CLASS AGREEMENTS

ALL NEW!! I'VE OPENED UP THE COMMENT BOXES. 

PLEASE FEEL FREE TO COMMENT ON ANY OF THE POSTS

OUR CLASS AGREEMENTS ARE NOW UP AND SIGNED!!

We have been working very hard to create a set of agreements that we can all agree on and live with.

MUTUAL RESPECT

ATTENTIVE LISTENING

NO-PUT DOWNS

The goal is to create a safe, respectful environment where we can all learn and grow together. Ask your son or daughter tonight how they feel about the agreements and how they plan to follow them.


WORD PROBLEMS
We are continuing to work on our Super 7 strategies for problem solving. Today we worked on using 'logical reasoning' to organize and eventually solve the word problem. The problems we worked had some very tricky language. We used venn diagrams and matrix boxes to help organize our information and solve the problems. Most students found this very difficult to do. We will continue to work on this till they become more comfortable with logically organizing the information.

WEBSITE INFO

Have you checked out our website yet?  On the homepage I will have important  information related to the math and language curriculum. There is also a page with our class calendar and lots more interesting information.

FOLLOW THE BITLY BELOW AND IT WILL TAKE YOU DIRECTLY THERE.

GO CHECK IT OUT!!
http://bit.ly/15sLI14

THINKING ABOUT MATH

We are focusing on word problems the first two weeks. How do we solve them? What strategies do we use? How do we organize our work? These are all areas that will help the students be active and engaged problem solvers.

TODAY OUR FOCUS IS EXPLAINING WHY OUR ANSWER TO THE PROBLEM MAKES SENSE? ASK THEM TONIGHT ABOUT THE WORLD PROBLEMS THEY WORKED ON AND HOW THEY EXPLAINED IF THEIR ANSWER 'MADE SENSE'.

FANTASTIC 5-STEP PROCESS FOR WORD PROBLEMS

WE ARE WORKING ON A CONSISTENT PROCESS TO HELP STUDENTS ATTACK AND SOLVE WORD PROBLEMS IN CLASS.

5-STEP PROCESS


STEP 1
WHAT ARE THE FACTS JACK??

WRITE DOWN ALL THE IMPORTANT FACTS FROM THE PROBLEM--KEEP IT SIMPLE, USE ABBREVIATIONS, WRITE DOWN THE NUMBERS

STEP 2

WHAT IS THE QUESTION??

SOMETIMES WORD PROBLEMS ARE TRICKY--MAKE SURE YOU KNOW WHAT THEY ARE ASKING YOU TO DO. RE-WRITE THE QUESTION IN YOUR WORDS TO HELP YOU UNDERSTAND IT.

STEP 3

WHAT CAN WE ELIMINATE?

ONCE YOU WRITE DOWN THE FACTS AND THE QUESTION--EVERYTHING ELSE CAN BE ELIMINATED. THIS HELP YOU SEE WHAT'S IMPORTANT AND WHAT IS THERE TO CONFUSE YOU

STEP 4

CHOOSE ONE OF OUR SUPER 7 PROBLEM SOLVING STRATEGIES.

THE STUDENTS ARE USING A VARIETY OF STRATEGIES TO FOCUS THEIR WORK. FOR EXAMPLE:

DRAW A PICTURE

GUESS AND CHECK

MAKE A LIST

WORK BACKWARDS

MAKE A DIAGRAM OR CHART

USE LOGICAL REASONING

LOOK FOR A PATTERN

STEP 5

DOES THE ANSWER MAKE SENSE?

GO OVER YOUR WORK TO MAKE SURE IT MAKES SENSE!! IF IT DOESN'T SEEM LIKE IT'S CLOSE TO WHAT YOU THOUGHT OR ESTIMATED---THEN IT'S PROBABLY NOT CORRECT.

IF IT IS CORRECT--THEN WRITE A STATEMENT SENTENCE THAT EXPLAINS YOUR ANSWER.

Some Early House Keeping Information

Hello to all the Parents and family members of our Grade 5/6 class this year! My name is Mr. Vince Francia and I will be your child's teacher this year.  We will be using the class blog and website for most communication throughout the year, however we will of course use the agenda as well.  Just a quick note about security and safety on line. The website and blog both fall under the WECDSB umbrella and as such are not strictly considered public. I only share the blog and website with my class and it is not generally available to the greater Web community. It is my goal to have information that is more static on the website and the blog will be used for daily updates and to let you have a peek into our classroom activities. I will be mainting the calendar on the website for important dates that happen throughout the school year.

SOME HOT BUTTON ISSUES (some for kids--some for parents)

• In most cases, sufficient class time will be alotted for completing class work and assignments. When class work is not completed then it is expected to be finished at home.
• Homework can also be considered independent practice of skills learned.

AN ANOLOGY

In sport, young athletes constantly practice specific skills in hopes to perform better in a game situation.  In the classroom, students can apply the same strategy by practicing skills that lead to success in the classroom at home. 

Examples: reading nightly, reading to an adult, practicing basic operations (especially times tables) and even mastering keyboarding skills. 

• students will have flexible opportunities for snacks during the day-of course healthy snacks are encouraged.
• please visit the blog often and post comments whenever you feel comfortable.

OUR CLASSROOM AGREEMENTS

• No child can expect to learn when they feel they are not valued and respected for their thoughts and opinions.
• We cannot learn in an environment that is unorganized and chaotic.
• Please check out our classroom agreements on the homepage of our website.
• We are in the process establishing these agreements and the students and I will be held accountable to these shared agreements.

PLEASE CHECK OUT THE LABEL THAT WAS PLACED IN YOUR CHILD'S AGENDA THAT SPECIFIES THE URL'S (WEB ADDRESSES ) OF OUR WEBSITE AND BLOG. 

THANK YOU FOR YOUR CONTINUED SUPPORT AND PLEASE FEEL FREE TO CONTACT ME ANY TIME TO DISCUSS ANY ISSUES OR CONCERNS YOU MAY HAVE.

MUTUAL RESPECT ROLE PLAYS

Students are creating role plays that highlight our three class agreements: MUTUAL RESPECT, ATTENTIVE LISTENING AND NO-PUT DOWNS. Visit the class website to get a better understanding of our class agreements and what the expectations will be for this coming year.

START OF A NEW YEAR

Here we go!! Our new school year is starting out with a bang! I'm going to post some pictures later today of some of our activities. Check back daily for updates and news from the grade 5/6 class.

Working on our collaborative group skills while we graph some data from our scavenger hunt.

A classroom scavenger hunt that allowed students to get to know their classmates.