It has been a truly wonderful year of learning with 19 fabulous students. I thank you from the bottom of my heart for your support of learning this year and for your generous gifts and cards and kind words. Although this is my last blog post for the school year, you are all forever in my heart and prayers. Always feel welcome to come and visit me—I love to stay in contact with students and families!
“The Parable of the Lost Sheep” Thank you for coming to our “5B Celebration of Learning”! It was such a joy to share this glimpse into our learning this year of students dancing, singing, playing piano, giving speeches, performing their parable plays, and doing impromptu speaking games.
“The Parable of the Ten Bridesmaids”This student’s wonderful personal interest project took us back to a scene in the Devonian time period approximately 400 million years ago.“The Parable of the Ten Bridesmaids”Asher’s fascinating personal interest project involved building a model of an eco-friendly home and presenting its many features to folks in our class. Ansley shared her two part personal interest project: (1.) doing a presentation on the topic of imagination involving touring us through her creative small world display, and (2.) showcasing the wide assortment of woven and beaded bracelets she made. The students wear delighted to each receive one of these custom creations!Princeton taught our class all about the amazing world of Ugears! Becca shared her creative magnet making project that turned into a profitable business. Amelia shared her creative journey through a personal interest project of making bookmarks.Dustin shared the simple machines found in his Lego creations Gabriela’s Simple Machines Another personal interest project involved detailed discussion comparing the features and benefits of various Lego cars that two students had built.
Students were discussing their own observations about significant numbers mentioned repeatedly in the Bible—sparking a fun new inquiry path on the last day of school. We hope to hear more of these reflections when we catch up again in September.Blenkinsop Mini Golf Picasso-style art
LOOKING AHEAD TO GRADE 6: Here are some of the projects we enjoyed checking out and taking inspiration from at the grade 6’s entrepreneurial fair on Tuesday…
The grade 5s made their own cross necklaces and also made one for each grade 2 buddy. We said goodbye to our wonderful little grade 2 buddies by exchanging a cards and the necklace gifts—and wrapped it all up with a special yummy surprise thanks to Mrs. Sikkel! Congratulations to Sarah on her special honour for Christiand Leadership! Wishing Father William a wonderful new adventure in his next parish leadership role. Thank you for your inspiration andHave a happy summer! You are all wonderful children who have grown so much! Thank you for a fabulous year— I hope to see you soon!
Lucas, Luka, and Charlie’s Rube Goldberg Machine (Simple Machines Project)
How exciting! We have had more exciting “Simple Machines Project” presentations. Please enjoy the videos and photos below—and keep scrolling for more updates from our class.
Thomas and Avi’s Catapult (Simple Machines Project)
Part 1 of CC Sarah’s Simple Machines Presentation Part 2 of Sarah’s Simple Machine Presentation
Michaela and Amelia’s Simple Machines Presentation
Luka, Lucas, and Charlie’s Rube Goldberg Machine
In Math, some students chose to explore the following enrichment concepts in data: range, mean, median, and mode.
An in depth presentation on the simple machines found in these Ugears modelsBecca’s fictional story and poster on simple machinesNathaniel and Asher’s poster with flapsWe have started P.I.P. (Personal Interest Project) presentations, and we are having so much fun learning from one another’s passions! Here is Charlie teaching us about Norse mythology!
As well, in Math we have done review of metricmeasurements.
Also, students are working on a creative mathematical project on transformations. Each student is making a bold graphic representation of reflection, translation, and rotation.
Our grade 5 class joined our grade 2 buddies in Mrs. Sikkel’s class for an afternoon of service: painting yellow salmon on the road beside our neighbourhoods’ storm drains. The purpose of the “Storm Drain Marking Program” is to raise awareness about the importance of using drains appropriately—especially because they carry water to our oceans where salmon live. This was a meaningful connection to our “water” unit from term two—and a powerful, personal reminder to us all that we are responsible for keeping this world clean, safe and healthy for all. Thank you, Mrs. Sikkel, for organizing this big project and for inviting us to join in!
This year the St. Patrick’s community bids farewell to our beloved Father William as he is moving on to lead another parish in Langford. The 5B students created a heartfelt card full of reflections and memories. We thank you and will miss you, Father William!
REMINDER: The 5B Celebration of Learning is on Monday, June 17th in our classroom from 2:00pm-3:00pm.
We hope we will see you there to enjoy looking through portfolios, seeing the certificate presentation, and watching a few wonderful student-created productions of the parables from the Bible.
We continue to enjoy the 5B students’ parables presentations—the last project in Religion class this year. The only way to see these amazing little plays is to visit us live in person on Monday, June 17th at 2pm-3pm. We hope you can make it! Here is some background information on the parables…
In Math we have been learning to create double bar graphs and derive insights from them.
In Science, we have had our first “Simple Machines Project” presented. Ansley shared her Lego world with a working pulley system and wheel and axels. Projects are due for presentation on June 10th.
In Social Studies, we have been exploring Indigenous stories. Today we read and analyzed message in the book “Flight of the Hummingbird” by Haida artist, Michael Nicoll Yagulanaas. Students made connections between this story and Catholic social justice themes.
In Social Studies, we have also continued with our “Time Traveller Report” presentations; keep scrolling to the bottom of this post to see some more incredible videos and photos from our travels to other times and places! You will be inspired!
Everyday Life in Ancient Greece Ancient GreeceThe Leaning Tower of Pisa Flying with the Wright BrothersFlying with the Wright Brothers Ancient EgyptAncient EgyptAncient EgyptWWIIWWIIPresenting in 5B in 2024Presenting in 5B in 2024
Take a moment to enjoy Sarah’s beautiful recital of the Brandon Lake song, “Gratitude”—this song has been a favourite of 5B students this year! Beautiful playing, Sarah! Continuing our unit on prayer in Religion class, students took time to select a sticker and quietly reflect upon its message and write about their insights and connections.
Coming up next in Math, students will learn about transformations (reflection and rotation) and prisms and pyramids through some hands on arts activities.
We have been enjoying a rich Social Studies unit on Canadian government. We’ve learned about levels of government (federal, provincial, and municipal), elections and voting (past and present day practices), and the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
As well, we have explored topics specific to BC politics in preparation for our exciting field trip to the parliament buildings. While we were there, we watched and participated I. a fabulous travelling theatre presentation called, “My Place in Politics”. Students were encouraged to learn about their rights and seek ways to participate in democracy.
We enjoyed more time travellers’ presentations today—it’s been so much fun! There will be lots of fun photos in a future blog post.
In Religion and Health Education, we have been exploring strategies for self-regulation, reflective listening, and prayer. We enjoyed this beautiful book by Katie Warner, “Listening for God”. Students have been invited and supported to create their own peaceful moments in the day to recharge and refocus their minds, bodies, and hearts.
In Language Arts, we revisited expository writing to ensure we are retaining the skills taught earlier in the year. Fabulous news: we have wonderful writers capable of crafting cohesive, engaging, well-structured prose!
The students chose their own topics and showcased their learning of how to craft hooks and topic sentences, use transition words, develop ideas with supporting details, write meaningful conclusions, and self-edit. Enjoy!
Amelia and Michaela asked me to make a video of their dance, and they involved some classmates. We invite you to enjoy this charming video of 5B students enjoying our lovely school grounds. Music credit; “Wildfowers” by Brandon Lake
Hello, 5B families!
Congratulations to all of our hardworking TRACK PARTICIPANTS! We heard you represented our school so well, gave it your best efforts, and had fun!
For the next two weeks, we have lots of important projects, writing assignments, and year-end Math and LA assessments on the go, and so we are taking a pause this week from Spelling tests to focus our energy.
Here is a “Time Traveller” from 5B who shared his fabulous report of his journey to Ancient Rome, which includes an eye witness account of Julius Caesar’s last moments! He also brought back a special artifact: money from the era. We are lucky to learn from the young experts in our class!
Students are working to finish the following: “Time Traveller’s Reports” in Social Studies (due May 30), Simple Machines projects in Science (due June 10), two perspective stories (due now), group parables presentations in Religion/Drama (due by June 15), and personal interest projects (due by the last day of school, but I will do weekly progress check-ins starting now, and students will be expected to share their progress with classmates on June 11).
In Science, our simple machines projects are underway. This student is having fun analyzing the presence of simple machines in the Ugears STEM toy. See previous blog posts for project criteria.
In Math class, we have wrapped up our probability unit and are now learning about money! We have been reinforcing adding and subtracting with decimals by doing various money calculations. As well, for enrichment, some students have been keen to learn how to calculate sales tax. Using a fake money set, students have been practicing adding up coin and bills and making change. Great mental math! Today students were challenged to create their own toy stores, and then create a series of word money problems related to the stores. Students have also been doing one-to-one “money meetings” with me where they play the banker and perform calculations. Please keep practicing this real-life skill at home.
Please note that this Thursday is our grade 5 “Parliamentary Tour” field trip. We leave the school at lunch time and return by 2:55pm. There were no parent volunteers needed for this trip since we have 4 St. Patrick’s staff attending, and less than 40 people permitted on the tour as per the tour capacity rules. Please note the parliament’s posted behaviour expectations.
Behavioural Expectation Reminder BC’s Parliament Buildings are working buildings and visitors are expected to talk quietly, behave in a calm and courteous manner and follow public health policy during their visit.”
Poison Hemlock: Note the purple speckles on the stem. There are other poison hemlock “look alike” plants in the carrot family that have similar foliage shape. Large hemlock plants are easier to identify: if you see a something that looks like a huge carrot greens (4+ feet tall) and it has purple splotches on the stems, this is not a carrot plant! Use an app like the iNaturalist app to help you identify unknown plants. Also get good at recognizing this plant in its immature but equally poisonous young form. You can Google for more information on the effects of touching and ingesting the plant.
Civvies Day: Decades! Can you guess which decade each student is representing?
In Math class, we are learning about probability and also doing review of the major concepts explored this school year.
In Religion class, our inquiry has grown from this question: Why did Jesus use parables to teach, and what can we learn from these parables today? Students are working on reading, researching, retelling, and dramatizing Jesus’s parables and discussing their meanings.
In Science, we are now exploring a unit on simple machines. Students will demonstrate their understanding of this content through discussions, a unit quiz, and a creative project of their choosing. (Project criteria and ideas below!)
Princeton gave a great presentation teaching us about how his working model of an amusement park ride is constructed with the help of simple machines. We learned that gears are a type of simple machine under the category of “wheel and axle”.
In Language Arts, we have exploring perspective and point of view. Students are now working on writing two short stories, each about the same situation but from a different point of view. ***Reminder that we have our spelling test tomorrow. The word list is in the previous blog post.
On Monday we have another fun civvies day: decades! Students who would like to wear civvies should come dressed in clothing that represents a specific decade, such as the 1980s, 1950s, etc.
***Reminder that there is NO SCHOOL on Monday, May 20th and Tuesday, May 21st.
In Math, we have wrapped up our unit on perimeter and area. Students have now brought home their quizzes. I am offering a rewrite next Wednesday. It is important that students keep practicing their multi-digit multiplication skills. We will start our next unit on probability on Monday.
In Religion class, we have been exploring three topics: the parables (especially the prodigal son), the story of Daniel in the lions’ den, and strategies for navagatinf and reading the Bible.
Congratulations to our amazing three public speaking contestants for doing such an outstanding job!
Impromptu Story:
Our next Spelling test is on Thursday, May 16–it will cover part 2 of our list on literary themed words as seen below…
Inquiry Ninja 