Well....We're back! It has been a long time since our last update. As the old saying goes, if you love something set it free if it comes back it was meant to be. we have a lot to talk about! Science We have wrapped up Chemistry and have begun looking at wetlands. Chemistry: We are all wrapped up with Chemistry! Students had an amazing time looking at all aspects of chemistry. In the end, the students had experience investigating the following ideas: Recognize and identifying kinds of mixtures, evaluating a variety of techniques for separating different materials, implemented a procedure for making a crystal, distinguished reversible from irreversible changes of materials, and give examples of each, and more! We also had the opportunity to have Lucho from the Alberta Science Network to come in and present some amazing chemical reactions for the school! Wetlands: Lat week, we started our investigation around wetlands. Just touching the surface we have looked at the two types of wetlands, the 5 subtypes, food chains, eco systems. We also had an amazing time at the Bow Habitat on Wednesday, learning from our expert Ian and looking through a variety of different wetlands. This investigation will continue throughout the rest of the year along side our 20% project. . Math
We have moved on form division and have started to look at measurement. Using our movie theatre math for our time with division we have been building our movie theatres. Throughout this task the students will be: Identifying angles determining the relationship between area and perimeter in rectangles measuring length using cm and m It has been a great project with students really working hard on the small details. Please see our math page for supporting materials. That is all for now! Stay tuned for more! -Mr. A
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Wait….What is this…..a new blog update? Yes...yes it is! It has been a busy time over the past few weeks, so let’s try and do a quick update and share a few of the amazing things 5C and 5D have been up to! Math In math over the past few weeks we have been working on Division! We took a large step back on worked the idea of grouping and how multiplication and division go hand in hand. Moving on from there, we started to look at long division. We started with 1 digit x 2 digit numbers to get comfortable with the process. We used the familiar acronyms: Following that, we began to use larger dividends including 3,4 and 5 digit divisors. Through a mix of direct teaching, game based learning, project based learning we spent 2 weeks working with this method. Following that we looked at box division, which functions the same as box multiplication!
Using these different methods, we started our Movie Marathon project. We will be using all of the data from this project to guide our length and measurement unit where we will build a scale replica of their theater. ![]() * This is a little more complex then we will create...right now. Science We have had an amazing time working with chemistry! So far we have... 1. Recognize and identify examples of the following kinds of mixtures 2. Apply and evaluate a variety of techniques for separating different materials. 3. Distinguish substances that will dissolve in a liquid from those that will not, and demonstrate a way of recovering a material from solution. 4. Demonstrate a procedure for making a crystal. 5. Distinguish reversible from irreversible changes of materials, and give examples of each. 6. Recognize and describe evidence of a chemical reaction. Explaining how the products of a reaction differ from the original substances. we will cover a few more topics over the next few weeks including DNA, acids and bases and Carbon Dioxide. Following chemistry, we will be working on a special project where the students will be researching an area of personal interest! Extras! We worked on a great math based question on the stand up white boards. the questions was: The students had an amazing time working through this problem and looking at how the ambiguity of the writing can change your answer! Our Heritage Park forms went home on Thursday, and we want to thank the families who have sent them back already. Please have them back to the school by Monday. For the parents waiting for the online payment option, it is now available. As well, Volunteer forms will be sent home on Monday. We are still looking for 4 volunteers for 5C, if you are available please contact Mr. Apperley ASAP.
Important Dates!April 11th - 5A & 5B @ Heritage Park April 12th - 5C & 5D @ Heritage Park April 13th - Clan Wars (Origami Challenge) April 16th - 5E & 5F @ Heritage Park April 26th - Grade 4 tours during the day / OPEN HOUSE (PM) 6-7:30 pm April 27th - PD I hope you all have an amazing weekend. Take care! -Mr. A Hello everyone,
Spring break is now upon us! It is time from the students and families of 5C and 5D to spend quality time together and relax before the final push. Over the past 2 days I have had the honour of spending time talking to the parents, guardians, and students of DMC. It is always an amazing experience to hear for the parents and students about their successes in the classroom. There were a few common threads that came out of most of our interviews that I would like to share below. 1) Growth Every student in 5C and 5D has shown growth since the winter break. Some in their academics and some in their social/emotional. Every student has been trying so hard to improve in one way or another, this is amazing to see! 2) Healthy friendships Grade 5 is a great time to grow your peer relationships. The students are now in a school of 600+ students and have the opportunity to make some amazing life long connections. However, we need to make sure that we are still focusing on the academics during school hours. We have a lot to cover in grade 5 and we what to make sure you are making healthy choices in your partnerships in the classroom. Remember to select the people who will help you grow! 3) Communication Communication is key in grade 5. We all need to stay connected with each other more than just during parent teacher interviews. We have been so lucky with having such an amazing parent community that takes such an active role in their Childs learning. If you have any questions or concerns you would like to share, please do not hesitate to contact myself or Ms. Sonder. In conclusion, from the bottom of our hearts we would like to thank you for taking time during your day to talk to your kiddos about whats happening in school, what they are doing, and how they are doing! We can't do this alone and your support at home helps us immensely. If you were unable to make parent teacher interviews, please contact me and we can set up a time to talk. Have and amazing spring break and I can't wait to see you all again in April! Regards, -Mr. A Hi everyone,
Our theme for this year’s yearbook is “I am Chimera”. In many places throughout the book we will be including individual quotes/words about what it means to kids to be a Chimera. We would like this theme to be prominent in the double page spread that each of your homerooms will have as well. We are asking that each homeroom class come up with a paragraph (or two if you need it), or some other type of creative writing piece which really represents what it means to your class. The more creative the better, but like I said above a paragraph would be great too. You might choose to do it as a class activity, have kids do it as a group, or turn it into a class competition. I will leave that part totally up to you and your class. We have to submit the first 50 pages of the yearbook by April 1 and need at least two weeks for final edits of those pages to be done before that. All 50 of these pages are homeroom/portrait pages. We are asking to have your homeroom’s piece of writing by the end of the day on Friday March 16 at the very latest. The sooner you can get it to me, the better! Hello out there! I hope everyone is having an amazing weekend. Although the weather was a little out of hand this week, it seems to have calmed down and decided not to snow for at least a day or two. It was a crazy week, but here are the happenings in room 212 this week! Math Multiplication has been in full effect the past few weeks. We started off very slow with single by single digit multiplication. soon we began to look at double digit by single digit multiplication. Finally, we looked at double digit by double digit multiplication. Throughout this time we looked mainly at the following three strategies:
Traditional algorithm, Lattice multiplication, and box multiplication. Students were supported with direct instruction, math practice sheets, game based learning, small and large group break out sessions, on-line supports and the opportunity to stay after hours and at lunch for support. However, many students did not take any of these tools and it was very apparent during our first multiplication check in. Our results were lower then we expected. Looking at the numbers, the class and I decided that it would be in our best interests to work hard all week to understand these strategies. We worked hard all week by asking questions, classroom participation, and by taking an active role in our learning and use the tools that were given to succeed. Due to last weeks weather and a few students on vacation, only half the class have written the quiz. On Monday, the remaining people will finish writing the quiz and they will be marked and go home for signatures by the end of the week. I have a good feeling in my heart that the numbers this time around will be much better. Science This week we continued looking at chemistry! We looked at what the study of chemistry entails, the study of matter, and took part in our first experiment using the scientific method! Students used water and sodium polyacrylate to ask a question, create a hypothesis, document their materials, create "detailed" instructions, and document their findings! Below you can find a few photos and a video about this revileiling experiment! -we took part in this years Winter walk day. This was a day to encourage youth to continue to go outside and play during the winter months (On favorable days). We were lucky that the walk took place the day before all of the white stuff started to really come down! - We modified our science lesson on Thursday and Friday due to the lack of bodies, but ended up doing a lot of work around mindfulness and "tuning into ourselves". Through discussions and practice we talked about the health, academic, and personal benefits that mindfulness provides. We began creating a wonderful art project that will hopefully be on display in the grade 5 learning area by Wednesday. -The Social Action Club is asking students to bring gently used winter clothing. This initiative will run from February 5-14. - Instrument Try Out sessions Monday Feb.12th and Tuesday Feb.13th from 3:15 to 4:15 pm. Please bring back forms. -Valentine’s Day is approaching quickly. Wouldn’t you like to show that special someone you care! Send them a Crushgram. Beginning Monday, at Lunch we will be selling Crushgrams in the main gathering area by the computer lab. They will be $2.00 each, with proceeds going to the grade 9 Farewell. The Crushgrams will be delivered Wednesday during last period. -Anyone that was chosen for our schools presentation of "Willy Wonka" please make sure you are talking to Mr. Servos about the rehearsal schedule. - Room 212 is welcoming students to bring in Valentines Day cards on the 14th. The only thing we request is that if you are planning on bringing in cards, you bring one for all of the amazing humans in our classroom. Below you can see a list of the 29 students first names and have them to address any card to them. Brixton Gurman Wyatt Ethan Cassandra Izabel Caleb Brianna Lucas Avery Molly Haven Navy Mercedesz Zachary Quinn Trey Xavier Celina Jackson Mikayla Chantel Rika Azizuddin Jesse Rylan Ainsley Cody Avery IMPORTANT DATES: February 13 - Grade 5 Prospects Volleyball - noon hour February 14th - CLAN WARS DAY February 15th - 16th Teacher's Convention (No school for students) February 19th - Family Day (No school) March 22 - Early dismissal & Parent Teacher Conferences March 23 - Parent Teacher Conferences That is all for now! I am excited to see you all on Monday! -Mr. A Hello all, I hope your having a warm evening indoors. I just wanted to touch base on a few of this upcoming weeks happenings. 1)Shots happen tomorrow! This was posted in the weekly updates last week as well as the DMC main website. If you have any questions about this please feel free to ask! 2) Winter Walk time! On Wednesday the 7th, the grade 5's will take part in our first Winter Walk Day! Winter Walk Day encourages people across Alberta to be active outdoors in winter.More than 800 organizations and 100,000 Albertan's took part last year. We want to be part of an active community and are excited to take part in such an amazing event. In preparation for our beautiful weather we are recommending on the day of the walk the students take time to properly layer their clothing for our walk as it will be taking place outside. A few recommendations we would like to recommend would be : Thermal top Thermal long johns (not cotton) for very cold conditions Fleece or warm trousers Snow Pants Fleece jacket Good quality mountain socks Winter boots Touques sunglasses warm mittens/gloves 3. Warm winter clothing Drive.
The Grade 5 team and the Me to We social action club is in charge of this months Clan Wars. In the spirit of Valentines day we decided that we are going to have a warm clothing drive for our adopted CBE school and its students. Our adopted school is in desperate need of warm cloths for their students. this includes lightly used: Jackets Boots Toques Gloves/ Mittens Scarves Socks and more. Each clan will receive points for the amount of clothing they bring in. Currently 5C's clan is sitting in 3rd place and needs to make a big push to take over the second place spot. If you have any warm winter clothing that could fit a grade 3-9 student that is in good condition please send it with your child to be dropped off in the main foyer each morning until February 14th. That is all for now! Check back tomorrow for a few more announcements. -Mr. A Its been such a busy time since our return that we are going to try and cram 2 weeks worth of amazing learning into this post! Math Over the past 2 weeks in math we have had a strong focus on multiplication and problem solving. We have continued to look at single digit multiplication skill building and implementing it into multi-digit multiplication. Using the ideas of doubling and grouping we have taken this... and utilized the strategies to do this! Over the next week we will continue to work on utilizing different methods to help us master our double digit multiplication and utilize it on a big question that will take us into the world of digital currency. There are many math games and videos to utilize on our math tab, please make sure you are continuing this work at home with your child. We have also been using the non-permanent vertical whiteboards (#npvwb) to tackle some collaborative math questions. This has been an amazing time for students to work on their collaborative skills and math interactions. Students have shown a great deal of growth in their ability to "math talk", as well as their ability to take useful input from each other and synthesis it into action! We will continue to work on these #npvwb for the rest of the year. Science In science, we have began wrapping up electricity with two big projects. First, we started our toy hack! Students brought their own toys/stuffed animals into class where we took them apart and made them better, stronger, faster... well.. we actually turned them into "robots". We also have been working on creating our own houses in CTF with fully functioning lighting! We have also started our journey into chemistry! This is a topic we will be looking at over the next few months, and I'm sure there will be lots of pops, bangs, and booms involved! Other Stuff! - We went skating for PE! -We finished up our work with the Artist last week! -We have continued looking at Blooms and trying to include it in all of our tasks. IMPORTANT DATES:
January 25 – Grade 5 Prospects Volleyball – noon hour January 30 – Grade 5 Prospects Volleyball – noon hour February 5 – Vaccinations – grades 5 & 9 February 6 – Grade 5 Prospects Volleyball – noon hour February 8 – Grade 5 Prospects Volleyball – noon hour February 8 – PAC meeting – 7:00pm February 13 - Grade 5 Prospects Volleyball - noon hour February 14th - CLAN WARS DAY February 15th - 16th Teacher's Convention (No school for students) February 19th - Family Day (No school) March 22 - Early dismissal & Parent Teacher Conferences March 23 - Parent Teacher Conferences That is all for now, -Mr. A We are back! Winter break is done, students are back in class, and parents can now breath a sigh of relief. Its our turn again. All jokes aside, I am so happy to see the kiddos everyday! We had amazing week in room 212, lets take a look back at what we have been up to! New Teacher! It is with a heavy heart that I must write that Mrs. Feagan will not be joining us for the rest of the year. She is now at home preparing for the new little human that will be joining her family any day now! I have been in contact with her over the past few days and she has said that she will miss everyone immensely, but will be back soon! If student have cards that they would like to give her, they can bring them to Mr. A and I will make sure they end up in her hands. We are lucky to have the amazingly talented Ms. Sonder spending the rest of the year with us! Ms. Sonder will be taking over Mrs. F's class for the remainder of the year and will continue to be the humanities teacher for 5C and 5D. Please feel free to check out her new blog dmcsgrade5sonder.weebly.com/ and leave her a comment welcoming her to the DMC community! Math Math has been a world wind of multiplication! As we discussed in parent teacher interviews, we have started to look at multiplication again starting with single digit numbers. I have already been able to see that some of the students did spend some time during the break looking at their basic multiplication facts! However, there is still some work to be done. Students who have a solid base of understanding when it comes to their basic multiplication facts will have an easier time working on multi-digit multiplication, division, and fractions as they come up. So over this and next week we are having a strong focus on basic multiplication facts. There are several ways we will be doing this. First, we have posted a ton of games and resources in the math tab for students to take part in. This page consists of games, videos, and practice in basic multiplication facts. Secondly, we will have a strong focus on basic facts during our "Furious Five" time. During this time students will be quizzed with 30 new facts that they have 5 minutes to complete. When they are done their 30 questions, they are record their times upon completion. Then students will set goals to beat the previous day until they can complete their basic facts in under 1 minute to obtain "mastery". Today the students worked with their 2 times tables, and I must say they destroyed it! I can't wait to see what next week brings with their 3 times tables. Finally, our time looking at multiplication will be very "game" heavy. I have found that students have respond well to learning their basic facts when we "gamify" their study. Playing games such as war with playing cards, race to 1000 with dice, and whole class activities such as around the world and "Apperleytopia" the students thoroughly enjoy learning their basic facts. As always, we will still be working in our interactive math journals and red/yellow math folders. Science This week in science the kiddos were introduced to Blooms Revised Taxonomy. Blooms is a way to push ourselves in our thinking. It is a tool that we are going to use to evaluate our work, thinking, and push ourselves beyond what we though being "DONE" means. Bloom’s taxonomy is a classification system used to define and distinguish different levels of human cognition—i.e., thinking, learning, and understanding. 5C and 5D have shown that they are ready to take their learning to the next level and use this taxonomy as our "road map" of learning. 5C and 5D took to different approaches to discovering the taxonomy and how it will like in our classroom. Below are a few photos of 5C taking part in the STEM challenge that sparked their understanding of Blooms. This task lead to some amazing opportunities to talk about pushing our learning, never quitting, and being comfortable outside of our comfort zone. Students also had to finish a written reflection that was shared with them on Drive. However, at the time of writing this I can only see several written responses. Just a reminder to the grade 5's, you are responsible for finishing all of your tasks, if this task was not finished we will have a discussion on Monday about how we will finish this incomplete work. We also talked about how next week 5C and 5D will start their "toy hack" Mush like Sid form Toy Story... We will be "modifying our toys by adding motors, Led's, and other electronics. We asked the students to talk to their parents and bring in any unwanted stuffed animals to be our "volunteers". These "volunteers" will not return in the same condition (if they make it through their operations) so please don't said anyones favorite stuffy. If you have any stuffed animals you would like to donate to the class, please send them with your child on Monday, THE MORE THE MERRIER! Other Stuff! On Friday the students were able to watch the 1990 movie A Cry in the Wild. This movie is based on the novel the students just completed in Literacy "Hatchet". The movie was full of amazing 1990s acting and bug eating. ![]() "Noooooooooooooooo!" CTF
Students have been working on designing and wiring their own 1 story house prototype. If all works out as planned, these will be available for viewing in the front display case at DMC by the end of next week. There were 2 forms sent home this week. The first was the skating form.Please make sure this is returned to Mr. A by Monday. Also, please make sure your child dresses for the weather on Tuesday. We will be walking to the New Brighton Clubhouse. Gloves/Jackets/Hats are a necessity. We all know how fast Calgary's weather can change and like the old saying goes "its better to have it and not need it than need it and not have it". The second form was regarding the visiting artist. Next week we will have an artist in residence come in to work with all of the grade 5 students. 5C will see her Monday for their introduction and Wednesday for their work. We will keep Mr. A's notes updated when the final product is ready. Important dates IMPORTANT DATES: Jan. 15th - Artist in residence here to work with G5 only Jan. 16 -19th - Skating @ New Brighton clubhouse (PM) Jan. 19th - Report Cards Home Bonus To any parents that are reading this, To combat the winter cold blues, post your favorite kid friendly joke in the comments! Thats all for now! May the Force be with you, -Mr. A Hi everyone, Better late then never! We had an amazing time at Open minds! What an amazing experience! its hard to put into words all of the amazing things Ms. Donna was able to teach us over the 4 short days! This hands on experience will continue to live in our classroom after the winter break and I hope that your child has been able to share stories about some of the amazing experiences we had! Until Next time, -Mr. A |
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