November 24th, 2016

In Math today we worked on our Multiplication Challenge. Students are working through their times tables again. We have gone back to where we started - 0x and 1x tables. Students this week were challenged to complete their 0x and 1x tables in under a minute. Students begin practicing as they enter the room. After "Oh Canada" students complete their times table. If a student finishes that times table in under a minute, they move on to another times table. This means that different students might move on at different rates, and that's okay! We have some students who are going to keep reviewing their 1x tables after today's Challenge, and some students who are moving on to their 2x and 4x tables. Make sure you keep practicing at home! Have you looked at the "Fact Practice" page yet? 

In Language Arts today, students continued to practice paragraph writing. Today students reviewed their brainstorming and body sentences that we wrote on Monday and Tuesday. Today students reviewed how to write topic and concluding sentences. Remember, a topic sentence: should stand out, introduce your topic, hook your reader. A concluding sentence should: interest your reader, tell the reader the paragraph is finished. To write both, ask yourself, "What is the main idea of my paragraph?" and "Is my sentence interesting?" Afterwards, students put their paragraphs together, paying attention to their indentation, capitals, end punctuation, neatness, and spelling. Next week we will edit and draft these paragraphs for our blogs! 

We also finished our Science projects today! I am so excited with the outcome of this project. Usually when I teach weather, I get the class to construct one device together and then I construct the other devices. Afterwards I give the students the necessary information on each device. I have never let the students do their own research and construction before. I was so happy with the results. Students were much more engaged. Each group was excited to finish their slideshows and to build their device. It was also easy for me to see what each group was doing. I was able to help edit their slideshows and give them immediate feedback in real time, something you usually don't get until the end of the unit. I can't wait to share these presentations and devices with the classroom on Monday and Tuesday. 

Students have also begun working on researching a physiographic region of Canada. Students are working in groups of three. Each group is working on one of the following regions: Arctic, Cordillera, St. Lawrence Lowlands, Interior Plains, Hudson Bay Lowlands, and the Canadian Shield. Students will be researching the landforms, bodies of water, natural resources, and climate of each region. This is going to be an ongoing project for most of December and January. At the end, we will have collaboratively built a "book" of regions. Students will also be sharing their region with the class by becoming the "teacher" for a day. Each group will teach the class about their region and even give their classmates a quiz! Stay tuned for more information. Right now, we are just focusing on the landforms of each region. 

Agenda
Language Arts:
- Read 20 minutes
- Book Talk (November 30th)

Math:
- Practice 1x or 2x tables

Health:
- PEAK Basketball (Monday)
- FRIENDS Home Activity #3B (Monday)

​Ski Forms - due WEDNESDAY! 
Angel Tree Donations - due December 9th (ask Ms. B for a tag)
Family Movie Night - Nov. 24th, 6:00 pm, Finding Dory (admission by donation)
STEAMPower Conference - Nov. 26th, 8:30 am, Westwood High (open to Grs. 5/6)
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)