January 26th, 2017

Yesterday I was dressed as a Borrower. There were a few students who didn't know what a Borrower was. The above movies are based on the series of books, "The Borrowers" by Mary Norton. Curious students can also borrow the first book in the series from our classroom library. 

I was away for most of the day today attending a technology meeting at District Office. With the TOC (substitute teacher) the students reviewed the Math concepts covered yesterday. Students are continuing to look at using skip counting up or skip counting down, as well as related facts to help solve multiplication and division problems. Yesterday we also reviewed multiplying by zero, but we added dividing with zero. When zero is the dividend (what you are dividing), the answer will always be zero.

Eg. 0 / 8 = 0

Think about it this way: zero divided amongst eight groups, is still zero! There would be nothing to put in the groups.

When zero is the divisor (what you are dividing by), the question is impossible. You cannot divide by zero. 

Eg. 8 / 0 = impossible

You can not put eight into zero groups... it already exists as one group of eight, or two groups of four, or four groups of two, or eight groups of one. You cannot make eight change into nothing. So, we say that you cannot divide by zero. 

In Language Arts today, the TOC had the students respond to the following question in their Writer's Notebooks: 

If I could write a letter or send an email to anyone in the world, knowing it would be opened and read, to whom would you send it and what would it say? 

Students had time to write and edit their responses using the editing checklists on their desks. Students also continued to practice their reading fluency. Today students practiced using "Cinderella." Students were given the opportunity to read the story twice today, so groups were working on: their accuracy ("I read the words correctly"), the punctuation ("I follow most or all of the punctuation marks as I read the text"), and their rate ("I read not too fast and not too slow"). Students will be able to read the story again next week to add expression to their reading. 

This afternoon we were fortunate enough to have a positive and fun ending to our Literacy Week by Buddy Reading to Mrs. Loose's grade 2 classroom. Thanks for the positive attitudes and for being such wonderful leaders and learners grade 5! Have a good weekend everyone!

Special shout out to Aayan and Grady! Last night we had a lot of families and students visit our Family Literacy Night, including some familiar faces. Grady and Aayan were able to enjoy Family Literacy Night, but they also gave up a great deal of their evening to help me run the Digital Literacy station. I could not have done it without them and I have already heard from other staff members and parents appreciation for how patient, kind, and encouraging they both were in helping the younger students use Tynker and Mathletics. Great leadership in our class this year! 

Agenda
Language Arts:
- Read 20 minutes
- Book Talk (January 31st)
- Book Orders (due January 31st)

Math:
- Practice 8x, 9x, 3x, 6x, 12x, 5x, 10x, 7x, or 11x tables

Health:
- PEAK Basketball (Tuesday)
- FRIENDS, pg. 71 (Monday)
 
Music:
- Recorders (Tuesday)

French:
- Clothing Quiz (Monday)

Tech & Trades Academy - Mondays (3:00-4:00 pm)
Grade 5/6 Guitar Club - Thursdays (2:45-3:45 pm)
CG Recyclers - Day 1 (lunch recess) and Day 4 (lunch)
Girls Basketball - Mondays, Wednesdays (2:45-3:45 pm)
Boys Basketball - Tuesdays, Thursdays (2:45-3:45 pm)
Winter Walk Day - February 1st (10:00 am)
Toque Tuesday - February 7th
Valentine's Family Dance - February 9th (6:00-9:00 pm)