It has been a very busy time for our class (with Halloween, Remembrance Day student led conferences and progress reports), I apologize for not updating sooner.

Thank you to all who came to student led conferences.  The responses overall were very positive and I appreciate being able to talk with you about your child.  Students were excited to show you everything they are doing at school.  If you were not able to make it in and would like to discuss anything, feel free to contact me (please see the ‘Contact Ms. Rivard’ section on right hand side of this page).

Curriculum Update:

We are wrapping up our science and social studies units, Science “Think Tank” projects have been handed in and Social Studies “Create your own island” projects are due next Wednesday (December 7).  The students have had approximately 8 classes to work on the social studies projects, so as long as they used their time in class wisely, they should not have very much left to complete.

In Math we are working on using our estimating skills (with rounding) to decide if our answers to addition and subtraction questions are reasonable.  We are also focusing on word problems.  Students have recently learned that to be good at work problems they need to understand what the question is asking.  This is especially important in grade 5 as we work on problems that have more than one step.

In writing we have wrapped up recounts and are moving on to persuasive pieces.  Your child should be practicing how to convince people to do or think something with relevant reasons.  Recent reading activities are helping us with this as we are looking at the point of view of different characters to deepen our understanding of what we read.

The student council is currently holding a canned food and toy drive until December 9th to benefit the goodfellows and the Tilbury Information and Help Centre.  The class has written me several persuasive letters to allow them to have a special day if our class brings in the most donations.  If our class is the winning class, I will chose the most persuasive letter for a special day or activity right before the Christmas Break.  

If you have not finished the first 3 sections of your Visualizing brochure, you need to do that.

Picture Day is Thursday, Oct 21. Chocolate bar money is now past due. Students who received brown envelopes from Mr. McFadden need to have their parents sign the last page, then return the envelope and the signed page.  All other pages stay at home

There are some students who still have not handed in :

The Most Important Thing (good copy)

Elements of Art squares and leaf rubbings

Appreciation statements for classmates

Bluenose questions

Double check to make sure you are completely caught up!

These are our bitstrip characters.  A few students have not yet created their avatar so I will post a new class picture once they have.  I am happy to see so many students actively using twiducate and bitstrips :)  I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!

Math tests have been returned. They need to be signed and brought back to school.  We are currently working on a place value unit.

We have also started a new strategy when reading.  We are trying to visualize the story like a live action film in our heads.  The first part of this strategy is to predict what they might see, hear, taste, smell, feel or touch before they read.  Then after they’ve read for about 15 minutes have them compare what they actually visualized to what they predicted.

In science we are studying matter.  We have been using the scientific process to examine different properties of matter and will be learning how to tell the difference between chemical and physical changes.

Books orders are due this Friday.  Student Council is selling tickets for the chance to be principal for Friday morning.  They are $2.00 each and the money goes to the United Way.

Finish pages 1, 2, 3 in workbook

We are coming to the end of our patterning unit and will be having a test next week (probably Monday).  Going over questions that they had difficulty with is a great way to study.

Math homework page 9 #4, 5

Read for 20 minutes

Art Folder cover - due Friday

Verb booklet - due Friday

Scholastic book orders due Friday Sept. 23.