Pizza lunch

The student teachers have offered to host a pizza lunch for several classes on Thursday. Each student will get 2 slices of pizza. They should still bring snacks and beverages for the day. Thanks from behalf on the grade 5 and 6 classes.

MATH REVIEW

The grade 5's and 6's both have their data  management test wed. Dec 18th. We started the 'show what you know ' sections today in class. These sections are a great way to review material for the test. The numbers in red next to the questions refer the students to the chapter where that information is covered. 

Flight!!

The grade 6 students are learning about flight in science. We have doing experiments related to the properties of air over the last few days. We also had concrete examples how Bernoulli's

Principle is a critical element in creating lift in natural and man made items. Here are some pictures of them putting all this into practise with our Test Plane Pilot Program.

SOME Important Dates

We are trying to close out several units over the next week and a half. I am trying to stagger things so as not to have more than one test or assessment a day. 

Grade 5 

Social studies fri dec 13

Math wed. Dec 18

Science tues dec 17

Grade 6

Social studies fri dec 13

Math wed. Dec 18

Science thurs dec 19

Thursday dec 12th the grade 5 students will be working on a review that will help focus their studying for science. 

COMMENTS FROM THE KIDS!!

ISAAC CZUDNER ROCKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I REALLY LIKED MAKING THE BRIDGES WITH MY CLASSMATES. IT WAS REALLY FUN AND EASY. I DID NOT REALLY LIKE HOW WE WERE GIVEN A CERTAIN TIME PERIOD. I LIKED THAT WE WERE ABLE TO PICK OUR GROUPS. THAT'S ALL FOLKS! SEE YA! :)


TORI 

WHAT I LIKED AND DISLIKED ABOUT MAKING A BRIDGE. I LIKED HOW WE COULD USE AS MUCH TAPE AS WE WANTED. BUT I DID NOT LIKE HOW WE WERE LIMITED ON TIME THAT MADE MY GROUP AND I NERVOUS AND RUSH BUT WE DID IT.I HAD A LOT OF FUN AND ENJOYED MAKING A BRIDGE. 

SOCIAL STUDIES TEST NEXT WEEK

The grade 5 and 6 class will have a social studies test next week. We are shooting for friday Dec. 13, but we may be able to do it on Thursday Dec 12th, if we are able to review the material needed in time. I am encouraging them to take their notebooks and textbooks home nightly next week to review their notes. It's critical kids understand that it is much more effective to review a little every night, rather than trying to 'cram' everything the night before.

Below you will find areas for each grade to focus on when reviewing:

Grade 5 (in general terms the information covered falls between pages 79 to 111 in their textbooks)

• there will be approximately 7 true/false or fill in the blank questions that will be taken from the early part of the lessons (the 4 initial societies examined, troy, copan, china's clay soldiers and the great Zimbabwe)
• approximately 7 to 10 multiple choice questions from the above section and the sections covering stone age peoples and early agriculture
• there will be a section where they need to define terms (examples would be: arachaeology, hieroglyphics,prehistoric, civilization, hierarchy, technology, cuneiform, economy, artisan)
• There will be a series of short answer questions that will deal with characteristics of early civilizations (economy, social& political systems, knowledge, religious beliefs)
• also make sure you are able to THOROUGHLY discuss how farming and food surpluses changed prehistoric peoples lives.
• they should review their notes in their duatangs also

Grade 6 ( in general terms the information covered falls between pages 104 to 137)

• there will be approximately 7 true/false or fill in the blank questions that will be taken from the section 'The first peoples of the Americas'
• approximately 7 to 10 multiple choice and fill in the blank questions from the section that discusses Aboriginal Peoples Culture Regions
• there will be a section where they need to define terms (examples would be: culture region, nomadic, missionary, creation story, tribe, clan,Beringia, wigwam, pemmican, tribe)
• There will be a series of short answer questions that will deal with the resources, basic needs, and traditions of different cultural regions 
• There will be a longer form open response question in which the students will need to discuss what  modern Canadians  could learn from First Nations Peoples
• they should review their notes in their duatangs also

All hands on science!!

The grade 5 class is working on forces and gravity.

Remembrance Day Contest Winner

Every year the Legion has a Remembrance Day celebration  writing contest for all grade schools.

Congratulations to Serafina P. for being selected the junior category winner for her poem. We are so proud of you Serafina!

Wow and The Spits

We celebrated our Wow award winners today and the Spits came in to launch Sports Day in Canada. Congrats to Hailee, Connor and Marco for being our winners this month . The theme was helping hands! 

GIZMOS!!

This is a follow-up to the post last week about 'flipping the classroom'. The idea is to do the groundwork at home and leave valuable class time for discussion, questions and extension of concepts covered on line. With that in mind, I have introduced 'explore learning' and 'gizmos' to the grade 6 class today.  Tonight I would like the grade 6 students to continue with the work that we introduced in class.  They have a username and password that we copies into their agendas.
Today we worked on the 'explore learning' site for an hour, showing the kids how to navigate the site and where to go for assistance.  The particular 'gizmo' they are working on has to do with creating and interpreting graphs. I have included the link below for the kids to access the 'explore learning' site.

EXPLORE LEARNING

Social studies resource sheets

These are summary pages for the grade 6 social studies unit.

INTRODUCTION VIDEO FOR LATITUDE

I am including a brief video that I would like the kids to view before we discuss Latitude and Longitude in class. Please have the kids watch the video and write down two questions they still have about latitude and longitude.

VIEW VIDEO

Sharing our Ourselves

Sometimes it's interesting how some things take on a life of their own. The other day a student brought in a trophy from a cheerleading event they won over the weekend. They asked to share it with the class and we set aside a few minutes for her to share the experience with her peers. The next day, low and behold, we had several more students bring in items that were important to them that they wanted to share. Now today we had a few more students bring in totally different items that they wanted to share. So again, we set a few minutes of time and had them share their stories. Each item was vastly different but it gave us a different perspective on each of the kids. It showed me a side of them( and each other) that I didn't really know. Also, as a teacher, it gives me a little informal way to see how they use oral communication skills as they share their story ( hey assessment is assessment). Now if I would had brought this up and told them they were required to bring something in and had to share--well I can assure you it wouldn't have gone over very well. Sometimes it's best to just let things go the way they are going to go, without too much interference from the teacher. We might get more kids bringing items in or we may not, but it gives them some control over what they want to share with the class. I have a few pictures below.

WE DON'T DO IT FOR THE RECOGNITION--BUT,IT'S NICE!

FOLLOW THE LINK TO THE RONALD MCDONALD FACEBOOK PAGE. WE ALSO RECEIVED A LETTER THANKING THE KIDS FOR THEIR GENEROUS DONATION.
WE ARE ALL VERY PROUD OF THE EFFORTS THE STUDENTS MADE WITH THIS EVENT. IF YOU FOLLOW THE LINK, LOOK AT THE COMMENTS UNDERNEATH THE STORY--VERY NICE COMMENTS FROM PEOPLE.

MATH HELP

Just launched !! A great resource for parents and kids to help with math.

FOLLOW THE LINK: MATH SITE

MATH REVIEW

We have been reviewing our geometry the last few days. We will continue to review the rest of the week in preparation for the math test on Friday, November 22nd.

GRADE 5 KEY IDEAS: (ALL THESE CONCEPTS CAN BE FOUND IN THEIR TEXTBOOKS)

• BE ABLE TO NAME A POLYGON WITH A VARIETY OF NAMES
• BE ABLE TO DESCRIBE SEVERAL ATTRIBUTES OF A SHAPE (PARALLEL SIDES, ANGLES IN COMMOM ETC.)
• BE ABLE TO MEASURE A VARIETY OF ANGLES AND NAME THEM ACCORDING TO THEIR SIZE-WITH A PROTRACTOR (ACUTE, OBTUSE, RIGHT)
• BE ABLE TO MEASURE A SHAPE TO THE CLOSES CM (3.6CM, 2.3CM)
• BE ABLE TO NAME A TRIANGLE BASED ON IT'S SIDE LENGTHS
• BE ABLE TO CONSTRUCT A VARIETY OF ANGLES AND TRIANGLES
• BE ABLE TO LOOK AT A NET OF A 3D SOLID AND BE ABLE TO DECIDE IF IT MAKES A 3D SOLID OR NOT, THEN EXPLAIN WHY IT DOES OR DOESN'T

GRADE 6 KEY IDEAS: (ALL THESE CONCEPTS CAN BE FOUND IN THEIR TEXTBOOKS) 

• BE ABLE TO CONSTRUCT A VARIETY OF ANGLES (WITH A PROTRACTOR)
• BE ABLE TO NAME VARIOUS POLYGONS AND THEN DESCRIBE THEM USING A VARIETY OF ATTRIBUTES ( ACUTE ANGLES, PARALLEL SIDES, NUMBER OF EQUAL ANGELS ETC)
• BE ABLE TO CONSTRUCT QUADRILATERALS AND TRIANGLES WITH VARIOUS SIDE LENGTHS AND ANGLE MEASURES (NEED TO USE A COMPASS)
• BE ABLE TO SORT A VARIETY OF FIGURES BASED ON SIMILAR ATTRIBUTES
• BE ABLE TO TAKE A 3 D SOLID AND THEN REPRESENT IT ON TRIANGULAR DOT PAPER

Oops! That lesson flopped!

No matter how smart we think we are (and I'm pretty smart)lessons  sometimes fail miserably. We have been working on identifying attributes of 2d figures and 3d solids. An attribute would be:  2 equal sides, 1 pair of parallel sides, or opposite angles are equal. These are just a few examples of attributes. The students need to be able to identify, sort and compare shapes based on attributes. Well, somewhere along the way we didn't 'get it', as the kids say. Today we are playing a game that reinforces identifying attributes and then allows kids to come up with secret attribute rules that team members need to discover. Sometimes playing, rather than teaching can be a more effective way to teach!!

Book fair visit

We are scheduled to visit the book fair Friday afternoon.

Writing traits and Text Patterns

 I hope all parents were able to see their child's marked mystery or suspense story. Your child can access the story from their google tools2 go account. This was a first attempt at creating, editing and marking a written assignment on line. It went very well and it opens up endless possibilities for students, teachers, and parents that want to keep informed about their child's progress.

THE NEXT STEP

One of the short coming was that parents really couldn't see the criteria we use to assss their child's work. What I came up with is posting the learning goals and success criteria on the blog for now. This is not ideal because I would like the written work and the success criteria to be associated or displayed, I'm working on a more convenient solution.

 

Our next written assignment that will be created, edited and marked on line is an informational magazine article that uses a descriptive text pattern.  Below you will see pictures of the charts we create in the class to guide the students during this process.

GEOMETRY RESOURCES

I have placed 7 resource sheets for geometry on the class web site. I strongly encourage students to look these over at home and then print them out. I will also be placing these sheets on a larger chart and leaving them up in the room. It is critical for this unit that students understand the attributes of figures and how to use those attributes to sort, name and organize 2d and 3d figures. The sheets are for both the grade 5 and grade 6 students. I would appreciate that parents just leave me a quick note in the agenda next week that indicates whether your child has looked at and downloaded the resource sheets. You can follow the link below to get directly to the page on the website that has the resource sheets.

https://sites.google.com/a/mytools2go.ca/mr-francia-5-6/homework

Follow up to the Flip

Last night students previewed a learnzillion video that took them through the steps to measure angles. Now we can move to actual guided practise in the classroom. My lesson time was reduced to a quick 5 minute review and now we can help kids actually using he protractor to measure angles. 

WRITING ASSIGNMENT

The students were sent home with an observation assignment. They have Wednesday and Thursday night to take notes while someone in the house performs a task. It could be dad cooking, mom doing laundry or even an older sibling cleaning their room or performing choirs.  We are working on the IDEA TRAIT for writing. One of the strategies for this trait is to observe the ordinary things that happen every day and describe them in interesting and novel ways. I am sending home the worksheet tonight with the students.  I have included a picture of the mentor text that we used in class highlight the IDEA TRAIT.

THANK YOU

LEARNZILLION-flipping the classroom

PLEASE follow the link below to learnzillion. Watch the video and make notes. Below there is a letter to parents that explains the goals of learnzillion. The lesson below is a video that shows them how to use a protractor.

http://learnzillion.com/lessons/2973-measure-angles-to-the-nearest-degree-with-protractors

Parents and Guardians,
Many of you have asked how you can support your student’s learning at home. Here is an important way you can do that.

Go to www.learnzillion.com. LearnZillion is a website that provides teachers and parents with video lessons showing what your student needs to learn each year. The videos include a 3-5 minute "teaching" video and a short “practice” video where students can see if they understand the lesson. 

For now, I will be posting a link to the videos on our class blog. If you haven't done so already, please visit the class blog and scroll down to the very bottom of the blog. There you will see an email sign-up for the blog. Once you sign up you will be alerted to any new submissions to the blog.
Your student can watch the videos alone or with you. Have your student take notes while watching. He/She can take a piece of paper and breaking the front page into the following sections:

• What is this lesson about?
• Review
• Mistakes to avoid
• The main thing to learn

He/she can use the back of the paper to work on the practice problem in the “guided practice” video. Initially there will not be practice videos, once everyone is comfortable watching the videos I will give the students a username and password to access the site and direct them to our class page on the site.

Thank you for supporting your student’s learning at home. Let me know if you have any questions.
Sincerely,

Mr. Francia

Geometry

We are starting geometry this week. Today we explored a variety of shapes and classified them using a variety of criteria. We are encouraging them to discover the sorting rules on their own. The idea is that they will discover what shapes have in common rather than being told.

Ronald McDonald House funds

The money just keeps coming in!! Way to go guardians!! Please send me pictures of our students doing activities to raise money for our Ronald McDonald House fundraiser. Here is another student raking leaves to raise money. It's very moving to see all these students volunteering their time and efforts for  a very worthy charitable organization.

THANK YOU !

As you know, the grade 5/6 class has been raising money for the Ronald McDonald house. The students have really responded and raised money through various means. One of our students and their family also held an event to benefit ovarian cancer. They were kind enough to direct some of the funds raised at their event to our fund raising efforts. I just want to thank the Czudner family for helping out with our cause. I have included some photographs from the event they organized at Essex Golf Course.

Magazine characteristics

Media is all around us and our children need to know how to navigate through the world of mass media!! We are learning how to identify the characteristics of magazines today. Also, little reminder we have a math test Friday on unit 1. 

WOW assembly

Our theme this month was mutual respect. Congratulations to our winners!!

MATH TEST MONDAY

We always do review in class before the test. I know some students like to review at home with parents. What I thought I could do is give students some key areas to focus in on when they are reviewing at home.

GRADE 6
 (THE ONLY INFORMATION NOT IN THE TEXTBOOK IS REGARDING THE ALGEBRA QUESTIONS)

• BE ABLE TO COMPLETE AN INPUT/OUTPUT TABLE
• KNOW WHAT A RECURSIVE PATTERN IS AND HOW TO SPOT IT
• ALSO KNOW HOW TO EXPLAIN A RECURSIVE PATTERN WITH WORDS
• KNOW HOW TO SOLVE PROBLEMS WITH MISSING NUMBERS (#11 PG27)
• SOLVE ALGEBRAIC EXPRESSIONS (4X=12, 2X+3X-5=30)
• USE PATTERNS TO SOLVE WORD PROBLEMS
• SEE AT BOTTOM FOR AN ANCHOR CHART TO HELP WITH ALGEBRA

GRADE 5

• CONTINUE A NUMBER PATTERN
• BE ABLE TO DESCRIBE A NUMBER PATTERN IN WORDS 
• MAKE SURE YOU KNOW HOW TO USE THE TERM ALTERNATELY WHEN DESCRIBING PATTERNS AND WHEN TO USE IT
• BE ABLE TO COMPLETE AN INPUT/OUTPUT TABLE
• BE ABLE TO USE PATTERNS AND TABLES TO SOLVE WORD PROBLEMS

TEACHABLE MOMENTS

I am including (VERBATIM) the text of a letter I received today from one of the grade 5 students.  I received permission from the student to reproduce the letter on the blog.

Dear Mr. V. Francia,

    I have recently heard that we are having a Math Unit Test on Friday in the unit Patterning.  When I came home from school I told my parents that I have an upcoming Test. I also told them that I was disappointed and bummed out. I thought this because in case you forgot Halloween is on Thursday the day before. Just think about you as a 10 year old kid having to rush home from Trick or treating early to have to study for your Math Unit Test the day after. Not a very good feeling. Right? My mom and dad thought I should talk to you orally about this dilemma, but I thought it would be more responsible and mature to write this letter.  Please consider moving the Test to next Monday. I would also like to tell you that I am not making this up because I am not prepared or am confused, I actually have just finished studying. This is all very true and straight from the heart. Please consider this and talk to me shortly.

Sincerely,
(I am leaving off the name for privacy issues)

P.S. Happy Halloween! 
(this is my favourite part,not sure if the student is being polite or sarcastic) 


I agreed to move the test--but not before messing with them a bit and telling the class we would have the test on Thursday instead (couldn't keep a straight face though). My point for reproducing the letter was just to talk a bit about teachable moments during the year. The letter was a nice entry point to discuss Persuasive Writing. Later on in the term we will be learning how to construct a persuasive argument.  The letter did quite a good job of using emotions to try and make a point-" Just think about you as a 10 year old kid having to rush....", "straight from the heart..".  The writer also used some facts, stating that the reason is legitimate and not because they are "not prepared" or "confused".  
We need to be open to what the students bring us. The curriculum documents, text books and technology are all wonderful resources, but in the end, we are trying to reach people. So, I hope you enjoy the letter and the math test will be Monday 

Impressionist art

We are using layered tissue paper to create complementary colored landscapes. We looked at some examples of Monet's use of colour in impressionistic art and are trying to recreate that feel in our landscapes.

Modelling patterns

Grade 5 students are modelling geometric patterns. Patterns are a fundamental property of math at all levels. Creating, extending and interpreting patterns are essential.

TOOLS 2 GO

We are going to try and submit most of our written work using google's TOOLS 2 GO  software suite. This is  integrated 'cloud' computing at it's best and most user friendly.  The students have been give an account under the WECDSB umbrella in Google. They will create, edit and submit their work using these fully integrated tools. They will share their work with me and then I will be able to edit, comment and mark their work from anywhere with internet access. We have taken the first step and students have created their first document using this integrated Google suite. I will now comment on their work and they will be able to access the information (I encourage parents to review the work with their children ) and see my comments.  I have put a screen shot of a story with associated comments. The students simply pass their cursor over the highlighted text and they will see the associated comments on the right of the page.  I have taken the name off the example you will see below, so as not to make anyone uncomfortable. Take a look with your child and see if I have made any comments on their paper yet. Please be patient, it's 8pm on Monday night and I have 23 of these stories to go over. Any questions or comments please fell free to attach a comment to the blog or simply call the school if you want to talk to me privately.

WHAT YOU WON'T SEE-- Unfortunately you see only the final product at this point. Talk with your child and discuss all the steps that lead to this final product. Understanding the genre, learning the Text Pattern, Modelled writing with the teacher, Partner Writing, Using a Graphic Organizer, Rough Draft, Peer Editing and finally creating the Published Copy. As we progress through the year, I am hoping to get some more of the above steps on line so students can share and discuss the steps with the teacher and with you at home.

SAMPLE OF STORY WITH COMMENTS FROM THE TEACHER:

Co-operative Games

Co- operative games teach children some very important skills. They need to be able to co-operate, communicate, listen to each other and play safely. The culminating task for this unit is creating their own co-operative game. Here are some of the kids making their game.