November Newsletter

November Newsletter

Dear Parents,

Wow! Hasn’t time flown by? It’s hard to believe we are actually coming to the end of Trimester 1 and soon enough, Christmas holidays will be upon us! As we enter Trimester 2, we are still knee-deep in many units, but all are ending with exciting projects.

Before I tell you about what 5B are studying, I want to say thanks for all you do to help each of your children be successful and confident as they learn. Enjoy reading the report cards you will be receiving at the end of this week!

Math

We are currently deep within our Algebra unit. Students are getting so confident with their skills – ever since they learned the order of operations and a nifty 3-step process of solving equations and making sure that the terms are equal on both sides, 5B have been having real fun solving the complex problems. Well done, 5B!
The next math lessons will be on data and graphing which will just about wrap-up Unit 2. Graphing can be challenging for students - daily practice is definitely encouraged! In our next unit, we will sharpen our multiplying skills of whole and decimal numbers.

Science

A couple of weeks ago, we began our study of Biomes and ecosystems, and the students are doing an excellent job. This past week, students have learned how energy flows through ecosystems and are currently learning all about adaptations and how body colour helps organisms survive (or not) in their environment! We will be doing a fun investigation with M&M’s (yay for chocolate!) to test our hypothesis.
The next few lessons will be devoted to learning about extinction and its causes and endangered species. I am hoping that we will be able to adopt some endangered animals or help save some conservation land as a class. If you are interested in finding out more, there is a wonderful website: http://www.worldwildlife.org/ogc/index.cfm
The children will also learning about biomes and will be involved in developing a Biome Mobile to reflect their understanding of a particular biome.

Rainbow Bay
Our study of Biomes will culminate and we will end it with a fun, challenging simulation called Rainbow Bay. Students work in groups to build a network of roads in the fictitious community of Rainbow Bay. As mayor, I will evaluate each group’s plan based on cost and environmental responsibility. This unit is always very popular with students as they have the opportunity to show what they have learned in Science in a meaningful, hands-on way. Our next unit will be Atoms & Matter which will involve many experiments in the science lab, tests and a major culminating project.


Social Studies
We are now into the last week of our ‘Caravans’ simulation – which team will win is anybody’s guess as thanks to the daily fate cards, the number of points and gold coin amounts can quickly change.
The next unit we will start in the new year. This will take a close look at culture through our investigation of India, Gandhi and Civil Rights. We will investigate how India’s physical geography as well as its cultural history contributed to the idea of civil rights around the world.

Language Arts

Inspired by Halloween stories, 5B students are currently learning how to write news reports and creating newsletters that show their journalistic skills. They have really worked hard at drafting and editing their ‘spooky’ reports and I hope that we can publish their efforts on our class website.

Each week we review and consolidate grammar techniques. Students have worked hard this month so far at sentence construction, types of sentences, and proper and common nouns. This regular drilling of skills is sure to aid the children’s writing.

In reading, we are starting a new monitoring comprehension unit whereby the students are taught to listen to their inner voices when reading and to use fix-up strategies to check their comprehension, to name just a few skills. Through this program, students will be introduced to a whole variety of different genre.

We have also been working hard at choosing level-appropriate reading books and I have spent time in reading conferences with individual students, assessing their reading skills and helping the students set targets.

We will be working on a special reading assessment programme starting from next trimester and this will greatly aid the students in understanding their weaknesses and strengths and hopefully empower them to read more and learn to love reading.

And that's it for now! Thank you again for all your wonderful support of the amazing students we have in 5B!

“Shoot for the moon! Even if you miss you will land among the stars!”-Les Brown