Storms a-brewing!

Well actually not REAL storms! But today we started talking about hot and cold air masses talked about the "front" and saw an visual analogy with water and oil...get them to explain it to you. It was an interesting experiment! It would be a great idea to start watching the weather reports at home and discussing what the meteorologists are explaining in the next few days.  We're going to start talking about what happens when weather systems move in and out.

 Even though our whole class did not attend the running meet at Red Deer Lake School today, a good number from our class did and everyone ran really well! Congratulations to everyone in Run Club who gave their all today! It was fun to show some "Bronco pride" out and about! We have one more race next week and I'm sure it will be exciting as well.

 Those students who did attend the Running Meet today will want to catch up on the video that we finished watching in class this afternoon. The link is here and also on the Science links page (if you click on the tab at the top).  It is a great video on weather that is worth a second and third viewing to really grab all that vocabulary and those ideas that could be a little tricky to understand.  Anyone in class would benefit from watching a second time too!  There are also some links for practicing cloud vocabulary and other Science information.  Check it out!

In math we wrote our math "Big Number" tests today and will be starting to talk about adding and subtracting with regrouping next.  Practicing number facts regularly at home can help with these larger calculations.  Students all have their mathletics passwords and are strongly encouraged to use them at home regularly if at all possible.

Just a little note about library today: because there were pictures going on in the Library today, students returned their books but were not able to take out new ones today.  They will be doing so tomorrow and then everything should return to normal in the weeks to come.

Terry Fox Day

Our Terry Fox run was a great success.  We ran or walked around at least one of the lakes.  I was proud of so many of our class that made the effort to do both.  And what a beautiful day for such an event!  Thanks to all of you who made a donation to the Cancer Foundation and supported our Terry Fox run!

Lately we've been working hard to finish our "Big Number" poster projects.  They are looking great and most of us have finished and have them up already.  Great job, everyone! To finish up our big numbers study we can anticipate a test either the end of this week or the beginning of next.  As long as they know all the different ways to show a number like they have shown on their poster, the test should be a breeze!  We just need to look at some problems with big numbers to wrap up.

Thanks to all of you who have donated magazines to our class collection.  We do appreciate it.  Tomorrow we will start a page in our visuel journals about clouds using pictures we find in magazines so this is a great help.  This is the time when we WANT our heads in the clouds!

Another weekend!

It feels like we just started this week and here we are at the end!

We've had a week of lots of writing...two stories, one in English and one in French.  We want to see where we're starting so we have something to look back on as we make goals for the year and think about our progress.  It's important to have these "benchmarks" so we know what we're celebrating as we improve.  :)

We've also had a week of a lot of running.  Today I was a little stiff from sprinting alongside the students in gym class (...or were we racing?)  And then we have running club after school for those of us that participate.  Ah...'tis the season, both for upcoming cross-country races (for those in running club) and for the Terry Fox run this next week.  It's a great way to run for a cause and enjoy our lovely fall weather!

A very important letter went home with grade 5 students today.  In it is a permission form that needs to be filled out and returned by Monday.  You are all very prompt about these things, so I probably don't even need to encourage you to remember to take a look at that this weekend...but oops!--there I just did!

Have a great long weekend everyone.  See you on Monday ready to take more temperatures and do more running!

Lots of little tidbits

The beginning of the year events aren't quite over yet.  And there are some important dates to pay attention to.  Here is a list to keep in mind:
1) September 24: Magazine sale ends
2) September 29: the first deadline for Hot Lunch ordering.  Check the yellow sheet in your child's planner for details.
3) September 30: Scholastic orders due (beforehand is fine!) The flyers came home today.  :)
4) September 30: Terry Fox Run in the afternoon.  Please remember to send good running attire to school that day!
5) October 5: Picture day.  There are two dates marked, but our class sees the photographer Monday.  Yes, I know.  Monday.  I have to set my alarm too!  I usually forget the morning of...which means I get a candid!

Today we started thinking about our class mission statement and made a personal plan of how we were going to do one part of it.  At the end of the day, we each reflected on how well we did.  The yellow post-it note should be in your child's agenda and is a great discussion starter!  We'll be paying regular attention to our mission statement and that will form one aspect of the goals we set throughout the year.

Mathletics passwords are coming out soon, along with yearbook notices.  Keep an eye out for them in agendas :)  

I haven't take the time to mention how much I enjoyed visiting with all of you who were able to come out to our Meet the Teacher Barbecue last week.  Thanks for taking the time to fit that into your schedule and for those of you I haven't met yet, feel free to stop by to say hi or set up a time when you're sure to catch me.  It is always such a pleasure to see you all :)

Our class mission statement

In the last few days we've been thinking about the 7 Habits that make us great leaders in our school and our world.  We've especially been thinking about how that applies to our classroom community and it has been great to see how it has become a little easier to talk about being proactive or putting first things first or even beginning with the end in mind.  Perhaps the one we keep coming back to the most is "synergy".  We're working together to create lots of new things: class climate, science projects, a way to organize our activities and our classroom.  It takes a lot of energy and a lot of reflecting.

Then yesterday we set to work creating our class mission statement.  We had a lot of ideas so it is very long.  It will give us lots to talk about and consider as the year goes on.  It will also a good jumping-off point as we start to set personal goals each day.

This afternoon there was a lot of synergy flowing (not to mention paint!) as we created the poster to put up in the classroom.  But true to our mission, we also did an excellent job of cleaning up afterward!

Grade 5 patrollers: this work is our gift to you as you were working on another way to be a great leader in our school this afternoon.

Our finished work is still drying, but here are a couple snapshots:

And because you're all going to wonder what it means, here's a loose translation:

Our class will take care of others, encouraging them and helping them

both inside and outside our school.

We will listen to the person who is speaking

and be proactive, being prepared and keeping our classroom neat.

We will speak French

synergizing with others in our activities.

We will do the right thing even if no one's watching

 and remember to take time for ourselves.

We will begin with the end in mind.

P.S. It would probably be a great idea to send a paint shirt to school for this year.  We could be getting our fingers colourful pretty often :)

Welcome to Boot Camp!

Today was day one of Boot Camp.  Learning to work as a team and get closer to our goals is sometimes a tricky job.  We spent a lot of time talking about how to make the 7 Habits more visible in our classroom and put together our class mission statement for the year.  We also spoke a LOT more French today.  Funny, we're we're really very good at it when we put our mind to it! We keep getting compliments from our French monitor about how much French we can speak.  :)  Here is our student blogger to tell a little more:

We are working together to get as many points as possible in class dojo! We have started a new thing all-day all the time, it is when we get little 3 gadgets [tokens] we have to try to keep them all day [by speaking French during class time and eating times]

Today was day one of recording our weather observations.  We are almost hoping for a nice gale soon so we can measure the wind speed, but we won't complain about having a nice day for our Meet the Teacher Barbecue!  

Presentations are all wrapped up.  The bulletin board is such a fabulous collection of who we are!  And everyone was very brave to share in front of the class.  Great job!

Some news!

We are beginning to have students add things to our blog.  Here is our first student blog addition-Hip! hip! Hooray!

We are going to start on the daily 5!  That is when we have different stations some are reading, some are writing and some are listening. I think that we are going to have lots of fun with them. We also are testing wind and rain by doing projects in science.

Thanks to all of you who are sending in those little things to add to our learning: magazines, pop bottles, kleenexboxes and bandaids.  We are thankful to all of you!  

Tomorrow is the day our big numbers are due in.  Lots are in already!  What a class!  Looking great!

Hope to see you tomorrow at our Meet the Teacher evening!