Ms. Baker 5/6

 Hello families! This week students have been expanding their understanding of prefixes and suffixes and expanding their vocabulary. We have been diving into our novel "A Rover's Story" and the students have been reflecting on the story and its characters very intentionally.  In Social Studies, students have been researching for their debate next week. The students were given a democratic pillar and had to research what ways Ancient Athens demonstrates that pillar and how they did not. Students had to research both sides before we established what side of the debate they would be on to ensure they would be ready to rebuttal and understand both perspectives.  In Science we have created trading cards to display what they have learned and researched about the planets in our Solar System. The cards are to have a description of the planet along with interesting facts that they have learned! The cards are now on a key ring that they can attach to their visual journals to keep t...

 Hello families,      Happy Friday! We had a great week with the warmer weather.       The students wrapped up their understanding of how rotation and orbit have an influence on seasons and the amount of sunlight we have in a day. We have now started investigating the different planets in our Solar System. They are practicing their ability to pull out information from videos and text and writing it in their own words in point form.      In Social Studies, the students spent the week comparing Ancient Athens to our 4 pillars of democracy. They had to write two proper paragraphs to tell me how Ancient Athens represents our 4 pillars and a paragraph to explain how they did not live up to the 4 pillars of our democracy. It was a great way to show their understanding of both democracies and showcased their ability to dive into the topic on a deeper level.      In Math, Grade 6's completed an activity to demonstrate a well-...

 Hello families, We are back to the groove of having school on Friday's! Students got to spend their math time participating in a conjecture today with the other 5/6 communities and complete a 5 minute frenzy which it feels like we haven't done in ages.  This week students finished their fractured fairy tales (they were warned it is homework if they are still not done). We took a step back and are taking a look at how to properly structure a paragraph. We practiced with an opinion paragraph and we will experiment with some informative paragraph writing next week. Students were challenged with a timed story prompt today. Ask them what they wrote about and if they were able to complete it in the hour!  In Grade 6 Math, students are continuing their look at division. We will be wrapping this up soon and moving into some area and perimeter before the break. Grade 5's have been looking at division strategies and the connections between multiplication and division.  Studen...

 Hello families, It was so nice to see so many of you over the last two days.  This week students were tasked with finishing up their fractured fairy tale rough copies so that they can revise and hand in their good copies by Wednesday. The stories are so interesting and their ideas have really shown off their creativity.  We have started our Sky Science and jumped into objects that emit and reflect light. Students have started their new concept maps for the unit and are encouraged to practice their jot notes and ability to create connections between topics.  In Social Studies we have continued discussing Ancient Athens and the idea of a fair democracy. Students were tasked in analyzing ideas from Pericles and Socrates and comparing the ideas of the importance of contributing to a democracy. They learned about three major pieces of Ancient Athens democracy, The Court, The Assembly and The Council of 500. Ask them what each of these are and how they contributed to the ...

 Hello families, This week the students started a new unit in Social Studies and Science! We have started exploring Ancient Athens and Sky Science. Students have been learning about the different roles that people have in Ancient Athens based on their social ranking and the students were assigned a random person to describe the "day in the life" on Friday. The students did a great job getting into character and describing the different jobs, hobbies, and rights they would have as that person.  In Grade 6 Math students have been practicing multiplication and division with decimals. Grade 5's have been learning the Lattice Method for multi-digit multiplication. On Friday we took the opportunity to have all 5/6 communities come together for some Math problem solving together which was amazing to see how they worked with new people and worked together on some tricky problems.  We will be starting our rough copies of our fractured fairy tales this week and be moving on to revi...

 Hello families, This week we had the opportunity to take a walk to the pond and really assess the trees around us. The students observed the difference in needle bundles, margins, leaf types and arrangements. We also dived into tree cookies and students practiced looking at a cross section of a tree to find the various information you can learn from the tree growth shown.  In Social Studies we have looked at the 4 pillars of democracy in Canada and have started an image project for students to create images to represent each pillar. We will be wrapping up our understanding of democracy so we can move into historical models of democracy.  In Math this week, Grade 6 students wrapped up Factors, Multiples and Prime Factorization with a quiz. They have been challenged with word multiplication and division problems and order of operations throughout the week. Grade 5's, continued working with multiplication and applying the box method strategy for 2 by 1 multiplication and re...

Hello families, Another great week of learning! As a school we participated in "Take Me Outside Day" and it was amazing to see the students interact with nature and each other as we explored the outdoors.  This week we began categorizing trees using the dichotomous key and looking at the characteristics of trees and leaves. We learned the parts of the tree and students were tasked with being able to take information and put it into their own words. We have been creating a unit concept map for Science so that the students can refer to it and review the information as the unit goes on. We had an open book test today where the students could use the information they have on their concept map to ensure they are keeping up with the information as we go.  Bad Picture Day stories are due on Monday. Students have had plenty of time this week to edit their stories and finish them up. Their job is to only write 6 paragraphs, one for each event. This is homework if it is not complete!...