Dear Families of Division 7,

We will be starting our Speeches unit in Language Arts tomorrow. The objective of this unit is for your child to write and deliver a three to five minute speech to the entire class on a given topic. This year’s topic will be “The greatest life lesson I’ve learned so far is…”

There will be a lot of scaffolding and skill building that will go into creating these speeches. We will use a standardized format and planning tools that will help the students in crafting their speeches. There will be multiple “mini-deadlines” set for different components of the speeches.

Parents, we need your help! I’d like to request that you please work with your child whenever possible to help them craft their ideas, narrow their focus, and fine tune their speech. This is a new skill for most Grade 4/5 students, and your guidance and assistance will go a long way in helping them. The speech packages, which will include all the brainstorm sheets, planning sheets, criteria, rough copies, etc., will be contained in a large envelope, and will go home every day after we work on them in class. Mini-deadlines for different parts of the speeches will be communicated regularly in your child’s planner.

Thanks in advance for your assistance!

Mr. Anchor

Numerous studies have demonstrated a correlation between direct parental involvement in a child’s education and their success in school. With this in mind, I will be making regular posts outlining what topics we are currently studying in class, so that parents can have discussions with their child, and help extend their learning at home.

What We’re Learning – February 2023

Language Arts:

• Spelling: New words are introduced on Mondays, practice exercises take place on Wednesdays, and tests take place on Fridays (or Thursdays if there is no school on the Friday) – Students are expected to study their words every night
• Reading: Silent Reading takes place every morning: your child is responsible for ensuring they have something to read every day; Guided Reading exercises; Reading Comprehension exercises
• Writing: Speeches, Journals; Reading Comprehension exercises; Grammar and editing exercises
• Oral Language: Speeches, Stories From the Weekend (sharing); reading aloud; class discussions

Math (Polar Bear Group)

• Multiplication
• Division
• Fractions
• Decimals

Social Studies:

• European Exploration of North America; First Contact with Indigenous Peoples

Science:

• The Sun, The Earth, and The Moon
• The Human Body, Body Systems

Fine Arts:

• Stop Motion Animation
• Famous/Important Canadian Painters

Physical Education:

We will be doing something physical every day: Please ensure your child comes to school with appropriate footwear every day

• Gym (Mondays and Wednesdays): Tennis, Basketball
• Running Club (Tuesdays and Thursdays)

Health and Career Education:

• Social Emotional Learning (Second Step)
• Road Safety

Applied Design, Skills, and Technologies:

• Office 365 (Outlook, Teams, OneDrive, Word, PowerPoint, Whiteboard); Spaces EDU, Adobe Spark Video, computer and iPad skills; Coding