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.
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.