Friday, May 19

 Hi parents,

We had a great week!

I don't usually do weekly blog posts so I'll try my best to highlight some of the main things we worked on.

Smudge

Today we had a traditional smudge ceremony. We sat in a circle and burned sage. The students were exceptionally respectful and seemed to enjoy it. It's amazing to see how much knowledge and appreciation they already have for indigenous culture and history.

Fractions & Decimals

We've continued to learn about fractions, and we've now extended our focus to include simplifying fractions, making equivalent fractions, and converting basic 'tenth' fractions into decimals. We have also just started working on adding and subtracting with decimals.

Light and Shadow

We're moving into a new unit in science - Light and Shadow! Please send a labelled flashlight to school with your child on Tuesday, May 23 if you are able, as these will help with some experiments we've got planned.

Netball

The students had their second and third netball sessions this week. It's an awesome game that encourages teamwork and strategy over individual 'all-stars'. 

"My Favourite" Paragraph

The students have been working away at their paragraph writing all week. What started as a brainstorm / mindmap activity has now been turned into a rough draft, then edited and revised extensively, and finally rewritten as a good copy. This task was meant to be a follow-up to the snack writing we did earlier in the year, and when comparing the two, it's easy to see how much the students have come as writers. This paragraph task was done with significantly more independence, but is as good - or in many cases, much better - than the students' first attempts. I'm really proud!

Poetry Reading

We did some fantastic work around poetry this week! The students used Epic! to find a poem of their choice, read it, practice it, and then recite it aloud in front of the class. A lot of students felt pretty nervous about this, but rose to the challenge and impressed themselves and their classmates!

Ticket To Curlew

We're still chugging away at Ticket to Curlew. The class continues to be engaged and most students participate actively in our vocabulary / reading comprehension discussions.

French Party?

If we can earn 200 points as a class, we will earn a special "French Party" at the end of the month! Complete with baguettes, croissants, and maybe even wine grape juice.

I'm Away at Outdoor School Next Week

Just a heads up - I am volunteering to help out at Outdoor School with the grade 5/6 students next week, so there will be a guest teacher in the classroom. I will not be able to reply to emails!

Have a nice weekend!

Zac