Lunar Eclipse

I hope you all had a chance to see the Lunar Eclipse last night. It was fabulous.
Thanks to my daughter Emily for this great photo.

Curriculum Overview

English Language Arts
All students will continue to develop effective strategies for reading and writing through daily instruction and focused practice. Please encourage your students to read 20 to 30 minutes every day at home. Any kind of reading is fine - information books, comic books, newspapers, magazines, novels - and will benefit your child more than any other academic activity.  We will be working on a variety of writing formats this year, including personal narratives, informal letters, and information reports. Students will follow the writing process for major assignments, including pre-writing, drafting, revising and editing. 

Math:  There are three main parts to our math program.

• The first area is computations. Students in grade 5 and 6 are expected to be flexible in working with numbers and have a solid understanding of mathematical operations. Students will develop a variety of effective strategies to solve addition, subtraction, multiplication and division questions, with whole numbers and decimals. Fluency in basic math facts is essential.  Students should practice basic facts at home daily until mastered. There are many online opportunities for practice as well as “homework booklets”. We will be working on computations throughout the year.
• The second focus is on the key foundational understandings and concepts.  All students will work towards developing these understandings based on their current levels of understanding, with slightly different targets for grade 5 and 6 students.  Our first unit will focus on patterning and algebra. Students will learn to recognize and identify patterns in number relationships, create algebraic expressions to represent these patterns and predict future outcomes.
• The final component is Problem Solving. Problem Solving will be integrated throughout the math program and across curricular areas when applicable. Problem Solving is an important format for applying new concepts and computation strategies.

Social Studies
The grade 5 and 6 Social Studies programs both have “citizenship” at their core – and involve skill and knowledge components. We will begin the year focusing on rights and responsibilities, Canadian citizenship, and the democratic election process - to connect with our up-coming federal election and ground us in the present.  We will then move on to our exploration of the significant historic events that have contributed to Canada’s growth as a nation. 

 Science

The middle years Science curriculum provides opportunities for students to investigate various branches of science, including Biology, Earth Sciences and Physics. The focus for our first unit of study will be “Body Systems”. The science program includes knowledge targets as well as scientific process skills.
 

Wooly Bear Caterpillars

 On sept 15 we measured some Wooly Bear caterpillars to see if their brown stripe was more or less than 1/3 of their total length.

Here are some students holding a Woolly Bear caterpillar   

We went out to find more Woolly Bear caterpillars we couldn’t find any. 

                                                                                         by Mac.

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Welcome to our Class Blog

I hope that you all had a wonderful relaxing summer and are ready to embark on a new year of learning!

The beginning of the year is a very busy time. New and returning students are working to get to know each other, settle into our new routines, and develop a safe, supportive classroom community where everyone can learn.

Strong Beginnings assessments are quickly approaching. You will notice some information related to this, along with other administrative paper-work coming home with the agenda. Thank you in advance for sending those items back promptly.

Meet the Teacher / Numeracy Night is planned for Thursday September 24^th.  I hope to see you all there. Teachers will be presenting an overview of our Mathematics program and door prizes will be presented to lucky participants!

As the year progresses, there will be regular updates posted on this blog, including information about projects, field trips, assessments, and other significant events.

Students will also be posting regularly on our blog for friends and family to see at home.

Please feel free to email me at any time at kwood@pembinatrails.ca.

I am looking forward to a great year!