Updates (Hallowe’en & Interviews)

We will be celebrating Hallowe’en with a small party on Monday afternoon.  If your child would like to wear a costume, please have them bring it to school and they will change into it afternoon.  Please keep weapons and masks at home.  We will also be having a “junk food potluck”.  If your child would like to contribute a snack, please make sure that it is “nuts free”.  Please note that wearing a costume and bring a snack are optional.

Progress reports will be sent home on Wednesday, November 16^th, and I would like to conduct Parent-Teacher interviews with all parents (either in person or by phone) during that week.  I will be sending home a form next week to ask for your availability, so that I can create a schedule for our class.  Please note that Friday, November 18th is a PA day.

Have a great weekend!      

Mid-unit Writing Piece (Blue Folders)

Today, students should have brought home the evaluation of their mid-unit personal narrative. Some of the students scored lowered than they did last year, and that is to be expected. I don’t want parents to become alarm if their Level 3 student is suddenly receiving a Level 2. It is still early in the year, and this mid-unit piece will be one of many that I use to form the students’ mark.

In class, we’ve been discussing the differences between Level 1, 2, 3, and 4 writing by comparing examples. Generally, students who are meeting expectations as set out by the ministry receive a Level 3. Students who are approaching expectations receive a Level 2 and those who exceed, going above and beyond, receive a Level 4.

If you’re interested, here is a copy of the exemplar document that the Ministry of Education give us to help guide us in our marking:
http://schoolweb.tdsb.on.ca/Portals/briarcrest/docs/writing18ex.pdf
If you scroll to the Grade 5 section, you can see the different samples of writing (for all 4 levels).

Again, please don’t be alarm if your student’s first piece of writing came back with a lower mark than they're used to receiving. Along with the mark, I have given descriptive feedback to help each student improve their next piece. Encourage your child to apply the suggestion to the upcoming piece, which we will be starting this week.

October 24-28, 2016

Reading: Biographies – independent practice, quiz this week
Writing: Personal Narratives – Confusion Homophones, Intro to Figurative Language, Starting final piece
Math: Addition & Subtraction – word problems, unit review, test this week
Science: Body Systems – Respiratory & Circulatory systems
Social Studies: First Nations & European Explorers in Early Canada – Inquiry Process, Stage 1 & 2
French (Mr. Lobo): TBA
Music/Drama/Dance (Ms. Bordonaro): TBA
Visual Art: One-Point Perspective – Cityscapes (last week!)
Phys. Ed: Cooperative Games – assessment task – designing a cooperative game/task

October 17-21, 2016

Reading: Biographies – Guided Reading groups & Independent Practice
Writing: Personal Narratives – Interesting hooks, Conferencing
Math: Place Value – Subtraction Strategies
Science: Body Systems – Muscular System experiment and activity
Social Studies: First Nations & European Explorers in Early Canada – Geographical context (working with atlases)
French (Mr. Lobo): TBA
Music/Drama/Dance (Ms. Bordonaro): TBA
Visual Art: One-Point Perspective – Cityscapes con’t
Phys. Ed: Cooperative Games – assessment task – designing a cooperative game/task; hockey game field trip

Curriculum Afternoon - postponed

Last week, I'd asked the students to write in their planners that the Grade 5 Curriculum Afternoon will be this Thursday (Oct. 6), hoping to give you as much warning as possible.  We just received notice that all the Curriculum Afternoon events are being postponed until after October 17th.  As soon as I receive the time and date, I will let you know.  I apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused.  I do look forward to meeting you and telling you more about our classroom and year!
Cheers,
Ms. Kwong