Understanding What You Read

Dear Grade Fives,

This year, we worked on a variety of reading activities with the learning intention of helping you to better understand what you read. I would like to refresh your memory about some of these activities.

tracking your reading: practicing two different reading strategies a week

daily reading: variety of times throughout the day to read

supported reading: nonfiction, often four readings: I read, you read, paired reading, individual reading

notes to paragraph: taking notes on a selection and rewriting notes as a paragraph

novel study: independent activity including finding details, supporting ideas, chapter summaries

literature circles: reading, completing tasks, and then discussing your work with peers

Please choose at least one activity and tell me why you think it helped you the most to understand what you read.

As always, I look forward to your thoughtful responses.

Love, Mrs. French

Goals for Grade Six

Good morning Grade Fives,

This is one of the last blog responses for grade five. I want to take a moment to just let you know how much I have loved teaching you this year! You are keen group of students who willingly tackle new experiences and learning opportunities.

Now, as you look forward to summer, I would like you to take a moment to think about grade six. Please write about one learning behaviour you are going to use next year to help you have a successful grade six year. What action will you take to improve your success in school.

As always, I look forward to reading your responses.

Love, Mrs. French

Lunch Hour Mix-up: Opinion/Fact

Hello Grade Fives!

For two weeks, you have been going outside at 12:00 for twenty minutes to play and then returning to eat your lunch. I would like to hear personal facts about how this is working or not working for you.

Using a paragraph structure, state your opinion (e.g. I like the new lunch schedule or I do not like the schedule). Support your opinion with personal facts or the impact this switch has on you (e.g. when I play first, I come in hungry and eat all of my lunch).

I would then like you to make any constructive suggestions as to how we can make this work for everyone if the school continues with this schedule.

As usual, I look forward to reading your thoughtful responses.

Learning Intentions: I can support my opinion with logical supporting personal facts.
Criteria: opinion, supporting personal facts, writing conventions

Love, Mrs. French

Math Concepts

Hello Grade Fives!

We are finished learning most of the grade five math concepts. I would like you to reflect on your current math skills. Which area would you like us to revisit and why? (try to describe the difficulty you are having)

a) numbers (reading, writing, adding, subtracting, multiplying, dividing, fractions, decimals, percentages, mental math)

b) patterns and relationships (visual patterns, number patterns, growth patterns, functions)

c) Shape and Space (perimeter, area, volume, capacity)

As usual, I look forward to reading your thoughtful responses.

Love, Mrs. French

Technology: When It Helps the Most!

Hello Grade Fives!

Imagine that we decide to use technology for just one purpose in our classroom (e.g. learning to type, visualizations during math lessons, math practice, access to lessons or worksheets, research, presenting your learning using ppt or voicethread etc). I would like you to tell me which purpose you would want us to keep using and explain why. Think about which ‘purpose’ is most helpful to your own learning.

Once again, I look forward to reading your thoughtful responses.

Love, Mrs. French

Reflecting on Your Webquest

Hello Grade Fives!

You have all worked very hard on your French assignment. I would now like you to reflect on this learning. Please think carefully about your project and then respond to each of the following points:

1. Tell me three important things you learned about our French Canadian Culture.
2. Do you think you learned a lot or only a little?
3. Why do you think you learned a lot or just a little?
4. If you were to do this assignment again, what would you do differently in order to learn even more?

Once again, I look forward to reading your responses.

Love, Mrs French

Planning for Term Three

Hello Grade Fives!

Our second term is now over and you have all continued to work hard on developing good learning behaviours: listening carefully to lessons and instructions, completing work carefully and completely, checking your work over for errors, preparing for quizzes, and asking for help as needed. As we begin our third and final term, I would like you to think about which learning behaviours you are going to work on over the next couple of months. In today’s response, and in a correct paragraph form, please tell me which behaviours you have chosen and, in the support sentences, explain how you plan to accomplish these goals. I look forward to reading your responses. I will make every effort to help you accomplish the goal(s) you set.

Love, Mrs. French

Science Display

Hello Grade Fives!

As you know, this week you will begin work on your science display. In today's comment, I would like you to share the following with me:

1. the simple machine you will explore in depth
2. your plans so far
3. parts of the assignment you are excited about
4. parts of the assignment you are unsure about or concerned about
5. anything else you would like to share with me

As always, I look forward to reading your responses.

Love, Mrs. French

French Assignment Check Up

Hello Grade Fives!

Today, I would like you to let me know how your French Webquest assignment is coming along. In your comment, please tell me what is going well. I would also like you to tell me if you are encountering any challenges or if you need help. I will assume that you have already asked your peers.

As usual, please ensure that you reread your comment to ensure that there very few convention errors: spelling, punctuation, meaning.

Love, Mrs. French

French Canadian Culture Assignment

Hello Grade Fives!

Last week you had a look at voicethread. You were asked to decide whether you will complete your French Canadian Culture assignment using power point or voicethread. Today, in your comment, I would like you to tell me which form you will use to show your learning and whether or not you will complete the assignment independently.

Please remember that I expect you to check your writing conventions prior to submitting your comment.

Love Mrs. French

Welcome to Voicethread!

Winter Fun in Ft. St. James

Hello Grade Fives!

I would like you to visit Mrs. Gammon's class blog and read the comments, from both classes. In full complete sentences, please respond to the following:

1) for our class comments: find one winter event in Vanderhoof that you did not know about

2) for Mrs. Gammon's class comments: choose one winter event in Ft. St. James you would like to attend and explain why

Please open Mrs. Gammon's class blog in a new window, 4 Dragons so that you are able to read and comment. Remember, you are writing in this blog comment section, not in 4 Dragons.

Love Mrs. French

Joining Mrs. Gammon's Class Blog

Hello Grade Fives!

Three weeks ago, we invited Mrs. Gammon and her Grade Fours to join us in our blog. This week we will join them.

They use a different type of blog, similar to the Blogmeister we use with Mrs. Tunnell’s class.

This week, I would like you to visit their class blog (4 Dragons) and respond.

Remember:

• to read the task carefully


• use 'excellent adjectives', 'active verbs', and 'precise nouns'


• have a peer check and help you edit your response before sending
  

Love Mrs. French

Our Community

Hello Grade Fours and Fives!

What a great collection of questions!

This week, we would like you to take time to read several of the questions from each other's class. Once again, scroll down to last week’s blog and click on ‘comments’ to see them all. Grade Five questions appear in the first half of the list of comments while Grade Four questions appear in the last half.

Read a selection from students in your neighbouring community. Using these questions as a guide, write a paragraph describing your own community.

Grade Fives, I will be assessing your paragraph structure.

Once again, we are looking forward to reading all of your responses.


Mrs. Gammon and Mrs. French

Asking Probing Questions

Hello Again Grade Fours and Fives!

Oh my, what a delight to read all of the wonderful responses everyone made in last week’s blog!

This week, we would like you to take time to read several of these responses. Scroll down to last week’s blog and click on ‘comments’ to see all of them. When you are finished reading, please ask three questions about your neighbours’ home community and area. (Please direct your questions to the entire neighbouring class rather than specific students.) Try to ask specific questions about the area, what we might see if we were visiting the town or area.

Grade Fives, I will be assessing your use of conventions.

Once again, we are looking forward to reading all of your responses.

Mrs. Gammon and Mrs. French

Welcome Mrs. Gammon's Grade Fours!

Hello to Mrs. French’s Grade Fives and Welcome to Mrs. Gammon’s Grade Fours!

This week, Mrs. Gammon and I would like to use this class blog to help us ‘meet’ each other. In a paragraph, please introduce yourself (remember to use your new username). Please tell us: where you live (the town), whether you are a girl or boy, what you enjoy doing, what you do not enjoy doing, and one other piece of information about yourself.
Grade Fives, I will assess you on your paragraph structure.

Blog Instructions:
Grade Fours, please click on "comments" below. You will go to a new window where you will leave your comment. You may like to click on "Show Original Post" on the left side of this new page. This way, you will be able to reread the task.

• type in your response....when you are ready to send in your comment, you
• scroll down to "Choose an identity" > Name/URL
• type in your username in the box beside Name (you do not need a URL)
• click on "Publish Your Comment".
  

We are looking forward to reading all of your responses.
Mrs. Gammon and Mrs. French

Story Writing

Hello Grade Fives!

First, please remember to use your new user-name!

I am anxious to know how you are feeling about your story writing. Please share some of the struggles and successes you are experiencing as you plan and write your stories. The following questions might help you with your responses:

1) Do you find the outline helpful or does it make story writing harder? (please explain)

2) So far, what is the hardest part of writing your story?

3) From your past writing experience, what do you think will be the easiest part of writing?

4) What do you think will be the hardest part of writing?

As usual, I look forward to reading your responses :)

Love Mrs. French

Creating a Username

Welcome to 2009 Grade Fives!

There are no responses required for today’s blog; however, I would like you to do two things for me:

1) Create an online username: you have been using your initials but I would now like you to create a new name for yourself. Think about using a name you have always liked, the name of a superhero, your favourite character from a story or from a movie, or a name from another source. I would like you to share this with me by Friday. You will use this name for the rest of the year.

2) Go to Just Between You and Me, follow the directions for setting up this new word document in your file and then begin.

Love Mrs. French

Where in the world did your family originate?

Hello Grade Fives!

As you know, we are learning about the original inhabitants and early settlers in Canada. Over the past few days, you have been speaking with your families about where they came from in the past.

In a paragraph, please tell me about your family's geographical origins.

I am looking forward to hearing about all of the different places our class families have originated.

Love Mrs. French

Novels You Enjoy

Hello Grade Fives!

I think this week’s blog will be an easy one. In a paragraph, please tell me what type of novels (fiction books) you like to read. You can tell me authors, titles, or book genres (adventure, mystery, science fiction etc.) you really enjoy.

As always, I am looking forward to reading your responses!
Love Mrs. French