I hope you had a wonderful winter break! It's been great getting back to school and getting back into our routine. I am acutely aware of how limited my remaining time is, and there is still so much that I want to do with the class myself, so we are jumping right back in! Let me give you a little subject overview...
Language
In French, we are writing fictional narratives that we began planning before the break. We are currently selecting our final story idea that we will begin draft writing. Please ask about our ideas!
In our writing, we should be trying to incorporate the grammar rules we have been studying this year. Currently, we are learning to form the Imparfait, a past tense that is an alternative to the passé composé. We have discussed the appropriate application of each verb tense, and this was also included in our Club de Lecture work. Please ask about when we might use the passé composé v. l'imparfait. Making this choice will be next week's grammar homework.
Speaking of Club de Lecture, I'm sure I mentioned that before the holidays, each student began working in a small group of 4 on reading and understanding a short story. Vocab and grammar questions were due before the break and are being discussed in group meetings now. In our next meeting, we will discuss the comprehension questions and share our résumés. Following our work on this short text, I am hoping that each group can read a longer novel.
One change to our language program is that I have decided to change how we track our independent reading. I have found that students just aren't updating their online reading logs very often, likely due to the lack of computer access right at the time of reading something. I have given everyone a hard-copy reading log, which you may have seen. It's in a white duotang and can travel back and forth from home and school. I do hope it will be at school each day so that students can immediately note what they read during their silent reading time. I expect that 4 entries a week will not be a problem, since that much can be easily done just at school, but more entries are welcome.
Just before the break, we also began two new language initiative that we are continuing. First, we are partnering with Mme Potor's grade 2/3 class for reading buddies. We have now visited them twice and it's been lovely to watch. We have discussed how to help young readers and make this a fun experience for them. We know that in addition to teaching reading strategies, such as pointing to words, looking for letters, discussing the pictures and asking questions, we need to engage with the students themselves by asking about them, smiling, and showing our own enthusiasm. This comes naturally to many of us, but if reading a simple story to a younger student becomes boring, we are going to become the best actors ever and make sure that our partners see how fun reading can be!
We also started spending one language period a week with Mme Gaudreault in the library. She is taking us through a unit on intercultural understanding. In our last month with her, we are working on partner projects on a French speaking community in Canada. Grade 5s are focusing on Montréal and grade 6s are focusing on Banff. This project will culminate with partners making a video response to a question, which they will share with the class.
In English, we began a reading/writing project on the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. We watched a couple videos and have read a lengthy article about this grave issue. Students have outlined the main idea and are finishing up summaries of the article (always practising those skills that we started working on earlier in the year). They will next share their own opinion on this topic and make a persuasive poster with a partner about this issue.
Our unit this month is 2D and 3D geometry. We are currently working on describing shapes by number of sides, length of sides, types of angles (and measuring using a protractor), axes of symmetry and other details. We are also learning to build/draw figures following some instructions, e.g., select side lengths and angles. We have learned terminology for describing angles, triangles and quadrilaterals in French, and we have reviewed our protractor skills. Ask your student what the 3 angles of a triangle should add up to, and what the 4 angles of a quadrilateral should add up to. We have much more work to do in this unit, but we have already set our pre-test and test dates of Jan. 28 & 30 so that we can stay on track. In February we will tackle our first measurement unit and then we will just have to return to 4 strands once more before the end of the year.
Arts
In Visual Art, we had just started learning about Inuit printmaking. We learned that these prints were originally done usually using stone and that they often depict ancient ways of life, animals, landscapes, myths and stories. While many students did fantastic animal sketches, some of our artists researched Inuit legends and are creating a print that tells part of that story. Very exciting! Our sketches are carved into Styrofoam, rather than stone, but create beautiful prints nonetheless. We have a few more to finish and then I'll share a picture of the bulletin board!
In Drama, we are beginning a new project based on some famous fables by 17th C French poet, Jean de la Fontaine. While the characters are all animals, they represent real members or ranks of society (e.g., the King, a commoner) and each fable teaches a lesson or contains a moral, though you sometimes have to look for it. Students are each receiving their own script to work on, but with their partner or group, they must also figure out the message within their particular fable and who their animals represent.
Science
Students have had a chance to look over their rubrics for their previous units and independent projects. I did not require these to go home for signature, but you are welcome to ask to see it if you like. Our new units are Forces acting on Structures, for grade 5, and Flight for grade 6. Due to time, we will do more full group work in these units and just one short independent writing component. This will be to research and write a news article on either a natural disaster (forces) or important figure (flight). This is, of course, linked to our English language program.
Our grade 6s have already participated in a few experiments about the properties of air, which is important to our understanding of flight. This week, we built and tested our own hot air balloons, and did two cool experiments that proved that air takes up space, that hot air expands while cold air contracts, and also that air has mass. Please ask about the balloon on the water bottle experiment! Meanwhile, our grade 5s were treated to an extra field trip with Ms. Peek for their social studies program. Can't wait to hear about it on Monday!
Yesterday, I sent home the completed learning skills rubrics from December. Please sign and return this ASAP so that I know you've see it.
I think that gets us all caught up!
See you soon, Tamara