November 17th Tuesday Update

Today we began by working on our TED TALK and looking up evidence (facts) to back up our opinions. Students had time in class to work on support paragraph #1, and tonight they should work on support paragraph #2. Part of the criteria (they have a rubric) is supporting their position with persuasive arguments and facts, so ask them if they have done any research to find information that supports their position. The written speech is due on Monday, and we will have some more class time to continue working on it.

Later we worked on HOT WHEELS and INCLINED PLANES, doing running trials of hot wheels cars down inclined planes to find their speed. By the end of the day, most groups had recorded data from three trials, and then they will answer questions using math to find speed by dividing distance by time. r=d/t

We used our FRENCH vocabulary and sentences to begin making a PowerPoint presentation. Some students are new to this tool, so we spent a bit of time talking about what makes a good PowerPoint and what kinds of features the program has to play with as they construct a presentation. If your child does not have a USB, please have them bring it to school, as it is best to have a USB back up of documents worked on at school. Students are making a presentation to teach and test other students on the French vocabulary they have chosen. The presentation is due on Monday afternoon.

The Cariboo Math Test is coming up tomorrow — it runs over two days, so we will be going to the computer lab on Thursday morning to do the test as a group. The test must be done at school for it to count, as the contest site registers our school IP address and a teacher must be present during the testing. Last chance to purchase codes if you are in grade five is tonight!

Science Games money and permission forms filed online are due Friday. There are people on the wait list, so to secure your spot, please bring this in on Friday.

Homework also included two articles on social-emotional learning, How to Respectfully Disagree and How to Be Aware of Emotions. Today, during our cooperative work, some students had difficulty expressing their feelings and communicating their needs or wants. Please have a discussion at home about how valuable cooperative work can be and what strategies you can use when you disagree with someone. As I like to say in class, you can only control YOU, not what other people do. So, when someone is not doing what you want, or reacts to something you said, or says something that bothers you, then be a THINKER, be CARING and be OPEN MINDED. Think about what you can control and what you can do about the situation, not what you can make the other person do or about what you wish they would do. If you want others to care about things, you, too, must be caring about how you say things and how you work with others. Be open minded, that people, even with opinions and beliefs that are very different than yours, could also be right.

I also noted today that several students did not pick up the articles. If your child doesn’t have them, you may want to review how important the agenda and getting handouts is at the end of the school day.

Tuning In article booklets have been marked, and overall students did a good job. I went through and interviewed each student about the readings to find out if they felt the articles were too challenging, just right, or too easy. For most, the articles fell in the just right category. We also identified that articles from Science Alert (DNA, Stress), written at a grade 5/6 level, were preferred, as opposed to the articles from Eureka that are written at the grade 5-8 level (Ebola, Synthetic Blood). I was impressed with student reflections, questions, and their use of the glossaries included, or the internet, when they felt they did not know the meanings of words. We are still working on highlighting skills, focusing on not painting and only emphasizing the main ideas and key words.

Projects from Unit One are also completely marked. I wait until I have all of them done before handing them out, and I ask you to review them at home, sign, and return them to school. Overall, well done, everyone! If you have two marks on the sheet, I explained this means content from the project fell over two categories in the rubric. The first mark is the stronger of the two.

By the way, if you are sick or have a fever, please don’t feel badly about staying home. You are doing the right thing! You can email me, and if I can, I will send you assignments. Some can’t be sent as I work with hard copies, so when you return, I will give you copies we save for you. You can also have some extra time to catch up.

Please be safe out in the strong winds! I look forward to seeing you tomorrow.