April Newsletter

April Newsletter
Room 20
http://mrsshields.blogspot.com/

Welcome to April! Hopefully we will get to see some Spring weather soon!! The Easter Bunny doesn’t like puddles!!

If you are interested in signing up for a committee for the Grade 5 Farewell please let me know as soon as you can. These committees will be meeting at the end of April to get things started as June is going to be here before we know it.
Here are a few hi-lights from our month to come...

Language Arts
We have began our new anthology, On With the Show!, in Guided Reading. The small groups will continue to focus on a variety of reading strategies within each short story and poem that follow an art theme. The students continue to do an excellent job with the strategies!
Spelling will continue with the same format of 7 words. We are into our 20th lesson. Please remember that students receive their spelling words on Day 1, and write their spelling test on Day 6.
The students continue to WOW! me with their writing. Their creativity and knowledge of the writing traits is very impressive. We will continue to focus on all 6 of the traits (ideas, organization, word choice, voice, sentence fluency, conventions, and presentation) as they have all been introduced.
We will be completing the Writing Assessment for Learning April 27-29. Attendance during these 3 dates are extremely important!

Math
Our next unit, Geometry, will bring a lot of hands on learning and exploration within the classroom.
Geometry unit objectives:
- Build, represent, and describe geometric objects and shapes.
- Identify and sort quadrilaterals
We will also continue with Problem Solvers and Exemplars. We will be focusing on the Brainstorming strategy.

Social Studies
We are currently working on an expository writing piece that has students researching and writing about what life was like on a voyage of an explorer of their choice. We will continue with the Heritage unit throughout the month of April focusing on what life was like in Canada after the explorers arrived.

Art – Mrs. Schentag
For the month of April, we will continue on our Drama Unit. This unit explores children's literature in order to inspire us to carry out drama activities. Students will be engaged in meetings, court sessions hot seats and other drama activities which will relate to real-life situations. We look forward to a lot of fun and cooperative group work.
The Grade 5's also look forward to their Drama Night which will be held on Tuesday, April 20 at 7:00 p. m. Congratulations to all of the students who have worked so hard to prepare for a very entertaining evening!

French – Mrs. Orosz
Students will continue to develop their comprehension and ability to communicate, as they participate in games and other activities centered around the story “ L’Arbre Ungali. ” A highlight of each class will be a short session of telling and writing events which occur in the story using different words.

Physical Education - Mr.Leidl
Students will begin the transition from the gymnasium to outdoor playground pursuits. Focus will be on track and field, softball skills, soccer, golf and tennis.

Health - Mr. Leidl
Students will begin a number of health/safety initiatives this month. The first will involve a research project on UV rays and the negative effects of prolonged sun exposure. The second will involve bicycle safety and wearing appropriate head gear. The third will involve planning the SummerActive Physical Activity Initiative.