May has been a very busy month! With so much going on at school, it seems there has barely been any time to stop and smell the roses!
In early May, we celebrated 'Catholic Education Week.' We had a storytelling workshop with Daniel Richer about the seven Grandfather Teachings and it was amazing. Teachers and students alike were captivated for the entire hour plus performance. Friday's muffin breakfast and open house was a wonderful opportunity to host families and showcase some of the learning that has been taking place in the classroom and the school.
Language:
In Language we have wrapped up our 'Mystery Unit.' Students finished reading their individual mystery novels and we finally finished 'Treasure at Turtle Lake' which was our shared class read aloud. Joel and Paige found the missing jewels and there was some debate in our class as to whether or not, they deserved a portion of the loot as a reward for their great sleuthing. Most students thought that they did not deserve a monetary reward as returning the jewels to the relatives of the deceased owner was the 'right' thing to do.
Students completed their own mystery narratives in early May. Currently our writing focus is poetry. We have been looking at various forms of poetry such as Acrostic, Word-Count Cinquain and Haiku. Students have been writing beautiful Cinquain and Haiku poems inspired by animal and landscape photos from a couple of awesome websites devoted to nature photography. We will be moving onto Limericks next. We will continue to share our poems with each other from our classroom 'Author's Chair.'
Most days at school we debate a question or idea at our 'Sharing Circle' (from time to time we have an open 'Sharing Circle' whereby students can share whatever they'd like). Students have shown much improvement in their ability to listen attentively to the ideas of others as the talking feather is passed around the circle. They have also grown in their ability to consider both sides of an argument and articulate their ideas clearly and succinctly to their peers. We always record responses and do the math at the end of each debate by coming up fractions, expressed in their lowest possible terms, to represent the debate results.
We continue to receive letters from our friends at 'The Ravines' retirement residence. Each time we receive a letter it creates excitement and buzz in the classroom. Sometimes the letters are addressed to the class and other times to an individual student. We currently have two letters that we need to respond to. Reading and responding to the letters has helped the students to better understand the friendly-letter format. As well, they are strengthening their writing skills and learning how to communicate effectively through letter writing exercises (e.g. separating ideas into paragraphs, responding to questions asked, asking questions back, effective openings and closings to a letter, etc.). We are looking forward to hosting a group of seniors from 'The Ravines' on the morning of Friday, June 21st. It will be wonderful to meet our 'pen pals' in person and put faces to names!
We have only three more weeks of our weekly 'Word Study.'
Math:
Our main focus has been fractions in Number Sense and Numeration. We have learned that the denominator (bottom number) in a fraction represents the number of fractional parts of a whole and the numerator (top number) represents the number of fractional parts being considered. Grade 4's have been comparing and ordering fractions using their fraction strip tool and pictures/drawings. They also know how to identify the whole numbers and fractional parts in mixed numbers. In grade 5, we have been examining improper fractions and how they can be converted to mixed numbers and vice
versa (11/10 as 1 and 1/10). In both grades 4 and 5 we have been looking at the concept of equivalent fractions and how you can create equivalent fractions by using common factors (e.g. 1/3 is equal to 3/9). In addition, we have examined how to represent numbers in standard decimal notation up to tenths and hundredths and how decimal numbers are related to fractions (e.g. The mixed number 1 and 3/10 be expressed in standard decimal notation as 1.3). As well as fractions, grade 4's have been practicing adding and subtracting decimal numbers and grade 5's have been practicing multiplying decimal numbers. I continue to emphasize with the students that they drill their multiplication facts at home in order to make these higher-level thinking applications of basic operations, easier and more successful. I also emphasize that if you have a good handle on your multiplication facts you will already know your division facts as the two concepts are so closely linked! Looking ahead we will be exploring a variety of mathematical concepts such as perimeter and area, probability and linear measurement.
