mrpolsky

New Year, New You - January Update

Friday, January 15, 2021 9:21 AM

Sorry for the late update. Here’s the haps for January! I’d planned on getting this out yesterday but I was so excited by the Flames game and then too frustrated after it that, because I’m just a Man Child, I was unable to work after the game. Maybe one day I’ll grow up. Maybe. So yes, I know the image says “Game Day” but pretend you’re reading this yesterday. :)


Important Dates

Thursday, January 28th - Spirit Day (Jersey Day)

Friday, January 29th - PD Day (no school for all students)


Language Arts 

We finished up ‘Wonder’ before winter break, and will be starting a new novel soon. We just haven’t decided which novel yet, so stay tuned!

We are finishing up our creative writing unit on fractured fairy tales and the finished products are looking really good! Next up we are going to take a look at “The Awesome Book” and write some of our own awesome paragraphs.


Math 

We are moving fast and furiously through our math units! We took a look at transformations (translations, reflections, and rotations) prior to winter break and are now looking at some concepts in our Patterns unit. Students have been learning about increasing, decreasing, and repeating patterns and have been finding pattern rules with numbers and shapes. Students will also learn about t-tables and how to find patterns within those. We will re-visit more concepts from Patterns later in the year.

After finishing up with Patterns next week, we will be moving into large multiplication (2 digit by 2 digit) and long division questions. I cannot stress how important it will be to have a strong base in basic facts while working through these concepts!


Basic Facts 

We had our January basic facts assessment (fact frenzy) on Wednesday and students should have brought their fact frenzy sheets home for your signature. Please, please PLEASE take a look at each score and, if needed, have your child practice their basic facts at home, especially in multiplication and division. Students should also be practicing their skip counting if this isn’t coming naturally. 


Skip Counting

2: 2 ,4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 18, 20

3: 3, 6, 9, 12, 15, 18, 21, 24, 27, 30

4: 4, 8, 12, 16, 20, 24, 28, 32, 36, 40

5: 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35, 40, 45, 50

6: 6, 12, 18, 24, 30, 36, 42, 48, 54, 60

7: 7, 14, 21, 28, 35, 42, 49, 56, 63, 70

8: 8, 16, 24, 32, 40, 48, 56, 64, 72, 80

9: 9, 18, 27, 36, 45, 54, 63, 72, 81, 90


Science

We are still working away on our Weather Watch unit. This week we learned about why we have seasons as well as day and night. We will also be learning about the water cycle, different types of precipitation, and cloud types.


Social Studies 

We are nearly finished our study on the Atlantic Region and will soon be moving onto the Great Lakes - St. Lawrence Lowlands region. We will be continuing on with our ‘Amazing Race’ focus. We are also still connected with HMCS Calgary via the Ship to Shore program.


Have a great weekend and as always… Go Flames Go!


Daniel Polsky

Grade 5 Teacher | Learning Leader
Fish Creek School | cbe.ab.ca
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