April 4

Public Speaking

Hello Grade 5 families!

Students will be coming home with their speech writing work packs for public speaking today. In Grade 5, most of the written work is completed as homework with submission dates for teacher feedback on each section. In class, writing workshops will be held to remind students of writing hooks, interesting openers, persuasive writing tools and impactful conclusions.

Students will also have opportunities to check in with me, ensuring everyone is on track with writing deadlines and to discuss feedback.

Writing the speech is only half of the task…presenting their speech to a kind (yet critical!) audience is also really helpful. Please encourage your child to read their speech out loud and offer feedback. If you’re unavailable, ask your child to record themselves! You can listen later plus your child gets to see themselves and begin to make adjustments independently.

Check out this awesome speech by a 10-year girl, looking at not only the words but the non-verbal cues and these amazing Tedtalks showcasing the use of anecdotes.

The finals in class are planned for May 19th-20th with the Grade 4 and 5 finals planned for the following Friday, May 27th
Thank you in advance for your support with this. Please reach out if you have any questions or queries regarding this writing project.
February 7

Book Club!

Today marks the launch of Book Clubs (or literature circles) in Grade 5. We book-talked 4 different books:

Rules by Cynthia Lord

Number the Stars by Lois Lowry

Holes by Louis Sachar

I am David by Anne Holm

Here’s how it will work:

Students will have 4 weeks to read their book. With their groups, they’ll decided on weekly reading goals. Each week, in addition to reading, they will also have a “job” to prepare for their group discussion. These will be based on the section they read that week. This is all to be done AT HOME as homework. Other than meeting discussions, students will not have class time to work on this.

As an example, their schedule may look something like the one below. As you can see from this picture, the top schedule outlines what everyone in the group is doing and when. The bottom chart is each student’s INDIVIDUAL schedule that says what they need to read, and what job they need to complete. They only need to complete the sheet in their folder that matches the job they are doing that week. So in week 1, as the Figurative Language Finder, I would only need to fill out the sheet titled – Week 1 – Figurative Language Finder. If they are unsure how to complete their job, students can refer back to the first pages of the package where the requirements are explained in detail. The other Week 1 sheets will be completed in class when we meet in groups for discussion.

Book Club will take place every FRIDAY, so it is important that students bring their books and duotangs, with all their work completed, for FRIDAY’s class for the next 4 weeks.

Happy Reading 🙂

February 1

Wonder Final Project

The grade 5’s finished their Wonder Unit with a final choice board. Each student picked from the choice board to complete enough tasks to receive 50 points. Here are some of the projects! To see more, please visit the student blogs to see which of their projects they are proud to share!

 

 

 

January 4

Welcome Back January 5th!

Dear Parents,

We look forward to welcoming the students back (virtually) tomorrow! Below you will find brief instructions, expectations and a schedule for the following 3 days. We appreciate that this will be a difficult time for many and we hope to make it as painless and enjoyable for everyone as possible. Please contact us directly if you have any questions or concerns and we will do our best to find a solution in a timely manner. We are all in this together!

 

General Studies:

For the following 3 days, you will not need to print any materials for your child. Your child will be working on a digital platform or will be using lined paper to complete all general studies activities this week. Please make sure that your child has a notebook or loose-leaf paper, pencil and eraser available at the beginning of each day. Please also refer to the rule picture below for some hopeful tips that will set your child up for success. My slides can be found on the page ‘Ms. Whitteker’s Daily Slides’ on the blog each day or through the linked schedule document.

Jewish Studies:

Weekly I will post the link for the weekly slides on the OJCS weekly slides and on the blog. On my first slide there is a link for the google meet. On the second slide I’m going to add all the required printings of the specific week and also all the activities that we did so everyone can check that they submitted all the required work of the week.

Schedule for January 5th-7th (this is a working document and may have changes throughout the week)

https://docs.google.com/document/d/14RkEYHqwR0LGkPyMtZBKIWofnvrrmCJ5IC2NpqzfbqU/edit?usp=sharing

 

February 1

What’s the ‘Matter’ in our World?

Good morning and welcome back to in-person learning! It was so wonderful to see the students today, not just their heads with cool backgrounds, or minion avatars 😉

Today we will be launching our final Science task for our Matter unit, which will be an integrated project with Language Arts. Students will be exploring some real-world examples of changes in matter, and how those changes can have both positive and negative implications for our environment.

This will be a chance for students to demonstrate their understanding of physical and chemical changes, research skills (including writing a bibliography), media literacy knowledge, and oral presentation skills. In addition to doing their own research, both classes will also be watching the documentary, David Attenborough: A Life on Our Planet. If you have not yet seen this film (it’s on Netflix) I highly recommend it.

Although this will be an in-class assignment, please talk to your children about their work. Have a look at our slides and what is required of them. Over the next few weeks, here are some things you can discuss at the dinner table:

  • What issue have you chosen to explore for your science project?
  • What have you learned so far?
  • Did you know that…. (and share some of your own knowledge with them)
  • If you come across any articles that you think would be interesting to them, or our class, feel free to comment with the link below.

Loader Loading...
EAD Logo Taking too long?

Reload Reload document
| Open Open in new tab

Download

January 18

Book Club Launch

Today marks the launch of Book Clubs (or literature circles) in Grade 5. Last week, we book-talked 4 different books to the students:

Rules by Cynthia Lord

Number the Stars by Lois Lowry

Holes by Louis Sachar

I am David by Anne Holm

After hearing a short description of each book, students fileld out a form and ranked the books they wanted to read. Based on their choices, we have divided them into 4 groups, all of them getting either their first or second choice of book to read.

Here’s how it will work:

Students will have 4 weeks to read their book. With their groups, they’ll decided on weekly reading goals. Each week, in addition to reading, they will also have a “job” to prepare for their group discussion. These will be based on the section they read that week. This is all to be done AT HOME as homework. Other than meeting discussions, students will not have class time to work on this.

As an example, their schedule may look something like the one below. As you can see from this picture, the top schedule outlines what everyone in the group is doing and when. The bottom chart is each student’s INDIVIDUAL schedule that says what they need to read, and what job they need to complete. They only need to complete the sheet in their folder that matches the job they are doing that week. So in week 1, as the Figurative Language Finder, I would only need to fill out the sheet titled – Week 1 – Figurative Language Finder. If they are unsure how to complete their job, students can refer back to the first pages of the package where the requirements are explained in detail. The other Week 1 sheets will be completed in class when we meet in groups for discussion.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here is a digital copy of the package they already received when you picked up their science kits.

Loader Loading...
EAD Logo Taking too long?

Reload Reload document
| Open Open in new tab

Download

Book Club will take place every Monday, so it is important that students bring their books and duotangs, with all their work completed, for Monday’s class for the next 4 weeks.

Happy Reading 🙂

November 11

Grade 5B – Neurographic Art

Morah Shira continues to work so hard behind the scenes, creating and sharing wonderfully diverse, Art lessons for teachers to deliver. In Grade 5, we have been experimenting with Neurographic Art (Please check out the Art blog to find out more or ask your child!) Here 5B are enjoying the mindful drawing. Their creations are simply beautiful! Next step, we added colour… Watch this space!