We all survived the FeroWell events and are now well into March. The Flames are ROLLING and the greatest amateur sports tournament of the entire year kicks off here real soon - MARCH MADNESS! Hard to argue with any of this. We’re buzzing along and with no masks anymore, it’s fantastic to see everyone’s faces. It’s the little things that count right?! 

Important Dates

Thursday, March 10^th – Online and In-person Conferences (4:00pm – 7:30pm)

Friday, March 11^th – Online and In-person Conferences (8:00am – 1:00pm)

Thursday, March 17^th – Spirit Day (wear green) & Fun Lunch (Jugo Juice)

Friday, March 18^th – Last day of school prior to springbreak

Monday, March 28^th – First day back from springbreak

*Parent Teacher Conferences are happening this Thursday evening and Friday morning. If you have not done so already, you will need to register for a time through your MyCBE/PowerSchool account. If you'd like to meet in person at that scheduled time, please email me, otherwise I am assuming you'd prefer to meet online through Teams. Whichever you prefer is good with me but please know I'm more than happy to meet in person. 

**A survey was sent out last week regarding a grade 5 Outdoor School Experience. If you have not completed this survey, please do as we only have a short period of time to plan for this overnight fieldtrip. 

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Language Arts

We are very close to finishing “Wonder” and will for sure wrap up before springbreak. Once we are done we will also watch the movie! 

We finished our unit on fractured fairy tales and are working on some highly descriptive paragraph writing based on Neil Pasricha’s “The Book of Awesome”. After perusing paragraphs from “The Book of Awesome” and “The Book of (Even More) Awesome”, students have been coming up with their own ideas for the little things in life that they find awesome and are writing their own descriptive paragraphs.  

Math

We have completed our Patterns unit and are now working through computations and word problems involving four-digit addition and subtraction, and two-digit by two-digit multiplication, followed by three-digit by one-digit long division. I know I sound like a broken record, but please have your child practicing their basic facts as often as possible. This is the unit where we really begin to see a break down amongst students who are struggling with their basic facts skills.

In between our multiplication and division, we will take a short break to complete a unit on probability featuring March Madness. Students will complete their own college basketball brackets and use probability to determine the likelihood of each team winning. Since it’s important to relate classroom learning to real life examples, in between our focus on multiplication and division, we will take a couple weeks to focus on the whole reason that March exists.... March Madness. Watching endless games of basketball, arguing with your friends about why they are complete idiots for choosing the wrong team (only for you to come crawling back when they chose the right team in the end...). Yes, this is why we study math. So... with the NCAA Division I Basketball Tournament beginning soon, this will be the lens through we explore the ideas of statistics and probability, looking at likely vs unlikely events and how we can express these in different ways. Please refer to the Polsky March Madness Headquarters for all information, resources, links and explanations - once Selection Sunday happens I will update the page with the new brackets/teams. For any and all other questions, feel free to refer to the Statistics & Probability section of the Math Resources page.

Science

We are nearly finished our Classroom Chemistry unit. Students recently learned how surface tension works and completed experiments using solutes and solvents. Most recently we've completed a number of explosive (literally) experiments to learn about reversible (physical) vs irreversible (chemical) reactions. We will finish off the unit with acids and bases. For any and all questions, links or resources, check out the Classroom Chemistry section or the Classroom Chemistry Web Links page for videos, explanations and juicy extras.

Our next unit of study is Electricity & Magnetism. We have ordered electricity kits for each student involving all the materials they will need to complete experiments. The cost of this is about $22 and more information will be sent out as soon as the items have been delivered to the school. 

Social Studies

We are still going strong with our race through the geographical Regions of Canada. So far we have finished the Atlantic Region, the Great Lakes & St. Lawrence Lowlands Region and the Canadian Shield. On tap right now is a place all students are pretty familiar with - since it’s where they are right now - the Interior Plains. 

Have an awesome week and we’ll see you all on Thursday or Friday for Conferences. As always, let me know if you have any questions.

Sincerely,

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