Today was especially meaningful as it was our first Mass of the school year, and we accompanied our little buddies in the grade 2 class on the walk to the parish. After lunch we returned to our Social Studies unit on the history of residential schools in Canada and the journey to reconciliation. Then we experienced a prayerful reflection upon the song “Open the Eyes of My Heart” followed by students discussing their understandings of various Bible verses on the theme of eyes, the sense of sight, and awakening. Scroll down for more highlights…
We have spent time in Language Art working on the third reading strategy in the “High 5!” approach: Analyzing Text Structure. Noticing the elements of organized, well-structured text helps us to better understand the meaning of what we are reading, and it also teaches us about important ways we can organize our own writing to improve clarity and impact.
In Math, we have been exploring place value.
What does reconciliation mean to you? In Social Studies, we have been learning about the meaning behind “Orange Shirt Day”, also known as the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. We have been studying past discriminatory government policies and actions, specifically the history of residential schools in Canada.
Education is an vital part of Reconciliation. Our class has been learning about the history and contributions of Indigenous people in Canada.
In Religion, we discussed this “Liturgical Year” video and discussed the difference between sacred traditions and customs.
Happy Thursday, everyone! I hope you enjoy a nice long weekend! (There is no school for students tomorrow since it is a pro-d day.)
We finished the week with fun ADST explorations of engineering and design. Students were challenged to innovate within the constraints of limited materials (just index cards). Indeed, we saw so much creativity on display—especially as students rapidly built their own new knowledge through communicating and collaborating.
Challenge 1: Build a Tall Tower
The tallest tower measured was 42.5cm!
Challenge 2: Build a Unique Structure
Challenge 3: Work Together
LANGUAGE ARTS: Today we reviewed the necessary components of sentences and challenged our creativity by trying to transform boring sentence fragments into fascinating complete sentences. MATH: We practiced determining pattern rules again, and then we reviewed place value. We also enjoyed a sidetrack musing about about the concept of infinity and then discussed what it means to write a number in standard, expanded, and word form.
RELIGION: In addition to our scheduled Religion classes, our explorations of faith and the Bible are interwoven throughout the school day. We have been developing our prayer practice, singing and reflecting upon carefully chosen praise and worship songs, and discussing virtues, Bible stories, and the students’ own related big questions. Today the concept of miracles came up and the students were enthusiastic about sharing their own connections and beliefs. It is such a gift to witness the courage, beautiful ideas, and faith of our students. A new song we learned this week is called “House of the Lord” and we had a blast trying out the children’s video with hand actions as a part of our DPA.CHOICE: After a productive academic morning, the students had earned some choice time—many enjoyed extra reading, connecting with friends, drawing, and personal interest projects. Some students have been enthusiastic about designing their own extreme versions of the classic “Snakes and Ladders” game.
Monday, Sept. 25 is PHOTO DAY! Please wear your full uniform, and since we have PE, you are welcome to bring your gym strip in case there is time to change into it to be more comfortable.
Wednesday, Sept. 27 is Mass at St. Patrick’s Parish at 10:45am and full uniform is expected for this day too.
SPELLING: We had our spelling self-quiz today. Here’s a sneak peek at next week’s spelling list. Feel free to start dreaming up your own creative sentences to show the meaning of the words in context!
We enjoyed a school assembly today, and we were inspired to see the “Fruit of the Spirit Awards” presentations.
Now what is going on in these photos? Oh my! This was a fun one…
We started a unit in Science about THE DIGESTIVE SYSTEM. This was a hands-on activity that I’m sure you heard all about at home! Haha! (If not, ask your children what they made today—the medical term!) We learned about mechanical digestion, the physical process of breaking down food into smaller pieces without altering its chemical composition. It begins in the mouth, where teeth chew and grind food into smaller fragments, increasing its surface area. Mechanical digestion also occurs in the stomach as it contracts and mixes food with gastric juices, turning it into a soupy mixture called chyme.) We also learned about chemical digestion. This is the process of breaking down food into simpler substances through chemical reactions. It also starts in the mouth with the release of enzymes that begin to break down starches. In the stomach, gastric juices work to break down proteins. The majority of chemical digestion occurs in the small intestine, where enzymes from the pancreas and bile from the liver further break down carbohydrates, fats, and proteins for absorption.
Here is our new spelling list for the week. These are words that I noticed have been more frequently misspelled by students. I harvested the words from students’ recent expository writing sample on healthy living. In Language Arts, we discussed the next reading strategy in the “High 5!” method, which is QUESTIONING, and we continued to practice the ACTIVATING BACKGROUND KNOWLEDGE strategy. In Health Ed., we enjoyed another “Open Parachute” lesson, this time on the topic of understanding and managing anxiety and worry. We practiced some breathing and visualization techniques, and discussed other coping strategies, emphasizing proactive action and “controlling the controllables”.
Reminder: Tomorrow is the Terry Fox Run! Wear your gym strip and consider bringing a toonie or more to donate to cancer research.
Please remember to bring in your “Earthquake Comfort Kits” and Student Verification Forms as soon as possible. Thank you for reading and signing the agendas every night. We want to keep you informed.
We have wrapped up week two, and it’s been a blast! I’m really enjoying my first year teaching at our school—what a blessing it is to work with such kind, hard working and enthusiastic students!
We explored so much this week, as you can see below…
Math: We learned to identify Roman numerals to 20, and for a challenge some students tested their speed mentally calculating elapsed time shown on two classic clocks.Math: We introduced a new unit on working with the rules for increasing and decreasing patterns with words, numbers, symbols, and variables.Physical Education: We joined other local independent schools at the fun soccer tournament today! Everyone played so well and showed amazing school spirit!Health Ed. & Language Arts: We had lots of small group discussion time to brainstorm our ideas and get feedback on our poetry and other writing projects. Language Arts & Art: The students worked hard this week to watercolour paint self-portraits and to write metaphorical “I Am” poems—you will be amazed! We will do a full post on this work next week. Career Ed. & Health Ed.: We brainstormed and illustrated some guidelines and safety practices for our class. Social Studies: We enjoyed “Meet Terry Fox” as a read-aloud and discussion prompt.
Social Studies: In preparation for next week’s Terry Fox Run, we watched this video. We will also be transforming and sharing our learning by writing biographical poems to teach others about the life and contributions of this Canadian hero. Career Ed./Health Ed: Our class enjoyed a powerful lesson on friendship skills using the “Open Parachute”program video and discussion prompts.
Music & Band: Our students have loved starting up their musical year with Mr. Oliver, and they have all selected their new instruments. As well, we learned a new worship song: “Heaven Meets Earth”, a beautiful tune by the group All Sons and Daughters.
In the Agendas: Students were invited today to bring home their spelling self-tests and check-in math quizzes covering telling time on analog clocks and calculating elapsed time. (Students are welcome to rewrite any test or quiz any time.) Students have also brought home a “student verification form” for parents/guardians to sign, and we ask that “Earthquake Comfort Kits” come in as soon as possible. We know there are lots of forms in the beginning of the year—thank you so much for your time!
We had a productive Monday! In Math, we reviewed telling time and focussed on calculating elapsed time with the timeline method. (Click here for a tutorial if needed.) We will have a check-in quiz on this topic on Thursday. Check-in quizzes are formative assessments to let students know where they are having success in their learning and where they need to focus their energy.
In Language Arts, the students brainstormed words they felt we should include in our first spelling list. We will work with this list in creative ways this week and then students will conduct a “self test” on these spelling words on Friday.
Next, in our “reading strategies” lesson, I introduced the “High 5!” method for improving students’ comprehension of expository text.
Today we read a scientific text about wolves and then explored related comprehension questions. Employing the High 5! strategy, we first brainstormed a mindmap of connections and information that students already knew about wolves.
We later reinforced our new learning about wolves with this educational video.
Students enjoyed their first Physical Education class and were briefed on the soccer field trip they will participate in this Friday.
What does it mean to be healthy? What steps can people take to be healthy? In Health Education, we had great discussion about what advice students would share with others about how to be healthy. Then they planned and wrote a paragraph to share their advice. I offered a template students could use, but invited them to make it their own and show off their writing skills.
Then, students enjoyed their first Religion class with Ms. Wark!
Note:
The Welcome Back BBQ is on tomorrow from 5pm-7pm.
This is a chance to see our classroom and come meet in person! I hope to see you there.
It’s been a fun and special first week in grade 5, and we’ve already accomplished so much.
WORSHIP MUSIC: We enjoyed coming together as a class community through worship music by listening and singing along with guitar music at the cozy carpet area. Hearing students sweet, earnest voices was a treasured memory for me this week. A favourite song we added to our repertoire was “Gratitude” by Brandon Lake, which we will learn to perform as a class closer to Thanksgiving.
WHO ARE YOU? (ME BAGS): Today students brought in their decorated “Me Bags” as a way to introduce themselves to their classmates using creative metaphors. The students’ core competencies of thinking, communicating, and personal/social awareness were on beautiful display!
LANGUAGE ARTS: Today I introduced the assignment of using the symbolic “Me Bag” contents as inspiration to write creative metaphorical “I Am” poetry exploring personal identity. Next week we will continue working on these poems in tandem with learning more about literal versus figurative language (simile, metaphor) and poetic forms. We also begin our “word study” (spelling/vocabulary) program and reading strategies lessons next week.
AGENDAS, NOTICES & UNIFORMS: Students set up their new agendas and used them to bring home some forms and information sheets, including notices about an upcoming field trip to Carnarvon Park, photo day, uniform expectations, and the need to prepare earthquake comfort kits (due Sept. 18).
I asked students to make a daily practice of showing their parents their agendas and any notices or school work I send home. This helps keep you informed and builds children’s personal responsibility and organizational skills. If you can, please sign the agenda when your child shows it to you to let me know that the important information got home to you. Thank you so much!
OUR SCHEDULE: As well, students have brought home a copy of our weekly schedule, which shows gym strip days as Mondays and Wednesdays. Please note that students should wear casual uniform on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays (or they can wear full uniform any day except Phys. Ed days). Full uniform is expected for special days, including photo day, mass, concerts, some field trips, and assemblies—yet most assemblies fall on Mondays but the need fore gym strip is the priority on Mondays. Keep watching your agendas, email and/or this blog to stay on top of any special full uniform days coming up.
MATH: In Math, we reviewed grade 4 content of learning to tell time with an analog clock, and we introduced the grade 5 concept of calculating elapsed time. We have had lessons, helpful videos, practice questions and direct teacher and peer support. Here are some sample questions from this week:
Here is a video about how to tell time that we watched in class…
Another great introductory video on time comes from Math Antics, a YouTube channel we will refer to again this year…
LOOKING AHEAD: Next week we will focus on practicing strategies for calculating elapsed time. There are at least two helpful methods that we will try next week: the timeline method and the t-chart method (taught in the videos below). Any review and practice students can do at home on reading clocks and calculating elapsed time will be a big help.
About Math Homework: My experience is that students who review their math learning at home and rewatch the instructional videos I post on the blog are the students who consistently show more confidence and achieve more during their math blocks at school. That said, as a mom of three, I know that families are busy and family time is a priceless priority. I offer these math learning links for those who are able and interested to continue their math study when possible—it’s not an expectation to watch them.
REMINDER: Monday is a Phys. Ed day, and so students should wear their gym strip.
What a wonderful group of students we have in our 5B class! Here is a review of our learning today. Our activities included the following: unpacking school supplies, completing a “Getting to Know You” sheet, making a novel section, participating in a group discussion on goal-setting, doing a STEM activity, and enjoying a prayerful, reflective listening to three songs: “Open the Eyes of My Heart”, “Throne Room Song”, and “Holy Ground”.
We had an extensive safety guidelines discussion and demonstration connected to the “Health Ed.” curriculum and our Cotton Ball Launcher activity supporting grade 5 Science and ADST learning standards. Students were closely supervised and only permitted to launch cotton balls and to practice aiming at the targets they created inside their desk “caves”. We reviewed the necessity for following instructions and demonstrating maturity when doing STEM projects in order to ensure they are enjoyable for all.
Success!
I was absolutely delighted with how well students performed in this task! We look forward to more grade level appropriate challenges that foster these wonderful core competencies (thinking, communicating, social/emotional). It was great to see how students had so much fun talking about and tinkering with their creations and applying their new understandings gained through the design process. Way to go, 5B!
Tomorrow students will get their agendas and a copy of the weekly schedule. We will also will on some writing samples, math word problems related to reading clocks and calculating elapsed time,
Reminder: Tomorrow is an assembly day, so please remember your full uniform.
I am so excited to welcome you to our class for what will be a very special grade 5 year.
It’s going to be a year exploring our creativity, discovering your passion and a gifts, challenging your thinking skills, building connections, deep reflection, and growing in faith in our supportive class community.
My name is Tiffany Poirier, and students call me Ms. Poirier (pronounced “mizz pour-ee-ay”). I am a wife and mother of three boys—two who are attending this school: one is in grade 7, another is in grade 1, and my youngest looks forward to joining our school for kindergarten. I have been a teacher for 17 years, and you can learn more about me by checking out my bio and other tabs on this website.
This first blog post of the year offers a quick introduction; we will have it’s more information to come this week.
I will send you new blog posts and updates about twice a week throughout the year—I love working hard for families by sharing frequent communications including photos, videos, and lesson descriptions so everyone can feel connected to our classroom learning. If you’re curious, you can scroll back to see my previous years’ worth of blog posts. Students and their works are only photographed and featured on my blog with written consent from both parents and the students themselves. I will email you a reminder each time I make a new post, and check this blog frequently for the updates.
Tomorrow will be a lovely morning (8:40am-12:00pm) with a school assembly and then time to settle in, get to know one another, unpack supplies, set some goals, talk about guidelines and our vision for the year, and even start a fun hands-on STEM activity to get the creativity and collaboration going!
We have lots of excitement lately! We have had beach trips, board games tournaments, Purple Park picnics, engineering challenges, a year-end dance party, and more learning about government and rich reflection on National Indigenous People’s Day about what it means to be an ally. We even had a visit from Ms. Smith and her cute little black duck that imprinted on her!
A visit from the little black duck!“It works!” – Designing for structural integrityAmazing dance moves!
What do you notice about this sequence of numbers?
0 1 1 2 3 5 8 13 21 34 55 89 144
Today we offered some more math enrichment, and our topic was the Fibonacci sequence. Through discussion and experimentation, students learned about this mysterious and wonderful pattern found in so many aspects of nature.
Here are some of the videos students saw:
In ADST, our students have also been enjoying a new coding game and origami
In Art, student have been trying new creative image development strategies—including doing a brainstorming exercise that resulted in making thought provoking art by transforming images of barcodes…
As well, we are deep into our big year-end self reflection process. This involves (a.) writing paragraphs about our most memorable learning moments of the year, (b.) identifying specific evidence of growth in the core competencies (Thinking, Communication & Personal/Social Responsibility), and (c.) setting goals for next year.
Tiffany Poirier 