Week of May 22 – 25

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Thank you to Mrs. Schuwer, Mr. and Mrs. McAulay, and Mrs. Patemanfor transporting our class to and from the Feel the Beat concert, Beethoven Lives Upstairs.

Students are encouraged to wear their beach gear on Wednesday as it is ‘Beach Day’! We are hoping the weather plays along with our theme too.

Also on Wednesday, we are very fortunate to host some Japanese exchange students in our school…I can’t wait to see what we can learn from them!

Friday is a special day for our students. As you will find out from the information being sent home this week, the westside schools’ Family Care Teams are hosting a one day conference for young women titled: ‘Girls Rockin’ the West’ at Nicholas Sheran School. In turn, we’ve decided to treat the young men of MMH to a ‘Fun with the Boys’ morning including fishing, baseball and street hockey! Mrs. Cox, Mr. Bryant and myself are inviting our boys to bring their ball gloves, street hockey sticks and fishing rods to school on Friday for the fun. It would also be wise to wear hats and running shoes and to bring water, sunscreen and a snack. As our girls are off doing neat things, we look forward to having fun with our boys. Any parents wishing to join us are welcome to do so!

 

We are getting ready for our year end trip to Calgary where we will spend the morning at Heritage Park and the afternoon at the new Science Centre. Your child should have brought home a letter last week with more details, a consent and a volunteer sign-up for parents hoping to make the trip with us. Consent forms and money (for students only) can be sent to school anytime between now and the end of the month. We can’t wait for this exciting event!

 

Peek at

the Week

 

Language Arts

 We continue our Underground to Canada journey this week and will be learning about some famous, black Canadians.  Students will receive a new word study this week.  It has been a few weeks since our last word study so please remind your scholar to visit Spelling City  to practice the words from their list as well at the second column of Frequently Mispelled Words.

 

Math:

This week we will be relating fractions to decimals, we will study fraction and decimal benchmarks and explore thousandths! (i.e. 721/1000 is read: seven hundred twenty-one thousandths)

Check out these sites for some great practise with decimals:
What decimal is represented?
Place values in decimal numbers

 

Social Studies:

This week we will leave the Great Lakes-St Lawrence Lowlands and head north to the Canadian Shield Region–get your picks and shovels ready, we just might be mining!

 

Week of May 7 – 10

Housekeeping

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This week is special because we will be celebrating the excitement of change as we participate in our ‘Human Growth and Development’ lessons. I encourage both students and parents to open conversations with each other about what we are discussing and learning in class.
*Please note that our second lesson will take place on Thursday rather than on Wednesday as previously stated in the handout.

It is also Mental Health Awareness Week. To educate children properly, their physical and mental needs must be met, this week is meant to raise awareness of the importance of mental well-being and to decrease the stigmatization surrounding mental health. On Wednesday, May 9th we will be putting our ‘Hats On For Mental Health’!

Reminder that there will be no school on Friday, May 11

Peek at

the Week:

Language Arts:

Students have embraced the main character, Julilly, in The Underground to Canada.  This week we will continue our journey with a focus on important vocabulary, predictions, and comprehension.  The past few weeks have been busy ones and we will be revisiting our previous word study this week with our assessment taking place on Thursday.  Students can check out spellingcity.com/peekevme to practice their word study words and their frequently misspelled words.

Math

Students demonstrated a wonderful understanding of equivalent fractions last week, this week we will compare and order fractions. Check out the following sites for some fraction fun:
Fresh Baked Fractions
Fraction Frenzy!

Check out these links for a bit of an extra challenge and a sneak peek at next week:

Comparing Fractions: Webmath
Fraction Balance Scale
Fraction Bars
Fraction Number Line
Dirt Bike Proportions

 

Week of April 30 – May 4

Housekeeping Items

We had a wonderful time on Thursday learning all about the opportunities for Grade 6 students at G.S. Lakie.  Students received an information package and by now your child will have told you all about the exciting things they experienced and have begun the process of selecting option for next year.  Please encourage your child to bring the registration package and option courses package back to school as soon as possible. 

The parent/student orientation night will be taking place this week at G.S. Lakie School on Wednesday, May 2nd at 6:00 P.M.

Peek at the

Week

Language Arts

This week we will dive into the first chapters of our Underground to Canada novels with a focus on important vocabulary and comprehension.  Students can look forward to making and tasting a food that was commonly eaten by the slaves working on plantations. 

Math

This week we will be launching into our Fractions and Decimals unit with a review of what fractions are and what equivalent fractions are all about!  Students will be expected to:

• model and explain that equivalent fractions represent the same quantity. 
• determine if two given fractions are equivalent using concrete materials or pictures.

• identify equivalent fractions for a given fraction.

• identify pattern rules for a set of equivalent fractions.

Check out the lesson on Proper Fractions at
Math 5 Live

 

Week of April 16 – 20

Welcome back!  I hope that your break was restful!

I’m not entirely sure how we got here, but we’ve found ourselves in the middle of April; our year is zipping along and we are very excited about the upcoming weeks and final months of grade five! 

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As usual, our week promises to be learning and fun-filled with a new word study lesson and a couple special visits from some friends from G.S. Lakie Middle School.  On Monday afternoon of this week, Mr. Ponech, band instructor from G.S. Lakie Middle School, will be visiting to showcase musical instruments! Any students considering band will want to start thinking about which instrument(s) they are interested in playing.  We are also taking part in some outdoor physical activities and games with a group of Grade 8 students who will be visiting our school on a few occasions over the next couple of weeks.

Looking ahead…

 
At this time we begin to look toward the end of the school year and the beginning of next. This is a significant time of transition in the lives of our grade five students and we want to do all we can to help them step along smoothly. On the afternoon of Thursday, April 26th we will be walking over to G. S. Lakie Middle School for our Grade 6 Orientation. Grade 5 students from all three westside public elementary schools will be visiting the school for guided tours, opportunities to meet staff members, try out some options (classes like dance, guitar, art, shop, band, foods etc.) and learn about the registration process. Students will be bringing home the registration package and will be encouraged to sit down with parents to discuss the options over the weekend. Parents are invited to attend a Parent Night taking place the following week on Wednesday, May 2 at Lakie at 7:00PM.

Peek at

the Week

Language Arts

Students will be getting a new word study this week.  Students will reveive their words on Monday and learn about the sound and letter patterns on Tuesday.  On Friday they will be bringing home their duo tang to complete their word study assessment and show you their word sort.  

This week we will begin a new thematic unit of study celebrating Black History. We will focus on civil rights, inequality and slavery before beginning our novel study: Underground to Canada.  Students are invited to check out the sites listed under this title on the Language Links page to discover more!
 

Social Studies

We have been enjoying our visit to the Great Lakes, St. Lawrence Lowlands Region. Our tour continues this week when we explore the following questions:
Who were the first Europeans to come to the Lowlands?
What is the Seigneurial System?
Who were ‘les filles du Roi’?
Why was the Quebec Act passed?
When did the Loyalists arrive?
How did the Great Migration change the Lowlands?
Where is Grosse-Ile? Why is it significant?

Science

For the last two week that Ms. Prunkl will be here, the students will be working on a science portfolio about their knowledge in classroom chemistry! This allows them to get very creative, as I know a lot of these students are! Here is the information sheet I have given the students to get them started!

Science Portfolio

Math

The students will becompleting their division unit this week with a “show me what you know” quiz on Thursday and Friday. I will be sending home some prasctice worksheets that theycan work on! Here is the repeated subtraction & FMSB youtube link for their reference!

Repeated Subtraction

Father, Mother Sister, Brother Method

Week of April 2 – 5

Housekeeping

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On Tuesday morning student will be treated to a yoga session with Lenore Lindeman ( A teacher and yoga instructor from our District).  Yoga mats will be supplied but student may bring their own if they wish. 

Thursday is a special spirit day: Crazy Hat/Hair Day! We will have a Spirit Assembly at 8:30 in the gymnasium and will wrap up our day with an Easter Party during the last hour of the day.  Many thanks to the following people who have offered to bring snackies for the party:
Cheese & Crackers: Jenn
Veggies & Dip: Hossen
Fruit Platter: Alexis
Juice & Napkins: Madison
Cookies/Cupcakes: Braden

Peek at

the Week

Language Arts

Students have been hard at work with their short stories.  This week we will be composing endings and will be taking a look at editing techniques.  Over the Easter break, students will be responsible for completing a revised copy (or final copy of their story depending on where they are in their editing and revising).  They may choose to rewrite it by hand or type it on the computer.  I look forward to reading their compositions after the break!

Students’ word study tic tac toe and word study assignment are due today, Monday, April 2.  Some students still need to hand this in -please check in with your scholar to make sure!

Social Studies

This week we are planning a visit to Niagara Falls and will also explore the following question: How did the First Nations live on the land?   

On Wednesday, students will be introduced to our Grade 5 current events project -What’s Happening Wednesdays. 

Students must:

-  choose an article from a newspaper/internet newsclip dated withing the week prior to their presentation

- respond to all the questions on the ‘What’s Happening?” outline and do a presentation that would last no longer than 5-6 minutes

- be prepared to answer questions from their classmates about the article/event 

Please look for more information about the project and your child’s presentation date on Wednesday!

Math

We are taking a look at divisibility and factors of numerous numbers. The practice with numbers helps with division facts and long division. Here is a fun millionaire sort of game where they can test their knowedge of divisibility!

http://www.math-play.com/Factors-Millionaire/Factors-Millionaire.html

Here is a link to the divisibility tricks and rules!

http://math.about.com/library/bldivide.htm

French

Parents, if your child starts singing something around the house that sounds like a mix between a foreign language and wild animal sounds, don’t be alarmed, they are only practising their French, youpi!
This week we will review and practise using our Easter vocabulary for a game of LOTO mercredi!

Have a restful and relaxing break!  See you on April 16th! 

Week of March 26th to 30th

Housekeeping

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Wow! What a busy and exciting week we had with the curling last week. Not only did we enjoy cheering Team Canada on to victory during Wednesday morning’s draw, we did some curling of our own in front of the World Curling TV cameras on Thursday! Check it out:

WCTV Story

Thank-you to Mrs. Bourassa for setting up the opportunity and to you for all of your support and cooperation with this project, it was great fun!

This week promises to be a quieter week. We are looking forward to our Character Education assembly on Monday when we will learn about a fundraising project toward which our school will be contributing.  Over the next two weeks students are asked to bring a small donation for the charity, Uphill Both Ways.  For more information about this organization (founded by a past Mike Mountain Horse School student!) please check out this link:

Uphill Both Ways

We will be having a Social Studies quiz on Thursday about map features such as latitude, longitude, scale, and symbols. 

Sneak Peek at the Week:

Language Arts:

Students were given their fourth word study lesson today and can visit spellingcity.com/peekevme to practice their words.  Last week students drafted the beginning of their short stories and this week we will be drafting the events of their story as we learn about “dressing up” our writing. 

Social Studies:

Last week saw students learning about parallels of latitude and meridians of longitude. This week we will practise using latitude and longitude coordinates in order to determine mystery locations around the world! On Thursday students will be writing a mapping quiz to demonstrate their understanding of latitude, longitude, scale and how to interpret a map using a legend.

We are planning a visit to Niagara Falls and will also explore the following question: How did the First Nations live on the land?

Check out the following site:
Build your own Longhouse

French:

‘Joyeuses Paques’ is French for Happy Easter! We will take a quick break from ‘les animaux’ to learn some Easter vocabulary this week! For a sneak peek at some of ’le vocabulaire’ check this out:
Matching

Happy Spring!  Have a great week!

Weeks of March 12 – March 23

Housekeeping

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I simply must start by complimenting each and every student on how well they handled the challenge of our curling lessons.  I am very proud of the committment the students gave in learning the game and perfecting their skills.  It was a ton of fun!   We would also like to extend a thank you to all of our parent drivers and volunteers, clearly, we couldn’t have done it without you!

While on the topic of curling…students should have brought home a note about a very special opportunity we have been given. We’ve managed to secure tickets (courtesy of the organizing committee) for all of our grade five students to attend a draw at the World Women’s Curling Championship held at the Enmax Centre on the morning of Wednesday, March 21st. We were planning to use bussing for this outing as we truly feel we’ve asked a lot of our parents in terms of driving, however busses can not get us to the Enmax on time for the game as they will not pick up before 9am, so one last time (we hope:) we are asking your help. If you can help drive, you have the option of staying with us (we have a few extra tickets for helpers) or dropping us off at 8:30 and then returning to pick us up at noon. Thanks again!

This week is a very short one with Thursday being a district learning day for teachers and parent-student-teacher conferences on Thursday evening and Friday morning.  I look forward to meeting with students and parents this week to celebrate learning and set goals for the remainder of our year together!

Usborne Book Fair

Thursday, March 22 from 8:30AM – 3:30PM

Friday March 23 from 8:30AM – 12:00PM

Peek

at the Week

Language Arts: 

 

Students received a new word study this week and will be bringing their word study home this weekend to teach you their pattern sort.  This time around, the assignment portion of the word study will be assigned later as we have no school on Thursday and Friday.  Their assignment will be handed out on Monday, March 19th and if not finished in class will be due on Tuesday.  The word study assessment will take place on Friday, March 23rd. 

 

Students can visit spellingcity.com/peekevme to practice their word study words and the list on frequently misspelled words.

 

After a lot of hard work on our story planners we will begin drafting our short stories starting with what makes a great beginning and moving on to creating engaging events, and finishing with a neat and tidy (or maybe not) ending. 

 

Math:

Division will be the focus!  Students will be relating division facts to multiplcation and beginning to look at strategies for dividing larger numbers.   

 

Here is a website to help you practice:

 

Here is a great way to do long division!

 FMBS long division

 

Sum Sense Division

 

French:

Nous allons faire la salade des fruits mercredi! We have been learning about healthy foods and snacks and plan to celebrate our learning by making fruit salad on Wednesday! Parents, please ask your students about the steps they will be taking during this process!Social Studies:
As we begin our tour of the Great Lakes, St. Lawrence Lowlands we are making a stop to ‘Paddle the Great Lakes’ and begin learning about latitude and longitude this week!

Week of February 27 – March 2

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This is going to be a fun and exciting week! 

Curling:

Students are looking forward to giving the sport of  curling a whirl!  Thank you to all of the parents who have volunteered to drive us to our curling lessons–we are incredibly grateful.

We are looking for a few more drivers for the following dates:

Wednesday, Feb. 29  for 6 students

Friday, Mar. 2 for 6 students

Thursday, Mar. 8 for 7 students

Friday, Mar. 9 for 11 students

Please let me know as soon as possible if you would be available and willing to help us out. Thanks!
Reminders for students: dress warmly, wear pants that will allow you to move and stretch and be sure to have shoes with clean soles ready to carry to the rink!

Pink Shirt Day:

On February 29, 2012 we encourage all of you to wear something pink to symbolize that we as a society are working towards tolerance, understanding, and acceptance.

Peek at

the Week

Language Arts

Students did an amazing job at tackling their first word study!  They quickly learned a new routine that included a variety of word sorts and word work.  There was some really cool learning going on!  This week we will be tackling our second word study.  Just a reminder that we will work with these words for two weeks and the assessment will take place next Friday.

This week we will be planning and organizing to write short stories.  Students will select an idea and complete a story planner and some brainstorming before creatively composing their own.  I am looking forward to seeing these young authors put what they have been learning into action!

Math

My Dog Multiplication

Late last year,
During winter vacation,
Dad got us our dog,
Multiplication…
Multiplication’s a good dog,
But he’s not without trouble,
Because one day I woke up,
And saw that he’d doubled…

Two dogs were there,
They looked like him,
2 X 1,
I had a big grin…
Two dogs were cool,
But what about more?
The next day I woke up,
And saw there were 4!!!!

4 dogs were a lot,
But the fun was still great,
Until the next morning,
When I saw there were 8!!

Eight dogs for walking,
Was one of my fears,
That’s 32 legs,
16 dog ears!!!
But 8 dogs were only,
A small complication,
Compared to,
16 X,
My dog, Multiplication!!!


That’s 64 paws,
And 16 long tails,
32 eyes,
256 toe nails!!!
Having so many dogs,
Has been a wild-fun ride,
But it’s time Multiplication,
Learns to divide!!!!

 This week we start on division.  Check back throughout the week for links to practice your division skills!

 

Week of February 6 – 9

Housekeeping

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Reminder – No school on Friday

We will be celebrating Winter Walk Wednesday! Students should be sure to check the forecast and dress appropriately for the weather.

Last Friday students should have brought home a note about our curling activities beginning at the end of February. We will be doing five lessons at the curling rink and are in need of drivers in order to make this happen. Please consider helping us out. Parents need not stick around for the lesson, though we welcome additional supervision and help on the ice if you are comfortable doing so. Students are also asked to bring $5 to help cover the ice rental fees. The Lethbridge Curling Club charges a total of $10 per student (5 visits), but because of the contribution made by our school council, students are asked to only pay a total of $5 (thank you, school council!) It would be great if we could have that money at school before the Family Day break, thanks!
We have also recently received word that our grade five classes will be able to attend a game during the Women’s World Curling Championships held here in March! More details (date and time etc.) are still to come. We are all very excited about this opportunity and see it as a wonderful celebration to wrap up our learning of the great sport!

Peek at

the Week

Language Arts:

Students have had a tremendous amount of success in our first word study.  I hope that they have had the opportunity to teach you their words and the rules of their word sorts.  This week students will be exploring other sound and letter patterns in their words and exploring the classroom materials to find other words that fit into their sorting.  Their word study assessment will take place on Thursday and will include 10 words from their word study, 5 new words that use the same sound or letter pattern that we learned about, and 5 words from the first column of their frequently misspelled words list. 

Math:

The students will be finishing their Multiplication Methods projects and presenting them to the class!  We will continue to look into multiplication word problems to make that transition to real life examples! It is important to have a base knowledge of multiplication to make that transition!

Social Studies:

We are finishing up our visit to the Arctic region by visiting the capital of Nunavut, Iqualuit.  Our next stop is The Great Lakes/St. Lawrence Region of Canada.  Mrs. Bourassa says that it is the smallest by far in size, the largest, by far in size.  I find this confusing!  What could she possibly mean? 

 

French:

One of the cultural celebrations we are required to study is ‘le festival du voyageur’. This week we will learn about this winter festival and then we will do our own celebration next week!
Check out the following links for a sneak peek:

le festival du voyageur website
le festival du voyageur flash mob at Winnipeg Airport

Week of January 30 – February 3

Housekeeping

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Although there is nothing immediate to report, there are a few things coming up in February and March!  Our curling lessons have been booked and we’ve secured an opportunity to attend one of the World Women’s Curling Championship games taking place here in Lethbridge in March! Please watch for a note coming home soon with the dates and details of our lessons as we will need drivers to help us where we need to go!

Peek at

the Week

Language Arts:

This week our focus will be on our Word Study Lists.  Students learned about their words by sorting them according to letter and/or sound patterns.  Throughout this week we will continue to explore, discuss, and practice sorting the words.  Students will receive an assignment on Thursday that will be due on Friday.  Students can practice their  Word Study words and the Frequently Misspelled Words (F.M.W.) at home using the copy of the words in their agenda and Spelling City.

We have spent the past few weeks exploring the elements of a short story and students have demonstrated their creativity in brainstorming and planning ideas, problems, solutions, and events for short stories.  This week we will be looking at examples of short stories before getting ready to go through the stages of writing our own.

Social Studies:

Our study of the Arctic Region continues with week as we complete our scavenger hunt and take a look at the Northwest Passage.

Math:

The students will be finisheing their Multiplication Methods projects and presenting them to the class!  We will continue to look into multiplication word problems to make that transision to real life examples! It is important to have a bse knowledge of multiplication to make that transision!