March Newsletter

March Newsletter
Room 20
http://mrsshieldsblog.blogspot.com/
March is finally upon us! Here are some of the things we are working on throughout the month…

 A parent/student/teacher evening is planned for the Grade 5’s on Wednesday, March 17 th, 7:00- 8:30pm. We have called it CSI~ Come, See, and Investigate. Come to the school, See what and how your child has been learning, and Investigate some of the learning approaches through hands-on activities! There will be a math, art, language arts, and physical education station. We hope this evening will be an informal opportunity for children to share the Grade 5 experience with their parents. We look forward to seeing you!

 Report cards will be going out Friday, March 26th. I have sent out Markbook updates throughout the term. If you have any questions please contact me at school (745-2171) or by email (kshields@mail.gssd.ca).

 Our Grade 5 Farewell assembly will be on Friday, June 25 th. If you are able to help with the Memory Book CD, decorations or the tea, a sign-up sheet will be available during our Come, See, and Investigate Evening, or you can let me know by note, phone, or email.

Language Arts
We are currently finishing up with the anthology, Tales-Clever, Foolish, and Brave. We will begin the next anthology, On With The Show!. This unit will focus on stories with an artistic twist! We will continue with our small group guided reading stations as the students are doing a wonderful job working together and improving their reading skills.
We will continue to focus on all components of the 6+1 Writing model. We are working on pulling all of the components together to create our best pieces of writing.
We have started to focus on a Questioning reading strategy as a whole group. We have used a variety of children’s books to introduce this reading skill and will continue to utilize children’s books to further our skills in this area. Students will then take these skills into their Independent Reading novels.
We are currently in the middle of Lesson 17 in Spelling. We will continue with the same format of 7 spelling words, handwriting practice, word processing, and short spelling activities.

Math
We will continue to work on the Fractions and Decimals unit throughout the month of March. Students will be working with many hands on manipulatives to explore fractions and decimals.
We will also continue to work on Problem Solving. We have begun to work with Exemplars as well. Exemplars are very similar to the Problem Solvers that we have been doing, except more in depth. Students are asked to describe the steps they are taking to solve the problem in more detail, as well connect the problem to their lives.

Social Studies
We will continue to research and discuss a variety of explorers in our Heritage unit. There are many wonderful resources available that will help us to understand the many roles explorers played in Canada's history. We will also complete an expository writing piece focusing on an explorer of each student's choice.

Science – Mrs. Gale
Students have almost completed their expository writing piece, It’s Element(ary)! They have researched and compiled their information quickly and efficiently. Wonderful work Grade 5s!
To conclude our unit Matter and its Changes, students will be performing science experiments for the class. Students will be given an outline as to what is expected.

French – Mrs. Orosz
Students will continue to do interactive activities on the SmartBoard, based on the story “L’Arbre Ungali.” They will do related written activities, drawings, and games. The class will participate in re-telling the story with different words. Students will also sing the song and do the dance steps to the song for this story.

Health – Mr. Leidl
Students will review their wellness plans designed at the beginning of the school year and to begin revising for the final term of the year. Focus will be on written goal setting, action plans and initiative. The HIV/AIDS unit will also be completed by the end of the month.

Physical Education – Mr. Leidl
Run, jump and throw will be the physical education emphasis for the month of March as students prepare for the GSSD Elementary Standards Track and Field Meet scheduled for the 19th of April in Yorkton.

Art Education – Mrs. Schentag
Students will complete the Surprise Ending Dance Unit by choreograghing a dance which will tell their stories that they have prepared in their groups. They will present these dances to their own class as well as the other Grade 5 classroom.
The Arts Ed class will then move on to a Drama Unit entitled Responding to Literature. Students will become involved in drama games and activities which will respond to children's literature by role-playing and problem-solving. We will also participate in meetings, tableau activities, chants, storytelling and improvisation activties related to literature.
Students can use this opportunity to brush up on their drama skills as we prepare for the P. J. Gillen Drama Night being held sometime in April.