Test next week!

Dear families,
I hope everyone is keeping well! We have been very busy at school trying to stay on top of our units, despite missing days here and there.

In math, we are finishing up our measurement unit this week. We can't spend too long on any one concept so if a student misses a day, it is important that they ask for the work so that they can review it at home. In this unit, we have worked on measuring elapsed time (using a 24 hour clock), changes in temperature, perimeter, area, mass and we will spend the rest of this week on volume and capacity. The math homework this week is a review of what we have covered so far. Next Monday we will have our pretest, followed by a couple days of review, then our test on Thursday. Keep your eyes open for the pretest which will likely come home on Tuesday.

Thanks to Mrs. Mitchell for collecting and pre-measuring all the boxes we used to practice calculating total surface area of a prism!

We've started a new art project! For this one, we are not trying to recreate work in the style of a specific artist or group. We are focusing on line, form, colour and shadow in graphite and pastel drawings. We are using musical instruments as our subject, just because they are so nice and curvy. Our drawings are not meant to be realistic, and we will use colour sparingly to accentuate one special area. We started some sketches last week.

In French, I am working on correcting our fictional narrative stories so that we may begin writing/typing our good copies. At the same time, students are working on their new Club de Lecture books - they have a chapter or two a week, depending on length. In addition, we have our independent research project, assigned last week. Please see the outline in Google Classroom to read more about this. Since we have no strike days this week, I will try to give a little in-class time as well, as the idea was to have something to do during those days off.

Thanks to our fantastic gym teacher for all her work setting up and running my favourite unit of the year - gymnastics. It always looks like such fun! We have two more periods this week, on Tuesday and Thursday. Please remind your student to come appropriately dressed.

It has come to our attention that some of our older students are not always using their personal technology appropriately. We would like to ask all parents (especially of grade 6 students) to please have a chat with your child about how they are using their phone or device both in and out of school. Of course, at school it should only be out of a backpack for a specific academic purpose, and with the permission of the teacher. Too often, we find students pulling phones out during transition times, without permission. This slows us all down. We all have access to the office phone for communicating with parents during the school day. We have also learned that some students have been posting inappropriate pictures, videos or comments on social media. We need to make sure this stops immediately. While I have a lot of trust that our students would not participate in this type of behaviour, it is always a good reminder to be having regular conversations about this. The Principal made an announcement this morning, and we will review this in class as well. Thank you for your follow-up.

Have a great week!

Classroom Update

Dear families,
Thanks again for your ongoing support and for accommodating our need to do interviews within regular school hours. It was nice to chat with many of you today. As you know, I won't make it to the end of the year, so please be in touch with me soon if you have questions.

Last week you should have received our recent geometry test and January learning skills rubric for signature. Please return so that I know you have seen them.

Here's what we're up to in our class right now.

French
We have finished up our unit on Intercultural Understanding with Mme Gaudreault. It was fun to watch back the videos that our groups prepared! We have also finished up our first Club de Lecture book and meetings. I will be adjusting the groups slightly and assigning a new book - a chapter book - to each group. Working on their chapter questions is independent work anyway, and is a good task to focus on during strike days.
In talking to some families this morning about all the missed school days, it occurred to me that an enjoyable (hopefully), independent project might be a good idea, and a way to use this time productively. I will be speaking to our whole class next week about a French presentation that they should work on in their own time. I will post an outline on Google Classroom and the project will include a lot of personal choice, but also require some discipline to stay on top of. A good challenge. Please ask about this next week and read over the outline with your student when it's posted in Classroom. You may be able to help them brainstorm an interesting topic. These projects will be due before March break.

In-class, we are now at the stage of revising our fictional narrative stories. Some students may have brought home their story and revision list to work on this weekend (it needs to be self-edited for Wednesday). Following this, we have two more stages of editing (a peer and teacher) before we can begin good copies. Please ask how this story is coming along!

English
In English, we have completed our project on the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. This had included reading a lengthy article, outlining the main idea, writing a summary, expressing an opinion in writing, and making an informative poster with a partner. Rubrics for this entire project were distributed yesterday but I have not asked for them to be signed. You can always ask to see it if you like - it's in our binders. We will be continuing next week with a media assignment about food advertising.

Math
We are currently working on measurement. So far, we have looked at time and temperature, recently looking at changes in ocean surface temperatures over time and linking this up with our recent study of ocean pollution. Please ask your student why rising ocean surface temperatures - even just by a degree or two - is of major concern!
We will continue this unit with perimeter, area, mass, capacity and volume.

Drama
We have presented our Fables de La Fontaine skits. They were well done, and many groups were able to explain the lesson or moral of their play. We will get started on a new visual art project shortly.

In Science, the grade 6s have continued to perform experiments that help us understand the forces involved in flight. For instance, we made pretend airplane wings out of different paper types and tested them to see which paper had the best lift, and if adding flaps increased the potential for lift. There are 4 forces at work in flight. Ask your scientist if they can name them!
The grade 6s have one more in-class (double) science period to work on their independent research/writing project (good copy will be a news article) and then it becomes homework. A due date will be set after the final work period.

The grade 5 science class recently had a special visit from my grandfather, Dale Mitchell. He was injured in a tornado when he was 11 years old and has some amazing memories of what it felt like, sounded like and the damage a tornado can inflict. Our class listened attentively as he told his story, and then they asked many of their planned interview questions after. They did quite an amazing job. 

The grade 5s have two more in-class (double) science periods to work on their independent research/writing project. The good copy will be a news article about someone or an area affected by a natural force. Students know that they can write about Mr. Mitchell, but many have other ideas of natural events they would like to research. A due date will be set after the final work period.

Fingers crossed that strike days do not affect our Scientist-in-School workshops on Feb. 28 (5s) and March 6 (6s). If you are interested in helping run either of these, let me know.

Please note that for the next 2 weeks, our gym teachers are running their annual gymnastics unit. This always looks like such fun! Students know that they need to come dressed for this on gym days. This means shorts and a t-shirt under their winter clothes (exposed skin is needed to properly grip the equipment). We shouldn't need to go to the washroom for a major wardrobe change.

Happy Valentine's day and Happy Family day to all!

Interview Schedule

Dear parents,
An orange note came home today with information about what our upcoming interviews will look like. While I will not be able to share marks, I do think it would be beneficial to meet to talk about general progress in learning skills and subject areas.
I invite anyone interested to please email me as soon as possible to request an interview time for Friday, Feb. 14, between 9:00-3:30 pm. Please indicate whether morning or afternoon is preferable (you can suggest a specific time frame and I'll do my very best).
If you can't come on that day, but would like to set up a phone interview, please indicate that, and what time of day is best for me to call (still has to be between 9-3:30). Please note that I will likely not make calls on the 14th as I will be prioritizing the in-person meetings.

tamara.mitchell2@tdsb.on.ca

As soon as I have a rough idea of how many families I will be meeting, I will make a schedule and email you back your interview time.

Thanks for your continued understanding and check back soon for a classroom update!

Tamara