Spelling Program

Dear Parents/Guardians,

Sorry for the long winded response.

The spelling program that will be used this year in class focusses on the most commonly written words in the English language.  In total, there are 1 200 words in the program ranging from Grade 1 through to Grade 7.  Of these words, the 1 200 words that students are working towards make up 91% of all words written in the English.  Therefore, all the words that students will be working on are common everyday words.

Since students are at many different levels, students will be working each week on words specific to them. Each student has their own list of words to practice.  Every Monday, students will pick ten words to practice.   On Friday, students will be tested.  Students can only move onto new words once they have mastered the words they are practicing.  Any word that is spelled incorrectly will be added to next weeks list.  As students are working at their own level, I will be working hard to teach students how to test each other.  With 27 students, it is impossible to have 27 individual tests.  While it may be slow to start, I am confident that the students can handle this responsibility.

Students will be bringing home a master list of the words covered so far.  Please have a look at the list so you can see which words they need to practice.  While the majority students have been tested to the first 500 words, there are a few students who need further testing.  These students will keep testing until they have enough words to practice over the year. 

When looking at the list, please ensure they have spelled the word correctly.  I have explained to students that it can be difficult to practice these words as they have incorrectly memorized these words into their long term memory.  Essentially, they need to be vigilant and retrain their brain.

When practicing the words at home, please have your child has :

1. See the word
2. Say the word
3. Cover the word
4. Write the word

In addition, students have to be aware of homophones (words that sound the same but are spelled differently).  Many students may have words they can spell, but are unsure when to use it.  Some common examples:  (their, there, they're), (to, too), (it's, its)

Note:  The level of difficulty for each word depends on how common the word is used.  Therefore, the higher the word on the list does not necessarily make the word more difficult.

If you have any questions or concerns, please contact me (agenda, phone: 250-428-2051, email: mblick@sd8.bc.ca).

Wild Sight In The Classroom -- Thursday Oct. 3

Hello Parents/Guardians,

Our class will be taking a field trip on Thursday October 3 to Summit Creek.  Our class will leave the school at 9am and will return before the end of school.  Please ensure that students dress appropriately for the weather and bring food and water.  More information will follow.

 Any parents that are willing to help would be greatly appreciated.  Please let me know through your child's agenda, phone:  250-428-2051, or through email: mblick@sd8.bc.ca

 There will be no charge for this fieldtrip.

 Short Description: Summit Creek Fieldtrip

Students will visit the Old Growth forest in Summit Creek.  Students will examine lots of fungus and many decomposers through a micro exploration.  At Summit Creek, students will look at water as a resource, soil as a resource, timber (we see evidence of old fashion logging), mining (area was burnt in 1890’s for mining research), wetlands and riparian zones, and wildlife as a resource.  There is lots to see and should be very exiciting.  In addition, there are four big research projects to note in the area dealing with Swifts, Bats, Grizzly Bears and Kokannee Salmon. 

Note: This fieldtrip is in-line with our upcoming unit on Natural Resources in the Spring.

Note:  Through Wildsight, Gillian Cooper will be doing another activity with our class Called Beyond Recycling.  This will last about 3-5 weeks. I will be meeting with her on Monday at lunch to go over the details.  More information to follow.

Art with Mrs. Doeleman and Some Random Pictures

 If you are not aware, Mrs. Doeleman will be doing Art with my class while I am doing P.E. with her class.  Below are some shots and short video clips of what they are doing.

Thanks to Kate for taking the pictures and short video clips!

 

David working on his Art

                                         Amber hard at work.

                                          Rhyann, Nikita and Anika working on building the
                                          Rollercoaster with Kinects.

                                          Chillin with Andreas and Tyson.

                                         Smiling with Lauren and Rhyann.

                                          Art Project:  Ask me what we did! :-)

Novel Study -- Chocolate Fever

Over the next two weeks, our class will be reading Chocolate Fever.  Our focus for this novel will be to:

• Regularly checking for understanding.  This can happen every paragraph, page or chapter, depending on ones level of understanding.
• Practice retelling what we have read.  If one cannot retell what they have read, they are extremely unlikely to infer.
• Summarize text:  Every three to four chapters, students will be asked to summarize the chapters, using only one or two sentences for each. The goal is to focus on what is important.
• Make predictions:  Students will work on making predictions before, during and after they read.
• Connections:  Students will work on making meaningful connections that include:  names and places, details, feelings and bring it back to the book.  The whole point behind a connection is take things from your own life and be able to apply it to the book (ex:  how a character may be feeling).
• Answer short comprehension questions.
• Asking a deep questions:  Students will work on asking deep questions (answer not found in the text) before, during and after reading.

Thanks to Google for the image.

Henry loves chocolate so much, it practically runs through his veins.  Chocolate cake, chocolate cereal, and chocolate cookies -- and that's just breakfast!  Still, it comes as a shock when he suddenly breaks out in chocolate brown spots and is diagnosed with ... Chocolate Fever.   Rather than be poked and prodded by doctors, Henry runs away, starting the adventure of a lifetime.  But at the end of it all, the question remains: Is there a cure for Chocolate Fever?

Note:  It is expected that students will read at home when needed.  From my experience, the quality of work goes up substantially when students reread the chapters. 

If you have any questions, please let me know.

Thanks,

Mr. Blick

Random Shots

Spencer and Aiden

                                          Logan hard at work!

                                          Not sure what is happening here! :-)

                                          James working on his math.

                                         Must be some new hip look!

                                          Miss Jada

                                         Math really makes you think!

                                         David working on math.

                                         Mitsuya helping Mackenzie with expanded form.

These are some of the pictures students took in class.  They are having a great time learning how to use the camera.  Next, some can start working on taking some short video clips!

How To Win A Thundercats Hockey Ticket

Mr. Giles stopped by our class today and dropped off four tickets to a Creston Valley Thundercats game.  The tickets are for Tuesday October 15, 2013.

If your child is interested in winning a ticket, please write in their agenda:  "Go Thundercats Go!"

Any student that has their parent write that slogan in their journal will be entered into a draw to win a ticket. 

                                         Miss Jada and Miss Amber

Thanks to Andreas for taking the picture!

If parents have any questions or concerns, please let me know.

Thanks,

Mr. Blick

Our new Toy in P.E.

At the morning assembly, our school was presented with a Tug-A-War rope.  Luckily for our class, we had P.E. following the assembly.  We were the first class to try it out.

Check out the short video and two pictures below.  Any student in class that wants to learn how to take pictures and videos will be given the opportunity.   It is often student pictures/videos that I put onto the blog. It is a very simple process and hopefully parents will enjoy seeing their children in school!

Welcome To Grade 5!

Hello Parents,

The blog if up and officially running.  Parent consent forms where sent home today.

Our Classroom on the Second Floor.
 


Classroom Rules:
Be Respectful
Be Responsible
Be Ready (to Learn)
Be Safe   

Over the past two weeks, the class has been taking time to review the rules.  As our school Virtue for the month of September is Responsibility, our class started with that first.  In small groups, students discussed what Responsibility and Respect meant to them.  I was very impressed with what they came up.  Each student clearly understands what each term means, thus ensuring they have a full understanding of what is expected of them.

Student ideas on what responsibility means to them.

Student ideas on what Respect means to them.

The last two classroom rules will be covered in the next two days (Ready, Safe).


Math:

Basic facts are CRUCIAL to success in math.  Much like common sight words (the, and, because, etc), students need to have these in their working memory to be successful.  When explaining this concept to students, I remind students that if they do not have their common sight words memorized, they will struggle to read.  Therefore, if they do not have their basic math facts memorized, they will struggle in math.

We will focus much of the month to addition and subtraction.  As to be expected, most students have a strong grasp of addition.  We will use this knowledge to help with subtraction.  Please work with the facts at home.

Expectations:
Add and Subtract to 18
Multiply and Divide to 81

 In addition to basic facts, we will be starting our unit on place value.  In Grade 5, students are expected to understand and describe  number to 1 million.  Students must be able to represent a number in:

• standard form (987)  -- Students need to be able read numbers in standard from
• written from (nine hundred eighty seven
• expanded from:  (900 + 80 + 7)
• Draw a pictures (using base ten blocks)
• Expanded Notation:  (9x100) + (8x10) + (7x1)

Mapping -- Social Studies

In our Mapping unit, students need to be able to describe the major physical regions of Canada.  These will include:

• appropriate terminology to describe geographic features: ex:  bay, strait, inlet, gulf, valley, plain
• name and locate major physical regions:   ex:  Appalachians, Great Lakes, Hudson Bay, Arctic Lowlands.
• Students will work through a booklet and there will be test.
• Project:  Students will be asked to free hand a drawing of Canada.  They will need to list provinces, cities, major rivers and lakes, oceans, and islands.  The criteria will be sent out later.

Thanks to Google for the image:


If you have any questions or concerns, please let me know. (agenda, mblick@sd8.bc.ca or 250-428-2051)

Thanks,

Mr.Blick
ARES -- Grade 5