W.O.W winners

 Congratulations to our October W.O.W winners for Attentive Listening. These students are tuned in and listening attentively through guided reading , large group lessons and when we are working on the carpet. 

MATH TEST THURSDAY

We have been working on number patterns and geometry in math. Students are much more confident with number patterns than they were with our first  numeracy unit. I still want to reinforce that students must know their basic number facts much more fluently. On nights with no homework, it would help if parents worked with students on their addition, subtraction, multiplication and division facts. ALSO, go to this LINK ANCHOR CHARTS THAT WE USE IN CLASS.

GRADE 6 MATH TEST

• WRITE A PATTERN RULE FOR A NUMBER PATTERN
• IDENTIFY, EXTEND AND CREATE PATTERNS
• FIND THE VALUE OF A MISSING NUMBER IN AN EQUATION
• BEGINNING ALGEBRA (SEE ANCHOR CHART ABOVE)
• IDENTIFY THE FUNCTION OF AN INPUT/OUTPUT MACHINE
• LOOK FOR PATTERNS HORIZONTALLY IN INPUT/OUTPUT MACHINES--LOOK FOR THE SECRET SAUCE OR THE SHORTCUT (KIDS KNOW WHAT THIS MEANS

TRY THIS WORKSHEET for grade 6. The machines are sideways instead of verticle but the same idea as we do in class. These examples are fairly challenging, they can use a calculator. There is an answer sheet on this page as well to check their answers.

GRADE 5 MATH TEST

• FIND A PATTERN RULE FOR A NUMBER PATTERN
• IDENTIFY, EXTEND AND CREATE PATTERNS
• DESCRIBE AND MODEL PATTERNS (MAYBE GEOMETRIC PATTERNS)
• USE PATTERNS TO POSE AND SOLVE PATTERNS
• USE PATTERNS IN A TABLE TO MAKE PREDICTIONS (INPUT/OUTPUT MACHINES)
• LOOK FOR PATTERNS HORIZONTALLY IN INPUT/OUTPUT MACHINES--LOOK FOR THE SECRET SAUCE OR THE SHORTCUT (KIDS KNOW WHAT THIS MEANS.

TRY THIS WORKSHEET FOR GRADE 5. These machines have a single function.

Our Civic Duty!

The grade 5's and grade 6 class participated in our own city wide mock election. Students chose a Mayor, councilor in ward 10 ( our school ward) and a school trustee --can't wait for the results.

MYTHBUSTERS SCIENCE FUN & FUNDS!!

MYTHBUSTERS are coming to town!! Great hands on science experience for kids of all ages. We have a promo code that gets parents $5 off and raises $5 for the school-what a deal!! Go to www.wfcu-centre.com/password and enter promo code MYTHGAB. You will get $5 off the purchase price and the school gets $5 for fundraising.
SEE THE FLYER

Three Part Math

When I went to school--all those many,many,many (few more many) years ago, we were required learn a lot of math by rote. If you asked WHYyou invert and multiply to divide a number by a fraction, the answer was--'because I told you to !'. Three Part Math brings us back to Experiencing Mathematical thinking and discovering the WHY! Kids work in small groups on an 'open ended' question that gets them thinking about the 'math' we are trying to learn. We then take their group samples and together discuss what strategies the students to solve the problem. From those samples, we then co-create success criteria for solving these types of problem. In this scenario teachers are not the 'keepers' of the knowledge, we become facilitators along the students journey to understand the mathematical concepts. 

See below for pictures of how the lesson went today and the anchor charts we created from the student's work.

What Teachers do on Training Days!

The grade 4,5 and 6 teachers are getting some new Ministry training in Math. Our board Math Specialists are directing us in some great strategies to making math more meaningful for all learners.

Yuck factor!!

The grade 6 students have been learning about classifying different types of animals and plants. Today they are examining Meal Worms and try to decide what characteristics they have in common with Arthropods.

OOPS! My mistake

It was brought to my attention that I had the wrong date on the blog for our math test. We reviewed the material with students last week to prepare them for the unit test,so I'm confident we covered the material that they needed. I will however give students an opportunity to complete an additional assessment this Friday if they want to bring up their mark. Again, sorry for the confusion.

Grade 6 VIP

Thanks to officer Mizuno for coming out to host our first Values, Influences and Peers (VIP) session. The grade 6 's will be getting together monthly with officer Mizuno to address issues related to growing up and peer pressure.

MATH UNIT TESTS NEXT WEEK

We have been working really hard on our first full unit of math. Friday Oct. 22nd will be our unit test for both grade 5 and grade 6. This Number Sense Unit lays out the foundation for most of the year in both grades. We have learned how to read large numbers, multiply 2 digit numbers and divide with both single and double digits numbers. Please see below for areas of focus that we will be assessing on the unit test.

GRADE 5

• WRITE LARGE NUMBERS UP TO 999,999 IN STANDARD FORM, EXPANDED FORM AND WORDS
• BE ABLE TO ADD AND SUBTRACT 4 DIGIT BY 4 DIGIT NUMBERS
• USE THE MENTAL MATH STRATEGIES WE LEARNED IN CLASS TO MULTIPLY NUMBERS
• MULTIPLY 2 DIGIT BY 2 DIGIT NUMBERS
• USE LONG DIVISION TO SOLVE 4 DIGIT BY 1 DIGIT DIVISION QUESTIONS
• USE OUR 5 STEP PROCESS AND PROBLEM SOLVING STRATEGIES TO SOLVE SEVERAL WORD PROBLEMS RELATED TO ADDITION, SUBTRACTION , MULTIPLICATION AND DIVISON 

GRADE 6

• WRITE LARGE NUMBERS UP TO 9,999,999,999 IN STANDARD FORM, EXPANDED FORM AND WORDS
• BE ABLE TO COME UP WITH MULTIPLES OF SINGLE DIGIT NUMBERS
• BE ABLE TO UNDERSTAND AND  USE PRIME AND COMPOSITE NUMBERS IN PROBLEMS
• USE B.E.D.M.A.S TO SOLVE PROBLEMS INVOLVING ORDER OR OPERATIONS
• ADD AND SUBTRACT MULTIPLE 3 AND 4 DIGIT  NUMBER 
• MULTIPLY 3 DIGIT NUMBERS BY 2 DIGIT NUMBERS
• USE LONG DIVISION TO SOLVE 4 DIGIT BY 2 DIGIT DIVISION PROBLEMS
• USE OUR 5 STEP PROCESS AND PROBLEM SOLVING STRATEGIES TO SOLVE SEVERAL WORD PROBLEMS RELATED TO ADDITION, SUBTRACTION , MULTIPLICATION AND DIVISON 

Healthy Active Living!!

Huge thanks to the Holy Name Leadership students for leading us in some fun, and active games.

OUR DIGITAL CLASSROOM

We are moving some of our assignments to the GOOGLE VIRTUAL CLASSROOM. Google has created a way to administer a virtual classroom where teachers can create, assign and collect digital assignments. The students can create documents, spreadsheets, drawings, and slideshows.   The students need to use the Google Chrome Browser (downloaded free from google) and log into their student account. From there, they all know how to get to the GOOGLE CLASSROOM and take you on a virtual tour.

HOMEWORK TONIGHT IS YOUR CHILD TAKING YOU ON A TOUR OF OUR CLASSROOM. YOU WILL SEE THE LATEST ASSIGNMENTS FOR BOTH THE GRADE 5 AND GRADE 6 CLASS.

CROSS MULTIPLICATION

Grade 5 is when we begin to multiply 2 digit numbers by another 2 digit number. For example, 24 x 36 is a typical problem that the students might see. The Grade 6's will review this with the grade 5's and then they will move onto 3 digit by 2 digit and 4 digit by 1 digit problems. Students need a lot of practice in order to consistently be able to solve these types of problems. We go through several different methods of solving these types of problems, in order to give them an appreciation for a variety of methods. Today we watched a short video that explains this quiet well. I am including the video in the blog so kids can watch this at home with parents. I would encourage them to try a few of these types of problems every night till they master the process of cross multiplication.