Author: Tiffany Poirier

Hello, 5B families!

In Language Arts, we have now completed reading and studying the concepts and vocabulary up to the end of Chapter 10 in Hatchet.

We also learned about five common types of conflict in narrative works. This awareness helps students to better appreciate and understand what they are reading, but also it prepares them to be more intentional when crafting their own narratives.

In Math, students have been asked to bring home their division practice booklets each day and to bring them back to school the following day. Please note we have a Division Quiz on Thurs., Feb. 1.

On Friday: Feb. 2, we have our Spelling Test on words #13-25 (and/or an option to retest for those who already did test on all the words #1-25).

Next Friday, Feb. 9 is the Grade 5 Basketball Jamboree. (Sorry, I emailed you the wrong date yesterday.) Girls will go play at St. Margaret’s, and boys will play at SMUS. Information about this event that takes place during the school day will come home from the Phys. Ed. department soon.

In Religion class, we have explored the story and lessons in the Book of Jonah and considered ways modern authors have attempted to faithfully retell this story for young audiences. *Ask your children to retell for you the story of Jonah in their own words!

Here is the story of Jonah as told in the “Usborne Children’s Bible”…

Here is the story of Jonah retold in “Love Letters from God: Bible Stories” by Glenys Nellist…

The follow three photos show the story as retold in the “The Children’s Bible Story Book” by Anne de Graaf.

What other retellings of Jonah’s story have you read and enjoyed?

CBC News Story: “Lobster diver survives brief entrapment inside whale’s mouth”

Click here to read:
https://www.cbc.ca/amp/1.6063136

In Religion class we have started planning a new creative Bible storytelling project that will be due for sharing during the week of February 12th.

Students have been asked to each choose a bible story to faithfully retell and dramatize for our class and for their little buddies. This is a solo project, but students will prepare and practice with support from classmates and teachers.

Each student will create and present either a puppet show to help their bible story come to life OR they will create a diorama or series of illustrations to refer to while they retell their Bible story.

I will be modelling and directly teaching the planning and presentation skills needed for this project in class, but students are encouraged to spend research time outside of class choosing and learning about their chosen Bible story. More project criteria will follow on the blog this week.

Hello, 5B families!

*Scroll to the bottom to see a video of exactly what our Salish Sea boat trip could look like!

Today students brought home a parent permission form for our upcoming “Salish Sea Floating Classroom” field trip. We will need between 10-13 parent volunteers between both grade 5 classrooms. Please return the signed permission forms as soon as possible so we know our numbers. Thank you!

In Religion class, we have been learning stories and parables from the Bible. As a major project this term, students will choose a Bible story or parable to memorize or faithfully retell in a creative way for their classmates. Students will be asked to give context and explain the meaning of the story as they understand it.

In this unit we will read, listen to, retell, and analyze the lessons in many Bible stories, as well as watch videos and learn about Bible stories from experts with deep biblical knowledge and a skill for oration. The story of Jonah and the whale is going to be a key focus this term—a meaningful lead up to our Salish Sea trip!

In Career Education, we learned about the “theory of multiple Intelligences”. We discussed the difference between a theory and a fact and addressed the value and limitations of the M.I. as a lens to gain insights into our abilities and potential.

After we discussed examples and made personal connections to ideas of the M.I. theory, students wrote reflective essays using a provided template. We invite you to enjoy the wonderful essays below (all of which were volunteered to be shared on the blog).

Reminder:
Tomorrow is the day to dress as your favourite literary character!

Also, tomorrow we have our Spelling Test
on the first 13 words of our list.

This video is of my family on the “Wild 4 Whales” boat on an Eagle Wing tour of the Salish Sea (August of 2021). This shows a lot of how our grade 5 trip will be—but even colder since it will be the end of February! You will need to dress like you are an Arctic explorer!

Hello, 5B families!

We kicked off our day with a wonderful story read aloud experience for Literacy Week via Zoom. (Don’t forget that this Thursday is the day to dress like your favourite literary character.)

This morning we also welcomed our new student, and dove into our new Math unit on division.

In Social Studies, we read the book “We Are Water Protectors” by Carole Lindstrom, who is Anishinaabe/Metis and an enrolled member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Ojibwe. Her award-winning book weaves in a powerful metaphor about a “snake” that poisons the water and land. We discussed a notion of ethical and sustainable resource management and what happens when humans—whether out of greed, carelessness, ignorance or for another reason—make decisions that harm the environment, particularly water sources. In our analysis, some students also made a biblical connection to the serpent’s temptation of Eve in Genesis. In our water inquiry we will continue to explore the connection between people and land through time and with an Indigenous lens.

In Art today, we contributed to a school-wide collaborative water-themed art project by colouring and recording our connections to water on this beautiful feather illustration by BC Indigenous artist, Michelle Stoney. (Artist permission was granted for this project.)

Looking ahead, we will be going deeper to learn advanced watercolour painting techniques in our “Art of the Salish Sea” unit. Students who are curious are welcome to get a sneak peek at the seven videos in the “Salish Sea Watercolour Mini Course” I created for this upcoming unit here: https://inquiryninja.com/salish-sea-watercolour-mini-course/

In Science we had an exciting day of applying the scientific method when doing solubility experiments. The photos of our handouts, class work, and experiments help tell the story of our learning. We will continue to explore water-related experiments in Science class—next time we look at the salinity of the ocean and how much salt can be dissolved in a given volume of water.

Hello, 5B families!

Students brought home their Multiplication Re-Tests to share with you. As well, they have brought home their Spelling duo-tangs that include their test from yesterday and the new words for the Spelling test next week Thursday, Jan. 25th.

Please also note that on Thursday, our whole school is doing a “dress up as your favourite literary character” day! Friday is a Pro-D (no school for students).

In Math, we have begun our unit on division. Please see the below tutorial videos for extra support in this unit.

We are well into our novel study of Hatchet, by Gary Paulsen. Today we completed reading chapter 3 and finishing the study guide work up to page 9, as well as the vocabulary match in page 11 of the study guide.

In Science, we have started working through a unit on solubility, and we will do our hands-on experiments on Monday.

Happy Snow Day, everyone!

I hope you are able to enjoy some cozy, warm time at home.

If you do end up being able to make a snowman, I invite you to email me a picture for the blog since we’d love to see it! We would also love to celebrate any photos of your snowy pets or other snow activities!

If students are looking to get some extra studying time in today, here are some ideas:

REVIEW MULTIPLICATION:

This video I made gives an overview of some key math concepts covered so far in terms two:

PRACTICE OUR SPELLING WORDS:

Students could write out the words, cut them out like flash cards, and sort them into categories. Another idea is to turn the words face down and then draw two or three at a time and create a sentence using the words. Or, choose a handful of words and work them into a creative story.

Happy Monday, 5B families!

After our assembly today, we learned about prime numbers, prime factorization, and making “factor trees”. Students who requested a chance to redo the multiplication quiz should study at home this week in preparation for the Friday rewrite. Thank you so much to families for supporting this practice at home—see our past blog posts for studying tips.

In Language Arts, we began our new novel study on “Hatchet” by Gary Paulsen. I introduced the book with this example of “Book Talk” below, which also served as an example of the book talk assignment that students will be doing in March.

I will support our class in working through a “Study Guide” on Hatchet that will help promote reading skills, critical thinking, and dialogue, while also teaching enrichment vocabulary.

In addition to this ongoing study guide work, after we complete the last chapter of Hatchet, students will demonstrate their depth of understanding of the novel through writing a reading response paragraph (a criteria sheet and template will be provided). As well, students will be writing a poem inspired by the novel and then work with a small group to create and present a “book talk” about it.

Here is a sneak peek at the self-reflection students will complete at the end of the novel study unit…

In Spelling, this week we are studying the following 25 words, and will have our test on Friday. We will continue to work in class with these words this week, yet I asked students to take home their Spelling duo-tangs today so they can study as well at home.

AGENDAS:

I thank you in advance for continuing to encourage your child to use and bring home his/her agenda everyday. (I do “spot checks”, but do not do personal agenda checks every day; so that is another thing parents can support their children at home.)

Students at the grade 5 level are expected to develop their personal organizational skills and take responsibility for learning.

As well, if families solely rely on the class blog for important homework and dates, then students who have additional personalized homework written in their agendas for extra support will miss those details.

Also, the practice of daily agenda use is important because agenda use will be vital in future grades and they could be the main (or only) form of communication coming home to parents.

We appreciate you so much for your help in fostering this valuable life skill!

Hello, 5B families!

Happy New Year! It is wonderful to be back to learning with our class, and we have started strong. Please enjoy a scroll below to see what we have been exploring and to learn what is coming next.

Hello, 5B!

Welcome back to our classroom blog! We represented our learning about the Christmas story, and students worked with creativity and heart to make their own nativity scenes. They presented them to one another and the kindergarten and grade 2 classes. We invite you to enjoy a tour through the wonderful little worlds below. (Keep scrolling to the bottom to learn more about our “Grade 5 Talent Showcase”!)

Today was also special because we held our first “Grade 5 Talent Showcase”. We had singing, stand-up comedy, dancing, a puppet show, drumming, basketball skills demonstration, an animation, an artist’s talk, and more! Wow! Students were invited to take the stage and try using a microphone to get more comfortable with projecting their voices, and we enjoyed a few rounds of karaoke to warm up together. We were so proud of the courage of these students! By popular demand, we will bring back more talent shows in the new year!

Hello, 5B families!

We hope you enjoy the performances below and some details on our latest learning activities!

An optional activity I presented to students today was to make a construction paper box (see above for the tutorial we created in class) and to fill it with fun and creative Christmas-themed questions. If your child made one of these question games, you could use it to spark great family discussion and creativity.

It’s possible your child was still hard at work on his/her nativity scene construction today and didn’t get a chance to make the game; so here are the questions below to use as you like. An idea to jazz things up and create a longer lasting game is to write out the questions on craft sticks.

• If you had to name your child after a reindeer, which one would it be?
• What baked goods do you love to eat around Christmas time?
• What dish do you hope to see at Christmas dinner?
• If you had to name the new 10th reindeer, what would it be?
• Imagine you are a chef at a burger restaurant and you need to come up with a new burger for the menu called “The Christmas Burger”. Describe it! What makes it so “Christmasy”?
• What do you think would be a really thoughtful Christmas gift?
• What is a fun festive activity for a Saturday afternoon in December?
• What is one of your favorite Christmas smells and why?
• What is one of your special Christmas memories?
• What is the best way to spend Boxing Day?
• What is the best Christmas drink?
• What is your favorite Christmas cookie?
• What is your least favorite holiday side dish?
• What is a memorable Christmas gift you have received?
• What is the most annoying Christmas song?
• What item would make a really silly or strange Christmas ornament?
• If Santa gave you $100,000, what would you buy with it?
• If you could travel anywhere in the world for Christmas, where would you go and why?
• If you got a yacht for Christmas, what would you name it and where would you take it?
• If you had to make tree ornaments from just one type of item, which would you choose?
• If you had to decorate a Christmas tree using only things that symbolize the events of this last year, what would be on it? 
• Invent a new Christmas-themed breakfast cereal. 
• What ingredients would be in it?
• Is there any Christmas gift you definitely don’t want?
• Name a store you’d love to get a present from.
• Challenge: name five foods that are green and five foods that are red.
• Sing the first lines of the first Christmas song you can think of.
• What would you love to see dress up as Santa Claus? Why?
• Fill in the blank: Christmas isn’t Christmas without _______.
• What is a favourite Christmas memory you can share?
• What is a fun new Christmas tradition you might like to start?
• What is the silliest or strangest thing you have seen or heard of being done by an “elf on the shelf”?
• What role do you believe Mrs. Claus plays in Christmas?
• What makes a nice Christmas morning breakfast?
• List three things you remember receiving in a Christmas stocking?
• What are three things you would like to see in your own Christmas stocking?
• Imagine you are getting a new puppy or kitten for Christmas? What would you name it?
• Whose singing voice just “sounds like Christmas” to you?
• Who in you family does most of the dishes after Christmas dinner—or how does the clean up work get done?
• Name a Christmas movie you have seen or heard of?
• What is your favourite Christmas song?

Hello, 5B families!

We have spent this week enjoying Christmas crafts, buddy time, making creative DIY nativity scenes, decorating our mini-Christmas trees, making snowflakes, and practicing liturgical dance with ribbons and flags in preparation for the January Mass that grade fives are helping to lead. Here are two videos for you…

As well, the students have enjoyed some creative Christmas writing activities…

“White Elephant Gift Exchange”: On Friday morning, we will do an anonynmous gift exchange of second-hand or regifted items. No need to spend money! Some gifts will just be silly or small…like a spoon or paper clip or an old Paw Patrol figurine. Basically, choose and wrap one random thing in your house that you don’t need or want anymore (so long as it is clean and “school appropriate”).

There are two main purposes of this acitivity: (1.) it is silly fun, and (2.) it’s a great opportunity to model and practice social skills and language around gratitude, even when we recieve something unexpected. Don’t worry if you can’t think of anything to bring because I already have enough “white elephant” type gifts for each student, but students often have more fun choosing, wrapping, and bringing their own “junk items” to regift, so they are welcome to do so. We ask students not to bring more than two items maximum. 🙂

Civvies Friday: Remember to wear red, green, and white clothes for fun this Friday. We will have an assembly this day at 10:30am. Then it is early dismissal at 12:00pm