The Blue Jays may have lost and it may be getting colder now but we’ll manage just fine I guess since we have good ol’ hockey back now. Here at school we’ve managed to survive an entire month together and it seemed like just a few days ago that I was trying to learn people’s names. Personally this is the fastest I’ve ever learned names (less than a week!!) since I’ve become a little notorious in the school for being brutal with names. That said, once I’ve got the name it’s stuck so I’ll focus on that instead haha. Speaking of things that we’ve “got” here’s what is coming up in the next few weeks.

Important Dates

Friday, October 8^th – PD Day (no school for all students)

Monday, October 11^th – Thanksgiving (no school for all students)

Monday, October 18^th – PD Day (no school for all students)

Thursday, October 21^st – Fun Lunch (Subway)

Friday, October 29^th – Halloween Celebration (I will send more info about Halloween later in the month)

Language Arts

We JUST finished “The Case of the Graffiti Ghoul” and the kids were seriously cracking up every time we read from it. There is a sequel to the book if your child is interested in reading it. Next up, we will be reading one of my personal faves, Wonder by R.J. Palacio (I've attached a PDF copy to the email that was sent). As well as completing daily independent reading and small group guided reading in the classroom, students should also be reading at least 15-20 minutes per night at home.

We are continuing our focus on improving paragraph-writing skills by working on topic and concluding sentences, as well as the supporting sentences in between. Yesterday, students completed a journal entry about National Truth and Reconciliation Week. If they did not mention some of the activities we completed for this last week, please ask them about it, especially our rock painting and trip to Fish Creek Park.

Math

As mentioned previously, students will have a math quiz Wednesday on place value up to millions, reading and writing numbers, as well as expanded notation. Next up, we will be focusing on rounding, estimation and comparing and ordering numbers (up to millions). As a review...They are required to know all place values up to millions and be able to identify the value of a given digit. Here’s a copy of a place value chart they were all given. They will also need to be able to relate numbers in all three forms. For example:

• Number form to written form: 2 459 130 = two million four hundred fifty-nine thousand one hundred thirty
• Written form to number form: Four million three hundred ninety eight thousand sixty-five = 4 398 065
• Number form to expanded notation: 71 844 = 70 000 + 1000 + 800 + 40 + 4

As it is a new month, students will be completing a basic facts assessment (Fact Frenzy) on Thursday. If your child has not returned their black Quizzes duotang, please have it returned to school.

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. We also have a presentation from a certain local meteorologist in the works - he’s a crowd favourite and does a fantastic job connecting the concepts we’ve talked about in class to the ‘real world’ of forecasting.

Social Studies

We have wrapped up our study on the provinces, territories and capital cities and yesterday we had our quiz on the continents and oceans of the world. These will be coming home today with your child so please keep an eye out for them. While studying for that we moved into exploring hemispheres, cardinal directions and map scales as well as latitude/longitude. In the mapping section of the Social Studies Resource page, there are several latitude and longitude activities for the students to practise and explore. 

Thanks,

Sincerely,

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