Fall Landscapes in Acrylic

On Friday, the students had an opportunity to paint colourful fall landscapes using acrylic paint.  The idea for this project comes out of the Usborne art books.  There are so many great projects in those books!  I encourage you to try some.

Below are some pieces created by the students in 5G!  Parents, we invite you to come to the classroom to view the collection.

Survival Tactics

As an activating activity for our novel study on Island of the Blue Dolphins written by Scott O'Dell, the students worked in groups to plan a survival strategy for if they were stranded on an island surrounded by sea water with only the clothes on their backs. The challenge was to determine what they would do for food, clothing, shelter and fresh water to ensure their survival, and to create an oral and visual presentation to explain their strategies.  Below are the posters they created!

First Nations Masks

The First Nations created masks for many different purposes.  One of those purposes was to tell stories. 5G has created animal storytelling masks in the likeness of our First Nations artists using 2L plastic milk jugs, plasticine and some natural elements.  You can view the collection in our school library.  Take a look at the use of colour, shape, line and symmetry. Below are a few samples.  So fun!

Vulture

Wolf

Eagle

Bear

Eagle

Eagle

Wolf

Owl

Words Their Way Spelling

Every Monday, your child will be bringing home a collection of spelling words that have been introduced in class.  Ideally, each night (5 minutes) of the week your child is expected to do a different activity to ensure that these words and the spelling principles they represent are mastered.  These activities will be modeled and practiced in class, so your child can teach you how to do them.  Here is a summary of some of the ways the words can be practiced.  

Pattern or Sound Sort

Sort the words into the categories.  There are always headings and sample words that are in bold print for each category.  Your child should read each word aloud during this activity.  Ask your child to explain to you why the words are sorted in a particular way – what does the sort reveal about spelling in general?

Speed Sort

Ask your child to sort the words as fast as possible while you time them.  Check to see if they are sorted accurately.  Then have them sort the words again, to see if they can beat their time.

Blind Sort

Lay down a word from each category as a header and then read the rest of the words aloud.  Your child must indicate where the word goes without seeing it.  Lay it down and let your child move it if he or she is wrong.  Repeat if your child makes more than one error.

Word Hunt

Look for words that have the same sound, pattern or both in a book, magazine or even the newspaper.  Try to find two or three words for each category.

Writing Sort

Do a writing sort to prepare for the test.  As you call out the words in a random order, your child should write them in categories.  Call out any words your child misspells a second or even a third time.

Build Your Word

Build each of your words following the idea in the example below:

Word: because

b

be

bec

beca

becau

becaus

because

Spelling tests will be each Friday.

Cave Paintings

Today the class used homemade paint made from mostly natural ingredients to create cave paintings of Ice Age animals.  This art lesson fits in well with our unit on Canada's First Peoples.  Below you will see a picture of our classroom cave with wooly mammoths, giant elk, bears, wooly rhinoceroses, horses, giant beavers, oxen, and smilodons displayed in the cave and a few close-ups of the individual student pieces.

Our Classroom Cave

Giant Elk

Smilodon

Horse

Oxen

Giant Elk

Giant Elk

Homemade Paint Needed for Art on Friday

This Friday, the class will be creating cave art paintings of Ice Age animals using homemade paints. For this project, each student has been assigned a homemade paint recipe to make and bring in on Friday. The following is a list of the recipes and which students should bring each.  Thanks, parents, for helping out with this project!

Purple Colour - 5G Students #1, 2, 3, 4
1/4 cup of blueberry paint made from fresh or frozen blueberries pressed through a strainer.
(no chunks)

Red Colour - 5G Students #5, 6, 7
1/4 cup of paint created by boiling red cabbage in a small amount of water.  It should be as concentrated as possible.

Dark Red Colour - 5G Students #8, 9, 10, 11
1/4 cup of paint created by boiling beetroot in a small amount of water.  It should be as concentrated as possible.

White Colour - 5G Students #12, 13, 14
1/4 cup of natural paint created from crushed white chalk in a little bit of water.  It should be nice and thick.

Yellow Ochre Colour - 5G Students #15, 16, 17
1/4 cup of natural paint created from ground mustard in a little bit of water.  It should be thick - not too runny.

Black Colour -  5G Students #18, 19
1/4 cup of natural paint created from ground charcoal in a little bit of water.  It should be thick - not too runny.

Green Colour - 5G Students #20, 21, 22
1/4 cup of paint created from condensed milk with many drops of green food colouring.

Bright Yellow Colour - 5G Students #23, 24, 25, 26
The yolk of a large egg mixed with 1/2 tsp of water and many drops of yellow food colouring.

Watercolour Fall Leaves

Fridays are art days in 5G.  Last Friday, the students had an opportunity to create colourful fall leaves using watercolour paint.  Below you will see a few of the student projects.  To see all of the creations, please drop by the classroom.  They are posted in the hallway across from our classroom door.  Aren't they beautiful?

Personal Best Tests

Basic facts are calculations that we should all be able to do very quickly in our heads.  To help with learning and instilling these facts in our memories, 5G will be doing weekly Personal Best Tests (PB's) in multiplication and division to the 12 times table.  For the tests, the students are given 132 basic facts.  They are given ten minutes to do as many of them as they can with the greatest accuracy.  They achieve a personal best if they do the same number of questions in less time than previously or if they get more questions correct.  Their goal is to get better each time, thus, setting a new personal best!

In the first term, the questions are listed in their number families in order.  In second term, the questions are listed in their number families in mixed order.  And, in third term, all of the questions are mixed.

I encourage the students to work on their basic facts at home or in the car on the way to school, whenever they can fit it in, to increase their speed and accuracy with basic facts.

Digital Citizenship

To teach the students the ethics of Digital Citizenship and the significance of a Digital Footprint, the 5G class will be studying the lessons, watching the videos, and playing the games on the Digital Passport website.  The website can be found at https://www.digitalpassport.org/educator-registration/studentLogin 

I encourage you to take a look at the materials and discuss some of the topics at home with your child.

Your child has a username and a password that he/she can share with you.

5G Introductory Letter for Students and Parents

Dear Parents:

Welcome to a new school year!  I am excited about this year and all of its possibilities and opportunities.   Most of all I am excited about working with your children to help them become devoted followers of Jesus Christ, insightful thinkers, discerning decision makers, and compassionate community members!

Attendance

We encourage our students to be on time for school.  The students will have a blogging activity to do complete between 8:20 and 8:30.  Students who enter the class after the 8:30 a.m. bell will be marked late.

Following is a brief outline of the various subject areas.

Language Arts

Listening, speaking, reading, writing, viewing and representing are all essential skills used to achieve the five general learning outcomes for English language arts shown below.

The learning outcomes are not taught in isolation and they frequently overlap. There will be many opportunities for us to integrate language arts skills as we explore and research the science and social studies topics and participate in math and Bible activities. 

Throughout the year themes related to social studies and science topics will connect students to a variety of non-fiction and fiction stories, novels, and other texts. Reading strategies are modelled, taught and practiced in a variety of ways. 

Whole class shared novels, small group guided reading, individual reading and literature circles are some of the activities students will be involved in. 

Writing skills will be modelled and practiced in a variety of ways. The Six Trait Writing model is one method used to assess and teach writing skills.  

The spelling program we use is called Words Their Way. This is a developmentally driven, hands-on instructional approach to word study, phonics, vocabulary and spelling. Students will be assessed and grouped according to the spelling skills they need. The students will be given a set of words which they will use to sort and manipulate in a variety of ways over a one week period. A copy of the base words will go home every week. There will be an assessment of those skills on Thursday of each week.   

Math

Math concepts will be introduced using many manipulative materials and the students will be involved in solving problems as we cover the following four strands of the mathematics curriculum.

Patterns and Relations

Number (number concepts and number operations)

Shape and Space (measurement, 3-D objects and 2-D shapes, transformations)

Statistics and Probability (data analysis, chance and uncertainty)

It is essential for the students to know their basic math facts for addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. We will be reviewing them throughout the year via personal best tests, but we encourage you to reinforce this at home too.

The students are required to keep up with their daily work and corrections.

Science

Our Science program this year will consist of 4 main units of study.  They are:

Forces and Simple Machines

Properties of and changes in Substances

Maintaining a healthy body

Weather

The school science fair will be held in March.   All grade 5 students participate in the science fair.  We will help the students with ideas and strategies and time frames.   More information will be sent home at a later date.  

Social Studies

We will be using the grade 5 social studies curriculum: People and Stories of Canada to 1867.  The students will be introduced to the use of a textbook for this subject that will cover the following four clusters: 

First Peoples

Early Europeans (1600-1763)

Fur Trade

From British Colony to Confederation

Bible

In Bible this year we are studying the books of Genesis and John.  The students are challenged to memorize several verses each month. These will be shared with the students at the beginning of each month. It is also a privilege to integrate the truths of God’s word throughout our daily activities.  Our hope is that we will develop a closer relationship with God and a greater love for those around us.  

We will also be making it a goal to read through the entire New Testament in the school year.  We have been successful the past few years and hope to meet our goal again this year.  

Art

Art class will usually be on Fridays unless we are trying to finish a project that has a timeline.  I have been known to have some fairly messy art projects.  Therefore, I suggest that the students not wear their best school clothes on these days or bring a painting smock (old large shirt) to be kept in their gym bags.

Homework

Homework is something that can be expected in grade 5.  Your child will be expected to do 20 minutes of home reading and could have up to 30 minutes of tasks to complete in other subject areas.  Students will be given ample time to complete assignments in class, so this will hopefully keep homework to a minimum.  The work that is brought home will be that which they were not able to complete in class time. We do our best not to give homework on weekends and holidays.

Communication

Communication between the home and the school is an essential component of a child’s education.  Grade 5 students and parents at Linden Christian School will have access to a classroom blog this year to keep track of homework, assignments, activities, websites and online tools.  Please feel free to comment and ask questions on the blog.  The 5G blog can be found at mrsgibbons5g.blogspot.ca.  If questions and comments are of a more personal nature, the best way to contact me is via email at tgibbons@lindenchristian.org or feel free to make an appointment or just drop by the classroom.  

To further facilitate communication we would like to use your email as an additional way to contact you.  At your earliest convenience, please email me with the email contacts you would like to add to my 5G address book.  Your privacy is maintained in these communications.  The other parents will not be able to see your email address.  

BYOD

Your child has been asked to provide a device to use at school this year.  We will be integrating the use of technology into many subjects in many different ways.  We will be using many online tools in creative ways and exploring many websites.  We will be using Google Apps for Education for our writing process, presentation needs and more.  

All of the students will have an email address.  This email address is to be used solely for educational purposes.  It is not to be linked to any personal sites such as Twitter or Facebook.  

The ethics of digital citizenship will be taught and at all times the privacy and protection of our students will be considered and maintained.

Chapel

The grade 5/6 Chapel is on day 5 at 12:30 pm.  You are most welcome to join us at that time.

Compassion Project

This year our grade five class will be participating in an exciting project.  The class has a relationship with nine Compassion Canada children from around the world due to Mr. Mark Loewen who provides the funding.   The students will be writing letters, praying for, and encouraging the sponsored children.  We hope you will partner with us in praying at home for each of the children as well.  At the end of the year, opportunity will be given to transfer the sponsorship of each of the Compassion children to your family if you so choose.  This provides the opportunity for the 5G class to add more children to our group of nine and the opportunity for your child to continue the relationship begun in grade 5.

Volunteers

I welcome volunteers in the classroom.  There are always things for you to do, even just supervising the students while they eat their lunch for 20 minutes.  If you are interested in volunteering in any way, please email me. 

I look forward to getting to know your children and meeting you.   I feel blessed to have been given the opportunity to teach your child in a Christian setting and know how important this responsibility is. I value your prayers and communication as we partner in the academic, emotional and spiritual growth of your child. 

Student Blogging in 5G

What is a Blog?

A blog is a discussion or informational site published on the World Wide Web that contains an online personal or group journal that may include such things as reflections, opinions, personal experiences, observations, comments, musings, pictures, videos, information, demonstrations, and/or hyperlinks provided by the author(s) on any subject.  

Your Task...

As students in 5G, you will be blogging on various different topics throughout the year, both assigned and free choice.  To do this, you have all been assigned an account on Kid Blog! To access your account go to http://kidblog.org/MrsGibbonsClass/.  Mrs. Gibbons will let you know what your password is to login to your account.

Blogging is a social networking activity, and as a part of the 5G class, you will have the opportunity to network with the other students in 5G by commenting and reflecting on all of the different student blogs from the class.  However, in so doing, you will be required to comment and reflect with meaning and substance.  For example, Mrs. Gibbons does not want to see comments like, "I totally agree," without an explanation and reflection on why you agree.

Also, when you are publishing on the Web, you are presenting yourself to the world.  That means that you want to present the best version of yourself when you post.  Be sure to check your editing several times before posting and to be extremely considerate when writing things that may cause a problem for others or may reflect badly on you.

I hope you will enjoy this task!  I am looking forward to seeing what you write!

Welcome to 5G 2013-2014!

Welcome Students and Parents of 5G!

Fall is my favourite time of year.  To me it signifies everything new — new opportunities, new friendships, new classrooms and, of course, new teachers.  But the really big new thing is the pilot project that all the grade 5's are taking on this year.  What an exciting time!  

This blog will be used to post everything that you need to know for the 5G classroom.  For the students, it may look like daily homework and links to assignments to be completed or links to websites and tools.  For the parents, it may look like messages, reminders and updates regarding classroom events and/or volunteer opportunities.  Please refer to this blog often and feel free to comment and ask questions.

Please note that any paper copies of forms from the school that your child receives will still come home with him/her.  I will mention on the homework calendar that the forms have been sent.  

I am looking forward to getting to know all of you.  Parents, please feel free to drop in and see what we are doing in the classroom.