that we will be modelling and practicing together as a class, throughout our current Language Arts unit. This assignment should be completed no later than January 29th.
Agenda:
Read 20 minutes
Language Arts:
Math:
Science:
Book Orders – due January 29th
Hot Lunch Orders – due January 15th
Recorders Begin – January 18th
Grade 5/6 Skiing – January 14th
Did You Know…? The Moon is shaped like an egg; it only looks round because the big end points towards Earth.
Good afternoon,
Today we explored our last multiplication strategy that we will be focusing on… partial products, or the box method. There are two videos below that explore this method. The first has students use partial products similarly to the traditional multiplication algorithm that we learned.
The second demonstrates a way of organizing your partial products into a box, similar to our lattice strategy.
Please take some time tonight to allow your student to share with you their understanding of this method, as they should have done over the past two nights with the traditional and lattice methods. Students also worked on their basic math facts to 81 today, with our weekly Math Olympics. Students were each assigned a weekly multiplication goal that they should be working on for a few minutes each night. Why not try reciting your 4x tables on your way to swimming or take turns sharing your 7x tables around the dinner table?
In Computers today, students began working on a research assignment based on an extreme weather formation. Students could choose from hurricanes, winter storms, or tornadoes. Students have a small brochure to complete based upon their learning. Use the computer class link below in order to finish this brochure before Friday. Students need to make sure this homework is completely in a timely manner, because they will be using their completed brochures as part of the weather forcasting that they will be working on Friday afternoon.
Computer Class Links: http://teacher.scholastic.com/activities/wwatch/severe.htm
In Science today, we completed our review of the water cycle, clouds, and precipitation. Tomorrow will be our final quiz on this subject matter. Students all have notes in their Science duotangs as well as a copy of their previous quiz in order to help them study. We have also spent a great deal of time over the past few weeks practicing different methods of studying. We have come up with the following studying strategies:
Tonight, why not try one of the above strategies? Students could challenge themselves to use “Talk it Out” by closing their duotangs and sharing with you everything they can remember about the 5 types of precipitation we learned in class. When they are finished, they open their duotangs and review their answer. Students could use a “Work it Out” strategy by trying to fill in as much of our flow chart on condensation as they can with their duotangs closed. By reading through the chart, they should problem solve and try and rationalize what would come next. When they are finished, they open their duotangs and review their answer. Students could “Add Colour” by drawing the water cycle in 4 different colours, one for each part of the water cycle. They could make a Venn Diagram comparing snow and rain. Snow could be blue, rain could be red, and the middle could be purple! What about “Draw it Out”? Can you close your duotang and draw the 4 types of clouds from memory? Don’t forget, when you are finished, it is important to open your duotang and review your answer. Students can also use the “Who Wants to be a Millionaire” game that we used in class today to help them to review the vocabulary and concepts from this Unit.
Science Review Game: http://www.superteachertools.com/millionaire/online/game1420668959.php
While all students have a copy of these notes, extras have been posted below for students who may have forgotten anything in their desk at school.
Precipitation Review Sheet: Precipitation Final Chart
Agenda:
Read 20 minutes
Math:
Science:
Book Orders – due January 29th
Hot Lunch Orders – due January 15th
Recorders Begin – January 18th
Grade 5/6 Skiing – January 14th
Did You Know…? In 2007, robotic peregrine falcons were introduced to rooftops in Liverpool in an attempt to rid the city of pigeons.
Good evening,
Today we continued to explore multi-digit multiplication. Today we looked at a method called the Lattice Method. This is a great method for students who are strong visual learners or who have an understanding of their basic facts but struggle with the amount of steps required to complete the Traditional Method. Check it out in the video below. As with yesterday, students have been asked to demonstrate this method to someone tonight, such as a parent, friend, sibling, etc.
Agenda:
Read 20 minutes
Math:
Science:
Book Orders – due January 29th
Did You Know? Bugs Bunny is not a rabbit but a hare.
Good evening,
We had a great start to 2015! Today students continued to look at multiplication. Today we started discussing multi-digit multiplication. Students today were practicing a more traditional method of multi-digit multiplication. First we practiced multiplying by only a one digit number:
Then students practiced multiplying multi-digit numbers by another multi-digit number:
Our goal by the end of the Unit is for everyone to feel confident multiplying 3-digit by 2-digit numbers. I have asked the students to please teach this strategy to someone at home tonight. It can be a parent, sibling, aunt, uncle, grandparent, or even a pet! They were encouraged to use the videos to help them, especially if they are not feeling confident with this strategy yet. Tomorrow… we will be trying the lattice method!
In French today we talked a little bit about New Year’s and about New Year’s traditions. Specifically we discussed making New Year’s Resolutions. We learned the following vocabulary to help us in our discussion:
Bonne année! – Happy New Year!
Prendre une bonne résolution – To have a New Year’s resolution
Tenir une bonne résolution – To keep a New Year’s resolution
Then we talked about how we could write a New Year’s resolution in French. In order to do this, we would have to use the future tense (futur proche). We have looked at conjugating verbs a little bit in the past with some of our earlier vocabulary. Today we specifically looked at conjugating the verb aller (to go) and how you could use aller + infinitif to write our resolutions. Follow the examples below:
So… I could decide to read more books this year: Je vais lire plus de livres.
Or maybe I want to play hockey this year: Je vais jouer au hockey.
What about cleaning our bedrooms! Nous allons nettoyer nos chambres!
Agenda:
Read 20 minutes
Math: