Happy October! Our focus areas this month will move us forward from the work that we began in September, and we’ll also be looking to wrap up some of our units as we take on new content and new challenges. Please note that we have two short weeks upcoming, as Friday October 11 is a PD Day and Monday October 14 is Thanksgiving Day. Also, Thursday October 1th will be our next School Council Meeting (everyone is welcome to attend) and Tuesday October 15th will be our photo day (notices were sent home on Friday).
On Monday, we started our week with a discussion of the significance of Orange Shirt Day, and the impact of residential schools within indigenous communities across Canada. We learned about the experiences of Phyllis Webstad, and her efforts in drawing attention to the dark legacy of residential schools, and her dedication to building a common understanding of the experiences of thousands in these schools. We watched a video reading of “When I was Eight,” which is an adaptation of the novel, “Fatty Legs.” Both of these works share the experiences of indigenous children, from a first hand perspective, in residential schools.
Our work on “Burn-E” has reached the final stage of our stories. Students met with their feedback partners again to discuss elements of their stories that could be added to or strengthened, and the stories in Google Drive should now be at the completion stage. Please take time to view your child’s work in their Google Drive and discuss the feedback that they have received. The story writing checklist is available in Google Drive for you to view and share with your child. By using these checklists at home, parents can become part of the feedback process as well, as this provides an opportunity to discuss writing at home. This week, we’ll be exploring another Pixar short film, and our focus will begin to add elements of dialogue to our story writing.
In Math, we’re continuing to work on measurement, perimeter, and area, and we’ve been looking at converting measurements as we take on our Zoo Project with Ms. Lacey on Wednesdays and Fridays. This week, we’ll be investigating quadrilaterals and other polygons, as well as 3D shapes, as we further expand our knowledge and understanding of measurement and geometry. Our problem solving work remains a focus of our “Morning Challenge” sessions, and the students applied their strategies and skills to solve the River Crossing Challenge. This challenge was an extension of the work that we took on last week as part of the Bridge Challenge. Check it out here and see how we can safely get our animals across the river and to safety. We’ve also started a fun hockey pool to help support our work in math computation and statistics. All students in Room 104 are selecting a team of players that will score points for them throughout the 2019-2020 NHL season. Parents and families are welcome to submit an entry as well.
In Science, Grade 4 has been working on designing and building their “From Trash to Treasure” projects, as they work to repurpose old household items into something beautiful or useful. Grade 5 has continued exploring electricity and electrical circuits, and their project work will take them into the designing and development of flashlights. Social Studies for Grades 4 and 5 have been centered around “Ghost Towns,” with Grade 4 looking at towns within our province, while Grade 5 has explored and compared ghost towns and their essential resources across all of Canada. This week, we’ll further explore these locations using Google Earth and consider the reasons why these towns were developed in these specific areas of our country, and why they ultimately failed to sustain themselves over the long term.
Updates and links to our classroom activities are also available through our Twitter account @ronsouthern45 – (please note that you do not need to have your own Twitter account in order to view our Ron Southern School accounts).
Thank you for your continued support of our Room 104 classroom community. Enjoy the upcoming long weekend!
-Mr. Wideman
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